Midas' Rules Of Politics

[Midas]

Just two...

1/ The more a government tries to a/ restrict the freedom of choice of its citizens and b/ invade their personal privacy, the more likely they are to be running scared of losing the next election.

2/ The more an individual supports any one single political party, the less objective he's likely to be regarding politics in general.

Yes? No?

[Tete123]

Just two...

1/ The more a government tries to a/ restrict the freedom of choice of its citizens and b/ invade their personal privacy, the more likely they are to be running scared of losing the next election.

2/ The more an individual supports any one single political party, the less objective he's likely to be regarding politics in general.

Yes? No?

1/ In short yes, one method a government can employ restrictive policies is by creating an atmosphere of pyschological fear (real or imagined) into its citizenry (e.g. terrorism) thus, allowing for laws that are perceived as protective and terming them as a necessity for 'our' wellbeing albeit with a certain loss of freedom; the other method being force. My view is that any government operating in this manner are fearful of losing elections/power.

2/ Not necessrily, although more often than not it would be the case.

[kynaston]

Just two...

1/ The more a government tries to a/ restrict the freedom of choice of its citizens and b/ invade their personal privacy, the more likely they are to be running scared of losing the next election.

No - I think it is probably just the nature of governments. The populace seems to have lost any desire for freedom, believing in 'security' instead, presumably on the assumption that they will never die naturally - and if they are not opposed governments automatically take all the power they can get.

2/ The more an individual supports any one single political party, the less objective he's likely to be regarding politics in general.

If the big parties had any serious support nowadays, yes - but I think it has been quite a long time since even the Liberals had support based on anything but a greater dislike of their opponents. Minor parties have this kind of support but - outside the mildly patriotic 'nationalists' - it tends to the nutty, I think.

[DTE]

Just two...

1/ The more a government tries to a/ restrict the freedom of choice of its citizens and b/ invade their personal privacy, the more likely they are to be running scared of losing the next election.

2/ The more an individual supports any one single political party, the less objective he's likely to be regarding politics in general.

Yes? No?

I agree with both. Especially in this country, where the only ideology left is, 'do whatever it takes to stay/get in power'. Its amazing how little the current Labour party resembles its former self, both in policy and rhetoric.

[alzee]

Yes, and yes.

No - I think it is probably just the nature of governments. The populace seems to have lost any desire for freedom, believing in 'security' instead, presumably on the assumption that they will never die naturally - and if they are not opposed governments automatically take all the power they can get.

The populace (mostly) believes what the populace is told. If they're told that their are big scary terrorists around every corner, then that's what they'll believe. Once the populace is scared, it's easy for the gov't to introduce new 'security' measures. It's all for the good of the people, after all...

[albannach]

Just two...

1/ The more a government tries to a/ restrict the freedom of choice of its citizens and b/ invade their personal privacy, the more likely they are to be running scared of losing the next election.

2/ The more an individual supports any one single political party, the less objective he's likely to be regarding politics in general.

Yes? No?

as i get older and hopefully a little wiser , i think i have to say yes to both.i am long past supporting any single party with regards to point 2 and as for point 1 , quite simply labour are f****d

[kynaston]

as i get older and hopefully a little wiser , i think i have to say yes to both.i am long past supporting any single party with regards to point 2 and as for point 1 , quite simply labour are f****d

The difficulty is, in practice, that the alleged 'parties' have very little serious policy-difference between them, so that we have been living in what is essentially a one-party state since the 'eighties. If, for instance, the populace chooses to vote against the tory policy of the present government they will get either more extreme tories, slightly more liberal tories or - if they go with the general drift here - racist tories. It seems a pretty depressing choice from where I'm standing. Let's hope that Plaid Cymru and the SNP cut the dominance-strings as fast as possible!

[Midas]

The difficulty is, in practice, that the alleged 'parties' have very little serious policy-difference between them, so that we have been living in what is essentially a one-party state since the 'eighties.

Yes, sort of... The problem isn't so much the one party state aspect but the fact that it's effectively that but with only a narrow band of representation of views. The longer the situation perpetuates itself, the narrower that band will get, and I for one believe that if this convergence of policies plus the ignoring of the majority with wider political views goes on for too much longer, we'll start to get widespread civil disobedience which will force an issue one way or the other. The British put up with too much rubbish anyway, but there's a limit to even that tolerance.