Blog: Important National Annoucement: The Opinion Of ME

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In these times of National Unity and Financial Emergency it is vital - VITAL - for the onward pursuance of fiscal AND monetary responsibilty that i throw in my MIGHTY OAR to the Great Debate that is GRIPPING the United Kingdom i.e. What About This Coalition Business then eh?

Here then is my opinion:

I think we all need to take a deep breath, calm down, and say "I don't suppose there was anything else anybody could have done, really, and I guess we'll just have to get on with it".

For LO! there doesn't half seem to be a lot of HYSTERIA and GRIPING going on. My VIEW is perhaps biased because on holiday we read The Guardian every day which was PACKED to the GILLS with the aforesaid GRIPING, also HYSTERIA. BLIMEY! I am starting to think that the reason so many Brits Abroad seem to read the Daily Mail is that they BEGAN their holidays as Occasional Independent Readers who could only get hold of The Guardian and, over the course of a couple of weeks, became SO ANNOYED that they became PERMANENTLY RIGHT WING by the end of it. I know I got home DANGEROUSLY CLOSE to thinking that many journalists would not be harmed by a decent haircut and a spot of national service.

The thing is, IN MY MIGHTY OPINION, neither D.Cameron nor N.Clegg nor anybody else had any real CHOICE in the matter. A minority Conservative government would have ground to a halt within MINUTES, probably leading to another general election which could well have THEN led to an ACTUAL MAJORITY for them, as a) The Labour Party would still be leaderless b) the Lib Dems would get the blame for not making it a proper government c) the Tories are the only ones with the CA$H to fight another campaign so soon.

"Ooh, but what about The Rainbow Alliance eh?" say CERTAIN TYPES who, clearly, find MATHS to be a bit of a trial. If the current coalition government is looking A Bit Shaky due to the various LOONIEZ of both parties wanting to have their moment in the spotlight, shouting, then how on earth do you think it would be if we had not only Labour and the LibDems but ALSO the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists involved, ALL with different policies, and with a MUCH MUCH smaller minority? ANSWER: it would be shakier than Shakin' Stevens on The Boardwalk in an Earthquake, wearing a vest while it snows, and would result in the aforesaid early election and then a MASSIVE Tory Majority.

So yes, really the only thing that COULD be done to minimise Horrible Tory Things in the long-term was to go into a coalition with them. It seems weird to me that this is something anybody would seriously dispute, and i begin to suspect that some of the complaining is just People Who Wish To Complain. The fact is, NOBODY got exactly what they wanted out of the election - NONE of the parties actually WON in the way they wanted to, and so EVERYBODY connected with the parties seems to feel cheated out of their Assumed Natural Right To Govern.

Now, as a lifelong LibDem voter I a) might be slightly biased but b) get a bit annoyed about some of the bollocks that is currently being spoken, especially currently by Labour people who arrogantly suppose that the SOLE POINT of the LibDems is that they are NOT TORIES. "Ooh", they say, "What about people who voted LibDem thinking that it would prevent the Tories getting in eh? What about them?" Well a) any party who suddenly doesn't like tactical voting might possibly have thought about that when they spent 13 years NOT CHANGING THE VOTING SYSTEM b) was there anywhere at ALL where this actually happened and a Tory MP was deposed by a Liberal Democrat? c) and if so, well, it DID keep out a Tory, and by giving the Liberal Democrats one more MP gave them that little bit more leeway to get THEIR policies implemented rather than Tory ones.

Because, the thing is, there's absolutely nothing unusual, difficult, unworkable or problematic about there BEING a Coalition nor about two parties who are VERY different actually managing to WORK TOGETHER. You know that great big land mass off the south coast? No, not the Isle Of Wight, i mean EUROPE - THERE? Turns out pretty much MOST of the countries over there have been managing this for DECADES and appear to have MORE different parties than us, not LESS, with all KINDS of different ideas. And quite a lot of THEM are weathering the Global Situation a lot better than we are.

So, in conclusion, I say this: let's just see how it goes. It isn't the situation that ANYBODY would REALLY like to be in, but after the results we had it's the only one we really CAN be in, so we might as well get on with it. I hate the Tories as much as the next man (NB unless it's Boris Johnson or something) but not ALL of them are, necessarily (STEELS SELF to say something he doesn't really want to) COMPLETELY evil {terms and conditions apply} and, after 13 years of a New Labour government that spent much of its time trying to Out-Thatcher Thatcher, some of their plans might even be LESS AWFUL than if G.Brown was still in charge.

I fully expect, now that I've said this, to find G.Osborne parading through The City Of London in a TANK, leading a FOX HUNT as he gleefully hands out WADS OF CASH to bankers whilst MAIMING the unemployed. If that happens, I take it all back!

posted 17/5/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

So all those Lib Dem MPs in posh areas, who say in their campaigns "vote for me, I'm the only option to keep the Tories out"? I expect they'll have to resign and contest their seats again in by-elections, except maybe do it honestly this time.
posted 17/5/2010 by Pete Green

Well, no - if they DID get elected to those seats then they DID keep a Tory MP out didn't they? And they DID stop a fully fledged Tory government too... tho from the results that came in, like I say, I don't think that actually happened anywhere!
posted 17/5/2010 by MJ Hibbett

At least one instance - sort of. Lorely Burt won Solihull by a wafer-thin majority in 2005 (not sure if this is an example you were thinking of, Pete!). Boundary changes then actually left it as a notional Tory seat, and she won it all over again this time round, again by a wafer-thin majority. Bizarrely, this officially counts as change from Tory to Lib Dem in the official record! Not sure if there are other examples - but numerous Lib Dem MPs certainly retained their seats by maximising the anti-Tory vote.
posted 18/5/2010 by John Kell

Oh, it happens plenty. There was a brilliant bloke from the New Statesman on Question Time last week who cited some telling examples. To campaign locally as the only viable anti-Tory option, and then to help the Tories form a government nationally, is not on. The Lib Dems are trying to have their cake and eat it. And I don't think people will have this. Can't speak for anywhere else, but the Lib Dems' duplicity is going to earn them an absolute battering next time their councillors come up for re-election here in Sheffield.
posted 19/5/2010 by Pete Green

Someone from The New Statesman complaining about the Labour Party losing it's god-given right to govern?!? ASTOUNDING! Yes, it's definitely the LibDems fault - imagine! Saying you'll negotiate with the party who gets the most votes, and then DOING so! APPALLING! It's the Labour Party i feel sorry for - they did absolutely NOTHING to lose this election, especially not taking us into ANY illegal wars, and the British People were clearly too stupid to realise they "won on substance, not on style".
posted 19/5/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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