A letter arrived in His Grace's in-box this morning, from one
Rodney Atkinson , a former university lecturer and adviser to government ministers. It merits a far wider readership and some serious reflection on the intellectual short-sightedness and murky political motives of UKIP, for they profess to be concerned with sovereignty and democracy, and preach the pre-emeninence of British customs and traditions:
Dear Friends,
No one who knows me or my work will doubt my absolute devotion to the cause of democratic sovereignty and withdrawal from the European Union. But like the vast majority who joined the party committed to that goal I left UKIP in 2000 after the disgraceful corruptions of the leadership election in that year.
That behaviour indicated a fundamental instability in the democratic credentials of those who lead UKIP. It is now once again crystal clear, given their extraordinary short sighted support for the long term distortion of British politics by the Alternative Vote, that that leadership is a threat to British democracy itself.
As the electoral commission confirms in it's description of AV it is perfectly possible for the winning candidate to have LESS than 50percent of the vote. In other words the whole claimed purpose of AV is frustrated by its practice. And its practice is grotesque.
Although not quite as disastrous as full blown PR, AV will guarantee permanent power for the same corrupt political class (from Kenneth Clarke and John Gummer to Ed Miliband and Keith Vaz to Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne) which has destroyed our economy, parliament and constitution over the last 20 years. And we should be under no illusions that once AV is in place full proportional representation will follow since the supporters of the latter will be helped into parliament by the former.
In Germany since the 2nd World War the Free Democrats (electoral but not ideological equivalent of Clegg's Lib Dems) have been in virtually every Government since the War. Hans Dietrich Genscher was Foreign Minister for many years because the electoral system gave him the power to dictate that to both major parties as the price of his joining them in coalition. Don't forget - the major political parties, given decisive power by our existing voting system, are themselves coalitions, except that they are open. Coalition Government s however are constructed in parliament AFTER an election and are covert arrangements made behind closed doors by party leaders, at the cost of voters and back benchers.
Most UKIP voters are fundamentally Tories or Labour and would return to those parties when sovereignty is restored. But Tory and Labour (ie the vast majority of British voters) will be greatly disadvantaged by AV while most anti UKIP voters are LiB Dems and Greens who are fanatical about AV because it will give those otherwise unelectable parties permanent seats in coalition governments. And with angry patriotic Socialists outside Labour and angry genuine Conservatives outside the Tory Party the leaderships of both parliamentary parties under AV will join with the Lib Dems and the Greens rather than cooperate with UKIP MPs - if there are any.
So while there MAY be short term opportunist advantage for UKIP's individual leaders who fancy a seat in the House of Commons the long term political result will be the permanent defeat of those very principles which UKIP voters hold dear.
The reason why fewer and fewer people vote for the "major" political parties is not becasue of the electoral system but because British politics is morally and politically bankrupt. Most have given up voting altogether - although AV will not give the angry abstainers any box to tick! AV is a stitch up, a gross manipulation of the people in the guise of "giving them more votes". More votes means less power to the voter and more power to politicians behind the scenes - as the Condem coalition proves every day. AV has all the attributes of bad law - it is complicated, not generally understood, difficult to scutinise and therefore open to fraud, gives some voters more power than others and the rulers more power than the ruled.
To that extent it is perfectly in harmony with the petty fascist society created by the British political class, to which the British people are turning their backs in utter comtempt. A class which UKIP now foolishly seeks to join.
Rodney Atkinson
A letter arrived in His Grace's in-box this morning, from one Rodney Atkinson , a former university lecturer and adviser to government ministers. It merits a far wider readership and some serious reflection on the intellectual short-sightedness and murky political motives of UKIP, for they profess to be concerned with sovereignty and democracy, and preach the pre-emeninence of British customs and traditions:
