DEMOCRATIC ROUTE TO REVOLUTION ?

There are times when I wonder what is the point of democracy.

In the US, while they say that anyone can become President and claim that they have no 'upper class', the truth is that only the rich or those strongly supported by the rich can ever aspire to the White House. The result has been a succession of disastrous incumbents culminating in the current office-holder who seems to have no ability to achieve anything of note.

In the UK, we have a government composed of an assortment of Old Etonians and multi-millionaires, probably not one of whom has the slightest notion as to how the bulk of the population exists. These arrogant and self-aggrandinsing arse-holes feel compelled to fiddle with every element of everyday life in order to try to convince the electorate that they're doing something meaningful. In truth, all they ever do make things worse than they were before; they lie, cheat and swindle in order to a) enrich themselves and b) get re-elected. Along the way, the people become more and more subservient to a ruling class that controls almost every aspect of their daily lives. It matters not which party holds the reins, they're all basically the same.

In assorted parts of Europe, it's little different. The people are 'consulted' once every few years and asked to vote for a President or Prime Minister, plus all his or her party hacks. Once elected, they go off and do whatever they like, frequently ignoring the will of the people on the basis that the people don't, or can't understand the issues involved or that while they, the political class, understands the peoples' concerns, they also understand the longer-term issues more thoroughly and, therefore, 'they know best'. This has been happening in recent times over the disaster that is the Euro, and the consequences are now being felt as Greece faces massive civil unrest; how soon before other countries follow ?

To all intents and purposes, western-style democracy is dictatorship. There is very little real choice about who to vote for as the system is heavily weighted towards the main political parties. The party candidates are all chosen by inner cabals of party faithful, few of whom ever 'make waves', and all of whom are far more interested in their own positions than in anything else. Once elected, our representatives spend 95%, and more, of their time sucking up to their party bosses, mostly in the hope of achieving preferment and a cosy little job to use as a springboard for future advancement in a sphere of their own choosing.

Is the 'voice of the people' heard ? Rarely. Is the 'voice of the people' heeded ? Even more rarely. Sadly, politicians don't learn form history, even though many of them seem to know quite a lot about it. When the people are ignored for too long, and I don't count elections as having any true relevance' they eventually become disenchanted, then annoyed and finally violent. Disenchantment leads to a drop in the numbers of people voting, and we've already seen that, while annoyance leads to minor, non-violent demonstrations such as those staged by 'Fathers for Justice' and others in France, Germany and several of their European neighbours. Once violence erupts, the game is almost up and we've seen the beginnings of that, too, not only in Greece but here in dear old Blighty.

It may be a little extreme to suggest that the final step will be the public beheading of Cameron or some other Prime Minister, but it is also a naive politician who doesn't foresee the real possibility of substantial civil unrest across the whole of Europe in the not-too-distant future. The common people are not well educated, despite what our politicians would have us believe, and most are increasingly tribal. There are increasing numbers of foreign immigrants who hold little allegiance to any of the governments of Europe and may well have their own agendas to follow. What price some real trouble within, say, the next 10-20 years ?

PRESCOTT FOR COMMISSIONER : REALLY ?!

I read that John Prescott wants to be one of these new 'Police Commissioners' that we seem to be doomed to have foisted on us whether we like it or not.

Firstly, why do we need yet another load of overpaid bureaucrats who will, no doubt, want an army of supporting staff as well ?

Secondly, how in god's name is a pratt like Prescott qualified to fill such a role ? Whatever his supposed credentials, this man was a disaster as a politician and a laughing stock as a deputy Prime Minister; the only reason he gained this last post was as a sop to the Trade Unions in order to gain support for Blair and his mob of self-serving gits.

The simple fact that Prescott is apparently putting himself forward as a potential candidate for a Police Commissioner post demonstrates just how ridiculous this latest piece of bureaucracy is. Ex-MP, aged 70+ moves on firstly to the House of Lords and then to yet another publicly funded non-job, all while receiving a vast pension for his previous questionable service in the House of Commons.

Get real, for God's sake. If we must have these Commissioners, at least make them posts for people who are a) apolitical and b) know something about policing. What we don't want is these posts going to a plethora of failed, useless or ex-politicians.

WHO WILL RID US OF MORONIC GOVERNMENTS ?

Has anyone thought about what will happen once the Bank of England gets around to withdrawing the vast amounts of wholly unsupported money that it's printed in support of its programme of 'Quantitative Easing' ?

In days gone by, good old sterling was supported by gold; the currency in circulation was backed by Government reserves of this precious metal, meaning that the currency had a real convertible value.

Today, the currency has no intrinsic value. A pound is worth no more than what it can buy in the shops, and that is a rapidly decreasing amount as inflation has taken hold. As the Bank of England prints ever greater amounts of paper money, the value of what is already in circulation inevitably falls; in due course, either inflation will rise dramatically or the Bank will have to withdraw its cash injection causing a reduction in economic growth. Whichever happens, the people and the country will be worse off, an inevitable consequence of decades of over-indulgence and bad government.

Of course, no one in a position of real authority dare say any of this foir fear of rejection at the next election or loss of their well paid job. Regardless, it's true.

I won't vote for any of these imbeciles, Labour, Liberal or Conservative. They're all as bad as each other with nothing in mind other than their own careers. Many, unfortunately, will and another bunch of cretins will be given 'carte blanche' to further ruin our lives.

It truly is time for revolution.

EASTERN VENTURES DOOMED TO FAILURE.

This week's mayhem in Egypt probably had little to do with football and much to do with the nature of the country.

For many years, the self-proclaimed civilized nations of the western world have sought to impose their ideologies on those of the east with little real success. The recent spread of world-wide communications has encouraged some in these less developed countries to see themselves as clones of, particularly, the USA, but has done nothing to encourage cultural change at a more ingrained level.

Western interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan will ultimately result in no change other than in the identities of those at the top table in Government. Many lives have been lost to no avail, just as has happened many times in the past.

The so-called 'Arab Spring' is no different. While the western world hailed the uprisings in various countries as being the start of a new dawn for the Arab world, what has actually changed ? Mubarak, Gaddafi and some others have been removed from power and Assad may well be out before long, but what else has happened ? There have been few, if any elections, and in Egypt and Libya there is increasing unrest that could easily result in the establishment of new dictatorships by new tyrants.

In truth, the real problem is that western ideology simply cannot be applied to these undeveloped eastern countries. These are nations whose people are largely governeed by different principles - they are muslim, not christian, their attitudes towards equality are very different and their education systems also. It has to be recognized that their social, economic and industrial development is nowhere near as advanced as is the case in the western world.

Where all of this will end up is anyone's guess. One thing that is clear is that many of the western nations are now so strapped for cash that they are scrabbling for the door in Afghanistan and are extremely unlikely to embark on any further costly ventures of any kind in these dangerous and unstable places; Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest will largely be left to their own devices for the foreseeable future. This could open the way for the Russians and Chinese to take much greater roles in the development of these parts, something which the western world will not like but will be powerless to oppose. Only time will tell.