The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

I think the most impressive thing about the sitcom Father Ted is that Arthur Matthews wrote the entire thing by himself.

[TordelBack]

Jesus. I think Musk should hire Linehan for his Boring Company - once he starts digging that hole he's unstoppable.

[TordelBack]

As a Northerner, the thing I find baffling is that the people of Ireland no longer wanted incompetent politicians, operating as part of a political duopoly, whose inaction was causing suffering to their citizens, while burying their snouts in the trough ans their heads in the sand... so they voted for Sínn Fein?

See, this is the level at which SF's victory should be criticised. Not "OMG Brexit made the Irish mad and now the Provos are in power!". Although as Jayzus says, to be taken seriously as democrats SF really do need to police theIr people, just not in the, er,  traditional way.

[Dandontdare]

...celebrating past acts of violence is beyond the Pale,

I see what you did there! 

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Nationalism has become the new rebellion, both in the soon to be the defunct UK and now in Ireland. It is a strange parallel that two opposing groups, Brexiteers and Sinn Fein, should ride the wave of discontent, but they have, and that puts them in power, like it or not. Local issues over National identity, housing and the EU have allowed these groups great influence since the adage of 'no change' has damaged Parties associated with globalisation. They've all been thrust aside by a still angry public who have concluded anything is better than the status quo. Well, where do we go from here? 

[IndigoPrime]

There's a world of difference between the Irish and British systems. 'Winning' in Ireland isn't cut and dry. STV means that a majority government has to have the backing of the majority of the publication. SF won't be able to ride roughshod over the country as a whole, because if they get into government, it will be in a coalition in which they themselves won't even be a majority. By contrast, the UK is lumbered with a toxic and massive Tory majority off the back of a plurality vote.

[JayzusB.Christ]

There's a world of difference between the Irish and British systems. 'Winning' in Ireland isn't cut and dry. STV means that a majority government has to have the backing of the majority of the publication. SF won't be able to ride roughshod over the country as a whole, because if they get into government, it will be in a coalition in which they themselves won't even be a majority. By contrast, the UK is lumbered with a toxic and massive Tory majority off the back of a plurality vote.

Well, quite.  SF can now make some of the decisions but not all of them.  It doesn't allow for radical change but I'd take it over Johnson/Trump-style ripping up of perfectly good existing policies out of spite.  Now, if I had my way, the entire system would be swept away and rebuilt from scratch, but it's not going to happen any time soon so the best we can do is work with what we have.

[IndigoPrime]

Looking at the numbers, it was interesting to see that SF wouldn't even be a majority within a coalition (assuming the coalition forms a majority government). That's quite something.

Honestly, I'd love to see something similar here in the UK, but it's quite clearly never going to happen. The Tories are wedded to FPTP, and Labour are as well, under the delusion that sooner or later they'll win.

[JOE SOAP]

Honestly, I'd love to see something similar here in the UK, but it's quite clearly never going to happen. The Tories are wedded to FPTP, and Labour are as well, under the delusion that sooner or later they'll win.

Why would an incumbent government ever allow a change to the system that got them elected?

[Professor Bear]

Don't see the Lords voting themselves out of a job, either.

[IndigoPrime]

Why would an incumbent government ever allow a change to the system that got them elected?

The Tories won't; Labour should have seen the writing on the wall in the mid-2000s, and recognised working with the Libs would beat being out on their arses. (Also: fairness would be a reason in general. Again, not that the Tories give a shit about that. But it's notable that the SNP are pro-PR, even though it'd cost them a bunch of Commons seats.)

Don't see the Lords voting themselves out of a job, either.

Despite being a wishy-washy lefty liberal, the Lords is the lesser evil. I'd like to see changes, but it's not nearly as urgent as changes for the Commons. Regardless, there are ways to transition that house to a more democratic end game, if necessary.

[Professor Bear]

Siri: zeige mir schadenfreude.

[Professor Bear]

That this lengthy and honest look at the current raft of Labour frontrunners chose to go with "There's a Starmer Waiting In The Sky" and not "Starmer Chameleon" as its title is an outrage that should never be forgiven.

It does make a good point, though: as attractive as Starmer's collection of nice suits and "he's not Corbyn" headlines from gushing Guardian op-ed writers who voted for the LibDems may seem to people who hate the Labour Party more than they do the Tories or austerity deaths, in actual practice as a politician he's a weather-vane (as most recently seen in his stance(s) on FOM), and that is far more important going into the climate catastrophe than his record in the CPS or his illegally accessing members' data (not that I'm attempting to dismiss the seriousness of either).

[JayzusB.Christ]

My mate's former housemate was a bit of an oddball and a terrible if prolific painter.  After he moved out we found his blog and realised he was a very deluded man who believed his paintings were worth millions and had some kind of chip on his shoulder about Britain.

As the years went on we watched in a kind of horrified fascination as his delusions got worse and he expanded his online presence. Meanwhile his bigotry grew to encircle gays, people of colour and above all Jews, and he got sucked into conspiracy rabbit holes including the Flat Earth Theory, the non-existence of dinosaurs and the idea that mixed-race parents somehow leads to lesbian daughters.  He tried to run for president a few years ago which got about as far as you'd expect.

Anyway, now he's really done it.  He appeared on David Baddiel's BBC documentary this week and let rip to the whole world his mad holocaust-denying views and various other antisemitic accusations (even singing one of his horrendous songs about how great Auschwitz was, while Baddiel sat there in amazement).

Having looked at Facebook, I see that the walls of his little bubble have dissolved and people all over the world want his head on a plate.  I'm conflicted - he's repulsive and his views are appalling, but I remember the lonely, mentally ill fool that once was convinced he'd win the Nobel Peace Prize and shudder to think what will become of him now.  Obviously nothing close to what happened to inmates in Auschwitz, of course, but like I say, the guy is not well.

[Dandontdare]

Yikes, just read up on that. He does sound seriously unwell.