RE: [OT] Free CalTex Interplanetary Federation in the making

At least with the old (1000yrs+) system dementia arising from inbreeding
kept the House of Lords from being of any kind of relevance (or threat)
to
every day life in the UK. Now we catch up with Canadain political
systems...

But at least the Monarchy has some value being the backbone of the UK's
tourist industry and sucking in money from around the world. It's a bit
like
the old Empire days except the wealth comes to us rather than us having
to
go to it. Not only does such an approach maximise profits but is also
much
more ethicaly sound. In many ways Britain has followed a similar path to
the
Roman Empire when in the 5th century AD it went transnational and became
the
Roman Catholic Church. Ditch Empire, let the cash flow to you.

Then again what should any of us expect from our "democracies" which are
in
fact all "Oligarchies". The only democracy I know of was Ancient Athens
and
look what happened there. In three generations it went from a vibriant
centre of culture and arts to an Imperial superstate to rack and ruin.
Give
me an Oligarchy over a democracy any day. Just wish our politicians
could be
honest about it (I know, I know, how naive of me!).

Sorry, Monday morning cynicism.

Regards,

Matt Tope

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Adrian Johnson
Sent: 29 September 2003 05:35
To: gzg-l@scotch.csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: RE: [OT] Free CalTex Interplanetary Federation in the making

Hi,

>>Makes me pine for a monarchy (of course I would be in the peerage)
>
>Not sure if you guys are aware of this but this week the UK government
>announced the abolishment of hereditary peers taking seats in the house
of
>lords. Unfortunately from now on members of house of lords will be
appointed
>by the government rather than voted for (like a senate) by the people
(as
>some of us over here had hoped for).
>
>I don't suppose anyone's got a green card going spare they could lend
me?
>

Heh.  Welcome to our world...

The Senate here (in Canada) which has the same general function
(providing
a "sober second thought" for parliament) as the House of Lords, works
exactly like that, and has IIRC since it was created.

And as you might imagine, what happens is that the sitting government
sends
their own partisan friends to the Senate as patronage appointments
througout their term(s) of office, doing their best to stack things
their
way.  And Senate appointments are basically for life (there is an age
limit, but it isn't a young one...), which is what I imagine the House
of
Lords rules will be.  So the Senate is basically a rubberstamp most of
the
time.

Lots of people here have been agitating for Senate reform for decades,
but
it is a plum patronage tool and it seems the sitting governments (of all
parties) don't like to rock the boat...

Welcome to a vigorous and vibrant democracy ;-)

-Adrian

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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