Thread: Are we a democracy?

Originally Posted by Jack Black

Adoption by gay couples in Scotland was approved by MSPs in 2006, despite an official consultation process which showed that nearly 90 per cent opposed it.

In Trevor Philips' autobiography, The Windrush, he gloatingly concedes that, in the 1950s, 90 per cent of the British wanted all immigration stopped.

And yet the will of the 10 per cent prevailed.

In this country millions marched against the war in Iraq.

To no purpose.

THEY aren't interested in what we want. In fact, whenever we tell THEM that we really want something, THEY seem to take delight in making sure we don't get it.

Still the unrepresentative and partial behaviours do stoke the fires. Even the most indoctrinated are liable to wake up when their duvet's ablaze.

I never use bad language and rarely insult and yet I find myself getting banned from forums much quicker than I did a couple of years ago.

Why, I've even been banned for a month from here!

THEY are rattled, folks.

THEY aren't smiling any more.

Interesting times.

There is only one way out my friend, vote BNP. And if you dont, you've only got your self to blame.

I think democracy is an idealism. Reach for the stars and see what you get.

Is putting everything to 'the people' and going with the results of polls the ideal ? Would we get informed polls or prejudiced polls leading? You cant trust the generaly apethetic public to make informed and balanced political decisions, can we?

Or is the ideal trusting the councilors or government voted in to make informed and logical decisions? Again would we get informed results or prejudiced results? You just cant trust a politician, can we?

What is democracy?

It strikes me that this has significant potential:

E-democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Zundap Bella

There is only one way out my friend, vote BNP. And if you dont, you've only got your self to blame.

I do not like this post, I find it grossly offensive.

Am I asking you to remove it? NO

Has a moderator locked this thread? NO

What constitutes as democracy here?

Originally Posted by MaggieMay

I do not like this post, I find it grossly offensive.

Am I asking you to remove it? NO

Has a moderator locked this thread? NO

What constitutes as democracy here?

Why do you find it so offensive?

We try to operate a policy of free speech. I do not agree with what is being said - but that's not the same as being offended by it.

Originally Posted by MaggieMay

I do not like this post, I find it grossly offensive.

Am I asking you to remove it? NO

Has a moderator locked this thread? NO

What constitutes as democracy here?

An intrinsic element of Democracy is Free speech, the biggest danger to Democracy and free speech are those that attempt to stifle free speech, simply because they don't agree with someone else's political point of view.

The BNP are as legitimate a political party as the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal, party's, but they do differ in that they refuse to put other nationalities before our own British subjects.

Could you please explain to myself and other forum members, what is wrong with that? - This a genuine request to try to understand your point of view.

Maggie - I find the Labour party deeply offensive and the BNP a little less so. Should we ban the Labour party as well? I do think that the BNP has a very important role in British politics as they act as a check/balance to the major parties. If the big boys policies fly in the face of what people actually want and the BNP picks up the vote then surely this is an important message. Whether governments want to address the problems is another matter, and when it comes to nationalism they tend to bury their heads in the sand. To me the best example of this is France, where Le Pen got through to the final round of voting in the presidential elections in 2002. That was the French people sending a message which seems not to have been headed and nothing was acted upon, apart from pompous politicians coming out and denouncing anything he had said. Perhaps if they had acted the French might have done something about their inner cities and avoided riots that blighted many in late 2005; perhaps not as the situation might have been too far gone.

Originally Posted by Millennium3

It strikes me that this has significant potential:

E-democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think that if we all had internet connection then voting turn out at General Elections would be significantly higher, which in all honesty would be a good thing, although I suspect that the Labour party would be the one that would benefit most from the additional votes. However, I am not sure what a realistic target for the whole population to have www access is. Unless you can really get to near 100% then there is no point trying to have e-democracy as it wouldn't be very democratic excluding say 20-30% of the voting population on the grounds that they couldn't get to the web, or are they supposed to pop into the local internet cafe? Possibly free terminal could be set up in the post office (if there are any left) or supermarkets (as they seem to be the only ones that are going to be left).

Originally Posted by angelman

I think that if we all had internet connection then voting turn out at General Elections would be significantly higher, which in all honesty would be a good thing, although I suspect that the Labour party would be the one that would benefit most from the additional votes. However, I am not sure what a realistic target for the whole population to have www access is. Unless you can really get to near 100% then there is no point trying to have e-democracy as it wouldn't be very democratic excluding say 20-30% of the voting population on the grounds that they couldn't get to the web, or are they supposed to pop into the local internet cafe? Possibly free terminal could be set up in the post office (if there are any left) or supermarkets (as they seem to be the only ones that are going to be left).

I think the internet coverage is presently about 70% - there is access at libraries and clearly, if there was a national vote on something - those that did not have or could not use the internet would be able to vote in the time honoured way.

However the purpose of E-Democracy would be for referenda and also opinion polls. Democracy is essentially the will of the people - this system could be used [in a decades time?] to establish what that was and for the government to act accordingly - at least on major issues.