Forum Topic

Anyone voting in election should listen to

Stasiland on Radio 4 or read the book by Anna Funder it is very informative and a cautionary to those who follow doctrines blindly in case we all need reminding in these dark days of British politics.The details of people's actual lives in such regimes speak volumes.

M Powes ● 2225d9 Comments

We dont have id cards in the uk. That is the issue. People would need passports or a photo driving license. So non driving people who can't afford to travel would be disenfranchised. Restrictions on voting is widespread in the usa. Ok if we all had our id card but an abuse of democracy if we dont

Peter Chadburn ● 2222d

Why would an ID card disenfranchise anyone save for those who are not entitled to have one issued to them?

N V Brooks ● 2222d

Yes an  national ID card would be useful and is common in most european countries. As a result people should be able to have benefits and all kinds of things processed easier. But the current proposals are of the kind that would disenfranchise many voters which would be wrong. Yes but the press has always had a built in bias one way or another but you could read through that. We now having the Telegraph openly printing fake news which is a corruption of that papers history. In order to supposedly defend democracy as part of brexit we see people being encouraged to destroy democracy. It is very easy to lose!!

Peter Chadburn ● 2222d

Yes, but we are free to disregard the mainstream media.Personally, I would like to see ID used for voting.The press is already regulated by the interests of the owners and advertisers, to think otherwise is naive.

N V Brooks ● 2222d

But this is the arrogance of the Elite which creates the groundwork for an authoritarian regime. Maybe not as extreme as East Germany was but still a controlled state. In effect we could have a Conservative government that makes ID mandatory for voting whilst ensuring that passports and driving licenses are expensive. We could get a government that decides that regulation of the press is needed and that also in the interests of security their dodgy connections with russia are hidden. Or an increasingly outsourced NHS where being involved in politics could be a disciplinary offence. We already in this country persecute whistle-blowers. Each step in itself may not mean much but we already have a majority in the press who are just propaganda sheets like Pravda.

Peter Chadburn ● 2222d

You really need to put the indiscretions and under-performance of our elected representatives into perspective.It is nothing like the totalitarian state that millions suffered under the GDR.Overarching is our democratic process, a 'luxury' of which the citizens of the GDR could only dream. Locally, this underperforming bunch were actually voted in by the people of Ealing. Democracy sucks sometimes.

N V Brooks ● 2222d

Not yet but we are going down a very authoritarian route supported by the press as well as Trump and Putin. In fact as a simple example in Ealing where the CPZ renewals scandal is in play we see nothing from the Council leadership apart from denying responsibility. Individual councillors are trying to solve problems for residents who are having problems with the systems. It is the arrogance and lack of accountability. This is part of a trend where power gets centralised. We see with the rubbishing of the courts and parliament by various politicians that the obstruction of the people's will and the subsequent murder of Jo Cox and death threats to politicians encouraged by headlines calling people traitors. This is an unhealthy climate. We still have freedom but we are a few steps along the way towards losing it. The bullying of the BBC where they are afraid to show correct footage of Boris Johnson laying the wreath this year in case they embarrass him is another part of this. The words of various people about violence on the streets if we didn't leave on the 31st is encouraging hate and division. The Stasi was a way of keeping a people that were not trusted under control. After all these people had allowed Hitler to come into power. So for Stalin and the paranoia of the leadership this was the only way. But we should be worried as History does have a tendency to repeat itself. We have had Oswald Moseley but thank goodness we also had Winston Churchill. The sacking of Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames is a very telling sign about Boris's attitude towards democracy.

Peter Chadburn ● 2222d

To compare what is happening in British politics with the Stasi is simply both a gross over-reaction and a fundamental misunderstanding of how bad things were in the GDR under the Stasi.State lies are one thing but knowing that your every move was being monitored and that one in eight of your fellow citizens had a 'line of reporting' to the local Stasi bureau is another. I have friends through a parish link in Harthau, a suburb of Chemnitz (formerly KarlMarxStadt) and we have had many conversations about the 'old regime'.If you lived in state communal housing your caretaker would invariably be a paid Stasi informant while, at the same time your neighbour was keeping an eye on the caretaker. Every school had a 'cluster' of teachers watching pupils, parents and each other and reporting accordingly.If you had waited the prescribed 10-12 years for your Trabant car then the garage where you had it serviced would report on any unusual mileage on the vehicle. Shops would be 'encouraged' to report unusual spending patterns.Your rubbish would be searched for any evidence of 'western' products.The Stasi had twelve times as many agents watching its own people as the Gestapo had in Nazi Germany.To compare our own political system with the Stasi is therefore nonsense.

N V Brooks ● 2222d

I have read quite a bit recently in various websites about life under Stasi. What is interesting is that somehow integrity and truth are disappearing fast. It is a good thing that some journalists have decided to tackle the people who are spouting lies. I hope that in this election we get a chance to see some of the protagonists tackled and put under scrutiny. Lies seem acceptable when the Prime Minister is sadly someone whose connection to the truth is somewhat loose. We see publicity campaigns with inaccurate information supporting Universal Credit. It is very dark these days and with the Press being incredibly partisan i fear for the results. The Telegraph has always been pro conservative but you could always read through any bias in the past. It was a quality newspaper with some very good journalism and it covered things with detail. Sadly it has become a fan magazine for Boris and Nigel!! And the standard of some of the front pages would make the Sun proud. We can see why so many Tory politicians are very uncomfortable with what is going on. I voted for Boris as London Mayor because Ken had become a fascist over the West London Tram. I am a Eurosceptic who voted remain. In the last 25 years i have voted Labour. Sadly Bliar with his management of the news and 2 crucial lies has laid the groundwork for where we are today. The dodgy dossier is well documented but most of all the claim that only a few thousand poles would come to the UK in 2004 meant that the remain campaign had no credibility when we had the referendum. Trust had been destroyed and we assumed that as wages stagnated with a big pool of labour that the elite who were making the money clearly had cheated us. The funny thing is that our anti establishment candidates in Boris and Farage represent the next wave of profiteers who will exploit the people. It is very sad that we see with russian interference to destabilise the west that the very people who claim the flag are those who would sell it out to the highest bidder. We are in very dark times with too many dangerous people in Parliament. Nicholas Soames who as the grandson of Churchill is very telling in his criticism of Boris and company. There are many people such as Gauke, Grieve and others who deeply care about our democracy who are no longer in the party. Boris paints himself as a Churchill figure but sadly is more of a Mussolini. In local politics we see a cabinet that is not accountable. The CPZ renewals affair and their response to it is a typical example. There are many people who can be blamed but we must ask ourselves what can we do. Examine the words and checkout the claims. And Vote for decency and integrity!!

Peter Chadburn ● 2222d