Another the Age didn't want to print

Julie Szego (Melbourne Age 25/1) bemoans the world poll condemning America. Sure,
its not all bad. But the problem with American (and Australian)
democracy is that leaders are allowed to rule the roost unchecked, until
disaster sets in - an acute lack of accountability. (Fancy wanting to
export it!)
Congress could not stop Bush. Can it even now?
With parliaments failing, on behalf of the people, to restrain impetuous
leadership, dissident opinion, also lacking the intellectual restraint
that public face-to-face discussion forums could provide, fires
unchecked its missiles of hate in print or the net.
A democratic nation cannot avoid the repercussions or responsibility for
its actions, and those of its leader. Otherwise our democracy stands
condemned. Just so - and perhaps our much-vaunted democracy needs a
drastic overhaul.

Basil J Smith

Chipp failed democracy

Chipp (and his Democrats) have failed because they rejected the goal of
eliminating party ideological politics through secret ballots in
parliament. Had they done so their success would have stunned the major
parties.
But all AD leaders have preferred the temporary success of pursuing
political power, despite the name they adopted.
Meanwhile, our democracy continues to stumble.
Only ballots in parliament can free all our representatives to truly
represent us in government, by discussing the problems with their
constituents in regular public meetings, and voting independently for us
in parliament.
A partnership of parliament and people is absolutely essential to any
successful resolution of the difficult problems ahead of us.

Shrinking Democracy - re Age article

To Professor George Williams
Good to see your article in today's Age. The question is - what can be done about it?

This party has done a little bit but, despite the wealth of critism and unhappiness at the deterioration of our politics toward authoritarian government, there is little real response, with so many hoodwinked, believing the propaganda about our low unemployment and our 'healthy' economy.
(What happens when the family jewels run out in a generation of so. Who
really cares?)

The introduction of 'our democracy' to other countries is a joke. Is it a blessing to the people in America? Here in Australia? No way.

Has it worked in New Guinea? It's a mess. Is it working in East Timor? That's a mess too. Is it working out in Iraq? No that's a mess too.

What can be wrong? Simple. The basis of our notion of democracy has a fundamental flaw - party politics.
It is common in political writings to recognise that there is a serious problem, but no acknowledgement that our politics, structured around a party system is not real democracy at all - a hybrid - and disastrous.
Some have even said that there can be no democracy without parties.
'Blind leaders of the blind'! The tragedy of this view is that political parties have proved the death of democracy.

Let's not be deceived. If the rot were not slow people might wake up but, like the frog on the stove, we are being gradually boiled helpless.
We are being carefully conditioned for authoritarian government.
To compare our drift to prewar Germany might seem passe, but the trend is very clear. Our concept of democracy is a house of cards, collapsing where it is most needed.

Our devotion to 'democracy' is in name only. The Eureka miners would be horrified. Their deaths gave us a start in the right direction - with the ballot for elections. This revolutionary idea was bitterly resisted, as threatening chaos. Wrong. It opened the way for a period of real progress and prosperity which made Victoria the leading state, able to handle well the turmoil of the gold rush and the wealth of the people.
There is much turmoil ahead for us and we need the connection of the disconnected public, with real representation, not by parties but by representatives. Only the ballot in parliament can recreate the power of a politically connected people.
Basil Smith
03 9800 2561

East Timor & Iraq, and Democracy

The breakdown of struggling ‘democracy’ in East Timor (and Iraq) prompts the question whether ‘European’ democracy is actually suitable for less developed countries.

The object of government, and the measure of its success, is the combined achievement of the community through popular cooperation.

