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July 29, 2005
One Party State in Britain?
The news this week that Blair and his minions have managed to embed their Commissars, as Peter Hitchins calls them, in positions of power over the civil service without Parliamentary scrutiny is really bad news for democracy and for this nation. This is unconstitutional, but then this government loathes the constitution anyway, and they have used a device originally from the days of the Sovereign acting "in Council", to implant their "Special Advisers" without reference to Parliament.
They have used the mechanism of "Orders in Council" to implant their "enforcers" with powers to overrule the Civil Servants who are supposed to "manage" Departments, and impose the will (one could say whim!) of the Minister or the Party. These people have no allegiance to the Crown or to the electorate; they are purely and simply Party Aparatchiks there to create a one Party State with the Labour Party as the only embedded Party. These Orders are a device intended to be used to allow a Minister of State to bring in a Regulation to address a specific problem - usually by amending existing legislation or regulations to encompass something new which poses a danger to the public. This time the device has been used to embed Party Enforcers in the Civil Service and thus to make the Civil Service an instrument of the Labour Party. No matter that a new government might want to dismiss them - they would need to bring in new legislation to do so, - but these Aparatchiks are now in a position to dictate who holds what post and where. The perfect setup to ensure that only Labour sympathisers hold all senior posts in the Civil Service in future.
Can anyone tell me what the difference is between this tactic and the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union? Or between this and Mugabe's corrupt regime? Or between this and Hitler's Nazi administration of the 1930's? All of these had or have "placed" their enforcers within the organs of government so that no matter what the truth the only thing the public are ever allowed to know is the Party Line. Even if it were possible to change the government, and Blair has made sure through changing boundaries and manipulating the electoral constituencies that we can't, these people are now embedded and will ensure that the Civil Service is now an exctension of the Labour Party. In short, the Conservatives, the LibDems, and everyone else is now irrelevant.
Our ancient Constitution is now in ruins - and Parliament is irrelevant.
Anyone out there still believe we have a Democracy?
Posted by The Gray Monk at July 29, 2005 11:47 AM
Comments
Anyone out there still believe we have a Democracy? No.
Where in God's name are those wasters Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition? Still wittering on about Buggin's turn?
Posted by: harryj at July 29, 2005 05:55 PM
You're right - Blair has planted his 'gauleiters', but this is the official batch! He really just can do what he likes! Does this man have no shame? As you know, the politicisation of the Civil Service has been going on for a few years now. Are the public really aware of what's going on in the name of democracy? Do they care? Thank you for making some of them aware.
Posted by: Slim Jim at July 29, 2005 09:33 PM