If you take a couple of minutes to read this op-ed in the Irish Independent by Eamon Keane, one can quickly identify a number of parallels with our own Westminster Parliament and self serving politicians.
Some of the sentiments that stand out include: ‘Power no longer rests with our impotent national parliament’… ‘Truth be told, it’s been finished for a long time, made redundant by the actions of our politicians’… and ”Our Dail is also doomed because it is based on a political system where getting re-elected takes precedence over the national interest’. Keane may be writing about Ireland, but it all has a very familiar ring to it.
But the greatest resonance can be found in the most thought provoking part of the piece:
We are in the worst crisis in our history and our parliament is impotent.
Is there any hope for democracy? Yes. While the Dail may be dead a new parliament is emerging. It is to be found in ordinary people, community and support groups who come together to discuss a way forward. A second wave is already there though social networks.
Bullseye.
Autonomous Mind 
Well, the EU has been seen to be very undemocratic and it even over rules the Irish vote, unelected bureaucrats have more say in Ireland now than what the people do. That’s a recipe for a lot of angry Irish folks.
AM, I guess this is your follow up to ‘UKIP’s not the answer’. We need an uprising of the people. (Revolution being rather unlikely in the UK).
This would probably take the form of the ‘Tea Party’ movement in the US, where a large minority of the American people have risen up an said enough is enough.
The TPA looks like the best bet her, but needs the support of bloggers/opinion makers like yourself and Guido to foment the uprising.
How about it.
I think we can learn a lot from studying the American Revolution.
See: Open Yale
http://oyc.yale.edu/history/the-american-revolution/content/class-sessions
You’ve got it in one Neil. However I am not convinced the TPA is the answer.
We need a Republican Party.
I have been baffled for years. Why would Ireland, a nation that fought and bled for its independence, hand it over (voluntarily, mind) to a corrupt institution like the EU?
To me, that equates to pissing all over the corpses of the men and women who died to regain Irelands sovereignty less than one hundred years ago.
For shame.
CR.
The TPA is not the answer … that organisation is a Tory front and is going nowhere. But the thinking is right … while the public sector unions are planning strikes to protect their rights and privileges, we the taxpayers should take a leaf out of their books and also go on strike … we need a tax strike.
Given that most people are on PAYE, however, the only way that can happen is to target Council Tax. That is the weak link.
Another bloody sunday
Makes you want to vote for Máirtín Mag Aonghusa for ‘precedent’ doesn’t it!?
Rather than a tax strike, why don’t we just follow Ayn Rand’s suggestion and simply stop work?
If the unions think they can ‘bring the government to its knees’ by closing dole offices and so on, how much faster could the productive sector of the economy achieve the same end?
It has the added advantage that there is absolutely no action the government could take to prevent or penalise people refusing to work.
Uncle Badger – people refusing to work would get sacked. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of people waiting in the wings to take the jobs. I agree with Richard North, a council tax protest is the answer but it needs to be coordinated so that the bullying state lackeys can’t pick off individuals. We the people need to show TPTB just how pissed off we are – as a whole!
Magna Carta, Clause 61 was invoked re the ‘with-holding of tax’ in December last year, and the Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Daily Express could confirm that. The reply from the Palace informed us that our Monarch ‘had been made aware of its (the Letter’s) contents’. So, it is ready to be used if need be. However, the only previous time it was used, it removed the power from the Crown from that time forward. If it is used a second time it must be realised it may result in the demise of our Parliament, for all three Political Parties want to remain in the European Union-in other words, allow foreigners to make our laws and everyone-including our own Government-which as you all know-is absolutely contrary to our Constitution. Far better NOT to use it, but we cannot allow our Country to be given away to foreigners to govern forever, can we.
