Unnecessary Flaggelation

With 5th May getting nearer, when our nation will be allowed to express an opinion on a matter on which the the vast majority neither understand nor in which they seem interested (AV), the media are attempting to "whip up a storm" to negate public apathy. The round of "official launches" and opening speeches have been made by both No2AV and Yes2AV - and the obligatory opinion polls have been published, the latter with often contradictory results.

What it seems the numpties in Parliament; in the media; those in the "Westminster Bubble"; and the public cannot understand is that it matters not what system of selecting an MP is chosen whilst the leader of a political party is able to control that party's MPs through the whips; it will not improve the standard of candidate until such time as open primaries are introduced; it will not produce any greater control over whichever candidate emerges as the winner; it will not give any greater opportunity of recalling an errant MP as the final decision on that still remains with MPs; it will not provide smaller parties any greater opportunity for their candidates to get elected.

Our present system of electing MPs, whether by FPTP or AV, can be likened to choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear; our present politicians talk about freedom and democracy, yet freedom is when the people speak and democracy is when politicians listen; and it should be remembered that tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigorously, more vigorously, and more severely, than by one.

H.L. Mencken is reported to have said:

"A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker."

in which case the basic requirements of any democracy need to be re-written so that freedom of thought, word and deed by the individual can be achieved; and that will only occur when the people of any nation have the right to self-determination and self-governance of their country; when those elected can prove they are indeed honourable men and women - and act accordingly.