We’ve changed – the single party is over
‘Tis the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness… maybe a tad late, but welcome to the dawning of our Indian summer – I am north of Stafford proceeding across the north west toward Liverpool to attend the Labour Party conference.
Is there a better moment to glimpse Blighty in all her glory – this green and pleasant land. The poets were lucky, they quite clearly lived more of these sumptuous mornings than we ever have. Broad sun coming through the mists and bright blue skies beyond.
Even Runcorn basks in it. And I say this amid economic woes of untold depths.
Whether Labour basks in it remains to be seen. Today’s poll in the Independent makes grim reading for Labour, lagging the Conservatives by a point and the Liberals in the recovery room at 12 per cent.
Once upon a time, a daring opposition leader – the more daring for being a Liberal Democrat at the time – called on his party to go back to their constituencies and “prepare for government”.
One wonders whether the Labour Party understands the new call – “prepare for coalition”. For with 15 per cent of the electorate in successive polls supporting parties beyond the main three, the elections expert John Curtis of Strathclyde University has written, and indeed wrote before the last election, that the likelihood of ANY major party forming a government alone in the next generation is improbable.
There is little evidence in the electorate today of any vast thirst for another single party government – Labour may at least be able to boast that it was the last.
This is anecdotal, impressionistic, but this is my sense, my feeling, as I go about. The UK – even with first past the post voting – has become a European coalition democracy. Does that feel uncomfortable?
Follow Jon Snow on Twitter: @jonsnowC4
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There are 25 comments on this post
The thought of permanent coalition,and lack of clear direction,in the quest to appease minor parties is very demoralising.Watered down ineffective policies.Inaction on major issues like Europe, human rights or even the vast overwhelming public sector.Failure to confront the gross bureaucracy of the NHS .All symptoms of the ineffectiveness of coalition.
Listening to Ed Balls ,one of the architects of our financial difficulties trying to expand on a solution without accepting his and his parties culpability was nauseating in the extreme.
I expect to hear the boyish rhetoric of a Union appeaser this afternoon, and wonder how anyone can ever trust the current Labour mob and infact the Labour party anywhere near government again.Even were it to be in a minor coalition role
I am comfortable with the notion of no single party being able to pull the country into extremes , but this is ideology and doesn’t necessarily mean that influence from the powerful will not persist and have greater leverage, although it is a start and a shared fellow feeling.
I drove to work listening to shostakovitch on radio 3 looking at the leaves turning golden and the pale watery sun shining and reflecting on the roads. It was one of those moments where I was enveloped in utter luxury. The sounds were sublime and as I looked at the mums scalding their kids on the way to school , the truck drivers angry, other drivers taking long drags on their cigarettes giving the appearance of strangling stress, I felt apart , not of this economic mess but in another dimension where gladness of experience and tingling life itself left little room for complaint.
Jon,
By and large this country overall gets the governments, the economic system, the unemployment, the poverty and the London Riots it deserves. It also deserves the kind of London media-based uncaring, ignorant and insensitive narrow minded garbage contained in your post. Kelvin Mackenzie or Nick Robinson couldn’t have done a worse job.
That side swipe at “economic woes of untold depths” only holds good because people like you have chosen to ignore the truth and ensure it goes largely untold. Until it explodes rioting on your door step, that is, and you can appear on our TV screens like a shocked suburban housewife with no sense of reality. And you wonder why three quarters of this country utterly despises London for its wilful cultural ignorance and near total corruption?
To many of us it often seems this nation is run by a neocon government of occupation kow-towed to by a media of yes men who wouldn’t have been out of place at Der Sturmer. Sadly, your post demonstrates just how far from reality you have become detached, full of Autumnal narcissistic bullshit, not a word on the immorality and indecency of neocon Britain.
Except for a coalition of spivs and barrow boys.
Philip you certainly have reached into an abyss..and I don’t deny it is there..but not every aspect of the nworld is in the abyss…if you detatch yourself from your computer and look outside, it is a genuinely beautiful day..if you are in denial about that..well then i’d send for help!
99% of this country think your statistics are bollocks!
I think that most people are decent, law abiding citizens who can reach their own conclusions about bankers salaries, MPs excesses and so on.
What we need is a democracy that at least pays lip service to the word! One in which politicians take their lead from the views of the majority of the electorate.
