Democracy? Did we ever have it?

I'm of the opinion that democracy doesn't really exist in the so-called "western countries". Free speech is a far greater asset and one which the authorities allow and support. But they are woefully scared of true democracy. Witness the antics of the EU hierachy, all hellbent on getting YES votes in referendums, the very polls they fought hard deny most voters in the 27 countries. Witness also the ridiculous way in which a candidate in the USA has to get vast numbers of voters to support his/her candidature just to get ballot access. All manner of hoops and hurdles are placed in the way of parties which dissent from the agreed two-party arrangement.

I think it was summed up for me when something remarkable happened in East Devon in 1989. Stuart Hughes, now a Conservative councillor, although a maverick one, was a candidate for his Raving Loony Green Giant Party. Having fallen out with David Sutch of the OMLRP, he ploughed his own furrow. He stood against a matriarchal Conservative and beat her. She waspishly queried the result, saying "What have they done?" and then rounded on Mr.Hughes by stating he better not lark around in the council chamber. She took defeat very badly. Many have done so in the past and no doubt will in the future.

Democracy is not that welcome in the corridors of power. Free speech doesn't bother them. I'm entitled, allowed, or whatever, to sound off on this blog. That's not going to twitch an eyebrow. But if I mobilised an army of voters to unseat MPs, then I would be in trouble. It's a form of poking my nose in where I'm not welcome.

Daniel Hannan has a good line in his blog entry yesterday. He says -

"It’s not chiefly about Europe – it’s about democracy. Regular readers will know that I have always seen the repatriation of jurisdiction from Brussels as a means to an end. Having got the powers back, we should pass them down to local authorities or, better yet, to individual citizens. I want decisions to be decentralised, diffused, democratised. I want open primaries, popular initiative procedures, elected sheriffs, self-financing councils, an end to quangos, recall mechanisms and, yes, referendums – lots and lots of referendums."

An end to quangos? I seem to remember a lot of us campaigned hard for that when Margaret Thatcher came to office. Democracy is yet to be accomplished in full, but it will be achieved because of the free speech of people like Daniel Hannan.

The sainted NHS - Woe betide the gainsayers!

It is never a good idea to speak the truth about the NHS. If you do you get pilloried. By the supermarionated Andy Burnham, who looks like he's just had an NHS facelift. Or by the morally accurate compass maker, who doubles up as our prime minister. And now David Cameron has weighed in to criticise Daniel Hannan, who Cameron describes as an eccentric. He who won't have a word said against the outfit.

The trouble with the NHS is that it was a con from the start. Aneurin Bevan decided the people were too stupid to follow the real politics so he duped the country by inventing National Insurance. Nothing whatsoever to do with insurance. Slush funding at its best. Right from the start people thought they were paying into something and that "claiming" would be easy. It has always been underfunded. Only Keith Joseph spoke up and suggested a proper funding portfolio, but he was dismissed for his pains. Pity!

I have had first hand experience of the NHS recently. As with most British institutions it is good in parts. If you get a good bit, you'll probably praise it to the rooftops. I take a realistic approach, I think. It is staffed in the main by well-meaning, mostly caring people who can get a tad pissed off with a day's work. Some of the patients leave you wondering about your fellow human beings.
On one stay I had my first evening meal sitting up in bed with my trousers round my knees, soaking wet from urine, with a newly fitted catheter. Nobody had been able to attend to me. You see, time is not always of the essence. Before I got my meal, I was severely reprimanded for being past the five o'clock scoffing time. 6.30 was when the puddings had stiffened. I had asked for my meal at nearly 7!

In an NHS hospital you are more likely to contract a new disease than ever get one on the outside. Added to that, you get all kinds of nocturnal happenings. One of my co-patients used the washbasin by my bed as a urinal at 2.30 in the morning. Now I never asked for such added attractions during my stay. It just happened. Also, visiting time is a joy, especially when grumpy relatives ask you to join in to discuss their loved ones' problems!

Daniel Hannan is in hot water for daring to suggest that there may be an alternative way. David Cameron is said to be beside himself with a mixture of embarrassment and outrage that a Conservative could think in such a way. I'd like to know if David Cameron would care to eat a meal with urine-soaked trousers about his knees. Maybe that's just the price we have to pay for not putting our heads above the parapet?

The Conservatives would do better if they just got a grip of the truth. The truth being that the NHS system is overloaded and overworked. That it doesn't always run smoothly with sweet smiling nurses and a grade A service. I don't want an American system where the doctors are mainly driven by money. In the USA unnecessary surgery is conducted so that $10,000 can be pocketed instead of $1,000. The US system is great for the fully-insured when they are not sick.

Both countries have the potential for great health services, properly funded with everyone catered for. If the politicians got their faces away from the mirrors, stopped listening to vested interests and just admitted that things need to change, we will succeed in getting proper health provision. Otherwise it's the same old rubbish for the next generation.

Keeping the Daniel Hannan message alive!

I know this is on other blogs but I'm just doing my bit to keep the Daniel Hannan message up and running. I do hope Gordon Brown's getting it that he's a busted flush. We can't have every new born baby getting a feed, a rattle and a devastating mortgage all at once!

Daniel Hannan's internet victory!

Following on from the great success of Daniel Hannan's YouTube presentation (over a million viewings!) the TV media is beginning to recognise that they were caught out. Not from getting the story, because they knew all about it and chose to suppress it from their bulletins. No, what's getting them is the sudden realisation that they are no longer the arbiters of news presentation. That has passed them by. It is bloggers like Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale who are getting the news out there.

So what we have is the internet allowing us to see a piece of political oratory which is a fair assessment of the Prime Minister's economic legacy. You may disagree with it but it was put forward cogently and with passion. The fact that Brown had to sit and listen without engaging in a response seems to be what irks the TV broadcasters. They would like to have seen a "balanced debate". This was not balanced but it was not unfair either.

Gordon Brown gets a roasting! Devalued all round!

This is great! Daniel Hannan MEP tells Gordon Brown he's a devalued prime minister. What a speech. See it on the internet, because this speech was withheld by the BBC. It was censored! But I would have thought such a dressing down was top political news. Not at the BBC, Sky or elsewhere.



Nigel Farage MEP has also given Gordon Brown a few home truths. This You Tube presentation is a UKIP one and I'm not necessarily promoting UKIP, but Farage tells Brown exactly what's what. Nice how the schoolboy grinning of Brown shows up.