Sirs;
I’ve been reading with interest recent articles and letters on the 167 lighting and on the subject of “democracy” between Maud Gray and John D Clare.
What is “democracy”? It stems from the ancient Greek words of ‘demos’ meaning ‘people’ and ‘kratos’ meaning ‘power’. In modern words; ‘people power’. We do not have people power ‘democracy’ in Britain, instead we have democratised dictatorship.
Considering the recent decision by DCC to cease lighting the A167 just where was ‘people power’? No consultation, no referendum, no input whatsoever from local people about a decision affecting local people, which amply demonstrates the ‘powerlessness’ of so called representative ‘democracy’ in action. One can take this to almost every decision made by local and national elected officials all over the UK, when it comes to a decision affecting local people and their quality of life we do not get a look in.
Maud Gray has a valid point; who selected the labour candidates? Who decides what is best for local people? Who controls how such candidates vote (once elected) on local issues and more importantly who holds the power to make and implement such decisions? And for John D Clare to state that “we are the legally-elected majority!” when we had voter turnout rates of between 21.38% to the dizzying heights of 25.75% in some Aycliffe wards is hubris beyond the pale.
With a General Election looming, it is worth examining the just how not fit for purpose our representative democracy has become.
From a total electorate of 45,844,691 in the whole of the UK, David Cameron usurped the office of Prime Minister in 2010 by obtaining only 33,973 votes in his own constituency of Witney (less than 44% of the registered voters there so even there he did not achieve a majority!) That’s just 0.074% of the total UK electorate who voted for him! Yet for the last five years he has presided over national and local decisions affecting millions of us without any meaningful mandate to do so.
More and more of us are becoming increasingly frustrated at the powerlessness we have over local and national policy, over decisions affecting our lives upon which we have no say. But there is another way  http://harrogateagenda.org.uk/ which if enough of us wanted it could demonstrate true ‘people power’.
And please do not think this General Election will be any different or change one iota how we are truly governed. The French have a saying coined by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849 “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”
Titan Ananke