If this is achieved through coalition then so be it.
Successive UK Governments have ignored this and totalitarian states, by definition, couldn’t give a toss about the proletariat.
We are lucky to live in a country that allows us to express our views; no matter how biased.
Jon,
You miss the point by some distance.
The world is indeed a beautiful place.
But our perception of it would be a great deal better if those charged with reporting it did so with much more perception and honesty of the TRUE condition of our country.
My point, since you seem determined to miss it, is that you London-based journalists appear to be holed up more and more in a sort of Inside the M25 Cloud Cuckoo Metro Land unconnected to the rest of the country. Your posts seem increasingly to come from somebody who treats the rest of the country and its people as a place about which you know little and care less. It is precisely this head-in-the-sand attitude that is partly responsible for the socioeconomic mess the nation is in. If this observation makes you uncomfortable….tough. If it helps you break out of your Metro narrow mindedness….good.
At this time of the year England is indeed beautiful. The good things are cherished even more when we realise just how threatened they are by the miserable gangsters who are undermining them. But I don’t expect you London journalists to even remotely understand that.
And good luck in all you do.
I wonderered whether your comments were worthy of reply but they are so ludicrous that, PHILLIP one wonders what land you live in and even if it is on Earth.It certainly is no country that i recognise , but of course i have not been to N.Korea , China or Russia. Then again you would not be allowed to make such criticisms ,even though they are patently wrong.Jon the only abyss Phillip has reached into is his brain
Sorry to see you rough up Ed Milliband this evening & go on about his dreary brother yet again – just when he has something interesting to say that might resonate with the changing times. You sounded a bit like the inner circle elite he goes on about.
John McC
Being Swedish, I’m used to coalitions – we’ve had a few and they… sort of work. I’m not that worried about future coalitions, I’m more worried about an increased gap in the already prevailing class society where the less well off have to bear the burden of solving an economic problem caused by the extremely well off…
This is a worry I will continue to have, whichever party or whichever type of coalition wins the next election.
Oh and – if you could get an interview with Tony Benn and query him about the future, that would be great. Ta.
Hear, hear.
Jon, You are interviewing Ed Milliband to night.
Here are 5 points you could ask him.
a.As an ” outsider” how does he see the Dale Farm conflict?
b. If the banks and countries can have their debts written off, why not the people harassed by debt collectors, bailiffs etc as they fall on bad times.
c There are now 4 Nations in the UK. How will he deal with the West Lothain Question?
d.Prince Charles and the Kid’s club said the riots were a ” cry for help” How does he see them?
e.If there is to be coalition government , which Party would Labour aligne with?
Alison
Mr Milliband has certainly continued the Labour Party’s desire for mediocrity and cynicism in its leaders.
This quality was reinforced, Jon, when you tried to get that awful person Harriet Harman to answer a question.
I found Milliband’s speech totally without inspiration of any sort and his cynicism about the Institution of marriage, breathtaking.
In effect he accused all of us who have had happy marriages (with legitimate children) of being old fashioned; “it’s 2011, get over it”.
Yes, he really is the successor of Blunket, Prescot, Blair, Brown Balls, Blears and Co. Cracking values!
Jon – Happy Birthday!
I see you share the day with Brigitte Bardot and Ben E King.
If you’re with Miliband, I trust he will buy you a celebratory drink – the least he can do if you’re working on your birthday.
I am for coalition government all the time. Extreme policies and yo yo politics have led to short term planning. We need long term vision.
I think coalition governments are a good thing. Look at Germany, for example, and its economic success. It was good to read Meg’s appreciation of the beauty of autumn in Britain, and rather unpleasant to read Philip’s vituperation. One of the sad thing about email communication is the aggession that is unleashed when people do not have to either face, or talk to, in person, the subject of their anger.
Today is beautiful here in Deal and its very good to think that it may actually be lovely everywhere.
Tanya,i believe Germany succeeds despite coalition.Look at all the Meditteranean countries which have coalition governments.Then look at ours,where a few MP’s stop the progress of anything that might help us succeed,without a mandate,infact most things totally against their beliefs,other than having some power.
It was beautiful in Suffolk this morning and delightful in Derbyshire this afternoon.What a fantastic country to live in.I have been to many and no none better.
