Introduced by this blog, The Daily Difference
Nearly 800 years ago, in 1215, the Magna Carta (Great Charter) was written to sharply correct the abusive rule of King John of England. The document has been used ever since in support of law and democracy. Though the latter was unknown then.
We now need a new one, to deal with modern abuses.
The Electors Charter begins the long task.
You are among the very first to read it!
Based upon:
THE ELECTORS CHARTER
Restoring Rule by the People:
The Beginning
FIRST BRITISH EDITION 2011
Abbreviated and Improved
Copyright © Alastair Lancaster, 31st December 2011: I assert my right under the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work and reserve all rights.
This shorter version is based on blog posts A-Y, December 2011, found in the Archive.
To navigate Archive pages, start at the bottom-right square. Look below for “next page” or “previous page” links.
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Key definition:
Democracy: Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people…..
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
Foreword
This Charter returns political supremacy to those who lend it: the People. It wrenches it back from those who openly steal it: elected politicians. It shakes the foundations of parliaments.
This first edition of The Beginning invites addition and improvement from people worldwide. After lengthy consultation and, I hope, translations by volunteers, cross-checked by others, The Middle will be published, covering more issues. Finally, I trust, The End, following long and deepest thought, will be completed.
This Charter is offered as a unique inventive channel. To establish a comprehensive, corrective, wide democratic movement, with its own set of ruling documents.
Magna Carta was written by barons, to rein-in ruinous King John of England in 1215. This Charter is developed by the People to rule modern barons and end defrauding by Parliament and its Parties.
Alastair Lancaster, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK.
Personal
As first writer and launching editor, my own qualifications are that I am very ignorant, am the least in importance and at 71 years old advance boldly towards second childhood. (Three near-essentials in democracy, it appears. For, how else do we explain the mentality of today’s politicians?)
I am a left-middle-right-wing radical, independent, conservative, who can, if persuaded by sound arguments, vote Labour or UKIP [United Kingdom Independence Party]. I have Green sympathies, too. I believe in recycling the main political Parties.
As one of the silent majority, I have long waited for others more capable than I to say and do what is, in my judgment, plainly needed. As they have not, I must.
Though, I have one huge advantage. I AM AN ELECTOR. One of the most powerful people in the world! We give authority to governments and later strip them of it.
Part I: Control by the People
Part II: Correction by the People
Part III: Command from the People
These three can be said to sum up genuine democracy.
Part I: Control by the People
Article 1.
The root fault of our ‘Representative’ Democracy is that it was designed to dis-empower us, for years. In fact, for life! Our supremacy is suspended. When we vote, we lose our power. (Politicians like to suppose.) We pay for everything. All is done in our name. Yet, we are made and kept redundant. Our oversight is blocked.
Parliament claims political sovereignty. But, under democracy, it is our birthright. We own it. As stewards, we possess it. It is what politicians and officials would take from us, by vote or signature. And keep. But, can never rightfully have.
Democracy means “rule by”, not just for, “the People”. It requires, and now demands, both citizen-oversight and overrule, in a responsible form, continuously. So it was in Athens about 2,600 years ago.
Paradoxically, we, the ruled, have to rule our rulers to correct misrule. Only this is effective democracy!
Today, the intelligence and competence of over 600 MPs is far outclassed by millions of able, well-educated, experienced and informed Electors. More qualified than most ancient Athenians. Yet, unable to exercise citizenship well. We need a superior system for this. To harvest our best. This Charter introduces one.
Our political ‘parents’ in Britain, monarchy and Parliament, show their years. As their ‘children’, we were subject to them. Today, politically of age, we are obliged to adopt a new supporting role, behaving with discretion, firmness yet gentleness, respect and indeed affection. Being “subjects” is a parental and historical anomaly from pre-democratic times. Its reality has virtually gone. Taken by the European Union.
We need a modern Magna Carta, to reclaim our rule. From the People to the State.
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Article 2.
Our rightful authority flows not from an EU or UN gift of “rights”, or even that Great Charter, as we are told. It is planted in us. It is innate.
We are to rule our lives. Valid government, anywhere on earth, is authorized only by free individuals.
In early history, governments began when families and individuals each decided to lend their power voluntarily, their resources and support, using their sovereignty, for agreed ends.
Later, that sovereign, contractual assistance was taken by defrauding or demanded by force. It was grabbed by kings, politicians and states. Parliament took it next. Locking it in by legal words. To, apparently, legitimize those in control.
