e-mancipation

A major issue

A greater part of the current predicament facing the United Kingdom, both in terms of restricted freedom of the people and the assault on our preferences in the form of the current economic crisis is the combination of the incompetence of political parties in managing our constitutional and economic affairs and their persistence in taking decisions in line with their own interests as opposed to those of the social and economic constituencies. It does not need much thought to realise that a governemnt party which has gained just 19% of the electorate's vote has no right to impose their dogma and policies on the remaining 81% of the population, that is the majority of the population. Such a political system is hardly a "representative democracy" and more a "repressive demagoguery" with the root of such failure being the motivations of those in political parties leading to inappropriate behaviour. This is exacerbated by the well known limited intellectual critical mass of such parties whose sum total membership is less than 1% of the electorate. This results in an evident incompetence reflected in their inability to implement practical and successful policies based upon decisions taken in the ambit of broadly supported participatory processes.

Political risks in getting rid of poltical parties

Many consider that without political parties "democracy will not work". Indeed, it is the fear factor and the concept of impending chaos in a "no party world" which politicians use to discourage any thoughts, let alone actions, to open up the political process to a wider and wiser range of contributions. In any case the status of politics "with" political parties is typefied by much theatre and false promises and a practice of effective and direct constraints on the freedom of the people. This arises from the evident tangle of conflicts of interest between political parties, their favoured and often secret supporters and their failure to allow free voting in Parliament through the whip system to deny the views of their constituents. In association with this there is the unseemly ongoing saga of politicians using their positions to gain personal financial gain from their elaborate interpretation of the "rules" on allowances and their constant willingness to impose decisions and Parliamentary votes according to the wishes of the unelected operatives of their political party collective. This tiresome and pernicious abuse of power is water-logged with propaganda put out by these tiny political factions who will never fail to extol the virtues of political parties and their central role in democracy.

The reality is that they have no central role because they only have marginal levels of popular support and yet their manipulations enable these factions to marginalize the interests of the majority of the population. It is well past the time that we have to admit that the party is over.

For many, their persists a perception that sweeping political parties into the past appears to be risky since how can democracy operate without political parties? In fact running a democracy without political parties is less risky, more transparent and likely to result in more broadly supported policies which have more effective practical outcomes. Most great advances associated with political parties were led not by the parties but by one or two individuals. The party faithful tended to follow such individuals on the basis of somewhat cynical calculation as to whether the obectives identified by such individuals could find favour amongst the electorate. Parties operate on the basis of somewhat crude and visceral political instincts which hone strategies and supportive tactics to gain and remain in power at all costs. This is not the basis for serving constituencies all of whom might have distinct concerns. The only way to address this diversity of concerns is to have constituencies represented by independent MPs who are not subject to any extraneous influences such as central political parties, collectives and factions but who dedicate themselves to responding to the specific eeds of their constituents.

How feasibile is this?

How the United Kingdom political system could work without political parties and making use of indepdent MPs has been proposed in the book "The Briton's Quest for Freedom - Our unfinished journey", by Hector McNeill the manager of e-mancipation. Further information on this publication is provided in the Documentation section. This book analyses constitutional issues in the United Kingdom, identifies the causes for restrictions on freedom and proposes solutions including the recommendation of practive action to remove the role of political parties and substituting these with independent representatives, banning the whip and other forms of extraneous influences on MPs other than that of their constituents.

Two other books are in preparation, by the same author. These extend the analysis of independent representation and its role in enhancing freedom and opportunities for the people of Britain yet further, and include the following titles: "Leading Issues in the British Economy" and "The Minority Principle". Further details are provided in the Documentation section.