The adoption of lawfare by the US Democrats backfired badly in the US election. Instead of getting Donald Trump banned as a candidate they boosted the support for him and made it a more divisive contest.
All democracies have some agreed rules over who can stand and how elections are to be conducted. There can be rules on age, past conduct, nationality, residence and other relevant matters. It is important that all parties that can win seats agree these rules are fair. The rules should not be changed in order to disadvantage one party.
Judges when asked to judge cases should be careful not to debar popular candidates that significant numbers want to vote for. Of course if a would be candidate commits a serious crime like murder or rape and is found guilty they should like anyone else have to serve a prison sentence which would stop them being an elected official. If the crime is related to their conduct as a politician the punishment should not normally prevent them standing again to let the electorate judge them.Rules on campaign funds and office expenses need enforcing and conduct should be exposed, but they also need to be enforced on all parties. One party’s idea of abuse is another’s flexibility. Public debate and transparency are the best limiters of bad conduct.
We now have a situation where Romania, Germany and France are taking action to prevent two popular candidates for President and one popular party from standing. This looks bad,with an establishment running scared. The whole point of democracy is to give people the option to change government. Many people in Europe dislike the prevailing orthodoxies on net zero, austerity, migration and other matters. They need to be able to vote for candidates and parties who want to change these matters.
April 5, 2025
“Judges when asked to judge cases should be careful not to debar popular candidates that significant numbers want to vote for.” I see. So you think politicians should be above the law.
Reply Not what this blog says
April 5, 2025
Well Judges often think they can invent laws and are above the law and should not even be criticised. Even when they want blatant and racist justice in sentencing guidance!
Let the people decide, yes please! And directly not through largely lying representitives! And without market rigging as we have with schools, universities, energy, housing, EV cars, heating systems, transport, banking, contruction… freedom of choice please!
April 5, 2025
The people would like efficient public services for the rather few things the state can do best, honest politicians and low taxes. Politicians and civil “servants” certainly in the UK have delivered the complete opposite of very high taxation and generally abysmal so called public “services” This for at least the last 40 years!
April 5, 2025
@Lifelogic – ah there is the dream of what democracy stood for that is now fought against by our MP’s our Legislators – they back away of standing up for the very thing they are there to do
April 5, 2025
@Lifelogic – Personally nowadays I believe the ‘Law’ as in those that prosecute it have lost the plot, its departments appear to be more left wing activist than impartial servants.
There was a time that we saw the Law as being blind, not identifying class, race, colour or religion. Supposedly that is why Lady Justice was blind folded, with a sword of justice in one hand and scales in the other. However, her blindfolds have been removed at the Old Bailey to create a different reflection on the meaning of Law.
In reality the problems we attribute to the Judges are really the problem with our legislators. There is a tendency to create ‘knee jerk’ Laws, to be on message and down with the kids. There is a lack of attention to the wider world and wider scope that ill conceived laws create by lack of thinking things trough
April 5, 2025
Indeed Lawyer are just another vested interest group.
April 5, 2025
@scallion – When the Middlesex MP John Wilkes was barred from Parliament the electors were having none of it. They voted him back three times. Parliament finally gave in and he took his seat.
Wilkes established a democratic principle of the highest importance: that it is for voters to decide who represents them, not courts or government. Marine Le Pen should follow his example.
April 5, 2025
The judges put themselves above the law and above the constitution. They annex to themselves powers they were never intended to have and they abuse these to political ends. The most extreme example of this is in Israel where for five years they have been trying to remove the PM. They regularly overturn the policies of the elected government and parliament, and being left wing they call up rentamob to reinforce them in the eyes of the world.
April 5, 2025
The Israeli PM has won in effect five out of the last five elections (they are cursed with PR) and the left now want another in the middle of a defensive war on seven fronts.
April 5, 2025
Scallion I see YOU think SOME politicians should be above the law! The ones that gerrymander elections.
April 5, 2025
The problem though is ultimately cultural not political.
Politics can’t solve the fundamental problems of society on which the strength of our civilisation (and so economy and other things) lies. Also if you get a populist in power things will then swing to the left a few years later. It’s like this pendulum where you constantly swing from right to left and to right (or hard left to hard right to hard left again) etc continuously trying to ‘right’ the ‘wrongs’ of the other.
At end of day, from POV of Conservatism, we need more the approach of the great Edmund Burke not populism. Edmund Burke’s approach to politics was both cultural and political. In fact, if he were alive today he would be appalled and sickened by the collapse of trad Judaeo-Christian values and the best of Graeco-Roman ones upon which our civilisation (and economy) depends. He focused on politics then as it was already a given that millions accepted the fundamental cultural values I reference here upon which Western civilisation depends. So we should be pushing the cultural and political philosophy or mindset of Edmund Burke. Not, in politics, to proselytise religious beliefs, but to stand up for and communicate and support trad Judaeo-Christian values and the best of Graeco-Roman ones (work ethic, family over state, patriotism etc) and in particular through the institutions of the churches, the media, the arts, and education. That’s where the real battle lies. Then the job of politicians would be many, many times easier and they would be much, much more respected and universally liked and admired than they currently are and our economy would be much healthier, with way lower taxes, way higher productivity, much stronger arts and culture, way lower crime, much stronger neighbourhoods and family life, and much better security and sovereignty and much more patriotism – and happiness in general! Lots of atheists (and agnostics) would agree with this – the need to really focus on these cultural values even if these people don’t follow the religious beliefs (or not all of them if they are agnostic)
April 5, 2025
I don’t believe in government by or via institutions – institutions (which may be a relic from a pre-technologically advanced age) are necessarily no better than the people who currently run them. We should be doing our own thinking relevant to our times.
