pepper | (no subject)

So, a hung parliament. Not very surprising; I'm sort of pleased that, no matter how much the country wants Brown/Labour gone, it still can't bring itself to definitely vote Conservative. Of course, it sounds like this means the country is in deep doodoo until they call another election, at which point there's a good chance the Cons will get in... *sigh*

My constituency has remained a tiny island of red (Labour) in a sea of blue (Cons), one of those "safe" seats that would have been on the national news this morning if it had changed allegiance. Sadly, our neighbours to the west have gone from being a strongly Liberal Democrat area to voting Cons. There was only 176 votes in it, so there'll be a lot of Lib Dems from that area who are deeply unhappy about the step to the right. The outgoing Lib Dem MP was always taking a risk by being a Humanist, pro-choice, pro-animal testing, and a supporter of stem cell testing and voluntary euthanasia (er... not at the same time) in the middle of conservative, Conservative middle England. I don't agree with everything he stands for, but personally, if I was in the area, that wouldn't have prevented me from voting for him. Eesh.

I stayed up until 01:30 watching the alternative election night. Favourite quote (that I can remember): "Proportional representation. The easiest way to explain it... is to someone who's interested and already understands it." *g* I'm glad they didn't try to explain it to me last night, because I think my brain would have given out.

Also, I'm totally working on my crush on Professor Brian Cox, the "rockstar physicist". He's so smart and dreamy! *swoons* Someone should write a fic where he and Sam Carter meet, stat.

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Brief guide for anyone wondering: of the three parties that have any chance of gaining power in this country, the Conservatives are right-wing, Labour are left-wing (supposedly), and Liberal Democrats are in the middle. Roughly speaking, at least.

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the Conservatives are right-wing, Labour are left-wing (supposedly), and Liberal Democrats are in the middle.

Except for how the Lib Dems are now to the left of Labour on various issues. And everyone is at least a step to the left relative to the USA. Just to cause maximum transatlantic confusion.

Oh god, yes - explaining it in any realistic way is a bit beyond me, this morning. *g* But yeah, really it's becoming, left to right, Lib Dem -- Labour -- Cons. So weird.

Ah, I remember the days when Labour were still left-wing... poor ol' Neil Kinnock, he never stood a chance of winning elections against Thatcher, did he?

Right now, my explanation of a hung parliament for non-UK people is:

Basically, the British public looked at the incumbent party and the opposition and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if they could both lose?"

Bwah! Yes, that definitely feels like the sentiment. And people came out in droves to say so.

Strictly speaking it makes more sense if you slash them all; that way you get it so that Brown is a top but due to his number of seats being smaller than he really needs he ends up being a bit of a sub to Clegg, who is a bottom and who would be nicely satisfied by the size of Brown's vote share, but is able to dom brown because of Brown's insecurities.

Cameron meanwhile, because of being quite new to the scene and internalised homophobia that makes him quite insecure, fancies himself as both a dom and top, but really needs a good fuck in the ass from Clegg, who isn't really into being a sub and knows he can actually dictate terms to Cameron because he knows that Cameron wants him more than Clegg wants Cameron (though the huge size of Cameron's vote share is obviously tempting to Clegg).

... I think you've just added a whole new level of subtext to "hung parliament."

Surely not a new level of subtext? Obvious Subtext is Obvious.

Sue Perkins is in fact slashing Clegg/Brown something hard on the News Show!

Nuts, I wish I'd seen that! Damn overwhelming tiredness that finally caught up with me. *loves Sue Perkins*

Sorry, not "the New show", "the News Quiz", the radio version of Have I Got News For You - it has a podcast that I love.

Eep. *eyes icon* Oh god don't let there be mpreg for this...

I must admit it's a bit strange for me to see the flailing that is happening a bit over the "hung parliament" thing in the UK. Has this never happened before?

(A single party hasn't had the majority in my country since the 1950's... We are pretty used to coalitions :))

Bugger, comment vanished.

We've not had one since the 70s, and apparently it was a disaster. I've not looked into it myself yet, but it sounds like they just couldn't make any decisions, and a new election had to be called within a year.

It seems likely that the same will happen this time, partly because everyone will be expecting another election to be called: they'll be too busy electioneering to actually work sensibly together.

My condolences. Now they'll waste all the time and money on elections, meanwhile important things, like the actual running of the country gets ignored. Ugh.

I'm glad they didn't try to explain it to me last night, because I think my brain would have given out.

That's because you don't have Rick Mercer explaining it.

Yeah, it's not a little tiresome - but not altogether unexpected, at least in hindsight. Ugh.

And, heh - I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets their political information from comedians. *g* They explain it so much better!

Hee. It's so nice not to have to work your brain to understand complicated things, yes?

Yes, I was like, "Oh, PLEASE don't explain proportional representation to me! I haven't had enough sleep lately!" And, thank god, they didn't. *g*