Tuesday 9 June 2009

Do you feel empowered by your government?

I suppose this is a bit of a waste of time as the picture says it all really, click on it to enlarge it, but the recent elections have made me think about how I felt I related to the various levels of government that we are all paying for at considerable expense.

I am pretty sure that the democratic process is supposed to make me feel empowered, that to some lesser or greater extent I have some sort of say in the running of the town, country or even Europe.

I will start at the top and work down.

Europe I suppose all those years ago when we voted to be part of a greater economic community it made some sort of sense, now it just seems to be some gargantuan set-up making up masses of legislation much of which doesn’t suit the British character, for the most part we doggedly obey them and it seems the Mediterranean countries pay lip service to them but mostly ignore them. Do I feel part of some brave new world of countries with common ambition? I wish I did.

The House of Lords obviously supposed to be the highest regulator in the land, beyond reproach above the elected house most of the members chosen for some great service to the country, a matter of great honour, unfortunately recent events show these people can be bought. Evidently this house has become corrupt, how much I am not in a position to say. Do I feel awed and inspired by this great symbol of British governance? Not any more.

House of Commons, supposed to be made up of people who have chosen to serve their country elected by us to empower us, turns out these people are in it for personal gain. I had suspicions that all was not right there for some time, then the man we voted for took us to war on a lie and I was not entirely convinced that had we voted for the other man he wouldn’t have done the same. Do I trust these people and can I see an alternative with brilliant ideas to turn this back into a great country once again? I wish I could.

Kent County Council, bit closer to home now quite a few of the people involved use the shop and I know them to a lesser or greater degree, talking to them I get the felling that all is far from well there. I think the nub of the problem here is pet projects have taken precedence over essential services, there are expensive luxuries like Kent TV but the one that seems to cause the most angst is the Turner Contemporary, it seems that no matter how little the return on this project unlimited funds will always be found for it. The fact that the basic infrastructure roads pavements etc here in Ramsgate seems to be falling apart doesn’t seem to tally well with the huge funds directed at these pet projects. My only close dealings with them have been over the Pleasurama access road and have been most unsatisfactory; do I feel they have the interests of where I live at heart? Not really.

Thanet District Council, a lot closer to home and I know many of the people involved, this replaced the old Ramsgate district council, which had some faults but did have benefiting Ramsgate at heart. I suppose the benchmark here is how the Thanet towns have fared compared to similar seaside towns in the area governed by other administrations, Deal and Herne Bay are the closest I can get on this: do I feel that our district council has come up with good solutions for our towns in comparison to those towns? Not really.

Ramsgate parish council, here what happened was the people of Ramsgate voted to pay extra money on their council tax for an elected group to be a voice for Ramsgate, time will tell on this one, but at less than £1 a week on my council tax bill it has to worth a try.

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunatley Michael all to many people are feeling the same way, I dont know what the answer is but we are all asking the question about who to trust. I know we will eventually have a general election and I ask everyone when we do to go out and vote because if we dont the likes of the BNP will have a field day. While I am not happy with hoards of immigrants camping in France waiting for a chance to slip into the UK illegaly I also know most people in the country of ours have descended from immigrant stock and very few can say they are true blue blooded English. I cant say I have ever fealt happy with goverment but the present situation is ridiculous. I am as you know disabled and I have never been unhappy as I am with a politician before as I am with Mr Brown, so no I dont feel empowered by my goverment or anyone elses to that matter.

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.