Britain – A Democracy?

What’s a democracy? The developments in Britain raise the question whether Britain should be considered a democracy.

Britain – a democracy?  I

The United Kingdom has 650 parliamentary constituencies and the candidate with most votes in a constituency becomes its member of parliament. All other votes get thrown in the bin. These voters are represented by someone, whose agenda they do not share.  For example, with party A getting 29%, party B 28%, party C 27% and various small parties the remaining 16% – party A’s candidate would get into parliament. In that constituency, a minority of 29% gets 100% parliamentary representation. Theoretically, this pattern could take place throughout the country. And 29% of the population would get 100% of all MPs.

This system has, for many years, produced stable parliamentary majorities, which in turn, enabled many governments to run the country, without having to constantly compromise with coalition partners.

Is it truly democratic?

Britain – a democracy? II

British politicians working to deliver Brexit, constantly argue that “the People” have voted for Brexit and therefore, the only democratic thing to do, was to deliver Brexit. That, of course, is misleading: The vote was 48.5 vs. 51.5, which means that virtually half of all those who voted, are Remainers. Would the result of 50% minus one vote for Brexit vs. 50% plus one vote against Brexit, have meant the country has decided against Brexit? No. In both cases, it shows that “the People” are divided.

But even that 50/50 result was only achieved with the help of a campaign permeated by lies and deceit. Lies are common in politics but let us not delude ourselves that this is democratic.

David Cameron and his government failed to prepare the Brexit referendum and clarify the ramifications of a Brexit outcome. Moreover, they said that the referendum would be only consultative, whereas, it is now presented as binding. The British political class seems to treat the whole process like a game of poker – you win some, you lose some. Only, if it is but a game of cards, how exactly should one reshuffle the cards, once Britain has left the EU?  

The United Kingdom has a government acting irrevocably, on the basis of a badly prepared referendum, a campaign saturated with false information and an undecided and torn electorate – a democracy?

Britain – a democracy? III

Britain’s High Court has ruled that Boris Johnson acted lawfully, when he got the Queen to shut down parliament for a few weeks.

Britain’s unelected prime minister – who was put into Downing Street, after Theresa May’s resignation, by 92,000 members of the Conservative Party in an internal vote of party members only – has gotten the unelected Queen to close the elected parliament of the country.

It might all be lawful, but democratic?

Israel – Slippery Slope – now Very Steep.

A former head of Israel’s internal security service, shabak, Ami Ayalon has come out in a rare statement criticising the willingness of the shabak to question people, whose views they do not approve of.  He warned: "This is no longer a slippery slope ... This is what is called a very steep slope. The Israeli security agency is becoming a problem of democracy."

There has been an increasing number of reports that shabak as well as Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs have intensified the questioning of left-wing and human-rights activists at the country’s borders. Ayalon explained that it should not be the secret service’s role to arrest or question people who have not acted clandestinely, but openly participated in a demonstration or in a tour organised by Breaking the Silence.

Israel – Even Steeper

The Israeli government is promoting a new law, that will tie public funding of the arts to loyalty to the state. 

How will they call art, which does not suit the Minister's wishes?

Jewish Genius

At dinner last night a friend suggested that I should be proud of the very high number of Jews amongst Nobel Prize laureates. Apparently more than twenty per cent of all laureates are Jews. I was not quite sure why I should get brownie points for their achievements. Nevertheless, I went home with a smile and spent a proud night in bed.

My pride did not last long. This morning, I came across the following item in today’s Ha’aretz: Poll: Half of Israeli high schoolers oppose equal rights for Arabs.

So I have forgotten all about my pride and now I am just full of shame. After all, I cannot really see that I have done anything to produce all those Jewish Nobel Prize laureates. But I am responsible for the education of the young generation in my society, in the country that likes to refer to itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East”.

As a further slap in my face, Gavriel Avital, the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Education has recently come out with a statement that "If textbooks state explicitly that human beings' origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don't believe the evolutionary account is correct.

Is the problem simply that Avital was once a monkey or is this the way that Israel hopes to produce more geniuses for the Nobel Prize?