Wednesday 10 December 2008

A Political Economy Requires a General Election

Our democratic deficit glares out across Europe and 'abroad' is beginning to stare.We need abroad to believe in government economic and fiscal policy, and essentially involved is to believe in the stability of our state.

The deficit is not just at the level of central government, with a Leader unelected by Party or country. Our regional government, set up to meet European Union requirements, is appointed not elected everywhere in England outside London, and monies for regions and smaller local government areas is allocated from central government and distributed by government appointees in parallel organisations set up beside our debilitated elected local authorities. Where regional votes have taken place, in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and in London, regional elected governments are subjected to constant and gross central interference.

Undeniably we have, too, an enormous public and private sector deficit that must be dealt with or we will default, with all the misery that implies. There is nothing to be gained from going over whose faulty economics, or just plain fault it all is, or even why it happened. That's done and dusted. But what we don't have to put up with, and what we could remedy at once, is the important matter of stable governance that enjoys our support and a democratic mandate from us all.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the state we are in is utterly different from that of 2005. We need different strokes and may well need different folks. When the Conservative Party offered its co-operation and support as the full horror of our financial and economic situation was revealed, it was met with a rebuff filled with class loathing and powered by the desire to retain just that - power, even power over a ruined country. True to some sense of commitment to the country rather than sectional political advantage, the Conservatives have continued to refrain from undermining our government, even at the cost of earning not just the jibes of the Labour Football Club but from many of their own Supporters as well.

It's over. If the madness of the economic policies being pursued (in Angels' view in a purely social experimental way) by Labour's Executive are not reviewed by the electorate in a general election, even the meagre hopes of their success will fall in the face of external lack of confidence in the United Kingdom's democracy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Our democratic deficit glares out across Europe"

Well they (Europe) are in no position to lecture us.

Who elected the European commission?

How can we get rid of them?

The answers are "nobody" and "there is no way to do that".

Democratic deficit, anyone?

hatfield girl said...

They aren't lecturing - they're staring. Every member state of them.

And if the UK doesn't like being a member state of the EU then LEAVE. No-one is locking us into Europe; it's our own, undemocratic government that is dictating on European Union membership for the UK. Other member states have proper constitutions and the rule of law, and general elections when there are huge shifts in policy and changes of leadership. And none of them have the economic and financial horror we are facing. What's the pound now? 1.13?

The democratic deficit is ours not Italy's or Germany's or the Czech Republic's or any other of the rest of the 27 member states. Ours.

Stu said...

I want an election so much I can taste it. A bit. No really, it's a slightly metallic flavour.

Do you fancy a 'This Blog Has No Confidence In Her Majesty's Government' banner for your sidebar? They're at houseofcomments.co.uk :-)

patently said...

Hear, hear, HG.