Tip - If you are using a phone, set the "Desktop Site" option in your browser   

Featured

House of Lords to be Deformed?

Details
Category: Unelected
Hits: 897

2025-04-11

To some, the House of Lords is a running sore, ripe for abolition.

To others, it is a pale shadow of its former self, now reduced by the Commons to operate primarily as an old folks home for former politicians whose glory days are behind them.

Under the reforming/destructive/<insert-your-favoured-adjective-here> zeal of one call-me-Tony Blair, its function as the ultimate court of appeal was shipped out to a new "Supreme Court" US-style, answerable to ... well, does anybody really know?

The House of Lords was the original parliament of ancient origin where the (hereditary) Lords of the land met with the Lords Spiritual (the Great and the Good of the Church of England) under the Monarch, to provide debate wisdom and guidance, as a formalisation of the ancient Witan of King Alfred.

Following the rise of the conurbations the Parliament admitted additional representatives from the cities, and "in 1341 the Commons met separately from the nobility and clergy for the first time, creating in effect an Upper Chamber and a Lower Chamber, with the knights and burgesses sitting in the latter".

The English Civil War resulted in much temporary change (not to mention bloodshed) when the Parliamentarians were victorious ... "However, the monarchy and the House of Lords were both restored with the Commons in 1660. The influence of the Crown had been decreased, and was further diminished after James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Bill of Rights 1689 was enacted".

It seems that one can have enough of revolutions.

Since 1621 the House of Lords fulfilled a judicial function on behalf of the monarch, but specific Lords Judicial were only created following the Appellate Jurisdiction Act of 1876.

So all in all, the history of Parliament exposes a long tussle for power in the land, out of which a workable compromise emerged at various stages, and the current controversies over the ways in which our land is governed should be seen in that context.

The big difference in our time is that we must also factor in the global nature of our current world, together with the concomitant global organisations that seek to influence, or some believe usurp, our national powers to govern ourselves as we see fit.

Now once more we have a proactive/upstart/<choose-your-adjective> Commons that wants to once and for all remove all remaining hereditary Peers from the upper house, so we must consider whether this would be a desirable, wise, and beneficial step, or whether it is ill-advised, ill-considered, or inconsequential.

On the plus side this is an incremental step in an ancient process, so unlikely to create much confusion around the revised processes that govern us.

On the minus side it isn't clear that the proposal has any great merit beyond increasing the self-satisfaction of those who consider the hereditary principle to be outdated and inappropriate to the modern age.

If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

So, will it be any the less broke if this change is passed?

 

The Trump Machine is Recreating America?

Details
Category: Free Citizen
Hits: 807

2025-04-10

If the last half-decade shows us anything, it shows us that the Donald is not to be underestimated.

So here we present a different view of the Trump "second term", and how it may develop.

One thing is now clear: he is setting about wrecking the comfortable assumptions that underlay the previous world political order, and he challenges the world to rebuild something better. Will the world explode, implode, or will it respond positively?

This article sets out to explain how the positive response may look - but has anybody told Ed Milliband?

 

A Glimpse of Times to Come?

Details
Category: Free Citizen
Hits: 918

2025-04-10

OK, this is likely a bit way out for most, but why not listen and see how it lies with you?

The inimitable Clif High (polymath, but probably here best introduced as a futurologist) discourses on the times incoming - starting not next decade, not even next year, but maybe this May.

Forewarned is forearmed as they say, this is probably futurology on steroids, nothing is so unpredictable as the future but maybe we should listen up anyway.

Never say that we shy away from posting challenging material!

 

A Case for the Family Courts?

Details
Category: Free Citizen
Hits: 858

2025-04-10

This speaks plainly, directly - probably too directly for some.

But steel yourself. It's not rocket science. 

Nor is it Party Political - Labour just happen to be the party currently in office, but it went on under their predecessors for ever.

Nor is it exclusively racial / religious - it runs deeper and wider than that.

We have to deal with it as best we can.

It is time.

(7 minutes)

Like / Dislike this video here.

 

The Truth is Stranger than the Fiction

Details
Category: Covid
Hits: 939

2025-04-09

Once more Richard Vobes shares a video, this time of one-time Royal Marine Steve Forsythe who explains the world as he sees it - and it isn't the world as most of us see it.

So what does he see that we may not?

Whilst some of us hear what "they" tell us, others observe their actions and deduce their motivation.

"By their fruits you shall know them"

So, pin back your ears and pay attention:

(62 minutes)

 

Like / Dislike this video here.

 

Page 178 of 394