How to judge the CTC Council

[Philip Benstead]

TAKEN FROM FACEBOOK MB One of the best ways to apprasie how democratic a body or system is , might be to use the 5 tests the late Tony Benn spoke of in his “Five questions” for the powerful., in particular the last point on democratic change

Tony Benn’s final speech to the House of Commons as MP was an appropriately eloquent farewell, in which he talked widely on his view of the role of parliament and the wider question of democracy. As Hansard records, he said:

In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

HOW would the CTC Council now or under the AGM proposals be judge?