Thursday 4 June 2009

Making Democracy Work

I voted for Tim Worstall and his team today. If you have not voted yet ask yourself, why not? 70% odd percent of our legislation comes from Brussels so in many ways the Euro elections are more important than the General Election.




Even better, go vote and then look at this new site launched by Tim Montgomerie, the Union of Voters. I think this is a great idea, one thing recent events have proven is that a step in the right direction for this country would be one that ends the culture of the' Westminster Village.'

16 comments:

roym said...

"If you have not voted yet ask yourself, why not?"

mainly because people can't fathom what an MEP actually does. Do we get to vote for the EU Commission?

CityUnslicker said...

no we do not, but that is like saying do we vote for the cabinet and the civil service?

Yes the government decides on the bills, but the MP's in parliament scrutinise and pass them. Same with the EU, the unelected commission decides, but MEP's vote.

Having said that a vote for UKIP is a vote for what you are thinking in any event - that we don't knwo what the EU or MEP's do so we should be rid of them.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Thanks.

roym said...

well dont get me started on making our own processes more transparent and freeing cabinet at the very least from the tyrannical No10. maybe we should start by teaching kids civics?

even if you vote UKIP how can they bring it down from within? they can only disrupt and tap in to the vast luxuries on offer themselves. to be honest i dont think i want us completely out. i'll probably get flamed on here for that!

CityUnslicker said...

ROYM no you won't. I don;t want us out too, but voting UKIP has the effect of making the Tories think carefully about their own messy agenda for what they want to do as regards the EU.

Alexp76 said...

Well, have voted, although not for UKIP.

Not sure about the Union of Voters though, surely it is highly impractical to have a referendum every time we 'the people' disagree? And, how on earth do we decide 'we' disagree? Web votes? How does that effect the proportion of the population with no internet access? (You can probably have told I didn't vote for UKIP just from that comment...!)

Will read on though, perhaps the website has answers for all that.

Keep up the good work though!

ScotsToryB said...

No CU,
It is not 'no we do not, but that is like saying do we vote for the cabinet and the civil service?
Yes the government decides on the bills, but the MP's in parliament scrutinise and pass them. Same with the EU, the unelected commission decides, but MEP's vote.'

MEPs can vote 'til their little hearts are content but they make absolutley no difference to the end product.
Once the Commission has decided policy and law there is nothing the MEPs can do to change that.

Give me examples, please re 'MP's in parliament scrutinise and pass them'.

And now what happens in Parliament is SIs. No?

SIs are laid before Parliament and passed 99 times per hundred..

Crap, Sir.

Undiluted.

STB.

Judy said...

I have say I am disappointed, you expouse the benefits of capitalism and want UK independent of your nearest market?

Yet all that UK sells are unregulated financial products.

Be careful what you wish for.

Steven_L said...

That's nonsense Irina, we sell guns and stuff too!

cosmic said...

We've done very well from selling unregulated financial products. OK, the crash is a bit of a bummer, but that's capitalism, it doesn't come without crashes.

As for our nearest market, they buy this stuff, they don't mess with its formulation.

As for the guns and stuff, that's a good racket too. I can't see why there was all that hand-wringing over a bit of palm greasing in Saudi. Just the way things are done there, and the Yanks are kicking
up, not over a fit of morality, but because they didn't get the business.

Crikey, how do think the world works?

CityUnslicker said...

ScotsTB- Parliamentary committees scrutinise. are you saying white papers become law with not alteration. That is just nonsense.

I do agree with you at the reduction in the use of parliament under Labour, but hopefully this is something an incoming Tory Government will change.

CityUnslicker said...

irina - How can you conflate membership fo the EU with free markets. It is the opposite.

I am irish in part myself and it ill behoves irleand to accuse the UK of being sellers of only dodgy financial services proucts. Irelands banking crisis makes our own one look tame.

Look to at the benefits EU membership has bought to ireland, a huge boom and now the worst deflationary bust of any country for 50 years. Great.

Anonymous said...

How do you know 70%of our legislation comes from Brusels?

How do you establish and amount to take 70% of?

Anonymous said...

How do you know 70%of our legislation comes from Brusels?

How do you establish and amount to take 70% of?

CityUnslicker said...

Anon - quoting general press sources, google it.

As a good example, the post office 'reforms' are all driven by eu law changes.

Steve said...

"Google it." What kind of an answer is that?

I thought this was supposed to be a serious business blog. Try that one on your CEO.

"Where d'you get this 70% from then?"

"Loads of people on the interweb say so, Sirallan."

"What the bleedin'....? You're a lightweight. You're fired!"

Actually, this 70% figure has been plucked out of thin air and has no evidence behind it at all. It's just been repeated so often that people think it's true.

This excellent piece by Nosemonkey blows the whole thing out of the water:

http://www.jcm.org.uk/blog/?p=2230