! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.
Iain Dale has kicked off a blog meme – Eight for 2008 – where you list your top 8 wishes for the new year.
Iain’s are:
- The Campaign for an English Parliament step up a gear
- Dominic Grieve in the Shadow Cabinet
- Audi let me have my long awaited A5
- West Ham qualify for Europe
- The Politico get as many readers as this blog
- The Conservatives win a by-election in a marginal seat
- Me score a sub 85 round of golf
- My new book delivered to the publishers on time
Mine are:
- England leaves UK
- England leaves EU
- Unity Trust Bank petitions for a winding-up order against the Liebour Party
- Pro-English, anti-EU Tories boot out the party leadership in a vote of no confidence
- House of Lords restored to a fully hereditary upper-house
- UKIP get their first MP (assuming number 2 hasn’t happened yet)
- The CEP to get a major financial backer (assuming number 1 hasn’t happened yet)
- A happy, successful and happy year for myself, my family and friends
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After reading number six I had to wipe my glasses? Could it be? A return to hereditary government – I thought you were a democrat?
Surely some mistake?
I’ve been through this one quite a few times Charlie. If you have an elected House of Lords then you are virtually guaranteed to have the same party in control of both Houses. An appointed upper house is the same – Liebour appointed themselves a majority in the House of Lords within months of “reforming” it.
The main benefits of a hereditary House of Lords are:
1. The party whip is virtually useless
2. The political make-up of the House can change at any time
3. Hereditary peers are less likely to be politically motivated
4. Hereditary peers are more likely to do what is right rather than what will be popular
5. Hereditary peers don’t rely on patronage for their job
6. Hereditary peers are more likely to oppose the British government
I know you’ll be itching to reply with something about them not being accountable but that’s easily solved. The Parliament Act should be amended so that instead of the House of Commons being able to bypass the House of Lords when they have rejected a bill three times, a binding public referendum should be held instead. Let’s face it, if the Lords think something is important enough that they will reject it three times then it’s obviously something important enough that the electorate should be the ones to make the decision. Career politicians shouldn’t be able to force through legislation that is that contentious.
I wonder, how much in real terms, the EU would lose, if England left?
It will mainlt affect the rich countries, France Germany, Holland et al but I wonder how much lower the limit on richness would be? (that is which countries would to have to start contributing as opposed to receiving)
Well, Alex Salmond expects an independent Scotland to be a net contributor to the EU even with its £11.3bn budget deficit. Countries like Ireland and Spain might find themselves paying in more than they get for the first time.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, House of Lords?
I’m not sure I approve but you do have some very strong points and I do think it an improvement on the current system
I’ve always favoured a unicameral parliament with a written constitution and the possibility of recall referenda, the people’s veto on legistlation, and citizen-initiated referenda on laws demanded by the public – so, more things decided by public vote, not less.
But there’s a more important point that I – as a Marxist – am duty bound to make… Parliament is ultimately a talking shop, real power lies with banks, multinational corporations, and those legislative bodies which are unaccountable to the general public, such as the EU.
If I recally correctly, the only time the hereditary peers kicked up a fuss in 18 years of Tory rule was over the issue of extradicting suspected Nazi war criminals who had come to live here after WW2…
We have a written constitution Charlie, it’s just not written in one document.
Which is a bit odd, really, isn’t it?
Not really Charlie. Our constitution evolved over time whereas the constitutions of common law countries were based on what we’d already done – there was no evolution necessary because it had already been evoloved. The constitution of France was written, I believe, when it became a republic – it was the grievences and demands of the revolutionaries written down in one document.
You know, as well as I do, that a new constitution written in one place wouldn’t simply be a matter of taking all our existing rights (including the ones the British government ignores) and copying them into a new document. It would be a rambling document, hundreds of pages long, with clauses for the suspension of our rights and liberties on the whim of a civil servant and more “responsibilites” than rights. And would a new constitution be respected any more than our existing constitution? Of course not.
No, we have a constitution already and we don’t need another one. All we need is for the British government to stop ignoring the constitution we already have.
I totally agree with you, Wonko (not always guaranteed to happen). The Americans had the advantage of having their constitution written by people who were fundamentally suspicious of the possibility of the arbitrary use of state power, having experienced it at first hand, hence the elaborate checks and balances and the decisive role of the Supreme Court. (Hasn’t stopped Bush creating Guantanamo, or extraordinary rendition either.) Any written constitution we would get as a ‘present’, from this government especially, would merely be a list of the opportunities for the state to suspend/withdraw all forms of liberty at whim (42 days detention without charge as an example). The advantage of the hereditary House of Lords was that it was not stuffed full of placemen and time-servers; although overwhelmingly conservative it voted down proposals by Thatcher and Major over 350 times from 1980 to 1997. A second elected chamber could claim an equal mandate- Hey, more of a mandate than the one-eyed wonder! (couldn’t have less!). Happy New Year, Kevin F.
And here’s another thing! Looking back in the archives, I realised that Wonko had missed an important anniversary; on the 14th November, 1977, Tom Dalyell first posed what has become known as the ‘West Lothian Question’;and the person who coined the phrase ‘West Lothian Question’? The Rt. Hon Enoch Powell, MP. Cheers, Kevin F.