The UK & Ireland Resolving N.Ireland

The UK & Ireland Resolving Northern Ireland

The 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement has at best been fragile and over the last few years is beginning to unravel, with the latest issue over the Union Jack fully exposing the Protestant distrust of the Peace Agreement and the huge divide between the two communities..

This agreement cobbled together by the Political elites attempting to appease all sides, and in collusion with the Clinton Administration, never addressed the real issues. Namely the sectarian divide, which has been accommodated rather than resolved, and the increasing Catholic population in Northern Ireland which will force the end of partition in time.

The only way forward is for the British and Irish governments to recognise the only real solution for the province and its people is the end of partition, and by addressing it now will allow a political settlement that will enable the Province to plan for the future of its people.

This is a difficult time to address these issues, primarily because both the Irish and British economies are bankrupt, which ironically will mean the politicians will not be able to fudge any political settlement as they simply won’t have the money to bribe the two sides. The taxpayer in both Ireland and the UK  have simply run out of money for the foreseeable future.

The failure of the UK and Irish governments to address the N.Ireland issue will be tantamount to criminal neglect to the people of UK,Ireland and Northern Ireland, as the result of failing to do so will be another terrorist war with a much greater danger of it engulfing Ireland and mainland UK  cities next time.

Understandably there is still a great distrust of British Governments in Ireland, partly history and partly because we are a much larger and more powerful country. However our own UK is under threat, we have the Scots seeking Independence, the Welsh devolved, many of  the Regions of the UK feel alienated from the Political Centre in London and the South East.

There has been much talk of devolving power in the UK  but precious little action to carry it forward, but people want control of their lives, and they do not have it when all the levers of power are centralised in London. It is clear, whether Scotland achieves Independence or not, probably not, there is a real discord in our Country that needs addressing.

The UK and Irish governments should be discussing a single Federal state, where the regions of the Single state have the power to run their own affairs, including fiscal control. All Federal States would be represented by a small central government.

When the people of Northern Ireland can see that the two countries. Ireland and the UK are serious about a single state then it will change the whole dynamic in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland with its population of 1.8 Million will not be able to hold the two governments to ransom, they will be part of the process of forming a single state but that is all.

There would be many advantages for both Countries, it would offer Ireland an alternative to the Euro, it would free up our economies, and drive forward our industry and employment. It would of course require strong safeguards with such a large population in England compared to Ireland, Wales & Scotland but when you give power to the regions this would dissipate the power of England as a whole to the advantage of its regions. Alliances may change?

Many will point to the fact that we are a monarchy, and understandably the Irish would not wish to accept a Monarchy, but this is not a real issue if you have a loose federation with real power held by each state of the Federation. 
It would be a nonsense to allow the monarchy to stand in the way, both monarchists and republicans could be accommodated.


The cultures of Ireland and the UK are broadly the same, we have a lot in common, particularly now that the power of the churches has diminished with their falling memberships.
We have a great opportunity to change for the better and  if we harness our talents together we will give our children the opportunity of a future unclouded by internecine strife.

I believe now is the time to grasp the nettle on this issue, to start the debate, and to look at the possibilities for all our people in this time of huge change, not only change in Europe but around the World.

A New Politics to end Tribal Politics

I have been banging on about tribal politics for some time, proclaiming the way forward to be open primaries using the 2009 Totnes open primary as a template. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/04/tories-totnes-mp

I believe the open primary route could provide us with a way to diminish the power of the political parties that have stolen our democracy. However there may be other ways and I would be interested to hear from anyone who has ideas on other alternative ways forward

The problem with our current tribal politics is that it brings down the debate to the yah boo level, people are so busy defending their tribe they fail to consider the logic of the argument for change.

However many people have difficulty in seeing the advantages of the  political parties power diminished, they think it would cause chaos and that you cannot do without a party system.

Of course you cannot eliminate the party system, we are tribal after all and we like to be part of a team, but you can diminish their power.
Currently we select a candidate for MP either as directed from Party HQ or by the constituency party, we as the voters have no say in this so it is not surprising that party memberships have dropped dramatically, the Tories for example from 3 million in 1950 to 170,000 in 2012.  http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05125 This is unsustainable in a democratic country.

