Over at the paywalled Sunday Times there is a story that anyone who has worked within representative politics will recognise, as subscribers are told that David Cameron often learns of his policies from reading the papers and listening to the radio:
‘David Cameron’s former policy chief has revealed his “horror” at the powerlessness of Downing Street to control government decisions, admitting the prime minister often finds out about policies from the radio or newspapers — and in many cases opposes them.
‘Steve Hilton, who remains one of Cameron’s close confidants, said: “Very often you’ll wake up in the morning and hear on the radio or the news or see something in the newspapers about something the government is doing. And you think, well, hang on a second — it’s not just that we didn’t know it was happening, but we don’t even agree with it! The government can be doing things … and we don’t agree with it? How can that be?”
‘He described how No 10 is frequently left out of the loop as important policy changes are pushed through by ‘paper-shuffling’ mandarins.”‘
This is what happens when civil servants in government departments and the various tiers of local authorities take their orders and direction not from elected politicians in Westminster or City and Town Halls, but from the various organs of our supreme government in Brussels, the EU.
This is the state of ‘democracy’ in 21st Century Britain. The likes of Cameron cannot have complaint about this state of affairs, it is what they support and want to maintain. So any bleating from them should be treated with the contempt it deserves. But the British people do have cause for complaint.
What is being done by the civil service, following the instructions of a foreign entity that is answerable to one one, has not been elected and cannot be removed by this country’s voters, operating outside of democratic accountability can justly be described as a coup d’etat – albeit one the idiot politicians have facilitated by signing over huge swathes of power without understanding what that entails and without asking the permission of the people they are supposed to serve. The Irish get it.
This is why the UK needs to become independent again by leaving the EU.
Useful idiots Big business mandarins like Richard Branson couldn’t care less about democratic legitimacy and accountability matters such as these, and certainly don’t want ordinary people to understand the consequences of EU membership for this country. They prefer to retail scare stories about a departure from the EU threatening our economy and jobs, while deliberately ignoring the fact being part of the single market does not require this country to outsource political control by being a member of the EU.
It is not xenophobic or acting like a Little Englander to want the UK to leave the EU, rather it is an expression of the desire for democracy – people power – that the political class cannot stand and is trying to erode. We are Better Off Out of the EU.
Autonomous Mind 
The Europhiles complain that being in the EEA would be government by fax while being in the EU is government by Whitehall gauleiters.
Churchill said when given the choice of Europe or the open sea, he would always chose the open sea.
Damn, you beat me to it! Mind you, that hasn’t stopped me…… :)
And I thought machines were going to take over the world but the bureaucrats have beaten them to it. We need a terminator who can go back in time and instead of saving a life ending one that of Edward Heath.
I have had a few drinks tonight called real ale. It is English (it could be Welsh/Irish/Scottish ale but it just happens I live in England. More and more I am getting so pissed off with my friends who just are quite happy to carry on the way we are without realising the terror we are under from the unelected, undemocratic EU.
I’ve for a long time been of the view that governments come and go, but are more or less just the surface froth. The administrative establishment is there permanently and has its own agenda, which is largely to increase its reach. It’s very difficult for a government to reduce the size of the administrative sector but easy to increase it. Hence the fate of Cameron’s ‘bonfire of the QUANGOs’ – you can’t get rid of the QUANGOs without the state dropping responsibility for the functions they discharge.
The UK administrative establishent sees common cause with the Brussels bureaucracy. Its view of the world is in exact accord.
The political arrangement we’ve arrived at in the UK with things run by a bureaucracy and politicians there for show, is really a smaller version of the EU and naturally fits in with it. I believe the process started with the extension of state control and bureaucracy in WWII.
Maybe this is one of the reasons why we’ve ended up with two (three?) essentially identical political parties, all heartily in favour of the EU.
Steve Hilton claims to be surprised that policies are announced *in other departments* that the PM doesn’t like and that they didn’t know they were coming. Tough titty. We do not directly elect our PM and it is not his government. Perhaps Hilton fell for President Blair’s performance and his fawning subordinates.
From the PM down, and for many years, MPs scratch around for that last bit of authority they haven’t handed over and pump it up to distract from all the rest. It isn’t just that the EU sends directives our way – some of the time the EU is just implementing regulations decided on a truly international level where Britain represents itself. If that was more widely known the claims from politicians that being outside the EU would be difficult would vanish.
Autonomous Mind wrote: “This is the state of ‘democracy’ in 21st Century Britain. The likes of Cameron cannot have complaint about this state of affairs, it is what they support and want to maintain. So any bleating from them should be treated with the contempt it deserves.”
We should also be wary. The problems Hilton whines about could be ‘solved’ by giving the PM more authority which would give him more weight to throw about in Brussels.(Not just in an ‘I represent the people’ way but also a ‘I can deliver what you want so what can I get in return’ trading of favours)
Whats up very cool site!! Man .. Beautiful .
. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also?
I’m satisfied to seek out a lot of helpful information here in the submit, we need develop more techniques on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .