David Cameron has dignified a foul-mouthed and abusive outburst by Russell Brand with a typically juvenile response, reported as a story by the Guardian. No surprise there.
The real story however concerns the substantive issue Brand raised recently, concerning disengagement from the political system by increasing numbers of eligible voters. While some of the disengaged understand clearly what the problems are, others are disengaged only because they have a sense that things are not right, that politicians and parties are to blame and that as nothing changes there is no point in voting.
The reason why nothing changes, as we have explained in the two posts on Hard Truths here and here, is because our politicians have given away the power to govern this country to the EU. They could not change things even if they wanted to, unless they first made the UK independent again. Politicians have continued with the transfer of power despite knowing for decades that the EU undermines and erodes sovereignty and democracy by design. Democracy can lead to outcomes that don’t suit the political class, so they simply use power to prevent the wishes of the people being followed. It is this that is fuelling disengagement and anti-political sentiment.
So while it is self evident that you cannot believe in democracy and support the EU or membership of it, we find Cameron making a comment of profound and deluded idiocy – or cynical deception – in response to Brand’s call for ‘revolution’:
I’m a democrat. If Russell Brand’s got a better idea, he can let us know.
I have a better idea, Dave, and I’ll tell you right now what it is, let’s have democracy! Not the sham that describes dictatorship by an elite as ‘democracy’, but the real thing that reflects the meaning on the word, demos kratos – ‘people rule’.
Whatever Cameron is, he isn’t a democrat. Cameron wants to continue with the fraudulent notion of democracy that merely collapses ‘democracy’ into periodic voting, while isolating the political process from any form of control by the people.
Brand’s desire is for revolution. We do need a revolution, but not of the kind Brand has in mind. We need a peaceful withdrawal of consent to bring about a change of the system. Resorting to violence plays into the system’s hands, because they can put down violence with far greater and better equipped violence. Brand doesn’t seem to get that. No, we need a revolution that leaves the state’s hands tied by making their systems unworkable and their rules unenforceable.
It can be done. But it needs to be done in a way that keeps structures and rules intact, only under the control of the people, in order to avert anarchy. The Harrogate Agenda has a strategy that can achieve that . A post on that later this weekend.
Autonomous Mind 
I don’t really know David Cameron’s innermost thoughts but I can make a guess, he is way off beam if he thinks he presides over a democratic system of government. In his supreme and purblind view of all things EU it causes such divide between his view and that of mine. I find that, I cannot condone any of his motives or, rationale such as it is.
I don’t bother to read what Brand thinks of anyone, his incontinent drivel is an embarrassment, just reading some of the headlines – it highlights a lack of cogency running horses and a coach through his runny nosed meandering.
I wonder, what does the great sage think of Mr. Miliband the younger kid of the communist schemer and unfettered Marxist the late Mr. Ralph Miliband?
No doubt, Mr. Brand would look more kindly on this son of the left would he not?
The greater, indeed greatest danger for Britain, is that if or, when Miliband unfortunately rises to be the Prime Minster of Britain. And forthwith, the national debt servicing and massive extra borrowings will quickly bring the nation to its knees, bankrupted, obliterated and then erased. Subsumed into a pan European mulch; a collectivist dystopian police state – far sooner than George [Osborne] and Dave ever could.
Surely, the ‘great man’ and visionary fomenter of a people’s revolution to deliver and liberate the country from evil! He could never wish for that?
If he did, then he is just another luvvie Socialist and certainly not the first who mistakes the function of his reproductive organ, as an end for his cognitive apparatus.
Edward,
I strongly suspect Cameron is very much a creature of the establishment, well, the trendy, progressive part of it, and his main motivation is not rocking the boat. The EU is definitely a part of the boat he doesn’t want to rock, but being a Conservative leader, with a eurosceptic following to be kept on board, he has to make gestures and has a licence to do that. He can’t not talk about it, as he’d like. He knows how far to go. He doesn’t actually think about these things much, he’s there to manage the current set up, not to change it.
