Digging around my old files, I rediscovered the following essay, written in 2005 in the run up to the election. Most of it is as originally written, with a freshly written conclusion tagged on to the end. I've touched on most of these issues in subsequent articles, essays and rants, but I wanted to publish it nonetheless, primarily because it was written during one of the many crises of confidence I suffered during that time. Looking back, I don't think I had anything to worry about.
Vote
For Yourself
1)
No Democracy
In the strict sense
of the term, there has never been
a true democracy,
and there never will be.
Jean
Jacques Rousseau
What
do we mean by democracy? There are
various schools of thought on what democracy is. Lincoln’s government of the
people, by the people is probably fairly representative of what most people
think a democracy should be. However, we need to adopt a rigid definition for
all types of political doctrine, so that we can recognise what our society most
closely approximates. A good definition would be:
Democracy: A utopian society in which the population has
an equal say in the decision making process.
The
term utopian needs to clarified. A
utopian society is one which is perfect and thus unobtainable. This is the most
singular point to remember about a democratic system; it can never and will never exist. You only need to consider the very young or
the severely mentally handicapped to realise that a society in which we all
have equal responsibility is unachievable. Which isn’t to say that humanity
shouldn’t strive for a closer and closer approximation of a utopian society. So
long as it remembers that any ideology which claims to have installed heaven on
earth can only be dystopian in nature. History is resplendent with examples of
this.
Winston
Churchill famously declared that democracy may not be perfect but it’s the best
system we have. This statement as we have can see is erroneous on two counts. Democracy
is perfect and therefore Britain can not be a democracy. No matter what
politicians may claim, this country (like most so called democracies) operates
under a system of elective representation. Voting for a representative has been
called the act of giving away one’s democratic right by proxy. Of saying, Here,
you make my decisions for me.
Elective
representation can be viewed as anti-democratic in nature. In a democratic
society the general population sets the agenda. This needs to be informed and
based on what’s best for that society. In a system of elective representation
however, democracy is turned on its head. It is the politicians who set the
agenda. Party manifestos are little more than itemised bribes in reward for
voting in a particular party. Which raises an interesting point. Why do we even
need political parties? If a cabinet
minister is the best qualified to carry out the will of the people, it
shouldn’t matter which party they belong to. Indeed, in many ways the most
democratic result we can hope for in Britain is a hung parliament.
Democracy
within political parties is even further watered down. Parties, especially the
one which rules, are semi-fascistic in nature. There is no secret ballot within
Westminster. Back bench MPs are free to follow their conscience, but face
removal of the party Whip for voting against the party. When John Major faced
rebellion in ratifying The Maastrict Treaty a few years ago, he threatened to
call an election if defeated. The rebels
backed down. These antics make a mockery of what little democracy we have.
Finally,
within the lifetime of this parliament we have shown how little democracy we
truly have. The War on Iraq. Opinion polls in the build up to the invasion
consistently show that 65% of the population were against the war without a
second resolution. Around 20% were in favour. Now, in a democratic society the
justifications for an invasion would be irrelevant. Only that it be the will of
the majority.
2) Support for Authoritarian States
Because authority, though
it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of
medicine in itself
That skins the vice
o’th’ top.
Measure For Measure
The
democratic principle should not only be fixed but universal. If we are to apply
it then it must be applied to everybody. To deny democracy to a single man,
woman or child is to make a mockery of
its ideals.
In
the modern era, the government has become inexorably link to the arms industry,
the second largest in the world. As in the case of the slave trade, basic human
rights like freedom, equality and the right to live without being in constant
fear of murder are secondary to the profit motive. During the Iran-Iraq War, it
was estimated that both sides would run out of ammunition within two weeks. However,
the UK, UK, France and Russia kept rearming both sides and the war waged on for
eight years.
The
idea of arming both sides of a conflict is by no means restricted to the
Iran-Iraq war. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over three million have
been killed, Britain continually supplies weapons to Zimbabwe, Nambia and
Angola fighting on one side and Uganda and Rwanda on the other. It has also
made a mint out of fuelling tensions between Pakistan and India in the disputed
region of Kashmir. It should be borne in mind that at the end of the First
World War, civilian casualties accounted for 15% of those killed in war and
conflict. By the end of the twentieth century, that figure was 90%.
Saudi
Arabia, one of the most repressive regimes on the face of the Earth has been
supported for years by western countries. It doesn’t take a genius to work out
that oil is the motivating force behind this. In Tony Blair’s address to
parliament on the case for war with Iraq, he used the gassing of the Kurds in
Halabja as evidence of Saddam Hussain’s evil. Yet strangely he omitted to
mention that the Halabja atrocity was committed whilst Iraq was still a major
client of the west. Within a month of the gassings the then Tory government
offered Hussain £340 million worth of export credits. In the dossier released
by the Iraq’s shortly before the invasion, it was alleged that 17 different
British companies had armed them with components for nuclear and biological
weapons, including Matrix Churchill, C Plath Nuclear and Euromac Ltd UK.
