If you've been lamenting the newsworthy current political mess as something new as opposed to the politics of yesteryear which seemed positively dull and boring "ah, those were the days" says one wit quoted in "The Week", then think again. If you are becoming disillusioned with "the will of the people" and "the people have spoken", you can at least take comfort from the fact that this is nothing new at all.
Perhaps the first recorded instance of the people speaking is in the Bible, at Exodus Chapter 32, where the people of Israel in the absence of Moses' return from up the mountain, clamour for any old gods to go with them on their journey. Aaron, the brother of Moses and one of the Senior Management Team 😉, like our Tories who put the Referendum into their prospectus, fearing the loss of popularity and votes, tells the people to collect their gold baubles and he melts them down and casts them into a golden calf. "Behold your god he cries." Uh oh. There was trouble ahead when Moses did eventually get back to camp. One of the other oft missed wee bits of advice from back then is "Don't follow the crowd to do wrong." (Exodus Chapter 23.2)
On a similar theme, Francis Bacon doesn't rate our objectivity very highly when it comes to reasoning: "The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion, either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself, draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate." He probably wasn't a fan of universal suffrage.
So now we are into a competition amongst the Tories to see who can become leader and Prime Minister. Unfortunately the most attractive least blowhard, most sane and reasonable of the candidates won't I suspect, make it to the final cut. Big Boris is out front at the moment and I imagine the typical Tory member (my own stereotype admittedly) being absolutely wowed by him and his blustering confidence and easy solutions.
I liked the results of the European Parliament elections where those of us who are remainers went for a nice spread of parties that we felt represented us. I think a similar result in a UK national election would help our democracy immensely. I hope the voting public agree and don't return to the old default voting positions out of a sense of "now it really matters and I better vote for one of the big 2".
It's a long road till then though.
Perhaps the first recorded instance of the people speaking is in the Bible, at Exodus Chapter 32, where the people of Israel in the absence of Moses' return from up the mountain, clamour for any old gods to go with them on their journey. Aaron, the brother of Moses and one of the Senior Management Team 😉, like our Tories who put the Referendum into their prospectus, fearing the loss of popularity and votes, tells the people to collect their gold baubles and he melts them down and casts them into a golden calf. "Behold your god he cries." Uh oh. There was trouble ahead when Moses did eventually get back to camp. One of the other oft missed wee bits of advice from back then is "Don't follow the crowd to do wrong." (Exodus Chapter 23.2)
On a similar theme, Francis Bacon doesn't rate our objectivity very highly when it comes to reasoning: "The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion, either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself, draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate." He probably wasn't a fan of universal suffrage.
So now we are into a competition amongst the Tories to see who can become leader and Prime Minister. Unfortunately the most attractive least blowhard, most sane and reasonable of the candidates won't I suspect, make it to the final cut. Big Boris is out front at the moment and I imagine the typical Tory member (my own stereotype admittedly) being absolutely wowed by him and his blustering confidence and easy solutions.
I liked the results of the European Parliament elections where those of us who are remainers went for a nice spread of parties that we felt represented us. I think a similar result in a UK national election would help our democracy immensely. I hope the voting public agree and don't return to the old default voting positions out of a sense of "now it really matters and I better vote for one of the big 2".
It's a long road till then though.
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