There is not much more that can be added by way of comment on Brown's plans to regulate parliament, beyond that offered by Charles Moore on 16 May, which we explored on this blog. The Daily Telegraph leader has a go, noting that the proposals for cleaning up Westminster are a "demeaning moment for Parliament." It is an admission that those who are elected to run the nation's affairs cannot run their own.

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They have tended towards what gives the best results (for them) for the least effort - legislation is less about what it actually does and more about the appearance it is given. Our authority is handed over to anyone and everyone who asks or demands it with barely a nod towards whose authority it really is. Behind closed doors any behaviour is acceptable. Once it becomes public they must be seen to be as pious as possible.

Their predecessors were restrained by a stronger sense of duty to us rather than to themselves.

Dysgenics (also known as cacogenics) is the study of factors producing the accumulation and perpetuation of defective or disadvantageous genes and traits in offspring in a particular population or species. Dysgenic mutations are very evident within the present batch of members of Britain's Parliament. Where are the men of the calibre of Oliver Cromwell, William Pitt the Elder, Disraeli, Gladstone and Winston Churchill?

However, there is good news from Australia. Family First senator Steve Fielding has made up his mind on global warming - there's not enough evidence that it's real.

After talks with the government and top scientists, Senator Fielding, whose vote could be crucial in passing the Federal Government's plan to put a price on carbon emissions, has released a document setting out his position.

"Global temperature isn't rising," it says.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25 ... 59,00.html

The Prime Minister seems to think that a neutered Parliament will be less troublesome and obedient to his whims. But once Parliament is tamed and irrelevant, from where does the PM derive his powers and legitimacy? Is this a step on the road to a real Monarchy that is independent of Parliament and that dominates it. Any Plantagenets left in the country side?

And it is only a short-term fix. Democracy, imperfect though it is, provides a safety valve. Without it, the population eventually becomes ungovernable.

I really can't see what all the fuss is about. The EU rule the lives of the British people so it will with be MPs, it won't be long before an EU committee is set up to oversee their salaries, allowances and even deciding who can and can't stand for election.

Therefore I can't really get too worked up about Brown, or Charlatan Cameron, trying to con the electorate into believing they're cleaning up parliament when they know full well whatever they do will not make the slightest bit of difference once the EU is fully in charge.

A shame the British people don't take better care of their parliament and government. What a shame we feel no sense of ownership.

The rot started in 1972 when we joined the EEC. The Foreign Office forcast at the time that this would happen ... that we would lose faith in our institutions as they became more and more irrelevant. So it has come to pass.

That's a long range forecast to be proud of. Perhaps they should do the Met Office ones as well.

It seems a nation is only as good as its' people. Is all that stuff available online from the FO around 1972 or do you have to order it from the RO?