The cooperation of the people may be achieved in:
1. Dictatorship, by leadership, propaganda and coercion – clearly a no-no.
2. A two-or-more-party state by leadership, propaganda and by appeal to the acquisitive instincts of the people. However, the problems engendered by the escalating consumption of (and competition for) global resources and the resulting environmental problems must soon force a revision of this basis of government.
3. A non-party state (e.g. Britain in wartime) by leadership and the willing sacrifices of the people – clearly the ideal in view of the damage to our environment by our self-centred consumerism. However, we willing need to use our intelligence to find the secret of non-party government without waiting for crisis, which might indeed be international chaos.
In A.A.Milne’s classic tale of Winnie-The-Pooh, ‘Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs … bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head … It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.’
Party politics to a T. There is another way for us – ballots in our parliaments.

We need better democracy, but few are listening. Especially do we need to be aware that a future crisis, quite on the ‘cards’, is more likely to produce a to dictatorship than a better democracy. Machiavelli mentioned the need for concentration of power in government in time of war. Britain’s monarchy enabled the smooth wartime transition from party government to Grand Coalition. This cannot be regarded as a normal to democracies generally.
We need to stop ‘bumping down the stairs and think’. This is not an option.

Who will bell the cat?

Joo-Cheong Tham, (Melbourne Age 26/5), in your excellent article 'Party Funds threaten democracy', you recommend that we 'institute limits on the amount the parties can spend, to ... promote a level-playing field and...stanch the demand for private funds' for elections.'

But, who is going to do it?

I am reminded of the Aesop's Fable, about the little mice forming the plan to solve their problems by putting a bell on kitty's neck.
However Grandma mouse sees a flaw in the plan. 'Who shall bell the
cat?'.

Many and varied are the problems caused by the power of party governments to ignore public opinion, thus destroying democracy.

But where is the political will to put an end to it. The only answer lies with ballots in our parliaments - for every decision.

The fable concludes with the MOTAL: 'Many a plan has just one flaw: No one has the courage to try it.'

The Secret Ballot Party plans to 'bell the cat'.

Basil Smith 111/100 Harold St. Wantirna. 3152. 9800 2561

Convenor
Secret Ballot Party

Unpublished Letter to the Age (Melbourne) 23/5/06

'A Call to Arms',(The Age 22/5).
Anne Mancini calls for a 'united effort from the thousands of angry Australians who want to hand on a respected democracy to their descendants'. She has a point! What's wrong, you ask?

The domination of our democracy by party executives has progressively destroyed the fundamental element of a genuine democracy - real representation, and accountability of MPs to their constituents - not to party heirarchies or minority interests.

The Secret Ballot Party has the sole objective of a referendum to free our representatives to decide all debates in parliament (and elect all ministers) by secret ballot.

Some object that: 'But you wouldn't know how they vote', ignoring how bankrupt is that privilege, when we, as unorganised individuals, are helpless to influence outcomes on any specific matter at all, even at elections.

With the ballot in parliament, representatives will no longer be controlled, or endorsed, by parties. They will therefore need to hold regular public meetings to win constituent support.

In such local meetings a 'respected democracy' will certainly reappear, as we take hold on the new opportunity for effective participation.
Then the 'anger of thousands' will be dissipated in a confident, purposeful community life, with stable, accountable parliamentary government.

BasilSmith

Convenor
Secret Ballot Party
03 9800 2561

Christians - Our Democracy needs YOU !

The situation with regard to our democracy is really quite serious.
Ongoing concerns with the local, and international drift away from democracy go back many years. Control of our representatives votes by party leaders is destroying democratic government, and the wellbeing of the people. That is why we are establishing the Secret Ballot Party, to pursue the only real solution - the rule of the ballot in our parliaments.
The party's main need at this early stage is a few hundred members - no money or further involvement - to gain the attention of the people to this reform, the merit of which will make its own momentum amongst 'non-political' people, and arrest the slide away from the rule of the people, and the pernicious doctrine that neither we, nor our opinions are needed.

People often say: "I'm not politically inclined." This fairly common view, leaving it to the politicians, is causing a drift away from democratic government. (Let's never forget the Reich.)
Leaving it all to the 'government' is not democracy; nor is being merely content to vent our spleen at an election. As someone has said: However you vote, all you get is the 'government' - which is not 'by the people'.