April 5, 2025
What do you mean by ‘institutions’ here?
‘We should be doing our own thinking relevant to our times’ – but there are some principles that apply to all ages. Don’t you agree? But I certainly agree that there are differences too in approaches from one era to another but not 100% different.
Also, by your argument (within the umbrella of your argument), President Trump is harking back to an era (say 19th century) when tariffs worked relatively well compared to say — the 1930’s — and now when our way of doing trade is a lot more complicated (but there is still some relevance to tariffs).
April 5, 2025
GB, And what if my own thinking is completely opposed to yours?
April 5, 2025
The general public can decide rather than mainly those who currently hold positions within institutions.
April 5, 2025
The number of people who agree trump the others.
It’s called ‘democracy’.
April 5, 2025
Ed, what is Populism ?
Surely it is nothing more than a desire of the majority to see policies implemented of which the elites of the country do not approve ? In other words, a call for democracy to be seen in action.
In the case of the UK, this means population control through the elimination of most inward migration and the removal of illegals, lower taxes through the cancellation of Net Zero, reduced benefits for those who should be working, and drastic cuts in civil service and local government manpower, including an end to vastly over-generous pension schemes.
In other words, the policies of Nigel Farage and the Reform party.
April 5, 2025
‘In the case of the UK, this means population control through the elimination of most inward migration and the removal of illegals’ – I’m with you here (and I think a lot of other people are too. But I think there are, sadly, a lot of people who are largely indifferent – probably most. And obviously some hard-core opponents of this).
‘lower taxes through the cancellation of Net Zero’ – this is a very niche argument! I think most people in this country don’t really know what Net Zero is or care (I care – and I respect and listen to those opposed to Net Zero. Although I take more of an Elon Musk approach on this issue than say someone such as Lifelogic). Let alone have strong opinions about taxes – higher or lower.
‘reduced benefits for those who should be working’ – yes, good point.
‘drastic cuts in civil service and local government manpower, including an end to vastly over-generous pension schemes’ – most voters wouldn’t have a clue about all this or care / indifferent.
‘In other words, the policies of Nigel Farage and the Reform party’ – clearly the fact that Reform only have a few seats demonstrates that what they believe in doesn’t make a significant impact (or at least not enough) on voters.
So, sorry, but I don’t think you’ve clearly explained what populism is. And I think you’re trying to shoe-horn some arguments in that aren’t populist. That the majority of people don’t understand or care about (but more interested in everyday things / needs / entertainment – perhaps something to do with our civilisation living in an age of decadence, I don’t know).
April 5, 2025
But even if tariffs are seen as populist, in this age, then why did President Trump implement them in such a crude way? This was populism badly executed!
April 5, 2025
The Tories / right-wingers need to create a think tank about how to bring about more traditional Conservative values into our culture and through those in the churches, media, education and the arts and inviting members from all these to the think tank to participate.
Reply The conservative side has plenty of think tanks. The challenge is to get enough support for them and interest in their events.
April 5, 2025
Popularism is the modern derogatory term for Democracy coined by people who don’t want to admit they oppose democracy, but do. See the undemocratic, dictatorial, bureaucratic, unsackable, hopeless, useless, panicked fools who run that evil institution.
April 6, 2025
Exactly.
April 5, 2025
According to Mark Twain:
“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
Romania, Germany and France are no longer democracies.
What about the UK ?
April 5, 2025
I still hope we will get one, probably long after I’m gone.
April 5, 2025
I do sometime feel the ring of truth in that saying, especially when parties ignore their own manifesto and proclaim Sovereign privilege ie the chagos islands etc
April 5, 2025
In the U.K. they use the Royal Prerogative. We must abolish it.
April 5, 2025
agree
April 5, 2025
The UK certainly is not. If you can elect the driver of a bus once every five years (from just 1,2 or 3 possibles under FPTP but he will promise anything to get elected then do the reverse do the voters control the direction of the bus? Then we have the unelected house of Lords, civil servants, quangos, Internations bodies, the dire EU the Judges who want a racist justice system (and will not even give That poor clearly unsafely convicted nurse a first appeal and the halfwitted Lammy who thinks he can and should give away the Chagos Islands.
April 5, 2025
Those who would ban parties in Europe they consider dangerous have in mind the rise of Hitler to power using democratic tools. They fear a repetition. They also wish to retain the status quo. Hitler swiftly turned democracy into dictatorship with the result being the history many rightly fear.
Banning parties the current government sees as a threat brings the law into disrepute, and boosts the popularity of such parties with the electorate, witness recent events in the USA.
Prevention and limitation is in having a strong Constitution that cannot change except by referendom. It is not an absolute safety net, but as near as you can get without destroying the democracy the majority wish to uphold. It is a dire need in the UK where too many institutions have been captured by those who would subvert democracy and hate the thought of the people having democratic power.
April 5, 2025
Do they really fear the AfD are Hitlerian? The party which does not want war and does not want to rule Europe through the EU and the euro? The party which wants the D mark back which would benefit the rest of the EU? The party which was founded by a thoughtful academic economist? No, the thing they fear is not Hitlerism but the breakup of what succeeded it, the Soviet Union of Europe. This USE project was a means by which those who lost the war won the peace, and they don’t intend to lose again through the ballot box. They really won’t care what we say about democracy. They have already hijacked the word to mean the opposite, in Orwellian fashion. Just as they have hijacked the word peace to mean hot war.
