We are all busy people so we vote at various levels of government for people to represent us with expertise.
Factfile
- 94% of government income/spending is from UK level, 5% from local councils and 1% net to the EU.
- We also share limited powers with United Nations, WTO, UN, World Bank, etc to deal with global issues.
- Occasional Referendum votes such as on EU where 37% of electorate voted against EU establishment.
So are the right powers at the right level? Broadly Yes! Many would say we have too little at local level, too much at national and about right at EU (Single market goods/services/labour/environmental standards, Agriculture/fisheries market, etc). At global level need more powers to challenge tax havens, climate change, etc.
Factfile
- UK Civil service is about 400,000 (with millions more in NHS, Education, etc). EU Commission is 32,000
- We have direct democratic voting at all key levels except global.
- There seems little need to “take back control” because we have it individually or collectively.
Some might ask so do we get many EU laws that are compromises for the UK?
Factfile
- Only 2-12% of EU council votes went against UK choice – not bad as UK is 1 of 28 nations.
- You can find out more information here.
Perhaps our biggest democratic deficit in the EU Parliament where UKIP MEPs attended only 62% of votes. Nigel Farage sits on EU Fisheries Committee but attended 1 out of 42 meetings – does he care about fishermen?
Let us know your recommendations for democratic accountabilities and powers at all levels of government!