Apr
18th
2017
It's our fault for voting. It just encourages them. · 5:40pm Apr 18th, 2017
Just to recap the last four years -
2014: Scottish independence referendum.
2015: General election.
2016: Brexit referendum. Scottish Parliament election.
2017: Another snap general election, seven weeks from now.
If I was a more cynical man, I'd suspect this was some long-running plot by the UK's high heid yins to get the British public as a whole to just up and declare, "Look, just piss off, we're sick to the back teeth with all this democracy palaver. Have some dictator make the decisions for a change and give us peace. Look, there's some royalty right there. Have those lazy bastards up off their backsides and tyrannising us again, whatever."
Not that I'm that cynical.
You say that now, then you get the British version of Trump. See how that goes.
4500830
Well, it wouldn't be fair for the USA to be alone in its misery. Solidarity, yo.
I enjoy the fact that British elections don't drag out for a whole year. It means the typical misery of election time is always short-lived.
True. Of course, your little island across the sea has already had it's share of tyrants: Gaius Julius Ceasar, Oliver Cromwell, Margaret Thatcher, to name a few...
4500845
True. Barring referendum season, we get all the pain over and done with quickly.
4500846
To be fair to Caesar, he was really more of an over-enthusiastic day-tripper with a penchant for stabbing from our perspective than a full-blown tyrant. We'll let France and Rome keep him as one of their main historical knob-heads.
4500830
The British version of Trump already won with Brexit. Just look at walking-talking failed cheese variety Nigal 'Punch me in the face, please' Farage and Boris 'LOL! Don't want to be Prime Minister in charge of Brexit even though I was one of the leaders for Leave' Johnson.
I expect Scottish Referendum II: Bagpipe Boogaloo to occur if the SNP get more seats.
I'm not sure why May desires a larger majority at this time anyway; Labour's collective heads are so far up their own collective rectums that she essentially has no opposition and hasn't for a while.
Given how ineffective Corbyn has been as Leader of the Opposition, I'd rather not contemplate the idea of him attempting to negotiate with the likes of Merkel. On the other hand, an unfettered Tory government is hardly a pleasant thought, either.
Looks like we're screwed whatever happens:
4500858
The SNP'll be something to keep an eye on. I'll be voting for them again, but I suspect they're at their peak in terms of seats, and they'll lose a couple as a result of this. Not enough to lose their majority, almost certainly, but enough for me to get antsy. Maybe Labour's last seat'll be up for grabs, though.
4500862
Apropos of nothing, my impersonation of the Labour Party over the last decade or so.
Shame, really. I was hopeful about Corbyn when he first got in as well. Now it looks like he'll just be presiding over the party getting its worst kick in the teeth since Ramsay McDonald's tenure.
The whole European political landscape is getting entertaining. A lot of laughs to be had, here. No reason at all to get the booze out of the liquor cabinet, no sir. Oh, this glass of grappa? That's pure coincidence, no relation at all with me reading the newspaper.
4500862
That would actually be a relatively positive outcome, seeing as she doesn't seem (yet) to be out for blood. It obviously may change the moment she feels it could help her in the elections.
The countries that felt the UK had unjust privileges in past decades on the other hand...
4500889
Rampant alcoholism on the rise across the world. Whisky exports'll soar as a result of this. The master plan's working!
I mean, nothing.
4500862
All opposition being in disarray is exactly why she wants elections now. It's about consolidating power. I fulling expect the conservatives to gut the NHS and gleefully dismantle the UK's welfare state. Expect more deregulation at the expense of regular people.
4500862
I don't think Labor ever recovered from the Blair years. Hitching his wagon to Dubya Bush ruined them.
Sounds like you are also having political problems. Glad ours is over for the next 4 years. I say over, but truly politics is all that the news ever talks about nowadays. Hope we will get a better president next year. Though considering people like Kayne West are saying that they will run in 2020 makes me dread an even worse election in 4 years. Here's hoping that certain people are joking about running for election. Though I get to vote in the next election so here's hoping my insignificant vote can do some good.
You should totally elect a Tyrant into office. It would improve how the world views your country.