This is what the EU does across Europe by its laws, treaties, Charter and would-be Constitution. It takes-over the People, their futures, their wealth, their core liberty without formal consultation or agreement, and the geographical title of Europe, for itself.
Politicians have stolen the supremacy of Electors for themselves!
In the Westminster parliament, EU laws pass “on the nod”: without check or debate. So, MPs now take their pay for not correcting perhaps 70% of all laws they pass! This endless over-riding, EU regulation, never agreed by the British people, undermines their self-rule, their rule of law and democratic legality itself.
Electors are disconnected, devalued, and in key matters ignored. Their powers taken.
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Article 3.
Democracy has two foundation principles:
- Citizens control government: by oversight and approval, directly and indirectly.
- Governments loyally ensure that control.
From this essence of democracy, we see what we have and what the EU, with partner governments, removes.
Without these, the State, Parliament and Government are illegitimate and increase in illegality. Because, final legality and sovereignty reside in us, the People alone, an irremovable treasury of rightful power. For our individual and mutual use, as stewards on earth.
These principles are not legally guaranteed by the EU. So, EU rule is wholly theft!
Without electoral control we are not free. Without it, we do not have democracy.
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Article 4.
“Who supervises those in charge?” The question was asked by the Greeks and Romans. This Charter provides a fresh answer: a way to “rule” our presumptuous governors, without ever trusting their marketing gift of European Union “Rights”.
In Europe, no electorate legitimized, or could legitimize, the EU! For, it disregards their supremacy! Its laws, built by by-passing genuine democracy, are all counterfeit! For, primary Directives must be issued by the People. Representatives exist to ease public decision-making, not to usurp and then export the supremacy of their Electors!
N.B. The British people were made EU citizens without their express permission! Therefore, all EU Directives to them are invalid! No one becomes a foreign citizen unawares, without ever being asked, without undeniable personal consent or any clear commitment whatsoever: and never when strongly opposed! Or, forcibly taxed for it. Not under democracy! The main Parties, riding over the will of the majority, not only have continued to ebb respect. They have ebbed away their moral legitimacy!
Official charters, constitutions and referendums are designed first to benefit those in power. Thus, The European Charter of Fundamental Human Rights purposefully omits the most fundamental of matters: control of government by free citizens! It dilutes our inherited, rightful supremacy to a removable right of influence, permitted by the European Union.
But, democracy is “rule by the People”, primarily by vote. It is authority and power over the State! It is correction of the State. And if unavoidable, the punishment or pruning of the State and the Parties for defying rule by the People!
The time has come to correct misrule. Solely, by responsible and wise means.
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Article 5.
The People lend their powers, in part only, to any Parliament, Congress or ruling Assembly temporarily and to a State or Union provisionally. A monarch or an elected president, has conditional or accountable rule, as a figurehead or executive. Each is a servant, subject to our highest standards, responsible to us. We hire them and we fire them. We fund them. We withdraw support when they grossly overstep the mark. We replace them if necessary. Because we lend to, and not borrow power from, the State.
If a representative is not accountable and transparent, he or she is not representative at all, and must be replaced. Promptly. If an institution fails, it is asking to be replaced. We have to engrave the rule of openness upon them. The principle that Electors control.
Here is a lost truth: At General Elections, we do not transfer all authority to MPs! Nor is our remaining power a residue. It is resident! For, overall responsibility stays ours. No law or treaty can ever alter our democratic ownership of politics and power! Parliament seeks our supremacy: as close to the ‘right of attorney’ as it can get. It has to re-learn that, without our Directives, owned resources, and constant validation, it is utterly nothing but an assembly of Party criminals on-the-make!
No State, Parliament, Government or Union owns its measure of power! Its lease is revocable. Parliament makes laws. We make Parliament. And it is subject to us.
What we lend, we fully own. How it is used, we must know. Or the loan is recalled!
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Article 6.
EU elections launder our supremacy, to consolidate it for downright impostors who, as Commissioners, pretend our support! Whether few vote or agree, power is extracted. Rubber-stamped by a pocket EU Parliament and a craven Parliament here.
How could the EU, possessing nothing, give us Rights? By our parliamentary Parties, giving away slices of our control, without asking! Then the EU, in a show of generosity, to win our support, granted “Rights”. Brass for gold! Innumerable rights and benefits lie latent inside sovereignty. Sovereignty is supremacy without a limit. The EU hands us what we own, in broken bits. Our supremacy is removed and its own supplanted.