Brand was putting his finger on a pulse of discontent with the political process we have. He wasn’t articulate and he sees things through a naive, poorly defined, left wing filter. He’s also regarded as a repulsive character by many. He was talking about rocking the boat.
It’s very easy for Cameron to dismiss him publicly on those grounds, and paint his half-formed ideas as being something to do with the loony left, and not at all democratic and with it, dismiss the point he was struggling to make.
Democracy is a thing that Westminster system of parliamentary democracy is very keen to claim for itself as a badge of legitimacy. If it admitted that it wasn’t properly democratic and that was the reason for disengagement, there would be some problems and a lot of boat rocking.
AM, could you please give us more details of this ‘withdrawal of consent’. I think it is a very good idea, and have read various titbits from you and also Richard North. But could you please elaborate – because I really want to do this and just need some advice.
Thank you for all your work!
He means his form of democracy….between him and his buddies!
A “filthy, dirty, posh wanker” or just a deluded idiot?
Can’t we have both ?
“…the fraudulent notion of democracy that merely collapses ‘democracy’ into periodic voting.” Just as the Swiss political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said about Britain around 250 years ago!
Bellevue,
In its simplest, and least anarchic, form ‘withdrawal of consent’ is best effected by a refusal to pay your taxes, (council tax and tv licence are the obvious options), which carries with it of course a willingness to take the consequences.
The question is, ‘how many are so willing?’ And the answer is probably, ‘not many, until the tipping point is reached.’
It’s anyone’s guess when that arrives, and what brings it on. Either way, if sufficient numbers are not ready to rise to the occasion (Blighty’s current semi- comatose condition does not augur well)… well, it’s a futile exercise.
Thank you very much for that, Albion. Very concise (and somewhat terrifying!)
Not quite, Albion. It is a lot more nuanced than that. Not paying your taxes simply incurs legal consequences.
HOW you pay your taxes and bills, while sticking within the law, can bring the system crashing to a halt. We need to protest smarter and hit them where it hurts, peacefully, but in such numbers that the impact is immediate and significant.
You don’t get into his position by being ‘dense’. Truth to be told, he knows exactly what he ‘Presides over’.
Always makes me laugh, as with the eco-talliban, that these ‘revolutionaries’ seriously believe that they would actually survive a real revolution. Once we had finished with the political class, who then do they believe would be next against the wall? Beardy leftist comedians might not be too far behind in the list of useless dross to be rid of.
Beneficial Crisis for the EU! Euro joining crisis! What are we up to now 1.4 Trillion? Something will have to give eventually.
I have to admit to two things … V for Vendetta is may favourite film. It is just how I see this country after the collapse.
And, when asked by my wife recently which school we should send our daughter to later (she’s 3 now) my reply was any in Australia or Canada – whatever she prefers and the sooner the better. I seriously don’t want her here when the inevitable ‘shed collapse’ arrives.
The band is still playing as we plough through the night, against all logic, deeper and deeper into iceberg territory believing that our mighty ship could never go down …
AM – can you fix up me post? (blockquote wise) – Ta.
Why should ANYBODY give a stuff for what Brand thinks ?
AM
You say ‘RN had suggested that if 10 people do it then, for ‘the authorities’, jail for all is a viable option, 10,000, not so much. 10,000,000 means (soft) ‘revolution’ and something has to change.’
That’s the point I’m making… it’s the ‘legal consequences’ that focus attention, and if there’s sufficient numbers, energy and courage bring about ‘soft revolution’.
Albion, that isn’t a quote of my comments.
It is even more nuanced that what 3×2 has articulated so well. For example, imagine thousands of people paying council tax and utility bills in unequal amounts by cheque, leaving the bill underpaid by a penny thus messing up systems and making court action prohibitively disproportionate, not paying that penny until the next financial period but doing the same again for say 2p, sending the payment (minus account number) to the chief executive recorded delivery, so accounts have a nightmare reconciling and using internal processes while you have evidence of payment…
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Such protest and action shows withdrawal of consent by not playing by their rules. It makes the people ungovernable.