It is wrong for this/any government to ban, suppress or deny any peaceful demonstration. It goes against the laws of freedom of speech which, in a democracy, should be sacrosanct. Farage doesn't matter as he, and his party, are so close to being Nazi, and anti British, that we should put him next to Oswald Mosley. The Tories are trying to climb up the same ladder as the greasy little turd that is Farage.
You're right, Jeremy. We should live in a world where you are free to say what you believe and I to say what I believe, and those around us make up their own minds freely. But we don't. We live in a world poisoned by big/dark money, often spent on distracting us or flooding us with disinformation, or on buying influence with the political class, and all within a system that seems to have completely lost touch with the ideals of fair play. Dark days. But I haven't lost hope...and no-one else should either. We can beat these forces. There are more that think like us than think like them. We just need to wake them up to the fact there's a fight on.
Unfortunately, I believe that because some of the electorate is lazy, some are uneducated, some don't care about politics and others vote for that party because "I've always voted for them", all of which scares the s**t out of me. That is how America went down the Capitalist route and we are following. I'm 80 next month and while I am thoroughly enjoying my life, I know that the end is nigh. (10 / 20 years maybe) I try to pass the message on as often as I can, but I fail with one of my daughters who thinks Farage is great and that what the Zionists are doing is Ok. But it an't gonna stop me. As long as I have breath in this abused body of mine I shall try to convert one more.
Loathsome. Ian Dunt wrote a great piece about Australian politics and their preferential voting system, which he reckons, makes politicians behave better because they need to chase the people who put them in second and third place, as well as those who put them first, which forces them to be more reasoned and considerate. I'm sick of first past the post, and the current ugliness it encourages.
Hi Emma. You (and Ian) hit the nail on the head. Too often discussions about electoral reform descend into dry, technical detail about which complex system is best. That has to be considered - of course - but the real discussion should be around the impact FPTP has on the culture of our politics. Wherever in life there is a 'winner takes all' system, you will inevitably see 'win at all costs' behaviours. In politics, that usually means ordinary people paying the cost. We can do better than that, surely?
We need to follow the Welsh Assembly and make it illegal for MPs to spout lies. I’m sick to death of lying, right wing, fascist dogma feeding into mainstream media.
True, David. It's not as simple a task as it might first appear but I know our friends over at Compassion in Politics are working hard to make that happen. Let's hope they succeed!
Hi Chris. Yes, there are LOTS of essential points to consider in this debate. And too often they are discussed in an unstructured way with no clear path to change set out. Your points are good ones - ones that would be considered by the National Commission on Electoral Reform (NCER) we are pushing the govt to establish (pushing in the face of stiff resistance, I should add). There are high-level details about the NCER on Open Britain's website (www.open-britain.co.uk/ncer) but the key points are these:
- It would be independent and free from coercion by the political parties
- It would be informed by experts
- It would include a Voters' Forum, to ensure ordinary people were at the heart of it all
- It would have a duty to drive a national debate on the issue - no back room deals
- It would take a structured approach, guided by four questions:
+ What does a good electoral system look like?
+ How well does FPTP deliver against those criteria?
+ What alternative systems exist (here in the UK devolved administrations and o'seas)?
+ And, on the back of all that, what system would best serve the needs of modern voters.
The NCER would not have the power to change the system itself but would make a recommendation to Parliament, where our elected representatives would be obliged to decide.
It's the fairest way out of the current hole that I've seen, and it avoids many of the pitfalls that have stymied previous attempts to address the problems caused by the outdated and unfair system we have now.
Thank you Mark for your reply, it is so good/reassuring to know that you and Open Britain are on top of these issues in a way that I cannot be.
More power to your collective elbow in surmounting that resistance and the intellectual vigour to continue to 'fight the good fight'.
As a former Labour party member. I fear that this version of 'labour' is not on my side nor that of the majority of our present electorate, such is the sorry state of Starmerism in 2026
Should we imply Reform are "right of centre"? I mean they are technically, but then so is Britain First. But so are many Lib Dems and pre-Brexit Tories. Reform are far more right wing than those, if only slightly more so than the Badenoch Tories; language that implies they are not far from the middle ground only aids them in their intent to move the Overton window.
Last year, there was a lot of talk about whether Reform were racist and the general conclusion was 'no'. But today, the answer is indisputably 'yes'.
When the flags went up on lamp posts I said that leaving them up would normalise hatred and division and embolden people to go further. I must admit though, that I never thought the Conservatives go as far as being openly Islamophobic.
