I recall the words of Winston Churchill when asked what he thought about democracy: "I think it's the worst form of Government, except for all the others." Wise words from a fat oaf.
Democracy as I understand it is meant to be government by majority, where everyone has a say in how the country is run through their freely elected representatives. The system we have in England seems to be the opposite - the government dictates what it likes to the people and there's nothing they can do about it, besides ticking a box every 4 years. I don't vote myself, and some say that I must, that every vote counts, that people died in the war for our right to vote, blah blether whine etc. However I have found that it makes no difference who gets into power - politicians almost invariably say anything and make all sorts of promises to get elected. In some cases they may even mean these things, but I doubt it. For some reason however governments like to control people and take away their rights. This is not something that any individual is responsible for, there is no cackling evil genius behind it all, and the people concerned may sincerely believe that they have the best intentions. It just sort of happens.
Anything that goes well the government takes credit for, but anything that does not is blamed on the previous administration. All politicians lie or at the very least suppress or distort the truth.
Besides oppressing the masses, governments pretty much always say they won't raise taxes. Then they raise taxes and do nothing, or at least nothing changes, besides the continued dictation of policies to the population that they are only supposed to represent. Politicians never know what the public thinks and probably do not care, and the public never knows what the politicians do and why. Governments also love to spy on populations. Oh don't I just love the ubiquitous town centre surveillance cameras and the speed cameras on our roads. No. Not to mention the monitoring of Internet traffic. And the least said about Echelon the better. Some may say that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear but I find this naivete startling in the extreme. Besides the fact that everyone has most likely broken the law in some minor way (like going 1 mph over the speed limit), what is to stop the government, at some later date when everyone is used to the cameras, changing what does and does not constitute a criminal offence. eg make it illegal to protest against the government, or against any government or corporation etc. This is already happening now to a small extent- it's the old frog in a pot analogy. If you put the frog in boiling water it'll surely notice and be annoyed :-), but if you put it in cold water and heat it up slowly it won't even notice that you're cooking the crap out of it until it's too late. This is exactly the tactic governments employ- build up slowly so no-one quite has enough to complain about or people think it doesn't apply to them. By the time people realise what's happening, it will be too late or even if it isn't, people will judge that what's happening is inevitable, which s the case I think with Europe.
I think it's very worrying that our government wants to take away our privacy and our right to protest. Protesting is the only way for people to tell the government that they are unhappy with its policies. Also they are trying to reduce the power of the House of Lords. What really scares me is that some morons in the general public support the abolition of the Lords as well as getting rid of the monarchy and setting up a republic, presumably with President instead of Prime Minister. Their argument is, I believe, that such outdated institutions have no place in the 21st century, and that people should be elected rather than born into a role. The problem is that these people don't realise that the Lords, while its selection process may be unfair, is basically there as a safety measure to stop the government from getting too much power. The Queen does not have any political power at all as such, so there can be no political argument for getting rid of her. She does, I think, a good job of representing the country abroad and entertaining other heads of state here, leaving politicians free to do other things.
Seemingly politicians in europe want Britain to join the single currency, and businesses in Britain, and a few short sighted people, want to as well. Why? Well it's all about that wonderful commodity, money. People just can't get enough of it. You see, if we join and European taxes are harmonised with ours, then the German Government gets several billion euros a year extra to line its coffers. And the businesses? Well they say that trade with Europe will be made much easier, which no doubt it will. But will it boost our economy? And will we even be able to control our economy? And then you get the stupid people, just like carpetbaggers, who want a cheap car or mortgage and don't give a rat's ass about the long term implications.
Single currency => tax / interest rate harmonisation (according to most economic experts anyway, otherwise the whole thing goes boom)
=> regulation by some body (someone or some thing has to control it)
=> control of all economies by that one body (since individual Governments have little control over the economy of their country if they cannot alter taxes)
=> control of countries by people who have not been voted for and probably live somewhere strange (since whoever controls the economy of a country controls that country. This one's open for debate)
It's just not cricket.
Why should Britain go into Europe anyway rather than anywhere else in the world. I grant you it's geographically close but that hardly matters in days of high-tech communication.
In any case the euro will very probably be unstable and no one can predict what will happen to the economy whether Britain enters into it or not. Some people who subscribe to the "it's a laugh innit" school of thought might say "let's do it anyway" but it's really far more fun to sit back and watch everyone in europe get egg on their faces when it all blows up.