Just a thought: If the hereditary principle provides such a sterling bunch of legislators, one has to wonder why we bother to elect the House of Commons? (And why can one not simply buy a Common's seat? You can't be more sterling than that....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mosaix  Democracy is not just about voting in an administration but also about removing one when things go wrong. |
That's a very important point, one that is often overlooked, particularly when someone is described as being a democrat simply because they've been elected. There's little or no logic in that description.
A democrat isn't just somebody who has used an election as a means of gaining power; a democrat is someone who allows, and accepts the result of, a subsequent election that throws them
out of power.
(Note that in well-founded democracies, where one
can't cling on to one's elected post in the face of a failed election campaign, it isn't clear whether all our politicians are democrats, because they don't get the opportunity to ignore elections results.)