April 5, 2025
Shakepeare was demonstrating what I’m talking about through the character of Prospero who over-plays his hand as a politician.
And the philosophy of Edmund Burke is NOT wishy-washy wet lib dem. Trad values believes in real tough masculinity which should be reflected in politics when necessary (but real masculinity isn’t meant to be tough all the time – real masculinity is about being a warrior when necessary but also a peacemaker – and the masculine warrior spirit is ultimately about creating peace and security). But not a kind of macho approach to politics either which is falling into the Prospero error of over-playing your hand as a politician.
April 5, 2025
Good Morning,
Quite an odd post this morning, given the tumultuous global events unfolding. Where are the economists and financial experts to explain and advise when you really need them?
Has Trump declared economic war on China and Russia? What are the effects? Will the USD lose its status as the world reserve currency? (Gold is off slightly) Will industrial commodities rise or fall, oil has dropped. Will industrial production in UK and Europe falter or thrive? Can Taiwan continue to export semiconductors?
Trump has reset economic policy and commercial profitability for the entire world, IF he maintains this policy. And that means every salary, pension and national tax.
Time to wake up.
Reply. I have set out my views on tariffs many times this week and will do more as the story develops. See me on X this morning.
April 5, 2025
People don’t seem to remember there are sanctions on Russia. Also, there are negotiations going on about a whole lot of things, not just the Ukraine. Bearing all that in mind, why would the Americans start applying theoretical tariffs on Russia before the negotiations have properly started and when they may not?
April 5, 2025
Quite so, so what would be the point of tariffs. Trump could be forgiven for calling Germany a ‘sanctions buster’ for continuing to buy Russian gas via India and others. Such is the economic frailty caused by the Net Zero policy madness. The EU is digging itself an even bigger hole if it increases it own tariff regime; no European economy, including ours, is going to go undamaged. If we are smart, we might work out how to turn the new world order to our advantage, but that requires creative thinking in high places.
April 5, 2025
PS, Trumps tariff’s are driving down the price of oil, one of Russia’s main exports used to finance his war.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil
This is perhaps an unexpected problem for Putin, or maybe Trump actually knows what he’s doing!
April 5, 2025
Controversially, Sunak gave the Rwanda government about £400 million to agree to accept migrants deported from the UK. This is a large sum of taxpayer’s money. Unsurprisingly, they refused to return the money after the new Labour government scrapped the scheme and asked for it back. So where has it gone?
By a curious coincidence, the M23 rebels operating in eastern DRC appear to have recently received large quantities of prime American weaponry, which the Taliban are selling into the international arms trade. The Rwanda army have also recently received mobile air defence systems and GPS jamming technology, which has been deployed in Eastern Congo.
M23 is a Rwanda-backed, Tutsi-led rebel paramilitary group based in the eastern regions of the DRC; they have recently gone on the offensive and have captured large swathes of the mineral rich eastern North Kivu province, including the capital Goma.
M23 now control 80% of the world supply of cobalt to world markets. Only seven migrants were successfully deported to Rwanda. At a cost of £57 million each
April 5, 2025
So what ?
April 5, 2025
Morning Sir John,
Sadly you forget, Nanny knows best.
April 5, 2025
I agree with the last paragraph. It does look bad. However, this does not stop the interference. The lawyers involved are often establishment placemen.
‘ Rules on campaign funds and office expenses need enforcing and conduct should be exposed, but they also need to be enforced on all parties.’
There is a huge problem with lobbying. In America foreign policy is driven by AIPAC which has successfully pushed for wars in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel.
FARA requires those who receive funds or act on behalf of a foreign government to register as a foreign agent. However, since the days of Lyndon Johnson AIPAC has successfully managed to sidestep this requirement.
Ironically, while Trump and Vance push for free speech in the UK (abortion, Tommy Robinson etc) they are implementing harsh new laws to clamp down on transparency and free speech in relation to the conduct of the Israeli government.
April 5, 2025
Have a good look at what has been going on in American universities. No responsible government would let it go on. Look at who is behind it and who funds it. There is no comparison with lone old women silently praying in the street.
April 5, 2025
American universities are mostly enforced religious institutions. And I mean religions not political religion.
April 5, 2025
How our country partly thrived thanks to The Church setting up the wonderful and beautiful universities of Oxford and Cambridge!
‘Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had done in Newman’s day; her autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days – such as that day – when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth. It was this cloistral hush which gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously, over the intervening clamour’ – Eveylin Waugh
April 5, 2025
and the control mechanism of a graduate from those 2 respected universities appointed to ‘the living’ of a Parish, the Army or dare I say it – politics.
April 5, 2025
Israel is at war. In war you need to defend your own by not talking – remember the posters in the U.K. in WWII?
April 5, 2025
R & LA,
The pair of you seem to have bought into the Israeli hasbara. Apart from full time shills, our major columnists are obliged to write occasional supportive pieces in the newspapers.
The other trick is failure to report events.
When there is understandable outrage, the anti semitism defence is rolled out.
Try reading the Israeli press. Haaretz has a very different stance to the ultra-right Zionists hardliners keen to inflict old testament vengeance on the general population of Gaza.
