According to Cameramong Labour have lost their mandate to govern, though the Tories sure as hell haven't got one either and arguably haven't done as well as some of them will have hoped or even as well as many, inclduing those who expect them to fall short of an overall majority, thought they would.. According to the Mandelsnake, who we should remember is absolutely not the leader of the Labour party and totally doesn't run things at all, that means 'oh no we haven't lost our mandate* nyer nyer nyer with nobs on to you'. It seems that as incumbent Prime Mentalist Colostomy Brown can, and I'm sure will, try to hang on to office by forming a coalition with the bloke from Last of the Summer Wine, who in turn said he'd be willing to work with anyone apart from Colostomy Brown. If there's to be a Lib/Lab coalition either Cleggy must eat his words or Labour must get rid of Gordon. But if they do that then shouldn't Her Maj point out that the deal is no longer being done with the incumbent PM but someone else in his party and ask in her inimitable tones what the cunting fuck they think they're all playing at? And over at CCHQ there'll be a different set of questions: should they keep their fingers crossed and hope that a deal can be done between Labour and the LimpDumbs, who then inherit the poisoned chalice that Labour probably thought would go to the Tories? Should they hope that Labs and Libs try and fail so they can step in? And should they just get rid of Cameramong for being the latest failure (not to mention for not being a fucking Tory anyway - I've never understood why they put up with that) or should they stop fucking around with their failures, set him on fire and push him off a building?
Interesting times, and possibly all I could have hoped for - actually more if Gordon can somehow stay on. Certainly the country would suffer even more than it has but with the choices on offer this election it was always a near certainty that things would have to get worse before they could get better. With luck the result, and possibly some legal challenges over cheating and disenfranchisement, should spark destructive civil war in all three main parties, not to mention wake up the millions of people the bastards have sold their lies to for so fucking long. And then? Then the place could begin to get back on its feet again and take the first steps towards becoming the free country that it once was. We can but hope.
* No sniggering at the back.
Yes Mr Angry Exile. So you think a Lab-LibDem pact is just such a good idea?
ReplyDeleteHas it not crossed your mind that whilst of course Labour should reap the karma of their mess, the LibDems will demand PR and then their consent will be required for any future government of any party FOR EVER, unless there is an unforeseen realignment.
If so we will never get out of the EU.
But of course you are away from here.
No, Marcellus, I think a Lib-Lab pact will be an unmitigated and monumental fucking disaster. In fact it'll be so bad that only a Tory government lead by Cameramong could come anywhere near it.
ReplyDeleteOn the point of PR first you shouldn't fear it. Personally I'd support it for an elected chamber to replace the Lords as we have here for the Senate. The only real objection I have to PR is the loss of constituency representation, so I'd support some form of AV for the Commons. But FPTP? That's what got the UK where it is right now.
On the other point you have three main parties all in agreement about the direction of travel with regard to the EU and separated only on the speed of the journey. You were never going to get out of the EU without one of three things happening: a bloody rebellion, UKIP and maybe LPUK and some other anti-EU parties winning a load of seats, or the Tories going back to representing the mainstream view instead of the pinot sipping Notting Hill set. The last of those is the most realistic option but for that to happen the Tories as Cameramong has made them must first be all but destroyed. This is phoenix from the flames stuff, mate, but the alternative for the anti-EU / trad Tory vote was UKIP*, and if the electorate didn't take it they have only themselves to blame.
Yes, I am away from there, but that doesn't mean I stopped caring for it or the people I love who still live there. If that was the case I wouldn't have bothered to retain my vote (for all the fucking good that was) or be blogging, or at least very little about the UK.
* Who managed to lose my vote for unrelated reasons to do with turning out to be the same kind of illiberal bastards as the main three parties.
PS - parties like UKIP and LPUK would benefit from PR too, especially UKIP since it's had that much longer to establish public awareness. It does pretty well in European elections - PR remember - and it's perhaps partly FPTP that prevents it doing as well in general elections. People think it can't win and instead they vote for one of the main three, probably Tory, making their first instinct a self fulfilling prophecy. Change the perception to one that accepts they will not win big but they certainly will win seats and far more people are likely to vote for them. Annoyingly, since I oppose so many of their policies, that applies to the BNP now too. Expect all that to occur both to Labour, who will try to renege on any PR deal unless they think it benefits them more than it harms them, and the the LibDems themselves, who may be prepared to sacrifice PR and their own ambitions unless they can work out how to do it without letting in the others. I'm inclined to think they stick to their principles since unlike Labour they have some, but if the 09 Euro election, when UKIP beat both Libs and Labs, is any guide of what could happen under a PR system the kingmakers might not be the LibDems but UKIP.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that.
ReplyDeleteLeading on from your own thoughtful comments, you may be interested in Douglas Carswell's blog this morning on PR.
This is a very interesting man - the one and only man (other than Hannan) who is thinking creatively. Hannan and Carswell effectively gave Cameron his main reforming ideas with their book The Plan.
Read The Plan from cover to cover (appendices and all). This is the right direction, and is as interesting and would be as transformative and game changing as Thatcherism was in the 1980s. If fully implemented these ideas would bring in the light; cockroaches do not like the light. The Left would be appalled, and their plans for us all would be derailed.
Apparently Carswell got a 17% swing last night. Very interesting man. He is the future. Wish he were leader now.
The Party list system (the one used in EU elections) is designed for despots and is the worst possible option.
Yep, saw DC's blog and left a comment there re: what Britain could borrow from the Aussie system. I also bought a copy of The Plan quite a while back. There are three long blogs on my ideas for electoral reform linked to on the left hand side bar, and I've shamelessly pinched a couple of Hannan's and Carswell's ideas for 'em. Actually not as shamelessly as Cameramong because I've had the decency to fucking say so, cite the source and link to where it can be bought. I don't agree with everything Hannan and Carswell suggest, and I do say where I disagree - basically it's about the Senate and that I favour the Australian model, while they'd like a similar Senate but drawn from local government. But I do like most of their ideas.
ReplyDeleteOh, and re party lists, do have a look into the system used for the Australian Senate. A very interesting form of PR. Independent Senators are not unknown - in fact off the top of my head I can think of two at the moment. Both have helped block bad (IMO) legislation though since both have stood on platforms to ban or regulate other things I wouldn't vote for either of them. Still, sometimes my enemy's enemy is my ally, right?
ReplyDelete