4500928
Local council elections here in Glasgow on 4th May too, you forgot that one.
Looking forward to it all for purely shallow, mercenary reasons, because I'm a polling clerk. £180 for sitting on my bum all day reading my Kindle and handing out wee pencils and bits of paper? Job's a good 'un.
4500955
Ah, cheers for the reminder. Council elections as well, they oughtn't be forgotten.
And jings, that's decent money for the workload. This polling clerking intrigues me, and if the day job should ever go through I'd like to learn more.
4500962
Been doing it a fair wee while now, once you've done it and haven't arsed it up or fallen asleep on the job they just keep calling you back. Best way to get into it is -unfortunately- to know someone who is involved in the election process already. (This is generally a family member who works in the local council. Ah, I love the smell of nepotism in the morning).
Think of it this way: it's better to be in Britain, bemoaning the fact that you have major elections every single year, than to be in Turkey, reflecting on how you may have just witnessed the last meaningful vote of your lifetime.
4501009
Well, if need be, I hope you can attest to my good nature and eminent suitability for the job. Assuming you're willing to lie about those.
4501015
Poor Turkey. Much as I moan, I imagine there's plenty there opposed to Erdogan who'd love to have our problems.
Lol, you have one election for year, let me tell you a story:
26 of April of 2015 Primary elections on the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (capital of Argentina). Are gonna be elected the chief of government of the city (a very important political position) and members of the city legislature.
In the primary elections, all the parties who are authorized to participate present their different candidates simultaneously and voters can choose only one between all of them. At the end, the final candidates for the “real” election are chosen , and parties who are unable to get more than the 1.5% of the votes are “discarded”.
5 of July of 2015. Elections on the City of Buenos Aires.
According to the city’s constitution, a chief of government can be elected only if it gets more than a 50% of the votes. Since neither candidate got that number, a second round (or “ballotage”) it’s called between the two candidates with more votes.
19 of July of 2015. Second round of the elections, final results.
9 of August of 2015. Primary general elections on Argentina (Federal Republic). Are gonna be elected the list of candidates for the president of the nation, members of the national congress and senate, and governors and members of the legislatures of the different provinces (states) of the country.
25 of October of 2015. General elections on Argentina.
Damn, that’s a big amount of elecNOPE. None of the candidates for president got enough votes to be declared winner… so....
22 of November of 2015, Second round of the general elections.
Those are 6, SIX obligatory elections in a period of 8, EIGHT, months.
Amateurs.
4501063
Mother of god. That's a lot of democracy. I don't think we're even capable of competing with that.
I know somebody who works for electoral services, and one election a year is about all that they can cope with. Any more than that and mistakes start to creep in.
I don't imagine they're very happy about getting a sudden six-week emergency call right now.
4501132
It must be a terrible temptation in that job, if stress and spite get to you, to just let the mistakes escalate a tad. "Welp, results are in. Monster Raving Loony Party won, and Screaming Lord Sutch is now the Prime Minister. No, I don't care that he's dead, the votes have it. Honest."
4501154
It probably takes a certain integrity to diligently count votes you disagree with. How stressful must it be for a reasonable, intelligent, decent human being is required to accurately tally thousands of votes for Ukip, aka the "let's kick all the foreigners out and get our bloody empire back" party?
4501159
I'm thinking you'd need straight-up paladins for that kind of work. Maybe an archangel or two, just in case the paladins slip.
4501095
"An Awful Lot of Democracy" would make an excellent title for a GhostOfHeraclitus fic about just how taken the common pony is with the electoral process.
And now I've got the edges of an idea for a fic starring Twilight trying to figure out exactly what kind of government Equestria has (monarchy, diarchy, tetrarchy, oligarchy, republic...).
4500839
Woah woah woah.
Let's not get crazy here.
We can sympathise with the plague victims, but don't go getting yourself infected as well.
What they really need to do is build some sort of wall... only, not around the entire nation, just a few selected people.
And really, why build people-walls when they already exist with a roof and bars as well?
