democratic society introduction
TRANSCRIPT
The Democratic Society
A place for citizens
4.0
An introduction to the Democratic Society
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Part One
Starving in the midst of plenty
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Everyone knows traditional politics is in trouble ...
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... falling turnouts ...
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... corruption scandals ...
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... disengaged young people ...
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... low trust in politicians ...
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... and general apathy.
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But, away from politics, this is the age of democracy.
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Adverts tell us we can take control ...
... by buying a newspaper
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We can take a stand ...
... by buying a bar of soap
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We can even change the world ...
... by using a computer operating system
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Everywhere, you can have it your way ...
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... tell people what you think ...
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... even vote people o! TV shows.
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This is the age of mass personalisation
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It’s the triumph of democracy
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So why is politics doing so badly ?
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Part Two
Consumer democracy - even better than the real thing
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Representative democracy is about mass compromise, not mass personalisation
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It is the art of getting a group of people ...
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... with di!erent views ...
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... to come together around a manifesto ...
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... and win over swing voters ...
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... in order to govern for four years.
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There’s no room to have it your way.
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If you’re used to personalisation ...
Vote that guy o! Big Brother Ten seconds
Tell that Times columnist that he’s an idiot One minute
Have my burger without mayonnaise Five minutes
Buy made-to-measure jeans One week
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... politics is always going to disappoint
Vote that guy o! Big Brother Ten seconds
Tell that Times columnist that he’s an idiot One minute
Have my burger without mayonnaise Five minutes
Buy made-to-measure jeans One week
Change a government policy I don’t like
Four years, if you’re lucky
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So, election turnout has fallen ...UK voter turnout at General Elections
1950-1969 average
Source: International IDEA
UK voter turnout at General Elections2000-2009 average
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... here and elsewhere ...
Years of highest and lowest election turnout since 1945 in selected mature democracies*
Source: International IDEA. *Parliamentary elections in all EU member states that have been democracies continuously since 1950, plus US (presidential), Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Iceland & Norway. Countries with compulsory voting excluded. Germany = West Germany before 1990.
50
60
70
80
90
100
1945 1958 1971 1984 1997 2010Highest Lowest
Highest turnouts all before 1980All but 2 lowest turnouts after 1995
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... mostly among the young ...UK voter turnout 2005
Voters aged 65 and over
Source: British Election Survey 2005
UK voter turnout 2005Voters aged under 25
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... and the not-as-young-as-they-once-were.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
19641966
19701974a
1974b1979 1983
19871992
19972001
2005
After 1992, abstention startedincreasing among older age groups too
Source: British Election Survey 2005
18-2435-4465-74
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Party membership is also down
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
France Ital
y UKNorway
Finland
Netherla
ndsAustri
a
Switzerlan
dSweden
DenmarkIrel
and
Belgium
Germany
Change in party membership numbers in 13 European countries, 1980-2000
Source: Mair & Van Biezen, Party Membership in 20 European Democracies in Party Politics v 7 (2001).
%
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Politics is becoming a hobby ...
Image: Trainspotter (Wikimedia Commons)
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... and not a very popular one.
0
1
2
3
4
National T
rustRSPB
GMB union
Tolkein Socie
ty
Conservat
ives
Glastonbury*
Labour
CTC (Cycl
ing)
Lib Dems
Membership of selected UK organisations
Source: News reports 2007-9 and corporate websites. * Glastonbury = 2008 attendance
mem
bers
(milli
ons)
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Meanwhile people turn to minor parties ...
0
5
10
15
20
1989 1994 1999 2004 2009
UKIP Green BNP
Vote share of larger minor parties in European Parliament elections
%
Source: UK O"ce of the European Parliament
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... and campaign groups ...
1999
2004
19971975
1989
2004
1934
1973
2001
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... creating a sort of outsourced politics ...
LOWER TAXES !
£
MORE TRAINS !
£
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... with no need for compromises or trade-o!s
LOWER TAXES !
MORE HOSPITALS !
£
£?
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Part Three
New ! Politics-flavored technocracy*
* contains no actual politics
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As the general public have withdrawn, politics has become a closed and technocratic world
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Politics was always a small world ...
(the ratio of elected politicians to citizens in the UK is the same as the ratio of seats in an executive box to seats in Wembley Stadium)
Elected politicians = MPs, MEPs, Councillors (other than Parish Councillors), and members of devolved institutions
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... but now politicians are more similar ...
