Would we be better off if Brown was a dictator?

[thinfourth2]

If you look at the actions or inactions of the leaders of this nation over recent history is seems the most obvious thing in their policies is they are doing everything to either stay in power or win votes. The actual business of running the country well is way down in their list of priorities.

So if we forgot about this whole democracy thing do you think the country might run better? As then they would stop worrying about staying in power and they could get on with using their power.

[HOGEPH]

He's halfway there, he's a dick!

[Pints]

I've been arguing the benefits of a benevolent dictatorship for years.

[CommanderJameson]

Pints said:

I've been arguing the benefits of a benevolent dictatorship for years.

In theory, yes; however, has there ever been one? Anywhere?

[Diderot]

CommanderJameson said:

Pints said:

I've been arguing the benefits of a benevolent dictatorship for years.

In theory, yes; however, has there ever been one? Anywhere?

Joseph II of Austria is usually considered to have fit that bill.

[JMGS4]

Winky McfkNut IS a ferkin dictator, a stalinist megalomaniac who thinks he can save the world AND make the Soviet Republik of Little Britain as well.... Needs to be removed, permanently!

[Jasandjules]

JMGS4 said:

Winky McfkNut IS a ferkin dictator, a stalinist megalomaniac who thinks he can save the world AND make the Soviet Republik of Little Britain as well.... Needs to be removed, permanently!

Pretty much agree with this.

He already is a dictator. And unelected at that.

[Skywalker]

He is too incompetent and cowardly to be a dictator.

PS - and lacking in charisma

Edited by Skywalker on Monday 28th December 10:03

[CommanderJameson]

Skywalker said:

He is too incompetent and cowardly to be a dictator.

PS - and lacking in charisma

None of those attributes would disqualify him. Look at Kim Jong Il, for example. He's all three.

[10 Pence Short]

Shouldn't the question have read 'Would we be better off if Brown was dead?'?

[AndrewW-G]

He fails the test on almost every level, even his plans are third hand.......................the final reason he can’t be a dictator is a very simple one, look back in history, every dictator has had style, say what you like about Hitler, Lenin and Stalin, or even K.I.Jong and Castro, they all had an eye for interesting uniforms and facial hair.

Winky is running a country with arguably the most famous bespoke tailoring industry in the world, yet looks like a crumpled fool whose wardrobe has been stocked by Oxfam

[FM]

Looking at what happened in the Iraq issue as an example of subtle dictating in a democracy under the Brown & Blair years..when the PM goes out on as limb ...on any issue, politicians who put their political ambitions first & foremost must toe the party line with the whips busy rounding up the rest of the sheep. This arguably, leaves those who cannot marry the flow of policy with their personal beliefs, a fast track to the back benches,a waning of their political prospects or perhaps lastly, resignation.

A watered down dictatership perhaps if the opposition are either weak, disorganized or too incompetent to apply the brakes on any projects driven from within the cabinet.

Edited by FM on Monday 28th December 11:21

[10 Pence Short]

Being a dictator these days sucks. Things are just going well, you've managed to persecute your enemies out of the country, you're on your 5th gold leafed S-Class and the oil price is sky high. Then some bloody democrats invade, kill your family and declare themselves in charge.

Irony is great.

[YAD061]

Diderot said:

CommanderJameson said:

Pints said:

I've been arguing the benefits of a benevolent dictatorship for years.

In theory, yes; however, has there ever been one? Anywhere?

Joseph II of Austria is usually considered to have fit that bill.

Colonel Gadaffi

[10 Pence Short]

YAD061 said:

Colonel Gadaffi

With that hair and dress sense? Never.

[fido]

10 Pence Short said:

Being a dictator these days sucks. Things are just going well, you've managed to persecute your enemies out of the country, you're on your 5th gold leafed S-Class and the oil price is sky high. Then some bloody democrats invade, kill your family and declare themselves in charge.

Irony is great.

Solution: don't invade any of your neighbours, or try to obtain WOMDs (except by buying them from your nearest available democrat.

[Halb]

musclecarmad said:

well he is unelected and we seem to be living in a dictatorship

Brown usurped the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath?;)

[10 Pence Short]

fido said:

10 Pence Short said:

Being a dictator these days sucks. Things are just going well, you've managed to persecute your enemies out of the country, you're on your 5th gold leafed S-Class and the oil price is sky high. Then some bloody democrats invade, kill your family and declare themselves in charge.

Irony is great.

Solution: don't invade any of your neighbours, or try to obtain WOMDs (except by buying them from your nearest available democrat.

Yeah, because they found loads of them in Iraq, didn't they.

[Don]

Absoutely not.

I admit if Britain had been a dictatorship we wouldn't have had this lot of s for the last 12 years but when there is no redress other than violent overthrow this is a recipe for bloody revolution.

I am unconvinced as to the existence of the "bloodless coup".

[grumbledoak]

We would almost certainly be better off if those who kicked his head in all those years ago had finished the job. £50,000 each and rising, even our kids. What a tosser.

Otherwise, no. There have been very very few benevolent dictators, if any at all. Even those who we judge less evil are only ever partially successful- they succeed where they focus, but fail everywhere else. The world is simply too complex for an individual, no matter how powerful, to organise it.

The best solution seems to be small government setting rules, and leaving the rest of us to make the best of it. But those who seek power don't normally want to give it away.