Assertion is now used in the place of debate

It has been a key feature of the New Labour project how language has been used.

Most of us read Orwell's 1984 as school and a shiver went down our spines. Today's Labour party politicians were taking notes.

Almost all of Gordon Brown's pronouncements drip in assertions and misdirections. When answering a question on subject A - he won't miss the opportunity to repeat the lie B that he's been trying to get across. Sound bites and narrative are used to short circuit the critical faculties in the voters brains.

So we have James Purnell popping up ( not airbrushed in this time ) to tell use that New Labour is not damaged by the Hain scandal. When we know this is not true.

Gordon Brown keeps using the phrase "It is right that ....insert you New Labour decision here ...". He is not reasoning his case - but asserting it. He tells you how to think about it before you get to know what it is. He has no intention of explaining himself or attempting to justify his position.

The cost of all this is the death of debate and the short circuiting of democracy. Why ? Because democracy relies on informed debate and at least a minimum knowledge of what is going on int he country. The new politics is based on not telling anyone.

The Lib Dems have got into this also with their anti-democratic decision to screw their voters by not supporting a referendum on the EU treaty. Their strategy consists of the following:

1) The bare faced lie - its not the constitution (followed by a load of guff about Maastricht etc)
2) The Ming gambit of suggesting that what is really needed is a referendum on another subject that they know only UKIP and maybe the English Democrats would put to the vote.

As a country we have been taken to war on a lie - yet our supposed independent MPs who answer to their constituents, did not force the prime minister to resign - as they put party, and perhaps their jobs, first.

In short democracy is dying in the UK and England. It is being strangled with the skills of PR, marketing, spin, careerism and a fundamental lack of morality of our elected representatives.

You have to admit those who refuse to vote these days have a point.