The essence of British democracy is under threat

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/18/the-essence-of-british-democracy-is-under-threat

Version 0 of 1.

Andy Beckett’s list of the wrongdoings of George Osborne is incomplete (The great Tory power grab, G2, 15 December). He misses out the way Osborne has divided and ruled. Surely with David Cameron’s approval, Osborne set up “the northern powerhouse”, a very motley group of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Middlesbrough and Newcastle. I don’t think this is a natural group. I write as a Tynesider. No doubt some in the area are flattered, and many will want to grab the opportunities, but I think it is a divide-and-rule trap. And the different local authorities within it are being set up with powers that don’t match.

The ring of towns around the southern Pennines are a much more natural unit: Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham and Stoke. At the speeds of HS2 and HS3, all the towns of this ring will be within 20-40 minutes’ travel time of each other, about the time that the various units of central London are of each other and together their population well exceeds that of London. “Ringby” as I would call it, is the natural centre of Britain, and Osborne has set up regional rivalries to stop it coming into being.Michael BellNewcastle upon Tyne

• There are some points in the article about the Tories rigging the electoral system that are open to question. Why is it wrong to “even out constituency size”? If pruning and evening out the constituencies leads to more Tories, then it is clear they were disadvantaged to start with. Why should we try to stop the boundary review? Liverpool has no Tory MPs – are there no Tory voters in Liverpool? True, as Tim Bale says, “no one is going to get excited about this stuff”. He says it is a “chattering-class issue”. But the key issue, unexplored, is why the Tory government is involved in the issue in the first place.

If the Labour government (guilty as member) had done what the Plant commission from the early 1990s had suggested and handed it all to an independent electoral commission, we would not have the allegation in the first place.

Government, opposition or parliament should not have any role in date, process, or inner working of the electoral system. If they do then it will always be open to question with the electorate – “they are in it for themselves”. The second chamber is there to stop a parliament or electoral commission extending a parliament – that should be the extent of Westminster involvement. And I am as uneasy about Osborne as he clearly is with people. But he is a distraction to the main issues.Jeff RookerLabour, House of Lords

• To Andy Beckett’s useful checklist could be added a couple of other changes, both of which will have the effect of cementing Tory hegemony – namely the constant attacks on professionals as alternative loci of power; and the increasing contracting out of state services now that there is little left to privatise.Roy BoffyWalsall

• The Guardian is to be congratulated for exposing the disturbing attack on our democracy currently being perpetrated by the Conservative government. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is the dismantling of local government decision-making through the privatisation agenda. An example of this is the academy programme, whereby schools become answerable only to central government and not to locally elected representatives. The deafening silence from the Labour party is most worrying. The self-indulgent infighting among Labour MPs means that they are failing to represent those of us who are not in a position to oppose these sly, underhand, Tory anti-democratic policies. Robin TavernerColchester, Essex

• I hope Jeremy Corbyn has noted the points made by Andy Beckett in the Tory quest to game the system by undermining the funding and electoral chances of opposition parties. The system that delivered the Tory majority out of an electoral minority (36.9% of the vote) is deeply flawed anyhow and a “new politics” worthy of the name must address those flaws. If Jeremy Corbyn really wants a kinder and decent form of politics, he can only do so in concert with other opposition parties. To break the Conservative hold on power requires Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists to speak to each other and form an electoral pact at the next election, where an agreement is reached to run only one “pact” candidate in every constituency.

This election must be a special election on a simple manifesto commitment to change our electoral rules. First, an end to the five-year parliament rule. Second, the introduction of PR for Westminster elections. Once these changes have been enacted a second election could be called where the parties fight under their own colours. This change would reinvigorate politics by making it meaningful for all citizens to participate rather than wait for those few in marginal constituencies to make the difference. It will also stop the Tory minority being able to change society in the interests of the few rather than the many.Peter CushionHelston, Cornwall

• Is there a clearer illustration of the privatisation of the education system than the 48% increase in salary to £221,600 of the executive head of the Gorse academies trust (Report, 15 December), or a better way of supporting for the long term the great Tory power grab Andy Beckett foresees? Does your blood boil at the former or freeze at the latter?John BaileySt Albans, Hertfordshire

• Andy Beckett’s exposure of George Osborne’s project to turn Britain into a single-party state is more than overdue. A mere 25% of the enfranchised voted Conservative. Osborne’s is an extreme minority government. If we actually believe that a democracy is something worth having, this abominable attempt to subvert it has to be opposed vociferously and effectively. That small part of the media which is not part of the Tory propaganda machine should be doing the former. Is it too much to hope that the Labour party might think about setting its shoulder to the latter?Michael RosenthalBanbury, Oxfordshire

• Is it just me? Have messrs Cameron and Osborne lost their irony satnav? Firstly, the Lords kicked back their tax credits proposals (rightly so) and there was righteous indignation and threats from both against the Lords. In the aftermath, it seems that most Conservative MPs agreed with the Lords and unbelievably, in the following budget review, Osborne ditched the very proposal which he seemed to be prepared to fight for to the last trench. To my mind, the Lords did their proper job of reviewing legislation coming from the Commons, confirmed both by Conservative MPs and Osborne himself.

Secondly, the job of reviewing the role of the Lords was given to the hereditary, and thus non-elected, Lord Strathclyde. No surprise then that he proposes to take away this reviewing role of the Lords. Democracy is in danger in the UK at the moment, as the Guardian has flagged up. The above proposals are another step on this dangerous road. They need to be resisted with all energy and persistence.Dr Stanley Victor MooreWrexham

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com