Home page Closed shops and block votes threaten English freedom In confronting the power of collectivism much has been made in the past of the practices of closed shops and block voting in weilding arbitrary power. Closed shops are the practice of not allowing members of other factions to participate in work whereas block voting is a technique used to convert a total vote of an organization such as a union, into a single vote. In other words in a union of 100 people some 45 might support proposition A and 55 proposition B. A block vote simply says 100 people supported proposition B. There are no shades of opinion allowed. Where there is arm twisting, blackmail and undue pressure on memberships, block voting is a corrupting process. Closed shops Although closed shops are often considered to be a thing of the past it is notable that the British parliamentary system, at the hands of the British political parties, operates as a closed shop. The demarkation lines between factions are marked by the separations of MPs of different parties. After an election no thought is given by British political parties to the selection of the best who sit in Parliament to make up a government. Instead the winning party operates a closed shop whereby only Members of Parliament who are members of the "winning" party can become members of the government. The party whip system ensures that this closed shop operates even to the exclusion of the wishes of the electorate who voted for MPs by ensuring that party wishes take precedence over constituency wishes. Block votes The whip system enables the party to obscure shades of opinion so as to achieve a single block vote on any issue. The most notorious block vote in operation today is that weilded by the MPs who are members of the Labour Party and who are from Scottish and Welsh constiutuencies. Their block vote means they can enforce "government" decisions on the English electorate without the MPs from England being able to do anything about this. Past British governments might have achieved the end of closed shops and block voting in unions and within the Labour Party organization there is lip service given to the evils of these practices. However, in terms of real day to day management of government affairs the British political parties coordinate one of the oldest closed shops and block voting systems in the country. This corrupt and insensitive practice is very much to the detriment of British freedom and, in particular, to the detriment of the English. Corrupt practice protected by secrecy To ensure that the people of Britain are kept in ignorance of the justifications underlying closed shop block voting the British political parties, when in power, take advantage of the concept of the secrecy of "cabinet" decisions. This device is yet another means whereby politicians can exercise the irresponsible practice of avoiding becoming answerable to their constituents.