Well, the spectre of the spawn of Primrose Hill has been vanquished. This is a good thing.The thought of Miliband minor in number 10 was too horrible to contemplate. Clearly the shy Tories – whom the pollsters failed to factor in – thought so too. But, perhaps, the thought of Nicola Sturgeon pulling the strings from north of the border also concentrated some minds. Cameron really must fix this problem.
Seeing Labour wiped from the Scottish map was amusing, for they did rely heavily on their Scottish support to wield their power over England. Yes, I know, the English voted for Blair to our lasting shame, but without the Scottish contingent of MPs Labour is severely weakened. Long may it be so.
There is something wrong with a system that gives a minor party over fifty seats, yet has fewer votes than a minor party that ended up with one seat. This, too, needs to change. It was this lack of a voice that caused my decision to firstly withhold my vote and then, at the last minute to vote in favour of a candidate who was never going to get anywhere – he got 45 votes.
It’s odd that the folk who decided to punish the Lib Dems were, often as not, voting for their coalition partners. I feel a little sorry for Clegg and his band. They entered the coalition in order to provide stable government following a hung parliament. They did, on the whole, deliver. They were held in contempt for failing to deliver on their manifesto. Well, yes, they were a junior party in a coalition. As they did not have a parliamentary majority, things like tuition fees had to fall by the wayside. Clegg was one of the few who really understood civil liberties and acted as a brake on the madness that Theresa May wanted to inflict upon us in the name of security.
On the subject of security – May was saying this morning that without the LibDem brake she can now go back to her draconian agenda of spying on us all. This is where a small majority is a good thing. The Tories may govern alone. However, because the majority is a small one, a back bench rebellion can and should hold the executive to account.
Will they privatise the NHS and create workhouses as the more extreme Guardianista would have us believe? No, of course not. That said, private enterprise bidding for work in the health sector is no bad thing. The French manage perfectly well with a mix of state-owned, not for profit and private provision. Their system, frankly, makes our look shabby in comparison. If I could ditch the NHS in favour of the French system – having experienced the latter at first hand – damned right I would. Envy of the world, my arse. If it was, the world would be queuing up to copy it. They aren’t and for very good reason. It’s bureaucratic and wasteful – and, not least, provides a haven for the bacilli of the public health despots to justify more taxes and fewer freedoms and more control and our money for themselves. The sooner these parasites are rooted out and destroyed, the better.
So, all in all, not too bad – until the news of Ed Balls losing his seat came in. I haven’t stopped grinning since. There is a God after all.
They’re not queuing up to copy it but they are queuing up to use it.
On Mr Balls, that made my day, closely followed by Ed Davey and Vince Cable.
That’s easily solved. Do what the French do. No carte vitale? Then here’s the bill and hope you have suitable insurance.
For the past five years I’ve heard Tories saying that they couldn’t be properly liberating because they had the LibDems in tow. They have no excuses now so we shall watch with interest.
Indeed. Also, the small majority makes a back-bench rebellion more effective.