We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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How do you kill a corpse? Electronic voting? Bring it on, I say:
British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections, warns a report.
You cannot possibly undermine something that is already on its death-bed so put it out of its misery already.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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There’s still a democracy in the U.K??? There’s no longer one in the U.S. either.
Paul Johnson, historian, in a a ong ago Forbes column siggested that the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand form on free trade-common wealth if not nation. His arguments about our common heritage and views on defense vs the UK joining the EU made sense…
As a state the UK would be one of the largest, most politically powerful and could probably even keep the Queen and Parliment… Our common history, values and ambitions are more evident than ever in this era of Islam-O-Fascism and the growing threats from China and Russia…
As an American (Southerners have a thing about being called a Yank)… What do the literate and erudite folks here think of the idea?
Many (most?) Brits think that Cameron character is “Conservative”. If Britain were to become a State, it would be massively “Blue”.
We’d end up with President for Life Hillary.
Pass.
As an American (Southerners have a thing about being called a Yank)… What do the literate and erudite folks here think of the idea?
I think that our respective governments are far bigger threats to our safety and freedom than China, Russia, and any number of muslims. Expecting the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada (especially Canada) to form a free-trade commonwealth would be like the various denominations of Protestant churches, the Vatican, and the Eastern Orthodox church to form a new, consolidated church to promote free thinking. Correct me if I’m wrong, but these are not exactly the most libertarian of countries, relatively free as they are.
AndyJ,
When we first went into the ‘stan The Sun
(one of our classier tabloids) did front-pages with the flags of all nations involved: US, UK, Canada, Australia. It was just like WWII, or Korea. We always get into scrapes and we always seem to have the same folk on our side.
I like the idea of an anglospheric union but on one condition. On every aspect of taxation, regulation and governmental interference we harmonize at the lowest level.
Nah, it’s just never going to happen is it? HMG would rather eat a mattress than charge the same tax on petrol that they charge in Australia.
But I do like the idea for a remarkably simple reason and one that the Eurowonks seem wilfully pignorant of. The whole idea of geographically contigous power-blocks seems awfully C19th in the age of the internet and (despite the best efforts of the Eurowonks) cheap flights. So, it would be nice to live amongst a group of like minded allies upon whose markets the sun never sets. When London closes, LA is just about to open and there’s always Sydney working at some Gawd awful time, upside-down. Admix cheap scramjets (and why not? They’ll cause what’s left of Sir Jonathan Porrit’s hair to fall out) and the EU really looks like the time-for-the knackers-yard old warhorse that it truly is.
The EU – C19th solutions for C21st problems.
If Democracy is putrifying from one end, then electronic/postal voting will rot it from the other.
I welcome the idea of an Anglosphere block. Would America wish to join the Commonwealth…at last? 😉
If the others were to join the US, The royal family would be defunct. The US Constitution forbids royalty, Kennedy’s, Adams’s, Bush’s and Roosevelt’s aside.
If the US Con. was not used, a new governing document would be required. Considering the politics in UK, Canada, Australia and NZ, I shudder at what kind of fascio-collectivism would arise from that. Can you imagine ‘V’ brought to life but with green power, holistic medicine and Prius’s’s’s’s? The majority of he US would refuse to go along with that.
Nope, never happen in my lifetime.
An economic free trade union might arise, but with each retaining total sovereignity. (wow, I just spelled that without a spell checker!)
Rather, I think Canada followed by the US are more likely to breakup and fragment rather than coalesce. Both have regional disputes that are causing friction. In Canada, the western provinces as well as Quebec are not very happy and have separatist movements. The US has some long standing ones that are starting to gain steam again, VT, NH as well as some in the northwest.
Canada will fracture first, their confederation is looser than the US, and it will likely be peaceful. Once the US sees that happen, if it happens in a peaceful manner, it will give more strength to the secessionist groups in the various states and regions and we will see the US fragment as well. Likely not as peacful.
Not to mention the probable break off of Scotland from the UK, which seems likely.
Hey, the Soviet Union broke up. The most prescient observers predicted it ten years previous to it happening.
If the USSR did it, so can the US and Canada. I suspect this will happen well within my lifetime. I am 48.
