Saturday, March 28, 2015

Green Party rally in Weston against the corruption in Westminster on 28th April

We have booked the Town Hall for the evening of the Tuesday 28th April (7.30pm, in the New Council Chamber) for an important presentation of the case for voting Green.

Dr Richard Lawson, Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Weston-super-Mare will give a talk entitled
"How we can Cure the Corruption that is Infecting Parliament?"

This is a bold and controversial topic, but I will be presenting strong evidence and arguments that bear out the message.

We have had one scandal every 17 months or so since 1996:
  • Cash for Access, Cash for Questions, Cash for Influence, Cash for Honours;
  • the MP expenses scandal and many other grubby incidents;
  • then there are corporate lobbying, directorships, and massive corporate donations to political parties;
  • and last, and worst of all, the present scandal of the covering up of child abuse by MPs and other powerful figures
We cannot hope to make progress with our aim to work for the common good if Westminster is infested with corrupt politicians who see themselves as above the Law.

We want this meeting to be a big focus of the Weston campaign.
The chamber can hold about 90 people, and it would be great if it could be filled to overflowing. We are going to do our very best to try to get the meeting noticed by press, radio and even TV, but the main advertising drive will be through leafleting, in the street and house-to-house in Weston.

So, if you are available for leafleting in the week beginning 13th April and following, please get in touch by emailing Richard on rlawson@gn.apc.org.
And please come along on April 28th to meet your fellow Greens.


5 comments:

Unknown said...

So bored of it all: they shoukd have- no expenses - why should we pay their rent and food. The economy is a mess and they don't suffer one bit. Don't see Ed Big house, nannies, housekeeper Milliband struggling to pay his bills.

DocRichard said...

I am honoured by your visitation, your Maj. And yet...despite everything, MPs do important work, in theory, and in many cases, in practice. Remember it was "only" 10% of MPs who were involved in expenses scams. They do vital work for democracy, and they deserve a decent wage - say, on a par with GPs. And they have legit travelling and London accommodation expenses. I set out a fair solution to the problem here: http://greenerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/what-is-solution-to-mp-expenses-problem.html *bows and backs out of the Frugal Presence*

Daniel said...

Problem is, Frugal Queen, if expenses and second house benefits are removed from MPs, we're approaching a condition where only the very wealthy can afford to be MPs. It's bad enough when a majority of the House is occupied by the wealthy minority, imagine how bad it would be if they were all part of that.

What's needed is not removal of expenses or reduction in wages, but MUCH more transparency. The public should have a right to know what outside interests their local MP has, and to have faith in the processes and controls safeguarding both expenses and conflicts of interest - if such controls were external to the House rather than being part of the establishment, more people would believe politics can benefit them?

Unknown said...

These are some interesting comments to read. The initial ridicule of MP's ability to afford by Frugal Queen is perhaps a little lacking in depth, yet made all the same despite 'boredom' with 'it all.'
That Richard Lawson defends MP's earning for 'the important work that they do - on a par with GP's..'? So indeed does every person contributing to society and the many with jobs that they hold without passion or feeling of true involvement. THAT daily numbing slog is equally deserving of a decent wage. (Though I do not believe we are in disagreement here I merely wish to point to the unequivocal equal contribution of all including the less fortunately placed.)
Yet I digress and whilst there I take the opportunity to agree with Daniel's concern that it is already the wealthy OxBridge boys club FAILING to represent the people of this country when in fact the whole political system is and always has been corrupt.

Whether it be corporations 'funding' MP's to pass laws through parliament or Trade Unionists combatting the other side with equally underhand tricks, it's all wrong! The system, it's structure and the publics lack of real involvement, "..it's all wrong!"

Richard writes of 'the aim to work for the common good' and Richard, I hope that you know I am fully committed to such principle yet I wonder: who do you refer to with the "we"? For politics and almost all organisations of the various types generally work for the good of a select few; the shareholders, the management, the elite.. As I write that word I recoil. It's a non-sensical term banded about meaning? Labelling those who 'believe' that they are better? Surely none of us are any better than any other that has played a part in our lives and a society is, in principle and reality reliant on ALL of it's members for their very being.
For without each other we are? A whole different species other than that which 'society' is ideally built upon? Even here I question that definition and think to the structure, the beginnings of society with feudal lords and numerous kings. We have already passed the year of 'classless society' as false as that was and remains. If we are to become a higher reaching, thinking and acting, truly encompassing respectful society those that exploit others for ANY reason whatsoever need .. immediate re-education.

OK. I could continue yet.... :-) See you at the meeting :-)

DocRichard said...

JJ, thanks for commenting. We have evolved from apes, unfor.tunately more chimp than bonobo.

For years the GreenParty tried to sidestep the model of a troup led by an alpha male. For that, we got a couple of decades of TV interviews consisting entirely of "Why don't you have a Leader?" So in the end we elected a leader. It kinda worked.

The issue is that the State can be captured by special interest groups. In Iraq, Libya, Syria etc it was a personality, his family and gang. Here we are more subtle; we have been captured by the super-rich, as individuals and as corporations. Plutocracy is the technical term.

We have to undo this capture. Step 1: identify what is going on.

See you Tuesday.