To counter this drift we need the change in the operation of parliament so that all decisions are made by ballot so that representatives, as a body, decide the laws and courses of action, not a Prime Minister, or ministers exercising control of party members' votes.

The question of accountability worries some. There is no cause. All party politicians will be effectively dis-endorsed, reducing them to independent status, entirely dependent upon their constituents for re-election. Their logical, and only feasible response will be to conduct regular monthly meetings of, and for, the people, who will quickly sense their vulnerability, and not be backward in making their
views known, with all the insistence deemed necessary.
Woe betide that representative who treats the constituents lightly. Any deviousness will quickly bring down the wrath of the people on the representative. And suitable rivals for the seat will always be close at hand.
It is obvious that cultivation of the constituents will be a first priority for all representatives.

Turmoil? No. Both representatives and constituents will quickly see the way to cooperate, to further their mutually dependent interests.

The Secret Ballot Party offers to the uninvolved the opportunity, with an absolute minimum of action, to anyone to arrest this downward slide into dictatorial government.

Meanwhile, what of the operation of parliament? Obviously the ministers will behave, or be displaced by ballot. They will each be required to give undivided and serious attention to the administration of their departments, as delegated by parliament. And, without the distraction of party conflict, they will be without excuse for any inadequacy of administration. And, public servants will replace party appointments of
ministerial staff.

Cabinet? Elected ministers will be required by parliament to pull together in an orderly and constructive team, carrying out the decisions of parliament.

'Thy will be done on earth, as in heaven.'

Now about us Christians. We are witnesses, in life and word. Are we not 'the light of the world'? So, we must 'Let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven'.
We, along with others of sincerity and goodwill, will always have a significant role in the community - not by preaching, and having no authority beyond the wisdom which God may afford.

I am reminded of the dream of the English poet William Blake, and the words so often sung in schools.

Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold,
Bring me my arrows of desire,
Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold,
Bring me my Chariot of Fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green and pleasant land.

It is the dream of Abraham: "A city without foundations whose builder and maker is God."

I am further reminded of a saying on the wall of my old Presbyterian
Church.

We believe in a Christlike world.
We know of nothing better.
We can be content with noting less.

May God bless and encourage us all.

Basil Smith
for the Secret Ballot Party.
(the party to end party politics)
Email: secretballotparty@fastmail.net
03 9800 2561

MP Accountability

A common error by those opposed to the 'secret ballots in parliament reform' is that, without knowing how the Mp votes, there could be no accountability. Quite wrong!

Some years ago senior Victorian Liberal MP James Guest was quizzed on this very point. His succinct answer: "It would make MPs accountable".

Strange isn't it?

Let's consider.

In a parliament that ballots every issue, all MPs will be supported by party clout and funds no longer. Entirely free to do as they please in parliament, they will need to use that freedom to work for their constituents' best interests.

Awakened to the MP's vulnerablity in the new, and regular, public meetings, convened by the MP (in the MP's own best interests), constituents will rally there, especially on controversial issues.

If their MP is not entirely honest, constituents, ably assisted by a salivating media, will swarm like angry bees.

But any MP who is honest and competent, will graduate quickly to the changed role, and find it much more fulfilling and highly respected.

This reform has the capacity to change everything - for the better - for all.

By the way - 'the love of democracy is the love of others' - while 'the love of power is the love of self'.

Democracy will flourish under the ballot in our parliaments.

America - tramping the world.