It cannot be right that our MP's enter parliament having being given a mandate by the voters to represent us, only to be promptly taken over by the party machine and told which way they must vote, despite their constituents.

This results in any party with a majority pushing through legislation without proper debate and with which a majority of the electorate may disagree. In poll after poll you find the electorate often support measures which their party does not, the electorate are a lot smarter than they are given credit for, they have common sense.

Imagine a House of Commons with MP's who are directly accountable to their electorate, meaning they can be recalled by their constituents and if needs be sacked for not representing their manifesto commitment. This would also preclude them from signing up to the party manifesto as a whole if they disagreed with some aspects, a further curb on the parties issuing manifesto's they have no intention of honouring. (Referendums!)

This would lead to a House of Commons with independently minded
MP's, who although being a member of a political party, need have no hesitation in voting against their party if they believed by doing so they would be representing the views of their constituents.

This would lead to the Political Parties having to convince ALL MP's of the logic of their proposed legislation, it would mean that the government could be voted down regularly if they were not listening.

I can already hear you saying this could cause chaos with governments continually resigning, but I don't believe this would happen, if you can't convince the MP's of the validity of your legislation then you have to drop it. In the event of a government's legislation continually being defeated, then yes they would have to resign, but that would be no bad thing.

We would end up with a mature thinking House of Commons with MP's  primary concern being their constituents, and if needs be voting accordingly, even if it meant voting for the other parties, and without a threat to their future as MP's within the party.

The Political Parties  would have to compete for the votes of all MP's, without the aid of whips, so becoming the servant of the MP's and not the master, and through them the electorate.

Tribal Party Politics has Stolen our Democracy

We are faced with a political system that has stolen our democracy, supported by the political classes who   support the 'Party' before they do voters who elected them.

The Political parties have no intention of changing the status quo, after a brief flirtation with a successful open primary in Totnes, the Tories have quietly dropped the idea with no objection from their MP's. The other parties have made no movement or noise whatsoever, except to try and change the voting system to ensure they can stitch up the system in an even more comprehensive way.

The truth is they are all very comfortable thank you, a job for life in many instances, and none of the parties wants or has the courage to rock the boat.

The voters have responded very predictably, with their feet, totally resigned to the fact that all our parties are in essence in it for themselves, they have departed from the ballot box in droves. Indeed there cannot be a time since WW2 that politicians have been so discredited and despised by the electorate.

It is also very apparent we are totally over represented with our layers upon layers of 'elected' representatives,starting with parish &district councillors, county councillors & MP's. This is before you take into account the new assemblies in Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland, and throw in our infamous quango's for good measure.

It is time to grasp the nettle at Westminster by starting with a radical reduction in the number of MP's who represent us, it would appear that we could quite safely reduce them from the proposed 600 to 300 to 400 without impinging on our democracy.

The elephant in the room however will remain, that is the Political Parties whose power knows no bounds, this must be changed to ensure that we the voters are empowered to choose who should stand as our MP.
We must move forward to a system of open primaries, with the Totnes open primary of 2009 taken as a template. I am sure this could be strengthened further in favour of the voter so only the voters  have the power to choose who should stand for them.

We must diminish the power of the parties by banning the use of the Whips, this together with MP's chosen by open primary,plus the ability of the voters to recall the MP if they are dissatisfied with their performance,  will bring an independence to our MP's that has not been seen before in our lifetime.

Imagine if you can a House of Commons full of  genuinely independent MP's of all persuasions voting by conscience, common sense and their constituents wishes rather than voting according to the demands of the corrupt Tribal Party system. What a change this would bring about in our politics and our democracy!

But the question is how do we go about achieving this aim, to win back our democracy, and have the government and representation we want. It is clear the political parties in Westminster are not interested, UKIP have proven same old same by supporting the status quo and PR despite recent referenda.
Organisations like the Freedom Association do not have the wherewithal and the think tanks do not consider it to be part of their remit.

I have to confess I do not have the answer, which is the reason for this blog, to find the answer from others, for it is surely the only way we are going to clean up our politics. We need to find  an organisation willing to take on this task. Any ideas ?