April 5, 2025
The Israeli mainstream media have consistently attacked their own side all the way through the war because they regard Netanyahu as the enemy to be defeated, not Iran.
April 6, 2025
Agree. Who would read and listen to British MSM in order to find out what British PEOPLE thought?
April 5, 2025
During the LAAD Defence & Security 2025 event in Rio de Janeiro last week the Brazilian Navy reportedly signed an agreement with the MoD to acquire the RN amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark.
These ships will join will the join the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, once flagship of the fleet, sold to the Brazilians ten years ago. Albion and Bulwark are among the Royal Navy’s most capable amphibious vessels, designed for transporting large numbers of troops, vehicles, and cargo in support of British expeditionary warfare. They were constructed with the projection of force by the Royal Marines in mind
Selling these capable vessels would be a serious mistake. The cost of running these ships is only about £10 million a year. Bulwark has just had a £72 million refit, but considerations of wasting taxpayers money have never prevented the MoD from covering the costs of it’s latest cock-up by scrapping capability.
Healey should delay this sale until the Labour SDSR is completed. Who knows when the British military will need to use these ships to project force overseas again? Selling them will be a bad mistake
Reply. I agree
April 5, 2025
Selling off these two ships will save a pittance but will destroy a military capability that we need, and will never be replaced. As daft as paying to give away a group of very strategically placed islands to a country that has no historic right to them !
How are these decisions arrived at ?
April 5, 2025
Needing to tick a box….remove redundant items, reduce running costs, remove unwanted items…..whoever looks at the supposed saving will be very happy.
April 5, 2025
I agree too. The Conservatives should be asking, more strongly, why Defence cuts announced a few months ago, are still going ahead, after additional funds for Defence have been allocated. If we go to war, the ex-regulars, with reserve liability, will have NOTHING to fight with.
Anyways, I’m now struggling to name the Defence shadow.
April 6, 2025
Hence we can’t go to war and Starmer and the rest of the globalist warmongers need to sit down and shut up because we do NOT want Britain defeated!
April 5, 2025
Good morning.
It is all a question of optics.
It is clear to me that those on the continent are unable or unwilling to see what the Trump Administration see when ‘Lawfare’ is conducted on political opponents by the governments of Europe. He has already compared to what has happened to Marian Le Pen to that of himself. When the leader with such a following makes that statement, it usually tends to galvanize those supporters affected.
To paraphrase someone from history. The wind of change is blowing across the continent of Europe. Those in charge need to decide if it going to be just a breeze, or a hurricane ?
April 5, 2025
More like a Siberian winter?
April 5, 2025
France is overdue for a revolution.
Germany has been a democracy for about 80 years and had it imposed on them.
Romania has been a democracy for about 30 years.
If the EU could get rid of Orban, it would …. and probably Melonia as well.
I’m really not surprised at the anti-democratic antics going on with “our friends” over the channel. The EU is desperate to keep their corrupt Empire together and they’ll adopt their usual tactics if they consider it necessary.
When you look at the state of our so-called democracy in the UK – a government with a landslide which got the votes of 20% of the electorate, which is suppressing free speech, locking up people for saying hurty things on Facebook, which operates a two-tier system of justice and is about to reintroduce what will effectively be a blasphemy law to protect one “special” faith – its not difficult to imagine that the next step will be lawfare against Nigel Farage and the Reform Party for threatening to destroy the Westminster Uni-Party. After all, they’ve already colluded to cancel Local Elections in areas where Reform looked very likely to win big.
April 5, 2025
Do you have details of the proposed blasphemy law to protect one special faith. I sometimes express anti organised religion views. Is this about to be made illegal?
April 5, 2025
A friend Reiner Fuellmich conducted an investigation onto the Eccentric activities of big Pharma during the Covid madness. He is a top German Lawyer. Fearing the present situation in Europe he moved his family to a ranch in the USA.
He was invited to a Conference in Mexico where he was abducted and transported back to Germany. He has been in jail, in solitary confinement, transported to Court under armed guard (machine guns) for pre-trial hearings. This is the 18th month of his captivity. His family can visit for 1 hour once a month.
‘Lawfare’ goes from the very top all the way down to parents complaining about a school, and in their desperation you can see the old Jackboot coming out.
April 5, 2025
All very worrying indeed but I am not that surprised. I was surprised that RFK Jn. was actually appointed.
Has Sunak corrected his misleading the of house yet. Has Neil O’Brian the PPE graduate said sorry for attacking the scientists and sensible people who, during Covid, got thinks right while he Hancock etc. were getting almost everything wrong. Surely using our taxes to lie and indoctrinate us.
Even Jeremy Hunt is saying some of the right things now.
Jeremy Hunt: Turn UK into ‘Singapore-on-Thames’ to survive trade war. So that will be the complete reverse of all his actions when in government as Chancellor and as the long term health Sec. then?
April 5, 2025
Lynn
I read about him. He started up The Grand Jury, calling evidence against some of the odd goings on during Covid. I thought it odd he was imprisoned.
April 5, 2025
Putin has performed it over and over, as has Kim Jong-in, who knows what has been done in China?
April 6, 2025
Not just imprisoned, abducted and imprisoned. He has been treated appallingly … for the “crime” of following the evidence over the development of mRNA gene therapies.
April 6, 2025
My husband gave evidence, I’m wondering whether we might have to find a ranch in Texas! The Germans are very concerned that Reiner’s legal knowledge will ‘help’ other detainees. So he is not even allowed eye contact!
