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Doom and gloom, doom and gloom! In your world, in order to survive England needs to kneel before the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.
by mudil 10y ago
Doom and gloom, doom and gloom! In your world, in order to survive England needs to kneel before the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.
- toyg 10y agoI'm tired of this unelected trope. MEPs are elected, and they have final say on legislation. Commissioners PROPOSE legislation (which is then amended by Parliament committees, usually), are nominated BY THE GOVERNMENTS YOU ELECTED, and can be dismissed by the Commission President, who answers to the ELECTED European Parliament. The failure to make people understand Lisbon 2009 reforms is what is killing the EU.
- cobrophy 10y agoNot to mention the UK is ruled by a hereditory monarchy with an unelected upper house of parliament.
- vixen99 10y agoYou forgot to mention she has no executive power at all and this is symbolized at the start of every parliamentary session in the the Black Rod ritual. Check it out! Yes, Britain has a revising upper chamber populated by people who've made some kind of distinguished contribution to British society during their careers. As with all human enterprises, mistakes occur & some members (peers) have questionable qualifications and corruptive practices do sometimes surface as everywhere else. Sometimes political cronies are appointed. This does not mean we throw the bath water out with the baby. The upper house provides a venue for extended discussion of laws put forward by the lower house but ultimately has no power to overturn decisions made in the lower house. Most members of the House of Lords (often experts in various subjects) have no or minimal vested interests in the issues brought before them and can therefore offer totally independent opinions since they do not have to answer to an electorate. Being unelected does not necessarily always equate to a zero qualification for a limited role in law making.
- spiralpolitik 10y agoNot quite true. All UK legislation must be signed by the Queen (or her proxy) before it becomes all law. Therefore monarch has final veto over any legislation by refusing to sign. It's rarely invoked and if it were to happen on a serious piece of legislation then Britain would in all likelihood become a republic shortly thereafter. The British "constitution" is largely based around checks and balances based around mutually assured destruction should any party stray from their expected role. This is one such example.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Not to mention the UK is ruled by a hereditory monarchy No, its not. The British monarch, as the saying goes, reigns but does not rule.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't use all caps for emphasis: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't do the flamewar thing here. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11966234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11966234 and marked it off-topic.
- rodgerd 10y agoAs opposed to the Bishops of the House of Lords?
- ionised 10y agoOh the irony, coming from a country with a fucking Monarch and an unelected House of Lords