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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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The Democratic Party Clown Show Continues, With Giggles Replacing Bozo Thu Jul 25, 2024 13:00 | Tony Morrison
Biden's sudden exit and the canonisation of his hopeless VP is a dismal chapter in American politics ? one that will further erode trust in the democratic process, says Tony Morrison.
The post The Democratic Party Clown Show Continues, With Giggles Replacing Bozo appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Climate Change? Used to Justify Government?s Record ?Investment? in Renewables. Cui Bono? Not the T... Thu Jul 25, 2024 11:05 | Richard Eldred
The Government is using the excuse of 'climate change' to justify the largest taxpayer 'investment' in wind and solar farms in British history.
The post ?Climate Change? Used to Justify Government?s Record ?Investment? in Renewables. Cui Bono? Not the Taxpayer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Conservative Party Fought Against the Blob and Lost Thu Jul 25, 2024 09:00 | J. Sorel
What happened in Britain during the years 2018-24 wasn?t the philosophical defeat of 'Toryism'. It was a Battle Royal with the Blob that the British Right fought and lost, decisively, says J. Sorel.
The post The Conservative Party Fought Against the Blob and Lost appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
In Episode 8 of the Sceptic: Dr David Livermore on Doubts About Lucy Letby?s Guilt, Dr Angus Dalglei... Thu Jul 25, 2024 07:00 | Will Jones
In Episode 8 of the Sceptic, Laurie Wastell talks to David Livermore on doubts about Lucy Letby's guilt, Angus Dalgleish on the Covid Inquiry's criticism of lockdown and Steven Tucker on immigration and Michel Houellebecq.
The post In Episode 8 of the Sceptic: Dr David Livermore on Doubts About Lucy Letby’s Guilt, Dr Angus Dalgleish on the Covid Inquiry’s Criticism of Lockdown and Steven Tucker on Immigration and Michel Houellebecq appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Thu Jul 25, 2024 01:14 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
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Jump To Comment: 1The CPPC distributed an A5 flyer at the anti-austerity protest last week which makes a good case and contains good points. You can read the contents of that here:
http://www.cppc.ie/let-us-adopt-the-solution-that-leads...nt-2/
However dealing with the practicalities of people deciding state policy and I think the CPPC are on the right track, one model on how to do this is that people should adopt the "Wikipedia" model.
The Wikipedia model refers to many aspects of the phenomena of Wikipedia and that is, it is one of the few social projects that almost everyone is capable of contributing to, it is largely voluntary, the results are available to all for free and it harnesses the full diversity of opinion and knowledge and not just experts, within the general population.
In the case of applying this model to democracy and just taking the budget as an example, one possibility would be to setup a wiki on a website and its pages would contain a breakdown of the state costs and budgets. So it would have sections for each department and sub pages for each sub-department and could be filled with summary tables at each level to show where the money goes, how it is spent, who gets it and so on. By harnessing the knowledge of everyone, they would help provide some of the figures which could be extracted from all the different layers of government by virtue of people having direct access and people going through reports and other public information and freedom of information derived data.
It would then shine a light into every layer of the state and because of this, it would be easier to see what the needs are and what the real priorities. The other benefit is that it is harder for state officials to hide stuff. After-all a democracy is not just about citizens making decisions but about fully informed citizens making decisions. In any walk of life trying to make a decision about something over which you have little knowledge is hazardous at best and probably relies on chance to make a good decision, but when you are informed and know something about the subject area, then it is likely you can make a better decision. And so likewise for the process of democracy itself.
This same concept could and should be applied to discover how much money really has gone to the banks, developers, bond-holders and all the rest as I am sure the public is only aware of the very tip of this giant iceberg. Indeed every aspect of public life and the workings of the state should be laid out and picked apart by the collective body of the public working along lines like this.