Any referendum packaging the thousands of unauthorized EU decisions into one or more slick questions is invalid. For, our primary directive to go-ahead was never given! To export our powers requires our first and on-going permission! Successive governments have used any method to avoid asking for it. The main Parties prevented our opposition! They intended to by-pass us! Integration goes on via a continent-wide robbery of electoral, parliamentary and economic power. Democratically-illegal! So: all invalid!
(In old times, this merited banishment or worse! Today, giving away your countrymen to be ruled by a foreign power, without a choice, has no harsh penalty for politicians.)
More EU means further loss of power, at added cost, with greater risk.
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Article 7.
Transferring control without permission amounts to treason against the rule of Electors! How can the British House of Commons be forgiven? The Lower House it is. The even-Lower House it has made itself! There is no way back to its falsely-claimed supremacy for the betraying, deceiving Commons! It has lost its honour.
When beyond control, it proves to be a menace! The argument is not that the errant House be replaced, but shaken at its foundations. It is that correction must come from Electors, who alone lend it powers and legitimacy. Parliament must set in solid law, without qualification and irreversibly: That the People in democracy are supreme, not it. That its primary loyalty is to them, as its Electors. Not to the EU, the captive monarch, who shows more loyalty than it does, the servant-State or any organization. The EU, imposed by Parliament, defrauds Electors of any effective moderating control.
So, Parliament has to share power with Electors, in new ways. Devised by Electors. Or wither further.
Genuinely-democratic votes keep overall control. Enabling the People to “rule”.
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Article 8.
State theft of democracy is the nub issue! To restrict an intelligent, educated and informed electorate to one illiterate ‘X’ on a ballot paper or an unverifiable electronic trace as in the USA, every 4 years or so, to vote on multiple, increasingly-crucial and more costly issues, is fraud. To refuse a vote by Electors on the EU for decades was utter contempt by Parliament! The matter was so artfully woven into party manifestos that undoubted support for or rejection of it was avoided.
No mandate was sought or given. Thus, in no way, at no time, was any transfer of our control to it, or transfer of any of our wealth for it, authorized or validated by the device of one vote: any-number-of-issues, at any General Election.
To be in the EU was never publicly agreed! Parliament acted without “the wholehearted consent of the British People”, stipulated by Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1970. It has been doing so for decades. By so doing, it has shredded its historical and international reputation, possibly beyond recovery. Pretending to represent the People, it is plainly determined not to do so on the EU, the key issue of this generation! (By “Parliament”, of course, in reality we mean the Parties now in it.)
By our one electoral vote, cast or not cast, MPs all assume a total transfer of authority and power to themselves has occurred and that they hold our title-rights and the ‘right of attorney’. But, we are neither sick, unfit or so very stupid! We retain our sovereign powers in full potency. We are not shareholders. We are the proprietors! We own the establishment, our whole democratic system, the judiciary, our country, our land, its resources, its economy and our destiny. Not them, as hirelings, in any way at all!
Governments truly “take powers”! They own none! They return few. We need a lot back! Countless instruments of power passed by Parliament with little evaluation, to keep power in the hands of a dubious elite of MPs, need the light of day and our total revaluation. We have to rein-in our employees, check the books and re-shape our future. Their growth of power never stops. Our control is continually eroded via laws and treaties. Our ability to run our own lives is increasingly cut. Why? For the EU to increase its power. For officials to be more our masters. For, the main Parties to act as perpetual, almost irremovable, regional governors for the EU.
The guardian-State is a predator, abusing those it is paid to protect. Officials snoop threateningly. Their electronic eyes follow us anywhere. Multinational companies and international organizations and shady financial interests muscle into our politics. Our one-vote-each cannot sort out such matters or repel the EU marauders. We require fresh, sharp, irresistible tools, designed for the job, to correct this gross democratic imbalance. Which this Charter proposes.
The main Parties have chosen to dis-empower and then sell-out the whole population.
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Article 9.
Today, Parties use the Vote like a jemmy, to prise powers from us for keeps.