One would think an avowed Christian like George Bush would have picked up a few tips from his Bible on how to get on with your enemies. How about "Love your enemies". Or maybe "Resist not evil but overcome evil with good".
It is arrogance that makes wars. The trouble is that arrogant people are slow to recognise their arrogance.
How many nuclear states do we have now? Quite a few.
Why is Iran considered to be such a threat?
Israel? There's a lot of hatred for Israel. That goes back 3000 years or so; to the days when Ismael got kicked out of Abraham's house because Sarah was jealous of Hagar, Ismael's mother, for beating her to have Abraham's child.
Spurned by Abraham's religion and descendants over the centuries, it's no wonder the Arabs found another religion to get upsides with the Jews. So we have religious enmity as well.
The UN kindly responded to the Holocuast survivors by allowing their settlement in Palestine, to have their own land in some security. But they roughly evicted 600,000 of the inhabitants who finished up in surrounding refugee camps their hearts filled with hatred for the invaders. It's quite unsurprising that some of them at least want those invaders out, hopeless cause though it be.
Only suicide bombers stand between them and their complete subjugation, with the creeping absorption of the remainder of Palestine by Jewish settlers and their protecting military, complete with tanks, gunships and every modern military surveillance equipment, with which they casually assassinate whom they will with impunity.
Every attempt to find a peaceful solution has been foiled by the constant Israeli demand that the Palestinians surrender everything first, completely , despite the fact that their land is constantly overrun with Israeli tanks and troops.
One would think that Israel's previous Holocaust experience would have produced some feelings of compassion for the Palestinians. But apparently not.
America's continual weak surrender to the Israeli point of view, with financial and full military assistance (without prevention of it's secretive nuclear capability) has prolonged the conflict interminably with insult adding to injury. A Tragedy in our time.
The solution lies with America - if ever it can regain its Christian perspective and moral character. Oh, when will their people rise up to rule??

What do you think?

The times they are achangin’!

An article by Australia’s New South Wales Ex Premier, Bob Carr, in his recently published book, ‘Thoughtlines’, on the future of our planet is quite alarming. He details many worrying facts illustrating that the world is heading for serious trouble.

The populations of many countries are on the rise, not just a little, but a lot, and many are pursuing higher and higher standards of living.

Our planet will be quite unable to sustain the resulting pressure on its resources - especially of fuel (for heating, power, agriculture and manufacture) and water. Developed nations have been for some time consuming much more than their share, on a population basis, while demand from poorer nations is accelerating. Moreover, there is no sign of any wealthy country restraining its demand for more and more, much less intending to cut its consumption to world sustainable levels for all – if that were a realistic possibility, even with drastic, across-the-board change.

It cannot be merely alarmist to warn of the future political and international confrontations and conflicts that are likely to occur as world stocks of vital supplies dwindle at an accelerating rate.

For a start, a drastic change in the manner of living of developed countries is clearly necessary, without delay. While the inhabitants of the wealthy countries must face that challenge now, it is debatable whether the rising industrial giants of Asia (and South America?) will be able to accept the challenge to hold back when their standards of living are already far behind. Need we mention as well the poverty of Africa?

Are we planning for the future? Are we aware of the future danger? Perhaps it is already far too late to see an outcome that could be acceptable to future generations. We may not see these outcomes but, even if our children don’t, our grand children certainly will.

Have we the nous and structures to seriously tackle this political tsunami, or is the battle already lost?

Where is democracy???

Where is the cry for democracy? Where are those who are concerned???
Many are seriously disturbed at the increasing trend to autocratic party government, but can't see the answer. When John Faine Melbourne 774, was speaking to Mark Latham on ABC radio, about the corruption of the political process, neither had any answer to the mess we are in.
We need a referendum of the people for the installation of the ballot in parliament for all debates and elections. There is no other answer.
Since the parties are not interested in real democracy we need a new initiative. We need leadership which actually believes in democracy - government by the people -
through freely voting parliamentary representatives, and an executive in submission to parliament. This is something from which we have strayed a long way - ministerial responsibility. Or should we say rather, accountability, since irresponsibility has become so blatant.

Where can this kind of leadership be found ???
The Secret Ballot Party is still in its infancy but it stands for the real democracy which only the ballot in parliament can attain to.
Our membership is slowly building, with concerned people who are not afraid to think outside the square.