Far better for this present Government to listen to the people and remove this Country themselves from a Union that this Country should never have been involved in, in the first place. More people than ever before want out of the EU, more so since December when the letter was written, it is still there to be used to save our Country from permanent foreign rule as did the USA, and before any Government
The saying that, ” Magna Carta will have no “master”, is very true indeed, and THAT above all else has been very much brought home, and I pray this Government wakes up to reality very soon and long before the people have any need to use it.
David – union workers aren’t sacked because they take collective action. The same dynamic operates for anyone else.
You are proposing the same tactics for a council tax revolt, but with perhaps two thirds of the country not paying it anyway, how much leverage do you think you will have?
Stop paying your council tax and you get the succession of grief Dr North may have the resilience and bloody mindedness to withstand. But how many share his admrable qualities?
Stop working for a specified period and the state has no redress.
It is not to be assumed that employers would necessarily oppose a well organised campaign, either.
There needs to be as many different actions as possible running concurrently because a single target is just what the state needs to maintain it’s grip.
Delaying council tax, not paying council tax, asking questions through FOI, challenging the legality of taxation, exploring the right to be paid in cash not credits, simply saying no to anything the state wants/asks/says you have to do, asking policemen and women for their warrant cards when they stop you in the street, challenging every parking/speeding ticket etc… hiring a council run hall/room in the name of David Cameron or Nick Clegg and holding a mass smoke in, asking your energy supplier to provide you with a tariff that doesn’t have any green/wind loading on it, challenge every utility bill (nobody has any sort of contract with any utility company) there are many ways to make the state and its accomplices irrelevant.
Once the state is irrelevant the entire political class inc their tame jobsworths become redundant and at that point we will see just how fast the rats can leave a sinking ship. The political class has to go as it may not be the root cause of everything but obscures reality as effectively as a net curtain obscures what is on the other side of the window.
Uncle Badger.
There is no need to stop working. Almost every company relies on its staff doing things outside their remit to ensure the company runs smoothly and remains profitable.
Simply doing exactly what you are employed to do is sufficient to bring most companies to an instant standstill.
Working to rule it was called when I was still an employee and I can confirm that employers are terrified of the tactic which is why the unions are allowed to get away with what they do because they will get their members to withdraw labour which only impacts the strikers, paying people to work in a company crippled by a work to rule only hits the pockets of the company owners and shareholders the difference is massive.
My current view is that a British version of the Tea Party is called for and is something I’ve tried to light a fuse a couple of times with little success. A misunderstanding by many (probably the name) is that it is a party when it really is a movement. It is a movement that comprises of local chapters to influence their existing representative by reminding them that their organised nature allows them to go shopping for an alternate candidate should the incumbent refuse to get in line.
The circa 650 with their noses in the trough as AM and many other bloggers have noticed is that their overriding aim is to retain their place at the trough. The strongest gravitational pull on that behaviour is currently the party whip. The whip however is only the strongest motivator because the local electorate lies docile as long as it seemingly gets a few scraps chucked its way.
If local electorates woke up and organised they would form a very real threat to an MP’s place at the trough. They would be as vulnerable as a wilderbeast at the outlying edge of the herd. At risk of being picked off by a hungry lion.
For me, the local constituency is our power base not theirs and we should drag them to battle on that ground. If they were under no illusion that local constituents had organised into voting blocs who could remove them from the trough. I think if they were clearly aware of this, those who might be redeemable would suddenly have less problems explaining to the party whips that there is somebody with a much nailier club (us). And those who are beyond redemption would be out.
The problem is that influential blogges can only highlight such a movement. It would fall to people in each constituency to start their own “Tea Party” group and create the neccessary critical mass.
Paying Bills but not the Tax, not paying Council tax etc, but all under and through the use of Magna Carta, Clause 61, using part of our Constitution which Governments of all political Parties should have been using right from after that last war. With-held lawfully so through Magna Carta.
Continental Countries had to write NEW Constitutions after that war because many Countries had been over-run and other constitutions imposed upon them. Ours has stood the test of time for over 600 years.