This is why referendums, so desirable in theory, menace us in practice. For what are the questions? Set, certainly, in consultation with the European Commission. First, they must contain the assumption that we now accept EU rule. (So, removing that part of our complaint). Second, they must oblige us to accept (and so justify) Parliament at Westminster passing all EU legislation so far. Thirdly, the question(s) must imply that we wholly accept the “democratic” validity of all EU treaties, institutions and documents, from first to last. (By taking part in the referendum, we do so on these terms. Else, no referendum will be tolerated!) Fourthly, the referendum should make other referendums very unlikely. Not encourage greater democracy. Thus, providing the whole defrauding elite with ample legal cover and paths of escape.
When Parliaments, under pressure, ceded (lost) power by “giving” us the Vote, they returned part of our self-rule and control over our lives, seized ages ago. (Article 2). The Vote is not just a “right”. Or some neat trick for rulers to buy-off and quieten the masses when convenient. It is not our token rule by their license! It signifies our full supremacy over our public business and over them as fallible, temporary rulers.
The Vote reminds us of our duty to act wisely to improve our devious democracy. To compel the mighty, who intend to be almighty, to follow our finest requirements and counter-balancing judgment. For, (finally), mutual benefit. Not allowing them to drain us of our inheritance. Or, to continue to label this whole process of political, social and economic theft as “Representative Democracy”!
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Article 10.
Political freedom demands master-sovereignty over the State and money. It insists we totally control our borders and entry policies. (Currently, to cut overwhelming associated costs.) The EU prevents such independence.
Personal freedom begins with internal self-rule. By which, we make ourselves ready and relevant in an age of hyper-change. By us tackling our illusions, ignorance, indifference and something-for-nothing habits. Then, we can become valuable, participating citizens. Able to exercise our inherited gifts of freedoms well.
Freedom of speech: the outward evidence of democracy. To, first, discuss, write and comment helpfully. To criticize and debate intelligently anything or anybody, of any epoch, voluntarily. To open and pursue the truth in honesty and goodwill. By it we all grow, establish our values, and benefit or defend our society.
Second, it allows speech that others do not want to permit or hear. Never to force it on others. But, to guarantee that all remain free. Not to promote outrageous and provocative speech, at all. But, so that ultimately-vital truths and values will emerge. A Socrates or Galileo needs defending, but not the militant, browbeating, contemptuous and cruel. Freedom of speech is the right to tell the truth as we see it, without bullying. It includes the right to decide, to change opinion, party or government. Or, religion. Free from domination, abuse, menace, threat or physical attack, in our distinct jurisdiction.
(Even so, silence in democracy can be like sunshine! Brevity within it is priceless. Lip and insult mark out a fool. Our hearts and hypocrisy are the core of many issues).
The primary liberties of thought, conscience, expression, association, assembly and action, actually, are innate rights. Essential to us all. To build and maintain a wiser, caring society.
Freedom of information is not for government to withhold. It belongs to Electors for public business. To check what governments, corporations and others take and do with the People’s resources, property and power.
Freedom of the Press, Internet and other media is our freedom of speech magnified. Journalists and citizens together are to establish truth. Glorying in accuracy. Exposing dishonesty in government and elsewhere. Acting as guarantors of our sovereign rule.
For, the powerful engineer illusions of rule by the People. To resist its reality and solid establishment.
None of these freedoms came from the European Union or from our own governments. They came from the struggles of our forefathers, over generations, to the point of death!
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Article 11.
Democracy is not just to elect a government or to choose representatives. It exists to empower us! To correct them. To safeguard ourselves. So we prosper, grow and flower as individuals, together. To make elites serve. Not we serve them. It is to alter any policy not working and to install far better. To compel the Government to be accountable, transparent, humble, low cost and, (judged by us), superb.
The limits of government and business must be like those curbing each honest man or woman. Else, tyranny gets embedded, as in the USA.
[Note: US corporations are now treated legally as persons with equal rights. In effect, this rewrites their Constitution. They can fund political groups and their candidates anonymously to any amount! This 74-second clip says it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHRKkXtxDRA ]
We need wholly independent, cross-checking, electoral control. Far beyond what today masquerades as Representative or Parliamentary, Liberal Democracy!
Government is not the goal of politics. Political wisdom is.
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Editor: More Articles will be added. Different subjects covered. Other writers are invited to improve, add, recommend or offer new elements and connecting documents. Carving words. For as long as it takes. “Restoring rule by the People.” Volunteers are invited to translate the Charter, into other languages.
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Five things need simultaneous change now, by reinvention: Parliament, the EU, the main Parties, leverage for the People, and customer-’rule’ in the economy.
