From the UK's BBC:
Ex-prime minister John Major has turned his fire on Labour's style of government, claiming it has driven voters to despair with its culture of spin. Mr Major warned that a deep malaise was undermining Parliamentary democracy, and said no-one should "dismiss the turnout at the last election as a 'blip'". He claimed Parliament's authority would be further undermined if the prime minister went ahead with the enactment of the proposed constitution for the European Union. But it was the government's spin operation, which he branded "the pornography of politics", that received most of Mr Major's ire.
He launched the broadside in a leaflet published by the Centre for Policy Studies, entitled The Erosion of Parliamentary Democracy. In it he argues that Labour is sucking power away from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament, assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland, London and the regions, while showing "contempt" for MPs. Mr Major, who last week said he was "heartbroken" about the divisions within the Conservative Party, also accused other parties of drifting away from voters and becoming unresponsive and unrepresentative.
But in his pamphlet, he warns that the government's "slick presentation has proved to be the forerunner of distrust. A malaise is undermining parliamentary democracy. I do not pretend that we have reached the point at which this is irreversible. But I do believe that if we do not act now, then it may become too late," he said. "We take democracy so much for granted in our country that we scarcely notice whether it exists; how it is exercised; or the ways in which it is being undermined. Our democracy owes a great debt to grassroots activists but that should not blind us to the reality that all the party machines are moribund, near-bankrupt, unrepresentative and ill-equipped to re-enthuse the electorate as a whole. No one should dismiss the turnout at the last election as a "blip" ... The malaise is deep and is getting worse: it needs to be understood and acted upon."
Mr Major argued New Labour had "perfected this black art" of spin when it was in opposition and had carried it through to government. "The result is a deep-rooted cynicism," he said. The pattern "of by-passing the independence of the civil service" had been set in May 1997, with the politicising of the Number 10 press office and the "cult of spin" let loose, he said. New Labour's style of governing - and their adoption of spin and soundbite as their weapons of choice - has done immense damage to politics "Spin is the pornography of politics," said Mr Major. "It perverts. It is deceit licensed by government. Statistics massaged. Expenditure announced and reannounced. The record reassessed. Blame attributed. Innocence proclaimed. Black declared white: all in a day's work. From the moment New Labour saw the value of spin, the truth became partisan.
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More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3210417.stm
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