All you folks round the World will probably have heard a British politician or two talking about democracy over the last few years.
We are very proud of our Parliamentary system – rightly so I think on the whole – and our politicians often speak about how they want other countries, like Iran, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, for instance, to follow our methods.
Well, if you think our system is perfect, close your eyes for a bit!
Today our Members of Parliament go off on holiday after a parliamentary session that has seen many of them disgraced over their expenses claims and their popularity amongst the electorate at a low.
The government of Gordon Brown is unpopular even if it is getting a lot more things right than wrong and the probable new government, only just popular enough in the polls and coming in next year we assume, is led by inexperienced politicians who still haven’t really said what they believe in. The party which most people think is saying the right things, the Liberal Democrats, is, in our parliamentary voting system, unelectable.
If the House Of Commons is in a mess, our second chamber, The House of Lords, has become a laughing stock.
Yesterday also saw the arrival of the latest “Lord” – a entrepreneurial “reality television” personality, Alan Sugar who now becomes Lord Sugar so that he can be given a ministerial role within the government.
No one elected him, no one was consulted and no one can chuck him out; he just got given the job by the Prime Minister.
Hang on a minute, just checking the front door in case the PM is there wanting me as a lord too. Nope, not my turn today.
It just added to our disdain for the undemocratic and absurdly archaic looking House of Lords to see Alan Sugar dressed up as a character out of Alice In Wonderland taking his seat in the second chamber – somewhere where our laws can be decided.
If the House Of Lords had been abolished in the 1950s, it would have been seen as radical perhaps, in the 1960s, it would have been a perfectly acceptable part of the long over-due modernisation of Britain, but now, in 2009, it is just an embarrassment showing how our politicians cannot act against their own. The House of Lords, is, after-all, let’s remember, the elephants’ graveyard where disgraced opr worn-out MPs go to keep their places on the gravy train.
Let’s get shot of it before we start lecturing other people on democracy.
Sorry my friend that shows a total lack of understanding of the value of a two chamber democracy and Mr Sugar has given lots of people good jobs so maybe you need to get a REAL job yourself !!!
I don't see where you get the "two" from in "two chamber democracy" – what's democratic about the House of Lords?
Alan Sugar is a perfectly nice man I am sure and he has certainly been an employer and is very good television too. I don't see what that has got to do with democracy either.
I'm off down the coal pit as you speak by the way, this is just my day job.