The most important single thing that needs to be done today is to open governmental and think tank web sites to comments from the public.
Laughably, I have seen many think tanks and governmental policy organisations trumpeting the benefits of open government and e-democracy yet their web sites have little or no interactivity.
They should practice what they preach!
However, there is enormous resistance among many MPs, Local Authority Councillors, Governmental organisations and even think tanks to any involvement from the public.
Elected representatives all too often seem to take the view that, once the electorate has voted, the elected representatives should be left to get on with the job without being bothered by the British public.
Think tank members seem to think that only the great and good can make a sensible argument.
Governmental consultation systems are hierarchical, exclusive and unauditable by contributers.
Even Governmental Departments often just don’t bother to reply to difficult questions.
Letters to MPs and Councillors go unanswered, especially if they involve complicated issues.
The fact is that the systems of democratic procedure are weighted in favour of those that have the power or money to lobby whereas ordinary people, however strong their arguments, have little direct say or influence.
No wonder there is voter apathy when so little regard is paid to public comments.
However, it has to be said that, with the present systems, there would be massive inefficiency and duplication, if all comments and communications were given detailed answers by Councillors, MPs and Governmental Departments.
Systems therefore need to be set up to enable wiki style knowledge bases alongside legislative discussion forums which openly include MPs, Councillors, lobby groups and the public.
Open source software has show us the way to organise this!
Let’s create a society where it is the quality of the argument that wins the debate and all legislation is forensically analysed in public by the best minds of our time (elected or not).
Open e-Democracy and the ‘collective intelligence’ of the British people are the best way to put the Great back in Britain.
Let’s get started now!
What do you think? Your comments are welcomed.
Bye for now
Rob
(Rob Hopcott – online author)
Hear, hear! Let us shun those who, as self-annointed glorious guardians of good, use lies, deceit, political correctness, smoke and mirrors, et al, to play the fox. They pee on our feet and tell us it is raining!
Being a U.S. citizen, I see the prpoblem as endemic; a matter of broken governments although the Brits are catching on faster than are the Yanks!
For years, way back, I observed the Arabs spawing into the bowels of the U.K. I believed then that it was to become a breading ground for trouble.
Today the U.S. is begining to feel the same pain and as U.S. leaders — snake oil salesmen, all — simply ignore that fact. They will believe the reality and face it squarely when either, Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles or the District of Columbia become a huge, empty, smouldering hole in the ground!
The U.S. claims to be a nation of laws. Our problem is that the laws are bigger and stronger than those who enacted them. To add to the problem my government simply refuses to enforce them. And that is the rub.
In the U.S., our political leaders rely solely on political correctness to cleanse their souls (if any of them have one). If anyone would admit the fact that the world is at war, not with terror, a strategy, but with those who follow the tenets of Islam, we’s all know what to do.
Islam is not a religion but an ideological cult in “drag” and those who follow it promise to destroy Western culture, kill the Jews and subdue the remainder of the Western world to Shia law.
The best military minds in antiquity have shown us what is required to win a war. It is the willingness to ruthlessly decimate the enemy and destroy his ability to wage his war. Forget colateral damage. That buzz word has no place in the hearts and minds of winners. Colateral damage is a losers promise!
H. J. Gaudreau (U.S. Air Force, Retired)