What exactly to do about the continued disengagement with politics and collapsing voter turnout  now almost the lowest in Western Europe?
Come the weekend, expect plenty of hand-wringing and a barrage of familiar ideas to reverse the decline that puts us well below even similar polities like New Zealand, miles down the OECD voter turnout average (23rd out of 30), but still ahead of Canada (just) and the US. Read More
The Independent: Revealed – Labour’s strategy to block influence of left-wing MPs
David Blunkett, the former home secretary who is expected to return to the Cabinet in a reshuffle on Friday if Labour retains power, told The Independent: “The real danger of abstentions could lead to a parliament where the disaffected determine the policy of the country.
“If the disaffected in the electorate end up with such a small majority that the disaffected in parliament can rule, then it is the disaffected per se in the electorate and parliament that run the show. That is not good for democracy.”
Disaffected. Disaffected.
Disaffected: adj. Resentful and rebellious, especially against authority.
So the tactic to win the votes of the likes of me has been abandoned for one of smears. How very New Labour. This from a man who had to resign from the cabinet over his affair with a married woman. A man set “to return to the Cabinet”. Again, very New Labour.
To borrow a joke from Spike Milligan: As the zoo keeper said when the trussed-up gorilla arrived – it was bound to come.
It’s been said during the election campaign that the war in Iraq and the legality thereof has been the dog that wouldn’t bark. Or, if you’ll permit me, the cluster bomb that didn’t explode.
But then the Attorney General’s advice on the legality, or otherwise, of the war was finally, inevitably leaked.