2024-10-12
An email arrives today from the "Institute for Government".
It is of course " ... the UK’s leading independent think tank working to make government more effective".
How does it expect to do this?
"Through in-depth analysis, expert commentary and influential public events we explore how government works – and how it can work better"
"The Institute is a registered charity in England and Wales (No.1123926) with cross-party governance. Our main funder is the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.
The charitable objectives of the Institute are:
- The advancement of education in the art and science of government in the UK for the benefit of the public and on a non-party political basis
- The promotion of efficient public administration of government and public service in the UK by providing programmes of education, training, research and study for the public benefit and on a non-party political basis. "
"The Institute receives core funding from one major funder: the Gatsby Foundation. The Gatsby Foundation was set up by Lord Sainsbury to realise his charitable objectives"
Yes dear reader, it is a government-as-is perpetuation machine, dedicated to ensuring
- no thought about reforming the "democratic" systems that elect government,
- nor of reforming the outrageously out of control civil service whose primary function seems to be to run rings around any Minister of State who disagrees with Civil Service dogma,
- nor of reform of our monetary system which ensures the perpetuation of the Bank of England (which being constituted by Royal Charter would require overthrow of the Monarchy),
- nor of reform of the system of political parties that ensures that MPs represent those who fund/control the Parties rather than their own constituency electors (technically their stated objectives might not actually be held to rule this out, but evidence for any willingness to consider it seems to be significantly lacking),
- nor of reform of the judicial systems that "serve" us (or those of us who can afford their exorbitant fees or grapple personally with their byzantine system).
This is in effect an "Institute for Government-as-is".
It's primary function is in effect to keep us arguing for ever about the never-ending intricacies of minor reform to the great Machineries of State, and to ensure that we keep our attention anywhere but where the problem actually lies - we have a parliamentary system that manifestly does not even try to represent the people (except in its spare time).
I rest my case.
If you doubt my analysis, I challenge you to find any statement of what the objectives of our UK "parliamentary democracy" (NB: emphatically not Parliament) actually are (or should be) anywhere on their website. If they cannot even articulate what the objectives of the great Machineries of State (of which Parliament is but one) should be, how can they presume to "make government more effective" ? Where is their yardstick?
If anyone can find such a statement on their web-site (I may have missed it!), please let me know.
Those interested in researching more population-focused systems of "democracy" could do worse that start here.
