My right-wing sister likes to inform me that we ought to support anyone (by which she only means a Tory) to run our affairs - naturally I disagree and we regularly fall out over it. The kind of behaviour we have seen in our recent Beloved Leaders presumably adds to the impression that you have to be corrupt to go into politics and it's what turns the great and good away. Come back Attlee! (and Bob Hawke for you?)
In the US, it has been accepted for decades that only two types of people run for elected office and the most successful are excellent liars, dishonest, avaricious, and power-mad. The people who are content with lower elected office are usually too incompetent to hold a job where they actually have to do anything and just want to be paid well for sitting on their bottoms and following orders.
The voters are so accustomed to this that only about 50% of eligible voters actually vote in Presidential elections and fewer in mid-term elections. Most people figure it doesn't matter who wins because neither major party has any agenda other than staying in power and making money and minor parties have no chance of winning.
It looks from an outsider’s perspective like both the GOP and the Democrats are moving away from the sensible middle ground, and being swayed by their more extreme wings, causing the country to be divided in a way that it hasn’t been in the past. Is this how ordinary people on the street view the situation, or is it just how the reporters see it?
Voting is compulsory over here, so we have no excuse for electing self-serving idiots, but we still do it.
It's one of life's mysteries what makes people vote the way they do when it's clearly not in their interests. In the UK it's dog-whistle politics which persuades the persuadable, the unthinking and those who like living in an echo chamber.
In the UK Labour hasn't gone particularly left wing, but it looks weak in comparison to an increasingly right wing, divisive Tory government which likes to use the word 'unelected' as an insult to denigrate judges and other impartial public servants. Would anyone really like an elected politician with a dubious agenda to decide the sentence in their court case, or anything else affecting them personally?
How did he manage that? Not the swearing in, but no one reporting it. Government departments have a huge number of employees running the bureaucracy and the top employees must have known who their boss was. I mean his name is on letterheads and the government webpages. Also someone was cutting all those paychecks and there must be an internal and/or external auditing agency responsible for knowing where all the money goes.
All these Departments already had their sworn-in ministers, but he decided that, just in case COVID claimed any of them, or they behaved in a way that was contrary to the public good (why had he made them ministers, if they were so untrustworthy?), he would have himself sworn in as well, so he could take over their ministries, or overrule them, if necessary.
The Governor-General (the Queen’s representative) performed the swearing in ceremonies, but left it to the government to announce them. The government (or the select group who knew what was going on) chose not to say anything. So, for instance, we had a Treasurer who didn’t know that his PM was also Treasurer!
More is coming out about this incredible state of affairs all the time, but Morrison as usual is standing his ground and saying that desperate times called for desperate measures. He has apologised to his ministers for going behind their backs, but not to the Australian people for corrupting our democracy. And he’s still sitting in parliament as a backbencher.
What nobody seems to be very up in arms about with this, is that, as the Prime Minister for Resources, he overruled the actual Minister regarding an off-shore gas drilling operation. Morrison's main reason for doing so, was that the operation was off the shore of some marginal electorates the Liberals were in danger of losing to either the Greens, or similarly environmentally-minded independents... 2 of which they lost in the Federal Election anyway
"So what?" you say "Stopping a gas drilling operation was a good thing & it's good that he stopped it!" Well, yes, it's a good thing to have been stopped, but not by simply bypassing the parliamentary democratic process & giving yourself the power to overrule, or to rule over, elected members of your own Government. Just because he ("says" he) didn't use any of the powers he gave himself by usurping other ministries, doesn't make it okay... It sends a chill up my spine at the thought of that Pentecostal Prick being in charge of the departments of Health & Treasury at a time when abortion
( ... )
I wonder why the secret ministry wasn’t exposed when he overruled Keith Pitt? It’s a sobering thought that even with all the checks and balances of a democratic system, such a flagrant power grab could have gone unnoticed and unreported.
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The kind of behaviour we have seen in our recent Beloved Leaders presumably adds to the impression that you have to be corrupt to go into politics and it's what turns the great and good away. Come back Attlee! (and Bob Hawke for you?)
Reply
The voters are so accustomed to this that only about 50% of eligible voters actually vote in Presidential elections and fewer in mid-term elections. Most people figure it doesn't matter who wins because neither major party has any agenda other than staying in power and making money and minor parties have no chance of winning.
Reply
Voting is compulsory over here, so we have no excuse for electing self-serving idiots, but we still do it.
Reply
In the UK Labour hasn't gone particularly left wing, but it looks weak in comparison to an increasingly right wing, divisive Tory government which likes to use the word 'unelected' as an insult to denigrate judges and other impartial public servants. Would anyone really like an elected politician with a dubious agenda to decide the sentence in their court case, or anything else affecting them personally?
Reply
Reply
The Governor-General (the Queen’s representative) performed the swearing in ceremonies, but left it to the government to announce them. The government (or the select group who knew what was going on) chose not to say anything. So, for instance, we had a Treasurer who didn’t know that his PM was also Treasurer!
More is coming out about this incredible state of affairs all the time, but Morrison as usual is standing his ground and saying that desperate times called for desperate measures. He has apologised to his ministers for going behind their backs, but not to the Australian people for corrupting our democracy. And he’s still sitting in parliament as a backbencher.
Reply
"So what?" you say "Stopping a gas drilling operation was a good thing & it's good that he stopped it!" Well, yes, it's a good thing to have been stopped, but not by simply bypassing the parliamentary democratic process & giving yourself the power to overrule, or to rule over, elected members of your own Government. Just because he ("says" he) didn't use any of the powers he gave himself by usurping other ministries, doesn't make it okay... It sends a chill up my spine at the thought of that Pentecostal Prick being in charge of the departments of Health & Treasury at a time when abortion ( ... )
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