Why is nobody in the west not kicking up about this?
April 5, 2025
Merz has already said as soon as he is Chancellor he is going after Orban.
April 5, 2025
April 5, 2025
It’s only a matter of time before 2TK with the help of his left wing buddies goes for Farage.
Let us not forget we now have political prisoners in the form of Tommy Robinson and the so called far right Southport rioters.
A man posts hurty words on Facebook gets 30months custody, a politician commits ABH and gets 3 weeks suspended sentence.
The communists are running scared in this country because if Farage wins he can expose all the corruption of the uniparty especially over immigration and Brexit.
There are lots of skeletons that the establishment want to keep buried.
April 5, 2025
The Establishment already tried, using Coutts/Nat West as their weapon of choice. Farage has just received a large, sum undisclosed, payment for damages.
I remember, a few years before the EU Referendum, at a conference event someone asking him if he feared assassination. He said “They’ve left it too late. They know that it would result in even more support for leaving the EU.”
I think the same applies to the Reform Party now. But it won’t stop them trying.
April 5, 2025
+1 I agree with most of your post, but you must understand that Farage was chosen because he is so easily and justifiably brought down.
They just wanted most of us on board when they sank his ship.
I have warned repeatedly.
April 5, 2025
Revolution might be encouraged and caused without the success appointing the chief instigator.
April 5, 2025
How long before this Government tries to ban the Reform Party or conducts a witch hunt against its members? Thank goodness the Globalists failed in their attempt to destroy democracy in the USA. The whole house of cards is falling now that the money from USAID has been turned off. The activist groups are folding one after another.
April 5, 2025
‘the money from USAID has been turned off’ – not so, necessarily. American investors already beginning to take money out of the USA and reinvest in Europe and Asia. [Watch this space]
They don’t like the uncertainty of Trump’s economic plan and the way he has implemented his tariffs (tariffs of course not necessarily bad but there has to be a proper plan behind them and in a sophisticated and intelligent way as opposed to President Trump’s completely clunky approach – more like he is playing Christmas Monopoly than trying to make an impact on the modern trading systems and economies of today.
April 5, 2025
Funny that. I’m going in the opposite direction – or at least my money is.
April 5, 2025
‘Investors Who Were All In on U.S. Stocks Are Starting to Look Elsewhere’ – WALL STREET JOURNAL.
In this particular article, references Americans turning from investment in the USA to Europe and elsewhere but lots of other sources about turning to Asia too.
But it makes sense (in general). Not rocket science.
April 6, 2025
Ah – the Globalist, anti-Trump Wall Street Journal. Well they would say that wouldn’t they? Trillions being invested in the USA.
April 5, 2025
It makes a mockery of Democracy if candidates are banned by established parties because they do not like their opinions.
This is little different from Zimbabwe.
April 5, 2025
7.30 am National Grid used 19.8% from Interconnectors. A sunny breezy morning for some yet we rely on imported electricity….
April 5, 2025
But think of all the goods and services that the EU are delighted and eager to buy from us to counter the costs of imported electricity. Oh!, hang on……..
April 5, 2025
Each time I have looked during the day the Interconnectors have supplied about 20% of our demand.
Cost – about £100/MWh. What sale price to does UK get?
April 5, 2025
thats not energy security
April 5, 2025
Well there is “democracy” and there is “far right populism” .
The difference is one is from the Greek and the other from Latin!
The establishment “claim” to like the former but distain the latter.
Not that, as in the UK, a vote under distorting FPTP every five years for MPs who rarely even try to do as they promised (and are fairly powerless anyway) is democracy in any real sense!
April 5, 2025
Nothing democratic about PR – it is a means whereby over and over again the winners are frozen out by cabals of losers. Manifestos are held in contempt. Latest example: Germany. Holland is a frequent example. Even if PR were practised honestly and uncorruptly, it would guarantee weak government and indecision. When the electorate throws that weak government out, back it comes in a different guise, sometimes with the same leader, sometimes not. Farage wants PR for short term selfish reasons. Lowe and Habib do not want it because they want to achieve something for the country.
April 6, 2025
Manifestos are currently held in contempt. As soon as the crosses are counted the winner ditches theirs and in many cases implements the complete opposite of what they “promised.”
April 5, 2025
There is no other way unless you want the manifesto settled AFTER every election and for the tiny minorities to hold power over the majority. That is what ALL PR delivers. Europe is a result of PR – do you like it?
April 5, 2025
PR is, I agree, very far from ideal. Direct democracy is the only real democracy and can easily be done with modern technology. But the last thing most MPs want is any real democracy!
April 6, 2025
Unfortunately Direct Democracy does not work either because all the power lies with those who pose the Question and those who count the ballots. Ask Bridgen about that!
In addition people are busy, most don’t have time to delve into the intricacies of some of these issues. Vested interests can deploy a load of money to subvert opinion with a false narrative, look at the Common Market Referendum.
April 5, 2025
There were some pretty awful emperors like Caligula, Nero and Commodus. But also some pretty good ones too like Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. All depends on the details / individuals within the system (and so many good things about the Graeco-Roman ‘system’ as well as Judaeo-Christian values that we’ve destroyed – and which our ‘democracy’, economies and civilisation in general in the West is paying dearly for).
April 5, 2025
Strong reason to reduce the 5 years to 3! Also a referendum after 1 year to seek an answer to the question ‘ Has the Government broadly done as you should expect from their manifesto? YES/NO choice answer only.
