![]() He has been photographed with Johnson, whom he described as a “good friend”. Does it contain details of unlawful donations to the Conservative party? Or of Conservative Friends of Russia, whose launch party was attended by Cummings? A key figure in this group was a man who has subsequently come under suspicion of being a Russian spy. It’s as if a defendant in a criminal trial were allowed to decide whether the trial goes ahead and, if so, what the charges should be and who the judge and jury are.Įven when an investigation does take place, the prime minister can suppress its conclusions, as Johnson has done with the report on Russian interference in the British political system, which remains unpublished. When they make catastrophic mistakes, they have the power to decide whether or not there should be a public inquiry, and, if there should, what its terms and who its chair should be. Prime ministers bypass parliament, governing through special advisers like Dominic Cummings. These powers are routinely abused, by all governments. Five years of unassailable power for Johnson’s Conservatives, even as popular support collapses, would have been impossible. With proportional representation, we would have a hung parliament. But, thanks to our preposterous, outdated first-past-the-post electoral system, the 43.6% of the vote they won granted them a crushing majority. Democracy is cheap in this country.ĭespite such assistance, the Conservatives still failed to win a majority of votes at the last election. The maximum fine for winning an election (or a referendum) by fraud is £20,000 per offence. The Electoral Commission, which is supposed to regulate the system, has deliberately been kept powerless. This grossly unfair system is supplemented by outright cheating, such as breaching spending limits and secretly funding mendacious online ads. Courting and cultivating rich people to win elections corrupts our politics, replacing democracy with plutocracy. The secretive Leader’s Group grants big donors special access to the prime minister and his frontbenchers in return for their money. Just five hedge fund managers have given it £18m over the past 10 years. The great majority of money for the Conservative party comes from a small number of very rich people. Our system permits billionaires and corporations to outspend and outmuscle the electorate. As soon as you begin to name them, you see that the UK is a democracy only in the weakest and shallowest sense. As the government blunders from one disaster to the next, there seem to be no effective ways of holding it to account.Įstablished power in this country is surrounded by a series of defensive rings. Parliament is truncated, as the government arbitrarily decides that MPs can no longer take part in votes remotely. ![]() Boris Johnson makes reckless public health decisions that could put thousands of lives at risk, apparently to dig himself out of a political hole. An unelected adviser seems to exercise more power than the prime minister, and appears unanswerable to people or parliament. Do we live in a democracy? You may well ask.
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