The UK: Show the Tories the door

An utter disservice to democracy

Before I went away, I had applied for a postal ballot knowing I would not be in the country when the UK General Election takes place. Sadly, our council in its lethargy and lack of alacrity must have thought all applications for a postal ballot were from those who out of some sort of incapacity could not make it to the polling station.

Despite the fact that my application went in the day after the election was announced and I posted the additional information they asked for a few days later, the postal ballots were not posted until the third week of June, by which time it was too late.

What I even found more annoying was, I was already on the voters’ register for 10 years at the same address. I unfailingly renew my registration every year, and I received a voter’s registration card which I used for the local elections in early May. Another card was mailed to me for this election if I were to choose to vote in person, but my postal ballot was nowhere to be found.

I can only wonder about the many Greater Manchester voters that have been so poorly served by the electoral services unit with regards to postal ballots.

On balance, 14 years of failure

If there is anything to consider about the last 14 years of the Conservatives in power, I reckon we are at a net negative if a balance sheet were set out about the benefits and the demerits of having that party preside over our dear country of many nations.

When I returned to the UK in late 2012, I was a European citizen who had spent over 12 years in the Netherlands with untrammelled rights of a European freely able to visit, live, and work in one of 28 countries, if I chose to. If I was gifted with any sense of prognostication, I could have naturalised as a Dutch citizen any time from 2005, but I never thought the UK would risk leaving the EU, we were too invested in the project.

I was wrong, as in the 5 Prime Ministers that the Tories have given us since 2010, each in their own way has gambled with livelihoods for personal and partisan expediency to the detriment of the fortunes of our country. There is no need to rehash the points, we are much worse off, where a parliament that is self-servingly incapable of the kind of collegiate thought to progress anything.

Having lost a sense of responsibility

The entrenchment of the entitlement to power has become so ingrained that the facts of the situation mean nothing if we can be scared into believing the populist simple solutions for practically difficult problems.

The Tories need some time in opposition to regain a sense of what the responsibility of governing and impacting positively on people’s lives beyond culture wars and pandering to the basest of our human instincts. The idea that a limited company masquerading as a party with the face of an indolent representative who has the gift of the gab and nothing else to offer, being our future is a fantasy begging for the unfortunate.

The best option for government today is the Labour Party, if only for the fact that they would appreciate the opportunity to govern and do much more to attend to the atrocities passing for policy that the Tories have enmeshed themselves in without the quality of scrutiny necessary among them and beyond to jettison the bizarre and refine the barely acceptable.

A possible future in our votes

The Labour Party offers a new direction that will address many of the issues of today, it is change-focused, future-looking, ready to grow and invest in our economy, seeking to divest power from central government, helping people back to work, addressing the immigration issue that has been lost by the Tories, and introducing the modern industrial strategy. Their manifesto reads like something to have expectations for rather than one that offers trepidation and fear.

The polls will suggest Sir Keir Starmer will be kissing the hand of the king on the 5^th of July 2024. I enjoyed some years of Labour-driven prosperity from 1997 to 2000 before I emigrated to the Netherlands, and this prosperous spell continued until the financial crash.

It is evident that after so long in power the Tories are bereft of new or useful ideas, they cannot even look on their record of the past 14 years which have given us some of the worst Prime Ministers to ever preside over His or Her Majesty’s Government.

I appreciate some are too tribal to vote for another party, but the future of our country is at stake, we cannot sacrifice this to sentiment when competence is required. I would rather have a boring competent and disciplined government than an entertaining relatable but totally incompetent politician run the show. It is not pot luck, lives are impacted beyond your door.

The UK: The evidence for radical electoral reform

A difficult poll

Even the mother of all parliaments and one of the world’s oldest democracies is fraught with problems, issues and irregularities.

Yesterday, the citizens of United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and Great Britain went to the polls to elect representatives for their parliament called the House of Commons, however, the people did not give a clear majority mandate to any one political party and with that comes what is know as a hung parliament.

Sadly, there are people who did not get to vote because of the poor logistics of not anticipating the possible turnout such that there were long queues and polls had to close at 22:00 hours leaving hundreds disenfranchised.

Certain councils catered for students quite differently from residents even though all were selecting representatives whose work would affect them locally and nationally – there is no doubt that the system is broken.

Change and reform required

Balloting has to move from papers but electronic ballots must have a paper trail for verification and confidence in the system and there should be more flexibility to extend times of the polls if voters have arrived at polling stations before the deadline.



The most disturbing part of this election is the discrepancy between votes cast and seats won – the leading party polled 36.1% of the votes and will take 47.2% of the seats whilst the third party which polled 23% of the votes 8.8% of the seats.

This is manifestly wrong and does not reflect the clear and express wishes of the electorate; it calls for a radical reform of how our votes are translated to representation with a proper correlation between votes and the acquisition of power.

An expired system

The first-past-the-post system might have worked for past but there is no way how this can be the system for the 21st Century.

Today the Liberal Democrats have the opportunity to demand a change that allows for the people have their wishes fully expressed when they form a coalition with whatever party can garner the support and will to run the country after this election.

Dividends of democracy

In the graphic that shows the rewards of proportional representation, the UK Independence Party and the British National Party weigh in with a possible 32 Members of Parliament between them.

