Democracy is dead in the UK

One of the reasons I'm so dashed keen to set up home here in Canada is that back where I originate, democracy is dead or very nearly so. Now hold hard there Bill me old mucker, you might vouchsafe. Democracy in the UK no more? The mother of all parliaments neutered? Sir, you dissemble. Thou speakest from the place whence the sun shineth not, me old china.

Sadly, my assertion is correct. Back in my other life (February and May 2006)I blogged about a heinous piece of legislation I and others called the Abolition of Parliament act. It's proper title being the Legislative and Regulatory Reform bill 2006. Essentially it allows what are called SI's or Statutory Instruments which actually allow a Government to bypass Parliamentary scrutiny of legislation. No oversight by the Lords, no discussion, no representation of the people, just diktat. The current UK government can, with a few notable exceptions (Even if the bill has been watered down from it's intended original fiendish format) pass what legislation it likes without asking anyone. No use writing to your MP to help you, he / she won't be able to, because the 'rules' won't allow it.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking this is a very bad thing indeed. The powers government in the UK has ceded to itself are quite staggering. I have had first hand experience of those in the various enforcement arms of local and national government, and my experiences have rarely filled me with confidence. I won't use abusive terms such as Marxist or Nazi about them because this is not true, rather the enforcers are so hogtied by all the various rules governing what they can and cannot do, that they can act in no other way. The 'top down' model of Management strikes again.

It is a sad axiom that the more powers the state has, the fewer true rights the citizens have. Already the presumption of innocence before trial has gone the way of all flesh, along with a number of other hard won little freedoms that you don't really notice until you tried to use them. Privacy? Not if the UK Social Services (Rightly or wrongly) have you in their sights. Freedom of speech? Ever heard of 'hate crime'? All that is needed is a complaint, justified or not.

The problem is that with enough new regulations imposed without thorough scrutiny, those whose job it is to enforce said rules find themselves looking like a bunch of concentration camp guards, regardless of their true nature. I've been there and seen that. You can quite easily get to a point where once the machinery is in motion, God help those who fall into it's grinding maw. No mercy, no pardon, and no way out. It is incredibly easy to become an inadvertent criminal in the UK with all the new and unexamined new regulations about.

Therefore I am determined that any putative grandchildren our girls present us with will grow up in Canada. That is mainly why Mrs S and I are here, to provide our family's next generation with a ready escape tunnel from the burgeoning prison state that the UK threatens to become.

Despite all our frustrations with the immigration process, and the hurdles it has thrown in our way; I am convinced that my family's future is here in British Columbia, and I'm prepared to put up with a lot to make sure that happens.