Elitists fight to the bitter end

Day 662, 10:06 • Published in United Kingdom Ireland • by 1nterestingch4racter

Within the UK today a fight is raging. A fight for the ordinary working man, for freedom and equality. A fight that began many months ago with the formation of the Movement of Democratic Unity and their pro worker policies, and since has been championed by many, all ridiculed for advocating something different and standing up for what they believed was right. People such as Tommy Tommasino, CV James and Goku Jones (all banned from the eUK forums, with the exception of CV James who has recently been unbanned) have worked hard and campaigned tirelessly over the last 9 months to secure a fair and democratic system of representative government for all citizens.

Now events have reached a climax with Iain Keers, champion of the left and founder of left wing think tank Compass, taking the baton to fight the next round of the HoL saga. The argument against it is simple. It preserves the influence a small cabal of powerful old players who themselves select new members to prop up their growing inactive ranks and the status quo that accompanies it.
Yet funnily enough these old and more 'experienced' players who apparently should have the power to block decisions of a democratically elected congress are the very people opposing this bill. If it passes commons, then I've no doubt it will be torn to shreds in the HoL voting hall, by all 5 of them who vote regularly. It is pure nepotism. Pure elitism.

The argument in favour of preserving this bed of corruption has always been that the Lords bring crucial experience to government. This is plainly a way of the elite preserving their power and keeping a tight grip on government. As the law that states that cabinet ministers have to be from either the Lords or the Commons is abolished they can still be in the cabinet and not hold any official position within parliament.
Also, there is a small but very important forum named public discussion, where us mortals (normal hardworking people such as you and me) are content to thrash out the finer details of political law. Why cannot the Lords simply do the same? The introduction of the Lords posting in commons has simply resulted in us as elected members being ordered about by the old guard, who are not content to leave us to get on with the business of making decisions with the power entrusted upon us by the electorate.

The first and foremost excuse that this small elite like to throw at pro democracy campaigners is the nonsense that congress is full of noobs and makes bad decisions, and must be stopped. That's right, they are talking about the people you elected, the people you put your trust in, the people that are working hard to represent you in your regions. Ok I will admit that whilst many of our congressmen are young and do not understand the finer details of the game, I believe that this patronising approach is simply uncalled for. The more experienced players in congress are the ones who write the laws, and random tax changes that are proposed by newer players are shot down. So give us some credit, please. And then there is the argument that lots of legislation has been halted by the Lords that commons didn't see the flaws in. Um, we have a place called public discussion? The Lords should have shown and made any corrections there before the bill even came before parliament.

However, once admitted into the HoL by current members (a system that ensures that the poltical views of those current residing in the Lords are upheld) the HoL is not really the puritan heaven that is makes out to be. Amongst the 15 current members of the Lords, only 5 or so post and vote constructively, the rest being either inactive or not bothering to make an appearance. Amongst the many members includes the notorious RoadRunnerSpeed, government member turned Master Criminal as he hijacked the government's money by recovering a password from an email which had been failed to be changed by another Lord (Close friend, business associate and current Chancellor of the Exchequer Arthur Wellesley) and used it to blackmail the government at the time to impose a number of changes including the sacking of MoFA Goku Jones (mentioned earlier in the article) as revenge after he revealed the plot by RRS to Politically Take Over Ireland, who are our closest friends and allies.
Although many praise him for his actions, the fact of the matter is that he set the bar for people thinking they should take matters into their own hands and getting away with it. This is dangerous and should be stopped at every alternative. There is currently a vote going through commons to overrule this decision which is heavily winning, however I doubt that we will receive the 66% majority required to overrule the badly made decision of this elitist body.

Of course there is a simple solution to this problem, one which is blatantly obvious. The Lords is disbanded and they either take a step out from politics or run for congress like the rest of the population, why should they be any different? And as always, the cabal continue to ramble on about certain points they consider valid, and which I will promptly dismantle in a rational manner:

The HoL acts as a counter balance to congress and stops them making stupid nooby decisions.
A very simple solution to this problem is to have the Lords run for congress in regions which month after month elect the inactive. It was a threat long ago that if the Lords were abolished then they would remove MDU congressmen from their seats. Let's see if this still holds true today and if the Lords are prepared to run in specific regions for the good of the country. This means that there would be less 'noobs' and they wouldn't be able to pass bad legislation, forfeiting the need for a counterbalance.

But if we ran for congress, it would be unfair on new players that ran.
You complain about new players being noobish and then say that they need to be given a chance? Stop contradicting yourself and making up reasons to grasp power.

Our people want to be in the Special Forces, move around and get tanked to do damage for our allies at the expense of the ordinary royal navy members who would do lots more damage if fully deployed for a fraction of the cost.
All the members of parliament as well as the top job President made the choice of whether to serve our nation politically by staying at home and running for elections, or by joining elite units and fighting abroad, why should they get special privileges? Oh no sorry, because they have 'served this country tirelessly' and deserve special rights over everyone else.

As you can see from the comments above the HoL system has no proper basis for existence. The only reason for it's continuation is to maintain the status quo and to secure power for the Old Guard, who are scared of losing their it to a new, more active generation of politicians. There is an opinion among some that what is really required is a reformed HoL. Although a stronger elected or active element might be mildly preferable to a body totally stuffed with the cums of the political elite the democratic position on this issue is clear. We are against the existence of any second chamber, because we want a system of government over which the people can exercise the greatest possible pressure and the greatest possible degree of control from below.

There is a difference between accountability in this sense of democratic pressure and control, and a bureaucratic system of “checks and balances” designed to prevent a strong popular majority from getting what they really want. For consistent democrats, the solution is not checks and balances, but the maximisation of control from below, through mechanisms by which constituents can control their representatives and representatives control the government. Not only is the current system morally bankrupt, it doesn't even work. Though a reformed HoL might be more efficient at carrying out it's original purpose, this purpose is not worth being carried out for it's undemocratic in it's very nature.

The people of the eUK must rise up and take a stand against crony-ism and elitism within the ranks of an unelected house that has direct influence on the law making procedures of this country. I would encourage all to sign up to the forums (www.forums.erepublik.co.uk if you haven't already) and take part in the on going discussion between those who can see sense and those who deliberately confuse their own interests with those of the country and put themselves ahead of democracy, equality and fairness.

People of the eUK, now is the time to take charge of your future,
you can find us at: www.forums.erepublik.co.uk and on IRC at http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/irc.php
Thanks
IndieKid- Author
Johnobrow Dadds- Co-Author and Editor