The Swiss are the only country in the world governing themselves at the national level using direct democracy. They regularly use referenda and are the sole electorate routinely voting on policy issues at all levels of government. I suggest that it would be a huge improvement for our country to also adopt a form of direct democracy and reform the representative system that we struggle with. This will be especially beneficial for independent groups seeking to ensure localism, accountability and integrity: and it so happens that Elon Musk is also a fan of direct democracy because he believes that it is a less corrupt system than representative democracy.
In comparison, Proportional Representation is just another form of representative democracy and suffers from the same problem as its first-past-the-post sister in the representative democracy family. It gives us more parties but still ensures the election of representatives for 4 or 5-year terms who see little need to seek guidance from their electors throughout that period. What employee do you know who is given 5 years free rein by their management (us)? In addition, MPs are really just party serfs toeing the line drawn by the party whips, so their talk of being our “independent” representatives is just twaddle.
For generations now, the political class has manipulated the masses and feathered their own nests. Their cronies and lobbyists have influenced and steered the system to their benefit, drinking deep from the trough of public funds into which the taxpayers have poured their hard-earned wages. All these scams have been concealed behind the veil of “democracy”, but in a direct democracy the voters can demand openness, clarity and regularly vote on specific policies affecting their families and communities.
Do you think local electors would allow there to be nearly 3,000 local council employees earning over £100,000 a year if they had a direct say on such things? Political accountability is failing us because our representatives are more incentivized to satisfy their party bosses and “backers” than their electorates. The Swiss state is also low-cost because such matters have to pass muster with local voters, and are not just waved through by the party in power in safe seats that they have held for decades.
Independents hacked off with self-interested party narcissists can break this stranglehold by clubbing together with a national umbrella organisation. Together they can promote accountability from the parish level and all the way up to Westminster, working to develop an accountable system of direct democracy at every level. Both groups can combine to elect MPs who have to respond routinely and directly to voters’ wishes – or go. It is time that a new broom swept aside the tired old parties and cleared the way for people actually interested in routinely working for, and with, the people.
Politicians responsive to their voters can demonstrate their commitment to direct democracy by publicising upcoming votes. Those on their electoral roll can then give their feedback to them through various media before the actual vote. With over 10% responding, the representative must vote according to the majority’s choice. This system will bring real accountability to politics in this country for the first time. Voters will feel a sense of buy-in as they regularly see their interests and views truly considered, and they will benefit from a sense of control, ending the sense of alienation from the “system” that is now such a common feature of life in our dissolving communities.
This combination of Like-Minded Independent (LMI) groups, for instance, maybe bearing the name of the ward, town or local place that resonates with voters, working with a national operator can undermine the seemingly impregnable major parties and supporting oligarchs that we battle with today. The past is past but the future is ours to fashion and that must include finding politicians motivated by community, and communities able to routinely enforce their will.
Committed independent local groups such as the Barnsley Independent Group and the Ashfield Independents are already cutting into the network of cronies at the district council level, but to really improve our national life we need to break the Conservative/Labour stranglehold at the national level. When the state-sponsored Covid crisis is over and the deep damage to the economy and the life of the nation is revealed, the old parties are going to face a very different electorate to that which entered lock-down.
We have to make them pay and revive our national life by ending their control over us, and asserting our right to actual self-government and direct democratic rule. The more we can spread the word and expand such initiatives as LMI, the better. This is not a call for a revolution, but representative democracy has had its day in the sun and needs to evolve, to make way for its direct and proven cousin. Join the evolution and take control.
Neil, Are you involved with the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (ADF)? I ask because they are reaching out to Independents and independent groups. In our UKIP branch we are ALL standing as Independents and when Stephen Place saw my tweet he contacted me.
The stranglehold of the Establishment and the interference of the ‘main’ political parties in the smaller ones to ensure that they never get marginalised as the old Liberals (or Whigs) did with the rise of Labour, goes beyond anything that most of us could imagine.
Fighting it gets the tactics of the old USSR employed against you – they can’t falsely imprison you -yet- but will do all they can to break you, including extortion (and I do not use that word lightly). Right now I know at least 2 honest, innocent people affected, one simply by association and now I too am being attacked for daring to tell the truth, with the same people behind the attack. Some people point to the apparent persecution of the so called ‘far right’, Jayda Fransen & colleagues in Britain First and, of course, Tommy Robinson (who doesn’t always help himself) but you do not need to be that outspoken to be silenced.
Hi Helena, I am with 5 Star Direct Democracy. Good for you for all standing. Our party is led by John Rees-Evans, former leadership candidate for UKIP. I joined UKIP as soon as Nigel took over in 2006 and saw it through to the Referendum. 5 Star is a vehicle for seeing DD introduced and we have our own candidates and Councillors, and help independents as well. We were set up in 2017.
