Lies, Damn Lies

A rant on due process

Gordon Brown was never elected prime minister. That's ok, because nobody really is- the president would be an elected position, the prime minister never has been. Of course, its a shame that our prime minister has an absurd amount of power. In the US the legislature, excecutive and judiciary are split into seperate bodies of government, to allow for a set of checks and balances. Over here, at least until recently, they were all in one house. In addition, thanks to the prime minister effectively inheriting the powers of our sovereign, the prime minister can go to war without consulting parliament.

All in all, its a funny system, and leads to Gordon Brown having absolute power despite never having won an election. It means he can do things like make people who save him from having to resign into incredibly powerful people. I am talking, of course, about Peter Mandelson. Mandelson has had to resign from government not once, but twice, thanks to scandals on finance. He was and is one of the sleaziest individuals tied up with new labour. Thanks to Labours reform of the house of lords, in which they managed to make it even less democratic than it was before, he now will sit in the house for the rest of his life, and sits on almost all of the Labour committees.

So, a little bit of back story there. Now in latest news, Mandelson wants companies to cut internet access to those illegally downloading files. Hmm. Now, I could be wrong, but I thought we lived in a country which had some pretense at due process and law. Typically, if we have evidence that someone has broken the law, we either prosecute them, and if they are found guilty a judge will sentence them. For example, if we have video footage of someone shoplifting, we might take them to court, or might let them off with a warning. What we wouldn't do is ban them from going into shops.

This government have been in power too long. They have always had a slight arrogance of belief that they are incorruptable, and in more than one instance in the past, have seeked to free themselves from petty things like respect for the law. I simply cannot vote for a party that has lost its way as much as Labour has over the past 12 years.

Labels: politics, rant

posted by Mr K @ 9:38 am