There is a torpor in our national life caused by à stagnation in Our political life.

Our ‘representatives’ seem intent on controlling every facet of our lives, each regulation that they dream up has a raft of fines and penalties, dressed up as ‘protecting‘ the national interest. They are little more than tax benefits to fund the public service.

Compare and contrast Britain following the Great Reform Act of 1832.

When the Tory government was ousted later in 1830, Earl Grey, a Whig, became Prime Minister and pledged to carry out parliamentary reform. The Whig Party was pro-reform and though two reform bills failed to be carried in Parliament, the third was successful and received Royal Assent in 1832.

The Bill was passed due to Lord Grey's plan to persuade King William IV to consider using his constitutional powers to create additional Whig peers in the House of Lords to guarantee the Bill's passage. On hearing of this plan, Tory peers abstained from voting, thus allowing the Bill to be passed but avoiding the creation of more Whig peers.

The Representation of the People Act 1832, known as the first Reform Act or Great Reform Act:

• disenfranchised 56 boroughs in England and Wales and reduced another 31 to only one MP

• created 67 new constituencies

• broadened the franchise's property qualification in the counties, to include small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers

• created a uniform franchise in the boroughs, giving the vote to all householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers

The Whig administration then presided over one of the most prosperous periods the country has ever known, when we became the ‘workshop of the world.

Much of Liberal England was formed in this period, we have now reached a period of stagnation where the electorate knows the system is bust and needs a new Great Reform Act, not waiting for another two hundred years.