0
20
40
60
80
1987 1992 1997 2001 2005
Professional & White CollarBusinessManual
Employment background of MPs
Source: House of Commons Library
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... and have similar lifestyles.
• $2,750 rug from New York
• £8,000 Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 40” television
• £600 carpet from Harrods
• £3,000 Bosch and Miele kitchen appliances
• £2,749 tree pruning• £2,433 housekeeper
wages• £341 Aga servicing• £1,471 swimming pool
maintenance• £2,340 replacement
windows
Gerald Kaufman’sexpenses claims
James Arbuthnot’s expenses claims
Source: Daily Telegraph
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Can you tell who’s from which party ?
• Born Blackburn, 1890• Left school aged 11• Assistant in weaver’s
shed• Later career as a
brewer• Served as local
councillor• Education minister
• Born London, 1904• Educated at
Winchester & Oxford• Worked in the City• Director of a railway
under Franco• Art collector• Education minister
A B
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Not too di"cult for post-war politicians
• Born Blackburn, 1890• Left school aged 11• Assistant in weaver’s
shed• Later career as a
brewer• Served as local
councillor• Education minister
• Born London, 1904• Educated at
Winchester & Oxford• Worked in the City• Director of a railway
under Franco• Art collector• Education minister
George Tomlinson (Lab) David Eccles (Cons)
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How about now?
• Born Edinburgh, 1967• Public school• Oxford University• Journalist• Think tank• Entered Parliament
2005• Education brief
• Born Norwich, 1967• Public school• Oxford University• Journalist• Think tank• Entered Parliament
2005• Education brief
A B
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Much more di"cult
Michael Gove (Cons) Ed Balls (Lab)
• Born Norwich, 1967• Public school• Oxford University• Journalist• Think tank• Entered Parliament
2005• Education brief
• Born Edinburgh, 1967• Public school• Oxford University• Journalist• Think tank• Entered Parliament
2005• Education brief
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Politics has become a life-long career
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1987 1992 1997 2001 2005
PoliticsManual labour
Career backgrounds of MPs
Num
ber o
f MPs
Source: House of Commons Library
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The battleground is narrower ...
Source: Labour poster from 1930s (Spartacus); Conservative campaign logo (Conservative Party website); BBC News article; Margaret Thatcher (BBC)
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... and the battles harder to understand.
Source: “Reconstruction” Conservative policy statement on the economy, page 8
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Consultation has replaced decision ...
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... and it’s not the same thing at all
109136
1,784
139
397173
AcademicsBusinessGovernmentIndividualLobby groupOther
Source: Department for Energy and Climate Change. Academics includes consultants.
Participants in consultation on future of UK Nuclear Power
Even when the UK Government consulted on a very controversial issue - the future of nuclear power - there were only 1,784 responses from the public - and more than a third of consultation responses were from professionals, technicians or lobby groups
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Part Four
A few moments with our heads in our hands
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So we have ...
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People who want to engage ...
No23%
Yes77%
German voters asked “should there be a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?”
German poll: Open Europe 2009. EU poll: Eurobarometer 1997 (EU = 1997 member states) Photos: World Naked Bike Ride Brighton (Nick Sayers), Tea Party Day protest, Orlando (Instapundit), “Downtown for all” campaign lobbying Seattle City Council, 2006 (Real Change)
No30%
Yes70%
EU voters asked “do you approve of the Swiss government model, with greater use
of referendums?”
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... but don’t trust the system
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Parliament Civil service
83%86%
17%14%
Would trust Would not trust
Trust: Henley Centre report, quoted in Strategy Unit 2002 Risk report; Never Trust A Politician image, Nuno Machado Lopes; Trust in professions: MORI/BMA/Parliamentary Monitor 2003
Journalists
Politicians generally
Ministers
Business leaders
Trade union officials
Civil servants
Pollsters
Man in the street
Police
TV News
Scientists
Priests
Judges
Academics
Teachers
Doctors
-75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100
Net %ge saying a member of that profession/group “would tell the truth”
DON’T TRUST DO TRUST
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And a system that wants to be open ...
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... but can’t change itself enough.
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Tricky.
