Political Ramblings
A few funny thoughts have occurred to me regarding the coalition government.
liberal
• adjective 1 willing to respect and accept behaviour or opinions different from one’s own. 2 (of a society, law, etc.) favourable to individual rights and freedoms. 3 (in a political context) favouring individual liberty, free trade, and moderate reform. 4 (Liberal) (in the UK) relating to the Liberal Democrat party. 5 (especially of an interpretation of a law) not strictly literal. 6 given, used, or giving in generous amounts. 7 (of education) concerned with broadening general knowledge and experience.
conservative
• adjective 1 averse to change and holding traditional values. 2 (in a political context) favouring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas. 3 (Conservative) relating to a Conservative Party. 4 (of an estimate) purposely low for the sake of caution.
Anyone notice anything?
Well, how about if I gave you a liberal helping of ice cream, and gave the guy next to you a conservative helping of ice cream?
The names are diametrically opposed in meaning!
About the only thing the two parties ought to have in common is that they both want to run the country!
The fact that they have managed to find common ground in order to do so together basically means that they have both moved away from what they should stand for.
We are back down from three-party politics to two party politics, except the potential for a split in this government is infinitely greater than in the last Conservative government!
Who would have thought we would see Whigs on the government front benches again, eh?
Of course the major point of compromise has been the referendum on political reform.
This, to me, is extremely interesting and I look forward to seeing what transpires. I don't think there has been a referendum in the UK since Ted Heath took us into Europe and Harold Wilson held one to see if we should get out again. I certainly don't remember one! And I'm going to have to think carefully about which way to vote, too.
See, I would actually be in favour of changing the political system to proportional representation. We saw it in action at the last European elections and it worked. But I'm not sure how the system the Conservatives have agreed to - the alternative vote system - would work. It sounds like a typical Tory half measure to me - like the poll tax and Child Support Agency, a good idea implemented badly is worse than a bad idea implemented well.
And the system we have may not be perfect by any means, but it works and it has worked for - well a long time. Since the time of one-man-one-vote, in fact. (No, I mean when there was one man with one vote and that was all).
Now, I am the first to admit that, just because something works is not a reason not to change it. "We've always done it this way" is, to me, the best reason in the world to say "Well then it's about time you tried something else".
But I'm equally mindful of an old (well, relatively old) IT maxim: "If it works, don't fuck with it!" Changing something for the sake of changing it is dumb. It may not work very well, but if you change it, you may make things far, far worse, a little way down the line. In IT terms, I actually learned that lesson the hard way. A bit of code I was looking at was really inefficient, so I tidied it up. Unfortunately I neglected to check the way all the various flags and switches in the monster of a program were being used and caused a fatal error! I was able to put it back the way it was, thanks to editing protocols, and I learned my lesson. "If it works, leave it the hell alone!"
Obviously our political system is not a computer program. But the principal applies.
So, I am going to have to look carefully at the proposed changes, decide for myself whether I think they will be an improvement, ignore all the spin and hype and make up my own mind which way to vote.
Interesting times. - Wait, isn't that a Chinese curse?