UK ConstitutionCurrently the pernicious nature of political parties can be witnessed in their treatment of three important constitutional questions:
- National devolution
- United Kingdom governance
- The European Union
National devolution
The three main political parties in Scotland (Labour, Liberal Democrats & Conservatives) have refused to particulate in a free and open "Conversation" on the future constitutional settlement of Scotland. Although this was an initiative of the Scottish Executive and in particular the Scottish National Party, the "Conversation" covers several constitutional options and is not exclusively tied to independence. This refusal to get involved on the part of the main political parties to argue their own cases, in a transparent fashion is a reflection of their fear of the inability of whips to manage authentic debating structures. An open-ended "Conversation" is just too high a risk for parties who prefer to dictate positions behind closed doors and to dub these as "collective positions". Such parties have resorted to commissioning an independent study on Scottish devolution with a very limited terms of reference.
|  Independent representation and the demise of political parties has far reaching implications for constitution. One is that political party manipulations cease and the more enlightned aspects of our constitution can become more effective. On the other hand the objective of sound constitutional structures is not to defend independent representation in a selective manner but rather to defend the freedom of the people of the United Kingdom to remain with a choice as to how their preferences be best represented. Under all circumstances, constitution needs to have provisions to prevent abuse by those elected in all aspects of decision-making and legislative activities so as to require that the preferences of the social and economic constituencies are met. Political parties have failed to satisfy this basic requirement.
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United Kingdom governanceA Green Paper "The Governance of Britain" published in July 2007 does not address any of the 58 major constraints on the individual freedom of the people of Britain identified in the publication, "The Briton's Quest for Freedom"
1. As a result this Paper fails to come up any substantive propositions to remove them. Rather than address these significant issues of direct relevance to the people of Britain, the underlying thrust of this Green Paper has been to avoid any issue which might might weaken the hold on power by political parties. Having drawn up this Paper in this fashion, at the expense of the free expression of the people of Britain, the other main political parties have made no substantive comments but have opted for an active collusion with the Labour party in its quest to strengthen the grip of political parties on power.
The European Union
The Government continues to refuse to terminate the unacceptable convention of not allowing the electorate to have any say in decisions on our relationship with the European Union and which have fundamental impacts on our own constitutional provisions in defending freedom. This is in spite of the fact that each progressive commitment has had significant constitutional impacts. All main political parties in Britain vascillate and prevaricate on Europe prejudicing freedom through their avoidance of participatory decision-making. One of the most dangerous impacts has been the advance of increasing levels of arbitrariness in decisions taken by an increasingly politicized European judiciary and against which our politicians have done nothing to secure provisions for appeals.
British political parties are factional minoritiesThe practical ability of governing political parties to prevent or curtail influential debate in Parliament is a direct outcome of the defective general election system whereby parties, with an absolute minority of electorate support, can secure control of government with an exaggerated majority in Parliament. This perverse circumstance is used by these minority factions to enforce non-representative and biased voting in Parliament in support of legislation upholding their party preferences against the wishes of the majority.
No representation of the people - only of partiesThis practice unmasks the pretence that Parliament is an effective debating chamber since the outcome of most votes is a foregone conclusion. Parliament does not represent the free will of the people. Parliament decides on the basis of representatives, MPs, who slavishly follow the orders of whips often guided by unelected party bosses. Taking into account influence gained through financial contributions to political party funds there is a lack of transparency and a distortion in representation creating a decadence in Parliamentary "democracy". The system serves the interests of a few over those of society's many.
A way forward
E-mancipation rejects the notion that the right to debate, review and to set the terms of our constitution is some exclusive right of the unknown characters who inhabit the inner sanctums of political parties, or even, the politicians whose voting patterns they direct. The absurd legitimacy-begging British electoral system creates "strong" governments with absolute majorities on the basis of less than 20% of electorate support. E-mancipation promotes an open debate on a topic close to every man, woman and child on these Isles, "How can we become free from corrupt representation, factional impositions and unjust settlements?". The answer lies in our ability to secure, strengthen, uphold and defend our individual freedom and this cannot continue to be undermined by the incessant self-serving pressure from political parties. There is a need for a liberation of the poltiical system from political parties, small collectives of minority factions who do not in fact represent any substantive section of society. They do however use their roles as representatives of the people to secure power and to take decisions largely in line with their own interests. Political parties are not part of the solution but are the main causes of the problems we face as a people.
The rise of Independent representationThe only way to bring about change is to side-step the politiical parties since they will never initiate or implement the necessary change. There is a need to elect more substantive individuals who stand as an independent representation, separated from such collectives. Such independents would not be subjected to any whips or be influenced by any other forms of illegitimate influence. Their sole considerations in shaping their positions would be their assessment of the points of view of their constituents, informed logic arising from available information on the issues in question, their own experience and conscience.