Conservative MPs who have woken up to find that they are now part of a racist party need to ask themselves if it is time to leave.
BTW I know Islam is a religion, not a race, but I think we can agree that in every meaningful way, Islamophobia is racism.
I want to clarify my post, because frankly I think it sounds like I was just ranting!
What I was trying to say, rather clumsily, is that hatred cannot be compartmentalised and packaged as a political strategy. It is not possible to have a specific objective in mind and say, "We will use hatred in a judicious manner to achieve that objective".
If hatred is encouraged it will keep growing. Consider the Conservatives' culture wars - the people who said the Conservatives were on a slippery slope have been proven right - Lee Anderson was suspended for his Islamophobic views, while Nick Timothy, expressing the same sentiments just a few years later, has been defended by the leader of the party.
Where can we go from here? We need to take politics away from fear, hatred and delusion, and to a position of love and truth. As Dickens wrote:
"I hope that simple love and truth will be strong in the end. I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world."
I think the leader of the Conservative Party is a disgrace and unfit to hold high office. I agree with the comment below that we should follow the Welsh Assembly and make it illegal for politicians to “spout lies”.
If all you claim is true, not AI generated, it is shocking and scandalous. I want all MP 's to be social media gagged. Their voice should be heard only from Parliament, that is their platform.
Unfortunately 'Open Britain' is a closed Britain, wanting subscriptions to support the peddling their own brand of thoughts. They do not engaged with us, we who have a mind, thoughts , discernment and that overarching compassion and fairness.
Thank you Mark for expressing this so clearly. I couldn't agree more. What saddens me is that the problem was obvious to me when I first voted some 60 years ago, and STILL nothing has been done. The situation is now just worse than it was, even though it is currently so bleeding obvious to a majority of the population that a system that produces two-thirds of the seats on one third of the votes is grossly unfair. Words fail me, I am so angry.
It is wrong for this/any government to ban, suppress or deny any peaceful demonstration. It goes against the laws of freedom of speech which, in a democracy, should be sacrosanct. Farage doesn't matter as he, and his party, are so close to being Nazi, and anti British, that we should put him next to Oswald Mosley. The Tories are trying to climb up the same ladder as the greasy little turd that is Farage.
You're right, Jeremy. We should live in a world where you are free to say what you believe and I to say what I believe, and those around us make up their own minds freely. But we don't. We live in a world poisoned by big/dark money, often spent on distracting us or flooding us with disinformation, or on buying influence with the political class, and all within a system that seems to have completely lost touch with the ideals of fair play. Dark days. But I haven't lost hope...and no-one else should either. We can beat these forces. There are more that think like us than think like them. We just need to wake them up to the fact there's a fight on.
Unfortunately, I believe that because some of the electorate is lazy, some are uneducated, some don't care about politics and others vote for that party because "I've always voted for them", all of which scares the s**t out of me. That is how America went down the Capitalist route and we are following. I'm 80 next month and while I am thoroughly enjoying my life, I know that the end is nigh. (10 / 20 years maybe) I try to pass the message on as often as I can, but I fail with one of my daughters who thinks Farage is great and that what the Zionists are doing is Ok. But it an't gonna stop me. As long as I have breath in this abused body of mine I shall try to convert one more.
Loathsome. Ian Dunt wrote a great piece about Australian politics and their preferential voting system, which he reckons, makes politicians behave better because they need to chase the people who put them in second and third place, as well as those who put them first, which forces them to be more reasoned and considerate. I'm sick of first past the post, and the current ugliness it encourages.
Hi Emma. You (and Ian) hit the nail on the head. Too often discussions about electoral reform descend into dry, technical detail about which complex system is best. That has to be considered - of course - but the real discussion should be around the impact FPTP has on the culture of our politics. Wherever in life there is a 'winner takes all' system, you will inevitably see 'win at all costs' behaviours. In politics, that usually means ordinary people paying the cost. We can do better than that, surely?
We need to follow the Welsh Assembly and make it illegal for MPs to spout lies. I’m sick to death of lying, right wing, fascist dogma feeding into mainstream media.
True, David. It's not as simple a task as it might first appear but I know our friends over at Compassion in Politics are working hard to make that happen. Let's hope they succeed!
(https://www.compassioninpolitics.com/truth_in_politics)
I agree. Lies of omission should also be included. And it shouldn't matter where the lie occurs - the Commons or Twitter.