April 5, 2025
It shows the low quality of ruling politicians in Europe that they don’t realise that by banning their opposition in various ways they simply increase opposition support. Le Pen was convicted of an offence that is widespread amongst many parties in the European Parliament, an institution presided over by an unelected President who herself has been convicted for financial negligence when she was French finance minister. It was deemed in her case no punishment at all was necessary. Justice à deux niveaux.
April 5, 2025
The President of the European Parliament is Roberta Metsola, a Maltese citizen, elected on 18/01/2022.
Were you referring to the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, who was nominated by her ECB peers then voted on a secret ballot by the European Parliament to replace Mario Draghi who was at the end of his two four-year mandates.
And BTW Ms Lagarde was convicted of financial negligence in the Bernard Tapie (French) scandal but was not even given a fine.
Please tell me, what would you have given her given your thorough knowledge of the dossier?
April 5, 2025
Hefner all the Continental institutions meld into one for those of us luck enough to live in Brexit Britain.
I’m sure that any Court would have imposed some sort of punishment on a fraudster, certainly not allowed a future high level economic job. In the U.K. Directors of companies or charities which are not properly run are debarred from holding that office again for some time. My sister-in-law fell foul of that when ‘Kids Company’ was found to be fraudulent.
Nobody would have to tell a British person this basic stuff, but I appreciate that justice was not imbued with your mothers milk as it is in the U.K. by we lucky few.
April 6, 2025
Reading regularly this blog may I say I am not convinced by your last sentence.
April 6, 2025
You don’t have instinctive British ‘values’ Helner, that’s why you don’t recognize the values and standards that caused British people to dominate the world on merit.
April 9, 2025
That domination was obvious in the 19th c, thanks to the Empire. Since WW1? After WW2?
Do you really think of US Americans as people with some ‘British’ DNA and therefore ‘British’ values?
Were these values prevalent before the Roman presence in Britain? or did they come with the Anglo-Saxons? the Norman Conquest? or induced by the Magna Carta? or thanks to O.Cromwell? the Glorious Revolution? the various treaties afterwards, 1707, or 1800?
And tell me, what are these famous British values that, according to you, nobody not born of a British mother, even if in Africa, India, Australia or wherever, has got with their mother’s milk?
April 5, 2025
+1.
April 5, 2025
The current regime in the UK have postponed many local elections. They are also running scared of the electorate.
April 5, 2025
A massive limitation on democracy in Britain is that centralised party machines usually decide who is or at least who is allowed to be their local candidate for Parliament, especially in marginal constituencies and when the incumbent Member of Parliament of their own party is not standing again. To become properly democratic we need the American primary system whereby the ordinary voters for the party rather than the party machine decides who their candidate will be.
Reply Conservatives tried that. Members of rival parties register and vote seeking to choose either a non Conservative or a bad candidate they can beat, Votes of the members of the party makes more sense.
April 5, 2025
Reply to reply: The Conservatives did not properly try American style primaries in which there are registered supporters (as distinct from members) of the party and the primary candidates are not pre-selected by the party machine. Most constituencies are now down to a handful of Conservative Party members, let alone activists. Conservative Party Central Office has over the years shown itself to be adept at promoting candidates who are not really Conservative or are technically bad candidates or both! In primaries candidates at least have to be good enough to win some election to get made a candidate (which was a large part of where the Conservative Party failed in making Theresa May and Rishi Sunak Leader) and from what I remember General Election results in the few constituencies where the Conservative Party held a quasi-primary have been quite satisfactory.
April 5, 2025
Yes we did. It was Carswell’s idea. It’s the reason we have so many liberals elected to parliament in safe conservative seats. It’s the reason we lost control of our party.
April 5, 2025
Actually the candidates proposed, selected and the supported in elections by the members produced high quality Members in the House. It was a reason for being active and becoming a member. Democracy starts with the ‘ordinary person’ (like me) asserting themselves, holding their representative to account for holding the Government to account.
Only Conservative selection committees can question people and come up with what they are looking for, an instinctive Conservative who will make decisions based on the instinct.
April 5, 2025
The Selection Committee appears to check that a) the candidate seems acceptable to the electorate, b) No skeletons are found, c) Will vote or not, on the say so of the Whip, in other words support the Party line – don’ t expect to pursue personal hobby-horses.
April 5, 2025
didn’t Conservatives (and others?) join membership of Labour to thwart Corbyn?
April 6, 2025
The Labour Party could have rejected then if that is so.
Selection committees don’t look for someone who will obey the whip – what’s the point? You may as well just have a Trades Union voting system where Kite casts all the votes.
We look for somebody who will genuinely agree with the vast majority of the Conservative programme, but who will fight where necessary. It’s the fight that keep the whole party Conservative.
That’s been the problem, too few fighters – nevertheless they did miracles! We are actually legally no longer a subjugated state to and unsackable, aggressive, foreign ‘prince’. We each have recovered citizenship of our own country. We can elect and sack our lawmakers! These are BiG things!
April 5, 2025
Yes the ruling elite are running scared – they have spent far too much of our money, time and effort in moving us this far towards their new world regime.
When such politicians cannot win using democracy and misinformation they make sure the courts will remove opponents on trumped up charges – if the courts fail they will then have to depend on sending in the army.
Rogue western governments, who mostly achieved power by default, are hated by their own people for their sins, and they know they have no mandate for what they do, so they become more oppressive, harder on the population.
