The article 'More South Korea than North' that appeared in the April edition of the local newspaper 'The Leveller' deserves special attention and condemnation.
If the title of the largest would be appropriate, it would rather refer to the highest level of presented stupidity in articles ( as in the article that was the reason for writing this article in response ) and the highest level of commercial advertising, for advertisements for businesses and local services regarding to the total volume of this newspaper.
Already on the title page of this rag we see as many as two ( well ... as if one was not enough? ) flags of the country that is currently under occupation, not Russia, which the Western media are trying to tell us, but the regime and fascist government of the war maniac Zelensky. So, displaying the flag of a country governed by a fascist regime in another country, it is extremely unsympathetic and fits into the current psychosis ofa kind of 'heroism' which is dubious support and great help for this country, which is Ukraine.
In the article 'More South Korea than North' Mr Bill Revans ( Somerset County Council Leader ) cited DPRK country in comparison to the UK. Does Mr Bill Revans have any knowledge of the DPRK questioning process ( not in North Korea as this country is misnamed by the Western world and its real name is misspelled) of asking questions to local authorities? I assume this knowledge is based on general false western propaganda showing DPRK as a country full of 'famine, concentration camps' and similar horrors. The knowledge that Mr Bill Revans has about the DPRK is a collection of lies and total nonsense served to us by Western media. In this fume of absurdity Mr Bill Revans uses the simile for the 'questioning process' in the DPRK local government system in reference to the UK which is extremely stupid and exposing his low level mentality and poisoned mind by Western and anti DPRK propaganda. '
... it likened the process of asking a question of the County Council to doing the same in North Korea ..'
What are we, local people, supposed to enjoy? For a minute's chance to ask questions at generously arranged sessions and a great favor to us for being able to ask questions to the Council Meetings? Possibility of asking three questions at every meeting ... allowed three minutes for each question ...
I do not know which would be more suitable, cry or laugh?
In the DPRK, ordinary citizens have the right to ask and express opinions to local government structures, and these institutions have a duty to respond to them up to and including the central level:
'Citizens are entitled to submit complaints and petitions. The State shall investigate and deal with complaints and petitions impartially as stipulated by law' ( Article 69. Chapter V. fundamental Rights and duties of citizens 6., of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK )
I myself ( the author ) of this article as an example have been waiting for over a month for any response from Council to my written complaint. No response. This is how the County Council treats the citizen and the taxpayer. Insolence and ignorance
But let's go back to the article. In the final part of the article, the author of the article in the subtitle 'What's unknown' say that: '... we still have not been able to get a handle on how the managing of the new council's assets will be managed ...'. So let's be happy that we don't live in the DPRK as Mr Bill Revans says and we don't know how our public money from our subsidies is spent. Council is spending money in an unknown way. Great deal. Is it a feature of UK democracy?
As compare how the locally funds are maintained with the responsibility of submitting a report on its implementation in the DPRK, the importance of this issue is evidenced by the fact, that it was included in the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK: 'The local People's Assembly has the following duties and authority to: 2. deliberate and approve the local budget and the report on its implementation' ( Article 140. Section 6., of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK The Local People's Assembly ) and also, 'The local People's Committee has the following duties and authority to: 7. compile the local budget and adopt measures for its implementation' ( Article 147. Section 7., of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK The Local People's Committee ) So, are we really lucky to not live in 'North Korea? And do you know how to spend ours money as it is claimed by Somerset County Council Leader Bill Revans? What is the kind of luck we have in Somerset as Mr Bill Revans assures us? Let's start a bit by describing life in Taunton in Somerset and show how the level is here and what kind of 'democratic' is.
So, is it a democracy available to all if ordinary citizens of the locally community have no impact to choose his representative?
In the current year 2023, for the local council elections in Taunton, Council office sent letters of notification of people running for council seats. Really, it is a very 'specific democracy that puts the potential voter in front of a fait accompli and leaves him no choice or the right to decide who his candidate is. Instead, it announces out of nowhere that such candidates.
Is this true democracy and freedom of choice? Where is the opinion and proposals of candidates from common citizens of the local community? Where and what way local people are allowed to give them representatives to take seats in local council?
What influence do I and others of the working class have on who will represent my interests, the interests of the working class majority in Somerset?
No influence. No impact. Not at all.
