baldysblog.co.uk

Oh dear, day nine and gloom has settled over all the Media with the latest polls indicating a shrinking Tory lead and a poll showing that 32 per cent of the public hope for a hung Parliament, against 28 per cent who want a Tory majority and 22 per cent a Labour one. Lib Dem voters prefer a deal with Labour in a hung Parliament. Lord what a weak and gutless Country we have become.

Labour launched their Manifesto on Monday, the Conservatives yesterday and the LibDems today. The simple fact of the matter is that Party Manifestos from whatever party, are useless in terms of detailed policies and at best “mood music”.

A Lazy Electorate

I suspect that the public is only too well aware that the “Deficit” exists, don’t think it effects them directly, would prefer to ignore it and are totally bored with the election anyway, the viewing figures for Thursday will be interesting.

The news this morning that a substantial number of voters want a “Hung Parliament” is little short of horrific and totally against the British way of doing things which is give one Party the job then bitch like Hell if they don’t succeed. But in the end, a Country gets the Government it deserves and if it is a Hung Parliament, watching Sterling slide from May 7th onwards and prices rise substantially through the Summer will be the voter’s ‘just reward’ for cowardice in not picking either Labour or Conservative.

I wonder what the impact might be of Sterling devalued by 50 percent on the PIGS and IMF situation on bailing out Greece ?

When society gets this weak psychologically, it becomes dangerous because from such swamps the desire for “Strong Government and Dictatorship” arise, we shall see.

An Economists View of Manifestos

A more interesting view came from an Economist, Hamish McRae who was making the point that all the British Political Parties are talking crap because the current position is that Britain has ceased to be of much significance Globally the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are far more important. I do not agree with all of his arguments but some are quite interesting such as whilst the US and EU will remain important trading partners, India will be far more important to the UK in future decades, but read for yourself, well worth the effort.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-our-future-is-out-of-our-hands-1943849.html

It’s the Economy, Stupid…

These words were attributed to Bill Clinton and there is a truth in them just as AJP Taylor the Historian always argued that all wars were economic in their origins.

My problem with the idea that the USA is less important and China, India and others are now important is that I think it is crap and simply because it is all based upon “nothing new” and allow me to explain that further. So Indian and Chinese people being able to buy cars and feel that their material lives are “getting better” is fine but there is a problem, nothing new is being created. These people are buying into “white man’s toys” and there is absolutely no benefit for them in doing that because they are all “past toys and business models”.

How much of China’s current growth is based upon ‘property’ in one form or another, the very thing that bought the global economy to its knees ? Name a single ‘technology’ that is brand new today and you will find that pretty much most, have their origins in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries and this is the problem.

I have no objection to “Coalitions” as such except in the UK and right now. You correctly point out the ‘sentiments’ of the Bond Markets and this is the point surely. Britain is a stable democracy where the “rule of law” ensures that foreign investors are not likely to have their funds or assets within the UK confiscated arbitrarily however, we “don’t do coalitions’ as our normal way of conducting politics and this is not a time to experiment.

If we can get the number of MPs reduced to around 400, we might well have to consider a transferable vote system because of the larger constituencies. However, even that might be viewed differently if the UK moved to a Federal System…lots of meaty arguments on this one !

As to so called “electoral reform”, when this is said it is purely on the basis of benefiting the LibDems who lack the ability to reclaim the “Radical Wing” of British politics that they lost to Labour 100 years ago and want a hand out. No, in two years of a dreadful Labour Government, the LibDems have failed to make a breakthrough with the electorate and steal votes from Labour. They (Libdems) still languish on 19-20 percent of the polls, if they couldn’t do it now, when will they ever ? And for their abysmal failure to sell themselves to the public as a potential Government, we are to change the electoral system just for them ? Not on your bloody Nellie !

To change the picture back to where it should be, we do not need a single bit of legislation except perhaps one, to ban the use of Party Whips and make it a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of Life Imprisonment for any person to try and coerce the vote of any MP, inside or outside the House. If the public can be persuaded to stop voting for “Party Brands” and instead vote for the best man or woman to represent them locally at the National level.

Fill the House with independent MPs and the proportional representation of political parties, for their (party), benefit rather than ours, becomes irrelevant. The PM is “The First Among Equals” across the whole House and should not be just the biggest loud mouth bully in the Labour Party that everybody in the Labour Party is too scared to challenge. Yes we need reform, our politics are now at their lowest ebb ever.

We need reforms but rather like the idiotic cries over PR and the Lords, most idiots are far too easily distracted. The most burning issue for real democrats in the UK must be the “Separation of Powers” between the Executive and the Legislature. Today we live in a one party Dictatorship for up to 5 years following a General Election as was demonstrated by Brown over the Lisbon Treaty and his arse licking MPs on the backbenches (+the cowardice of Clegg and the LibDems – MEP Pension + Spanish Wife he is totally in awe of), who owe their seats to the Labour Party and the totally daft British voters – well those who actually bother to vote.

The real problem has nothing much to do with political parties and their leaders or even ‘Reforms’, it is mainly to do with a lazy and indolent electorate more interested in an “Easy” rather than “Committed Life”. Regardless of your political persuasion, the best result for the UK would be a Cameron Government with a working majority, pretty much anything else is going to be rather amusing but ultimately bloody as in blood on the Streets. In this context, some stuff I both understand and agree with but broadly anyone who images that PR is the answer, didn’t understand the question in the first place and below a bit of a ‘classic’ in terms of reality. PR is a simple device to continue “Party Political Strangleholds” and their organisations, on our democracy, do please wake up.

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental asylum, I asked the director, “How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized?”

‘Well,’ said the Director, ‘we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.’

‘Oh, I understand,’ I said. ‘A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.’

‘No.’ said the Director, ‘A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?’