Is democracy in danger in West Oxfordshire? (Debate)

Sun 26 Feb 2023, 20:07 (last edited on Mon 27 Feb 2023, 09:39)

Oooh hard to resist this one after such a belter of an opener (thanks Paul)!

I know nothing about the traffic schemes in Oxford so will say no more – which from the piece on R4’s 'Broadcasting House' this morning some others might usefully do too….

More seriously, someone please check my maths but how can it be justifiable or democratic for 43% of the vote (as with Brexit, an even lower proportion of the electorate as a whole) to result in 56% of Commons seats?  Or for that matter, an increase of 1.3% in that vote to result in 48 extra seats?  Though curiously, Labour’s 32% of the vote resulted in 31% of the seats.

As I’ve quoted before, ‘democracy dies by a thousand cuts’.  Into which mix we can throw: curtailing judicial powers to review executive/administrative decisions (rule of law anyone?); imposing unnecessary photo id requirements on voters;  messing with both Boundary and Electoral Commissions (more research needed – Ed!); decimating the criminal justice & Legal Aid systems; ever increasing restrictions on the right to demonstrate and protest (& consequent politicisation of the police); proposed ‘reforms’ to  – for which read derogation from -  the Human Rights Act; depriving people born here of their citizenship – so abandoning our responsibilities.  And that’s not to mention ‘snouts in the trough’ during Covid; partygate; Liz Truss!; the abject failure to ‘control our borders’ by not putting in place legal and effective routes for asylum seekers, leaving so many to risk their lives in the channel; the lies and failures of Brexit; crony appointments to public bodies; constant breeches of the Ministerial Code; turning the water company poachers into gamekeepers – so they can go on polluting our waterways; or the endless bland denials of problems in almost every quarter of government activity.

This is surely the most dishonest, self-serving, anti-democratic and not least, incompetent government ever seen in this country, certainly in the post WW2 era.  Even my Asian born dentist describes Pritti P & Suella B as 'virtually fascist'.  I might have disagreed with the likes of Ken Clarke & Dominic Grieve, but mon dieu, they stand head and shoulders above this lot!  They have to go don’t they, if only to restore some degree of honesty and integrity to our politics?  Time for a robust system of proportional representation.  Someone just needs to convince Starmer….