Tuesday, August 07, 2012



Unreformable

Lords reform has failed in the UK. And moves to finally get equal-sized electorates (meaning equal-value votes) have failed along with it. The message is clear: Britain's archaic, unfair, and unrepresentative political system is now pretty much unreformable by democratic means. A combination of conservative dinosaurs who oppose all change and corrupt politicians who put electoral self-interest ahead of democratic principle prevents it.

This isn't just a tragedy which undermines the UK Parliament's legitimacy - it is downright dangerous. When change can no longer be pursued democratically, people will seek it by other means. And that, historically, has not been pretty.