Enjoy. Hope you get, wherever you are going, peacefully and without incident

Elections elect representatives who can make laws. Opinion polls just gather opinions. Totally different.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

It just isn't! It's decided by those we choose to represent us. If we don't like the law, then we collectively can act to change it. We have the power. That you feel we use that power unwisely, or not at all because too many either disagree with you, or are disinterested, then tough. That doesn't mean there is a bunch of elite people in control. It just means that the majority have decided not to interfere with the way things are. That's their choice. The power is in their hands. Whether they use it, or not.

The reality of climate change and the need to do something to stave off its worst consequences has certainly changed. It needed to. The media has played an important role in informing the people and leading them to the position where they understand the imperatives involved. That's to be welcomed, not condemned.

This has nothing to do with these mythical elites you and others want to heap all the world's troubles upon. It is to do with leadership, and the ability to convey important information.

Social change isn't new. It always takes time to get the majority on board, so again, leadership by example is a positive thing. Making strong, cogent arguments changes attitudes. It has changed mine on many issues over the years, as it has most people, even you I suspect though I doubt you will admit it

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

And that vote is based on an opinion. An election is a poll of those opinions.
Remember the alternative vote referendum? Should MPs have decided that issue for themselves?

As every choice you make is based on your opinion of what is best, you are arguing semantics for their own sake. An "opinion poll" has another word, apart from just opinion.

Taking a poll means collecting opinions. Holding an election means making choices.

Of course, I remember the "alternative vote referendum". The MP's did decide that matter for themselves. No referendum in the UK has the force of law. Any held are always consultative, despite what some seem to think. The MPs have the power, the right and the duty, to ignore a referendum result if they believe it to be unwise. They may decide not to use that power, but should events and circumstances so demand, they could.

You can argue for reforming the electoral system. That's another debate. What you cannot argue is what we have now is not as I have described it, and to get any reforms achieved means it must be done within the current system.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I'm not sure you are correct on this. A tiny number of folk pretty much run everything on a macro level. After a general election, they simply adapt to the new regime and carry on as before.

A full on communist revolution would remove most of them, but only to be replaced by another. After the NAZIs were overthrown, the top table was largely hanged but most of those who ran the show under Hitler pretty much continued on in their same roles under Adenauer.

I agree, it is not some sinister Hollywood conspiracy rubbish with men in dark suits in secret locations talking like Ming the Merciless. I suspect most of the "elite" do not know each other and are never likely to meet. But I think it impossible to argue that they do not pull the important strings on a macro level. It's just how nature operates.