People Power?

One story that, sadly yet unsurprisingly, has been deemed to be less important to the papers than a load of people running around a track, is the tragic situation of Tia Sharp.

Understandably it raises much emotion, to the extent that there have been reports of copious cars full of young armed men roaming the estate looking for the missing step-grandfather until he was arrested. Also has been much criticism of the Police taking so long to find a body. Now I'm no fan of plod but it's worth noting that, at the time of writing, the facts appear to be as follows:

• A body has been found, but has not yet been identified.
  
  
• No cause for the death has yet been established,
  
  
• How long the body resided where it was found has not yet been confirmed
  
  
• Some family members have been arrested, which is not the same as being charged nor indeed being guilty.
   
• Murder cases of this type normally involve complicated family dynamics which are likely to play a part, rushing in like the Sweeney is counter-productive to say the least.

Yet people power have already made their judgement. Imagine a referendum as part of Direct Democracy under these circumstances. Rather than an informed debate about the pros and cons on what is a very emotive subject - where there are powerful arguments on both sides, instead those opposed on legitimate grounds will be drowned out by a chorus of 'hang the bastard' - in essence policy by the Daily Mail. I would argue that does not make for a healthy democracy.

Thus simply transferring power from Government to the people results in precisely the same outcome we're complaining about now. If referisim is to achieve anything it is to establish a situation where the power of the people and their government cancels each other out. In short we need a balance of power between ourselves and our government.