If
western governments are to be believed (and all available evidence points to
the contrary), freedom and democracy are their primary goals for the world. NATO
went into Kosovo in 1999, ostensibly to prevent a humanitarian crisis. Yet the
lion share of the crisis happened after the bombing began and most now
grudgingly admit that the conflict had less to do with human rights and more to
do with providing a platform to increase the credibility of NATO. Indeed, the
idea of humanitarian aims was laughable when at the same time a NATO state,
Turkey was continuing its persecution of its Kurdish population. What’s more,
Turkey’s security forces did so using British made equipment.
However,
the most blatant example of the Britain and the west’s attitude towards
democracy an be seen in its relations with China. China’s human rights record
by any standard is appalling. During the reign of Mao Tse-tung, it is estimated
that anything between forty and one hundred million people died in the Cultural
Revolution. In Tibet alone, well over a million Tibetans have been killed since
the Red Army invaded the country in 1948. Those who haven’t killed have been
ethnically cleansed from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and replaced by the Han
Chinese that have been relocated to the area.
Amnesty
International recently reported that 3,400 people were known to have been
executed in China last year. However, one party official stated that the figure
was nearly 10,000. People like Shaheer Ali, a Muslim from the Uighur region, adjacent
to Tibet. Shaheer’s crime was helping to organise a demonstration.
If
economists are to be believed, China will have the largest economy in the world
in the next few decades. Profit is once again sufficient for any pretence of
human rights to be sidelined. Look at the label on most clothes or electronics
sold in this country and it will bear the legend, Made in China. China is
accepted into the World Trade Organisation with barely a murmur of concern for
its people. The Olympic torch will be set alight in Beijing in three years time.
All of which gives credence to the repression and atrocities it commits. Up
until now, the EU Code of Contact has banned EU countries from selling weapons
to China. Only weapons components have been allowed. With its presidency of the
EU, Jack Straw and the British government are aiming to change that. It can’t
be too long before we find the Chinese one party state being referred to as a
democracy. After all, the people do vote!
How
can we, in all conscience, pretend we are democracy when the people we elect
knowingly and deliberately deny those rights to others? To vote for any of the major parties is
essentially an act of racism. Of condoning and legitimising oppression.
3)
The
Narrowing of Political Choice
Britain
has in effect only two political parties, the Conservative Party and the Labour
Party, which between them broadly represent the main interests of the nation. But
during the last twenty years the tendency of these two parties has been to
resemble one another more and more.
George
Orwell
These
words were written in 1943. One can only imagine what Orwell would make of the
state of British politics today. The most compelling reason why we should have
a fixed idea of democracy is in order for us to judge when our democratic
rights have been denied to us. If the Orwell saw the narrowing of political
choice in his day as referred to as a democracy and we see that choice narrowed
ever further, at what point do we cease to be a democracy? Is China a democracy? Or the United States? The US’s system of electing a President is
barely one step above that of China. Noam Chomsky refers to the Republicans and
Democrats as two factions of the same party.
4)
The
Serving of Elite Interest
[T]he men who are
the most completely ignorant of the state
of
the country are almost always those who represent it.
Pierre
Jean Proudhon
A
back-bench politician earns £57,485 a year. This rises through the ranks of
junior ministers and Secretaries of State, reaching the dizzying heights of
£178,922 annual salary for the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Admiralty. And
yet a politician can earn 95% of his yearly income through outside interests. But
what is meant by ‘outside interests’ is directorships in companies who have
vested interests in the decisions of parliament. These interests have to be
declared, but they are there nonetheless. So those who decide if a particular
arms company should be granted an export licence to provide weapons and
ammunition to fuel conflict may well be on the board of that selfsame company.
One
of the things I find most unacceptable about the state of British politics is that politicians, even
back-benchers, should be allowed to hold any other roles outside of Westminster.
MP and MP only. The usual response by politicians is to cry poor. £57k a year
is well above the national wage, even for London. The present system is ripe
for corruption and past examples have shown this to borne out in reality. The
years of Tory sleaze seem to have continued unbroken into the Labour incumbency.
Making outside interests illegal would not put an end to corruption. Politicians
could still lobby on behalf of corporations and be rewarded for their efforts
upon retirements, but it would separate a lot of the wheat from the chaff. Our
representatives, even in a system as vaguely democratic as ours, need to be
pillars of our community. A cursory glance at Prime Minister not-answering-the
Question Time is all it takes to see the depressing reality.
Whilst
writing this essay, their has been a fine example of political fraud. The
election of six Birmingham councillors was overturned by the courts. In his
summing up, the Judge stated that the rigging of the postal vote in the wards
under the spotlight was equivalent to that of a banana republic. I’ve seen the
standard of the electoral system before. This wasn’t in local elections however.
This was the 1997 General Election. When I was studying at Cardiff University,
student friends of mine voted both in Cardiff and at home by postal vote. Moreover,
I read reports of overseas students receiving ballot cards and voting in
Cardiff. Electoral fraud by design or by accident is hardly a new concept.
In
order for society to operate fairly, its elected representatives need to be
above reproach. What we find is that aside from a few notable exceptions, they
are beneath contempt. British politics is shockingly rigged in favour of the
rich and super rich, whilst the poorest, the most vulnerable members of society
are vilified and demonised.