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Let’s start by looking at some good ideas that won’t work
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Reviving the party system
+ =
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Tinkering with the electoral system
50
60
70
80
90
100
1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008
Electoral turnout, New Zealand
Proportional representationintroduced from 1996 election
Source: New Zealand Electoral Commission
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Fixed-term Parliaments
60
70
80
90
100
110
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
USA UK
UK Parliamentary & US Congressional midterm electionsElectoral turnout in seven most recent cycles, indexed (first election in 1980s = 100)
Source: International IDEA
fixed terms
variable terms
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More consultations
Just
one o
f 92 c
onsu
ltatio
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umen
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ued
by th
e W
elsh A
ssem
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over
nmen
t in
the fi
rst si
x mon
ths o
f 200
9
Image: Welsh Assembly Government. Statistic: Welsh Conservative Party website
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Redistributing power within the political class
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Listening more to campaign groups
LOWER TAXES !
EVEN LOWER TAXES !
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Before I talk about our proposal, let’s have ...
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Part Five
A brief historical interlude
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Once upon a time, there was a great hope for democracy, called
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The Internet
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In the 90s, it was a new democratic arena ...
Electric Minds virtual community front page, 1996 (retrieved from rheingold.com)
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... a space beyond government ...
GOVERNMENTS of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.
[...] Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions.
John Perry Barlow (pictured), Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996
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... where a new Athens would arise.
Hold still ! I can’tread facebook if you
jiggle it
Photo: Marble at Getty Villa, Santa Monica (Simon Bisson/Flickr)
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I think we all know it hasn’t quite worked out like that.
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The internet encourages views to cluster ...
Map of political blogosphere during the 2008 US Presidential Election, Harvard Internet & Democracy blog
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... privileges extreme positions ...
Other20%
Pro-BNP/Pro-UKIP80%
Mainstream parties77%
UKIP + BNP23%
BBC Have Your Say, day after Euro elections, 200930 most recommended comments to question
“Is Britain entering a new political age?”
Actual votes for BNP & UKIP vs mainstream parties, June 2009
Source: Democratic Society analysis; BBC
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... and drowns out facts with ranting.
As I sit here, looking out of my window at a beautiful 81 degrees, I wonder if I should put on my bikini and sarong and do a bit of sunbathing! Of course, I have "massaged" the figure, in cardiff it is barely 14 degrees and, when you add the wind-chill factor, ITS DAMN COLD AND I STILL HAVE THE HEATING ON. In MAY!!! We can ALL massage the figures to suit, milliband, this,make no mistake, is just ANOTHER SCAM TO TAKE EVEN MORE OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!
It would be interesting to see just who has heavy investments in the 'Green' Industries. Government Ministers?; MPs?; Anyone care to place a bet?
Global warming fears are just that, fears; like everyone with a cold thinks they have the pig flu. In the great scale of things even a million years is just a blink and the green crowd think they can foretell the future by sticking their heads out of the window! The government promote the fear to raises tax. The nut-cutlet and sandal brigade do it because it is the latest fashion.
So let's get this straight. We don't emit a trace element quantity of essential, life-giving gas and we BENEFIT by £1 Trillion? There's not even any flippin warming that can be shown to be out of the ordinary, and for ten years there's been flat or cooling temperatures. CO2 driven warming my hat. This is obscene, ideologically driven fraud. Insanity, nothing less.
More stupidity from this discredited administration. What other country has so wilfully 'hamstrung' its industry and introduced legislation which will cost the general populace so much?
Global warming is just a con to milk taxes from the ordinary person.
Just why are governments clinging to the hoax that CO2 forces 'Global Warming' ? It is scientific fact that the earth is in a cooling phase and has been for the past 9 years. More CO2 - the gas of life - can only be beneficial to our biosphere and human environment and well-being.
If Labour ministers say there is a huge risk from so-called global warming, then it is clear that the whole thing is rubbish. Those of us who are "climate change denyers" are labelled by the enviro-hippies as on a par with holocaust denyiers, but their whole premise is based on poor science. None of the original computer models have been even CLOSE to what we are experiencing now.
One way to fill the tax gap ZaNu liebour have created. Green taxes are the new window tax. Why not just stop packing this small island with immigrants, that would reduce our carbon footprint better than more tax.
Comments on Daily Mail article “recommended” by more than 50 users, 5 May 2009.
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It is prone to verbal diarrhoea ...
