# How democratic is the UK really?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-democratic-is-the-uk-really/539576
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 15, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-democratic-is-the-uk-really/539576 "2010-05-15T20:54:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 61

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### Author: ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-democratic-is-the-uk-really/539576/61 "2010-05-19T11:56:45Z")

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> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#):
>
> Essentially all I’m saying is that the situation is not a clear-cut case of, “Thai Rak Thai, the PPP and their supporters are criminal, anti-democratic monsters; their rivals are the clean, democratic ones” and it doesn’t seem fair to represent it as such.

It happens to be the case that in debates it is usually **septimus** who says “No … no … there are shades of gray” when others are too inclined to see things in black and white. Certainly there are “good people” allied with Thaksin and there are corrupt people allied with the Democrats – I never argued otherwise.

But just as it is usually wrong to see things only as black and white, so it is often wrong to assume grayness-equivalence a priori. **Siam Sam** compares Thaksin to Capone. Would you argue, **Great Philosopher** , that the Chicago Mob and FBI just represented “two different shades of gray”?

You’re coming awfully close to admitting ignorance, yet arguing against those more knowledgable anyway! If you choose to respond further I’d ask (a) that you give examples of Thaksin’s perfidy just to see if we’re on the same page, and (b) to support your allegations of Democrat perfidy or corruption. (And, no, opposition to the criminal won’t constitute a valid example of “corruption.”)

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