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Oh England.
May. 9th, 2010 12:03 amSo. The UK has a hung parliament.
I am vaguely proud of this, as maybe this means it will learn the error of it's electoral ways and switch to a more proportional voting system or that people will become more educated about such things. (Not entirely likely to happen, but one can hope.)
But basically I'm kind of sitting here looking goofy, because this is pretty much what always happens when New Zealand has an election. Split straight down the middle and the two major parties (Labour and National) are scrambling around trying to form coalition governments because no one ever really wants to run a minority government BECAUSE THEY JUST DON'T WORK.
In the meantime, the minor parties are kind of swaggering around self important and pushing the issues that they really want to pass because... well, they have thepower votes the parties want. So they can insist on things like passing a home heating fund to reduce carbon emissions, improve the health of people around the country and help nudge the economy a bit in exchange for siding with one party.
Yes there is a lot of work and headaches in such a proportional system (we use MMP - Mixed Member Proportional, where we get two votes, one for our electorate and one party vote) but it means the minor parties (and theoretically a proportionate (and significant) amount of people) get a voice as well, which is much better than the alternative.
So, in five or so days time, when everyone is really nervous about whether or not this is going to work... there will be an agreement made. Hopefully, because calling another election isn't exactly good and the person who had to call it almost always ends up loosing because they weren't persuasive enough or something.
Also, Governments are like that, trying so very hard to make things work, even when they don't.
This is a rather nice, simple, easy to understand video about the entire UK voting situation.
I have none for New Zealand, but it's one of the most proportional parliaments around and I am rather happy with that. Even if John Key is stupid and all of his announcements make my head hurt.
Have I mentioned that the proposed Goods and Services Tax change would be phenomally stupid because there is no easy way to add 15% to a figure? 12.5% is much easier, because you only need to add another 1/8th to the price you already have.
Also, the University thing goes entirely against his spiel about how people need to be educated because well... University IS education. It also means smart people doing smart things in businesses which hopefully means more money in the country and his party is the more right-wing party and why CAN'T HE SEE THIS LOGICAL CHAIN OF EVENTS?
I am vaguely proud of this, as maybe this means it will learn the error of it's electoral ways and switch to a more proportional voting system or that people will become more educated about such things. (Not entirely likely to happen, but one can hope.)
But basically I'm kind of sitting here looking goofy, because this is pretty much what always happens when New Zealand has an election. Split straight down the middle and the two major parties (Labour and National) are scrambling around trying to form coalition governments because no one ever really wants to run a minority government BECAUSE THEY JUST DON'T WORK.
In the meantime, the minor parties are kind of swaggering around self important and pushing the issues that they really want to pass because... well, they have the
Yes there is a lot of work and headaches in such a proportional system (we use MMP - Mixed Member Proportional, where we get two votes, one for our electorate and one party vote) but it means the minor parties (and theoretically a proportionate (and significant) amount of people) get a voice as well, which is much better than the alternative.
So, in five or so days time, when everyone is really nervous about whether or not this is going to work... there will be an agreement made. Hopefully, because calling another election isn't exactly good and the person who had to call it almost always ends up loosing because they weren't persuasive enough or something.
Also, Governments are like that, trying so very hard to make things work, even when they don't.
This is a rather nice, simple, easy to understand video about the entire UK voting situation.
I have none for New Zealand, but it's one of the most proportional parliaments around and I am rather happy with that. Even if John Key is stupid and all of his announcements make my head hurt.
Have I mentioned that the proposed Goods and Services Tax change would be phenomally stupid because there is no easy way to add 15% to a figure? 12.5% is much easier, because you only need to add another 1/8th to the price you already have.
Also, the University thing goes entirely against his spiel about how people need to be educated because well... University IS education. It also means smart people doing smart things in businesses which hopefully means more money in the country and his party is the more right-wing party and why CAN'T HE SEE THIS LOGICAL CHAIN OF EVENTS?