It’s not just democracy that is failing, falling apart – Western civilisation is on it’s knees, even if most things seem normal. The ruling elite will not backtrack – they are more determined than ever to achieve their insane goals at our expense. Even Trump may not be enough to stop them!
April 5, 2025
Marine Le Pen has been convicted of embezzlement. That should bar anyone from public office. She wants to contest it, and I’m in no position to judge.
I suspect she’s only been prosecuted because she’s not in the club of those to whom the blind eye is turned.
April 5, 2025
She was following convention — she did what the other political parties were and are doing, but of course because she is not in with the EU political elite she gets the full crooked force of the law imposed against her.
This is but one example of how corrupt the EU and French justice are.
April 5, 2025
Perhaps we are reaching a cultural tipping point? Or have we already passed it?
April 5, 2025
After 73 years on this Earth, I have become increasingly worried at how we are governed.
Recent convictions have made it very obvious that we do indeed have two tier justice.
Courts are extremely lenient to protesting left wing and ethnic minorities, while coming down very hard on everyone else. She may not have been imprisoned, but the £20,000 in costs imposed on an elderly woman for standing some distance away from a Bournemouth abortion clinic silently holding a placard inviting people to talk is a perfect example.
We then have the case of a woman with no previous convictions, the wife of a councillor, and mother of a young child being jailed for 20 months for a tweet is equally disturbing. Neither case should have come anywhere near a court.
Similarly, all the convictions last summer of protestors against illegal migration led to prison terms that were far and away more draconian than the remarkably few convictions handed down to Gaza protesters, who despite continual language offering racist and incitement to violence, resulted in very few arrests.
The visits by police to the households of Alison Pearson and the school governor and his wife who did nothing more than write an article and email their children’s school over legitimate concerns are straight out of 1984.
“Hate crime” legislation is now being used by our very own Thought Police to firmly suppress legitimate comment. This is an extremely dangerous development and one would expect a former DPP to know and do better.
Other countries like Germany and France have serious democratic problems and I will address these separately.
It would not surprise me to see equally undemocratic action taken by Labour when they realise they are going to lose the next general election. One could conclude that this has already started with the flimsy excuse being used by the government to extend the term in office of mainly Labour councils. In the face of the electoral threat from Reform, the Conservatives and Lib-Dims have raised no real objections to local elections being cancelled.
This is very worrying.
April 5, 2025
The primary purpose of the EU was to replace democracy with corporatism in which control would reside with the Brussels Commission and in which politicians elected to the EU parliament would be well rewarded for voting in favour of all the laws and regulations that the Brussels Commission had drawn up. However the people of Europe are rebelling against the direction of travel of the EU and want politicians who represent the interests of their countries which latter were to be abolished under the Commission’s long term plan. The politicians against whom lawfare is being used are nationalists who oppose the dissolution of their countries, cultures and demographies through foreign invasion as well as the unnecessary costs of supporting the Kiev dictatorship in its war with the Oblasts that have joined Russia following plebiscites. Does the US which started the war in Ukraine by a State department coup now want to back out of the mess they created? Only time will tell.
RePly The events of 2014 were a row about whether Ukraine would join the EU or not with the EU helping those who forced the elected President out of office to change to a more pro EU policy.
April 5, 2025
Turkey ….that seat of democracy
April 5, 2025
”In order to be validly nominated, a candidate or someone acting on the candidate’s behalf must also deposit the sum of £500 with you by the close of nominations.”
No other reason but to restrict the plebs from applying
Reply No, the reason is to stop people who will receive very few votes putting in in order to get the free post rights to promote themselves. You get the deposit refunded if you achieve a minimum vote but lose it if it was all a try on. Every candidate in the election also has the right to appear at challenge meetings and candidate media events. If there are too many candidates with lots likely to get just a handful of votes this either prevents the meetings when some refuse or means the two or three most popular candidates escape proper scrutiny and lack enough opportunity to make their case. Any party including new parties can help their poor candidates with the deposit and expenses.
April 5, 2025
I’d still prefer a ballot full of free idiots than a ballot selected by party elites
April 5, 2025
I’m so glad you’ve brought up this issue. It’s painful to see the attacks on democracy across Europe and see most of our political class actively supporting the crackdowns. If only more retired and active politicians spoke up, it would help lift the media-created veil that hides the growing tyranny.
I saw yesterday’s poll that 42% of the French think there will be a civil war there. Whilst I don’t think that likely, I do think that widespread civil unrest is going to happen. I was in the rural South of France in December (pre Marine’s sentence) and people were already deeply fed up with the globalist, progressive establishment and EC. They are marching in Paris today in support of Marine.
April 5, 2025
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I was horrified to read Allison Pearson’s article in the Daily Telegraph about the case of Lucy Connolly jailed for two years seven months for posting a tweet on Facebook after the Southport murders. Senior Judges were brought in to try cases like hers because magistrates could only impose sentences of up to 12 months. “This was clearly not what the PM, who had set up a violent disorder unit to look like he was in charge, had in mind. These judges refused almost all bail applications connected to the Southport riots” writes Pearson.
Perhaps, Judges when asked to judge cases should also be careful not to get drawn into doing the government’s dirty work for them.
If I was Nigel Farage or anybody else going up against ‘the establishment’ and its views on how things ought to be run in this country, I would be very careful. You might just get de-banked as a starter.
April 5, 2025
Thousands of people were debunked. Katie Hopkins for one. Farage never stirred himself until he was debarked.
