mopgoblin on 11/5/2007 at 01:16
Quote Posted by steo
I think what goes without saying is that the Lib Dems aren't now, and haven't been for a long time, in any shape to govern the country.
I'm not sure whether you mean that they're so far from winning a majority of seats that they'd have no chance of forming a government, or whether you mean that, given a majority, they wouldn't be an effective government for other reasons. Either way, there's still the possibility of a coalition government (at least in theory; it's quite rare under FPP). Indeed, if the seats received were proportional to votes received, the 2005 election would have required a coalition between two of the three large parties. Under MMP (or maybe SM), I expect you wouldn't have a single-party government. Given that the Labour and Conservative parties traditionally oppose each other, a coalition including the Liberal Democrats seems like the most likely outcome.
cabellero on 11/5/2007 at 01:21
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
Hey, I have a cousin in Georgia who is so ignorant of politics that she not only did she not know of the War in Lebanon (as she visited us last summer when it was going on) she didn't know of the EXISTENCE of Lebanon, or North Korea, or Iran.
What are they teaching kids at university these days?
I can go one better. :(
My (ex) girlfriend had never heard of the Cold War, Stalin or the Soviets, and had no idea what Communism is.
I didn't see her much after that.
Zygoptera on 11/5/2007 at 03:04
Quote Posted by Scots_Taffer
Well, I've lived in both countries and I've experienced what both PMs have been doing for a while now, and I can say that while Howard has made decisions that are unpopular with the international political media (such as his view on immigration policy/refugee status) it is certainly shared by a vocal majority of Australians, whereas the decisions Blair was making back home were backed by a vocal minority but the majority were too fed up to make noise about it anymore as they'd already been sidelined and marginalised enough by his policies. Blair has punished many people that he and his party were supposedly put in power to benefit,
New Labour is more about engendering a sense of entitlement to those who don't deserve it and battered-wife syndrome to those who actually contribute meaningfully to the country, and by that I mean public service workers (such as nurses, midwives, doctors and so on, not to mention police forces and teachers who have all seen themselves either deprived of pay or their working conditions drastically change over the course of Labour's term by their subtle erosion of acceptable standards and their encouragement of the lowest fucking common denominator) and tax-payers.
I agree about Blair, I have lived in the UK during his tenure and I did not like (most of) the changes compared to the last time I was there. But that is pretty much what I expect of politicians- they run the vocational professions into the ground because they know there will always be a supply of those who do things primarily to 'positively contribute to society' rather than from monetary rewards and they can thus be treated as disposable commodities; and they treat their traditional supporters like shit because, well, what option do they have? Vote Conservative? It is shit, but it's generic shit which happens everywhere.
Howard's stance on immigration and his behaviour in the Tampa incident were nothing less than despicable political opportunism of the worst kind. He blatantly lied to the Australian public about refugees throwing their children overboard, butchered hundreds of years of maritime tradition on the altar of his reelection, extorted the bankrupt Nauru (primarily bankrupt because Australian businesses spent decades pillaging its phosphate reserves) into taking its refugees and has fostered an environment where fucktards like Alan Jones can blatantly foment racial hatred with only the most tame and tenuous censure.
Even if that was what the Australian public wanted (and I'm not convinced it was, or would have been without the PR/ lies) it's more than enough to make him worthless scum to me, and the quicker he goes the better.
