Day 3063: Why NOT Call a General Election?

Thursday:


Why shouldn't we hold a General Election?

Mr Frown says it would cause "CHAOS"! Well, that shouldn't stop us; as a naughty elephant on a sugar rush I might say CHAOS is GOOD!

Ms Harriet the Harminator appears on the The Today Programme and refuses to answer the question.

But why NOT?

Well, the answer that they are ducking is that IT WON'T SOLVE ANYTHING.

As with all of Mr Balloon's ideas it SOUNDS simple… but Mr Clogg said it to the Prime Monster's face:

"…all you get is a few new faces and the same old rotten rules."

Just swapping one load of numpties for ANOTHER load of numpties is action that only LOOKS like a solution: how typical of Mr Balloon!

Here's what we REALLY need to do:

We need to tell the VOTERS that they are in charge again.

So first, the new Mr (or Ms) Speaker needs to use their fresh authority to call a CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION where EVERYONE will be allowed to contribute to writing a NEW BRITISH CONSTITUTION.

We will want to have open Town Hall meetings and submissions over the Internet. We should get the BBC involved: Mr Graham Norton can host "How do you solve a Problem like DEMOCRACY?" in which members of the public can phone in to choose their own Royal Commission.

We should do everything we can to make this the BIGGEST exercise in participative democracy EVER.

I know what I want: STV or SINGLE TRUNK VOTING – and I think we have really GOT to go out and sell people on the idea, convince them that the BEST system is one where the Parties can put up a number of candidates, but the VOTERS choose amongst them. PEOPLE's choice, not PARTIES' choice. And it's just like Primaries, but without the fuss of having to vote twice! The Conservatories LIKE the idea of Open Primaries; but we know that people DON'T LIKE wasting their time with too many elections. So go STV which does the same job and is much more powerfully democratic!

I want Fixed Term Parliaments, with fewer MPs, maybe four-hundred from Multimember Seats elected by STV. I want a STRONGER Parliament with Committees that can hold the Government to account, a Parliament that can subpoena ministers (or ANYONE) and demand answers. I want MPs to have a better career path on the Committees: like US Senators, they should wield real power.

I want a SMALLER Government, fewer ministries means less wasted money; fewer ministers means less pointless patronage. I want an elected House of Lords, and if you want special seats for members of religious communities then they should be allowed to speak but not vote.

Politicians should get round the table and SORT IT OUT! And if they can't agree someone should tell them what to do… someone WISE… someone FLUFFY… no! hang on, I've come over all MANIKIN SKYWALKER! That's exactly what SHOULDN'T happen!

I know what I want… but what do YOU want? After all, it's YOUR Parliament too.

"The people" say that they want this cleaning up – well they have to understand that THEY are the ones who have to do the cleaning up.

And then in six or maybe nine months (that might be pushing people's patience) we will have a REFERENDUM to adopt the new Constitution.

And three weeks later we have a General Election under the NEW rules.

Mr Clogg says "Of course we need an election", and he's right.

We just need a REVOLUTION first!


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