It is Sunday 21 June 2009.  According to the TV this morning, there was a demonstration in the streets of Teheran yesterday.  This, notwithstanding the command by the supreme head of Iran to the contrary and the menaces implicit in his speech of a violent reaction against those who decided to continue to protest.  

The theme of the protestors is summed up on a card carried on the foreheads of many of the them: it says Where is my vote?.  Up until now, there has been no reply, apart from the fury and arrogance of those in power.  Press TV, the official English voice of the Iranian government makes little mention of the extent of the protest.  Its Election Blog stops with the announcement of the victory of Mr Ahmadinejad.

George Galloway, the British MP and leader of the Respect Party, presents a programme on Press TV and has a column in the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper.  He has written in his column - "We have to accept Ahmadinejad's re-election, not least because all our best friends in that region don't have any elections at all."  Even if this were true - and we can cite Israel to the contrary - would this be justification for electoral fraud?  But this is the pompous man who said to Saddam Hussein - "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.".  (To see this stomach-churming moment click here.)  And in the meantime we see that there are ordinary people with the courage to put their lives at risk to demand real democracy.  Of course, just like President Mugabe, the government of Iran blames its problems on that great foreign power, England - England which, it seems, is the most evil of all the western powers.

In the real England, we see a situation where the MPs, whom we have elected under a fair system, are not very popular.  But it is not just because they have made such a mess of their expenses.  Yes, this hasn't helped the situation at all, but lack of trust in politicians has been endemic in our society for many years, for many decades even.  Why?  Because even if the system permits us to vote for the candidate we choose, we end up each time with a government which will do anything it can in order to remain in power.  

We have the word "Spin" to describe the manipulation of information necessary to try to persuade us that things are not really as we believed them to be.  Because of their failure to be straight with us, we no longer listen to them.  We know that it will not be the truth - or at least it will not be the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  And so we are no longer interested in voting.  Our apathy robs us of our vote.

Having borrowed immense amounts of money in order to support our banking system, Gordon cannot now accept that it will be necessary to reduce to some extent our outgoings (his so-called "Investment") in the future.  He cannot bring himself to use the word "Cuts", even if it is obvious to us all that it will be necessary.  He is petrified in a position where he cannot admit the truth, because spin has become a part of this character.  Unfortunately, he is not unique in the characteristic.  I admit that not all politicians are alike, but it is a very widespread tendency and so we cannot be sure that any politician will tell us the truth.  In our view, they are all tarred with the same brush.  Which is sad.

What to do?  Personally, I would prefer a system where there was separation of power as between the government and the legislature, but we won't see that in the foreseeable future.  In its absence, therefore, I would have primaries to select the candidates and so not just end up with the candidates selected by the party apparatchiks.  There ought to be a right of recall of any MP, as in California, where he or she does something unacceptable.  And then thirdly, I am not convinced that it ought to be possible to make a long-term career out of being an MP.  American presidents are only allowed two terms of office.  To be well paid, but only be able to sit for say three parliaments would, with the other proposals, probably create MP's less under the control of the party system.  Accepting that political parties are necessary, the balance between the control exerted by the party and the independence of opinion necessary in a representative democracy should shift towards independence.  

I hope never to need to go onto the streets in order to demand real democracy in our country, but we see at the moment a dangerous growth in support, not for the mullahs, but for fanatics of the fascist persuasion.  In order to avoid a continuing decline in the faith we have in our system of democracy, and the consequent encouragement of extremism, we must take seriously the need for a real change in our political world.