Published On: Wed, Mar 27th, 2019

Delegitimising Parliament: why “we the people” must stop voting

Brexit: an example, par excellence, that British Government, which organises Parliament to these ends, is not about representing, let alone producing what voters want; it is about driving through what it wants, and tricking the general public into thinking – even in the face of completely contrary evidence (granted, most are too dumb to comprehend any evidence, contrary or otherwise)  – that their will is being done. Every cloud has a silver lining, and Brexit should be such a shocking learning experience that it surely can’t help but have caused a few new neural pathways to have grown in the brains of even the most hopeless cud-chewing-on-the-way-to-the-slaughter-house cases. Now, maybe, more people are prepared to contemplate that British Government is corrupt from top to bottom, in all its aspects – and that the solution is far-reaching change.

For this article, which is about the vital importance in becoming a non-voter for the purpose of bringing about this change, the author has had to fetch his copy of Bagehot’s “The English Constitution” from the bookshelf. Admittedly, the act of being refreshed of its content is ongoing, so this piece might be updated when relevant lessons from Bagehot are newly discovered. If the reader doesn’t know, Bagehot is considered “the best account of the history and working of the British political system ever written” (back page notes, Oxford University Press edition, 2001). Although it was first published in serial form between 1865 and 1867, Bagehot is still a very useful tool for understanding modern British parliamentary politics.

As a focal point for this article, the question for which we need to look for an answer is how is it that, having received a clear instruction from voters regarding the EU – i.e. that we be a country independent of it – that Parliament can be so obstinate in its disobedience as evidenced by its concentrated effort to engineer (as the author has, in other articles hereabouts, shown the case to be) a Fake Brexit: a Brexit in name only, that in fact ensures continued parallel development with the EU.

The basis of the British system of governance is undoubtedly the English Civil War after which the Crown was abolished, and the Commonwealth, or the republic, was represented by the House of Commons in the Parliament. For all intents and purposes, the same situation continues today: the Commons has all the power through the sovereignty of the people. We should note that the reinstatement of the Monarch would have been a thing permitted by Parliament, and therefore, the rights that we think belong to the Crown are bestowed upon it by the Commonwealth. There is no birth right for a King of England. The restoration of Charles II was proclaimed by Parliament, not asserted by Charles. William and Mary were made king and queen on condition of the Bill of Rights. The Act of Settlement, 1701, and the “Sophia Naturalization Act” 1705, were the pieces of Parliament legislation by which George I could became king. In 2013, Parliament made a law dictating to the Monarch new terms regarding succession to the throne, so that a younger male heir no longer had priority over an older female. Can we see, dear reader, that the Crown has rights and privileges bestowed upon it by Parliament – meaning the Commons, meaning the Commonwealth.

Bagehot helps us notice that the while the executive part of Government – or the cabinet committee – is created by the legislative part of Government, it is the executive, through the royal prerogative, which can dissolve the legislature. In other words, the creature can uncreate the creator. Now, this is not a natural law, so this represents the installation of a contrivance so that a body of men who might ever finagle for themselves a control of the executive – and at FBEL this is understood to have been achieved by the Masonic City of London – has always had a nuclear option to deal with radical defiance of, and opposition to its purpose. So that we fully understand the implications, let us reiterate the idea: it is by a right of the Crown endowed upon it by Parliament, by which the executive can dissolve Parliament.

The Crown is a creation of Parliament, and so, by natural law, it cannot actually have prerogative to force Parliament to enact any law – with the extreme case being dissolution of Parliament. We will find that this is indeed the case: for the Crown is a construct by Parliament to empower the executive part of Government. At an abstract level, only Parliament has the authority to dissolve itself; and it stands to reason. But on having constructed the Crown as a political device, Parliament produced an existential independence over the Commonwealth, because the Commonwealth created the legislature and seeded the executive. But the Commonwealth is always unable to decide when Parliament needs to be uncreated, and is certainly unable to dissolve it. Indeed, quite to the contrary, the executive power has the power of Parliamentary lifespan in its hands, and can cling on long after the Commonwealth has understood that its interests are not being preserved. This is what is happening in this current Brexit era. The first answer to our question, then, is this: the Commonwealth has no power to abolish an executive that it ultimately created.

Bagehot notes that Parliament was an electoral college whereby representatives elected by the people would then elect the ruling executive. That being said, Bagehot also notes that representatives would tend to be elected on “a ticket” – which means to say that the representative would be elected because he supported the policies of a unifying figure; a leader of a party. Now, this is something has fully evolved into party politics, so the days of the Commons being an electoral college whereby a true representative looks to the interests of his electorate when electing an executive have gone.

At FBEL it has been noted that the Commons is like an electoral college in the respect that voters have voted for the ticket and not the man, and the problem with this is that politics becomes about collecting the most issuances of a certain ticket, and not about the man who has gained entry, or those that he is supposed to represent. Having declared itself able to demonstrate being in possession of most tickets, the party that forms the executive can go ahead and change the nature of the ticket, or even ignore it completely – because, after the Commonwealth has elected the executive, which is essentially what happens now (thus actually negating the first duty of a representative) there is no means by which the Commonwealth can dissolve the executive. Ultimately what has happened is that an MP only represents the ticket that he is elected on, and that is all he represents. So, another answer to our question is this: the Commonwealth has unburdened itself of its own duty to ensure good government. As was written hereabouts before (see the FBEL article, So, the British Government is entirely corrupt. What happens next?): “the change that is needed requires folk to take their responsibilities seriously, and to take back that sovereignty that is surrendered with a vote.”