April 6, 2025
My auto-help! Debanked ! Both times.
April 5, 2025
In Germany, Merz already has 70% of the electorate dissatisfied with his performance. With the CSU/CDU intent on forming a temporary uni-party with the SPD, AfD is fast gaining ground. At this rate, the German government will soon be banning ………………… the most popular party!
April 5, 2025
Of course. If it was not popular it would not be a threat to the ‘hegemony’ created by PR of the combined losing parties.
April 5, 2025
How can you be so sure that had Germany had FPTP as voting system a right wing block not including the members of the present AfD would have not won? On the day of voting it was clear the former East Germany voted AfD, the former West Germany voted CSU/CDU. The other parties mainly got elected representatives via the German electoral system where people vote twice, once for a named representative, once for a party.
April 6, 2025
What we can be sure of had it been a FPTP vote – one vote each – is that the Germans would have the Government that most of them wanted.
Perhaps the East will be building a wall and declaring UDI soon?
April 9, 2025
Like here in the UK?
April 5, 2025
The EU has never been democratic. There have been many cases where referenda have been held only for them the be held again because the first vote had given the “wrong result”. Our own Parliament almost voted for a re-run of the Brexit vote.
April 5, 2025
If you believe in wokery, CAGW, flexi-gender, or other of these quasi-religious fanatically held beliefs you really don’t care about such rules. These matters are far too important. People who disagree or oppose such views and stand in the way of them prevailing and being enforced by law are an existential threat and must be eliminated for the benefit of all mankind. To these people it is simple, perfectly logical and nothing else matters. This is why human rights, as defined by an elite of right-thinking people, must take priority over all other considerations and why these elites must be beyond acountability to the ignorant. Such people see no reason to give ignorant plebs a choice in such matters. On the contrary, they regard it as disastrous to allow them any choice. As Peter Mandelson said and was endorsed by others of his ilk, membership of the EU is far too complex for ordinary voters to understand so it cannot and must not be decided by them. that is why these people seek international institutions to decide matters for regulationa dn enforcement, to avoid accountability to the plebs. All these people would support membership of the EU for the same reason. We cannot afford to let the ignorant decide any matters of importance.
April 5, 2025
As the Chinese saying goes, ” May you live in interesting times!.” We do, with the ordinary voters increasingly alienated from the ruling elite. Let us hope that the banning of Marie le Pen makes her so popular it is impossible to stop her from standing for President. In the UK and Europe, the ruling elite are going in the wrong direction, and voters can see that more clearly now. In the MSM, Germany’s AFD is constantly referred to as an extreme right-wing party. But if you read and study what it says, that is a blatant lie. You can only suppress popular discontent for a period of time, and then it will explode as it has in the USA. My fear is that Reform and Nigel Farage will become less radical when they need to become more radical and completely different to the Uniparty.
We have low-calibre leaders throughout the UK, grey, boring, uniform of thought, frightened of not conforming to the low expectations of themselves and their fellow elite.
April 5, 2025
Thin end of the wedge. Not to dissimilar to the UK’s now embedded TwoTier everything political terrorism. Local election have been banned in some areas of the UK, the reasoning being that new bodies must be created representing an electorate of 500K. The great omission in that deed and statement is London! – why should the safe Labour seat for London be bigger than the size of the Unitary bodies elsewhere?
The worst thing that happened in London was the stealing big chunks of the surrounding counties to fulfil personal political ideology. Has it made things better for its people – of course not. Will the new election areas improve the situation, lives and costs of those inhabitants being bounced in to a new set up – of course it wont.
It is about personal, very personal ideology and ego. Change may at time need to happen but it should be those effected that decide, the over-riding aim is to increase wellbeing, lives and wealth at less cost for those used as political pawns. All changes seen over many decades have been to play to personal ego and increase costs and handicaps of those paying the bills
April 5, 2025
“Let the people decide.”
Yes, it’s time for major policy decisions to be decided by referendums and not by PM’s elected with a meagre 25% vote share and worse still by unelected Civil Servants, quangos, regulators, academia, czars, lawyers and judges.
April 5, 2025
Democracy calls for freedom of speech and freedom of choice. Once denied, democracy is in retreat, and totalitarianism evolves. Is that what we, or the French and the Germans, really want?
April 5, 2025
I think, when it comes to voting and what exactly the voting public can vote for, something needs to be done about the authenticity of the candidate and about his or her loyalty to his or her local constituents. For example, it is now common knowledge that the MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, Tahir Ali, is actively campaigning for an airport in – of all places – Kashmir, which is 4000 miles from the UK. He wants the airport because, in his own words, the lack of one ‘causes significant issues to a number of my constituents, who are having to drive over three hours to get to the nearest airport in Pakistan’. He is campaigning for the airport despite the fact that his constituency (which he needs to be reminded is in the UK, not Pakistan) is currently sinking under a sea of putrid uncollected rat-infested disease-ridden garbage that hasn’t been collected for over a month. What has happened to all the money that we have sent, and continue to send, to Pakistan in ‘foreign aid’ over the years? The country even has a space programme yet hasn’t built an apparently much-needed airport? Pull the other one.
Mr Ali is the MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Mosely, not the MP for Kashmir, and his quest to have an airport built in Kashmir is certainly not a requirement for a huge section of his constituency. Surely, he is supposed to represent ALL his constituents not just the ones that voted for him? Is he tackling any issues at all in Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley?