Better off in or out of the EU?

Quick quote from a BBC article that analysises the issues:

"Better off out: It would be a major shot in the arm for British democracy as the Westminster parliament regained its sovereignty and reconnected with voters...."

LOL.

Actually it is some politicians ideological obsessions with the EU that has disenfranchised many voters. On top of that, wealth and the pursuit of personal gratification (something the Conservatives push as a good trait) has resulted in a complete lack of interest in voting and politics. I know for a fact that my colleagues think the latest computer games are more important to talk about than anything else on the planet.

The referendum is primarily a battle within the Conservative party and it's fringes (UKIP, the national press) and a single political party does not represent Britain.

The EU issue in the UK is all about attention seeking. Another reason why people don't vote, is because life is relatively stable and settled. Many Conservatives want to manufacture problems in order to make themselves and parliament more relevant. They want the state to be smaller and do less, but at the same time they want more personal influence and power.

This is all about them, far more than it is about us, other political parties or the nation. Yet we are being sucked into their personal battles. The fact is parliament can only gain relevancy by changing itself and using technology to include more direct democracy. That has nothing to do with the EU, which is a red herring as far as reconnecting with voters is concerned.

Channel 5 - the politically biased TV channel of the year

Is Channel 5 just a mouth piece for right wing and Conservative policies and ideology?

Well it seems it is.

Apart from the endless 'Benefits' TV shows that I assume are there to support cuts in state spending, the Gadget show seems to be the latest TV regular on the channel that is there just to sell us junk and serves along with the Channels other output as a support mouth piece for Conservative ideas and policies.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with The Gadget Show, unlike the poorly informed presenters, I worked as a technology design engineer (microprocessor and microcontroller software). The fact is the show is there to sell products, it is a glorified advertising platform which is why companies flock to it to have their products mentioned.

This week they managed to give an appallingly bad account of electric cars, implying that you can't travel long distances in todays models, motorways are apparently an issue. But of course no one on the show mentioned the fact that all motorway service stations have FREE quick electric vehicle charging points provided by Ecotricity.

One of the amateur vehicle testers mentioned that she was surprised that the vehicle she had been given was quite fast and expected it to be slow like a 'donkey'. Which sums up the lack of engineering input the show has. These vehicles do not have lead acid batteries and most electric cars are capable of outperforming all ICE vehicles on the road when it comes to acceleration.

Yep the idiots on this show are so incompetent at journalism (or more accurately, politically biased like our newspaper media) that they forget that they are supposed to do some research and provide an whole view of the situation. Plus of course they failed to mention tax breaks and vehicle low carbon emissions.

Channel 5 certainly beats them all when it comes to biased broadcasting. Although when it comes to bullshit journalism about cars, the Top Gear is up there with the Gadget Show.

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road

Conservative anti-democracy and anti-British plans - part 1

I'll start off by saying that I have witnessed personally the arrogance of Conservative opinions at Havant Borough Council, so current anti-British or anti-English policies from the Conservatives do not surprise me.


Plan 1 - Ban charities and other organisations using grant money for lobbying government.

This is allegedly justified by suggesting that charities shouldn't be paid to lobby government.

But what does it really mean?

Well governments pay consultants, businesses and civil servants to advise them. Also that advice does not always agree with the governments current ideology. So effectively the government already freely pays for lobbying (advice), there is no point at all in paying advisors and other professionals to only give you advice that just confirms your beliefs and ideology, if you do you are wasting your money.

So basically it is normal and democratic for charities to lobby government and even use government money to tell that government that the got it wrong. I often tell my bosses they are wrong and need to change policy or processes, they still pay me.

Curent Conservative policy is dictatorial and shows they do not want to listen to the public or non-profit organisations. Maybe the next plan is to remove votes from those on benefits, or those that use the NHS.

Plan 2 -Cut off some Labour financial support via Union legislation and policy.

I'm not a great fan of Labour but I am reluctantly being driven in that direction by the extremism in politics today. If you are a political party in power and you know your policy is going to weaken your main opposition, you are behaving in an anti-democratic and dictatorial way.

These anti-patriotic and anti-democratic moves could be avoided through a complete overhaul with the way political parties are funded.

There do seem to be more plans, just two are mentioned here.

Some words from MI5:

The Act (Security Service Act 1989) refers to actions that are "intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means"

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/about-us/what-we-do/the-threats/other-issues-former-threats/subversion.html

Maybe Conservatives should read that carefully. Parliamentary democracy is only maintained if there is an effective opposition, IMO some Conservative policies could be deemed to be undermining our democracy.