Quote of the week!

[Cody]

Fisher admits in a new memoir that she had an affair with Ford during the filming of the first Star Wars film in 1976. She says the relationship lasted about three months but she's hazy about the detail because of "the brutal strength of Harrison’s preferred strain of pot".

<chortles>

[Cody]

Sales of Irn Bru in the UK Parliament have increased 60% in the last year, according to new figures.

Doesn't Irn Bru carry a health warning these days - may cause behavioural problems in children, or something? Hmm...

[Redspear]

Sales of Irn Bru in the UK Parliament have increased 60% in the last year, according to new figures.

Doesn't Irn Bru carry a health warning these days - may cause behavioural problems in children, or something? Hmm...

May lead to cravings for independence perhaps?

[Smivs]

Experts, soothsayers, astrologers are all in much the same category.

The reality of post-truth Britain!

[Disembodied]

I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal.

What passes for the reality of Jacob Rees-Mogg … quoted after being driven around in a Mercedes by his nanny while standing as a candidate for the Conservative Party in 1997. Aged 28. In Central Fife.

[Cody]

The tyranny of the majority has never applied in a democracy...

The above statement caused me some pondering, so I dug a little and this quote, concerning the US electoral system, caught my eye:

As articulated by Hamilton, one reason the Electoral College was created was so "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."

Hmm...

[Disembodied]

As articulated by Hamilton, one reason the Electoral College was created was so "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."

Hmm...

Yes, that went well … although the US Electoral College members don't actually have to vote for the person their electors supported. There have been rare occasions where members of the Electoral College have cast their votes for someone else, although it's never apparently influenced the outcome of an election. Clearly, though, the Founding Fathers (rich white landowners who didn't want to pay their taxes - never the world's biggest fans of actual democracy ) set up the Electoral College with the intent that it would be a panel of "wise men" (i.e. rich white etc.) which could overrule the will of the people if necessary.

The phrase "tyranny of the majority" comes from Alexis de Tocqueville. He has some good points:

When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. Some have not feared to assert that a people can never outstep the boundaries of justice and reason in those affairs which are peculiarly its own; and that consequently full power may be given to the majority by which it is represented. But this is the language of a slave.

A majority taken collectively is only an individual, whose opinions, and frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another individual, who is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them.

This is why the US constitutional systems of checks and balances is so important - why having a majority does not grant unlimited power to any one group to do whatever it wants. It's also why the British system is such a disaster-in-waiting: no constitution, no checks and balances, the apparent ability of Prime Ministers (normally given a majority of power by a minority of votes) to assert "the Royal Prerogative" and do whatever the hell they like … Also coming up in the proposed Great Repeal Bill which will attempt to crowbar the UK out of EU legislation: granting powers to individual ministers to make new laws on the fly, without having to ask anyone, creating a horde of little kings. If for example Jeremy Typo wants to sell off the NHS and replace it with a website and a bottle of aspirin, there will be nothing to stop him: not the House of Commons, not even the Lords.

This is what the tyranny of the majority means. It's not about questioning the right of the majority to be in charge: it's about denying the majority the right to do whatever they want. There is - or there should be - a difference between being in government, and being a tyrant.

[Cody]

<nods> It was the 'has never applied in a democracy' bit of Major's quote that intrigued me.

[Disembodied]

<nods> It was the 'has never applied in a democracy' bit of Major's quote that intrigued me.

I think he's probably correct. No democracy - or at least, no modern democratic state - has granted absolute power to whoever won a particular vote or election. And all of them have written constitutions guaranteeing their citizens certain inalienable rights - except the UK: we just trust in the good intentions and honest intelligence of our governments. And here's a list of all the agencies who now have access to your browsing history in the UK, and who can see that I posted this and that you read it:

• Metropolitan Police Service
• City of London Police
• Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996
• Police Service of Scotland
• Police Service of Northern Ireland
• British Transport Police
• Ministry of Defence Police
• Royal Navy Police
• Royal Military Police
• Royal Air Force Police
• Security Service
• Secret Intelligence Service
• GCHQ
• Ministry of Defence
• Department of Health
• Home Office
• Ministry of Justice
• National Crime Agency
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Department for Transport
• Department for Work and Pensions
• NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services
• Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service
• Competition and Markets Authority
• Criminal Cases Review Commission
• Department for Communities in Northern Ireland
• Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland
• Department of Justice in Northern Ireland
• Financial Conduct Authority
• Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
• Food Standards Agency
• Food Standards Scotland
• Gambling Commission
• Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
• Health and Safety Executive
• Independent Police Complaints Commissioner
• Information Commissioner
• NHS Business Services Authority
• Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
• Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board
• Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation
• Office of Communications
• Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
• Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
• Scottish Ambulance Service Board
• Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
• Serious Fraud Office
• Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust

How lucky we are that every single one of these agencies is hyper-competent and totally secure!

[Cody]

I think he's probably correct.

Probably, yes.

No democracy - or at least, no modern democratic state - has granted absolute power to whoever won a particular vote or election.

Is Turkey classed as a modern democratic state?

[Disembodied]

Is Turkey classed as a modern democratic state?

Good question … I think it's a former democratic state morphing into something resembling an elected dictatorship, with Erdogan using the recent failed coup, combined with the Syrian emergency, to leverage constitutional change. To what extend Erdogan is complicit in the coup and the Syrian situation is above my pay grade!

[Smivs]

...it's a former democratic state morphing into something resembling an elected dictatorship...

That sounds a bit like the UK these days!

[Disembodied]

...it's a former democratic state morphing into something resembling an elected dictatorship...

That sounds a bit like the UK these days!

At least Turkey has a constitution that Erdogan has to subvert!

[Cody]

At least Turkey has a constitution that Erdogan has to subvert!

A process which is well under way - he's playing a very clever game. He's got the EU and NATO by the balls!

[Smivs]

Indeed. And what with developments in northern Syria, you fear the Kurds are going to cop it pretty soon as well.