Time to go

[smokingboot]

A gracious exit from someone who at the last demonstrates great dignity. Best of luck to you and your beautiful family. Good night Mr Brown.

Comments

[steve-c.livejournal.com]

I too was impressed by Brown's gracious exit.

[evilwillow.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to see him go to be honest, he wasn't perfect but he felt a lot more real and less 'spin' than most politicians and he left with dignity.

I also noted the little publicised fact that Labour gained 420 additional councillors and control of 15 councils in the local elections where people tend not to vote tactically, no other parties gained any overall.

Plus I find it mildly amusing that the Labour Party website is claimed to have crashed last night due to an influx of new membership applications once the ConDem coalition was formally announced.

I sincerely hope we get sufficient electoral reform so that no person's vote can be thought of as wasted and people are free to vote for the party they believe in rather than feeling the need for tactical voting.

xxx

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Leaving us a deficit in the region of £163 billion, snd you know my feelings re ID cards, the criminalisation of just not being very nice, and detention without trial...no, I am not sorry to see him go. But I like this more tender touch to him and wish him well with all my heart.

Electoral reform, hmm, I await the referendum. PR= the last 5 days writ large. If there's been ideological squealing over a LibCon coalition, how will idealists feel about sitting round a table with the BNP or National Front?

Re Labour, I will be watching the leadership campaigns very closely indeed. I feel a lot more optimistic about them now!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Yes. It was a powerful and tender moment.

[evilwillow.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately whilst I don't want to see BNP or UKIP seats in parliament, 1.5 million people voted for them and if we want to see everyone's voice heard and their vote count then it includes those people that voted for the BNP no matter how much I disagree with their choices.

I suspect/hope that people will vote differently if they know their vote will end up with that party gaining seats but I'm probably just being idealistic and giving people too much credit for making informed choices.

As for the deficit, global economic cycles are something I'm only just starting to touch on at uni but I can already see it's way more complicated than I realised, changes are like pulling on a loose thread or flicking a random domino, credit bubbles grow and burst all the time and usually it doesn't have too much of an impact because of when it happens in the overall cycle but if it occurs on a crucial date then the domino effect kicks in. Hopefully I'll understand more when I've finished my economics modules and can be a bit more clued up than I currently am.

As for the leadership campaign, I suspect David Milliband will end up being the new party leader, just because he has the right look about him :)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

There's been some interesting commentary here with regard to what all of this can teach us about PR -- something voters in B.C. have been pushing for but not to the point of passing a referendum. Two, as a matter of fact. Both were defeated -- the first had 57.7% support and the second 38.82%. I supported it before but now I'm not so sure. If the past four years of minority governments are what it's like to have PR -- no thanks.

[ravenrigan.livejournal.com]

Me, I voted Labour this time after 10 years voting Lib Dem. You know what finally won my vote? Gordo's very human gaffe, when he muttered a sotto voce "bigoted woman". I can't imagine either of the other two saying what they really thought without consulting their spin doctors and speech writers any more than I can imagine them farting loudly in the bath just for the hell of it!

And I don't like them any more than I liked Tony Blair.

And I'm very sorry to see the last of Gordo. Is it just me who thiks he's probably an unrepentant bath farter?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I don't blame Gordon for global cycles. But it seems like common sense to save a little when there's a surplus, and it just didn't happen. Now here we are.

Re electoral reform, I won't go into more here, cos there's so much on the other thread...but I would never trust people to vote differently because more depends upon it. A mob making decisions is guillotine time.

I agree with you whole-heartedly about D Milliband, though I think the party would prefer Ed Balls - who is simply horrible!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I share your doubts. Ostensibly it seems like a great and fair idea, and certainly it's about time we looked at it seriously, but the more I think about it, the less I'm inclined towards it.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

He's mostly unrepentant about everything except trusting Sky News - I daresay his bath is covered in ricochet dents!