Jude Smith

How to live in a post democracy So- the last post was pretty gloomy, but all is not lost. Here are five things we can do. 1 Register to vote and tell everyone you know to do the same. Our best hope is to vote and make our voices heard in the time honoured fashion. Vote in everything, even if you spoil your paper. We have to show that this is still the way. 2 Subscribe. If we want a diverse media we have to pay for it. Become a member of the Guardian or pay for the Independent online. Or buy the Mirror. And for goodness sake BUY A TV LICENCE! You may also want to consider joining a Union. 3 Support the positive. For those of us who can afford local, organic produce then lets be intentional about it. Lets be intentional about using local energy supply and seeking companies who already have a commitment to things like good food labelling and non GM (which also includes Aldi and Iceland as far as I am aware). There is a list of companies who are anti TTIP. They are primarily...

In fact it may already be dead. Let us not fool ourselves that we still live in a democracy as we did even twenty years ago. After last year's election the Conservatives had a bigger majority than they, or in fact any of us, expected. However, the brutal way in which they have gone about implementing their agenda (as opposed to their manifesto), can leave us in no doubt that democracy as we have known it is over. Overreaction? Perhaps, but upwards of half a million (primarily young) people will lose their right to vote under new government registration laws. These have been brought in through the pernicious use of Statutory Instruments, designed in the 1940’s to free up parliamentary time in the post war rebuild. They are now being written into Parliamentary Bills to allow the detail to worked out in obscurity. Thus fracking, maintenance grants, and the already mentioned electoral changes have been foisted upon us. In this year- when the BBC is fighting for its charter r...