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Anyone got a reason why this should be so?BobG
I have no means of contacting Terry Bramall. Have you?BobG
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjPz-y6-vz3AhVbQUEAHTEIB18QFnoECCAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-380535%2FLabours-rich-list-party-donors.html&usg=AOvVaw3ouCw9AXn59LMabhXAQ-Mb
Conservatives are a party that look after business, they have the richest peoples interests at heart.Labour are a party that usually look after workers, so they tend to get a lot of funding from unions.
Quote from: DonnyOsmond on May 24, 2022, 08:13:30 pmConservatives are a party that look after business, they have the richest peoples interests at heart.Labour are a party that usually look after workers, so they tend to get a lot of funding from unions.Pardon
Interesting how some think we have a democratic system here in the UK. There's should be zero donations, all funding for parties coming from taxes (on the rich).
Quote from: Bristol Red Rover on May 26, 2022, 10:15:26 pmInteresting how some think we have a democratic system here in the UK. There's should be zero donations, all funding for parties coming from taxes (on the rich).Agreed, it doesn't mean there isn't democracy in the UK, just not quite the democracy that is needed for a fair society is all.
BRR, I accept pretty much all of that except:''What our system does very effectively is give the illusion that there is power in the ballot box''One would have had to be living under a rock not to understand the sycophant and coward that johnson is and for the dimmies moaning that ppl didn't accept the vote in 2016 or 2019 should understand we are here in this position as a direct result of the ballot box choice many made, too many. They need to own every bit of it and grow some.
Any debate, any democratic party, and voting plan that does not take into account the level of knowledge, intelligence and sophisticatioon of the electorate is not going to get very far at all.... We can see the evidence of that right here in this topic and on this forum!BobG
Hound, BB. There are more political and philosophical luminaries than you can shake a stick at that support my contention that the level of sophistication of an electorate is crucially important. Right back as far as Plato. He wrote that democracy is dangerous as its typical citizen is shiftless and flighty:"Sometimes he drinks heavily while listening to the flute; at other times, he drinks only water and is on a diet; sometimes he goes in for physical training; at other times, he’s idle and neglects everything; and sometimes he even occupies himself with what he takes to be philosophy".It would be much safer, Plato thought, to entrust power to carefully educated guardians. Exemplar No. 1 of the level of sophistication being thought to be massively important....At the opposite end, Karl Marx made huge play with the level of sophistication, of the intelligence, or lack of, of electorates. Exemplar No. 2 of the level of sophistication being thought to be massively important....John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century proposed giving extra votes to citizens with university degrees or intellectually demanding jobs because those with neither did not have the intelligence or experience to contribute sensibly. Mill worried that others would lack knowledge and judgment hence he wanted to give more votes to those better qualified. Exemplar No. 3 of the level of sophistication being thought to be massively important....In the United States, élites who feared the ignorance of poor immigrants tried to restrict ballots. In 1855, Connecticut introduced the first literacy test for American voters. New York in 1921 introduced a law requiring new voters to take a test if they couldn’t prove that they had an eighth-grade education. Exemplar No. 4 of the level of sophistication being thought to be massively important....And, of course, your God, Adam Smith, had a few words to say too. Here's an idea. If we value the power to make good decisions, why not try a system that’s a little less fair but makes good decisions more often? It's called “epistocracy,” and it means “government by the knowledgeable.” Funny how you went all egalitarian, like all good Socialists, when I made an elitist suggestion! Exemplar No. 5 of the level of sophistication being thought to be massively important....Get off your righteous hobby horses. Think for once. This debate has proved my contention beyond any shadow of doubt.CheersBobG