An Abject Failure Of Democracy

The recent debate over the reintroduction of the death penalty was set in motion by the launch of the new HM Government e-petitions website, which encourages members of the public to submit ideas to be discussed by our MPs in Parliament.

However, far from being a grand new feather in the cap of democracy or signalling a bright new era in participation, the initiative represents another abject failure of our political system.

So removed have our political classes become from reality and the daily requirements of the population they seek to govern, that they feel it necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of our money on white elephants designed to cover up their ineptitude.

Furthermore, such petitions act as another distraction to the public, keeping them from the knowledge that the Parliament they look to for salvation is now largely defunct; knowledge that generations of our uncaring politicians have willingly frittered away our right to self rule; knowledge that we no longer run our country; and knowledge that Parliament is largely incapable of legislating on many matters highlighted by petitions, even if eventually debated by MPs.

In much the same way that a crime recorded by police is a failure of the police or policies to prevent it, the creation of a new democratic initiative is a front for the unwillingness of most politicians to reflect public opinion. Thus, the e-petitions ruse, much like its predecessor, represents not only the failure of politicians and political parties to understand and listen to public opinion (rather than, as they would have you believe, a new found desire to actually engage), but their active and contemptuous dismissal of our views and beliefs too.

The sad truth is that the political classes have more in common with each other than they do with the voting electorate. Government and party policy is increasingly formulated by small, closely knit teams of liberal, metropolitan graduates whose views, values and ideas are unrepresentative of the population as a whole. Frustratingly, these parasites remain insulated from reality by the Westminster bubble and from the economic mess they have wrought by the disgusting generosity of the public payroll. In short, the e-petitions will change none of this, nor were they ever meant to.

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US Waves Goodbye To Triple-A Credit Rating

Reuters UK brings us the inevitable news of credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgrading of United States debt from its prized triple-A position to AA-plus, citing concerns with the government’s budget deficit and rising debt burden.

As I recounted yesterday, the recent U.S. deal on raising the debt ceiling and supposedly reducing the deficit and debt was a calculated fraud. Instead, the U.S. will increase its borrowing and spending, albeit at a slightly slower rate than projected.

Commenting on the announcement, Republican Senator, Jim DeMint of South Carolina observed very much the same, saying:

The deal Congress just passed over conservative objections has already had its obvious effect, the loss of America’s credibility around the world. The deal was not a serious attempt to solve our spending and debt problem, it was a political solution meant to kick the can down the road. The only real solution to our spending and debt crisis was Cut, Cap & Balance that the president rejected out of hand.

The announcement by Standard & Poor’s was largely expected with the agency having placed the U.S. credit rating under review on the 14th of July. It is therefore unlikely to have much on an immediate impact on the markets. However, the long term implications for the United States and the world economy could be far reaching.

The Chinese, who are currently the biggest single creditor to the United States, were immediately critical of U.S. debt reduction steps (or lack thereof), and called for the creation of a new, stable global reserve currency. The country’s official news agency, Xinhua, said:

The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.

China has also strongly urged the United States to cut military and social welfare expenditure, warning that further credit downgrades would very likely undermine world economic recovery and trigger a new round of financial turmoil.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s great Europhile, Mark Mardell has been asking whether the separated system of Government in the United States is to blame for the financial crisis, and wondering if ‘the system itself may not be fit for purpose’.

Much like his former colleagues in the EU, Mark is rather adverse to actual opposition. In their world, the ‘dysfunctional’ government he claims the U.S. system produced has led to the prevention (mainly, in his eyes, by the Republicans and the Tea party) of a serious and unified agreement on the future of the dollar and the United States economy. If everyone would only just agree (or be given no choice in the matter) then the country could easily sort out its economic troubles in a flash – just like the EU. Oh no, wait..!

Still, we in Britain do not have the same system of Government as the United States, so I’m sure we have nothing to worry about. Our economy is so safe in fact that our MPs are able to spend time on much more important business…

Deceived Once Again

Is the political and economic fraud of the United States deal on the debt ceiling fooling anyone? So asks Brandon Smith at Alternative Markets, who reveals why the agreement amounts to nothing.

The U.S. debt ceiling was raised by the machinery of Government. The GOP and Democrats struck a deal which, while a compromise, planned to lower state expenditure and reign in the debt and public deficit. Crisis averted, right?

Wrong. In much the same vein as the supposed cuts our Chancellor of the Exchequer, good old little George Osborne has (generally not) implemented, the U.S. deal raised the debt ceiling, increased U.S. debt and did not make actual cuts in U.S. expenditure.

The ‘cuts’ made in the deal were reductions in the increase of U.S. public expenditure – not an actual cut, just a decrease in the increase – or in other words United States state expenditure will increase, though at an ever so slightly slower rate. An historic deal!

Far from solving the United States’ dire economic problems, they have been put off for another dark day. Mr Smith continued:

The debt decision and the above mentioned dire indicators leave us with two inevitable consequences: One, our credit rating WILL be downgraded, by S&P certainly, followed by Fitch and Moody’s later on. Two, we are, without a doubt, soon to see an announcement from the Fed of a third QE. Both of these items WILL lead to the final abandonment of U.S. treasuries and the dollar by the East, and likely by OPEC, ending in stagflation. That is, if they don’t commit to a dump beforehand. What we are looking at is the turning point of the final phase of total structural debasement of the U.S. economy. This is it, folks. This is where illusions are lifted, lies are revealed, assumptions are squashed, and things start to get really ugly.

Meanwhile, as the problems stack up across the Atlantic, the Euro zone countries are lurching into the latest phase of the Euro crisis. News of Spain and Italy readying for likely default has sent the markets spiralling downwards, and the European Commission are flapping as the Euro begins to come undone.

It is likely the Eurocrats have another bailout up their sleeves, but, like the last, it will only put off the inevitable. There is only so long you can put off paying your debts – and for the United States, the EU and probably the United Kingdom too, that day is coming – and coming very soon.

The Myth Of A War On Drugs

We are persistently informed, by members of the political and media establishment, that the ‘war on drugs’ has failed. One has to ask though, when was this supposed war actually fought?

This question cannot be answered because, in truth, we have never fought such a battle. If only we had. Instead, we have been sold a myth – a lie if you will – about a supposedly dogged pursuit of drugs, their users and suppliers by the various arms of the state. The reality is sadly rather different.

In response to my above assertion of there never having been a war on drugs, Joshua Lachovic wrote on his blog:

And you haven’t noticed the war on drugs? You haven’t noticed that the global prohibition kills thousands each year? You haven’t heard practically every politician of the past thirty years refer in some way to the ‘war on the drugs’? You haven’t heard any policeman who refers to the war on drugs? You haven’t noticed the £1.5bn that the UK spends yearly on the war? Nor have you noticed the time spent by every police force in the country trying to fight this war on drugs?

All the while, there are still drug users (as there will forever be), people still die because of drugs and people’s lives are still ruined because of drugs. Relaxing the enforcement and governing of banned substances? I suppose you hadn’t noticed mephedrone be criminalised because of media hysteria last year. I suppose you hadn’t noticed magic mushrooms be criminalised earlier this decade. Nor had you noticed that with a police force such as the one in Sussex, over the past decade crime has fallen, while drug crime has increased. To imply that we aren’t fighting a war on drugs is frankly naive, to say the very least.

Unfortunately for poor Joshua, he makes a number of glaring errors in his argument. To begin with, what he calls the ‘global prohibition’ of drugs (which doesn’t exist, because it is not prohibition) does not kill thousands each year. Drugs kill people; ‘prohibition’ does not.

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