Why the UK needs a constitution and electoral reform.

On Saturday the London police authorities claimed that over 150 people were arrested with regards to the demonstrations.  What they failed to mention was that 138 of these people were those which were peacefully and quietly demonstrating as part of the Fortnum & Masons sit in with regards to their corporation tax avoidance.  See UKUncut pie chart (1). The 138 protestors were promised that they would be allowed to leave F&M by the police and that they would not be kettled or arrested (2).

I am not sure whether there was any political pressure involved, as it is very easy for the government of the day to set the agenda and style the protests as lunatics bent on causing violence, and some of the minority fringe elements of the demonstrations were just that.  But the vast majority over 99.9% of the quarter of million people attended protested peacefully, and that is the true story of the day.  People are fed up with with the poor and lower classes taking a job, benefit, or livelihood cut, whilst the rich get to shift their money from tax haven to tax haven.  Let us all experience the cuts required and let us all pay our fair share of tax.

At present we don't know whether we have free speech, nor a right to protest, nor the right to be considered equal under the law.  We don't know because our rights are a hodge-podge rulings and laws passed over the past 1000 years.  What we need is a simple consitution outling our rights and responsibilities as citizens.  Electoral reform is part of this pacakge as we chuck out the right-by-birth and right-by-religion aspects of our outdated democracy.

My recommendations?  Vote for AV reform to change our democracy to respresent the will of the people rather than the will of the few.  Get involved with UK Uncut.  And cheer on the Dutch, from political pressure they managed to enact a law to 100% tax bonuses on bailed out companies.  

(1) http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z129/agent_unbreakable/piechart2-1.jpg

(2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/mar/28/fortnum-mason-protesters-uk-un...

 

Dear "Reason for Earthquake is God" idiots.

Let me start this post by offering you a quick f**k you to to anyone who asserts that their chosen deitiy has been responsible for any natural disasters.  So let me repeat f**k you.

Whenever a natural disaster occurs, we wait for the usual religious zelots to pipe up with:

"The reason for this <Insert Disaster> is because of this <Group I Choose To Oppress>"

The oppressed groups usually include:

  • Atheists
  • The LGBT Community
  • Divorces
  • Women wearing revealing clothes
  • Anything non-white and non heterosexual.

So  after the awful happenings in Japan over the past week I sat with bated breath.  And on the whole none of the usual suspects have been making the usual claims.  Progress.  Perhaps we are progressing, or perhaps the zelots haven't crossed my news feed yet.

And then ... this...  This lady is thanking God for the disaster and the deaths of thousands of people.  Some may associate her with being extreme, immature, or needing of psychiatric treatment, but unfortunately her exclamations are fully justififed by her chosen religious text.  Luckily for her she is white and has chosen the correct religion, so she gets to make exclamations like this without fear of reprocussion.  Imagine a muslim man making the same exclamation about Katrina and I think we might see a different kind of reaction.

Rethuglicans both racist and stupid

Rethuglicans both racist and stupid

Another day an another round of stupid bills from the party of illiteracy.

Stupid act 1 : An attempt to redefine pollutant to exclude, well all pollutants. http://bit.ly/h3Kkmu

Racist Act 2 : In STL to restrict driving license applications to be in English only.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/article_91...