I feel obliged to point out, since I really think we must beware of our new government, that on a vote of only 44% of the actual voters, it has, as a result of our absurd voting system, been delivered power which is likely to be absolute. The old adage of absolute power corrupting is… Read more
Category:
GE2019
Were the Postal Votes really up by 19%?
The ‘Herald Scotland’ has reported concerns over Conservative links to an election count firm involved in postal voting. Yet the irony seems to be that the problem in England and Wales is even worse. As AC Grayling suggests: Mere speculation, but: dodgy postal vote spike, dodgy Tory funding, Kuenssberg breaking electoral rules – what’s the… Read more
A memorial to 2019 and – regrettably – a sneaking suspicion for 2020
Best wishes and hope (albeit – personally – in increasing desperation!) for everyone who has been kind enough to read us and visit, for 2020. May we all endeavour to change the course that seems to have been set…. Read more
The poison of disinformation
Five years too late I have discovered this short piece on ‘non-linear warfare’. But its conclusions still hold true: It is very much links up with this thoughtful piece by Adam Ramsay on Open Democracy, which speaks of the ‘poison of disinformation’. Most people are thoroughly disorientated and the Mainstream Media are, intentionally or not,… Read more
‘Our democracy’ is highly undemocratic
These statistics are from the Electoral Reform Society for the recent general election. I wonder if all those youthful Labour campaigners would like to know that, for all their effort, they got a third less MPs than they would have done if they were Conservatives – and half as many as the SNP. But pity… Read more
‘The public love him. Wherever he turns up he’s greeted like a rock star’
The title is a quote from a BBC paper review from 9th December about Jeremy Corbyn and his election campaigning. Skwawkbox has reported that this element of the review (the BBC link is here) when repeated a hour later had disappeared. This is even more evidence that it was the media what won it for… Read more
Self-immolation is a new political fashion
That at least seems the only explanation for a nation which has endured a decade of austerity to be electing the self same tormenters for another session. I take three things out of this: First, our electoral system needs a thorough overhaul. A party elected on a minority of the votes cast has achieved an… Read more
Is the youth quake going to make the difference?
I read this lovely tweet this evening: As someone who was a first time voter when Thatcher came to power, I only hope that the #YouthQuake comes true. Not all the boomers are gammon and some have been waiting 40 years for the end of ‘greed is good’. Please make an old man very happy…. Read more
I wonder where the milkman is?
The photoshoppers have arrived – along with the Prime Minister in a fridge……. Read more
NI GE19 (7) Predictions
Prediction is the surest way of making an idiot of oneself, but it is fun nevertheless. The predictions will be made impartially but from a Remain viewpoint. Thus, the best-case scenario is for a Remain candidate to win and the worst-case, a Leave candidate. Alliance and SDLP candidates count as a point each, SF 0.5… Read more