What would change if EVERYTHING was put to referendum?

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The recent thread on 'democracy' got me thinking to what would be the biggest changes in the UK if EVERYTHING was taken to referendum.

So, I reckon the below are the six biggest policy changes if EVERYTHING was left strictly to the public to decide (in short it would be a disaster)...

1) Capital punishment would be back within about 5 minutes.
2) Benefits would be stopped altogether. The social state would cease to exist. If people didn't work or get themselves money in some way, they'd starve to death. Things like job-clubs (that cost the taxpayer money) would be scrapped.
3) There would be many 'super-prisons' built and punishments would be massively increased (four-fold at least). Corporal punishment (Public flogging etc) would be restored. Thieves would have their fingers cut off. Back to the middle ages on crime+punishment basically.
4) Immigration rules would be tightened up to mental levels
5) Bankers (or whoever were the 'baddies' of the day, normally changes about every 8 years) would be stripped of their jobs, homes, assets, and most likely spend a long time in jail - even if they had not broken any laws.
6) We'd withdraw wholly and utterley from the EU




So - what do you reckon would change if we had *perfect* democracy .. everything was decided by the masses ...? Think it would be a disaster, not to bad, or even BETTER than we currently have?

lolbritboy. In first. 'Britboy banned from this forum by referendum'. In first.
 
1) Not sure about that, really.

2) Benefits would not stop altogether. Even thickos would surely realise that helping those who are ill or out of work is a necessity in a half-decent society.

3) I agree that punishments would probably become more harsh.

4) Yup, in all probability. Would it be a good or bad thing?

5) LOL no, but some sections would try to limit the size of 'fat cat' bonuses (and probably fail).

Worryingly, Simon Cowell would probably become our leader.
 
I think a lot of bad decisions will be made by people with little or no knowledge of the implications or consequenses. Do you really want this country to be run by mob rule?

Yes I have personal opinions on immigration, tax, crime etc, but I have no idea of the national or international effects that large scale changes will have.

Handing important decisions over to the masses like that is a mistake. By all means get their opinions and run polls etc, but the decisions should be made by people who know what they're doing. Not people who get their "factual infomation" from the daily mail and facebook.
 
Just because the far right is very vocal, it does not mean that they are in the majority. I do think the majority in the UK is slightly left of center.
 
Your right things would get pretty nasty, outcomes would be governed by the dark side. A slice of revenge would be the order of the day, the blame game would rule. Revenge only leads those who seek it into the shoes of the revenged. All the grudges people have would be projected in their voting. It would basically turn into hell. The decision of the current greek PM to hold a referendum basically sums up their attitude, pass the buck, stick to a crowd and hope it's all is a bad dream - but it will end badly.
 
And that's what's wrong with the UK these days :mad:

What exactly is wrong with the UK?

That the majority are slightly to the left? Or that the minority are more vocal than the majority?

If the latter, hasn't this always been the case?
 
Without sufficient protection, you'll just end up with Mob Rule on every subject, which is a problem because everyone has a minority view about something.
 
Every person of voting age voting on everything would entail a full time occupation for all of them. The economy would go down the crapper, beyond that I think very little would change.

I don't neccesarilly think the public as a whole would make bad decisions, I just don't think there's any benefit to doing it. If there were genuine feelings of wanting change in an actual majority of the public, then things will change anyway.

If you saw the Derren Brown thing on friday I wonder how much like that it would be on the decisions that would adversely affect other people.
 
I think the Greeks are doing a fantastic job of supporting my opinion that referendums on complex subjects are a hugely bad idea.
 
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