Coalition Government is not without problems, but good on the whole.
Single party Government has let some bad ideological ideas and policies become law, causing many of the problems that we see today. Not the least of which are the riots.
I’d be only too pleased to see the end of single party Government, but I don’t see how our electoral system can reliably prevent it and force co-operation rather than confrontation…
Change is needed, but the AV referendum was lost and I don’t see anything else happening on that front in the near future…
What we need is some good visionary leadership that looks at this issue, puts party interests aside in favour the longer term good and overall health of the UK…
DC is very capable of doing that, but will he…?!!
Happy Birthday Jon – I still need you and I’m still knitting you your sweater.
Certainly makes me feel uncomfortable – I still have hopes of radical social change coming about. I’m impatient to see all citizenships treated with equal respect. As others have said extremes tend to be avoided in coalitions. Trouble is what some view as extreme others view in terms of basic rights. I take it John Curtis takes boundary changes into consideration, but what about plans to make voter registration voluntary?
This was exactly my point. There are degrees of opinion relative to the whole.One hopes with debate a conclusion based upon honesty and fairness may be reached.
The extremes are not solely about money and income.The reactions people make to situations range from laid back lethargy to hysterical over the top paranoia. Some where in between are the many moderated sensible views which I hope prevail. Still, to aid others with their problems e.g. Somalia, we need to be stronger ourselves and let comapassion reign with good sense in this and all matters generally.
Going of piste here, I’d like to say that the configuration of the C$ News Team as Dad’s Army, and seeing Krishnan beaming with warmth in his interview with Ian Lavender was some of the funniest and nicest things I’ve seen on TV for some time. A sense of humour is one of the best qualities for any team of human beings to display…..
just to go further off your piste tanya…
the phrase “human being” is a legal term born from maritime aka admiralty aka corporate law.
there are two types of law, common and corporate.
common law is simple, unambiguous and designed to truly keep the peace. corporate law on the other hand is merely a form of revenue collection and tool of repression.
judges are members of the canaan priesthood (from where corporate aka admiralty aka maritime law derives from)- and as such should have no fundamental right to pass judgement on common law trials. yet they get away with for one simple reason… birth certificates.
a birth certificate is a corporate law binding mechanism that fools people into believing that corporate law has equal position with common law.
when the reality is common law aka the law of the land is the true law of “god” (or nature or the universe or evolution- whatever you want to call such a entity).
the term “police” derives from the word “peace”- but corporate law has turned them from upholding the law of the land to collecting revenue on behalf of the law of the seas.
google “fmotl” if any of you are interested to learn more.
Wow, what a bunch of miserable old sourpusses! it’s nice to have the context of the beautiful weather to frame the question of continued coalition. I would have thought that even the most cynical old boot could enjoy it!! if it makes politicians work harder and feel less secure or ” entitled” then Its no bad thing to have no overall majority, it is a good example to display negotiation and compromise in politics rather than a pattern of ” war” with the winner ridiculing and attempting to humiliate the “loser” as if they were all back in their school playgrounds, maybe it’s a sign of politics growing up?
The ‘Single Party’ may be over, however, the same lack of Fairness and Justice for ALL seems to remain a continuation no matter what political party or parties are in Power.
What about political representation? Does this really exist? Is this really a possibility when so much weakness has been shown by our politicians to arrest the fraudulent CEO bankers? Surely, this is a serious statement by politicians – such a strong statement that even the UK News Media suffers the same alck of Boldness when calling for Fraudulent bankers to be arrested as a direct result of their activities in the subprime mortages.
With such a lack of boldness by both politicians and media resources here in the UK, one has to wonder ‘who is upholding our democratic values?’
The pursuit of hooded rioters for their criminal activities seems correct in the name of the Law and moral responsibility. However, while there is a hunt to find the identity of these ‘hoodies’, we already know the identities of these CEO bankers. Why are their NO arrests?
The Politicians have many questions to answer. Unfortunately, it remains clear that our News Media is NOT bold to ask these questions – at least on camera!
Coalitions under PR indicate normalcy, coalitions under FPTP indicate a political crisis.
The alternative of single-party government under PR indicates a political crisis, while single-party government under FPTP indicates the direction of the next political crisis.
How long a period of coalition government lasts indicates how long the state of normalcy or crisis persists.