A guess this is a kick in the teeth for tactical voting. Vote for a person you WANT people, not against a person you're against. You won't feel so hard done by when two parties make a deal to form a government.
Anyway, the time for being partisan is over. Cameron and Clegg are in government. End of. Stop remembering what Thatcher did in the 80s. Learn from history don't relive it. Otherwise we'd still be fighting the Germans in WWII and bombs would still be exploding regularly in Ulster with recriminations on both sides.
In these circumstances, you can't judge Cameron on Thatchers record. He doesn't have the votes to act in that kind of way and the LibDems won't just roll over and give him everything he wants. It's very easy to see the glass as half empty, but it's time to judge this coalition government on its actions it takes and the laws it passes. You may end up thinking that politics should always have been done this way and it works better.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Monday 10 May 2010
General Election 2010 - My 2 cents
Before I start, let me just say that the chances of this blog being updated on a regular basis are remote, however after having weeks of the run up to the election and getting a little frustrated with some comments, I'm now getting a little grumpy with the aftermath (although it may just be that we don't have a new government yet).
I think virtually the only thing beyond doubt is that the polling results are in.
Conservative 306, Labour 258, LibDem, 57. Logically, therefore David Cameron should have first go at trying to form a new administration.
I've seen a quite a few comments saying that if I'd known Cameron was going to speak to the LibDems, or if Nick goes into government with the Conservatives I want a new election. The problem with that statement is it doesn't take into consideration anyone else. "If everyone had voted the way I wanted them to, there would be 650 MPs all of the same party and there wouldn't be an issue".
To be honest there were things said by all three parties during the election that I agreed with and things all three said that I disagreed with, but surely a reasonable interpretation of the result is that the country is sufficiently nervous about any of the parties and their policies going forward to allow anyone of them to have an overall majority.
I've also seen comments that say the Conservatives won so they should be able to form a minority government. I'm not sure how that benefits us at the present stage the clear risk there is that all the opposition parties vote against the Queen's speech and therefore a new election would have to be called (and quite possibly we would end up with exactly the same result). In my opinion, this should be the last possible alternative.
So it would appear the Liberal Democrats become the kingmakers after all. I don't think an alliance between the LibDems and the Conservatives is a problem. The bits of legislation that get passed should therefore be decent laws, passed in the national interest. The rubbish bits from both manifestos wouldn't get enough support from the other coalition partner and would therefore not get passed.
Gordon has announced his resignation whilst I've been typing this so the following will be even less thought out and more random than usual!
All three main parties are using the words stable responsible government. As a Labour/LibDem coalition would not create a majority administration, can an 'everyone but the Tories' government be stable. Will we be happy with whoever becomes Labour leader (and would therefore become Prime Minister) later this year? If a Lib/Lab coalition does come to pass, Dave is toast.
With regards to the voting system, I think there should be a referendum with all three currently proposed systems fully explained so we know what is being proposed and how it works. It does seem unreasonable that the percentage of the popular vote received translates so strangely into seats at Westminster.
I think virtually the only thing beyond doubt is that the polling results are in.
Conservative 306, Labour 258, LibDem, 57. Logically, therefore David Cameron should have first go at trying to form a new administration.
I've seen a quite a few comments saying that if I'd known Cameron was going to speak to the LibDems, or if Nick goes into government with the Conservatives I want a new election. The problem with that statement is it doesn't take into consideration anyone else. "If everyone had voted the way I wanted them to, there would be 650 MPs all of the same party and there wouldn't be an issue".
To be honest there were things said by all three parties during the election that I agreed with and things all three said that I disagreed with, but surely a reasonable interpretation of the result is that the country is sufficiently nervous about any of the parties and their policies going forward to allow anyone of them to have an overall majority.
I've also seen comments that say the Conservatives won so they should be able to form a minority government. I'm not sure how that benefits us at the present stage the clear risk there is that all the opposition parties vote against the Queen's speech and therefore a new election would have to be called (and quite possibly we would end up with exactly the same result). In my opinion, this should be the last possible alternative.
So it would appear the Liberal Democrats become the kingmakers after all. I don't think an alliance between the LibDems and the Conservatives is a problem. The bits of legislation that get passed should therefore be decent laws, passed in the national interest. The rubbish bits from both manifestos wouldn't get enough support from the other coalition partner and would therefore not get passed.
Gordon has announced his resignation whilst I've been typing this so the following will be even less thought out and more random than usual!
All three main parties are using the words stable responsible government. As a Labour/LibDem coalition would not create a majority administration, can an 'everyone but the Tories' government be stable. Will we be happy with whoever becomes Labour leader (and would therefore become Prime Minister) later this year? If a Lib/Lab coalition does come to pass, Dave is toast.
With regards to the voting system, I think there should be a referendum with all three currently proposed systems fully explained so we know what is being proposed and how it works. It does seem unreasonable that the percentage of the popular vote received translates so strangely into seats at Westminster.
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