A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY

UK OR THE EU – A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY

This is the first in a series of three blogs over the next week or so connected with the forthcoming EU Referendum on Thursday 23 June.  I begin with democracy.

One of the most often used phrases when people complain about the European Union (EU) and equally used as one of the reasons for wanting to leave is the “unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable, dictators with thousands of bureaucrats” running our lives from Brussels.  Those using such language tend to end their rant with: “..and take back control and run our own country.”

You will note in this blog that I won’t be favouring one system from the other.  What I am attempting to do is to highlight just one or two examples that are often forgotten about in the current debate.  Words in yellow are deliberate.....

I’ll begin by explaining how the EU Commission and the European Parliament works alongside some of the other institutions often mentioned.

The European Parliament is made up of 751 directly elected MEPs representing some 375 million eligible voters in 28 different countries.  Based on the population of the member countries, Germany have the most representation with 96 MEPs, Cyprus, Malta, Luxembourg and Estonia have the least with six, while the UK has 73.  All MEPs are elected by a proportional representation system.

The 28 commissioners making up the European Commission (in effect the Cabinet of the EU) are appointed by the Prime Ministers or Presidents of the 28 member countries.  The body as a whole has to be approved by the MEPs.  As an aside, those European countries that have Prime Ministers are individuals not themselves directly elected by the electorate but heads of their respective political parties thanks to the votes of party members.

The European Council is made up of the 28 leaders of the 28 member countries who choose the head of the European Commission and must also approve the members of the European Commission.

The Council of Ministers is made up of one representative of each of the 28 member countries specialising in a particular area of policy.  For example, the Council of Ministers for Defence would currently see UK Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, as part of that council.

The European Court of Justice (not to be confused with the European Court of Human Rights), formed back in 1951, is now made up of 28 judges each nominated by the 28 member states.  

All the above institutions of the EU are backed up with the support of approximately 42,000 civil servants.

Let’s compare the above organisation with the UK Government.

Currently, the UK House of Commons is made up of 650 directly elected MPs representing some 45 million eligible voters.  All MPs are elected by a first-past-the-post system.  At the 2015 General Election, the Conservatives won 330 seats with 36% of the national vote whereas UKIP won 1 seat with 12.7% and the SNP won 56 seats with 4.7%. 

The British Prime Minister appoints the 21 Cabinet Ministers and the approximately 100 junior ministers.

The Speaker of the House of Commons – officially the senior commoner in the land - is elected by MPs.

Every member of the House of Lords is unelected and appointed.  There are approximately 700 Life Peers and 26 Bishops. Following the House of Lords Act 1999, the number of hereditary peers was reduced to a limit of 90.  When an hereditary peer dies creating a vacancy, their replacement is elected by the remaining unelected members of the hereditary peerage.

These appointed and unelected members of the House of Lords can and do amend and block legislation passed by the elected MPs in the House of Commons.

Each UK government department has at least one appointed Minister of State that is a member of the House of Lords.  These ministers take decisions and formulate the law of the land in the form of Bills and Acts of Parliament. 

Once any Bill has secured its Third Reading, it then passes to the unelected and hereditary Head of State for formal approval – The Royal Assent.

Each UK government department has an appointed Permanent Secretary (every department has a Sir Humphrey Appleby) who has made it to the top of their chosen profession in a career they applied to join.  According to 2015 figures from the annual Whitehall Report the Civil Service is made up of 406,000 people.  Those in the Executive Officer grade and higher are responsible for creating and formulating policy and to offer advice to ministers.

The UK currently has 12 Justices of the UK Supreme Court and 109 High Court Judges, all appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. To quote the official Government page, Judicial Accountability and Independence, “...The truth is that the judiciary is accountable, but in a different manner. The reason for this difference is a fundamental feature of our constitution going to the very heart of our democracy. The difference stems from the need to ensure that judges are impartial and independent of central and local government and from pressures from the media, companies, and pressure groups while exercising their judicial functions. That need is also reflected in the constitutions of all democratic countries. The extent to which the judiciary in England and Wales are accountable, how they are accountable, and why there is a need for judges to be completely independent from Government and other powerful groups, are difficult questions.”

The word bureaucratic is defined as: “Relating to a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives.”

Every single word above is a fact. The following is a commentary about those facts.

In the current EU Referendum debate, there are a significant number of people wanting to Remain in the EU that support either a more democratic and elected House of Lords – or even its total abolishment.  Equally, there are many who wish to Leave the EU, citing the “dictators and unelected and undemocratic bureaucracy” as a principal reason but are more than content to keep an unreformed House of Lords and other institutions listed above.

Read the facts again and decide for yourself which organisation is the most democratic, accountable or bureaucratic or are they much of a muchness?

At the end of the day, perhaps British people simply prefer to be governed by “their own” unelected bureaucrats.