The BoJo Show

[dresen]

I am frowning so hard right now. So hard.

Hmm.

Don't get me wrong: I'm no particular fan of Labour, and although I think they've not done so badly overall, they have had a long-enough run of miscellaneous fuck-ups and scandals, as well as their fat-headed pursuance of the Iraq war, that they deserve a shake-up. And since there's not that much

Comments

[mattlazycat]

It's a continual source of bafflement to me that with the track records of both Labour and the Conservatives, we aren't all wondering how much worse the lib dems could possibly make things. Perhaps if they managed to get a good leader again, more people would take notice. For what it was worth, Paddick was my first choice for mayor too, even though I really disagreed with the politics-of-fear campaign he ran. Oh well, here's hoping Boris keeps his head down and doesn't bugger everything up. No doubt his advisers have told him to wait a few weeks for everyone to forget that he's a nob. :)

[dresen]

Election reform (i.e. proportional representation) would help, along with a more flexible voting system (supplementary/transferable) - if I'd only had one choice, I would have 'had to' vote for Ken. It's a bit crap having less opportunity to voice your preferences in a national election than a local one.

I think Clegg seems alright, but he hasn't made much of a name for himself - being a minority party is where getting soundbites everywhere sparking off talking points is more likely to do more good than harm, but I don't hear much from the Libs. They at least get a reasonable amount of TV/radio airtime, for a third party. If they could have gotten Paddick into City Hall then combined with the local elections gains that would have been a real step up... but barring something like that they'll just have to keep plugging away at it, I guess.

[mattlazycat]

Bruce pointed out to me a few years back that while they're considered a third party on the national level, the Lib Dems are really good at coming first or second locally. Typically the race in any given council is labour vs lib dem, or tories vs. lib dems. So what you say about proportional representation rings true - the devil of it is, proportional representation pretty much guarantees a hung parliament with no party strong enough to push through big changes. I used to think that was a bad thing, but with New Labour trying to steamroller in crazily unpopular ideas like a national ID database and greater than 28-day arrest without charge, I'm coming around to the idea :)