Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 13:39:57 +0100
Subject: Re: election



>We have reached the end of the British General election and tomorrow the
>choices will be made. Britain is a parliamentary democracy and as a
>consequence as you put the little x on the paper you select both the
>local constituency Member of parliament and also the Party and Prime
>Minister who more or less embodies the executive branch of government as
>well as parliamentary leader.
>
>The only interesting element of the election is the seemingly profound
>rejection of the hardline neo-liberal economic positions in favour of
>taxation, the remains of the welfare state

what is really interesting is that, similar to the system in the states, it
is far from being a 'majority rules' scenario.
41% of the electorate didn't bother to vote. who knows or cares what
they think of the state, or neo-liberal economic positions.
23% of the registered voters gave their X to labour.
hmmm, lessee, that's 36% of the able-to-vote who did not vote
labour. tsk tsk. what a mandate!

let's hope the welfare state in the uk keeps going with this type of
electoral system, since the welfare system here seems fairly good,
despite all the moaning about the NHS.
maybe the netherlands has a better welfare system. i
dunno if they are daring to tout all this crap about family values
over there though. ok, that was just a jab at the social exclusionary
tactics of the neo-liberal social machine which labour seems to feel
it can put about without fear of gainsay. welfare tied to social
values, erk.

ah well, i come from a country where voting is compulsory. that way,
you can't complain if the other team gets in. or, maybe you can feel
a bit marginalised. oh, also, the system there isn't run on this first past
the post idea. giving your vote to a lesser party makes it count when
they say who they will give their preferences to if it comes to a
fight. sure, it's open to a bit of sleazing, though.

back to occasional browsing.
L.