My fear is that the essential points (for me) are lost within the column
1 Our electoral system is, and has been, incentivising a race to the Lowest Common Denominator
2 A democratic system that has repeatedly failed our nation
3 The next election will fail us, the majority, who want the ballot to preserve our standards of peaceful democracy in a multi cultural nation
Hi Chris. Yes, there are LOTS of essential points to consider in this debate. And too often they are discussed in an unstructured way with no clear path to change set out. Your points are good ones - ones that would be considered by the National Commission on Electoral Reform (NCER) we are pushing the govt to establish (pushing in the face of stiff resistance, I should add). There are high-level details about the NCER on Open Britain's website (www.open-britain.co.uk/ncer) but the key points are these:
- It would be independent and free from coercion by the political parties
- It would be informed by experts
- It would include a Voters' Forum, to ensure ordinary people were at the heart of it all
- It would have a duty to drive a national debate on the issue - no back room deals
- It would take a structured approach, guided by four questions:
+ What does a good electoral system look like?
+ How well does FPTP deliver against those criteria?
+ What alternative systems exist (here in the UK devolved administrations and o'seas)?
+ And, on the back of all that, what system would best serve the needs of modern voters.
The NCER would not have the power to change the system itself but would make a recommendation to Parliament, where our elected representatives would be obliged to decide.
It's the fairest way out of the current hole that I've seen, and it avoids many of the pitfalls that have stymied previous attempts to address the problems caused by the outdated and unfair system we have now.
Thank you Mark for your reply, it is so good/reassuring to know that you and Open Britain are on top of these issues in a way that I cannot be.
More power to your collective elbow in surmounting that resistance and the intellectual vigour to continue to 'fight the good fight'.
As a former Labour party member. I fear that this version of 'labour' is not on my side nor that of the majority of our present electorate, such is the sorry state of Starmerism in 2026
Excellent article, many thanks.
Thank you, Judith. 🙏
Should we imply Reform are "right of centre"? I mean they are technically, but then so is Britain First. But so are many Lib Dems and pre-Brexit Tories. Reform are far more right wing than those, if only slightly more so than the Badenoch Tories; language that implies they are not far from the middle ground only aids them in their intent to move the Overton window.
Last year, there was a lot of talk about whether Reform were racist and the general conclusion was 'no'. But today, the answer is indisputably 'yes'.
When the flags went up on lamp posts I said that leaving them up would normalise hatred and division and embolden people to go further. I must admit though, that I never thought the Conservatives go as far as being openly Islamophobic.
Conservative MPs who have woken up to find that they are now part of a racist party need to ask themselves if it is time to leave.
BTW I know Islam is a religion, not a race, but I think we can agree that in every meaningful way, Islamophobia is racism.
I want to clarify my post, because frankly I think it sounds like I was just ranting!
What I was trying to say, rather clumsily, is that hatred cannot be compartmentalised and packaged as a political strategy. It is not possible to have a specific objective in mind and say, "We will use hatred in a judicious manner to achieve that objective".
If hatred is encouraged it will keep growing. Consider the Conservatives' culture wars - the people who said the Conservatives were on a slippery slope have been proven right - Lee Anderson was suspended for his Islamophobic views, while Nick Timothy, expressing the same sentiments just a few years later, has been defended by the leader of the party.
Where can we go from here? We need to take politics away from fear, hatred and delusion, and to a position of love and truth. As Dickens wrote:
"I hope that simple love and truth will be strong in the end. I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world."
I think the leader of the Conservative Party is a disgrace and unfit to hold high office. I agree with the comment below that we should follow the Welsh Assembly and make it illegal for politicians to “spout lies”.
If all you claim is true, not AI generated, it is shocking and scandalous. I want all MP 's to be social media gagged. Their voice should be heard only from Parliament, that is their platform.
Unfortunately 'Open Britain' is a closed Britain, wanting subscriptions to support the peddling their own brand of thoughts. They do not engaged with us, we who have a mind, thoughts , discernment and that overarching compassion and fairness.
Thank you Mark for expressing this so clearly. I couldn't agree more. What saddens me is that the problem was obvious to me when I first voted some 60 years ago, and STILL nothing has been done. The situation is now just worse than it was, even though it is currently so bleeding obvious to a majority of the population that a system that produces two-thirds of the seats on one third of the votes is grossly unfair. Words fail me, I am so angry.