The rather pejorative nickname for the German Navy awarded by some newspapers during the early part of the Second World War was "the scuttlers", presumably after the sinking of the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919, and the then more recent fate of the Graf Spee.
By the same token, we need to call the British people "the grovellers", after their response to the preposterous little oik, George Osborne, the man masquerading as our chancellor.
There he goes, standing in the Commons, telling us how much money we are going to give him, so he can spend it on his chums and other wastrels. And instead of telling him to foxtrot oscar, we say, "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir", doff our caps and give him the money.
At the very least, if he wants our money, he should ask for it – and say "please". We, on the other hand, should have the power to tell him to foxtrot all by himself. That is called Referism.
Currently, of course, we go through the charade of little Georgie asking parliament for the money. But, supposedly independent of the executive, it is stacked with Georgie's chums, who simply roll over and say, "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir", doff their caps and give him the money.
In theory, if we don't like this, we can vote them out in a few years' time, and vote the other lot back in. In practice, we can vote in Labour, who will take even more money from us, or we can not quite vote the not-the-Tories in, in which case an unelected coalition will take even more money from us.
One can imagine, though, all those people who hold up their hands in horror at the prospect of mere people deciding on how much of their money the government should have. But then, John and many other kings held up their hands in horror at the idea of nobles and then parliament deciding on how much money they should get.
Now, instead of the divine right of kings, we have the divine right of parliament. Parliament has spawned an executive which has become the king. Lacking any clear division or separation of powers, there is no longer any realistic or effective check on its ambitions.
And that is the way it will remain as long as we, the grovellers, allow it. Yet there are more of us than there are of them. Why are we still doffing our caps?
COMMENT THREAD
