frank ward
13-May-05, 10:48
So, the Scottish Labour Party is planning to do away with proportional representation.
Could this change of heart be related perchance to the big fall in Labour voters last week?
Do you think that the Scottish system of part-PR and part-FPTP is better than the FPTP (First Past The Post) used by Westminster?
...................................
For Info – text of Tommy Sheridan’s Mirror column below.
Daily Mirror column for 12 May 2005
What a mixed bag of emotions. Blair got gubbed, great. The SSP
vote dropped significantly, bad. George Galloway confounded the
pundits to overturn a New Labour clone’s 10,000 majority, excellent.
We now have a new labour government with a working majority of
66 on only 36% of the vote, the lowest level of support in
history. That is worrying. A travesty of democracy even.
Can you imagine the official statements that would be issued
from the world’s “developed Western capitals” if Mugabe in
Zimbabwe was “elected” to office with a clear majority on only
36% of the vote?
The reality of the situation is even bleaker. Sadly only 61% of
the electorate voted. The second lowest in history, up only two
percentage points since 2001. Blair therefore only has the
actual support of 1 in 5 citizens across Britain.
To describe last Thursday as a victory for Blair as some of the
Blair mouthpieces have tried to claim, is delusional in the
extreme. Far too many like Hain, McFadden, McGuire and co. are
obviously consuming too much wacky baccy.
Last week was a bloody nose for Blair and that’s a fact.
Millions analysed the choices and voted for those most likely
to harm Blair while keeping Count Howard and his flock of Tory
vampires at bay.
The Lib Dems and likeable Charlie Kennedy were the main
beneficiaries. The rest of us, including the SNP whose lack of
honesty in the face of a disappointing vote is sad and
immature, were squeezed.
The Lib Dems should make the most of this afterglow. It won’t
last. Their support was built on sensible and just policies
like scrapping the council tax, taxing the wealthy more and
removing British troops from Iraq by the end of this year.
I actually recognise policies like that. They were in the SSP
manifesto. The difference is, we would deliver while the Lib Dems won’t.
Take the abolition of council tax, for example. They waxed
lyrical about the urgent need to replace it with an
income-based alternative. Yet they have been in government for
six years in Scotland and failed to lift even a little finger
to get rid of it. In fact they have regularly voted with Labour
and the Tories to keep it.
In September an actual Bill to replace the council tax with an
income-based alternative will be debated in the Scottish Parliament.
If the Scottish media do their job they will expose the rank
hypocrisy of a party that says one thing during elections but
votes the opposite way when elected.
If the Lib Dems vote against the Abolition of Council Tax Bill
they should be subjected to a 21st century form of public
lashing. Their cuddly and honest image should be ripped to pieces.
Then again, their many friends in the media often conspire to
keep such duplicity from public view.
Overall we have a severely weakened Blair government which will
continue to do the bidding of big business and the rich. We
have an electoral system which is dangerous, embarrassing and
an affront to democracy. We have many battles to defend
pensions, working conditions and public services ahead of us.
Not much has really changed then!
Could this change of heart be related perchance to the big fall in Labour voters last week?
Do you think that the Scottish system of part-PR and part-FPTP is better than the FPTP (First Past The Post) used by Westminster?
...................................
For Info – text of Tommy Sheridan’s Mirror column below.
Daily Mirror column for 12 May 2005
What a mixed bag of emotions. Blair got gubbed, great. The SSP
vote dropped significantly, bad. George Galloway confounded the
pundits to overturn a New Labour clone’s 10,000 majority, excellent.
We now have a new labour government with a working majority of
66 on only 36% of the vote, the lowest level of support in
history. That is worrying. A travesty of democracy even.
Can you imagine the official statements that would be issued
from the world’s “developed Western capitals” if Mugabe in
Zimbabwe was “elected” to office with a clear majority on only
36% of the vote?
The reality of the situation is even bleaker. Sadly only 61% of
the electorate voted. The second lowest in history, up only two
percentage points since 2001. Blair therefore only has the
actual support of 1 in 5 citizens across Britain.
To describe last Thursday as a victory for Blair as some of the
Blair mouthpieces have tried to claim, is delusional in the
extreme. Far too many like Hain, McFadden, McGuire and co. are
obviously consuming too much wacky baccy.
Last week was a bloody nose for Blair and that’s a fact.
Millions analysed the choices and voted for those most likely
to harm Blair while keeping Count Howard and his flock of Tory
vampires at bay.
The Lib Dems and likeable Charlie Kennedy were the main
beneficiaries. The rest of us, including the SNP whose lack of
honesty in the face of a disappointing vote is sad and
immature, were squeezed.
The Lib Dems should make the most of this afterglow. It won’t
last. Their support was built on sensible and just policies
like scrapping the council tax, taxing the wealthy more and
removing British troops from Iraq by the end of this year.
I actually recognise policies like that. They were in the SSP
manifesto. The difference is, we would deliver while the Lib Dems won’t.
Take the abolition of council tax, for example. They waxed
lyrical about the urgent need to replace it with an
income-based alternative. Yet they have been in government for
six years in Scotland and failed to lift even a little finger
to get rid of it. In fact they have regularly voted with Labour
and the Tories to keep it.
In September an actual Bill to replace the council tax with an
income-based alternative will be debated in the Scottish Parliament.
If the Scottish media do their job they will expose the rank
hypocrisy of a party that says one thing during elections but
votes the opposite way when elected.
If the Lib Dems vote against the Abolition of Council Tax Bill
they should be subjected to a 21st century form of public
lashing. Their cuddly and honest image should be ripped to pieces.
Then again, their many friends in the media often conspire to
keep such duplicity from public view.
Overall we have a severely weakened Blair government which will
continue to do the bidding of big business and the rich. We
have an electoral system which is dangerous, embarrassing and
an affront to democracy. We have many battles to defend
pensions, working conditions and public services ahead of us.
Not much has really changed then!