Politics

[armb]

Tom Tomorrow sums up Obama's Nobel prize - it was actually won by the idea of Obama:
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/10/13/tomo/index.html

Meanwhile, why are the Conservatives so far ahead in UK opinion polls? Does anyone really think they would have kept us out of recession by putting stricter controls on the banking industry? Kept us out of Iraq? I'm starting to think they might be a slight improvement on civil rights and privacy issues, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

They aren't Labour. The Lib Dems don't stand a chance, and never have under our electoral system, their support is more evenly distributed (I remember when they were first formed, and gor almost 25% of the vote -- which came out as 1% of the seats, because they had around 25% in each area which wasn't enough to get them a majority in almost all areas).

Certainly from what the Tories are saying[1] about cancelling the ID system (or large parts of it) etc. they do seem to be better about civil rights, and about dismantling and narrowing some of the overly broad laws Labour have brought in.

Although they could kill their prospects with the recently announced "positive discrimination" toward women and ethnic minorities in the candidate lists (they are talking about "all female" lists). For instance, if they remove my MP they are almost certain to lose the seat, because most people vote for him not the party (the Lib Dems would get it: Labour don't stand a chance, they get a minute proportion of the vote, but a lot of the people who vote Tory for MP vote LD for council elections). But if they only do the "all female" lists in marginal areas that might cause a backlash as well...

[1] Does anyone still believe that what a political party says before an election has anything to do with what they will actually do if they win?

[armb.livejournal.com]

I believe the Tories probably will cancel the ID system. But then I also suspect if Labour did manage a miracle and stay in they'd spot that it was an expensive thing that many people would be happy to see cancelled and let that override not wanted to be seen to climb down on it.
On the wider front, I'll wait and see.