I think one of the best aspects of the UK is political freedom. Perhaps I am a subject of the King (I don’t know if that’s legally true but it might be), but in any case, I can still say that I hope the UK will get rid of the monarchy and replace it with a democratically elected head of state.
Ah yes, British democracy. The bringer of Brexit, Boris Johnson. The mess we are in now cannot at all be blamed on His Majesty the King or her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but on the democratically ruling public. Sure, democracy in it’s current form is definitely good for keeping the government to account, (a ranked choice system would be nice but that was democratically rejected in a refurrendum) but I do not trust the British public with selecting a head of state at all. America already made a pigs ear of it, the only country that seems to do it decently off the top of my head is Ireland, which has been rather untouched by populism and has a population of 5.4 million. And even then, I wouldn’t be surprised if they elect a knobhead at some point.
Yeah I think Ireland’s system is pretty good. They have the Taoiseach, the equivalent of our prime minister. Then they have a president who is mostly ceremonial.
Ah yes, British democracy. The bringer of Brexit, Boris Johnson.
Arguably though, if the UK was even more democratic, then those two phenomena may have turned out differently. E.g. Boris only won 43.6% of the votes in the 2019 election, which of course is a minority. If the UK had proportional representation then I guess we’d be more likely to see consensus-building leaders ruling the country. Germany has some degree of proportional representation and they have been led by coalitions between the two main blocs (centre-right Union and centre-left SPD) for much of the last 20 years.
With Brexit, maybe there should have been a second referendum to determine what sort of Brexit would be implemented, since that question was not asked in the first referendum. The UK could have taken a path similar to Norway or Iceland, being outside the EU, but still taking part in the single market.
I think one of the best aspects of the UK is political freedom. Perhaps I am a subject of the King (I don’t know if that’s legally true but it might be), but in any case, I can still say that I hope the UK will get rid of the monarchy and replace it with a democratically elected head of state.
Ah yes, British democracy. The bringer of Brexit, Boris Johnson. The mess we are in now cannot at all be blamed on His Majesty the King or her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but on the democratically ruling public. Sure, democracy in it’s current form is definitely good for keeping the government to account, (a ranked choice system would be nice but that was democratically rejected in a refurrendum) but I do not trust the British public with selecting a head of state at all. America already made a pigs ear of it, the only country that seems to do it decently off the top of my head is Ireland, which has been rather untouched by populism and has a population of 5.4 million. And even then, I wouldn’t be surprised if they elect a knobhead at some point.
Yeah I think Ireland’s system is pretty good. They have the Taoiseach, the equivalent of our prime minister. Then they have a president who is mostly ceremonial.
Arguably though, if the UK was even more democratic, then those two phenomena may have turned out differently. E.g. Boris only won 43.6% of the votes in the 2019 election, which of course is a minority. If the UK had proportional representation then I guess we’d be more likely to see consensus-building leaders ruling the country. Germany has some degree of proportional representation and they have been led by coalitions between the two main blocs (centre-right Union and centre-left SPD) for much of the last 20 years.
With Brexit, maybe there should have been a second referendum to determine what sort of Brexit would be implemented, since that question was not asked in the first referendum. The UK could have taken a path similar to Norway or Iceland, being outside the EU, but still taking part in the single market.