Democracy and the Freedom of the press.

Yes, in reality, it was 1708.
Also, in reality, the Monarch is free to do so again at any time, and also, in reality, there is no legal process Parliament could use to prevent it or overturn it.

All along I have ONLY been discussing the REALITY of the situation.


All The best

Well, our at best semi-democratic form of so-called democracy is barely worth fighting for.

One of our legislative chambers seems to be occupied by people none of us vote for nor can vote out of office, and all too often there for services rendered - not to we the people but to particular politicians and parties. The whiff of corruption and buying positions in our legislature does kind of stink.

And our other legislative chamber is elected by a hugely disproportionate system capable of delivering huge majorities with the votes of a minority of the electorate, whilst shutting out many strands of opinion and ensuring that for a majority of people voting is an utter waste of time. 

As for the so-called free press, all it ever has been is the freedom of people rich enough to own it telling us the news they want to tell us and what to think about it.

The internet has a far wider plurality of opinion, but the drawback there is that it is full of utterly fake news. Which leads to the problem of people basing their opinions on things that are not true. And we are seeing all too clearly the dangers of that playing out in the USA. And it is far easier on the internet than in the older media for bad actors - political extremists, conspiracy theorists, religious nutcases, terrorist groups, overt hatemongers, potentially hostile states, etc - to put out untrue narratives, flooding people's heads with untrue so-called facts and in this way potentially subverting democracy - flawed as it already is - even more.

The inherent problem with democracy - I have sadly concluded - is that a majority of most electorates are too lacking in political knowledge and/or intelligence to make sensible decisions about whom to vote for. And no, this is not about left or right, ill-informed, politically stupid people can vote both left, right and centre.

I would say that everyone on a forum such as this is intelligent enough to think sensibly and vote based upon intelligent and informed thought processes, however much we may disagree with each other. But only a minority of the electorate is like us. Most of the rest are pig ignorant about politics, and no party has ever won an election without the support of at least part of this idiot bloc.

I am deeply cynical but don't know what the solution is. Because clearly any alternative to democracy just about always ends up being even worse. So that leaves me to conclude that the only way of making democracy work better is to educate people in school about it much more. But getting that past an elite-owned media whose best interest lies in keeping the people stupid, the easier to manipulate them, would be a tough ask. 

They wouldn't need anti-monopoly policies if Capitalism's natural tendency wasn't to create monopolies, would they?
Its really not rocket science.


As to state monopolies, this tends to mean state owned utility companies.
More people now pay a greater percentage of their income on servicing utility bills than ever before.
Utility bill increases have consistently outstripped both inflation and wage increases - not all of that revenue funds service level improvements (just look at the parlous state of the Water Industry) it funds unjustifiable share dividends and excessive executive remuneration packages.  Heck, the water industry has taken on record levels of debt just to fund dividends and remuneration packages and stock-market gambling; revenue from bills has paid for all infrastructure improvements since privatisation.


All The Best

If there was an easy solution to the many problems of Capitalism most countries would have adopted them by now.

The real issue is that most countries aren't even looking for solutions, because they refuse to acknowledge the problems.
They do so because once MPs leave office they want those cushy jobs at that top-end of the capitalist ladder, so don't want to rock the boat.

Pointing out that how nationalised utilities were run 40 years ago was not great is no indication that how they are run under privatisation is much better,; in fact for nearly everyone in the lower 2 quintiles it is much worse.

90% of all the problems with Capitalism are to do with wealth distribution and the ever increasing wealth-gap.


All The Best

In reality it would be the very essence of civil war, likely to see people minded like yourself fighting against people minded like myself. The people have done it once and could do it again if necessary.