jheron wrote: Something as important as the proposed amalgamation a referendum across the district should be conducted.
Wrong John.
On most detailed pieces of policy, the average voter - and I include myself - does not understand what is really at stake and does not care to find out. This is not a slight on voters. It is a recognition of our common sense.
Why should we devote hours to studying every policy question that arises, especially when we know that our individual vote is unlikely to make the slightest difference to the outcome?
It would indeed be a deluded vote who stayed up all night revising for an election thinking his or her vote would make the slightest difference!
Because of this we have a system of representative democracy where we vote for those who we hope have both the time and the ability to make difficult decisions on our behalf (because most of us have much better things to do with our time than waste it pointlessly and pompously pontificating at Fort Whitfield (N.B.other venues are available) and swotting up on the intricacies of everything from the Housing Act (1988) to the Water Act (2014) via the Climate Change Act (2008) and how it relates to sticking an electric car charging point in Townwall Street!)
This does NOT stop us from holding forth on what are 'obvious' solutions to everything from Education to the position we should take on Nato Troops in the Baltic States with a sophistication and knowledge which would put Donald Trump to shame (and that is not sarcasm!).
Most Dovorians do not know who (or even why) their local councillor is and don't give a toss who takes their council tax as long as their bins are collected. Period.
Let's hope that those we elected are able to make the correct choice (not that any of this be remembered ten years down the line WHATEVER the result).
Is it all about efficiency and service to individual consumers who just happen to share a post-code in which case lets go the whole hog and give it to Amazon or Google to sort out OR do we, with the slightly expanded lump on top of our reptilian brain, work better and live happier when we are part of 'communities' with services to be provided to groups of people who relate to each other, and if so what is the best size of grouping?