Magna Carta has ALWAYS been better left sleeping, but that was when we had men who actually wanted to Govern this Country according to its Constitution and laws. So many very brave people died for our freedom that “today’s Politicians are letting slip.
I have been looking at some of the United Nations Debates from 30th April 1968 (Yes, as early as that) and article 46 on Fraud and Article 47 Corruption of a representative of the State. Said by Mr Tabibi (Afghanistan)”Fraud was characterized by the element on intention. It was normal that such an intentional act should make it possible for the injured party to terminate the Treaty” And by a Mr Fujisaki, (Japan) “Secondly, it was to be expected that sovereign States would be represented by men of integrity” I say Amen to that, but I also ask, are there any left? Perhaps looking at two possible ways out of the European Union-but I would rather have our own Government making this decision for themselves, for it is the only way we could keep two Houses of Parliament.
Juergen Stark of the ECB stated that Ireland has the highest-paid Civil Servants in Europe, far higher than Germany or the UK. How has this happened ?
How did public sector administrators get to reward themselves so well ? Isn’t that why the Legislature is supposed to control the budgets of the Executive ?
Parliament is a fossil and relic from the past, or to give it more life as a chicken has had its neck rung and is dead but for a time it runs around as if alive, it is a front or machine for making weapons to cause death and maim people, the Tavistock, Finchley, is the blueprint on how to control People, this is set in motion by the police on the street, the underground police used,such as those that fired guns at the helicopter and the riots, then the image transferred to the media to circulate to the public to endorse sympathy for police to gain funding for their activities, you have to remember the police on all levels require money to pay there mortgage commitments and to keep the wives and offspring happy, with out the uniform they know what they are, that is part of the disenfranchised on the dole and treated as scum, as you are well aware the dirty money that is flowing in to London,which is a centrally placed in Europe and the cross roads between America and Russia, Britain now an ally of Russia that stretches from Europe to China and will perform as a base for military against potentially China, our little distractions such as the games in London will keep the masses mind off what Britain is, the center of banking London that is where the big boys hang out as the Rothschilds, you will notice these people are not even in the billionaires club, they are in the trillionaires club, how did we get into this mess? your taxes are to support police protection for the rich, this being part of the flaw with police that they are an Institute to not so much seeing justice done but are the knaves and slaves of the rich, the training they receive is all part of the conditioning and culture of this mind set, there role eventually changed from WW2 of genuine sympathy for Londoners in the blitz to as you now see a threatening agency that now has become more like a gestapo organization and suspicious deviant group, this confusion as to there own identity crisis, being apparent to not only themselves but also to anyone that has any integrity left.
Council Tax, £25bn a year, represents only 5% of the government’s tax take in the UK. The government could survive indefinitely even if there were a 100% participation in a tax strike.
Radders-It is a start and better than doing nothing. As the Government is scraping every British ‘penny’ it can get-all to give to the EU-even from the poor-it must indeed be “desperate” already, don’t you think!
Council Tax, £25bn a year, represents only 5% of the government’s tax take
Really ? Actually it is a Ratcheted Tax because 75% funding comes from Central Government. Why ? Because Margaret Thatcher NATIONALISED Business Rates and then returned the money as Central Government Grant to the local councils which COLLECT it.
Because Poll Tax/Council Tax is a Ratchet Tax it means 25% has enormous impact on Council Finances……the key is to make Councillors sweat for the Voters and if they cannot collect Council Tax they sweat.
Every other tax is deducted at Source – VAT and PAYE are extracted by computer. Council Tax works on 25% Council Spend divided into paying households AFTER netting off Write-Offs and Defaulters so any Council Tax withholding would lead to an enormous INCREASE for those paying which would bring down the system.
