baldysblog.co.uk

Lordy, Lordy, here comes the first TV Debate and the question, is it worth watching ? My personal opinion is rather like “Match of the Day”, watching the ‘highlights and all the goals’ will be far better than the actual thing itself unless you are a total fanatic or a “Media Person”.

Of course the ‘Match Reports’ will vary wildly and depending where you read them and what their particular ‘beef or bias’ lies. If the Main Editorial in the Independent today is anything to go by, in tomorrows Indy, “Clegg Won it, Hands Down…” For a flavour of just how crap this Editorial Staff can be, read this nonsense: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-dividing-lines-are-clear-ndash-and-theres-no-reason-to-fear-the-prospect-of-a-hung-parliament-1945055.htm

Changing the Voting System

When British Leyland started loosing substantial market share to imported cars, instead of changing what they were doing, they continued to manufacture crap cars until they “ran out of road” and then expected taxpayer subsidies.

The LibDems having failed to sell themselves as a potential Government to the electorate, instead of taking a hard look at themselves and changing what they are doing, want the Electoral System changed to suit them. A sort of Government ‘subsidy’ for their inefficiency. Does that make sense to anyone ?

Vote for Independent Candidates

WE the Electorate can totally destroy the “Party System” by voting for Independent candidates to represent our local interests at the National level, in fact technically, this is what we are supposed to do but we don’t.

We insist on voting for “Party Brands” rather than individuals and under such circumstances, First Past the Post results are inevitable as are two party politics none of which is enshrined in our Constitutional arrangements. The British way of doing these things is to give the “job” to one party or the other and despite the polling confusion, when push comes to shove, I suspect that this is what will happen on May 6th, the electorate would be daft to do anything else.

Rather than give the failed LibDems PR, we should be fighting for making it easier for Independents to get elected because proportional representation merely cements in place “Party Politics” and if we could break the back of that so that more than half our MPs are independent of any party whip (whipping should be outlawed and made a criminal offence), we immediately have gone a long way to dealing with the “Separation of Powers” issue. We could well have 5 year fixed terms in the majority of Parliaments because whilst a Government could fall, it would be possible for the Monarch to invite someone else to form another within the same Parliament.

The ‘Broad Tent’

All political parties are in effect “coalitions” so why not broaden that to the whole chamber ? Sure, I am just dreaming when I imagine that if persuasion were the currency of the Commons, perhaps the chamber would be full more often and the debates based on the merits of particular policies and actions rather than them being driven by party dogma.

It is not just politicians who have lost touch with the public, the Media have too and a good example is this TV debate tonight, by the media, for the media and talking to the media. In the USA, these TV debates are crucial in a huge country where the Presidential Candidates for any Party may be virtually unknown outside their own State, it gives US citizens an opportunity they might well otherwise never get. Also of course, through the Primaries, they get to choose likely candidates.

Where the Sam Hill does any of this apply over here ? Cameron has been Party Leader for what 5 years, Brown we are sick and tired of the sight of and Clegg, still nobody knows what it is and only 19-20 percent care about it anyway.

When I read the tripe pumped out by most of the Media, I wonder if during this election we are living in an “Alice in Wonderland” world. Did the Hadron Collider shift us into a parallel universe ?

For LibDem Supporters

I apologise to all who genuinely believe in and support the Liberal Democratic Party but let us face it, Clegg and his team have totally failed. They should be neck and neck with the Conservatives to form the next Government not wishing for a Hung Parliament where they hold the balance of power, in fact I suspect that with their luck, such a position would be the death of them and splinter their party.

If you want greater and better democracy, we need independents and the public prepared to vote for them. The very last thing we need is to further entrench the current “party system” with PR.

A UK ‘Federal’ Solution

I have often wondered whether moving the UK to a more Federal System where people elected to the Celtic Assemblies were also elected to Westminster but, only sat there as members of the UK Parliament ‘x’ days a week or, one week once a month. Then Westminster would be the “English Parliament” for the remainder of the time and might produce, in England at least, more independents.

The key point being that both power and considerable tax revenue currently wholly held by Westminster, would need to be devolved to the Celtic Assemblies and (most likely), the English Counties with Central Government only retaining the funding for those things it is most suitable for – Defence and so on.

I must admit that I get hot under the collar when I hear people talking about “Reform” and all they mean is bringing in PR and renaming The Lords, The Senate, neither of which ‘Constitutionally’ is pressing or significant compared with the Un-Holy Mess the House of Commons is in and the urgent necessity to strengthen Local Government… Still I can dream I suppose.

Idiotic Crap

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/pam-giddy-at-least-one-party-gets-the-urgency-of-political-reform-1945059.html

Pam Giddy comes from some outfit called “The Democratic Reform Company Ltd. http://www.power2010.org.uk/ who clearly don’t have much of a clue about anything a good example of which was the “talking heads” video on their front page, forget the ‘message’, they are too stupid to isolate the person talking from the background, not too smart.

But Worse…

This is the rattle of a simpleton, we don’t need reform of the voting system, this is an arrogance to suggest because “First Past The Post” is not enshrined in any way in our Constitutional arrangements if essentially we end up with just two parties in contention for Government, then one must assume that represents the wishes of the electorate. There is no electoral impediment to the LibDems gaining power except, the LibDems themselves.

It will never be possible to balance out each constituency perfectly and the reality is that broadly speaking Urban constituencies will favour Labour, Rural ones Tory or LibDems. The USA has a totally different and much fairer system that involves the electorate early on in nominating Presidential Candidates through Primaries but even so, Urban Americans will tend towards the Democrats and Rural Americans towards the Republicans. There is no ban on 3rd or 4th parties taking part in the process but, they rarely get too far and that too is the “will of the people”.

Proportional Representation

Introducing PR is little short of “positive discrimination” towards one political party, namely the LibDems as if they were an abused racial minority. There just had to be some form of PR in Northern Ireland for very obvious reasons, inclusion, to avoid violence and so on, there is no justification for its introduction into mainland politics.

The only reform that is needed is the outlawing of the Whip System and persuading the great British Public to elect Independents instead of voting for “Party Brands”. The MP is there to represent local interests at the National level not, the dogma and doggerel of any particular party, PR will only serve to entrench the Party System further.

The sad fact of the matter is not that LibDems are discriminated against it is that they have failed to attract popular support. Changing the voting rules is like a Premiership Football Manager demanding a change in the rules because his team can’t win the League, absolute botox. It amazes me that people who promote PR like this mush brain, prattle on about improving democracy and yet fail to see the obvious case for promoting Independent MPs as the solution rather than another set of rules designed to entrench party bias and privilege.