This Election Stinks! 15 Ways to Fake a Democracy
#HowToFakeADemocracy #RisingUp!
WAKE UP UK Citizens! – You don’t have a genuine democracy!
We wish progressive candidates well in the 2017 general election – please vote to
get the Tories out! However, the “playing field” is almost vertical – we have a system
rigged for the rich and corporations and it is leading to fascism1.
Rising Up! is calling for mass civil disobedience.
Here’s how you go about faking democracy2:
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Overspend on your campaign to gain advantage, the law is inadequate to
deal with this electoral fraud3,4
Manipulate people– buy up masses of personal data to develop a profile
on individuals so you know how to trigger their loyalty5,6
Allow massive media bias – have 80% of the media be owned by your 5
right wing billionaire mates7 and push the BBC into right wing bias too8.
Create a “gagging law” to silence civil society around election time9 and
fine those who break it10.
Give corporate lobbyists free reign – and let “astroturf” organisations,
think tanks and researchers have a strong voice supporting your case
without exposing the bias in their funding sources11,12
Let bankers dominate party funding – turn your country into a tax
haven13 and dangerously deregulate finance14 so the bankers will fund you
at election time15
Let tax dodgers dominate party funding– meaning you will also never
have a real interest in dealing with tax dodging16.
Give peerages to party donors – and keep the House of Lords as an
undemocratic voice of the establishment17,18
Have few votes count – by using a first past the post system19 in which
people feel their voices are unheard
Change boundaries to favour your party –in the name of “saving money”
as you heap more of your mates into the House of Lords20
Stop people voting – if they are younger than 18 (but let them fight your
wars) or a prisoner21 (despite the fact prison populations reflect issues of
race, class and disability)22
Axe people from the voter register23 - nearly 800,000 people, and create
a higher barrier to reregistering
Lie about your policies – lie to voters, tell them what they want to hear
and then don’t do it when you have their vote24,2526
Ignore the will of the people – trash the NHS and force fracking on
communities if it lines the pockets of you and your mates27,28
Ignore the biggest issues of our day – the environmental crisis29 and the
depth of inequality, by scapegoating people without much voice, such as
migrants, poor people and disabled people30,31.
What kinds of things need to happen?32
Change is possible! There are loads of great ideas out there which should be debated and
discussed on an equal playing field. However it is highly unlikely any of these changes will
get implemented without a mass uprising- so point zero is to help organise a mass
uprising!33.
1. Review Electoral law so that its more likely you can prosecute overspending cannot
happen
2. Review Electoral and Data law, to pass new laws in our modern era against mass
manipulation using big data techniques
3. Reform the media34
4. Repeal the gagging law35
5. Properly tackle excessive corporate lobbying36 for example don’t allow the media to
quote organisations without providing their funding sources
6. Ensure finance sector resilience rather than dominance37
7. Don’t allow tax dodgers to donate to political parties
8. Reform the House of Lords38
9. Use a form of proportional representation39
10. Only permit boundary changes as part of a package of reforms to level playing field
and improve our democracy.
11. Reduce the voting age to 16, allow prisoners to vote.
12. Fully resource approaches to improving democratic involvement by people less likely
to get involved and make the registration process simple and effective
13. Undertake a high level review of processes that need to be in place to protect voters
from being manipulated through lies and significant policy diversions
14. Politicians and political advisors should not be able to work for firms that lobby on
behalf of a specific policy within 5 years of leaving office / positions and increase
punishment levels for those that break current rules.
15. If we had a real democracy, based in accurate information, with power as devolved
as much possible, possibly using innovations such as liquid democracy40, we believe
people would focus on the biggest issues humanity is facing today.
1
http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm ;
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/11/trumps_not_hitler_hes_mussolini_how_gop_anti_intellectualism_created_a_mod
ern_fascist_movement_in_america/
2
Please add your additions and improvements in the comments- this is not an exhaustive list!
3
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/10/breaking-zero-conservative-mps-will-be-prosecuted-in-the-tory-electionfraud-scandal-except-one-maybe-images/
4
https://www.channel4.com/news/tories-battlebus-election-expenses-nocharges-thanet-conservatives-cps
5
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy
6
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/04/cambridge-analytics-data-brexit-trump
7
http://www.mediareform.org.uk/who-owns-the-uk-media
8
http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-how-biased-is-the-bbc-17028
9
https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2013/09/09/what-is-the-gagging-law/
10
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/18/greenpeace-first-organisation-fined-lobbying-act
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government
12
http://www.spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/climate/item/5940-meet-the-frackers-a-spinwatch-lobbying-tour
13
http://www.taxjustice.net/2017/01/16/everyone-loses-tax-war-europe/
14
http://www.taxjustice.net/topics/finance-sector/finance-curse/
15
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/05/conservatives-bankrolled-hedge-fund-managers
16
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tax-havens-secrecy-donations-how-7732905
17
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/21/revealed-link-life-peerages-party-donations
18
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/28/house-of-lords-democracy-accountability-reform
19
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/first-past-the-post
20
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-hit-hardest-boundary-changes-claims-ofgerrymandering_uk_57c3ea19e4b0ba22a4d48f47
21
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/12/uk-prisoners-banned-voting-echr
22
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/projectsresearch/race
23
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/24/nearly-800000-names-axed-from-voter-register-officials-figuresshow
24
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/29/the-guardian-view-on-political-lies-only-the-sword-oftruth-can-vanquish-them
25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_privilege
26
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/26/mps-lies-sliding-scale-alistair-carmichael
27
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/selling-nhs-profit-full-list-4646154
28
http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/archive/fracktured_accountability/frackogram_2015.shtml
29
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-environment-manifesto-launch-caroline-lucas-wilfullyignore-climate-change-global-a7729116.html
30
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/matt-carr/disabled-people-heroes-or-scapegoats_b_1842146.html
31
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/09/for-sake-of-all-marginalised-groups-this-anti-blacknessmust-be-addressed-black-lives-matter
32
For an overview see http://www.theprostitutestate.co.uk/
33
https://risingup.org.uk/about
34
https://www.cpbf.org.uk/2017/05/11/fair-media-to-give-the-truth-a-chance/
35
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/liz-hutchins/lobbying-bill-gagging-law_b_4716765.html
36
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/05/quiet-word-lobbying-politics-britain-cave-rowell-review
37
http://neweconomics.org/2015/06/financial-system-resilience-index/
38
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/reforming-the-house-of-lords
39
https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/proportional-representation/
40
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegative_democracy
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