Democratic Digits

They say that the right to vote (also known as Suffrage) in a democracy is a precious thing ....

Many Say That The Right To Vote Is The Essence Of Democracy

..... that we should all fight to preserve this right in a world where democracy is a fragile thing.

One Man One Vote Is Important

The principle of one person, one vote is the cornerstone of democracy ....

One Man One Vote Is A Basic Tenet Of Democracy

..... If that is threatened then the very foundation of the system collapses.

No Loyalties In Politics

One of the peculiarities of the fall of communism in the East of Europe, is that the system that had control of the peoples thoughts for over 45 years, wasn't able to retain any loyalty from its former citizens after democracy was restored.

East German Propaganda Posters
Showing United Workers Ready To Fight Capitalism .... Standard Fare For 45 years. 

For example in East Germany, having brainwashed three generations of children's minds with communism, as firstly a Young Pioneer, then via the Free German Youth,and then the Socialist Unity Party, one would expect that these kids would retain this mindset, no matter whether elections carried real choice or not. I mean how could children's books with titles like 'Six-Year-Old Bronek and the Six-Year Plan' not have had some sort of resonance and created Homo Sovieticus.

Vox Populi

Well the people have spoken, and once again plunged the UK into a political crisis. Thus proving again the old Churchill political adage that 'democracy is the worst of all governments except for all the others.' It also shows what divided country we are these days, Brexit, Devolution, Left and Right ... everywhere you look we are a nation divided.

Vox Populi or The Start Of A Revolution In Our System?

Our system of first past the post relies on there being a clear winner, and so to be facing a second coalition or a minority government inside 2 years from the formation of the last one, is something of a shock to our way of getting governments.

Twitter Politics

Donald Trumps term as the 45th President of the United States has not started well. I am not particularly referring to the arguments over specific policies, where I take the view that he made it clear what his policy ideas were, and was duly voted in to office to carry out those policies. Its called Democracy folks, and that's how its supposed to work, for good or bad.

Combative Trump At War With Everyone
 .... Or So It Seems.

No, what I am referring to is the complete chaos and incompetence of his team, and the method of communication that President number 45 has adopted since entering the White House. Twitter is not, and should not be the policy communication device for the President of the United States of America. The fact that he's been unable to confirm many of the senior government posts, is just another indicator that President Trump was personally and politically ill prepared for the office he has now taken (I suspect he thought he would narrowly lose the election).

Unwanted Legacies

As part of the new nationalism sweeping the old British colonies (and also apparently some elements of Scotland as well), it is required to somehow reaffirm their 'identity', if not independence, by scrapping the Royal Family, becoming a Republic, and changing any old national flag that hints at a 'colonial' past.

Proposed New Zealand Flag Design

So New Zealand has just held a referendum, instigated by the current Prime Minister John Key's party, to scrap the old flag (which features a British Union Jack in one quarter).

Voting Rights and Wrongs

There are two essential parts to any democratic system and those are that

(a) The people can vote for whomever they want (within some limitations on parties advocating violence against other citizens), and

(b) People who exercise their vote, do so with the knowledge that they are responsible for the end results.

Tunisia is the first of the "Arab Spring" countries to vote for a new government and has just voted for the Islamist party 'Ennahda' as the biggest party in its constitutional assembly, how this turns out will become clear in the coming months. It may be a mistake that just leads to Sharia law and an Iranian style regime.

The people of Gaza voted for Hamas, and then complained that because they had democratically elected an terrorist organisation as its government, then the rest of the world should accept that this legitimised them and their policies .... wrong.


Voting For These, Is Hard For Democracies To Digest  

If Hitler, or Stalin were 'democratically' voted into office today, would this mean that we should all accept that the 'holocaust', or 'the Purges' were legitimate policy goals, or treat them as pariah states? Well most Hamas supporters believe in much the same policies towards the Jews as Hitler (who is popular in the Muslim world)  ....

As discussed earlier, having a democracy make you responsible for the standard of the government you have voted to represent you. The Tunisians are responsible for what they may end up getting by dabbling with Islamic politics, and the people of the Gaza strip have to live with the results of voting for a terrorist group as their government.

Too many of the deluded apologists for these nasty little regimes in the West forget this second responsibility when they bleat on about the democratically elected groups of the Middle East, and it might be better if responsible democracy rather than oil supplies governed US and Western policies in the Middle East.

BRIC's Float On UK Aid Money

The BRIC countries are those whose economies are considered to be some of the world's fastest-growing second world economies - China, India, Brazil and Russia ...... they have called for Russia (where the rule of law is non existent, as BP and many other companies have found to their cost), to be allowed into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where no doubt like China, they will steal industrial secrets at a national level, and ignore all copyright laws. Oddly, South Africa, which is not one of the world's fastest-growing second world economies ... rather more third world in fact, has started attending these summits .... obviously there are 'geopolitical reasons' for this, but even seasoned pundits were unable to work out why.

However they are marked by one other common factor .... They nearly all are, or were until this year, recipients of foreign aid from the UK ... you can't make this up. We are actually helping to create the countries that will displace us in the world, while our own economy grinds through yet another major recession (what ever happened to the end of "Boom and Bust" in Britain?).

• China, India, and Russia all have bigger space programs than the UK
• China, India, and Russia are all nuclear weapons holders

In fact when you look at the UK's aid program generally its surprising who we give lots of money to:

Its interesting to note that:

• Misspending on the Military instead of their own people (Pakistan stands out in this regard, where education spending is pitiful, but military spending is huge - but Burma must also be a dubious aid recipient in this regard), is not a deterrent to UK taxes being passed over.
• Nor is rampant corruption (Pakistan has this as well), but virtually all these countries features at the wrong end of the world corruption index tables, and finally
• Democracy ..... most of the aid countries have very poor democracy and human rights records, but we reward them with aid money.

It seems to me that there is no coincidence in these facts, and that the West has got this issue utterly and fundamentally wrong  ... and that in fact we are giving aid for the wrong  criteria and we should only give aid to countries with:

• Good democracy records,
• Low levels of security spending, and
• High levels of Education / Health spending  

In other words as an encouragement to achieve the standards we want and a disincentive to acting badly .... the Corruption and Democracy Index tables should be the criteria for determining UK and Western Aid.

The Democratic Comrades Of South America

Argentina and its band of democratic brothers in South America ........

Democracy Worth Fighting For

...... you know, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, or Cuba, have joined together to demand that the UK surrender the Falklands to the loving embraces of Argentina.