Sunday, 2nd November 2008

When asked, most people would think the United Kingdom is a democracy and would consider it ridiculous to suggest otherwise; but stop for one moment and consider the following.

On Monday 6th October we have a report that the government has spent £1billion to enable GCHQ to set up a data base which will monitor every telephone call, e-mail sent and every website accessed. It is also reported in the same article that the estimated final cost of this data base (and we all know that government estimates are wildly inaccurate) is in the region of £12billion (1).

On Wednesday 1st October Dr. Frederick Tobin, an Australian, was arrested at Heathrow Airport by British police on an EU Arrest Warrant, issued by Germany, for a crime (denial of the Holocaust) that is not unlawful in this country, that was not committed either in Germany or in this country (2). The means under which this individual was arrested was not enacted by our Parliament but by people, unelected and unaccountable to us, in a foreign country.

The population of this country is the most monitored of any in the world with, it is reported, one CCTV camera for every 12 people and this activity is carried out 24/7; yes even on Christmas Day! We have more than 20% of the world’s CCTV cameras which, considering the UK comprises 0.2% of the world’s inhabitable land-mass, is incredible. Would you believe that the CCTV centre for Westminster in London is, rather bizarrely, registered as a charitable trust? (3)

There are 1,162 Quangos (Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organizations) that are neither elected nor accountable to you the taxpayer, running at a cost of £64billion, equivalent to £2,550 per household. Even under the Cabinet Office’s restrictive definition of quangos, the cost of these bodies has risen 50% in the last ten years. Quangos now employ almost 700,000 bureaucrats. When the total number of quangos is added to other government-controlled subsidiaries such as local authorities and NHS trusts, the total number of organizations controlled by the government rises to 2,063, costs the taxpayer £257billion and employs over 1 million people. In summary, these bodies are deciding how we should act, speak and think and even in one particular case can decide what drugs we are allowed to use in order to treat an illness (4).

We are governed by representatives who are supposed to represent the views of their constituents yet who, when it comes to casting their vote in Parliament, vote according to Party diktats; who pass laws governing the people of this country yet exempt themselves from those self same laws, ie the Smoking Ban, pensions, accountability, expenses.

Since 1997 the people of this country have been led to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule; that those in government are an all-wise, elite, group and are superior to government ‘per se’ for, by and of the electorate. We are frequently told that we must cater for ‘special interest groups’ to enable our society to function harmoniously. Well, there is one ‘special interest group’ that would appear to have been ignored and that group, which knows no racial, ethnic or sectional boundaries; is the electorate of this country. Let us remember that the United Kingdom is supposed to be a nation that has a government – not a government that has a nation; that a government in a democracy has no power other than that granted by the people. The time has come to stop and reverse the growth of government which has grown beyond the consent of the governed.

Government today is now so large, diverse and complex that it is impossible for anyone to manage effectively, let alone by Ministers with no prior experience of management, little in-depth understanding of their briefs and whose only ‘work experience’ is as a bureaucrat in local government, trade union organizations or pressure groups. However we, the people of this country, are told by the politicians that ‘government’ is the only body which can decide our future.

We are in the midst of what is considered to be probably the greatest financial threat to our stability, coupled with an inflation rate that distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift and crushes the hopes of the young and impacts severely on fixed-income groups such as pensioners; which threatens to shatter the lives of millions of people. We suffer a tax system so complex and which penalizes successful achievement, keeps us from maintaining full productivity and which denies those who do work a fair return for their labours.

However great our tax burden is though, it has not kept pace with public spending. Since 1997 we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the convenience of the present; a process which will only bring great social, cultural. political and economic turmoil. As individuals we can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time because, eventually, the day of reckoning comes. Why then, as a nation, have we allowed ourselves not to be bound by that same limitation? This present trend must be halted today in order to preserve tomorrow.

A respected statesman once said (5) ‘…..government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.’ In this present climate of ‘democracy by diktat’ never has a truer word been spoken.

(1) http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/64725

(2) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4861271.ece

(2) http://www.newstatesman.com/200610020022

(4) Taxpayers Alliance – Structure of Government – May 2008

(5) http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/first.asp

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