Democracy Matters
... does it? i received this, today, and replied (below)
Dear Luke Leighton
What will you do to restore trust and participation in
politics?
If you expect to win South West Surrey next week, we want to
know what you will do as a Member of Parliament to restore
trust and participation in politics.
We are an alliance of organisations including the Community
Sector Coalition, Civic Voice, Citizenship Foundation,
NAVCA, WEA and others, with members in almost every
constituency. We will publish responses to this message
through our membership and on our website,
www.democracymatters.info.
We are deeply concerned that people do not trust
politicians, parties or the political process and feel
powerless to influence decisions. This lack of trust and
participation in civic life matters greatly for the health
of our country.
For democracy to be real, people need to know how the system
works, how to influence decisions and how to have an
effective voice.
We are therefore asking you to
1. Make public your support for the independence of
citizens, community groups. charities and voluntary
organisations to lobby, campaign or speak out about the
issues that matter to them, respecting the Charity
Commission’s guidance on campaigning (CC9);
2. Support our efforts to provide accessible and
affordable practical political education so that all
citizens can understand the system, get their voice heard
and influence decisions about things that concern them;
3. Help local government implement the Duty to Promote
Democracy in partnership with local education providers,
community groups and civil society, through independent
"democracy hubs".
We got a positive reply to our letter from David Cameron,
Leader of the Conservative Party, and expect to hear from
other party leaders shortly. But we also want to tell our
members about your support, as their own prospective member
of parliament.
Members of the Democracy Matters alliance enable citizens to
have an effective say by providing information, advice,
education and support to take part in society. Many of us
ran regional road-shows across England last year, involving
over 600 people from local community and voluntary
organisations and local MPs. We hope to run similar events
throughout the UK during the next parliament.
After the election we will publish a guide to promoting
democracy and practical politics, including responses to
this message from individual Members of Parliament and the
political parties represented in local and national
government.
We will also hold a public meeting in Parliament after this
election and look forward to your support.
Please reply to ppc@democracymatters.info
Yours sincerely,
Titus Alexander
Convener
Democracy Matters Alliance
Mobile: 07720394740
www.democracymatters.info
titus@democracymatters.info
Democracy Matters grew out of nine regional road-shows
involving over 600 people from community and voluntary
organisations and local Members of Parliament. A summary of
the main points was published in Campaigning is OK! which
can be downloaded from
http://static.novas.org/files/campaigningisok-456.pdf This
was launched in the House of Commons in July 2009 by an all
party panel including the Third Sector Minister Angela
Smith, Shadow Minister Nick Hurd MP and Greg Mulholland MP
(see:
www.navca.org.uk/localvs/infobank/ilpunews/campaigninglaunch
.htm ).
Learning Power: a contribution to the national skills
strategy makes the case for practical political education,
based on the work of the Scarman Trust. See:
http://static.novas.org/files/learning-power-262.pdf with
reviews by Francis Maude, John Hayes, Bernard Crick, Helena
Kennedy and others.
If you want information from Democracy Matters in future,
please join us at:
http://www.democracymatters.info/html/join.html
On 27 April 2010 15:05, Democracy Matters
<ppc@democracymatters.info> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dear Luke Leighton
>
> What will you do to restore trust and participation in
politics?
>
> If you expect to win South West Surrey next week, we want
to know what you will do as a Member of Parliament to
restore trust and participation in politics.
dear democracy matters,
to answer the question, first i must give you some
background.
democracy as deployed in athens is one of the most powerful
governance methods i've encountered. random selection
(effectively jury service) has powerful advantages: you get
people who have no known personal or vested interest
involved in the process of decision-making.
democracy as deployed _now_ is one of the weakest forms of
governance known. to allow politicians to "fight" over what
must be done, in a state of constant opposition, results in
ridicule that is nothing more than "entertainment" but
results in a weakened governance where nothing of lasting
stability is achieved or even attempted, out of fear of
alienating voters. the next parliament merely rips up the
tracks laid by the previous government, which is at risk of
happening again in four to five years time.
additionally, focussing of power by way of "party whips"
into the hands of one man (the Prime Minister) for example
leads us to have bills such as the "Legislative and Reform
Bill" which was on its 2nd reading before anyone noticed its
similarity to Hitler's 1936 "Enabling Act" - an Act which
allowed him to shut Parliament the day after it was passed
(because it was "reasonable") and declare himself Dictator
(because it was "reasonable").
yet what we have is what we have.
