Austin Mitchell Election Diary 2019. No.2 The Mating Game




In the last two elections the Lib-Dems were rightly punished for their letting their desperation for pelf and place betray all their principles and helping to impose the disastrous austerity programme on Britain. Yet with that exception, recent elections have shown a clear trend to erode the traditional two party vote and boost the minor parties, though mainly in vote rather than seats.

That trend will probably continue in this election as Liberal crimes are forgotten, the SNP dominates  Scotland and Farage’s Brexiteers try to repeat their victory in the EU elections. 

Ours are now multi-party politics which could be worked with proportional representation as it has been in New Zealand but produces unpredictable results with First Past the Post which strengthens the big undermines the small and  leads to tactical voting to try and escape from the trap.

The result is more likely to be another hung Parliament rather than the clear majority British government and politics need to function properly .The only answer is for all parties to make it clear with whom they’re prepared to coalesce, cooperate or  copulate with after the election to provide a government.

This mating game is what happens in New Zealand where the result has been tough negotiations  after the result  but clear signals who will work with whom, something the electorate needs to come to sensible decisions. The result is  coalitions  which, though often strained as Jacinda Ardern's is now, usually endure and provide a government which represents a majority of them population rather than one of the declining tribes or another.

Yet Britain, though its not prepared to trust either major, doesn’t like coalitions, a mistrust boosted by Clegg’s disastrous crumble to the Tories in 2010. So instead of giving  certainty and a real ability to choose, to the electorate we get a bugger’s muddle   of  scrambled egg “to go”

Indeed the minor Parties make unpredictability worse by refusing to reveal their proclivities. The Liberals’ head  girl proclaims herself  Prime Minister , says bollocks to 52% of the electorate and  denounces  both major party leaders as liars, knaves and generally unsuitable for Liberals to play with. The SNP thinks only of Scotland but will give its support to any party that will give them a referendum, which, being sane, neither will. The Brexit party wants a bigger Brexit than anyone else will (or can) give them. As for the Greens and Welsh Nats no one can be sure what they want, apart from a Vegan ,Welsh speaking, government. 

All disastrous , undemocratic and insulting to the electorate. Parties which prefer purity to power should be in monasteries not politics. They condemn themselves to a futile role as a bucket for protesters to spit into ,the system to impotence and the electorate to disillusionment and alienation . Those who won’t choose shouldn’t be chosen.

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