*Russell Brand talks about two areas of interest to us all in the
Paxman interview.
These are
a) the
cruelty of the way Political, economic and religious power as we know it behaves - war, poverty, misogyny, concentration of wealth.
and
b) the desire of ordinary folk who have
empathy, intelligence and the energy to render Governance incapable of such
cruelty, yet who feel totally excluded from so doing due to the current
political systemic and institutionalised set-up.
We are excluded from policy decision making, we are excluded from adequate oversight, and our concerns raised, when harms are caused, are brushed aside. Brand's populism lacks the energy and insight that the Power Inquiry contains.
a well known war criminal, free and at large, unindicted,
simply because the people are excluded from policy decision making.
The Power Inquiry of 2006 looked at
how political and legislative power
could be devolved to the grass roots, to those people who are largely imbued with common sense,
decency, empathy, intelligence and the energy and a natural desire to render Power incapable of such
cruelty such as The Iraq War or the mistreatment of 'failed' asylum seekers, or the mistreatment of the elderly in privatised 'care' and so on, if they had the opportunity.
In essence this is about Power Relationships of old being superseded by shared power with empathy based relationships at it's core as a future and necessary social and cultural trajectory.
Here is a brief list of Power Inquiry
Recommendations:
You can download the full POWER INQUIRY REPORT in .pdf format from this web page. - it's a very inspiring document!
Rebalancing Power
There needs to be a re-balancing of power between
the constituent elements of the political system: a shift of power away from
the executive to Parliament, away from central government to local government.
Much greater clarity, transparency and
accountability should be introduced into the relationship between the Executive
and supra-national bodies, quangos, business, and interest groups.
Too much power goes unchecked. The aim here, in The Power Inquiry, is to
allow the freedom for our elected representatives to be the mind, heart, eyes, ears and
mouth of British citizens speaking at the vert heart of governance.
1. A concordat should be drawn up between
executive and Parliament indicating where key powers lie and providing
significant powers of scrutiny and initiation for Parliament.
2. Select committees should be given independence
and enhanced powers including the power to scrutinise and veto key government
appointments and to subpoena witnesses to appear and testify before them.
This should include proper resourcing so that committees can fulfil their
remit effectively. The specialist committees in the Upper House should have the
power to co-opt people from outside the legislature who have singular
expertise, such as specialist scientists, or those who work directly in frontline services when considering complex areas of
legislation or policy.
3. Limits should be placed on the power of the
whips. Indeed the Party Whip is anti-democratic in nature and should be abolished.
4. Parliament should have greater powers to
initiate legislation, to launch public inquiries and to act on public
petitions.
5. 70% of the members of the House of Lords
should be elected by a 'responsive electoral system' (see 12 below) - and not
on a closed party list system - for a maximum of three parliamentary terms. To ensure that
this part of the legislature is not comprised of career politicians with no
experience outside politics, candidates should be at least 40 years of age.
6. There should be an unambiguous process of
decentralisation of powers from central to local government.
7. A concordat should be drawn up between central
and local government setting out their respective powers.
8. Local government should have enhanced powers
to raise taxes and administer its own finances with oversight and consent by it's local population. Participatory budget decision deliberations by the people from whom that revenue is received.
9. The government should commission an
independent mapping of quangos and other public bodies to clarify and renew
lines of accountability between elected and unelected authority.
10. Ministerial meetings with representatives of
business including lobbyists to be logged, transcripted and listed on a monthly basis.
11. A new overarching select committee should be
established to scrutinise the executive's activities in supranational bodies
and multilateral negotiations, particularly in relation to the European Union,
and to ensure these activities are held to account and conducted in the best
interests of the British people.
Real Parties and True Elections
The current way of doing politics is killing
politics. Russell Brand is not lying. Paxman agrees but differs in that he claims that if you don't vote the you have no right to complain, which is an opinion position rather than the reality of Power Politics as we know them because it's a way of avoiding the central issue of powerlessness by being excluded from the key parts of decision making processes.
The fact that the voting system does not provide the ability to reject all the candidates - None of The Above - is problematic, as is the First Past the Post system.
An electoral and party system which is responsive to the changing
values and demands of today's population must be created.
This will allow the development of new political
alliances and value systems which will both regenerate existing parties and also
stimulate the creation of others.