US Constitution
Animal Farm
Typical novel
Pride & Prejudice
One day on Comment is Free
030,000
60,00090,000
120,000
150,000
One day on Comment is Free = Estimated words posted on CiF on 9 May 2008. Calculated by averaging comment lengths on 20 randomly selected threads then multiplying average comment length by total comment count
More than 9 hours of reading at average reading speed
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... and lacks common political space.Top ten political blogs, by Technorati authority
?
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It’s not all bad, though. The Internet has been great for ...
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Transparency ...
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... information sharing ...
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... international links ...
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... political campaigning ...
Image source: Teehan + Lax
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... and access to a range of news and comment.
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So, the question we ask is ...
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Can we take the accessibility, information and passion of the Net and combine them with the common spaces, shared rules and need for compromise of the political world ?
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Part Six
Yes, we can (try) !
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Our starting point:
Politicians, academics and campaign groups can’t reform democracy on their own.
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To change politics, we have to make a demand of everyone:
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Decide to be a citizen !
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The Democratic Society is there to support that decision. It aims to build:
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A network of local organisations ...
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... dedicated to citizenship ...
Source: Wellcome images
Information Discussion Voting
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... not partisan posturing.
As I sit here, looking out of my window at a beautiful 81 degrees, I wonder if I should put on my bikini and sarong and do a bit of sunbathing! Of course, I have "massaged" the figure, in cardiff it is barely 14 degrees and, when you add the wind-chill factor, ITS DAMN COLD AND I STILL HAVE THE HEATING ON. In MAY!!! We can ALL massage the figures to suit, milliband, this,make no mistake, is just ANOTHER SCAM TO TAKE EVEN MORE OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!
Global warming fears are just that, fears; like everyone with a cold thinks they have the pig flu. In the great scale of things even a million years is just a blink and the green crowd think they can foretell the future by sticking their heads out of the window! The government promote the fear to raises tax. The nut-cutlet and sandal brigade do it because it is the latest fashion.
One way to fill the tax gap ZaNu liebour have created. Green taxes are the new window tax. Why not just stop packing this small island with immigrants, that would reduce our carbon footprint better than more tax.
More stupidity from this discredited administration. What other country has so wilfully 'hamstrung' its industry and introduced legislation which will cost the general populace so much?
If Labour ministers say there is a huge risk from so-called global warming, then it is clear that the whole thing is rubbish. Those of us who are "climate change denyers" are labelled by the enviro-hippies as on a par with holocaust denyiers, but their whole premise is based on poor science. None of the original computer models have been even CLOSE to what we are experiencing now.
So let's get this straight. We don't emit a trace element quantity of essential, life-giving gas and we BENEFIT by £1 Trillion? There's not even any flippin warming that can be shown to be out of the ordinary, and for ten years there's been flat or cooling temperatures. CO2 driven warming my hat. This is obscene, ideologically driven fraud. Insanity, nothing less.
It would be interesting to see just who has heavy investments in the 'Green' Industries. Government Ministers?; MPs?; Anyone care to place a bet?
Just why are governments clinging to the hoax that CO2 forces 'Global Warming' ? It is scientific fact that the earth is in a cooling phase and has been for the past 9 years. More CO2 - the gas of life - can only be beneficial to our biosphere and human environment and well-being.
Global warming is just a con to milk taxes from the ordinary person.
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Online and o#ine support each other...
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... involving members in national debates.
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It is run on democratic lines ...
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... locally and centrally.
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It concentrates on easy participation ...
accessible for someone who only has ten minutes
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... and allows the best arguments to rise ...
Marked as “essential reading” by the debate leader
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... so people can pick them up quickly.
View all • View only “essential reading”
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There is a regular schedule for votes ...
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... so media and politicians can pick them up ...
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... then the issue is closed for a while.
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Membership is open to all ...
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... but isn’t a free-for-all.
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Data is open ...
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... and easy to access on di!erent devices.
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It gives members chances to lead ...
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... and to gain political skills.
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Members too shy or too busy to debate ...
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... can explore issues ...
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... and participate in votes remotely.
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We will have to start small ...
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... but will have scalability built in ...
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... and a goal of being the most popular ...
Image by kind permission of Andy Keetch, taken by @garagestudios
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... most authoritative, most trusted ...
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... place for citizens.
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Presentation by Anthony Zacharzewskifor the Democratic Society, April 2010
[email protected] | @anthonyzach
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