A
big brother culture exists. More than one poster campaign around the city
centres and train stations of the land bear legends such as we’re watching you.
Benefit fraud campaign’s have this sense of we’ll get you and yet the biggest
fraudsters go unpunished and set the political agenda. In the 1992 election, it
is generally believed that it was The Sun’s anti-Labour campaign that cost them
the election. And yet throughout the nineties, The Sun’s proprietor, Rupert
Murdoch paid no tax in this country at all. Benefit fraud amounts for an
average of around £3 billion. And yet between £3 and £5 billion worth of
benefits go unclaimed each year. Less is spent on educating the needy of their
rights to extra funds than it is on creating a climate of hate towards the less
well off.
Meanwhile,
the Inland Revenue last year admitted that £14 billion worth of taxes had not
been collected. It also admitted that it had not kept detailed records of this
enormous discrepancy. £3 billion had been owed for over a year. Given that most
employees have their tax and National Insurance contribution deducted by their
employer, this money can only be owed by the self employed or corporations.
However,
these figures only account for taxes actually owed. Tax avoidance by large
corporations is rife. A conservative estimate put this figure at £25 billion a
year, but it could be as much as a staggering £85 billion. The culprits include
such household names as Shell, Virgin, Barclays Bank, The Prudential and Dixons.
The present government has been talking about closing loopholes in the law to
prevent tax avoidance since it came to office. So far that’s all its done: talk. Proposals to make any new loopholes
illegal have been dismissed by Gordon Brown and the Inland Revenue (the
government agency which would enforce such laws) has seen a huge reduction in
its staff. Politicians and governments should only be judged on what they do
and not on what they say.
5)
Democracy
is Lived Day to Day
Nothing
is deader than the status quo, whether it be called Democracy, Fascism, Communism,
Buddhism or Nihilism. If you have a dream of the future, know that it will be
realized one day. Dreams come true. Dreams are the very substance of reality.
Henry
Miller
There
seems to be a particular mind set that believes that democracy consists only in
putting a cross in a box every four or five years. Government campaigns tell us
that if we don’t have a vote, we can’t have a voice. As if the legitimising of
a vetted, pre-approved candidate were all that was required for democracy to
flourish. Like handing over a blank cheque to someone you’ve never met or
signing a contract without bothering to read it.
Democracy
isn’t something that comes around a couple of times a decade. It is lived day
to day. The rights, the freedoms that we enjoy (and that are being curtailed in
the War on Terror and Other Abstract Concepts) were won through years of
campaigning and self-sacrifice. Parliament didn’t simply give the vote to women,
it took years of dedicated and persistent struggle. The same can be said of
slavery. In recent times we have seen the abolition of the Poll Tax and the
introduction of a minimum wage. In the case of the latter it was Labour party
members who campaigned for years for its introduction.
Parliament
is merely the last link in a chain. When government does introduce legislation
to protect our rights or to renounce an unjust law or tax scheme, it is usually
something that has been known by the public for a long time. Change comes through
public action, not legislative impotence.
Conclusion
He not busy being
born is busy dying.
Bob Dylan
I
hate when people say, I don’t do politics. Of course you do. Every time you
step outside of your house or buy a paper or a pint of milk, every time you drop
your kids of at school or stop at a red light or pay your phone bill or your council
tax, you’re engaging in politics. Every conversation with any other human
being, even if it’s only on Facebook or Twitter, is a political act. I have no
great problem with the idea of socialism or communism because when you break
them down they’re just the acts of socialising and communing. Every night out
is an act of socialism, every football match or stadium concert is communistic
in nature. Yet socialising and communing with our fellow human beings are ideas so
dangerous and horrific to what we laughingly allow to be called a democratic system
that they have had to be demonised and vilified for centuries.
Vote
for yourself. No one can do it all but pick an issue, a handful of issues even,
that you feel passionate about and fight for them. No one in a position of high
authority is ever going to do something they don’t want to do, unless they are
compelled to do so. My experience of western business practices is that the
worse you are at your job, the higher you will fly. Competence is desired, but
not a requirement. A total lack of idealism though, that’s essential.
A
politician or public official is essentially a high flying manager and how many
managers can you honestly say you’ve worked for who knew what they were doing or
who wouldn’t sell you out in an instant if it meant furthering their career? There
are some, just like there are a handful of politicians who actually want to make
the world a better place. Unfortunately, they are so hopelessly outnumbered by
yes men and women and servants to ‘higher authority’ that their voices will
always be drowned out by the obedient throng.
Trust
the people around you . Trust the people that have earned your trust. But don’t
trust anyone that is any more than a few levels above you in the social
hierarchy. You build a pyramid or any solid structure from the ground up, not
from the top. Fuck politics, fuck politicians, fuck the democratic system.
Vote, but recognise that any changes it wroughts are incremental and infinitesimal
to the changes we can bring about by suring up our own foundations. Don’t wait
for the system to change anything for the better. Change it for yourself.
Get it done.
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