12. A responsive electoral system - which offers
voters a greater choice and diversity of parties and candidates - should be
introduced for elections to the House of Commons, House of Lords and local
councils in England and Wales to
replace the first-past-the-post system.
13. The closed party list system to have no place
in modern elections.
14. The system whereby candidates have to pay a
deposit which is lost if their votes fall below a certain threshold should be
replaced with a system where the candidate has to collect the signatures of a
set number of supporters in order to appear on the ballot paper.
15. The Electoral Commission should take a more
active role in promoting candidacy so that more women, people from black and
minority ethnic communities, people on lower incomes, young people, representatives from vulnerable groups and
independents are encouraged to stand.
16. The voting and candidacy age should be
reduced to sixteen (with the exception of candidacy for the House of Lords which ought to be come an Upper Chamber).
17. Automatic, individual voter registration at
age sixteen should be introduced. This can be done in tandem with the
allocation of National Insurance numbers.
18. The citizenship curriculum should be shorter,
more practical and result in a qualification.
19. Donations from individuals to parties should
be capped at £10,000, and organisational donations capped at £100 per member,
subject to full democratic scrutiny within the organisation.
20.
State funding to support
local activity by political parties should be introduced based on the
allocation of individual voter vouchers.
This would mean that at a general
election a voter will be able to tick a box allocating a £3 donation per year
from public funds to a party of his or her choice to be used by that party for
local activity. It would be open to the voter to make the donation to a party
other than the one they have just voted for.
21. Text voting or email voting should only be
considered following other reform of our democratic arrangements.
22. The realignment of constituency boundaries
should be accelerated.
Downloading Power
The people want to nurture a culture of political
engagement in which it becomes the norm for policy and decision-making to occur
with direct input from citizens. This is the central plank of The Power Inquiry. This means reform which provides citizens with
clear entitlements and procedures by which to exercise that input - from
conception through to implementation of any policy or decision.
I repeat it's about the move from older Power Relationships to sharing power at the grass roots, where empathy and connection can inform the decision making processes. Empathy and connection are actually common sense qualities to nurture for there can be no meaningful community without these..
23. All public bodies should be required to meet
a duty of public involvement in their decision and policy-making processes.
24. Citizens should be given the right to
initiate legislative processes, public inquiries and hearings into public
bodies and their senior management.
25. The rules on the plurality of media ownership
should be reformed. This is always a controversial issue but there should be
special consideration given to this issue in light of the developments in
digital broadcast and the internet. Further legislation needs to be drafted to prevent exploitative and manipulative media content that misleads, misinforms or deliberately targets know biases and vulnerabilities of any person or group.
26. A requirement should be introduced that
public service broadcasters develop strategies to involve viewers in
deliberation on matters of public importance - this would be aided by the use
of digital technology.
27. MPs should be required and resourced to
produce annual reports, hold AGMs and make more use of innovative engagement
techniques.
28. Ministerial meetings with campaign groups and
their representatives should be logged, minuted and listed on a monthly basis.
29. A new independent National Statistical and
Information Service needs to be created to provide the public with key
information free of political spin.
30. 'Democracy hubs' should be established in
each local authority area. These would be resource centres based in the
community where people can access information and advice to navigate their way
through the democratic system.
These ideas are a starting point in the solution to the
problems, the frustration, the despondency most people feel when facing up to
the problems of Politics and Power.
Russell Brand was being honest. *(Since that interview, Brand has veered off course, and turned towards monetising opinion, building a Populist Alt-right business model similar to that of Alex Jones, David Icke, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson feeding off our desperation and distress, exploiting bias and outrage, promoting flawed approaches to the political dynamics of the extant system, without providing the kinds of substantive analysis of the situation we are facing that would lead to a better informed electorate.)
Russell Brand is not the 'answer'.
He was, in the Paxman interview, speaking out against the
hypocrisy.
As most of us do in our living rooms. But we need more than those casual chats, we need a detailed understanding of wealth extraction economics, power disparity dynamics, our history and the basics of power sharing that would enable us to engage with policy formulation and power sharing so that we can do this safely.
We are the answer. All of us adults. If we are prepared to do the work.
This is a choice we must make as mature adults,
of we are to give meaning to our affirmations of love to our children, on behalf
of their children and grand children.
Kindest regards
Corneilius
"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."
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