DIVISION BELL KNELL

As I patrolled the friendly centre of Newbury today, with my archetypal MP companion (rosette on a pole) I fell to pondering, again, the ANTAGONISM and DISCORD threaded through our society AND ITS GOVERNANCE:


The Division Bell is tolling a death-knell – Westminster or Britain?

'Divide and Rule' is an old adage - division is implicit weakness. In light of this: 'Divide TO Rule' (The Westminster Way) HAS TO BE PRETTY DUMB - and so it is emerging.

In our adversarial system of governance, Her Majesty's (loyal) Opposition is required to OPPOSE. That speaks for itself. Yet Clegg is increasingly invoking COOPERATION! Might he end up in the Tower for DISLOYALTY?

Cooperation is usually mooted in the face of a SERIOUS THREAT (e.g. war - though not, it seems, a phoney war on 'Terror'). But is not the general decline in competence and contentment, of the occupants of these islands, A SERIOUS THREAT?

Where is the sense in institutionally divided governance having, NOW, to bridge the dopey divide, WHEN IT DID NOT NEED TO BE DIVIDED IN THE FIRST PLACE? The politicians of Westminster, drawn there by - AND CONFIRMED IN - adversarial delights (wasting untold time and unaccounted millions) are ill-disposed to harmonious, optimum governance.

Surely it is time to sweep away the whole Westminster ethos and its associated rosetted-ciphers; to put an end to party-gaming (while Britain burns) and to govern through the talents of individuals of proven integrity (not thespians cloaked in rubber-stamp 'honour').

As an illustration of the madness of our political system, consider what happens WITHIN a party when two or more factions emerge. SHOCK-HORROR! "The party must come together or die!" "Any faction OPPOSED to the leadership must be purged!" The party is pronounced SPLIT - de facto WEAKER.

All the above is apparent to the rational mind, applied with integrity. And that is the problem with the Westminster Mind: to survive it must be irrational – integrity is death to party politics. Nothing short of ERADICATION OF EVERYTHING ‘WESTMINSTER’ will open the way to a more competent, contented Britain.