Each time a proposal like this latest on "Plan B" restrictions is put to vote through Parliament, it is a microcosmic illustration of everything that is wrong with our political system and highlights its true colours as not so much a democracy as a democratic "veneer":
- Firstly it is by no means incumbent on the government to allow a parliamentary vote in the first place, due to the various clauses in the Coronavirus Act (which keeps getting renewed) that allows reams of legislation to be passed through statutory instrument, which bypasses the necessity for parliamentary scrutiny - "make it so"! Literally thousands of pieces of legislation have been passed using this mechanism since the passing of the Act.
- Secondly, when they do have a vote, MPs are under immense pressure from the "advice" of their party whips, part of whose responsibility is to make sure their MPs vote in line with the general party sentiment on a given issue (they're told the "right" way to vote).
- The public do not get a say in matters directly and intimately affecting their lives. The only people who are represented are those whose views just happen to align with those of their elected representatives.
It is a tragic quirk of our "democracy" that you have to be a rebel, a "Han Solo", to vote according to what you genuinely believe be the best course of action for the people you represent.
Totalitarianism is always lurking just beneath the surface of a democracy and has to be continually pruned back like a perennially-rooted weed.
The question is, what is the "systemic herbicide" that needs to be applied to eradicate its roots? Do we need armies of "totalitarian pest controllers" in perpetuity, or is a better, more long-term solution perhaps to elevate and promote the ideals of real democracy to the point where libertarian attitudes are the norm and authoritarian ones seem archaic?
The people in their self- and state-induced panic have been made to forget what true freedom looks like. And it is the People who uphold the House of Cards that allows processes such as the above to dictate the lives of the ordinary citizen. How will this mentally and spiritually bruised-and-battered public wake up again to the concept that, while any effort to save lives is commendable, the whole point in being alive in the first place is to enjoy the kind of freedom that our war heroes sacrificed their lives to preserve?
is a better, more long-term solution perhaps to elevate and promote the ideals of real democracy to the point where libertarian attitudes are the norm and authoritarian ones seem archaic?
Most of the Tory right-wingers who are queuing up to vote against this policy are anything but role models.
They will bleat "How dare you use the memories of our sacred war dead to push your agenda? People like you would have left their lights on during the Blitz and said that the bombs were a hoax."
