Dentist, Blunkett

[armb]

Went to the dentist this morning after a night of toothache. Wisdom tooth could come out, but they are going to leave it for now. Stocked up on paracetamol and ibuprofen.
And Blunkett has resigned. Shame it wasn't because he had to admit the ID card was a bad idea.

Comments

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

And no-one (except possibly Private Eye) will remember just a few days ago Blair giving the nation his clear and categorical assurance that when he won the next election David Blunkett would be his Home Secretary. They could seem so honest if they just never opened their mouths...

I wish there was somebody I could honestly want to vote for.

[muninnhuginn]

Hope the teeth improve. Toothache's miserable.

[armb.livejournal.com]

It has, thanks (mild ache along with throat and ears and general lurginess). I see Clarke has already said he'll press on with ID cards.

[armb.livejournal.com]

I think failing to anticipate a resignation doesn't necessarily indicate dishonesty. Not compared with, say, holding a consultation on ID cards, getting over 5000 responses saying they are a bad idea, and reporting that most of the 3000 responses you are actually going to count were in favour.
My theory is that voting Lib Dem is the best chance of getting voting reform that will make it easier to vote effectively for who you want (and more likely to have candidates some of whom you have some chance of agreeing with). Once you have something like single transferable vote, then votes for minority parties aren't wasted, and candidates who don't expect to win don't have to worry about splitting the vote of the opponents they would least dislike to win.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

You don't think he was told to resign?

Could be, I suppose...a politician following his heart and giving up all for love and family and being honourable and decent. Eventually. Can't see it myself, but then I am bitter and jaded and cynical...

I suppose LibDem is still the only option left. Even if I suspect (with apologies to Rhodri) that the main reason the car's never broken down is that it's never been on the road...

[demoneyes.livejournal.com]

I just wish politicians could come to understand that "doing the honourable thing" means resigning WHEN YOU GET CAUGHT DOING SOMETHING WRONG. Not hanging on by your fingernails for weeks until someone manages to prove it.

I also note Blair is saying Blunkett is leaving "with his integrity intact". To which I can only quote Inigo Montoya and say "I do not think this word means what you think it means"...

[armb.livejournal.com]

I think both Blair and Blunkett are liars, and very likely Blunkett was told to resign.
But if he actually meant "Blunkett will be my Home Secretary, except if it turns out he was lying about having not anything to do with the visa application, but he has my full confidence and I don't think that's a possibility worth even mentioning", which in principle he could have been, that would be misguided but not lying. (Not like saying we know for a definite fact that Iraq has weapons of mass distruction that can be readied in 45 minutes when you actually mean a single unconfirmed source tells us that Iraq has short-range battlefield weapons that can be readied in 45 minutes.)
I suspect that a LibDem party that had good chances of achieving power would have a smaller proportion of decent people in it (either because it would attract more of the wrong sort of person, or because it wouldn't reach power without changing), and there are decent Labour and Tory politicians too, but on the whole the LibDems seem to be the least bad option for now. At least some forms of proportional representation would allow you to vote for the candidates you prefer from a mixture of parties (so you could say "I'd prefer that Labour candidate to either of the Tories, but prefer the Tories to that other Labour candidate"). There's a limit to how much that difference that will make when the candidates are all following the party line, and it isn't possible with all systems (the party list system used for EU elections, for example), but I think it's a good thing in principle.