abercromby3

Sure, a man goes to a war torn place where the people have been killed or oppressed that holds no strategic value anymore totally alone, after a documented career of journalism. Sounds like a place the CIA would really want to send an incredibly deep-cover agent to get... what exactly? He's far more likely to be a journalist, they buzz to areas of strife like that.

Stop lying, it's obviously an homage to Sagan and I won't hear any different.

But seriously you're my hero.

IMO, as the youth become the major voting demographic over time, the pirate parties will steadily grow. Increasingly, our children and our children's children would see them as legitimate, supported by our generation's beliefs. They have an option: different name now, less immediate resistance or pirate party, more immediate resistance, much better chances long-run.

Given your taxes example, I would personally hope that if government budgeting was transparent enough and people felt that through direct policy voting their money was being spent on what they thought was worthwhile, then they wouldn't just knee-jerk vote to drop taxes.

But even if everyone voted to drop taxes, surely that would be the right thing to do? Regardless of it's effect on public services, the government IS in service to the public. If the people say lower taxes, why does government have the right to say no? Personally I'd vote for higher taxes, but I'll admit I'm likely the exception. At the end of the day, it seems to me that it's corrupting for the decision on whether to raise or lower taxes to ONLY be trusted to the people whom our taxes pay. That's a bit like letting your plumber be the sole person in charge of how much to bill you, except that without leaving the country, you CAN'T get a different plumber.

Do you think a direct democracy, where people use the internet to vote for policies, rather than for candidates (who potentially can't be trusted), would be better than the current UK system?

It seems to me that requiring a candidate to speak for you is something that was only necessary before mass communications; now, they only get in the way.