Whose democracy is it anyway?
Political dry rot has firmly taken hold in the foundations of
British democracy. The Houses of Parliament once inspired a
democratic principle to be exported around the world. To most British
people today, they have become a symbol of alienation where a small
elite rule without accountability.
How healthy is our democracy in Britain in 2002? Hundreds of
thousands protest on the streets while politicians and media worry
about apathy and the lowest election turnout since 1918. We teeter on
the brink of war without any effective public forum providing a voice
for those many people who have profound misgivings about an invasion
of Iraq. We live in a curious world where the civil liberties agenda
has been successfully hijacked by a cadre of the old establishment
primarily concerned with their ability to carry on fox hunting. A
political era in which the worst excesses of the sleaze era have… [more]