So, is democracy working in Britain?

We awake today to the first full day for nearly 3 years with an elected prime minister. Before the socialists of the country start to complain that "more people voted against him" let me just remind everybody about the way it currently works.

1. David Cameron was democratically elected as the representative for his constituency.

2. He was democratically elected as leader of the Conservative party.

3. The Conservative party won more parliamentary seats in the general election than any other single party.

So, he doesn't have a majority... but then the point that has been argued in recent decades is that, particularly in our 3-party system, first past the post isn't fair. Well, at the end of the day, what has happened now in the fledgling coalition is that we'll get a chance to see what a modern government can achieve when two parties sit down and work through their differences in order to do the best for our country. Many people are moaning... some are scaremongering... but at the end of the day what has happened these last 2 weeks may actually be good for our country in the longer term.

But I did start with the word "democracy" and I'm afraid that's where my real gripe begins. As I sat watching the ongoings on TV last night I once again started to feel disgusted at one major aspect of our country's political system - the power wielded by persons who have never been subject to democratic process. I was actually sickened by the fact that some old woman in a big house in London is apparently the only person who could accept Gordon Brown's resignation and the only person who could appoint David Cameron as his replacement. Am I the only one who found it laughable that the official process is still referred to as the "kissing of hands"?

Wasn't it the people of this country who voted for the government and isn't it really our (we, the people) choice that matters?

Well, we now have the dual benefit of a Conservative government that will be firm with our economy and a Liberal Democrat component which has hopefully negotiated a way forward for the democratic process, a major modernisation is long overdue.

1. We still have a second tier of government which is made up of both the left overs of the old hereditary system along with "the great and the good" appointed by previous governments. The undemocratic House of Lords still continues to second guess laws drawn up by our democratically elected representatives in the House of Commons and that really must change. We should demand a fully elected second chamber.

2. Once our new laws have been drawn up we still have the indignity of the monarch having to sign it off before it becomes law. This is all wrong! Ok, so Queen Liz seems to sign on the dotted line... but what about Charlie when he takes the throne? He's shown himself to be anything other than politically impartial and what happens when he refuses to sign a bill? No single person should have this power unless they have been democratically elected for a fixed term of office.

3. The fixed term is also something that needs to change. Under current rules a government can stay in place for up to 5 years but they can call an election long before that based on approval ratings in the polls. In the news this morning it sounds as though the system might be changed to force a fixed 5-year term which would be good but I do believe that we should perhaps look towards the American system whereby the man at the top can only govern for 2 terms before having to hand over to somebody new.

Reform needs to happen at other levels of government too. First of all there is the disparity in regional government. If you live in Scotland you have your own parliament, Northern Ireland and Wales have assemblies, all of which can make actual change within their regions. What do those of us in England have? Nothing! I'm not saying that the other three regions should lose their improved political environment... on the contrary, England should get it's own regional assembly and then all four of those bodies should get the same powers!

Then at local level, we still seem to have no checks and balances. Local councils get elected by a relatively low number of votes and those elected run rough-shod over everybody for years to follow with no oversight. We need a proper mayor in all regions. Not this silly "Lord Mayor" who is nothing more than an appointed councillor who is appointed and then turns up at supermarket openings and sports event with a silly chain around his neck, I'm talking about an elected mayor who would have the responsibility for overseeing regional government and signing off on decisions made by councils - acting as a last line of defence against some of the dafter decisions made.

Then we need an end to quangos... in fact, any body with an appointed leader. Any organisation that has a real effect on our day-to-day life should have an ELECTED head, this in my mind means bodies like the police. If that's impractical then the appointee should at least be vetted and approved by an elected committee.

So, will we get any closer to a proper democracy in the next 5 years? I suspect there will be change but there won't be much of it... we'll see!

So, who are we going to vote for?

If you're British it hopefully won't have escaped your notice that we have a general election tomorrow... and given the current political landscape this seems to be to be the hardest choice I'll have ever had in the ballot box and, if the pundits are to be believed, probably the closest result since the 1970's. The problem seems to be that all of the main parties seem to be doing nothing more than producing soundbites and spin but not tackling the real problems that have been forced on us by many years of mis-management.

First of all there seems to be a lot of people who seem to think that immigration and the EU are the big issues and that they need to be dealt with harshly... in other words, stopping them in their tracks. What people don't seem to understand though is that throughout Britain's history we've relied on immigrants, today more because of the growing laziness of the British public. Yes, the Poles, the Czechs and the Slovakians are taking jobs but these are no different to those being taken by the Carribean and Indian workers who came to Britain in past decades, the big difference is that these people were clearly willing to get off their collective butts and go where the work is whereas Brits seem quite content to sit on theirs and complain they can't get jobs because the "immigrants" have taken them. If we had no immigration we'd still have the same jobless situation, we'd just have more stuff that didn't get done because Brits are too "proud" to do the menial stuff for low wages!

As for the EU... wake up folks, it's the 21st century. As a nation we need to forge closer ties with the rest of the world, not reject them out of hand because "it's not British" and "we should rule ourselves". Ok, so the EU is not perfect, but it is working and despite what the tabloid press tell us on a daily basis Britain does have a big say in what the EU decides and our economy gets a great deal from membership!

So, on that basis the UKIP and BNP are non starters... although I would never put my X in the box of either of these jingoistic parties - and the leaflet that the BNP dropped through my door showing a photo of their leader alongside Winston Churchill was just sickening. I do hope the Churchill family take action for this slur against one of this country's greatest leaders!

So then we have the economy. One thing that strikes me is that transport and energy are a major part of how our country operates and growing taxation on road users in the name of dubious climate change science in recent years has been slowly bringing our country to it's knees. Everything we use from food to computers has to be delivered somehow as do the raw materials for our factories and the finished goods, all have to get to the customer. Rising costs of transportation are leading to increased costs. Employees are asking for more money to cover their own transport costs. Gas and electricity are more expensive too which just adds insult to injury. The result of this? Companies struggling, rising unemployment, increased taxation required in order to pay for the aftermath.

Are any of the three remaining parties going to deal with this? No! The Labour incumbents seem intent on more of the same, the Liberal Democrats want to do more of this in the name of the environment and the Conservatives... they've spent several years telling us they'll do right by the driver but can we really see that happening come Friday morning?

Then there's constitutional reform. How is it that in the 21st century that Britain is still not a proper democracy? We have an unwritten constitution, an unelected head of state in a position of potentially unlimited power, an upper house of parliament that is still made up of those who have been appointed by the government of the day and then many aspects of government managed by unelected groups called "quango's". Are any of the main parties interested in fixing this? Will the turkeys vote for Christmas? I think not!

So, who do we vote for? If we vote Lib Dem en masse we're likely to find ourselves with a hung parliament and a repeat of the 1970's... which, for those who remember it, went quite badly. Voting Labour just gives us more of the same which is ever increasing taxation and not a lot else. The Conservatives seem to have lost their way and seem to spend much of their time trying to re-capture the right wing vote from the Eurosceptic brigade (so, full circle and back to the UKIP and BNP now... who will NEVER get my vote so they may as well stop trying).

Britain goes to the polls tomorrow, I really don't know what direction I'll be taking but I do get the feeling that the Britain that we'll have come the next election probably won't be much better than the one we have now.