Cameron's Brussels Veto exposes UKIP's weakness

The unexpected veto by Cameron puts UKIP in an unenviable position, with much of their support coming from members who are 'natural' conservative voters, who support UKIP out of frustration with Tory acquiescence to the EU. The change in the Tories position as they embark upon lessening the UK's ties with the EU leave UKIP with nothing to distinguish them meaningfully from the Tories.

These UKIP 'frustrated' 'conservative' supporters know Labour's response indicates they would not have vetoed the attempt by the EU to put through this new treaty.  The Libdems well known strong support for further integration of the UK into the EU means both they and Labour are going to be in an increasingly weak position as the UK moves further from the mainstream in Europe and towards the inevitability of a referendum on the EU.

The expectation by the leadership of  UKIP that they just had to keep beating the anti EU drum, without offering anything different to the three main parties, is now exposed as a spectacular miscalculation and  highlights the lack of  radical policies and vision to fix British politics by the UKIP leadership. It is not enough in British politics to be a one trick pony, our electorate are far too smart to fall for it.

The UK electorate are in the main EU sceptics, but not to the degree of the UKIP membership, and when the inevitable election comes about,quite possibly now prior to 2015 I believe the Tories will have enacted legislation to enable a referendum on the EU and so secure themselves a strong win at the ballot box.

This will signal the demise of UKIP as they have nothing left in their locker to offer, what an opportunity missed, they could have been the party to force to the front of the political agenda the fixing of British politics by offering radical policies:
1/ Reducing the number of MP's to 300
2/Open primaries
3/ Privatising state assets to reduce debt.


It's not to late for UKIP to offer a radical agenda, there could be 2 + years to go before an election, forcing the real possibility of fixing our politics and the prize of replacing the Libdems as the third party.
This window of opportunity in British politics to fix our corrupt corporate party politics will not come again for many years and surely offers UKIP, if they have the courage, the possibility of up to 10 seats at the next election as the Libdems support crashes and the Tories are elected with a respectable majority

Our Corrupt Party Political system corrupts us all

The nonsense of our adversarial politics,trapping us all in the politics of our parents or our youth, encouraging the tribalism and class system that we still suffer from in this country,has left us with a truly corrupt political system that is destroying our country both economically and socially.

Many voters feel the need to protect and defend 'their'party through thick and thin, despite the fact in many instances they may really have a different view on some of the issues their party may be promoting. A prime example of this was when Maggie Thatcher allowed council house tenants to buy their council houses at a discount. A measure strongly supported by council house tenants despite the fact the large majority would have called themselves labour supporters.

Politics has moved on from the 'left' and 'right' politics of the last century, despite the main political parties encouraging their so called 'philosophy', in a vain attempt to keep their crony party political system on the road. The party political system is corrupting our politics and cohesion as a people with its corporate and union lobbying; the demands for taxpayer funding to finance political parties and the buying of votes and favours by courting large corporations and unions et al is there to perpetuate a rotten system.

The average voter in this country has a lot more in common than the party system would have us believe, we have an inordinately smart electorate in this country who agree on sound common sense policies. This is constantly attacked and warped by the political parties in an attempt to justify their existence for their own self serving ends.

We need to break free from this corrupt party political system, the voter should have far more power over the decisions and actions of government, the disappointment is that so few MP's are willing to pursue this end for their constituents, perhaps this is an indication of the quality of MP the current system has thrown up.

The way to break free is not to bring in legislation for party funding, to concern ourselves on who and how much is being given to the political parties, to concern ourselves with lobbying, it is to shift the power from the 'Parties' to the MP through making them accountable to the voter. This will bring to an end most of this corrupt nonsense.

We need open primaries and we need a lot less MP's, only when we are willing to tackle the desperately sick politics we have in this country will we be able to tackle the huge demands that are facing us both socially, politically and economically.

Corporate Capitalism at it's most corrupt

The governments housebuilding initiative announced on November 20,2011 can only be seen as deeply flawed in every way, economically, democratically and logically.

This government is in cahoots with the building industry, it is forcing the taxpayer to underwrite big corporations, (at the corporations behest through their agent the CBI ), by guaranteeing losses on mortgages of individuals on all new builds. This new measure will not apply to an older house you may well prefer to a new build, so making it easier for the housebuilder to maximise his margin.