Of course, representatives of this pseudo - democracy will claim that they are the representatives of the majority, but in fact they have nothing to do with the majority of the local society and are representatives of the local bureaucratic and business world supported by the funds of the bourgeois liberal party and other locally ruling classes representative of petty - bourgeois parasites class. So comparing this British liberal pseudo - democracy with the real people's democracy of a socialist state which is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is really poor. In DPRK, local government representatives are elected FROM and BY the local majority, by the local community. In the UK, on the example of Somerset Council, we are dealing with a dictatorship rather than any kind of democracy. How to call imposing from above through a closed selection procedure not for people from outside candidates for regional authorities from one and the same right wing of the political Liberal Democrats who forgot about the problems of ordinary people a long time ago serving them more and more costs of living?
Let's now look at the accomplishments of the Somerset Council, which has recently merged from five county councils into one. It is worth adding here that this was done to reduce costs and be more effective. But how does this relate to a drastic increase in council tax?
Life in a county town as Taunton is, where is located new Somerset Council and Mr Bill Revans claim his big happiness of 'no life in the DPRK' is a home which has not improved even one bit to anything. We still see the same problems. Here are the streets and squares with sidewalks covered with garbage and waste.
After every weekend, there is especially garbage from the leftovers of fast food night open shops with plastic wrappers, boxes, bottles... left in front of the pubs and covered roads. This garbage, not cleaned up, remains scattered by the wind on the lawns and streets, covering the city areas more and more tightly.
Some time ago Somerset West and Taunton Council proudly shouted about as they claimed: beautiful and much needed for ordinary people avenue by Riverside. Is worth to know, Somerset West and Taunton Council spent £16m delivering the Riverside development. As example: the council revealed it spent just only £420,000 on ... new steps down to the River Tone, paid for by the community infrastructure levy.
What do we see today after when this project was opened?
Dozens of empty rooms in new build halls of the Riverside development. empty rooms from shops waiting to be rented. Why are they empty? The current recession and the cost of electricity, rent, etc. are too expensive for someone to rent them. And so a huge investment focused on making a profit through the economic laws of predatory capitalism full of internal contradictions remains useless and the wind blows in empty halls of these new build shops in the Taunton Riverside development.
But, at the same time from time immemorial at Musgrove Park Hospital, patients in the Accident & Emergency department are still crammed into a tiny room and one reception area waiting an average of eight hours or more.
But A&E in hospitals in capitalist terms does not generate profits of course.
So, are we lucky to live in Taunton as Mr Bill Revans claim with decisions of the social investment policy conducted by the local Council? As we see, this opinion is completely detached from the real needs of people and focused on the needs of business and the capitalist lust for profit.
Has the Riverside development been opened to ordinary people? To their urgent local needs? Of course not. It has become mostly open to companies and businesses to make a profit and the mentioned stairs or other smaller attractions in the form of benches or flower beds of greenery are just decoration.
For the image of the quality of life in the Taunton city managed by a great optimist and lucky for not living in DPRK, let Mr. Bill Revans complete with a few pictures of weekend night car rallies in a deafening roar and daring races, led by drunk and drugged teenagers around the city center and at the same time lack of any police patrols. Such patrols are seen very effectively in the afternoon after ... Lunchtime on weekdays walking the main streets without seeing any problems. The picture of misery and stupid waste of public money is complemented by wandering around aimlessly and playing with the sound and light signals of ambulances, burning tons of fuel in senseless drives from hospital to depot with boredom.
Indeed, the variety of nightlife in Taunton cannot be complained about, happily living here...
Somerset Council has no luck even with local businesses as they try to lie in their publications that they support them extensively. The current capitalist recession caused by corrupt ruling elites has also left its mark on the level of service here as well. A number of shops and services, such as the long - established Debenhams department store and a dozen shopsincluding a popular local craftsman's shop, a large Card Factory and a pub, have all closed.
Resume, comparing a country where socialist democracy, the true majority democracy watch every penny spent publicly from the state coffers and not from looting taxes ( every kind of tax was abolished in the DPRK in 1974 ), in a country where there is order and discipline on the city streets and there are no drunken teenagers racing at night and homeless people living on the streets and also where allows for direct election of local representatives by all, by the majority and the citizens themselves hold local power to the dubious quality of minority democracy of wealthy groups holding local power, the compare to UK is extremely stupid and inappropriate.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea with its achievements in building socialism under the direction of the Juche idea gives every citizen a free house and provides free education with free healthcare. The prices of public goods and services have not changed for decades. So where is the happiness of life? Who is more lucky to live in his country, UK or DPRK citizens? Where is better to live? In UK or DPRK? Let's answer it ourselves...
We wish Mr Bill Revans with others ( Ukrainian supporters ) to wake up from the Western lying stupid propaganda and see the truth about fascist regime of Zelensky in Ukraine and especially to see and get the proper knowledge based on true about DPRK as it is in reality.
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