Now, Bagehot noted that there were two parts of Government: the dignified part, and the efficient part. The dignified part was the Monarch, and the efficient part was the Parliament. Bagehot said that the dignified part drew the authority of Government from the people, while the efficient part executed that authority. Of course, this was written when not everyone had a vote, because now we would like to say that it is voting that imparts authority into a Government. Bagehot meant that because vast hordes of Victorian illiterates, that presumably could not read the newspapers, (there is a case to make that the Victorian ruling class engineered this as a reaction to Georgian gentrification) suffered from a delusion that the Queen ruled Britain, it was out of veneration for her that Parliament would be obeyed. Even so, Bagehot does talk about the appeal of Parliament for those who could understand that it was the ruling power. Bagehot calls it being taught by wise men, or even by fools if theirs was a propensity to bloviate – the author would call it theatre. This is the feature that has replaced the show of royalty in modern days when all people think that they have an interest vested in Parliament via that vote that was cast. It is theatre. That it creates a drama to mesmerise people into granting authority is much more important today than it was in Bagehot’s time.

Basically, if you don’t understand that one hidden hand controls all elements of government and opposition in Parliament, then you are the modern day equivalent of the Bagehot’s Victorian illiterates. If you think that it’s very important to vote for a certain ticket because the other side’s ticket holds consequences for you that you could not tolerate, then you are falling for the theatre. History should show you plainly: there is an outcome that you don’t like even when the ticket that you vote for wins.

It’s not often that Government releases data that cuts through the horse manure in such a rare fashion as the item that is about to be introduced. It is a reply from the Ministry of Justice in response to a Freedom of Information request about withdrawing consent to be governed:

Parliament itself draws its legitimacy from a number of sources, not least of which is the participation of the majority of the citizens of the United Kingdom in its operation, through exercising their right to vote or by paying taxes.

It is clearly stated: voting instils Parliament with legitimacy. Conversely, not voting means not authorising Parliament. And from our brief examination of ideas stemming from readings of Bagehot, we can see that this is absolutely the case. Not voting is the solution to the problem raised in our original question. Firstly, it solves the issue of the Commonwealth not being able to foreshorten the life of Parliament by not creating it in the first instance. Secondly, it means that individuals have not abdicated sovereignty, not to a representative, but to a ticket.

Of course, people will argue that while some people might stop voting, others will continue, and a parliament will be created in any case. The answer is that not voting is only the first stage in creating an alternative government that can eventually rule the Westminster Parliament a non-entity. Opposition is the key dynamic. As we discovered above, Government had arranged things so that it could exist without authority, but the difference was, that abuse was never opposed. When the Commonwealth deems Parliament is redundant, it can authorise an alternative – this is the crucial principle. And the Commonwealth is that body of the English (and we can extend that to incorporate the Irish, Scots and Welsh in their own lands), that recognises itself as the Commonwealth.

In the first phase, the rogue British Government must be weakened; it will do this itself by trying to run a country that hasn’t completely consented to it. What we are talking about here is refusal to recognise authority, and this has been covered in the FBEL article, The police as militia, and the “policing by consent” deception. We will also talk about defunding the Government in another article to come.†

In terms of organising physical opposition – and it must be understood that these are very preliminary ideas (but people must have a sense of the ends to which they are working) – the alternative to Parliament must first come from grassroots local assemblies (and indeed courts); everyone must look to the scope of influence over which he has some realistic control. These can be formed in one of two ways. Firstly, in the only case where it would be meaningful to vote, at local government elections, by voting for candidates who are standing for the required change, and on taking office, with enough of them able to do it, declaring council sanctioned by the people to override the appointment of its authority by central government, with a first duty to defend the residents in the remit of the council from the central government, and to be policy-independent from central government. Otherwise, people could defund local government, and set up an alternative that, over time, takes over the basic service provision that local council would otherwise supply. At some stage, local Commonwealth assemblies would send delegates to a national assembly with ideas for an alternative national government.

As has been said before at FBEL, these ideas may seem like complete fantasy that are hardly ever likely to happen, but the realists amongst understand that things do need to change, and the only way we can depend on that change happening is if we, ourselves, force it to happen. This process must begin with “impossible” ideas.

 

† This is actually a developing project at FBEL. The article, “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars”, Parts 2 & 3; Trump, Twitter & The Matrix, begins to suggest what a population can do to stop being exploited in a system of economics that sees it as storage for wealth that always belongs to a monopolising capital owner (whether that be government on its own, or government with corporations). Please also see Taxation truly is theft: a “sitrep” (here).

 

Further FBEL reading:

Reflections on a by-election: another charlatan claims to represent the people, this time of Lewisham East (link)

 

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  1. PhilB says:

    Another excellent article, thanks for that. I always look forward to the next one. I have been doing my bit and have not voted because of the reasons you mention since I was 18, I voted green for a laugh, that was 1979.I fled the country soon after though to escape Thatcher. Took me 20 years to get back, the Bavarians looked after me well.

  2. Jasper says:

    I am no longer registered to vote.