A total re-thinking and re-tooling of politics is essential. We repeat the mistake of looking to the old, betraying Parties for fresh answers. They always come to us with begging-bowls for ideas. They want to fix the system, to perpetuate themselves. Our collective wisdom exceeds theirs. Our role as Electors is to sort them out.
In Part II, we suggest how correction is made by citizens. Each Proposal can be self-funding, changed and added to.
In Part III, just as the American Declaration of Independence spoke from the People to the Government and to an exterior master-power acting beyond tolerable limits, so “The Beginning” of this Charter ends, with a draft People’s Declaration.
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NOTE 1: STATE DILUTION OF DEMOCRACY IN COLLUSION WITH THE EU
(1) We voted to join a Common Market. There was no mention of the EU! Any contract altered by one party alone is null and void. Our jurisdiction as a free people cannot be switched legitimately without our clear, democratic decision! The EU always operates without root, electoral permission. So do the Parties in Parliament continually for it!
Insisting upon their “supremacy of Parliament”, MPs stole Supremacy from us, their Electors.
A new association-model is required to replace the EU. One is proposed here in this Charter. Is the work on the EU wasted? Mostly, yes! Because the EU hamstrings Representative Democracy.
By the law of genuine democracy, we hold true title and control, permanently. Whatever EU directives or laws imply. However its courts argue! We could dismiss Winston Churchill, our successful leader after the Second World War. By law, we cannot vote out the EU. Though, we never voted for it in the beginning! The EU has, effectually, made itself our enemy, by its contempt for our democratic history and supreme electoral authority.
However, if a future Government agreed with the Articles of The Electors Charter, developed and amended by Electors, by passing a Supremacy of the People Above Parliaments Act, then a referendum about the EU or its replacement could be safe and legitimate: being fully reversible. Then, electoral control is obeyed and, legally, never lost.
[See Archive, post (I), December 2011 for full Notes. Scroll below the squares to find "next" or "previous" pages]
NOTE 2: VOTES AND REFERENDUMS
This is conventional Party wisdom(!): MPs say that our single vote selects each of them personally as our representative. Also, by it, we choose a Party! And, we weigh-up all the work done by our sitting MP! And, we judge the current government. And, rival manifestos! And, we show support for some favourite policy of ours! Then, they argue, it provides a mandate for the entire programme of the winning Party. And proves support for its leadership! But, one vote fixes one issue, not eight! The more that our vital decisions are compressed into one choice, the more the State, the main Parties and the EU confiscate “rule by the People”.
The Parties want Electors to decide on nothing but their appointment to power. Or, an increase of it. This, they insist, is democracy in action. In fact, it is the way they withhold democracy! We elect MPs. But they, by their legislation are obedient to the EU first, compelling us, their devalued constituents, to be so, too!
Parliament has chosen to neuter the Electorate. The Labour Government reneged on its promise of a referendum on the “EU Constitution”. For, it was renamed a “Treaty”. (For States alone to agree). The Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition concur. We have a self-crowned Parliament, and an illegitimate EU, centralized and soviet-like in design.
Before asking the People any question by referendum, Parliament and the EU must answer us these questions: Who rules? i.e., Who over-rules? The People or politicians? Citizens or the State? The Electorate or the non-elected EU Commission? We who create Parliament, lend it power and fund it: or Parliament? Who rules by right in democracy? Sovereign Democrats or political parties?
The EU makes our democracy a fraud. Parliament is the front for it. “Ministers for Europe” are just that, cuckoos-in-the-nest. The 3 Parties have installed the EU over us, with its European Court as last arbiter! A referendum on the EU, by them, would seek to confirm their expropriation of our Supremacy, imply the EU is actually democratic, and de-criminalize all thieves involved. It would be a lethal trap, laid by Parliament!
Coalition talk of “giving power back to the People” is false. The EU and its agents control what matters. As we struggle to correct our economy, we work to provide the EU with richer assets.
Sixteen successive years of EU accounts not being passed by auditors is warning enough! The EU pursues a larger budget when all people in Europe are in financial peril and must cut costs. When the euro, its creation, may be doomed. It adds embassies around the world, without public support. Negotiation for a nicer EU or yet another treaty are not solutions. Replacement is!
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Your comments are most welcome!
Volunteer translators are invited to offer sections in chosen languages for approval by other fluent speakers.
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