Votes equal power? - not any more

Is Britain, the "mother of democracies" very democratic?

Recent events have thrown this into question.

Take, for instance, the pressure of lobbying. A friend of Lord Mandelson is employed to lobby for BAA in their application to build another runway at Heathrow. Coincidentally he has a series of meetings with ministers and others at Westminster in the weeks during which the proposal was first postponed and than announced in his favour.

Or, take the case of the banks brought into virtual total nationalisation. Sir Fred is now being attacked for negotiating a very large pension, in return for waiving his right to severance pay and leaving immediately. In this case the government has been either incompetent or dishonest, or both sequentially. Or, take the Lloyds/HBOS marriage. The Lloyds Board, dazzled by the prospect of becoming number one bank in the UK, rushed into it. But the prime minister urged them on, and even suspended the Merger Commission to permit it.

What these cases have in common, apart from the banking elements, is that they were rushed through at the time of the by-election in Scotland which Labour had to win, and both cases involved badly failing Scottish banks and Scottish jobs.

Perhaps the banks had to be saved, and perhaps they had even to be saved at precipitate haste, but the solutions were rushed and ill thought-out.

If local party politics and private commercial considerations can dictate massive changes to the country, and the knowledge that lobbyists can subvert members of the House of Lords to seek to change policies of the government, does the same process of non-democratic pressure subvert democracy elsewhere, - in the European Commission, in local councils? There seems good reason to believe that it does.

The current method of operation at Westminster also raises other questions - of the elective dictatorship which makes decisions decided in Number 10, imposed on the cabinet and rammed through the Commons by the force of whips, guillotined to prevent full discussion and agreed by the Lords full of placemens appointed by this government.

Some decisions have been delegated to unelected, unaccountable and crony-filled quangos.

Is anyone surprised that there is little incentive to vote, and that the BNP are picking up protest votes rapidly?

There needs to be a major reform, which will have to wait until the economy is in calmer water.

It will have to ensure that parliament more fairly represents all constituencies and voters, that MPs have more power to challenge the executive, and that the Lords are elected and given greater power.

Most of all, to defeat the secrecy of government, and to reduce of the power of lobbyists, requires a large devolution of power - to schools, hospitals and local voters, etc. Let Westminster do less and do it rather better and with proper consideration and debate.