Whilst they constitute a right-wing of almost unsavoury politics, the people who voted for them are part of our democracy and as I did say in comments I made on Facebook, having these parties with representation in the House of Commons is enough a price to pay to ensure that the voice of the majority is heard loud and clear.

All the dividends of a democracy cannot all be profitable but any other system that takes better account of the percentage of votes polled nationally must be better than what we have now – electoral reform is inevitable, the people must demand it and get it.

The UK: I endorse democratic reform

How does your vote count?

For the very first time in a very long time, the elections in the United Kingdom have been gripping, everyone has been offering a message of change but the real change required has not received the airing required.

The parliamentary system in the UK makes politics very local rather than national, you vote for a representative of your constituency who happens to be a member of one of the established political parties and the party with the most representatives has its leader crowned the Prime Minister.

There are ways in which the party leader is the charismatic face of your local representative who might not even be local but parachuted in to represent the party to the people – there, if any of the contestants has a track record in that locality, it is possible that a political upset might arise.

Change from ideology

However, it appears voting intentions might have moved on from political fastidiousness and ideology, personalities might matter and policies are interesting but the force of mandate sometimes allows for legislation that we would never have wanted if we had the choice.

The economy, immigration and public services have been given all sorts of glosses and opinions but no one party seems to have all the answers that would really work for the national as a whole – we need a system that allows for the best people to be called into the service in these tough times regardless of party affiliation.

You have to be a member of parliament (MP) to be a minister of the crown and thereby you are accountable to the House of Commons, however, if you are not an MP, you have to be bumped up to the House of Lords and in some ways, you are beyond accountability to the elected chamber.

The choices are not people

For the first time, there is a possibility that two men younger than I am will take the reins of government, the likelihood is that David Cameron of the Conservative Party will be Prime Minister – after 5 years as Leader of the Opposition, he is hardly representative of change – but he will be a change from 13 years of Labour government.

Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats the usually third party was an absolutely fresh face especially after the Leaders’ debates and I think he won 2 of those three debates – what was refreshing was he addressed the questions, engaged the people and spoke sensibly. He had not become a sloganeering beacon of clichéd sound bites that seemed to sound profound but had no substance.

Gordon Brown comes with baggage, much from the way Labour was swept to power in 1997 through the economic prosperity to the crisis and humongous deficit that the UK now has. He does have experience of leadership that others do not have, but one wonders if he holds the keys to a greater future for the UK.

Democratic reform is what I want

I have no man to endorse of the ones we have to choose from but I endorse radical electoral reform – one that allows for votes to count both locally and nationally, one that moves us from the silos of political ideology to better considerations for all options that might be presented for the good of the people and one that is centred on progress that allows the unity of all talents as war cabinet with representatives of all major parties.

This electoral reform can only come from forcing cooperation between the parties by the strength of the numbers that they poll, their popular support rather than their number of MPs, for instance the Labour Party took a parliamentary majority with just about 35% of the vote in the last election.

That was hardly representative of the 65% that did not vote for the Labour Party but they have held power with an assumedly strong mandate for 5 full years.

Change comes with the Liberal Democrats

Honestly, a strong turnout for the Liberal Democrats holds the key to better electoral representation because it would force reform where we need it in representation, in purpose and in accountability; it is that once in a lifetime for the people to demand and get change in democratic reform.

The Conservatives and the Labour Party benefit disproportionately from the status quo without carrying the full resolve of the majority and the real intentions of the people, for once, a hung parliament might well force the agenda in the direction of what is good for the people at home and abroad and this is why I endorse democratic reform – by consequence it comes by giving the Liberal Democrats your vote.

The Day of the Toothpicks

Piffle at Westminster

In politics, the Night of Long Knives has resonance, be it, 1934 when Hitler purged Germany of his opponents or 1962 when Harold Macmillan sacked 7 members of his cabinet, 2006 brings us the Day of the Toothpicks, people at the bottom rung of the ministerial ladder act to impose a resignation on the Prime Minister.

So, seven junior ministers resigned from the Blair government yesterday saying they had lost confidence in the leadership of Tony Blair to take the party forward and in readiness for the next election.

It is clear that since Mr Blair the Prime Minister had announced that he would not run in the next election which at the earliest would be 2009 or very latest 2010, a good few impatient people would be on his case to abdicate from the day after he won a third successive victory for the Labour Party.

The restless press and Labour Party have been on the verge of apoplexy trying to read when the Prime Minister would depart, we cannot entirely discount the machinations of an organ grinder who lives next door and who has played second fiddle to Tony so long, the tune is sounding like – Now is my time, get out of the way.

Chancellor of the executor

Gordon Brown cannot be blameless in what has lead to Tony Blair’s accusation of disloyalty and discourteousness from the most senior of those who resigned; it would make one wonder if Gordon Brown is the right man for Prime Minister of Great Britain in this dispensation of the New World Order.

Mr Watson who was a junior Defence Minister might have managed a pen knife as opposed to the toothpicks that the other Parliamentary Private Secretaries lanced into Mr Blair’s back. It would appear the only damage caused would be to the material of the PM’s suit, none of those people have a patch of Caesar’s Brutus even if Mr Blair accorded a polite – Et tu, Brute? – to Mr Watson.

And so, it appears Mr Blair would make an announcement today to clear up the air about when he is leaving, it might gladden Mr Brown’s heart, but it may not be as smooth sailing as everyone would want it to be.