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The Independent once again led with another ‘cringe worthy’ editorial on what essentially is a ‘vote LibDem’ ticket which I wouldn’t mind except that they try to dress up their prejudices with ‘grandiose: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-this-historic-opportunity-must-not-be-missed-1962527.html My view on this is:

It is very simple, if you want to vote LibDem, then do so, it is not illegal between consenting adults in the privacy of the poll booth, as far as I know. But do not prattle on about PR being “a great principle of the age”, it really isn’t, the public just don’t give a toss about it. In terms of popular politics, PR is as about as burning an issue as the EU for most voters, whilst the “devotees” of either cause will bang on endlessly about it, nobody in the mainstream is even slightly bothered.

PR Is Not the Answer

If PR is the answer, just what the heck is the question ?

The reality is that “fairness” has nothing to do with the voting system, the key problem lies in low turnouts for each poll. If you go back to the 1950s, 80 percent or thereabouts was normal, today it is half that and if anybody imagines that PR will revitalise that, they are sadly mistaken and need a dark room to lie down in.

The LibDem special pleading for PR was based upon “it’s not fair to us” rather than any principle. Well Clegg has rather shot that one down through an excellent TV performance and has only faltered because of a lack of sensible policies and insufficient MPs that people (the general public), know about to look like they could form a viable front bench. The LibDems should emerge a lot stronger from this and formulate a policy platform that has a broader appeal, they were rather caught out by Clegg’s success this time around I feel.

No Time for UK Experiments

With the financial pressure on Greece now spreading to Portugal and Spain, the Money Markets are not in a tolerant frame of mind. Oh, I would agree with a view that the “Markets” can often behave irrationally and suddenly stampede but, do you want to bet on this not happening ? It is not scaremongering to say that a hung parliament ‘could’ have serious impacts on the UK economy and in particular, the value of Sterling, it must be part of the calculations of any intelligent voter. Also, a hung parliament will most certainly lead to another election within the year, why not decide it now and give someone the job ?

In due course, some form of PR may be part of a ‘solution’ in other more important constitutional reforms where we end up with say much larger constituencies returning multiple MPs or elected members of the Lords or, whatever you want to call it but even so, if you can’t get people to turn out to vote, no voting system will be ‘fair’ and this Editorial is just a load of puffed up rubbish pretending ‘principles’ where none exist, support the LibDems by all means but all this amounts to is: ” it is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

The Impending Economic Squeeze

There was an interesting article in the Independent by Hamish McRae about us all having to take our Greek Medicine, well worth a read:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-we-must-all-take-our-greek-medicine-1962313.html

My Comments

An interesting presentation of many elements of the current situation. One of the key problems that we face is rather like some of the comments posted already, too ready to only look backwards and bang on about ‘blame’ and ever ready to point the finger at their personal favourite ‘villain’.

Right now I am not at all sure who was really to blame but I do recall that an awful lot of people got swept along in the tide of “complacent foolishness” and wild expectations that the flood of cheap money ‘looking for a home’ was the natural consequence of the global expansion of trade and a permanent feature of it. “I have abolished Boom and Bust in the British economy”, being a prime example, I think that it will take time for a fuller picture to emerge, for now we need to move on.

A Lack of Innovation

One of the points made is the anger felt by the young towards the older generation who have placed these financial burdens on them and there is some justice in that, we in these post WWII generations have been singularly unimaginative in terms of real “Wealth Creation” and a prime example is that probably the most ‘original’ consumer product of the first decade of this century is the Apple iPhone which is a tad pathetic. The motor car is well over 100 years old and apart from lighter materials and greater refinement, is hardly that changed over that time. To me, I do not see that this recession will end and people going back to buying iPods and cars by the millions again as before, I think the wheel has turned, it is our “business model” that has failed rather than just the greed of this person or the stupidity of that one.

The Need for More Jobs

We really do need to reorder our economy but instead of the “White Heat of Technology” with some idea of Western economies doing R and D for products manufactured elsewhere, we down shift to a repair rather than replacement society which would be better for the environment. Teach young people to design, craft and make shoes as an example, use the benefits of technology but move towards the higher cost and the handmade as opposed to the factory produced. In doing so hundreds of thousands of jobs could be created along with a better society. We need to adopt a “Less is More” approach, we will have to in the end because this business model is about played out.