Constitutional reforms sought by ‘progressives’

July 1st, 2016

A much younger and more beautiful friend tells me:
“According to my Facebook feed, Brexit has highlighted some obvious flaws in the democratic system. This is what I’ve learned these past few days:

(1) Votes should be weighted in favour of the professional and cosmopolitan classes
(2) Better still, only the above classes should be allowed to vote at all, as the rest are either not uber-cool or can’t be trusted to know what’s good for them
(3) Exceptions to (1) and (2) would apply to anyone who identifies with being female, LGBT, of a non-Caucasian ethnicity or religious persuasion (other than Christianity or Judaism) or who has a physical or mental disability as that would be obviously discriminatory
(4) If anyone under 25 elects not to vote, it’s not their fault and they should be able to cast a late vote if they don’t like the outcome
(5) While we’re at it, anyone under 25 should get at least two votes, as they have more of a future than the rest of us
(6) If we must have a one person-one vote referendum, then MPs should be given a power of veto to prevent any Silly-Billyness
(7) Well, maybe not every MP …”

Filed under Constitutional, Politics

Comments

The Neville Shue novel “In the Wet” was remarkably prescient

Reminded me of the charter of rights in that great novel United we Fall.

“Ten items, and here they are:
1. There is always someone to blame when things go wrong.
2. The person to blame is never you.
3. All rights are reserved to you at all times.
4. Your rights in any matter take precedence over the rights of all others.
5. Those that deal with you shall at all times accord you the greatest of respect and consideration, the best of manners, and exercise the greatest of care, skill and judgement in respect of any decisions, actions or advice that may possibly have any effect on your well-being, comfort, health or financial prosperity.
6. The foregoing Standard 5 does not apply to you by virtue of your right as a free human being to behave as you wish, unconstrained by any consideration for others.
7. You have a moral obligation and duty to inform others with whom you interact of any defects you detect in their behaviour or character relevant to Section 5. Your opinions under this section are correct and sacrosanct, and are not subject to criticism, argument or refutation.
8. The facts in any such situation are as you see them, not as any other party sees them.
9. These facts may be changed by you as necessity dictates, but cannot be changed by anyone else.
10. Telling the truth may allow you to alter facts, but no-one else may do so. You are the sole decision maker when it comes to determining what the truth is.”

Sometimes tongue in cheek fiction ends up being perilously close to the truth!