As I drove home this
morning from the night shift the talk on the radio was all
about yesterday's budget.
The pundits were of the
opinion that it was a budget aimed at buying votes in the upcoming
election. (As if we didn't see that one coming.) I *really*
hope that the electorate can see through such cheap vote-grubbing,
but realistically we've hardly got much of an election to look
forward to.
Over the last few weeks
and months several of my loyal readers have confided complete
bafflement about the political situation in the UK, so I'll take this
opportunity to summarise that for which we get to vote in only
forty-nine days time.
In years gone by the vote
was a straight choice between wanton greed on one side and
well-meaning incompetence on the other. There were other choices
(most notable was platitude-blathering); but they weren't ever
going to amount to anything, and hadn't done so for the best part of
a century.
However over the last
fifteen (or so) years the wantonly greedy and the well-meaning
incompetent have taken on board one or two elements of the other's
policies. The differences between the main political parties aren't
quite so clear-cut any more, but if you look closely one side still
advocates self-interest and the other is still incompetent (but
well-meaning).
Things really came to a
head five years ago at the last general election. With no clear
winner the blatherers of platitudes got to hold the balance of power.
Despite having effectively come third in the election, they got to
choose the government by deciding with whom they would form an
alliance.
Leaving aside the entire
way the blatherers of platitudes abandoned any and all principles
they might once have had, they have however set the mould for the
next election. It is highly unlikely either of the two major
political parties will have a majority of seats in the House of
Commons after the upcoming election. This means that everything any
party might try to do can be outvoted by everyone else acting
together.
So to get a majority in
the House of Commons one or other of the major political parties will
need to form an alliance with one (or more) of the smaller parties.
(That's a "coalition" - what we have at the moment)
The trouble with a
coalition govearnment is that in order to form a workable alliance
the major party in the alliance has to accept at least some of the
demands of the smaller party. This can have a moderating effect on
the larger party's policies (as has probably happened with the
current government), but will probably have dire consequences in
the next coalition government.
Having abandoned too many
policies and principles in order to gain power, the blatherers of
platitudes are effectively now a spent force in British politics.
There are two small
parties who will effectively hold the balance of power at the next
election. Commanding a very small percent of the vote, they will hold
sway over the future direction of the country. And both of these
parties are single-policy parties and so will only have one thing to
demand of a potential coalition partner.
I predict that the next
government will be a coalition which will either have Britain leave
the European Union (having first sent them all back on the next
banana boat), or will (within six months) have made
Scotland an independent country.
I hope I'm wrong, but
this time it won't matter who we vote for. This time the minority
will win.
Perhaps we need a whole
new system?
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