LESSONS FROM THE UK ELECTIONS

by Colin Liddell

The UK elections have come and gone, and the story is now quickly fading into the twilight. So, what happened? What did we actually learn?

PODCAST 28: HANGING THE PARLIAMENT

Unfortunately, a "hung parliament" doesn't mean quite what you would want it to mean, merely being a British expression for a parliament in which no political party has a majority. With the UK general election just round the corner, Andy and Colin discuss what is sure to be one of the most interesting elections in British political history, with the only certainty being uncertainty.

THE MILIBAND MASQUERADE?

Milibang!

by Colin Liddell

Democratic politics always has had an ugly side, both in the types of personalities it attracts and the devious behaviour it encourages. The main reason for this is that it allows the broad masses to vote, lowering the audience IQ to a level that incentivizes the low-grade deceptions of unscrupulous politicians.

Ugly as it is, it certainly didn’t get any more aesthetically pleasing when Ed Miliband was elected leader of the Labour Party in 2010. With his robotic style and rubbery face, he evokes Mr. Bean possessed by the last of the Body Snatchers, or a piece of “Wallace and Gromit” claymation gone wrong.

For the present general election campaign, which will end on May 7th, a long, hard effort has gone into making “Ed” seem warm and personable – he was actually fitted out with a (rather ugly) wife shortly after becoming leader and was also designated as the father of her two children, although they clearly resemble their mother much more than their supposed father.

In an attempt to 'humanize' this unlikely leadership material he was also carefully coached on body language, facial gestures, voice, and positioning. The process has some similarities to a necrophile heating up the inamorata with which he has just eloped from the local mortuary.

THE CRUCIBLE OF CONSENSUS AND THE COUNTER CURRENTS OF BRITISH POLITICS

A cup of tea, how very British!

by Colin Liddell

You'll probably have heard the expression "two cheeks of the same arse" to describe the false political dichotomy of two "centrist" parties offering themselves up to the electorate and producing the usual effluence.

This is almost always the case in US elections, and it has certainly been the case in UK elections, where the "centre right" Conservative Party and the "centre left" Labour Party typically contest power. Except that it's not really power, because whichever party gets in, only gets in by twisting itself into whichever awkward shape conforms best to the dimensions of the crucible of power.

BRITAIN'S STUPID AND EVIL PARTIES

by Colin Liddell

Contrary to what most of the pundits are saying, the recent Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election in the UK was very revealing about the state and direction of British politics.

With Labour winning a seat they have held since its inception (42 percent of the vote), the Liberal-Democrats coming second with a marginally increased percentage of the vote (31.9 percent), and the Conservative vote being squeezed in a seat they had little hope of winning (12.8 percent), political commentators have been left with little of interest to remark on. But this is because they have been ignoring yet again the increasingly important substratum of British politics and how it impacts on the top flight.