Labour got in again. Anyone surprised? I thought not.
It's a pretty good result though. The conservatives are utterly ill equipped to run the country and their policies are made of sky-pie as far as anyone with a calculator and a handful of brain cells can tell. Howard is also a fairly dubious character, though
breaking news is that he's going to stand down. The Liberals lack experience, though that does leave them in the catch 22 of needing the job to get the experience and vice versa. Labour, like it or not, are probably the best bet at the moment. They have experience of what is going on at present, the economy is benefiting from them, they're fairly realistic about what they plan to do. If only their leader wasn't a smug liar.
It will do Labour a lot of good to lose some of their majority. They have pushed through some ludicrous legislation which could have been avoided had the opposition been stronger. The best example is the whole university top up fees debacle. That went through on only 4 votes. The Liberal Democrats have gained 11 seats net at last count - if they'd had those numbers last time around tuition fees wouldn't have made it through. It's just a good job we had the house of Lords to smack down more outrageous legislation like the Serious Organised Crime and Police bill, complete with it's You-May-Not-Discuss-Or-Criticise-A-Religion clause in the form of new Religious Hatred laws. It's not healthy for a government that is based on discussion and debate to be so strong that it can steamroller any old thing it likes through, so I expect this coming parliament should be a lot healthier than the last, as
Charlie Kennedy has noted.
One last thing I would like to rant about, is people who didn't vote. Turnout in many places was below 50%, which is disgusting if you ask me. We're privileged as it is to live in a democratic country, not to mention all the furore just under a century ago for women to get the vote... For people to squander that is fairly disgusting. If you don't vote you should also forfeit you right to complain about the government. You had your chance to do something about it, and you wasted it - on your head be it. You can shut up and bear with it till next time comes around. Even if there's no candidates you like, at least go along and spoil your ballot paper. At least that shows your interest in the system, and your lack of approval for the situation. Not even turning up is just lazy.
Right. Time to eat my
yoghurt. Hmm. Perhaps UKIP are onto something... I still wouldn't vote for them in a hundred years though.
Bye!