Secret Ballot Party: secretballotparty.fastmail.net
Convenor: basilsmith@fastmail.net

An Australian Persona

Is there such a thing? Of course not. We are a collection of many different kinds of people. Of course. We are multi-cultural. We are diverse.
There are many different layers of difference.
Wealth, education, religion, ethnicity,emotional type, age etc etc.
Many are hard at work - some can't be bothered. Many are patient in adversity - some impatient.
Some get angry at injustice and do something - some just stay angry. Some are happy & glad - some are not.
Are there common factors. Yes we are human.
We can be patient - and work things out. We can be inventive - finding solutions.
We can help others - and find satisfaction.
We can be optimists - and see the donut - not the hole.
We can be a part of the solution - not part of the problem.
Yes, we are human - with a limitless capacity for doing good - happily.
We are human - with a limitless capacity for destroying the wellbeing of others (and ourselves).
We are human. We have the capacity to choose. But without faith it is difficult and for many can prove impossible. Faith enables us to be what we want to be - ourselves - productively and happily for ourselves and those around us.
We are not all alike, and will never be. But that doesn't matter as long as we have goodwill towards each other. Then we can be at peace - and proudly Australian.

Muslim & Australian Attitudes

from Ian Johnstone

Dear Basil,
Thanks for your thoughts on the Cronulla clashes.
I agree with your two points, which I see this way:

1. It is difficult for Muslims, used to obeying religious authority, to
submit to a secular government. That is what will make it hard for
Democracy to "take" in Iraq.

2. Muslims see our western culture as decadent; how we run on, covetting, consuming, greedy, self-seeking, polluting, self-indulgent with alcohol and sex.
Muslims perhaps feel self-righteously better than we are, and morally superior.
Add some male rivalry, our indignation at how they treat their women and rape some of ours, and a dash of racial intolerance, and the violence erupts.

There is no one simple remedy, as the origins, and of it and fuel for it continuing, are a combination of deep differences about religion, sex and race. It will take generations for these to subside, as did catholic/protestant differences forty years ago.

Cheers, Ian Johnstone

Good stuff Ian, But we do hope to speed it up by the healthy process of people involvement when we achieve the ballot in parliament. This which will force our representatives to consult with the people in public meetings.
As Latham says (Latham Diaries) our sick politics and sick society feed off each other.
Conversely, healthier politics, through the ballot in parliament, should feed, and be fed off, a healthier society, through this greater public participation.

Basil Smith
Convenor
secretballotparty@fastmail.net

MPs must be set free by parliamentary ballot.

Why is that so important?
Well, why do we value the ballot for elections? Because we want to be free to exercise our vote without interference from ANYBODY.
Well, why should the ones we want to represent us be forced to vote for us without that freedom?
Those who don't want that freedom must surely not be interested in representing us, but rather the interests which finance their campaigns. True or false?
What do you think??????

The New Democracy - in a Nutshell

Party politics is government by bullies with our reps dominated by party
leaders.
With secret ballots in parliament they will all be independent and answerable only to their own constituents. They will then be sure to hold regular meetings locally so we can talk to them.
In parliament they will enter into debate on each issue, as required, on our behalf alone, and will each be confident on getting a fair hearing from the rest of the free MPs. Minority interests will be able to be heard without fear as they will have no special power. Personality politics will be soon seen as counterproductive and will vanish.
With the executive team formed by ministers who will all be individually
elected from, and by, their MP colleagues, and each directly responsible
to parliament, parliamentary government will quickly regain the respect
of the people.
This new process will usher in a new and far better kind of practical MP accountability (or responsibility to the electorate), based on the resulting public political stimulus and the effective dependence of each MP on the support of each body of constituents. The public meetings will prove a fertile breeding ground for rival candidates where sitting MPs waver in performance.
The effect will be a rapid increase in public participation and political sophistication, with vanishing apathy, and a rapid rise in MP statesmanship.