Our aim is to help independent candidates by setting up websites etc for them, as John is highly experienced in this field. It is our aim to help get Independents or our own members elected as MPs, and demonstrate DD working at every level. We have to work together, hence our plan to provide an over-arching party to help Independents and focus on getting a DD MP to put the cat among the pigeons.
Basically, we set up a local voting system on a website and electors on the electoral roll can log in and vote on motions BEFORE they are decided in the Council. In this fashion, we aim to show in a practical way how DD can work – we call it a Parallel or Peoples Parliament. No need for a revolution, simply an evolution of the system. Voters get the chance to have input regularly, and our Councillor votes accordingly – when over 10% vote on the site. Otherwise the member votes as he wishes.
We are re-vamping the party website right now, but in the meantime you can view the current one at http://www.5dd.uk The new site should be up in a couple of days. Hope this helps!
Thanks Neil, glad you told me this. UKIP sadly has sunk to unfathomable lows, I would be ashamed to stand under it’s banner now. I accepted the post of health spokesman when Freddy Vachha was elected unopposed as leader (how daft was it to have a leadership election under lockdown FFS). Given said pandemic last June & my areas of expertise I accepted & stayed in the party – even after the September coup, in the hope the imposters might be ousted.
Most decent and honourable members are clinging by fingertips or planning not to renew, I do want to be able to advise outgoing members of the sensible – and decent, honest, honourable, uncorrupt options, if they want to stay politically involved. I’ll make sure 5Star is included. Long admirer of the Swiss system.
As the late Baroness Williams said when she left Labour “The party I loved and worked for over so many years no longer exists”
Our aim is not to have power for ourselves, but for the electorate to have a direct say in the issues which affect them. Just having the example of a Councillor being responsive to the wishes of his voters on a routine basis is going to be a massive bottom up change. Real democracy that takes away the power wielded by a small clique of tools of the oligarchs and their lobby groups, and puts in the people’s hands. A long time coming. Our peoplesparliament.uk site will be open shortly and the voting system set up for electors in the areas in which we operate ready to start measuring the voters desires. Over time, we will gather evidence of the effectiveness of the system and hopefully demonstrate the utility of it to all objective observers. It has the power to embarrass many “politicians”. UKIP was a great and historic party, but once the referendum was won, its existence was always going to be an issue. I can heartily recommend 5 Star DD, our aim is clear and we will eventually achieve it.
I feel i must inject a note of caution here. The political establishment are well aware of the pull of localism at council elections.. However parliamentary elections must of necessity require an an at least potentially vastly more powerful individual in general terms.
Also, the battleground is different. Local connections and conditions are nothing like the same. They should be, perhaps, but they’re not.Even the names may need changing .
So, some innovation may be needed. We could claim five thousand council seats. Russia invades Ukraine and they’re gone.
So far so good, But remember , all those individual ambitious leaders need re-educating and tempting with something real . As things stand Independents need rethinking, but you have to get ukip working with all the little parties and also battling Tice etc..You need a proper carrot.
I guess what I’m saying is 1… Don’t put up barriers to the future possibilities 2…Do not treat silly passed statements of political beliefs, or theories as valid, 3. I know you are not organised, but act as though you are, 4 find someone you can believe who can organise. 5 try and upgrade .and don’t get in the way of those who can.Help them
All we need in each parliamentary/local electoral constituency is a candidate who is Post Covid, pro economy, pro free speech, pro democracy and anti woke who is either local or at least a well known professional business or trades person in the area, and preferably not associated with any of the established parliamentary political parties. The way would then be open to develope strategies and policies best suited to the local area.
As a member of the SDP it is Long overdue for Britain to have a written construction hopefully become a Republic, I certainly feel sorry that prince Philip has died but the over the top non-stop press coverage is nauseating when Britain has a covid19 death toll over 10000 the priorities are all wrong
Sorry Adam must disagree for me a Republic is wrong for this particular nation
I’m not intending to sustain a long discussion, because the whole idea is a no no for me, when one considers who could possibly be President.
Blair, Brown,Cameron, May Cleggy.
Now if it was Nigel………………….he’d certainly put the nation first and on the map
Thank you Neil Petrie. I cannot imagine how the Swiss Constitution actually works. Also I wonder whether that country is unique in the way it ‘makes it’s living’, so to speak.
I can’t get away from the fact that U.K. needs an Executive body – cabinet and ministers, which are held in check by the legislative – M.P.s, which in turn are controlled by the electorate.
I’m not rubbishing your argument. We have been confronted with just how corrupt the Party System, and the Representative Democracy has become. Let’s face it, within a year it has suddenly become a dictatorship.
L.M.I. is definitely a hopeful sign.
