h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I didn't say just Uni students. Although there would have to be one or two for the sake of balance.

OK, "Power To the People" series II of the excellent serie "Yes Prime Minister" came up with this reform of local governemt that was killed when it was realised it could apply to national:

1) create city villages aprox 200 households
2) Village councils elected from city villages (the 200 houses)
3) Give these councils money, not huge amounts but enough to make a difference.
4) The chair of these councils is their rep on the bourough council


The effect is that anyone in power is elected bu a few hundred people (and Pleeease now jokes about the USA) (OK as many jokes as possible )

This would of course destroy the part sytem - good - I know from family experiance that at the parish level party politics play very little part, but increase as the size of the electorate goes up.

Oh well, at least we don't have to rely on serial killers, drug runners and alligator wrestlers to have the casting vote for our leaders

CH

Sounds like a good idea. So basically the borough council would then elect a representative to the county council or something? Who'd then elect a representative to the national parliament?

Sounds wonderful.

You got it, and so did the fictional Prime Minister it was proposed to, and as it would lead to the destruction of the party system it was killed.

If you are too young to remember the brilliant Yes (Prime) Minister check out the books sometime. It is scary that they were written in the early 80s yet many of the ideas floated as jokes have happened.

But then again, many of the policies of the Monster Raving Luney Party (MRLP) from the 60s have also happend (votes for 18 year olds, Independant commercial radio).

Going back over 100 years 5 of the 6 demands of the 19 century version of the MRLP, the Chartists, have also happend (the 6th annual elections for parliament will probably never happen) - Hey Mr Cronin, if your out there, how about that 15 years since your piss poor history lessons I still remember something

CH

I have seen some of that excellent series.

Back onto the fuel protests.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Have 'the truckers' lost the popular support of the British people because of a) Gordon Brown's mini budget b)disaster fatigue or c)because the floods have cleared something in the minds of 'the people'.

And does anyone remember the reaction of almost everyone about 15 years ago when Greenpeace and FoE predicted that within a few decades, Kent, Sussex and much of Yorkshire would be underwater. Most people thought they were nuts...

I think support for direct action is falling as firstly people (English people - and yes I mean English not British) seem to regard any organised protes as a bad thing, OK if you dig behind the scenes of the september protest you would see it was organized, but the impression was that it was spontaneous.

Now it is organized it falls into the old area of unions, winter of discontent, "why are this group holding us to ransom" type thing.

Also I think more people are realising the government will never back down totally but will make gestures. They may well have realise (the tabloid readers) that they have contradicory beliefs - ie the French are scum, lets do what the french do.

Also now it is organized, any new protest will result in legal action as there are now an organization to take to court. If my union had organized the last lot, we would be in court within an hour.

BTW anyone else taking a sick sense of pleasure now that the french have a BSE problem?

CH

They had a BSE problem when we had one too, but they didn't admit it then.

Accepted, but now they have potentially a bigger problem as it is now clear their farmers were doing all the same as ours and still are.

CH

Sounds like a horrendous system. It would have a similar 'truncation' effect to the electoral college in US, but much worse - with just 4 levels: people-village-borough-county-national you could technically gain a majority at the national level with just 0.1% of the popular vote. Deciding the boundaries of borough councils and so forth would become the subject of hideous gerrymandering.

Plus, it has all the normal disadvantages of the current system in terms of encouraging two-party politics, and granting absolute power to the PM of the day.

Not forgetting that if you have one cillage council for every 200 households, then you're likely to have 1% of the population being politicians. They're a big enough drain on our resources already.

The problem is that nobody can really be allowed to rule at all, simply because they're people. We need some other way to do things that doesn't require rulers.

You'll always hae rulers. It's nature.
We could try an oligarchy, but are you, and everyone else entitle to join in the decision making, going to read up on your town's sewerage system to help decide whether it should be extended.
We could have a meritocracy, but that would disenfranchise the people of the country who aren't very good at anything.
Anarchy could work, but eventually someone would have to make a decision and would then be vilified for trying to take control.
A representative democracy seems like the only answer unless you want a dictatorship. The fuel protesters have every right to protest, but they shouldn't be allowed to portray their struggle as one of freedom. It is, in essence, about greed: they're only getting off their fat arses because they're worried about profits.
If they really want to try to make a difference, they should use their votes. the only trouble is, they'll end up voting for the man who says he'll knock 3p off a litre of diesel without thinking about the wider consequences... hmmmm, perhaps we should try a dictatorship.