This is a radical, comprehensive reform which must not be dismissed on the basis of fear that an uninformed public could not handle it, but diligently assessed on its intrinsic merit. At present we have public demoralisation caused by the corruption of democracy. This reform will require an intensive public examination, in the light of the new political environment which we have every confidence will result from
its eventual adoption.

Let's not be afraid to examine a real alternative form of democracy.
The one we have is definitely 'broke'!

The media and all that junk

Sensational reporting is common but is it the best way to get things done?
'Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.' So said Ralph Waldo Emerson, eminent American social commentator of earlier years.
But editors can be bullies too, and good government can easily fall through the cracks between the two.
Reading today (the Age 31/10) about serious errors in the public hospital system, with patients dying who should not, through surgical and nursing errors etc it seems far from good enough to have this horrifying news long after the reported events. No doubt it helps sell papers to elicit this information through the unwieldy and often slow and unwilling Freedom of Information facility. And no doubt a handy tool for an Opposition to lambast the government in public, but does this help to quickly iron out the problems of our hospital system, in an ongoing scrutiny (with understanding of the problems) to give us confidence in our hospital system.
No doubt the government is doing this, but can it be fully effective in a climate of belated, trenchant criticism? The natural reaction of government is to be defensive and cover up. Party conflict only hinders ideal government operation.
In similar vein is the legal confidentiality restriction being imposed by the Federal government on the ACT Chief Minister's publishing an updated draft of the proposed 'terror laws' on his website.
With the urging of the Prime Minister to have it all passed quickly, in the midst of a public preoccupation with the Melbourne Cup, clearly close public interest is unwelcome.
Which is all rather strange, or should we say rather that our democracy has become estranged, when we remember the 1859 comment of Abraham Lincoln, "In this country, public opinion is everything." Our democracy has seriously drifted.

A New Leader?

We need a new leader. One who actually does believe in democracy, instead of claiming it while indulging in sham wisdom and blatant autocracy.
To exercise authority as a political leader over elected representatives is a democratic sham. The fact that a leader can claim that they are only there by reason of his marvellous leadership qualities merely indicates that he has powerful and wealthy forces (media and otherwise) behind him to steamroll elections in his party's favour, and to whom he is beholden for his policies and the exercise of his power.
Parliament is now rightly accused of being a rubber stamp for these powers.
Throughout history democracy has needed revision from time to time to rescue it, and the people, from the inroads of authoritarian powers.
The Chartists lobbied for better elections and we got the secret ballot for elections, after the Eureka stockade. We did well. But we now need further drastic change.
Since Federation there has been a takeover of parliamentary government by big parties, supported by powerful interests, and democracy is in urgent need of substantial revision to restore the power of the people to self-govern.
This requires intervention in the operation of parliament to exclude the means by which the major parties commandeer our parliaments' powers for their own advantage, while muttering about ruling on behalf of all the people.
People need more than 'bread and circusses', (prosperity - or the myth thereof) and entertainment (major sports and other events proliferating).
Without having an appropriate say in government, and having no sense of control of our destiny, we are becoming politically and morally puny, while party government goes on its merry way unchecked.
The origins of democracy do not suggest that the modern equivalent, consisting of powerful (robust!) governments, rowdy and ineffectual oppositions, strikes and occasional violent demonstrations, qualify as democracy.
Pericles defined it for us, saying:'We call ours a democracy because our decisions are made by the many rather than the few'. That is exactly what our systen of government is not. And there is only one way we can oversome the problem of elected dictatorships. Parliaments must be reformed to enable our representatives to all have equal power to decide on our behalf, after frequent local consultation. This can only be achieved by having our parliaments function by secret ballot for all debated matters, including the election of ministers. Thus selected individually by ballot of all members of parliament, they will form an executive which is both responsible and securely accountable to our representatives.
That is the reform we need to rescue our delapidated democracy.
Who will stand up for this and lead us out of the political murk into which we have allowed ourselves to sink?
We have big names protesting but noone to lead.
Who will bite the bullet?
My best bet is Dr. Carmen Lawrence.

