The myth they call "democracy" (General)

Name: AlGale

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Product:	General
Date:	25/06/08 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It controls the masses

Disadvantages: It is an utter, utter lie

I recently read Blood River, by Tim Butcher, where he attempts to recreate part of Stanley's epic journey across Africa. At the end of the book, Butcher reflects on how the current problems with the country are not so much due to its turbulent history, so much as the endemic corruption of the officials, from the top all the way down. He states how the "elected" politicians within the country are effectively unanswerable to the electorate, and how they simply help themselves to whatever they want....

So, I have to ask myself, how is this ANY different to our own country? Where and when did democracy die? Did it ever really exist? I certainly don't recall being asked if I agree with politicians helping themselves to £10,000 each to buy themselves a new kitchen for their second home in London (which they apparently require as they often have to come to town for work reasons). I don't recall agreeing to the sum they allow themselves for a new TV for this house either. And what about the huge fees/expenses they allow themselves for taxis (Heaven forbid they speakers WIFE should have to get the bus, like us mere groundlings!)? Did you agree to any of that?

Of course, their argument is that a doctor earns more than them, so they "need" these expenses to make up for it. Could a street cleaner claim they need a huge expense account as politicians earn more than them? I think not. It is a pathetic argument.

But of course, the big difference is that what our politicians do is LEGAL. It is legal because they make it so. Not because we agree to any of it of course - who are we, the mere electorate, to interfere with such weighty matters?

And what about the EU? When, oh when, are we to be trusted to air our feelings over THAT issue? How can this country honestly and truly condemn the voting fixes and practices of other countries, when we are not even allowed to vote on such things as the EU? To be denied the right to a referendum based on nothing but the sure knowledge that the government will lose hands down is the most blatant example possible that we have long ceased to live in anything that remotely resembles a democracy. Why don't the government just own up for once and tell us that now they are in power, they are as untouchable as any African dictator, and that they will do precisely and exactly as they chose? I think I might even extend them some form of grudging respect if they did.

Summary: Something needs to be done - these people need to be accountable!!