British Democracy believes that the best way to achieve true democracy in these islands is to convert from a monarchy to a federal system of governance. We have nothing against members of the Royal Family, although we do feel they are denied the freedom many citizens have despite their wealth and advantage in other ways.
Historically, England has dominated the British Isles, without rehashing history, this has not been to the betterment of the Islands and its people, the SNP has often called for Scottish independence, but this is not the answer, as the majority of Scots have demonstrated over the years.
We believe that there should be a federal government, but one that simply manages international affairs or those that impact all the states within the British Isles, Scotland has always had laws a bit different from the rest of the UK, and they now have their own Government, Wales and Nthn Ireland have their assemblies, but does this actually do what the people of those regions really need – because ultimately they are still controlled from Westminster.
Paradoxically, the Scots have often decried control from Westminster, understandably, but it is highly probable that most people in these Islands do not realise that the English have no Government and have not had one since May 1st 1707 when it was disbanded and replaced with the Government we have today. Yes, in essence it may be seen as an English Parliament, but MPs from England are barred from sitting in or voting in the Scottish Parliament or either the Welsh and Nthn Irish Assemblies, however, MPs from Scotland, Wales and Nthn Ireland are allowed to sit in and vote in Westminster – even on Laws that do not affect their region – how the hell is that democratic or representative?
British Democracy believes that the regions of these Islands should fully self Govern on all internal affairs, including the raising of taxes, it should be for the people of that region to decide who governs them.
By federalising our government, we need to reform the House of Lords, this anachronism should be abolished and replaced with a fully elected upper house, this is not to say there are not members of the House of Lords who do not bring value to the process of governance, holding the Government of the day to account for poor laws and regulations that are forced to be amended, many are experts in very specialised fields, such as science, medicine etc, these are valuable and we should not lose that talent and nor should we discourage it. However, the current system is very broken, we need to develop a new system where we have fully elected upper and lower houses but use those with talents the country needs to “peer review” proposed laws and regulations where they have specialised skills and experience, and to present these reviews to the legislature so we do get thoughtful and practicable laws and regulations.
England should be broken down into smaller states, many councils removed and the waste of public money caused by duplication need to be addressed. These regions could then govern themselves for all matters that only impact that region, all cross region and international matters would be the purview of the Federal Government, that would be made up of the leader of each regional government, an elected President and selected others to fulfil specific roles. The size of this Federal Government would be restricted by law that could only be changed by a referendum across the regions and would require a minimum of 65% agreement in cast votes to make changes.
The proposed details of this are being worked out, as they are put into a clearer reference frame or decided upoin, they will be added here.