Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kuros]

A look across the pond

[Neil]

Last week was local elections for control of councils ect. The governing party of the country is decided at general elections...the last general election was in 2005 and the next can be called by the ruling party at any time in the next 5 years. With Labour being weak Brown will probably wait until the latest possible time (spring 2010) to go to the polls.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Justin Hale]

Local government, essentially. The really good news is that Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London. He's a real character. Tory leader David Cameron is a very Blair-like character and hopefully the Tories will get back in government.

[Neil]

For me, Ken got swept away by a combination of:

1. The anti-Labour sentiment created by Blair's misadventures and Brown's lack of leadership skills.

2. The direction the economy seems to be heading.

3. the anti-Ken campaign waged by the Evening standard. A shit paper who have never forgiven Ken for his days in the GLC (when he slagged off the standard for an anti Irish cartoon they ran)

4. the fact that he'd been in for two terms already.

Its a shame we've ended up with a mayor who hasn't been elected on his own merits (would anyone argue with that?) but thats how democracy works sometimes.

Johnson is mayor now, and maybe he'll surprise us all and make a good job of it. I don't think we're expecting anything bold and visionary, but who knows....

More interstingly I think the BNP paranoia is now overatted however much the media bangs on about it, look at Rome where they have actually voted in a fascist as Mayor. Apparently Alemanno's supporters chanted "Duce! Duce!" at the victory parade.

They had lots of people over there who said, you have to deal with the immigration thing or the fascists will get in. So they brought in vicious anti-immgrant laws and... the fascist got in, the first time Rome has had any kind of right-winger as mayor for decades.

I hope that shows those anti-immigrant types who like to use the fascist vote in a kind of blackmail deal - "if you don't chuck out the poles/darkies/jews, my people will vote BNP!" that you guys are going for a 'be careful what you wish for' kind of deal.

[Beeyee]

[Dome Vans]

[Big_Bird]

I completely agree with you Dome Vans. I find it so frustrating that come election day, I dare not cast my vote for the Lib Dems because it has the practical effect of giving my vote to the Tories. This really pisses me off. The Australians have a much better system where you can give preferential votes. If we had the Aussie system in the UK, we could give our first vote to Lib Dems, and if they didn't have a chance of winning, our second preference (Labour in my case) would be taken into account. So my vote would not be wasted. We'd see the rise of other parties too, like the Greens. The Aussie system is still not perfect either, and there must be even better ways of getting fairer representation.

However, neither Labour nor the Tories will change this system, as they both benefit keeping it a 2 horse race.