Suggestions
I want to let everyone know I am open to suggestions for post topics, site improvement, reading material, causes to support, etc. Simply leave a comment and let us all know your ideas or recommendations in this designated post.
Thanks for your input and assistance in elevating the interestingness of this blog.
Right now I am incensed by the scandal about British Members of Parliament’s expenses. Probably not top of your list of priorities, but I would be interested in what parallels there are in the USA. You (Americans) seem to trust your government a lot less than we (UK) do, so it would stand to reason that you allow them less leeway with their expenses than we do. What do you think about it? How should we deal with it?
BBC news stories:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8039273.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8051091.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8053833.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8052709.stm
Unfortunately, Roy, politics has become almost synonymous with scandal in the US and we haven’t discovered a system of checks and balances that works when the ones who should be doing the checking and balancing are corrupt or incompetent.
As a matter of fact, there is a Wikipedia page on political scandals in the US that lists so many scandals they’re divided into groups based on the years in which they occurred and then subdivided by whether they’ve taken place in the Executive Branch or Legislative Branch.
OK, I looked at the Wikipedia page and now I think I see what the problem is: you don’t trust your politicians because they’re not trustworthy. Now it all starts to make sense about your attitude to politicians (and your low electoral turnouts). I really hope we can avoid ending up in that situation where politicians are on a gravy train for as long as they can avoid falling off it (ie getting caught), and the public don’t trust them while they’re actually supposed to be serving us.
We have devolved local government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and they have a rigorous system of publishing members’ expenses and commercial interests etc. on the internet. Here’s the page for my local MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Jackie Baillie:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/MSP/MembersPages/jackie_baillie/index.htm
As you can see, her outside interests and expenses are available in minute detail. So far, this system seems to work. Unfortunately, the London Government seems resistant to the idea of complete disclosure right now. Why is that, I wonder? It’s not like it costs a fortune to run, and it makes the electorate feel a whole lot better.
Many Americans seem to think that a government-funded public health system (or even a government-run insurance program) would be a sign that socialism is gaining ground in their country. And so, it seems that every time the idea of government health care comes up, it gets attacked with torches and pitchforks. I’d kind of like to know what you think of it – the socialists coming to take your freedom, or your government trying to help you out?. This is the article that made me think of it:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31232667/