h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Most politicians aren't smart enough. They just babble on.

Sad but true .

Well I really should go to bed now (he says for nth time) ,so goodnight phreako

goodnight Vogonpoet
I will probably see you again tomorrow as I am on here every day

Yes me too, although hopefully this will be my last top of the post for quite some time - I really should cut back

Good morning evryone. We are top of the most talked about entries list

I am just about to be late for my first lecture but I had to visit coz I get the shakes really badly if I don't have a dose of h2g2. How will I survive all day?

I notice Shea is onboard now too, fantastic. The more people we have in our little plan the better. So now we have USA, Britain and Germany forming governmental association, we're thinking more about taking over the UN now, surely.

Must dash

Hi guys, and goodmorning all

Blimey deackie, not sure I cand handle all those so soon after breakfast....

Good morning one and all...
Why is everyone but me up early/awake late?
How about some instead of Oh, I just got the election result; no supprise there; national turn-out less than %60, Pretty poor show UK..

Its not the electorates fault though, who can blame us for our disatisfaction?

WilliamThatcher? glad to see him go; it doesn't matter which party you support, you need a strong opposition, and William, wasn't the woman for that job...
Worryingly large majority; we are begining to get a real 3-way split as compaired to the old 2-way split in the commons.

Yes indeed - to some extent maybe the landslide is what we need at this moment in time - The Lib Dems will have a much stronger position than they had this time round in the next election, as they can claim to be as significant an oppositon as the tories - they have always suffered from not being taken very seriously by people at the actual voting booths, for fear of wasting their vote...

I managed to actually go to the library and pick up some govt documents - well done me, but the shakes and agitation became too bad and I had to pop onto h2g2 for some relief. Glad to see everyone is up and atem (finally 2legs).

What is wrong with politics, any landslide victory for any party always spells bad news

It's a good job that we gather almost religiously to put the world to rights

Our h2g2 obsession will lend us strength...
oh, BTW deackie, late last night St Shea popped in and visited our Help thread, any chance of adding to out members list sometime?

It is quite strange, listening to the radio, and hearing the discussions (earlier) on how bad the "landslide" (also called "mudslide" by a slightly more synical commentator), is for UK politics.
The strange thing is, they all seem to have forgotten the Conservative reign in the UK which only ended a few years ago,
So, what are the commentators; political instability through constantly changing goverments is the answer; at least this way there may be a bit of political/governmental stability in running the country, however good or bad your own political feelings tend toward..
but I hope the Lib Dems benifit from the situeation in the future. It would be nice to have the Lib Dems as the opposition (second place), or first place party.

I haven't time at college to add Shea because it is just a case of popping in, checking postings and then running off to lectures so I'll update the membership list tonight and say hello.

The problem that I have with landslide victories is that it is much easier for the govt to railroad bills through the house. With a smaller majority the opposition can oppose, and if any Labour backbenchers oppose, then a bill is less likely to get through. You're right to liken the situation to the Tories during the '80s and early '90s. Their overwhelming majority meant that very unpopular bills could get past with little opposition. Back to the problem of party whips again, why should MPs be forced to vote with the party line instead of voting for what their constituents want?

Party whips ae acknowledgement of fundamental problem with democracy -you cant please all the people all of the time. When the two main parties were closer the whips are needed to get some sort of vague coherence (or at least try to find some coherence) in the commons, but with only one major party, the whip for that party becomes too powerful, to the detriment of the party:

Its like Labour has a monopoly on seats, and everyone knows that monopolys suffer (from consumer standpoint) from lack of opposition.

I think a lot of the problem with votor apathy relates to the "clout" of the local MP's. Unless you happen to be in a constituency with a "high profile" MP who is going to be influencial, I.E., basically in the cabinate, then, because of MP's following the whip, as far as voting ETC., is concerned, then the local MP you vote in is probably not even going to raise any issues that are applicible to local people/affairs, so, (apathy) "why bother if they have vertually no say once/if they get into the house of commons".
Aside anything else; I would prefer to vote for a local MP, ignoring what party they stand for, on the basis of if they were going to be proactive in promoting local issues should they be elected to the house of commons.
And therein lays, or should that be lies? the problem, you don't know how they are going to behave in the House until they are elected, and towing the party line, often completely thwarts any attempt the MP might want to make towards local issues of his region; because if they are going against party lines, or at least not promoting them, they stand no chance of moving through the ranks to ever get a position on the cabinat.

You speak truth 2legs...
OH, and are you enjoying your ?

I think I'll have a

(Does anyone see the gross injustice in this posting )

Haiku anyone?

*feigns casual demanour*

The gross injustice is that I am not now Primeministor is good during the day; but I have a box of <ale. for tonight...

The biggest injustice would be that if an MP does vote as he constituents want and goes against the whip then he can lose the whip for an amount of time and be unable to participate at all. That REALLY seems dictatorial and it makes me mad.

I have a bottle of wine for tonight, so I apologise in advance if my postings become eratic as the evening progresses. For now here is a pot of tea. Who wants to be Mum?