General Election 2015 Reaction #3

So I've said some unkind things about UKIP in the past and, truthfully, I hope to say more unkind things about them in the future.

But despite their best behind-the-scenes efforts to embarrass themselves and everyone who voted for them, they've been pretty much robbed of the opportunity to do it properly by our first-past-the-post system. The BBC & Electoral Reform Society do a back-of-a-napkin run down of how parliament might look with proportional representation.

It's hard not to come to the conclusion that the make-up of Parliament (and the ability of a party to influence decision making) in May 2015 is not enough a reflection of how people voted and too much an artefact of first-past-the-post. UKIP voters and a few others would be justified, I think, for feeling a bit sore.

General Election 2015 Reaction #2:

So what about the Tories? A triumph! Historic! The sweetest victory!

Nope.

They've lost their comfortable majority in coalition and and replaced it with next to no majority at all. And they've promised an in-out referendum on the European Union in 2017 – so lots of infighting for them then. Oh, and they've now got no friends in parliament.

So to re-cap: The slimmest of majorities. Lots of infighting. No friends.

Awesome win guys.

Granted, it's worse for Labour and Lib Dems. But that's hardly a victory for the country is it.

General Election 2015 Reaction #1

Ugh.

Mostly just ugh.

More informatively though: I guess 5 years of weak opposition, followed by announcing 'hey, you could vote for us' a few weeks before polling stations open maybe isn't the most winningest of strategies.

Lesson learned.

Liberal Democrats have obviously spent 5 years being no opposition at all. No opposition to the, frankly, daft and downright irresponsible austerity push circa 2010 – 2012; Osborne's big plan to magic away the deficit in double quick time by... oh... making the UK a smaller economy, less able to pay down the deficit. Nor the later pot-pourri of economic incoherence after the plan had to be abandoned.

And Labour, despite actually being easily the most economically literate of the three big parties, have been pathetic in opposition. No doubt nursing an open wound that left them vulnerable in attack after the UK was sucked into the 2007 US sub-prime crisis on their watch. Perhaps if the Lib Dems had cared a little more about veracity, the level of debate could have risen above kicking Labour while they were down, and we'd all be better off for it – but instead they were only too happy to join in. With friends like those, who needs enemies... though of course we just got to see what that particular piece of opportunism ultimately ended up doing for the Lib Dem party.

Doh!

Also, ugh.

Be Careful What UKIP For...

Well, grudging congratulations... I suppose.

Prediction: UKIP will embarrass themselves and those who voted for them.

Scrooge

Iain Duncan...

A blog of one's own...

So I retired my old blog, I didn't like it.

Too many posts were much too wordy – I was aspiring to serious writing after all. And once in a blue moon the reverse happened, an interesting topic got squeezed into leather pants much tighter and shorter than respectable. Blog entries not really being long enough for serious writing.

So here's a new blog / website, ready for 2014. Great things will happen. Maybe.