WHAT does the word junta mean to you? To me it conjures up a picture of a group of South American minor autocrats resplendent in be-medalled uniforms, complete with sun glasses ruling over a peasantry unable to exercise basic democratic rights and privileges, perhaps after the style of Senator Augusto Pinochet.

What it does not bring to mind is the government of a sophisticated nation like ours.

The image of this green and pleasant land does not sit comfortably with sweaty, petty dictatorship.

Her Majesty's subjects have, in the past, fought long and hard to achieve the present, imperfect democracy. Many have died in two world wars and countless 'minor' wars in the cause of what the Greeks called demokratia. This notion comes from the Greek word demos describing 'the people'.

Almost a quarter of a century ago, Lord Hailsham warned of the development in this country of an 'elective dictatorship'.

At the time, he saw Parliamentary authority increasingly being by-passed. Government by Cabinet edict, using Parliament's rubber-stamp, often superseding the will of the people's elected parliamentary representatives.

Since that time, the growth in the power of Party Whips has led to, what Patrick Dixon, in his book The Truth About Westminster, has called 'the death of conscience'.

That is, Members of Parliament and Ministers of State, in an effort to climb the greasy pole of power, put aside questions of morality in favour of sucking up to their immediate party superiors and toeing the party line.

This process now appears to be progressing one step further.

Not satisfied with the idea of collective Cabinet responsibility our beloved Prime Minister is considering setting up an 'executive board'.

This creation of the devil will further concentrate effective power in the hands of perhaps six politicians.

Will they be friends or foes of Count Blaircular? I leave you, dear Reader, to answer that question.

What I do believe will happen is that the healthy blood of democracy in this country will eventually (and very gradually) be replaced by a kind of synthetic, genetically modified tomato sauce.

A substance whose only function is to make palatable the indigestible concoctions of governmental control freaks.

Control freaks who think they know better than a supine and acquiescent electorate.

At the moment, at least in theory, Parliament has the last word. It's members must stand up to the bully-boy tactics of Party Whips.

This country has a habit of importing unhealthy trends from America. Thus far this trend is limited to the products of North America. It is only a short hop (geographically speaking) to South America. The Latin temperament of the South American nations is foreign to this country. Equally foreign is the notion of the junta.

But, if you call it an Executive Board who's to know the difference?

It will be camouflaged under the guises of modernisation and strategic decision making and the spin doctors will prescribe it as healthy medicine but the result will be the same - autocracy and dictatorship.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.