I see fragmentation and a move away from massive nation-states as more likely than the creation of more of them.
So far as electronic voting goes, why not? It will just ensure the continued rule of the current class and permanently disenfranchise any true opposition. The status quo writ in stone. Noting wrong with that, right?
Right?
Dang you guys have some sensitive smite control.
Remind me to stay off your lawn!
Andy J – An English Speaking Commonwealth sounds like a great idea. Where do I sign up?
Re Nick M’s I like the idea of an anglospheric union…” Absolutely.
… but on one condition. On every aspect of taxation, regulation and governmental interference we harmonize at the lowest level. Again – Complete agreement – In fact I may agree with you more than you do yourself on that 😉
Re Electronic voting. It might be a threat to the parties vested interests and ability to stitch up control of the State, but I fail to see how, properly administered, it could undermine British democracy.
I can see how it might make single issue referenda quick and easy enough to use them to govern though…
As someone who has worked on cybernetics, why not aim for the day when we all wear a hat which transmits our answers to particular questions instantaneously?
The ‘Prime Minister’ would wear a hat too, but this one would control his speech centre from a massive ‘speech simulaiton’ computer which took our thoughts in realtime and made his words conform.
The resultant gibberish would be most amusing and would result in fewer ‘serious’ people volunteering for the position.
Nick: When London closes, LA is just about to open I rather think that CA will prefer to join the EU. So will the other CA, come to think of it.
Oh, and so might NZ. God, this is depressing.
Well, according to received wisdom the only way to deal with the shambling dead is to “remove the head or destroy the brain”. Should work…
Phil A,
I’m delighted to make the aquaintance of someone who agrees with me more than I do with myself.
BTW. That was a minimal requirement. A challenge. Because it’s not at all like the way EU tax harmonization has proceeded.
Alisa,
Well, Cali can go fuck itself if it wants. I remember the Grey Davis (or was it “Gray”?) recall vote. Any bunch of folk who can bankrupt California need to be issued with sticks in order to beat the ejits who put them in that position in the first place. Personally, I’d be happy with the Empire reclaiming everything east of the Mississippi. The rest can go hang. But who needs California when you’ve seen dawn break over the mighty Tennessee? It took my breath away. As did the caldera at Santorini and the pubic area of someone I’m not going to name from Georgia – think Atlanta, not Tblisi.
I think what I was trying to get at is that I’m in favour of a “coallition of the willing” rather than the eternal trying-to-roll-a-boulder-uphill that is the EU. I mean I married my wife because we get on, not because she was from next-door. Why should the UK’s International Relations be different? In fact, when push comes to shove and we’re talking war and stuff more important than the sodding Kyoto protocols it does. Our boys and girls have bled together with Americans, ANZACS, Canucks and Europeans. Unfortunately, when we’ve bled with the Euros we were generally on opposing sides at the time. Now, much as I have no wish to coventrate Hamburg again, I just don’t care about the whole European project.
Fuck’s sake, I get home from work one day and my Aussie relis I’d never met before had pitched up and I got on with them immediately. I can’t say that about the French. I’d turn up and find the bin empty and the cat pregnant.
If the French had turned up…
its not being properly adminstered though, these guys (Link)obsevered the recent trials and concluded they were a shambles.
electronic voting is the way of the future. Use the technology we have at our disposal to allow people to vote from any connected internet device (PC, laptop, mobile phone, pda.) I predict that participation in elections would rocket as people wouldn’t be put to the inconvenience of trudging to a polling station in the rain.
I suspect that that form of electronic voting is not what is being discussed. The machines stationed in polling stations are the worst idea in the world. Not only do they still involve you having to trudge all the way to the polling station in the rain, they are far more open to tampering than a purely net based system would be.
Canadians, to me, have always seemed to be like us, only polite.
Australians are friendly in a loud and occasionally obnoxious way, much like us when we’re at our best.
New Zealanders, well, all I ever did there was get off a plane and smoke in Auckland. From the plane to the smoking area to the plane again. One doesn’t meet that many people that way.
Americans are, well, perhaps the English only with more guns and more Jesus. Come to think of it, that’s how we started anyway.
I think the Anglosphere is far more functional than my own family, most of the time.