If democracy looks doomed, Extinction Rebellion may have an answer
John Harris
Democracy ain’t producing the result desired. So, let’s change the democracy.
You could – and actually did – run Stalin and Hitler on that idea…..
If democracy looks doomed, Extinction Rebellion may have an answer
John Harris
Democracy ain’t producing the result desired. So, let’s change the democracy.
You could – and actually did – run Stalin and Hitler on that idea…..
I guess the Guardian hasn’t heard of that Quis Custodiet thing.
How are these citizens’ assemblies supposedly different from MPs in parliament? Or are MPs not citizens and Parliament not an assembly?
Democracy is doomed, because it is not delivering the results I want.
The solution is rule by a bunch of posh eco-nuts and groups of citizens as carefully chosen as a question time audience.
Used (and abused) in Ireland to put a “the people want it” stamp on policies the swamp want.
‘its activists and supporters are preparing to arrive on Tuesday at Parliament Square, outside the Welsh parliament in Cardiff, and in the centre of Manchester.’
Set up the Browning 1919s.
‘a new climate emergency bill’
Same as the old bill.
Gamecock,
Please, we’re not Yanks over here. We have a locally produced version (well, many versions) of the FN MAG Instead.
Westminster’s eternal tendency to conservative groupthink.
Imagine writing this with a straight face tho, Mensheviks BTFO.
Surreptitious Evil,
I’d have thought for the defence of Parliament, we’d go traditional with Maxim-Vickers guns, their brass barrel jackets polished to a gleam and the canvas belts of .303″ ‘Dum-Dum’ ammunition (don’t want overpenetration, do we?) blancoed bright.
A squadron or two of lancers for mobile backup would be entertaining, too.
Jason Lynch August 31, 2020 at 11:20 am – “I’d have thought for the defence of Parliament, we…”
Well, I don’t know about you, but I would stay home. Defend those sparkling c*nts? Not likely.
Let the Swampies beat them to death. Then find a working Bren gun and deal with the Trots. That is what I call a win-win
Westminster’s eternal tendency to conservative groupthink.
In these difficult times it’s good to see our conservative government (about to boost the economy with 24% corporation tax) is razor focussed on essential action:
Plastic bag tax is set to DOUBLE: Price of a single-use carrier from shops will rise to 10p… and the charge will also be extended to include all small stores, markets and takeaways
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8679923/Plastic-bag-tax-set-DOUBLE-Price-single-use-carrier-rise-10p.html
Jason Lynch:
“Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not”.
Can be fired while taking the knee, which is important these days.
Sam, just so long as it’s not ‘The gatling’s jammed and the Colonel’s dead’…
Excellent stuff, Sam and Rhoda.
At first, before firing, one felt a little gun shy. I well remember the Instructor saying, “It can’t hurt you, the bullets will come out the other end.”
Whats wrong with napalm?
The carbon footprint?
We had our own little Down Under version of this type of citizens assembly a decade or so ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_2020_Summit
Barely anyone remembers it now. A bunch of motherhood statements, and the PM who championed it in the first place did this
but in May 2010 when Rudd eventually released the report, he rejected 135 of the 138 recommendations
Turns out that sitting around saying what would be nice to have doesn’t translate well to the real world. I’d be encouraging them to have their assembly, it will fall apart quicker than the Judean Popular People’s Front. Splitter!
Citizen’s Assembly – it worked so well under Marat and Robespierre, with Madame Guillotine first adjusting the height of anyone who disagreed and then resolving any neighbourhood disagreements in favour of the first one to report his/her neighbour of pro-aristo speech.
John Harris, who has a poor-quality beard to hide his weak chin, wants to invent pseudo-representative bodies to pretend that his unpopular views are widely shared – if they were popular the General Election would have elected a majority of “Green” MPs instead of just one.
Oblong said:
“How are these citizens’ assemblies supposedly different from MPs in parliament?”
The citizens in the “citizens’ assemblies” don’t have to stand for election, so there’s no accountability to the rest of the people, so they can be bullied into agreeing to whatever the carefully chosen “experts” say is best.
God knows MPs face very little accountability, but at least there’s a bit there.
On their web page, Extinction Rebellion assures us with a straight face that ‘Assembly members will hear balanced information from experts,’ and I believe them because they also assure us that ‘Citizens’ Assembly will be run by non-governmental organisations under independent oversight.’
They seem to have thought of everything.
If they have a balanced panel of experts, what function does the citizens assembly serve?
Why let them decide instead of the panel? To protect the experts?
“If this goes horribly wrong, don’t blame me!”