[OT] Bush vs. Gore - Was: [Sussex] Linux is capitalism, Microsoft is communism?

[Steve Dobson]

Stephen

On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 01:00:10PM +0000, Stephen Williams wrote:
> The present monarchial system is fine. It might be mildly broken, but is
> there a way of fixing it that doesn't make things worse?

I tend to agree, and it appears to be more sensitive to the "will of the
people" than the politicians.  Not that the Royal Standard was at half
mast during the morning of Diana, which was not correct under protocol,
but was what "the people" wanted to see.
 
> Personally I thought the House of Lords was reasonably constituted
> before "New" Labour started fiddling. The current Lords is a joke. If we
> can't go back to the old system, let's have a properly elected second
> chamber. All those retired PMs and elder statesmen could stand as
> candidates.

No.  If we can't go back then we need a complete redesign of our political
system.  The old system allowed for strong Government, the Commons could
get anything they really wanted passed, but at a price.

A fully elected second house would have just as strong a mandate as the
first.  If the two houses are in conflict then who wins?  It would be
better to have proportional representation, they no party would have
absolute control (unless half the voters voted for just one party - which
I don't think has ever happened in the UK in recent years) and they could
only form a government by paring with a second party which should help
to keep their extreme views in check.

Steve