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Alter ego …
Richard D North has launched a new blog - part of a family called "Right Sites". He thinks it's wonderful … but then he would, wouldn't he?
COMMENT THREAD
Giving them a kicking
The election turnout next Thursday could either have nose dived, as people walked away from the election process as a whole, or they could flock to the polls as a protest vote. We wonder which way it would go, but now The Timesseems to be pointing the way.
Relying on its Populus poll, it is suggesting that we might make 41 percent, up on the 38 percent in 2004, itself higher than the previous poll. That is completely bucking the general EU trend, with turn outs of 12 percent expected in member states such as Latvia.
There is no doubt as to why the British euro-elections have suddenly become so popular – and it has nothing to do with a sudden enthusiasm for MEPs. Simply, nearly four out of ten voters have decided to give their domestic politicians a kicking, the only way they can short of a lynching.
With UKIP leading the polls of the tiddlers – depending on which polls to take notice of – an exercise which the "colleagues" would love to think is the ultimate expression of confidence in the project is descending into pure farce. To protest against corrupt politicians in Britain, voters are set on sending even more corrupt politicians to Brussels, where the gravy train is even richer and the pickings easier.
There is no logic to this, and there is every logic to it. Since the whole exercise of sending MEPs to Brussels is meaningless, the voter reasons that they might just as well make the best of it and use the election for a purpose not intended.
When the results come in, they will be just as meaningless – a protest vote that will have no effect whatsoever on the domestic scene, as Brown battens down the hatches and stays in office for the full term.
Somehow, though, as even the saintly Mr Cameron is smeared, politics will never be the same. Estate agents will never, ever again be at the bottom of the popularity stakes.
COMMENT THREAD
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Looking in the mirror
There will be a defence debate on Thursday in the House. MPs will hear some interesting news which will signal another shift towards realigning defence policy, closer to meet the needs of current operations, rather than feeding the industrial-military complex and the ambitions of the military for its "future wars".
The Commons chamber will be almost empty. Most of the very few MPs who will attend will not understand what they are being told. Others will misunderstand it – some deliberately. Others, of those that speak, will waffle aimlessly, delivering a variation of their stock speech used for every defence debate.
Yet this will have been the opportunity of MPs to get to grips with a crucial aspect of government policy. It will largely be wasted, but not entirely so. Of one thing we can be assured though - the debate will scarcely be reported.
If anything does escape into the wider public domain, it will probably be a pre-packaged sound bite, carefully constructed by its author with the specific intention of seeing it in print the next day. More thoughtful and relevant contributions will be ignored.
One of the issues that may be discussed is the Jackal. Today we learn of the deaths of yet another two soldiers. They were part of the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, operating near Musa Qala. This almost certainly means they were in Jackals, bringing to eight the number killed in this vehicle. We will be writing in more detail about this later on DOTR.
There are many pros and cons to this vehicle – more cons than pros, we would aver. Its utility, therefore, is highly debatable.
Here, the point is that, while it has been debated endlessly on Defence of the Realm and elsewhere, it has not been debated in any meaningful way in parliament – and neither has the role or the equipment been examined specifically by the Defence Committee. Instead, we see an orgy of navel-gazing – in the House and in the media while, the claque indulges in what we called pratting about.
Yet, what will happen on Thursday is the meat and drink of politics. The fact that it will largely be ignored and poorly attended speaks volumes about politicians, the media and the nature of Parliament. Away from the headlines, unrecognised, this is where politics is going wrong. It is not doing the bread and butter work at all well and, even when it attempts to do so, the work is not recognised by the baying crowd.
If we want MPs to represent us well, therefore, it seems to me that we must look to ourselves as much as to Westminster. If we don't care what they do, why should they? And if then soldiers die in useless vehicles, for want of robust intervention by Parliament, with all its powers and resources, are we not at least partly to blame?
Thus, if our political system is failing, perhaps – in addition to everything else – we should have a quick look in the mirror.
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