Hi Pauline, I am not advocating getting rid of MPs or parties. I am suggesting that representatives get feedback on motions prior to their vote on them. 5 Star Direct Democracy is building such a system at councillor level right now. When this demonstrates to voters that they are heard and action taken in line with their wishes, we get buy-in and commitment. All we have now is arrogant party oligarchies lording it over the serf-electors. We get to choose our overseers from lefties or Etonian jokers. An evolution of the system, not a revolution.
O.K. Neil. Yes I support ‘evolution of the system’.
Neil……….Etonian jokers you’re right there. The present incumbent of Number 10 takes the biscuit. An utter clown of epic proportions. His buffoonery knows no bounds. All joking apart though though, I just cannot take the man seriously.
Switzerland has been running as a direct democracy since 1848. Three times the national wage of the UK and half our level of debt. I’d like to be that non-viable
I joined UKIP in 2009 and I seem to remember part of policy was government by referenda and a single figure tax system
I thought they were good ideas then – so why not now.
However Neil you point out that Switzerland has high wages and a stable economic system.
Which leads me to ask what ” sort” of country is Switzerland?
From my limited knowledge apart from our joint desire not to be politically part of the United States of Europe , we are carrots and peas as to many other characteristics with each other
Land locked territory v island community
Population size must be vastly different.
GDPs must be vastly different
Character of population types and immigrant proportions different.
Monarchy v Republic ?
Legal systems different, I’ll bet it’s not common law Magna Carta.
But overall I would ask what is their outlook, they are confirmed neutral, we are a world power, whether we like it or not, we are a member of a world wide Commonwealth, to whom we owe loyalty and co-operation , we are a permanent member of the Security Council
I believe there would be considerable difficulty in devising a system of referenda for this country, and it certainly would not be possible to use many aspects of the Swiss.
Uplifting and thoughtful article providing very useful evidence of examples of LMI putting theory into action. Well done Ashfield and Barnsley Independents Group.
Yes I’m pleased to see examples of LMI happening.
None of the solutions offered is viable.
Numerous referenda?…. Depends how thick the population is. At the moment we seem to have a really poorly educated population. The Swiss are noted for educational achievement.
PR? See Italy.
What we really need is for our leaders to have had a real job, be between forty and sixty years old and have some sort of non-political/mickey mouse qualifications.
We also need manifestos to be legally binding. Plus nothing done outside the manifesto. (Unpopular moves are always left off the manifesto. Eg mass immigration and incremental signing up to the EUSSR.)
Harryagain, I sort of agree. I like the age ability andqualification requirements ( All part of legal reasons in court. ).
But particularly and notably the limits and timing of manifestos.
However this hands far too much power to Media.
And Civil Servants would trample over everyone else. It’ld be like Covid all over again.
But a good start and good thinking.
Harry I do understand your pessimism. However,if you are going to build anything you start with a foundation.
The author of the article failed to mention another council where the Independents form the largest group; Allerdale Borough Council,(formerly dominated by Labour) the greater part of the Workington Constituency in West Cumbria.
The revolution happened at the last council election.
The technique: carefully pick the target wards; choose a candidate well known in that ward… then WORK hard.
I was at the count. The majorities for the Independents were so vast that even the most die-hard loser could not ask for a recount. With one exception who lost badly. I enquired, and was told that everyone knew that the candidate was “Independent Labour” and was thereore not wanted.
Next step; the County. One Allerdale Independent is already a County Councillor… then Parliament.
Referenda? You may have a justifiably poor opinion of the population, but when they SEE for themselves what their new councillors are achieving, years of “indoctrination” can be forgotten..
It is possible. It cannot happen overnight. It needs a lot of leg-work. Stop looking for problems.Start finding solutions.
As for for our leaders to have had a real job, be between forty and sixty years old and have some sort of non-political/mickey mouse qualifications,and manifestos to be legally binding. Plus nothing done outside the manifesto. (Unpopular moves are always left off the manifesto. Eg mass immigration and incremental signing up to the EUSSR.) I agree fully.
Richard, many thanks for your positive and useful comments. 5 Star Direct Democracy is trialling voting systems at councillor level so that our representatives can let voters know what motions are coming up. The electorate can then let them know which they favour or not. Over time we can build on this platform and show that voter are in control and that things can change. We are happy to hook up with independents to help and coordinate to benefit us all. Why vote once every few years for your new arrogant overlord, when you can vote periodically and get a community minded representative who cares what the electorate thinks?
Given that education has been dumbed down (even spelling is elitist now), I somewhat agree with what you say Harry Again. I don’t think you were referring to all the population, but what you say about leaders is spot on. I have been saying the same thing for a long time and am absolutely fed up with the numbskulls that represent us as most are unemployable in the real world.