... or, in the UK, it is what we _used_ to have.
with sovereign power having been handed over to the E.U.,
the crime of treason was committed by Edward Heath, as the
E.U. Directives (decided and agreed by "strangers") which
must be enacted as law in the member states, "overawes" the
Houses of Parliament. these are key words in the 1848
Treason Felony Act - an Act which has NOT been repealed.
additionally, the 1999 House of Lords Act - a "general" Act
of Legislation - CANNOT be used to revoke Royal
Proclamations ("Letters Patent") granting hereditary peers
the right to a seat in Parliament (see Baroness Ashton's
reply on this, 29th Sep 2008, clarifying this point). but,
by illegally revoking the passes of some 900 hereditary
peers, Parliament has been "intimidated" - by order and at
the instigation of Tony Blair (and other conspirators).
the unfortunate (some would say fortunate) side-effect of
this second act of Treason is to throw into doubt the
legality and validity of any law passed since 2000
(including ironically the Lisbon Treaty, as well as several
thousand other pieces of legislation); for details, search
for Lord Mereworth's legal challenge, initiated in late
2009, to the revocation of his pass granting him access to
the Houses of Parliament.
so we have a serious, serious situation in which the entire
democratic process in the UK has been completely and
systematically undermined... and nobody's noticed!
there's something desperately, desperately wrong and i am
at a loss to explain peoples' total lack of interest.
that is just the background. now i answer your question.
what i _have_ done (not what am i "going" to do) is report
the crime of Treason at my local police station. what i
_will_ do is report the _second_ crime of Treason, tomorrow.
i appear to have accidentally stumbled onto something that i
cannot now "let go of" or "let rest" until i find out if
people are actually interested. which is most unfortunate.
should i find out that people do not care if we are no
longer a sovereign nation, i will happily stop pursuing
this. the only real way to find that out is by a
referendum. it doesn't matter how that referendum is
carried out. the politicians didn't bother to consult us;
they all promised that they would have a referendum if they
were voted in, and they didn't damn well fulfil their
promise.
well, unfortunately for them, by going ahead without
consulting us, they committed criminal acts: Treasonous
acts.
so, there is actually another way to get the referendum
that people might seek: by going down to your local police
station and reporting Edward Heath for the crime of Treason
and all Prime Ministers since as being complicit in that
crime (for taking us into the E.U. and handing over
Sovereign Power); and reporting Tony Blair and the other
conspirators (339 other politicians voted for that bill) for
a second crime of Treason.
now, whilst the Crown Prosecution Service has the
discretionary power to not prosecute if it is "not in the
Public Interest", note the word "Crown" in the sentence
"Crown Prosecution Service". all policemen serve Her
Majesty, the Queen - and no other.
the critical question is: does the Chief of Police have the
balls to make the arrests? i have a feeling that if he
knows that he has a sizeable chunk of the UK population
behind him, with a record of several million reports of
Treason (and their associated Crime Reference Numbers), he
will not only have no choice but to make the arrests but
also will be able to easily justify his actions to the
accused.
so you want to know what i'm doing, to restore trust and
participation in politics? starting with _you_, i'm asking
_you_ to make the above a matter of public record, and i'm
asking _you_ to take up the challenge to restore our
shattered political system.
i look forward to receiving another "general mailshot" from
you, covering the above in your own words, with a link to a
suitable petition, giving advice on what people should do to
restore "trust" in our political system.
i should not have to remind you that if you fail to make an
independent investigation, fail to do due diligence, fail to
take up this task now that you have been informed of it, you
will be failing entirely and utterly to hold true to
everything that your web site claims to stand for. you
state that "democracy matters", but if you do not act to
help _make_ democracy matter, then you are no better than
the traitors who have undermined our Sovereignty and our
Parliament.
these may sound like strong words, but i swear to you that
they are mild in comparison to the ones i really should be
using.
l.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy