The New Labour Torture and War Crimes Party is squealing at the boundary commission changes. I hate their rank hypocrisy. Anyone with the remotest interest in psephology knows that a combination of shire constituencies being historically larger, and recent drift from city centres, gives New Labour an advantage over the vicious Tories. I do not favour First Past the Post at all, but the electorate hates Nick Clegg so much that FPTP has become beloved of the people as the best defence against him. Fairly equal constituency sizes is a necessary feature for FPTP to have even a smidgeon of validity.
New Labour’s argument that they should have less electors per constituency because their geographical areas contain more illegal immigrants and persons too thick to register to vote, is hilarious. We are now to take into account in the democratic process those who do not bother to register, let alone vote? Actually most of those “ghost” people are a hypothetical posit by government statisticians, because they do not fill in the census either. You can surmise their existence in other ways. I posted about Stratford earlier. Did you know that in Stratford and in Tower Hamlets, either there are many people there who officially do not exist, or they produce over half as much more sewerage per person than anyone else? Anyway, I digress.
Anyone can register to vote. the “Transient population” argument does not wash because there is no longer a single annual registration – here in Thanet the register is updated once a month, for example. If you have chosen not to be a part of the political process – which should be a right not to be part – you do not count in it and you should not count in it. You cannot be psychically chalked up as a supporter of Harriet fucking Harman.
The advantage to New Labour over the Conservatives was about 5% at the 2010 election.
Here is how many votes it takes to elect one MP:
DUP Nasty Proddie Bigots 21,027
New Labour War Criminal and Torturer 33,858
Sinn Fein Ex-Murderers 34,388
Tory Vicious Sneering Bastards 34,979
SDLP Rather Nice People 36,990
Alliance Sickly Nice People 42,762
Plaid Cymru Ineffectual Quasi-Nationalists 55,131
SNP Hooray! 81,898
Lib Dem Lying Two Faced Traitor Clegg 119,934
Green Very Nice But Need To Eat More Meat 285,612
Not forgetting, with no MPs
UKIP Like BNP With O Levels infinity 919,471 votes
BNP Hitler Loving Scum infinity 564,321 votes
Ulster Conservatives Like DUP With O Levels infinity 102,361 votes
Respect Green Leotard Tendency infinity 33,251 votes
Can’t wait for details of the Scottish boundary proposals.
It is insulting to describe fellow citizens who may very well have decided that voting is a farce under present circumstances as “thick”. Arguably the least enlightened ones are those who persist in “choosing” between substantially identical parties.
“I hear Gordon Brown, George Robertson, John Reid and Malcolm Rifkind are lined up. Walkover!”
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Without doubt the biggest asset of the Yes campaign will be the No campaign. I already have in mind an idea for a billboard. It will carry a montage of portraits of the people you mention and the caption: ‘Who says No? All the Yes Men!’
Eddie! good fences make good neighbours. When people like Blair cross the boundaries of human decency, others get disconcerted, and start seeing double polar bears on the arctic wasteland where logic tells them no polar bears should be.
Quelcrime, are you saying Bliar needs electrocution lessons? How now Brown cow, or sintax lessons, repeat 1,000 times Heil Me! or rhetoryc lessons.
They are both equally revolting in their speech mannerisms owing to the fact that they are produced from the same gravy train factory.
Good one, Vronsky. Print them up and stick them up yourself if necessary. Everything counts when it’s an important issue.
I remember in 1999, taking a colour picture of a bus passenger who had his head blown open by a NATO bomber who didn’t even bother to check if there was any traffic approaching the bridge he destroyed, and put it on a poster with a picture of Robin Cook. The dead man’s picture was captioned “Foreign Secretary Robin Cook” and the Cook picture was captioned “Another Mindless Redhead”. There were a couple of others but that was the most effective one. I wonder if anyone noticed before the fuzz took them down.
“They are both equally revolting in their speech mannerisms”
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Have you noticed that Cameron has Blair’s (rather patronising) habit of beginning sentences with “Look…”
Anno
I would say to you that I mean Blair’s nervous teenager act replete with, y’know, verbal ticks.
Sorry, tics. Thinking of vermin for some reason.
Total crap presumably from the new editor of the Independent. I note the bombing of Libya is referred to as an ‘intervention’. It is only our ‘reputation’ that matters apparently.
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[…]Last week’s report on the unlawful killing of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi civilian whose death was first reported by Robert Fisk in this newspaper in 2004, was a reminder of how much the Iraq war tarnished Britain’s reputation abroad. So The Independent on Sunday’s cautious support for our limited military intervention in Libya – with explicit UN authority and Arab League endorsement – is a measure of how much David Cameron has been able to recover from the mistake of his predecessor.
[…]
Mr Cameron, on the other hand, has shown some skill in finessing his party’s Euroscepticism and, by working with Nicolas Sarkozy in the Libya intervention, he has healed some of the diplomatic wounds of Iraq and learned those lessons. If he can extricate our forces from overstaying our mission in Afghanistan; if he can expunge the stain of British complicity in torture; and if he can make amends for British abuses of Iraqi civilians – then there is a hope that Britain, with a more realistic understanding of its capability, could regain some of the ethical role in the world that it lost after its mistaken response to 9/11
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http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-can-britain-regain-its-ethical-role-2352670.html
Craig, Off Topic:
Things just get stranger
http://www.allgov.com/US_and_the_World/ViewNews/Lloyds_Sues_Members_of_Saudi_Royal_Family_for_Funding_Al_Qaeda_in_911_Attacks_110913
Two more repellent characters. One from the sewer of the BBC and the other from the stench of the HoC.
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150304129026305&set=a.426037731304.186024.144144931304&type=1&theater
Have you heard the latest suggestions to attack our already dwindling incomes?
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‘Extending VAT to nearly all spending. The current system sees means consumers are not charged VAT on items such as food and children’s clothing’
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The Mirrlees Review, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, claimed that the UK tax system was inefficient and complex.
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In a blueprint for long-term reform, it said an overhaul of the system would benefit the economy by tens of billions of pounds and create thousands of jobs.
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Ideas included abolishing property stamp duty and expanding VAT
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14903028
TFS, that isn’t so strange. There are the redacted pages of the 9/11 Commission report which concerned Saudi Arabia, which I think is on Daniel Ellsberg’s list of “most wanted leaks”. Here are some links you can check:
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http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/08/9-11-2011-201108?currentPage=1
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http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=17927
Rainborough,
Fair point I know. Treid to allow for it by including the point about not voting being a huma right.
Eddie
You haven’t got over your precious New Labour turning out to be a bunch of war criminals and torturers. Don’t suppose you ever will get over it. Does not being entirely serious all the time disqualify me from pointing it out? No.
Craig, you’ll know the answer to this
Isn’t there some international law that requires a country to protect the citizens of another country?
Mary, please if you’re going to link to such offensive scum as those two tory boys, at least give a health warning in advance because I nearly puked over the computer when their smug mushes suddenly appeared and it’s nearly lunch time too.
TFS,
Broadly, no. There are specific exceptions – rescue at sea, how you behave towards civilians in wartime.
This thuggish looking German brigadier has just been speaking to BBC News about the attacks in Kabul yesterday that went on for 20 hours! He was speaking in his capacity as an ISAF representative. I didn’t know that Germany were there.
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http://www.isaf.nato.int/about-isaf/leadership/brigadier-general-carsten-jacobson.html
Old Mark,
There is more to be represented than the population numbers. It has to be based on area, services required, etc. The Isle of White is a mere spec on the map compared to either the Northern or Western Isles, it’s smaller than North Uist. It does seem from your figures to be thinly represented, but that is no argument for attacking the representation given to other, more scattered, islands.
It might make sense to link the Western Isles to Skye, but it is a totally different case, being joined to the mainland by a bridge.
Mary: Yes, Germany has indeed by in Afghanistan for some time. Here’s some of the fine work they’ve been doing:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/07/us-german-afghan-rift
Voting is important. The suffragettes fought for women’s right to vote. Problem is … it has become a farce. No choice – Three right-wing evil parties. I was a Labour C Party Sec at one point – we passed a resolution demanding a second UN vote before any action in Iraq. They declared our meeting not quorate. By their reckoning, no meeting for 20 years previously would have been quorate. Changing the rules in order to win became their stock in trade.
Harriet Harman voted for Iraq but, when wanted votes later, declared she hadn’t really been in favour. So, was she weak and ineffectual, stupid or duplicitous? Dunno. One of them.
I see Jack Straw has signed the EDM about Palestine’s bid for statehood. That’s an easy choice now he’s out of power and does not have to put his money where his mouth was. He wouldn’t be openly supportive when in power.
Do I trust him? After all this stuff about rendition, control orders, torture etc? No.
Red Ed? He’s about as red as the sea.
Even if you do have the education and time to make yourself informed – which is hard – there really is no choice on offer.
I love the interweb, it’s where you find things like the
http://www.isaf.nato.int/images/stories/File/Media-Visit-Docs/ISAF%20Media%20Ground%20Rules%20and%20Hold%20Harmless%20Agreements.pdf
TFS & Clark
Big thanks for your interest in the Saudi connection. There is much to disclose since Robin Cook told us throughout the 80s Bin Laden was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally “the database”, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen including Bin Laden who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.
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Robin predicted the ‘blow-back’ yet he secretly knew this blow-back would be coveted and engineered by Britain and America to promote terror initiated wars, the bread and butter of a lucrative arms trade; from the £2.6 billion/year street corner Al-Yamamah deal to the American weapons and F15’s contracts worth $100’s billions. Pacts that would buy the souls of Statesman, Senator and Royalty alike and snuff out any life force that dared to intervene or expose. For the Saudis it would be the owner of an entire Cotswolds hamlet called Glympton that would procure and finance the training of Saudi terrorist and work closely with military and civilian intelligence to pull off the ‘big one’ and convince a naive and gullible British and American public that Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran must be destroyed and conquered to prevent terrorists attacks on home soil.
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And thus it came to pass on a cold November late morning, with a game cart laden with many a brace of pheasant, while beaters warmed their chilled bodies on home-made soup and pickers-up fed scraps to their Labs and Springers, pragmatic, Nicaraguan financier, RAF trained fighter pilot and Eton supporter, Prince Bandar and assassination plotter, CIA Head and Statesman George HW Bush congratulated each others score-card and shook hands on a deal that would change the political land-scape – forever.
Lilian wrote: “Harriet Harman voted for Iraq but, when wanted votes later, declared she hadn’t really been in favour.”
Anyone remember the Newsnight edition featuring candidates for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party? Hilary Benn gave detailed answers; Harman’s argument, if memory serves, was that if the leader was a man the deputy must (?should) be a woman.
Mark
The British public has never been convinced of the necessity to attack Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran. A very small segment of society that has connections to the military, has accepted the top-down system instead of making decisions for itself. The injuries and deaths that have followed have resulted in a desire for revenge, which is a completely different thing.
Lilian, that is very useful inside info. about the workings of New Labour – confirms what many thought, I suspect. You’re right, they – the three mainstream parties – are all economically and politically, nationally and internationally, right-wing now and have been for some time. The leaders and Frontbenchers (and many of the mainstream media journalists with their irritatingly identikit facial expressions, head wobbles and hand movements) all seem like used-car salesmen – in fact, that is an insult to used-car salesmen. Bad actors. Bad politicians. Bad people. As you say, in a word, evil.
Watching Tony Blair is like watching a song by The Carpenters (apologies to any Carpenters fans).
“Actually the MPs themselves are now almost wholly redundant.” Tom Welsh.
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In other words, managerialism has taken over.
>Respect Green Leotard Tendency infinity 33,251 votes
Ummm, George Galloway’s fetching Celebrity Big Brother leotard was a very subtle and alluring shade of postbox red. You’re not colour-blind by any chance?
“Their remoteness, I grant you, probably does warrant a special travel allowance for the sitting member, should they be combined into one Westminster seat, as justice demands that they should.”
Erm, No. Orkney and Shetland shouldn’t be lumped in with the Western Isles. Economically and geographically, the islands are similar, but culturally and politically, they are very different; the Western Isles speak Gaelic, vote SNP, and are prone to letting bizarre and dour Protestant sects tell them when the ferries are allowed to run. The Northern Isles used to speak a variant of Norse, are the least-unionist-inclined part of Scotland, and tend not to care much about religion one way or another. There’s not much in the way of travel between them either, because they’re both very far from each other, so there’s little-to-no mix of people. I’ve spent a great chunk of my life in Shetland, and I’ve only knowingly met one person from the Western Isles here. Saying they should be merged into one constituency is about as silly as saying that Morningside in Edinburgh should be joined with Kensington in London to form a new constituency. Possibly sillier: people move between Edinburgh and London all the time.
If you’re going to widen the constituencies, both groups of islands would be better served by lumping them together with some of the nearer parts of the Scottish mainland.
I think there is a lot of sense in merging Morningside and Kensington.