Article

2015-04-14 Britain

UKIP unveils reforms for British political system

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2015-04-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [9 views ] Top

#1 The general rep loses the locality or representation, but does allow for a lot of fringe elements in (for better or worse - libertarians and communists for example).

Posted by OldSpook 2015-04-14 01:24|| 2015-04-14 01:24|| Front Page Top

#2 depends on the rules of the "popular petition" and how easy it is for groups to game.

eg: in Australia, House of Reps you cannot have those bogus electronic petitions which can be signed by anybody from here to timbuktu, multiple times on different devices or forever with TOR.

However in the Senate, you can

In the House of Reps the petition must have a person's name and signature- but not an address to be cross checked with the electoral roll

That means I can sign "Buck Rodgers" or "Harrison Ford" and they have to count it.

so - easily gamed by groups like Sociaist Alliance who will put up some bullshit about global warming or promoting islamism

or any other interest group

Other than that, it's a great idea to give citizens another pathway to participate in democracy

but they need to design the system so it reflects actual sentiment among the citizenry

Posted by anon1 2015-04-14 04:42|| 2015-04-14 04:42|| Front Page Top

#3 They need to make them actual referendums, voted on by the citizenry during the next election, like state level initiatives here in the US. If so many registered voters sign, then referendum goes to a vote of the whole electorate. And if it passes it, it becomes law. And it can't be overturned by the legislature.

What Farage has come up with is considerably less than that. In fact, it sounds like a stunt, not a serious suggestion on how to run a country. Picking 'the most popular one', like it is a contest, is disrespectful of the voters. And only adding it to the queens speech is even worse. That just means the ruling party (pretends) it intends to pass it into law.

The only reason for an initiative in the first place is because the politicians DON'T WANT TO PASS IT. There's no point in asking them nicely.

The problem with the Brit's is that they have no constitution, in any objective sense. Whoever controls Parliament is dictator until the next election. They can change any law they like, large or small.

Posted by dlr 2015-04-14 19:39|| 2015-04-14 19:39|| Front Page Top

23:07 JosephMendiola
23:02 JosephMendiola
22:26 CrazyFool
22:15 Procopius2k
22:02 newc
21:32 Frank G
20:37 Dc3749
20:36 Devo
20:12 CrazyFool
20:06 charger
20:05 charger
19:39 Ebbomosh Hupemp2664
19:39 dlr
18:43 tu3031
18:30 Blossom Unains5562
18:20 JohnQC
18:03 swksvolFF
18:01 swksvolFF
17:58 Elmerert Hupens2660
17:57 swksvolFF
17:57 JohnQC
17:46 Frank G
17:37 Procopius2k
17:35 Procopius2k