OK, I know I said I was going to stop writing about politics, but what better way to start a blog post on politics than by breaking a promise? I was also going to blog every day and I have messed that up too.
Today I will talk about democracy. It is, as we have been told many times, the worst system of government available to us, apart from all the other models we have tried.
I won’t take much of your time as I am aware it’s a limited resource and I can’t hang about chatting if I’m going to solve the problems of the world and get some poetry written.
Democracy, to me, means that everybody has a vote and the people with the most votes get to make the decisions, though they do have to make sure that the minorities are treated fairly.
That’ the tricky thing to get right – the old two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch dilemma.
That’s why I get annoyed when I see politicians declaring that they won’t work with Reform. There are a number of things that I don’t like about Reform, I admit. But it’s undeniable that they did get a lot of votes – being the equal second largest party in Scotland (alongside Labour) and the second largest party in Wales by a considerable margin.
Is it right that to just disregard that amount of voters because they are in a party you disagree with? Or is that the way to cause more bitterness and division in an increasingly fractured world?
Having said that, what do voters think of coalitions, I sometimes wonder. When the Tories were burning through Prime Ministers in their final years we had a lot of people saying they hadn’t voted for the new PM and should have a general election. That, unfortunately, betrays a general ignorance of the way our government works, and the creeping Americanisation of the UK, when people think they vote for a PM rather than a party.
And that is definitely all I have to say on politics.
In general, I think it’s bad policy to lay your cards on the table and make blanket declarations, as people have done.
I take your point about Reform but I think that it is fair to say that the Conservatives never made a point of looking at the labour point of view when they were in power. Unfortunately, the current labour government has paid far too much attention to both the Conservative and Reform vision of life. I would also politely inquire as to the whereabouts of the many emollient statements made by Nigel Farage about working with other parties rather than the ones that I have read about smashing the system.
I am with Lavinia. I do want to add that once upon a time in this country, the Democrats and the Republicans did work together and passed essential environmental laws and protections. Thanks to bipartisan legislation, we now have bald eagles in abundance in Maine. It can happen even though such alliances might be fragile.
I think the world has become more greedy and less appreciative of peace. It is a shame we forget so easily.
Yes, yes. Sigh. It seems like an age ago when the Dems and the Republicans actually got along well enough to pass meaningful legislation.
Those times will return. Though we may not be here to see it . . .
You wrote, “That’ the tricky thing to get right – the old two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch dilemma.” That sums it up.
🙂
Change, change, and more change
Change, as I was once told, is easy. Improvement is hard. 🙂
Quite
🙂
I’m liking your politic posts. My first blog about 25 years ago was political/society based. No one read it, and I think it’s because no one is truly interested (a few maybe but not the masses) I think were basically stuffed and at the mercy of the media. All I hear is Trump, sometimes Putin rarely Kim Jong un never Min Aung Hlaing who probably has the worse record with 6,000 civilians killed and over 30,000 political prisoners detained, and widespread torture sexual abuse and deaths in custody. There are plenty more but Trump is a popular, everybody loves to hate him so it sells. Now we have Starma on his last legs so that sells papers. Reform are telling people what they want to hear though the media just as Labour did at the last election and people believe it. Yup, so many people think we are Americans. Both my sisters and lots of friends voted for Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, even though I told them they weren’t in those constituencies 😂