Posts by Rich Lock
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If anyone's interested, the results of the 2010 election, in terms of percentage of votes cast, and seats won, are here.
The briefest of looks at the results (libdems win under a quarter of the seats of labour, on 23% of the votes compared to labours only slightly bigger 29%, and 'others' win 23 seats - nearly half as many as the libdems - with 3.5% of the votes) is quite a strong argument for some sort of voting reform.
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to WaynePhillips,
Someone educate me please - who was pushing for the MMP referendum? A political party, or concerned citizens?
It was a referendum on AV, not MMP. The background is here.
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Anyway, some thoughts that aren't replies:
- Apart from what's already been said, I think we're going to see a substantial rise in the green vote. There's a lot of very disgruntled ex-labour, ex-libdem champagne socialists out there.
- I live in the UKIP heartland of east england. It's very disquieting seeing the rise in support for them amongst the locals.
- having voted in three elections in NZ under MMP, I now take the slightest of opportunities to proselytise wildly and at length to anyone who'll listen/not get out of the corner quickly enough. It's notable how little understanding there is of the benefits and problems with any of the alternatives, even amongst those who are 1) smart and educated, and 2) in favour of reform.
- every single major party (with the exception of the SNP if you count them as a major party) has run a really, really shitty campaign. Pissups, breweries, etc.
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to Matthew L,
which means, at the very least, that the NHS will be gone by 2020
It's that kind of hyperbole that puts me off the progressive movement. I will cheerfully bet you my life savings that even if the Conservatives win by a crushing landslide and Cameron rules by fiat, your prediction will not come true.
Since the foundations have been put in place for the sell-off already, and we're so far down the road that one half-decent shove by a re-elected Tory government will complete the job, I think you should probably do a bit more homework before making foolish bets. I'll leave you your house and pension, but feel free to send over your beer fund.
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Is that Sun cover trying to remind people (pork, bacon, Milliband's face pulling) that Ed is a yid?
Given the number of people who have commented on that, you really do have to wonder, as Russell says.
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to Zach Bagnall,
In the 2012 referendum, 2/3 voted against electoral reform, but here we are.
It was 2011, and the question was: "At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?"
That is, 2/3rds voted against changing from FPTP to AV, NOT against electoral reform per se. It might seem like a pedantic distinction, but I think the meme that 'the electorate doesn't want reform' is damaging.
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There's been one or two posts on this thread that have touched on the current consumerist lifestyle, with a side note of resigned acceptance. While we (as a species) all like Comfort and New Shiny Things, I think it also needs to noted that the current culture of continuous upgrades and disposable products was more-or-less deliberately engineered by giving our psychological triggers a damn good spanking.
Jaques Peretti* did a very good BBC documentary about it - 'the men who made us spend', which is on YouTube, and I highly recommend. First part here:
*oddly, Jaques Peretti was originally a clubs-and-drugs reporter when he first appeared on my radar, so it feels rather weird to see him doing proper serious reporting.
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Hard News: Behind Baltimore, in reply to Howard Edwards,
every district or city has its own police force, i.e. there is no US Police Force (other than the FBI of course)
There are city/metropolitan police departments in the major cities, separate sherrif's departments in smaller towns, which are separate to but interact with the state police departments outside the town/city limits, plus a plethora of Federal agencies often referred to colloquially as the 'alphabet soup', or 'alphabet boys' - FBI, ICE, DEA, ATF are the main ones, but there's a bunch of smaller less well-known ones, too, such as the treasury dept (which I understand is formally part of the secret service, which itself is separate to the CIA). Plus a lot of states have their own in-state Bureaus of Investigation or other semi-separate organisations
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Envirologue: Too Big to Fail – Why…, in reply to BenWilson,
Solar power falls on us from the sky.
And the amount of land space we need to harness more than we'll ever need is insignificant.
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Hard News: This Anzac Day, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
I’m not arguing with the work the “Heroes” charities do. I’m arguing with their labelling. As far as I can see, the only pre-requisite for “Hero” status is to join the armed forces. Volunteering to kill people doesn’t seem particularly heroic to me. In order to benefit from the “Hero” charities, you need to have had someone you were trying to kill manage to kill or nearly kill you first. That doesn’t seem to me to justify “Hero” status either.
On the “Keep Calm and Carry On” bit, I think we differ on cause and effect. The timing was indeed no coincidence. But the “national yearning for a simpler time”, and the lack of social discord and breakdown is a result of the success of rhetoric and propaganda that has convinced the UK masses that the huge degradation in their public services and employment is something outside everyone’s control (like their experience of war), to be soldiered through. This lets The City off the hook, and lets the Government off the hook for not doing more to recoup national losses from The City. The people SHOULD be marching in the streets, but (unlike in the 70s and 80s) they’ve now been successfully convinced that that would be un-British or something.
I think we're both reaching the same conclusion, but ascribing different weight to different signs/evidence.
The word 'hero' has become incredibly over-used. However, I do have some sympathy for charities using it. Despite it's devaluation, I don't think any other word would have had the resonance that causes contributors to reach into their pockets.
Yes, the people should be marching in the streets. My own theory is that the last large protest of any coherence and significance (the 'not in my name' anti-war protests in 2001/2002) were so roundly ignored - the parliament of the day couldn't have said 'go fuck yourselves' more clearly without actually saying it - that it's taken the legs out from under people. They're still a lot of angry people out there, but they're also despairing: 'if that didn't work, what will?'