Great Power contentions

[Pannonian]

Our Democracy allows a vote every 5 years, and that's about it. Both major parties benefit from FPTP so of course no one wants to change it.
The PM chooses the person to investigate himself and can withhold information from them with impunity and even lying at PMQs is apparently no biggie. This isn't a problem unless the information gets out of course - and the committee didn't think that the withholding of information was a problem.

We have a website where we can petition for things to be discussed but even that is controlled, hence why change.org was used for the popular one regarding Tony Blair's Knighthood being removed.

The Monarchy seems quite content to be nothing but a figurehead rather than the last backstop when the system is clearly failing - to point out the obvious, we have no President so no alternate source of power and the Lords is subservient to the Commons. There is nothing else in our system to improve matters. So here we are - apparently in a first rate democracy...

The problem with our system is that the checks and balances are dependent on the very thing that gives the chief executive their power; the Commons majority. After that, it's dependent on custom. If a PM with a majority has no sense of ethics, there is nothing to stop them from doing whatever they like under the guise of democracy. And if there are enough voters to cast their vote their way, then we have what we have. A PM with no restrictions of any kind, who is good at pressing buttons to get those requisite votes.

We westerners shouldn't be so comfortable about assuming that our democracy is the best thing in the world. It may be less bad than the alternative, but we are quite capable of messing things up ourselves. Reality isn't the all-powerful check on power, if the votes can be relied on. The US might just be on the brink with just enough of a voting coalition to stop Trump. The UK's Tories have found a sure thing and are playing it with all their heart.