Democracy in the UK... | Vital Football

Democracy in the UK...

PR voting please. Make every vote mean something. A blue or red living in a sea of red/blue might as well not bother. I know we saw something of a change last time, but generally speaking a large proportion of votes seem pointless.

Agree 100%. That would be a massive beneficial change.
 
Oh and on the subject of mandatory by elections - immediately following the conviction of an MP for any criminal offence that carries imprisonment as a potential penalty e.g. an offender for perverting the course of justice even if they only get a non custodial sentence.
 
Stop hiding behind parliamentary privilege to slander people. If the MP has solid grounds to believe their statement to be true then say it publicly or be damned.
 
Oh and on the subject of mandatory by elections - immediately following the conviction of an MP for any criminal offence that carries imprisonment as a potential penalty e.g. an offender for perverting the course of justice even if they only get a non custodial sentence.

You can at least recall an MP now when convicted of a criminal case. I think it's happened twice. That obviously caused a by-election and I think one of the disgraced candidates immediately re-stood... with the backing of his local party!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-48736879

The, er, "party of law and order". :lol:
 
Time for a review of postal and proxy voting. If ever a system was open to abuse.

It *ought* to be possible in this day and age to allow electronic voting. But not in this country, obviously, where we couldn't develop a computer programme to successfully print "Hello world!" on the screen.

Electronic voting could then be a vehicle for more local democracy on local and regional issues, thus increasing citizen participation in decisions that affect their lives. Don't hold your breath, though...
 
There's certainly lots that could be improved in government, but another issue is getting people to be involved when elections occur. The amount of people who simply have zero interest in participating, even when the outcome can dramatically affect them personally, makes my mind boggle.

I wonder if, even at just a very basic level, this could be included in school lessons? An addition to PSE/PSHE, perhaps. Obviously not along party lines though as it would be open to teachers unfairly influencing students.
 
Not democracy as such, but I'd like to stop hearing MPs say things like "This shouldn't be a political issue, we should all be pulling in the same direction on such a sensitive and important issue. So, I don't want to make political gain by saying............., but (goes on to do just that)".

We have a saying at work "Everything after but is bullshit".
 
Well here's my manifesto for change:

  • Definitely some change to as PR system.
  • MP salaries to be raised
  • No sitting MP or MP standing for election is to be allowed any form of executive or non-executive directorship of any company or serve on any company board in any capacity. MP's serving in any cabinet position (including shadow positions) not allowed to serve in any executive or non-executive directorship or any board position in any capacity of any company for a period of 3 years after leaving a cabinet position
  • All expenses to be receipted no matter the size, all expenses to be paid for and remunerated into a single bank account nominated by the MP and subject to quarterly review by the replacement for the House of Lords.
  • Remote voting to be enabled by MP's and scrap the current protocol of "pairing votes"
  • Remove the allowance and expenses allowed for maintaining a "local" residence in or around London separate from the constituency office in the MP's constituency
  • Remove the allowance and expenses allowed for personal staff for MP's, these are to be paid for out of political party funds
  • Scrap the House of Lords and replace with an executive oversight body given powers to prevent parliament from changing the rules of how parliament works without their approval
  • All sitting MP's have their entire investment portfolio placed in escrow while sitting as an MP, no changes to their investment portfolio's allowed while sitting as an MP. MP's serving in any cabinet position (including shadow positions) not allowed to amend their investment portfolio for a period of 3 years after leaving a cabinet position
  • MP's protection from prosecution to be removed while sitting as an MP
  • Failure to publish an interest in the registers of interest to be made a criminal offence
 
There's certainly lots that could be improved in government, but another issue is getting people to be involved when elections occur. The amount of people who simply have zero interest in participating, even when the outcome can dramatically affect them personally, makes my mind boggle.

I wonder if, even at just a very basic level, this could be included in school lessons? An addition to PSE/PSHE, perhaps. Obviously not along party lines though as it would be open to teachers unfairly influencing students.

That an interesting debate in itself!