This is blatant corruption at it's very worst, how many of these companies are paying lobbyists and making  contributions to the conservative party?

Shapps, the Housing Minister, as good as admitted on BBC Newsnight that house prices are too high, why then would you encourage people to take out 95% mortgages when you consider the current prices do not represent good value?

The answer to this question is the Government is still protecting the Banking and Property industries with our money. QE has enabled interest rates to be kept at 0.5%, so keeping property prices from dropping, and enabling Banks and property companies to avoid making massive write downs on their balance sheets.

This is corporate/crony capitalism at its very worst and Cameron & Clegg and their respective parties should be deeply ashamed, it is not the size of the risk they are taking with our money, but the complete lack of principle and willingness to join in such blatant corrupt practises with the corporate World.

It is not surprising that we have increasing numbers of demonstrations from those who do not understand the difference between capitalism and this disgraceful corporate capitalism of which all 3 parties are guilty.

It is time to call a halt to this usurping of our democracy and the favouring of certain sections of our society for political and financial gain, we voted for democracy not daylight robbery.

The UK Crisis in our Politics & the Economy. 


The Political Crisis 

The political crisis in the UK is self evident, voter turn out reduces at each election,due to the lack of  respect for our politicians. All 3 parties are seen as supporting vested interests & corporatism  which the average voter views with contempt.
The membership levels of political parties continues to fall to pitiful levels because of the perception there is little difference between the parties and they are seen as self serving at best.
Until we resolve our political problems we are going to continue with the same political establishment pursuing the same unsuccessful policies whichever party we have in power.

Radical changes are needed to our political structures to bring our politics into the 21st Century allowing them to be truly representative of the voters. I would propose some changes that could go some way to bringing this about
1/ Open primaries in every constituency for all candidates, elected MP's must be able to be called to account by their constituents.
2/ The current number of MP's is far too high in this age of fast communications and we should look at the possibility of the number of MP's being reduced to around 300.
3/ Once Open primaries and a reduction in the number of MP's is agreed  the system must ensure the MP has independence from the political parties and the MP can be called to account by their constituents.

The Economic Crisis

We have a population of 60 million rising to around 70 million over the next 30 to 50 years. We must re-establish our manufacturing base, creating a tax system that allows vital and competitive industries to establish and expand in the UK. I would propose some basic economic changes that could help to bring this about.

1/ All state assets to be sold with politicians ensuring the correct legal framework for privatisation of institutions such as the NHS and the BBC.
2/ International aid should be restricted to disasters only, all other aid being voluntary only.
3/  We should lift all agricultural tariffs on 3rd World countries
4/ Grants & aid to industry,charities, arts, quango's et al should cease. This action would take out all those vested interests who seek favour from our politicians and vice versa at the expense of the voter. This should  bring an end to corporatism and other vested interests.
5/ The welfare state & benefits system should be largely dismantled with a safety net for those who are not able to help themselves.
6/ Fuel duty and road tax should be combined.
7/Introduce a Flat tax with the aim of taking working people earning less than £15,000 p.a. out of tax completely. This would enable a single tax rate for all other taxpayers so simplifying the system and encouraging saving and personal accountability. It would eliminate the need for the huge industry in the legal and accountancy professions trying to minimise tax for corporations and individuals.
8/ The Flat tax rate should aim initially to be around the 20% to 25% level
9/ Reduce corporation tax to levels that will attract Companies to our shores as they have done in Ireland


The UK & the EU


The UK membership of the EU is central to this debate, however it is difficult taking a  view on our relationship with the EU over the next 10 years, with the current Eurozone crisis likely to end up with defaults and the end of the Eurozone as we know it.
Once the Eurozone is either drastically changed or failed we will have a different dynamic in the EU, the ambition for political and fiscal convergence may well be replaced by Sovereign states working together in an EU which is largely a trading bloc with common standards
However the voter cannot be expected to wait any longer for the promise of a Referendum on the EU by the 3 main parties and this should proceed forthwith.

A political party who adopted these policies would I believe be seen by the electorate as genuinely wanting to fix the system and would attract strong support particularly as we have such a vacuum in our current politics