Janan Ganesh, writing in the Financial Times, appears to have come round to the idea that in order to solve the growing devolution ‘crisis’ within the United Kingdom some form of ‘federalism’ is needed to keep it ‘united’ – and the immediate question one has to ask is just what took him so long. Such a solution has been in existence, for what seems like ‘yonks’ now, with The Harrogate Agenda.

Writing about how one man (Salmond) could assume the role of ‘kingmaker’ and, in effect, become ‘king’, not dependent on the political colour of any government, can only serve to illustrate just how our present system of democracy is not fit for purpose; and that the greasy pole has many branches.

Within the possible scenarios Ganesh presents, he is still assuming the status quo of ‘central control’; he assumes that Britons – aka the electorate – will accept a messy compromise; and that any new idea does not have to be good, it just has to be less bad than the competing idea.

I would suggest that the problem we, the people, face with the output of the present think tanks – and it is not limited to think tanks as the criticism can also be levied at our political class – is that they do not ‘think things through’, working on the basis that as long as their latest offering offers some improvement on the status quo, then it must be better. The fact that this ‘latest idea’ results in but tinkering with the status quo, with the only object in mind of maintaining the meme of central control, does not solve the deficit we currently suffer where democracy per se is concerned – namely the people are not the master, that they must continue to accept subservience to what I term is democratised dictatorship.

If David Cameron meant that which he said on the steps of Downing Street in May 2010 when he assumed usurped the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – about the people being the masters and never the servant – then the only way he can fulfill his promise is to adopt the idea of direct democracy as outlined in The Harrogate Agenda. For his political opponents to attempt to hold him to account about, for example, bringing immigration down to the ‘tens of thousands’, then said opponents are ‘missing the boat’.

Unfortunately, the fact that Cameron’s opponents will ignore his pledge about the people being the masters and never the servant is purely due to a further question: who ever agrees to cut their own throat? That Cameron’s opponents choose to ignore what is a most fundamental pledge, where reform of our system of democracy is concerned, speaks for itself – in that they dare not as it would completely undermine their wish to retain the hold they have over us by means of the existing central control they enjoy.

Until the people of the United Kingdom wake up and realise:

that they, as people, don’t presently have any vestige of democracy

that every political party (including Ukip) may well promise to devolve power it will, unfortunately, be on their terms

that, under the present system, we the people will remain in the ever-tightening grip of our politicians

nothing will change.

That we will so remain until we invoke the central cry of The Harrogate Agenda – namely: We Demand – we will never, ever, be the masters of our own lives and thus our destiny – nor our country.

In other words, dear Brit, until you get off your arses and ‘DEMAND’ – enjoy your servitude to a lying, self-centred, self-promoting, self controlling, political class.