Quick, severe and automatic punishments must be delivered to ruling ministers and politicians who lie to the public [COMPACTIDEA]

No democracy exists around in which there's enormous stress on immediately and harshly punishing those officials / lawmakers who lie to the public [perhaps because lawmakers won't ever make or pass laws that are targeted at lawmakers - another problem in itself]. Anyway, a superior democracy will have "fear of lying" enshrined in the constitution itself. For example, in recent weeks, a lot of lies are coming out from UK's health officials / ministers / politicians regarding number of tests they're doing per day. This following FT.com comment summarizes:

"Forget about the R number. No number produced by this government can be trusted. Only few days ago, this government was saying they completed just under 30,000 tests. Few days later, they announced delivering 122,347 tests. In between, the minsters talked about the capacity of tests in the same way as completed tests to confuse people. The reality, however, is: a third of the 122,347 tests included in the final 24-hour period before the deadline were counted before they had been carried out. Around 39,000 had been sent out to households and satellite testing locations, with no guarantee of the timescale for their completion, but were still included in the count. It’s the Fake government keep producing fake numbers – R number isn’t going to be any different."

Hancock says UK hit 100,000 tests amid claims tally is artificially boosted

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/ministers-accused-of-changing-covid-19-test-tally-to-hit-100000-goal

Coronavirus: Testing falls short of 100,000 daily target

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52522936

How did Matt Hancock hit his 100,000 test target?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-did-matt-hancock-hit-his-100-000-test-target-

UK Did Not Change Criteria to Hit 100,000 Tests-Per-Day Goal, Adviser Says - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/05/02/world/europe/02reuters-health-coronavirus-britain-newton.html

UK claims victory in race to 100K coronavirus tests per day

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-matt-hancock-hits-target-of-100k-covid19-coronavirus-tests-per-day/

Suppose UK citizens have changed their minds about Brexit, what's the issue then with having a second referendum?

The more general question here is that if the populace has indeed changed it's mind/mood regarding something on which some sort of referendum or voting has already taken place, should or shouldn't a second referendum/voting take place? There's an important catch here that we cannot know or be sure before a second referendum/vote actually takes place that the populace had/has indeed changed its choice. And since one doesn't and cannot know for sure before going in all the way towards a second polling, what rationale does one have to ask for a second poll in the first place?

A solution to this problem can be in the amount of "calls" that are being made - in newspapers, on TV shows, on social media, etc. - for a second vote. Of course, no strict mathematical definition exists and no easy definition can be constructed regarding what amount/quality/quantity of "calls" should be considered sufficient to invoke a second vote, but a "good" number of "prominent" people calling for a second vote and a "high" number of citizens expressing for a "prolonged" period that they've changed their choice should be good-enough a reason to call for a second vote. Using this admittedly vague, subjective, and unscientific threshold, it seems like a second Brexit vote should be held in the UK.

There's another factor to be considered, and the Brexit example is suitable to explain it. Like it's possible that a guy initially gets attracted to a beautiful girl but after living with her for a year realizes that she isn't worth it [and that his initial judgment about her was incorrect], it's possible that the attraction of Brexit was only initial and that the very detailed discussions, etc., over the past several months have made many pro-Brexit folks realize that it's in fact better for Britain to continue to be an integral part of Europe [and EU]. At least for major issues such as Brexit, a provision for "change of heart" should be kept, especially after detailed discussions have been held and the voters have had sufficient time to understand the effects of their majority choice in detail, so that they can now walk back from that initial choice if they want to.

Governments should be barred by law from discriminating against those contractors, firms, media outlets, etc., which are critical of the government or expose its wrongdoings [COMPACTIDEA]

Centre freezes advertisements to the Times Group, ABP Group and The Hindu: Report

https://scroll.in/latest/928790/centre-freezes-advertisements-to-the-times-group-abp-group-and-the-hindu-report

Modi government freezes ads placed in three Indian newspaper groups

https://in.reuters.com/article/india-media/modi-government-freezes-ads-placed-in-three-indian-newspaper-groups-idINKCN1TT1R6

It should be illegal for the Indian government, and more generally for any government, to use budget spending or other government spending as a weapon or as a punishment to harm or control those companies, NGOs, newspapers, people, etc., which hold the government or its constituent politicians to account, including by revealing the government's wrongdoings.

