Fairness, Equality and becoming a more Informed and Empowered Citizen

I think that it is very fairly important for me as a citizen to be 'informed' in order to make a decision and to choose what I want; what I want to do, say, hear, who I want to vote for in elections. For example if there was an election tomorrow to allow British people to vote on whether or not they think Britain should accept the European currency to replace Sterling. In order for any British citizen to vote in the election the citizen would need to be 'informed' on both the positive and negative impacts and any possible outcomes from this, if it were to happen. Therefore it is very important for a citizen to be informed because if a citizen is not informed then they may not be able to make a true or proper decision.

In my opinion I would like to think that I am reasonably informed on most things, although by far I could not say that I am totally informed on everything. I think it would be something of a challenge to be completely informed on absolutely everything.

The main ways in which I become informed about serious issues is by the media in the form of television, radio, internet and newspaper. However it is recently becoming more controversially disputed that a lot of what we hear in the media is twisted and manipulated to give us a sense of fear.

"Imagine a world where our knowledge of the world’s problems and issues are
controlled by one body. Where we only know only what this body lets us see. What
if they abused this power, withheld truth and manipulated to sway public
opinion. Well that world is the world we live in now, and the body I am talking
about is the media."

(http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/12699.html)

I am torn on whether we should leave complicated issues to others. For example, should we leave the scientific decisions to the scientists? Should we leave the political decisions to politicians? Should we leave the economic decisions to the accountants and economists?

For part I want to say YES, we should leave these decisions to these people because they have a lot more knowledge, training and experience in and with dealing with these matters when compared to everyday members of the public.

Although I do also think that NO! we should not leave the decisions to these people. I think this for many reasons; firstly taking into account recent event over the last few months with regard to the "Expenses scandal" concerning a lot of politicians who have put in claims for money for making changes to their second homes and purchase of a range of products to their expenses allowances. This has been a long and on-going process for the last few years; starting in January 2005 when...

....The Freedom of Information Act 2000 comes into effect. Requests for details
of MPs' expenses are filed soon afterwards by
campaigner Heather Brooke, reporter Jon Ungoed-Thomas and The Sunday
Telegraph's
Ben Leapman.

This is what has happened since the requests were made using the Freedom of Information Act 2000...

-2006: July - Parliament complies with the Information Commissioner's request to view data.

-22 January 2008 - The House of Commons is ordered by the Information Commissioner to release a detailed breakdown of expenses claimed by six MPs including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair.

-13 March - Publication of the so-called ''John Lewis list'' reveals that MPs are allowed to claim up to £10,000 for a new kitchen, more than £6,000 for a bathroom and £750 for a television on "Parliamentary allowances".

-21 April - Mr Brown uses a video on YouTube to announce proposals for reform, including scrapping the second home allowance and replacing it with a flat-rate attendance fee.

-8 May - The Daily Telegraph prints the first in a series of extracts from leaked computer discs containing the Commons' authorities documentation of MPs' second home claims.

-Over the next few weeks, daily reports in the paper put the spotlight on dozens of different MPs, revealing practices such as ''flipping'' homes to maximise claims and the avoidance of capital gains tax by changing the designation of second homes.

-18 June - MPs' expenses claims are published by the House of Commons, with many details blacked out.

-1 November - Commons Leader Harriet Harman says it would not be ''fair'' to force MPs to sack their husbands and wives, following reports that Sir Christopher will recommend a ban on using taxpayers' money to employ spouses.

The back the argument further, you could also take into account about the cause of the 'RECESSION' that we are still in, and have been for over a year.

"A recession occurs when there is a fall in economic growth for two consecutive
quarters. However if growth is very low there will be increased spare capacity
and increased unemployment; people will feel there is a recession. This is
sometimes known as a growth recession". (http://www.economicshelp.org/macroeconomics/economic-growth/cause-recession2.html)

WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS?


References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6499657/MPs-expenses-scandal-a-timeline.html