In 2006/2007 council tax in England amounted to £22.4 billion[27] and an additional £10.8 billion in sales, fees and charges
So it is actually the Charges which bring in another 2.5% tax revenue PLUS a further 4.5% in Business Rates = 12% Government Tax Income
37.4 per cent of net current expenditure in 2010-11 was on education, 17.4 per cent on social care, 15.3 per cent on housing benefits and 9.9 per cent on police37.4 per cent of net current expenditure in 2010-11 was on education, 17.4 per cent on social care, 15.3 per cent on housing benefits and 9.9 per cent on police
54.3 per cent of revenue expenditure (on a non-International Accounting Standard 19 basis) in 2010-11 was funded by government grants, 26.0 per cent by council tax and 18.7 per cent by redistributed non-domestic rates.
Council Tax + Business Rates = £48 billion which is more than Corporation Tax + Petroleum Revenue Tax and only exceeded by Income Tax, NIC, VAT
Another £40 billion borrowing on top of Osborne runaway spending and borrowing would bring him to his knees – as would mass civil disobedience
“We won’t pay for CO2″campaign and blockade the fuel depots and docks. The country will come to a halt within a week.
interesting comments all and some new facts that have emerged but you have all missed the point bar one or two….
it is all about ‘the money tree’ as Dr. North puts it. that is why referism is so appealing. politicians, central or local care not a jot about the elecorate except when seeking the proverbial X at election time, promising the earth yet delivering more misery as they pursue their own and party political misguided agenda’s.
and PTB will and do use the full force of the violence of the State to collect what they see as their just tithes from us small folk…
the only way we can frighten TPTB is with numbers achieving critical mass that attracts as much as I laothe it mainstream media attention, that then piques interest and dialogue amongst yet more free thinking people, ergo more numbers come to the cause and it then begins to grow exponentially.
this has to start small, with well organised and well informed cells or groups of people based locally providing mutual advice and support. it ahs to have some form of central co-ordinating and informative forum or website where members can go to seek advice and actual phgysical support
Dr. North’s council tax protest is not unique nor is it the only way, but it lacks cohesion, it lacks co-ordianted support from other protesters, giving him support, both with advice and also with moral support but also more importantly actual physical peaceful support by turning up at his door on the day these jumped up bailifs are due to arrive (whether they do or not)and peacefully supporting the protest and witnessing filming and recording the unlawful actions of these theives.
and for him to do the same for others…collective mutual support.
Evidence is thus gathered for police prosecution and combined with relentless pursuit of justice by contacting the police, yea writing to the Chief constable as he has done seeking justice, presenting evidence continually and in growing numbers cannot be ignored for long…
if it is it provides yet more evidence of the collusion of the TPTB and brings yet more numbers to the cause
I am sure there are many of us out here who know local journalists, who have contacts, forums such as blogs and are able to bring this to wider audience…
but we have to communicate, organise, and mutually support by forming locally based cells all with a common set of principles and guidance to achieve our aims…we have to have the courage to face these bullies and we all know if we are supported with numbers and more importantly knowledge we can do so with confidence and belief….
yes its hard, yes its difficult, yes we all have other priorities in just surviving day to day but we have to ask ourselves do we want this? do we really want it? or are we just content to spout hot air about it on blogs such as this?
do we just roll over and be picked off one by one until the numbers protesting are so few they become meaningless…or do we find out backbone and fight back?
I am sure there are many of us out here who know local journalists, who have contacts,
You all apparently have Councillors and have all collectively and individually told your Councillors you want Council Tax reduced and the full Council Budget online for scutiny, no doubt.
You will all know the names of your Councillors and have crowded their surgeries and lobbied for your interests which is why the campaign leaflets are full of LOCAL matters and never mention Cameron, Clegg or Miliband and ALL LOCAL council campaign literature is printed LOCALLY and not in some central printers by Party HQ.
If I believed that were the case I would have more confidence…..but I reckon too many are armchair warriors and pub grumblers
Your blog has recently become very slow to load, I suspect because the main page now includes too many posts. Which is frustrating because I enjoy reading it.
Your blog has recently become very slow to load
Not here ! Maybe you need a cookie clean and to delete your cache before re-booting