At least someone has tried to CHANGE

Well this is only the 2nd post in my Chance for Change blog and I am going to start it by saying "I don't want to buy Viagra or any other sex aids so stop posting your adverts as comments".

Decided I was going to post again as a friend of mine "Chris Cowie" decided to take the bull by the horns and stand to be elected as a local councilor in Aberdeen during the elections on May 3rd 2007.

Although it transpired that Chris never got elected I had followed his progress during the campaign and had a couple of good politico discussions with him and he, as I am, is pretty disgruntled by the whole "Party Politics" scene that now dominates our country. As Chris discovered people do want change but for some unknown reasons continue to support the big parties as they promise change but never deliver it.

At least in Scotland we have kicked Labour in the gonads and voted the Scottish National Party as the largest party. What we don't know at the time of writing is if they will be able to form an administration and push for a referendum on Scottish Independence. You can clearly see from the post election maps that most of Labours votes came from the poorer areas of Glasgow and apart from Aberdeen Central the top (or better half) of Scotland has returned either SNP or Lib Dem MSP's.

A lot has been made of the rejected votes fiasco in Scotland and to be fair some folks, maybe in a hurray, did not read the papers correctly and marked them wrongly. That said, I think to make it fair for the next elections and stop people just voting for a party you should be asked to identify 4 out of 5 current MSP's and also answer a couple of policy questions. Your vote will then be cast for you making it a worthwhile exercise and giving your vote to the people who deserve it. This would stop people with no idea what they are voting for or who never worry about whats going on massaging the votes and giving Labour what are basically free votes.

Of course this would all be negated if we decided to completely overhaul politics in the UK and used a random selection of the population making it a true "Parliament of the people, by the people" and it would also do away with all those career politico's who are only out for themselves.

Chance for Change - UK Parliment & Democracy

Hello and welcome to my first blog. I intend to use this blog space to start a change in the way our lives are run. We all get fed up of politicians who couldn’t care less about "The Country" and are more worried about themselves.

Having muted my ideas to a few friends about how things could be different and the UK could once again return to a "parliament of the people for the people" I decided the information age could help with this and decided to create a blog and try and gauge support for my ideas.

We are constantly being told that things are forever changing and we must adapt to these changes or be left behind. If this is the case then why on earth do we have a system of government that is 100's of years old and the only thing that seems to change is the useless people who control the 2 main parties and run the country.

Our current parliamentary system no longer represents the general public and their is a general apathy amongst people both old and young towards politicians, central and local government and the ever increasing amount of quango's.


THE IDEA

The idea I have discussed with friends centers around the jury system used in courts where a random selection of the general public are selected and are asked to make a decision based on the facts they hear.

Why can't our government be like that? Why can't we randomly pick members of the public to form a real "parliament of the people for the people"? I'll tell you why, because both the Labour and conservative parties would be dead in the water (what a shame) and of no more use. What a change that would be. No more backstabbing just for the sake of it, no more ridiculous attempts at oneupmanship during PM's questions and no more dictoral leaders like we have seen recently like Thatcher & Blair.

To bring this about requires huge changes in our current electoral and governance systems and can only be achieved if the people really want it.

I welcome all and any feedback on this topic and hope you will get as many people to read this as possible. I am not for one moment suggesting I have all the answers or any answers for that matter I just want change. Do you think could be be achieved? Can you help achieve it? Could you help expand on this idea? Do you want change?