Song of Democracy

You MPs and Senators leave us appalled,

With party-line voting whenever you're called,

You know very well it's the people you slight,

And we don't think you're all that engagin';

Well you can't have your way, hold the people at bay,

For the times they are achangin'.......



You've hung up 'the system' with parties so long,

You've forgotten completely democracy's song,

That government rights to the people belong,

And the system needs much rearrangin';

So get out of the way, it's the people's New Day,

And the people will soon do the changin'......



You know that the world's in a terrible mess,

With widespread anxiety, unemployed stress,

With war and disease of a terrible kind,

And hopeless political turmoil;

It's democracy's way - give the people their say,

Then we'll all get along with this changin'.........



by Basil Smith

(With apologies to Bob Dylan.)

The new force

For too long we have teated democracy as a done deal - in the West. It's never been more than a 'work-in-progress'. New and better ways to facilitate the involvement of the people in self-government should regularly be investigated if there is respect for the welfare of the people. The convictions and certainties of ideologues must never claim a greater importance, although they usually do.
For one hundred and fifty years we have seen the benefit to the people of the secret ballot employed for elections, with gross practices sharply reined in. Now we have the opportunity, with electronics, to similarly clean up the gross abuse of democratic practice in our parliaments. With electronic voting, decisions can now be made with electronic speed where they count most importantly in the affairs of the nation.
So, not only will the speed remove all excuse from those who want to use their personal power to control the affairs of the nation, but the secrecy of voting will finally remove the power they have, through the open vote, to control our representatives.
So the 'new force' is in fact an old force, but modern electronics now makes possible that which could only apply to elections for the last 150 years. We have now been dithering for far too long with the urgent need for the power of the ballot to restore the power and the glory of the people to our parliaments. That will be a return to a real Periclean democracy - where 'the decisions are made by the many rather than the few'.
We need to urgently reorganise the decision-making processes of government on such democratic lines; with the ballot operating in our parliaments to ovecome the political dominance of ideology and minority powers which destroys representation, frustrates policies of sanity and justice, substituting wild schemes (like war in Iraq) which resolve nothing, and create fresh dangers rather than securing us from the threatening traumas of the future.
There is no doubt that the people are more capable of exercising the care and wisdom that are needed for the best approach to the deep problems of the future. The powers of those so convinced of their own perfect wisdom and unwilling to forgo personal power in favour of real democracy can be thwarted by the ballot in parliament for the election of members of the executive. Government power belongs to parliament - not to the executive, whose place is to carry out the wishes of a freely voting parliament.
The best years for democracy, and the people of the world lie ahead. But without this revolutionary reform the years ahead can only be full of gloom. Population growth and the wildly out of control exhaustion of world resources make that clear.

Let there be - Peace!

Pamela Bone says (Melbourne 'Age' Opinion 5/10) 'calling for peace is an easy
option.' We know well that there can be no peace without justice, the rarest commodity on the planet.
If peace in Iraq only follows civil war, it will copy what has happened in America, and in Britain many times, and many other countries. The stronger side, not a majority, wins. It happens still - and usually minority government, often concealed behind a facade of dodgy elections. With political parties dominant, elections are merely struggles for (leader) power.
But that's not democracy, is it?.
No, and that's why there is no peace.
How to bring peace to the world?
1. Sidestep presidential and executive power with ballot controlled parliamentary government.
2. Eventually set up the UN on the same basis with each country having votes in proportion to its population - and no Security Council, of course.
"He's dreaming!" said the father (often) in the Australian film 'The Castle'.
It is, nonetheless, probably the only viable vision of real hope for the future.
If we will it, there will be peace one day - but not if the pressures of population growth on the world's resources beat us. And a nuclear end to the world is not impossible - or even unlikely.
The future of the planet, and our children, needs some fast footwork, on our part.