If only all ministers, officials, politicians, and regulators in the world were - and were required to be - like the current Minister of Transport of Canada, the world would be a much better place [RAWDUMP]

Was surprised to read a much-upvoted comment under an article on FT that:

Headed to Wikipedia and was stunned to read about his education/qualifications [permanent link] and his professional experience(s). Wow! Such an extremely qualified guy. Could anyone in Canada be more suited for this job? Probably not. Astronaut, engineer, military officer, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Canadian Space Agency, and so many other things wrapped into one man. He can read and interpret complex technical data himself and make sound decisions.

If only the world's ministers, politicians, etc., were all required to be at least highly educated/qualified, this world would be a much better place.

Narendra Modi government is misusing LIC to bail out overpriced IPOs of government-run companies, thus forcibly indirectly making the general public buy these IPOs [COMPACTIDEA]

Imagine - the ministers of Indian government sit inside a private room and discuss ways to further loot the Indian public. One of them floats the idea that the disinvestment [or divestment] route can be an excellent way to "legally" transfer hard-earned money from the common man's pockets to the government's coffers, from where it will of course be looted by the ministers and their cronies. Another one extends this idea further - overprice the IPOs of these public sector undertakings [PSUs], and since the public themselves won't buy these expensive IPOs, just instruct LIC to bail out the IPO, thus forcibly making the general public "invest" into these IPOs. Further, the government pretends as if LIC itself made these purchases, and that there wasn't any coercion.

This is what Narendra Modi's government is doing in India.

Update: That bailing out deeply debt-ridden national carrier Air India via LIC is even being considered shows the extent to which the current Indian government is corrupt.

Narendra Modi seems to be purposely keeping the Indian public occupied with one or the other thing [COMPACTIDEA]

Demonetization ["notebandi"] last year. Then half-a-year later GST. Then half-a-year later linking of Aadhaar number with all mobile phones, bank accounts, demat/trading accounts, mutual funds, insurance policies, and so on. Keeping Indians busy with something or the other - so that they keep running around and don't have any time to reflect on the inactions or misdoings of Modi - seems to be the strategy of the ruling BJP/NDA. Make Indian people run from corner to corner, or else their money would become worthless, or else their businesses would stop running, or else their bank accounts and mobile phones would freeze. And in the meanwhile, Modi and his team can exercise rampant corruption. What a shame.

Governments shouldn't be allowed to take steps that help them politically in the present, but create risks for future generations [COMPACTIDEA]

• Modi is interested only in his own political career, which is going to last for only the next few years. He doesn't give a damn to the lives of Indians, say, fifty years from now.
• So he can take a Japanese yen loan at 0.1% interest rate to finance the totally unneeded and wasteful bullet train project in order to turbocharge his political image [foolish voters will be swept away by the train, unaware that public's priorities are elsewhere], and falsely claim that the loan is "in a way, free". Modi knows that common Indian man will only see the 0.1% figure and believe that it's almost like zero. Ignorant voters aren't aware of concepts such as inflation, interest rates, etc.
• Further, Modi gives a damn to the fact that the rupees 1.1 lakh crore he's going to waste on the only 508 km long bullet train can be [and should be] used elsewhere, because India has many other pressing priorities in terms of poverty, sanitation, roads, affordable healthcare, education, employment and railways itself. India can't afford this shiny toy yet.
• Modi won't tell you that there were 200+ train derailments in the last 4 years. Why? Because if he tells you this, you will question his spending 1.1 lakh crore rupees on the Japanese bullet train, and his entire plan to embezzle Indian people's money will fail.
• Lastly, the large sum that Modi is going to spray on the Japanese is also going to result in a huge windfall for Modi's cronies, in the form of overpriced contracts, inferior-quality parts supplied, embezzlement of money, and so on.
• So Modi gets instant political mileage as well as financial windfall, at the cost of India's present and also future generations.