Warnings, Past & Present
THE ESSENCE OF DICTATORSHIP
"In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right of both making and of enforcing laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and whenever these powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.... But where the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with so large a power, as may tend to the subversion of its own independence and therewith of the liberty of the subject. With us therefore, in England, this supreme power is divided into two branches; the legislative, to wit, the Parliament, consisting of the King, the Lords and the Commons; and the other, the executive consisting of the King alone". Blackstone(1723-1780) "Commentaries on the Laws of England".
"Whenever Parliament is persuaded to assume the offices of executive government, it will lose all the confidence, love and veneration which it has ever enjoyed whilst it was supposed to be the corrective and control on the acting powers of the state. This would be the event though its conduct in such a perversion of its functions would be tolerable, just and moderate; but if it should be iniquitous, violent, full of passion and full of faction it would be considered as the most intolerable of all modes of tyranny". - Edmund Burke.
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
"During forty years faith in Parliamentary Government has suffered an extraordinary decline, or as some would say, a temporary eclipse. This change is visible in every civilised country". - Dicey in his Introduction to 8th Edition of "Law of the Constitution" 1914.
"It is undeniable that Parliament has suffered in the eyes of the general public a loss of prestige in the last seventy years...It must not be forgotten that there can be no check upon the unscrupulous use of power by a government which finds itself in command of a majority in the House of Commons". - Professor Wade, introduction to 10th edition of Dicey's "Law and Constitution" 1960.
"One of the chief differences between the modern totalitarian state and Great Britain is that the latter country provides for change in the governing party, if the electorate so decides whilst the system of the totalitarian state does not. In both cases the individual is left face to face with the sovereign authority with the balance heavily weighed against him". - Professor C.W. Keeton "Elementary Principles of Jurisprudence"
A WARNING ABOUT POLITICAL PARTIES
"The great instrument of all these changes and what infuses a peculiar venom into all of them is party. It is of no consequence what the principles of any party or what their pretensions are; the spirit which actuates all parties is the same, the spirit of ambition, of self interest, of oppression and of treachery.... in a word we have all seen ...we have some of us felt such oppression from the PARTY GOVERNMENT as no other tyranny can parallel".
- Edmund Burke 18th Cent Parl. MP for Malton, N. Yorks.
"Lip service is still paid to the classical conception of democracy even by many who are aware of the extent to which it has proved unworkable. - RT.Mackenzie "British Political Parties"
SO MUCH FOR THEIR "LAW AND ORDER"
"The whole system of Cabinet government is founded not on laws but on practices" - Sir Ivor Jennings. "Cabinet Government".
"Accordingly the rules relating to the foundation and operation of the Cabinet, the relations between the Prime Minister and other Ministers, between the government and the opposition and many more are not in legislation nor in the Common Law nor in the law and custom of Parliament". - Sir Ivor Jennings " Law and Constitution".
"The charge made against M.P.s which is probably best founded and most serious, is that they show so little independence...It is surrender of conscience, reason and duty which ought to be intolerable to any member. The coercion of these party rules is a first step in the direction of Fascism and Nazism". - Lord Wedgewood (Labour) "Testament to Democracy" 1942.
"The notion that the House of Commons is made up of 650 MPs who individually reach carefully considered opinions and who act as a brake on the Executive is so far from the truth as to be ludicrous. The Whips are in absolute command. The Executive is in total control. What the government says goes". - Dr. David Owen MP (now Lord Owen). Mail on Sunday. 3 June 1990.
"As long as we backbenchers vote at the end of the debate in the way the Whips tell us, nobody cares much what happens during the debate". Julian Critchley MP (Cons) Readers Digest Nov.1989 p.80.
THE DICTATORSHIP - RIGHT UP TO DATE.
"Listen; it's not your job to tell us what to do"
- Prime Minister Tony Blair to newly elected party colleagues. 7th May 1997.
Source: Freedom Today. Feb 1998. magazine of the Freedom Association. London.
BLACKMAILING MPs - the "dirty tricks department".
"It is Big Brother, basically. At the end of five years we should have detailed files on everybody. Very few of the new MPs have stepped out of line so far. But if there is a hint of trouble, the unit is there to stamp on them". - Freedom Today. Feb.1998 p.15.
HOW THEY ORIGINALLY GOT AWAY WITH IT
"Bagehot was quite open in this deception by which the English people were deprived of their great constitutional heritage. He declared that the English monarchy was to do nothing more than to "act as a disguise. It enables our real rulers to change without heedless people knowing it"....and ..."the appendages of the monarchy have been converted into the essence of a republic, only here.....it is needful to keep the ancient show while we secretly interpolate the new reality". - "The Restoration of the English Constitution", Ben Greene.
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
"A political system resting on professional party politicians is clearly fatal to all liberty and national well-being. It represents a total destruction of our historic Parliamentary constitution behind whose forms, institutions and ceremonies it has disguised itself whilst at the same time rendering them meaningless. The full meaning of Parliamentary supremacy is now lost to us by the constitutional corruptions which the professional politician has fomented by their appeals to an alien and fraudulent political ideology. By clearly identifying and correcting these corruptions we can recover the enduring qualities of strength and freedom of our Parliamentary constitution for which generations of Englishmen have for centuries been ready to sacrifice their lives and their possessions". -Richard Crossman.(1907 -1974) former Labour Minister, in 1963 introduction to Walter Bagehot's "The English Constitution" 1867.
Forward to : Chapter One of "The Basic Factors in British Greatness"
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