From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quote: One theme runs through much of the commentary about last week's tax revolt. It is that British democracy is now in intensive care. A senior Lib Dem told The Times: 'People have begun to learn that they can take the power back from the politicians, It is seductive - once discovered, they won't let it go.' In the Sunday Express, Peter Oborne wondered whether future historians would see this as the moment that 'marked the death-knell of parliamentary democracy, the delicate mechanism that has governed Britain since the constitutional settlement of 1689'. Our political system was the envy of the world: freeborn Britons, 'unlike their despised counterparts in continental Europe', rarely took to the streets. They were confident their grievances would be remedied through parliament. No longer. Perhaps the decline began when we joined the Common Market, or even when we lost the Empire. At any rate, parliament has now ceased to be 'the great centre of the nation'. Instead of attracting people from very different backgrounds, who were truly part of the communities they represented, the Commons now attracts a narrower breed who treat politics as just another career. This new political class of "metropolitan obsessives" seems arrogant and out of touch, and the tax revolt, like the rise of Ken Livingstone and the anti-paedophile riots, reflects a profound disillusionment with politics. 'We stand on the edge of an age of populism and direct action,' thinks Oborne. It 'may in due course make Britain ungovernable'. Jolyan Connell 23 September 2000 THE WEEK Unquote Kenneth Pantling Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. (Edmund Burke�1729-97) Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
