Thirdly; were this the case, then a whipping system should not be necessary. The existence and use of party whips indicates that the party leadership can and will punish those within the party who do not tow the approved line.
A good argument against party government, but we do live in a party system.
Fourthly; as has also been demonstrated recently, the current government is not above the worst sort of crude populism in order to inflict its views on the judiciary in their interpretation of UK laws.
Given the staunch Conservatism of our bench, I'm a not really inclined to condemn any attempt to appeal to the electorate over their heads.
(How autocratic does a government have to be when you're cheering on the Law Lords as defenders of freedom and justice for all?)
The last time I remember Lord Denning was kicking up a fuss. Of course, he was pretty much in a minority then.
There is no "allegedly" here. The governemnt was democratically elected
As were various rather unpleasant characters in world history; it didn't make their governments champions of democracy.
You don't have to be a champion of democracy to be democratically elected - even abolishing local authorities who disagree with you doesn't make your government illegitimate.
the current UK political system is sterile; the effect of TINA on the political landscape has been to drive the two major parties into fighting on very similar ground with very similar policies; and any genuinely different parties are marginalised. This has the knock-on effect of lowering voter turnout; faced with Tweedledum or Tweedledee, a fair proportion of the population have simply become alienated by the whole process; which gives more control to the major parties, as it removes the political sphere from everyday life.
I don't agree - in the Scottish Parliament the Tories are the third force, and very nearly the fourth. In many parts of the country independents flourish. And don't forget the rapid growth of a genuinely populist alternative party in many English local authorities - and given the adoption of proportional representation, the BNP would surely win a few seats in Parliament
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branchandroot
Re: Part 2.
Date: 2006-05-30 08:57 pm (UTC)A good argument against party government, but we do live in a party system.
Given the staunch Conservatism of our bench, I'm a not really inclined to condemn any attempt to appeal to the electorate over their heads.
The last time I remember Lord Denning was kicking up a fuss. Of course, he was pretty much in a minority then.
You don't have to be a champion of democracy to be democratically elected - even abolishing local authorities who disagree with you doesn't make your government illegitimate.
I don't agree - in the Scottish Parliament the Tories are the third force, and very nearly the fourth. In many parts of the country independents flourish. And don't forget the rapid growth of a genuinely populist alternative party in many English local authorities - and given the adoption of proportional representation, the BNP would surely win a few seats in Parliament