Britain is one of the world’s oldest democracies, but some worry that essential rights and freedoms are under threat

Comments

• lemonflavoured@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  "Britain is one of the oldest democracies"

  Is it?

  We didn't have full and equal universal suffrage until 1924. Even ignoring that, elections before about 1832 were barely democratic in a lot of places.

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  • ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s a pretty poor example of one, either way.

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  • jabjoe@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Not sure with FPTP we are that democratic now… We desperately need electoral reform.

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    • lemonflavoured@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      FPTP isn't inherently undemocratic. It's not ideal, for any number of reasons, but it does have the advantage of a strong local link to representatives and (usually) leads to strong governments. I personally would prefer STV like Ireland has as a first choice, and as a second choice some form of MMP (like the Scottish Parliament, or New Zealand, or Germany)

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• tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Right, Britain isn't a democracy it's a monarchy. And it's often been said that, no society can really afford a monarchy. So, it can also be said that all essential human rights and freedoms are always under threat, somewhere, by some group or other. All you can really do is hang onto the crumbs you have and fight for what those rights are or protest about them (or vote in a democracy). No matter how democratic the nation, essential human rights are always under the threat of extermination by some bigoted group or another.

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  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Right, Britain isn’t a democracy it’s a monarchy.

    The two are not mutually exclusive.

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    • tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Well I'm not meaning to say that they are mutually exclusive I was just clarifying. I hope there is an underlying democracy throughout.

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  • tardigrada@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I fully agree.

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    • tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Wow. (I'm staggering backwards). I'm just happy someone finally agrees with me on this forum!! I'm too used to "you're an idiot" comments, obviously. Thanks for that! : )

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• thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Under threat ? That boat has already sailed. We no longer have the right to protest

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• tardigrada@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I largely agree with the article’s content and meaning, but the title is somewhat misleading imo as Britain is not a democracy.

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  • Nighed@sffa.community ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The UK is a democracy. Some may argue about how good of one it is, but it is one.

    The whole monarchy being technically all powerful is really a break glass in case of emergency thing. They can intervene once, then we would be a republic. (See 1975 dissolution of the Australian government by the crown)

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    • tardigrada@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Well, I agree to some point. You know certainly more about the UK than I do (I’m not British), and you’ll also know about ‘royal interventions’ like this or that.

      But I’d say this kind of lobbying is a reality in other European democracies, too, even without a royal family. There are just other interest groups trying to influence laws.

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  • EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    In what way is the UK (not just Britain) not a democracy?

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