But then you get into 'due process' and 'only violating the spirit of the law' and at that point it's probably best to just give Fairy Floss the keys to the solar phaeton and stand well back.
And this is why I favor the rule of enlightened immortal Princesses.
In other words, Flurry Heart, because Sunbutt would embezzle for her cake fund, Moonbutt would declare war on testing the air raid sirens on the 1st Wednesday of every month while she slept and somehow this would escalate into a civilization-destroying conflict, Starbutt would try to organize everything and end up drowning the world in red tape, and Heartbutt would go insane from all the shipping opportunities and then swoop the skies maniacally laughing and causing us to fall in love with various things like dogs and the opposite sex and occasionally overcooked macaroni noodles.
Flurry? Well, you know. She's a reformed Windigo whose learned to feed on positive emotion, so she'd have an actual incentive to make everything happy. Happy humans equal happy God-Princess stomach, and in the end it's all about the food.
4501095
The funny part is that that wasn't something unexpected or surprising (like your referendum), it was programmed, it was what the law says it has to be (Well, the second rounds are more exceptional, but they are part of the law and aren't rare).
To show more my point, the 2015 election were executive elections, in which we choose president and chief of governor of the city. We have those each 4 years.
But like in the US, we have legislative elections each 2 years. Each half of the national congress, senate, and provincial legislatures rotates each 2 years.
Which means that this year, 2017, we'll have 4 elections again. Primary for the city legislature, proper election, primary for the national congress/senate, proper election (At least in a legislative there is no chance of second round).
Which raises the number to 10 programmed elections in a period of 2 years.
And still, I'll keep my system 10 times over US electoral college
4501263
...What's GhostOfHeraclitus's preferred tender for story-producing bribes, do you know? Hard cash? Sexual favours?
4501273
4501695
I welcome this madcap alicorn rulership, as and when it manifests.
4501752
Crivens. There's no competing with that number of elections in that space of time. If Democracy was an Olympic sport, I suspect Argentina would shortly run out of places to keep all its gold medals.
4502342 It would be sensible alicorn rulership! Flurry would simply coax the others to obey her, and if they refused, she would stick them in kennels and take them on walkies because Windigoes want to treat everything disobedient like a naughty puppy. It is known.
4500875
Arguably the worst ever, depending on how you measure it. Since the first GE held under real universal suffrage (1929) the lowest Labour popular vote share was the 27.6% Michael Foot managed in 1983. I could certainly see the party doing worse than that this time round. It's true that in the special circumstances of 1931 (National Government landslide) Labour ended up with a mere 52 seats* and even Corbyn!Labour surely can't do that badly -- but they still scraped above 30% of the vote nationally.
* I'm including the Independent Labour Party candidates, since Wikipedia does and I'm too lazy to check further. :P
FWIW, I've been basically Labour (though fairly soft) for my entire adult life -- first GE 1997 -- but I won't be voting for them this time. I live in a safe Tory constituency, so it doesn't really matter who I vote for, but the Lib Dems will probably get the nod if there isn't an interesting independent. (Being English, the SNP/PC options are off the table.)
4503075
I could certainly see their vote share slipping south of the 27% mark this time around. I suspect there's a few too many safe seats in Labour's corner at this point for them to ever slip down into double-digit seat totals, but barring May killing a puppy on live TV and Corbyn bringing the puppy immediately back to life with a beatific wave of his hand between now and election day, I'm not seeing how Labour achieves anything other but a nigh-historic nadir.
Definitely glad to have parties that are both left-of-centre and with all their shit together up here. If no interesting independents crop up in your area or the Lib Dem candidate turns out to be Satan incarnate or what-have-you, say the word and I'll see who I can ship down.
4503250
There's just a chance that they might. My constituency is Wyre Forest, where Dr Richard Taylor won twice as an independent. He's 82 now, but hasn't entirely ruled out standing again. I'd be awfully tempted!
4503292
Hadn't heard of the man previously, but his wiki page makes him sound exceedingly decent. Heck, I'd be tempted as well if he ran up here.
4503302 I met him once or twice -- he was excellent at going out into the constituency and talking to people. "Decent" is exactly the word I'd use.