Memories of Stasi color Germans’ view of U.S. surveillance programs

Re:Memories of Stasi color Germans’ view of U.S. surveillanc... by rmc on Friday June 28, 2013 @09:13AM (#5957752)

It's funny hearing the UK people complain about the "democratic deficit" in the EU. The UK voting system (of First Past the Post, single member constituencies and a party whip) is quite weird and appears undemocratic. I'm in Ireland with a party whip system, but Proportional Represetation and multiseat consultancies, so not being able to vote 1,2,3,… appears undemocratic to me.

"Unelected buerocrats"? You mean like the House of Lords which allows someone who wasn't elected to be a cabinet minister? (Lord Mandelson, Baroness Warsi, etc.)

"Haemorrhaging money"? Remember the UK MP expenses?

So ask yourself, is the UK Parliament more or less democratic than the EU?

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Re:Memories of Stasi color Germans’ view of U.S. surveillanc... by louthy on Friday June 28, 2013 @10:11AM (#5958039)

Oh I totally agree with you. However I can vote for my MP, and I know who it is. I don't think anybody in the UK has any idea who represents them in Europe.

The problem with concentrating power is that you have fewer representatives representing more people, which breaks democracy outright. We should be looking to localise power where we can, give people responsibility and a say in their lot.

Europe should be a framework and an enabler, not a system for centralising as much power as possible. Do we really want a federal Europe? Absolute power corrupts.

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Re:Memories of Stasi color Germans’ view of U.S. surveillanc... by 14113 on Friday June 28, 2013 @10:17AM (#5958071)

Ah, but all of those are traditional! /s

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