Stuff
One of the annoying things about not being properly online most of the time is not being able to properly follow the news when it's interesting - as it has been recently. At the Iain M. Banks/Ken MacLeod event in Balloch* last Friday, they were wondering whether or not there might be a revolution of sorts in progress. Maybe... At least PR is now being talked about by more than the usual suspects. And without PR, how can the system be made remotely trustworthy? As more than one person has noted, the MPs who were most diligently abusing the expenses system were the ones with the safest seats. It is astonishing that so many MPs still seem not to understand what is pissing people off so much - no satirist would ever have tried to pull off something like Anthony Steen's comments. The Archbishop of Canterbury's suggestion that the humiliation of MPs should stop seems to me to miss the point. Many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made - it's not been anything like adequately made if there are still MPs wondering what right the public has to know what they are up to with their expenses. A bit of humiliation for some seems overdue: maybe it will provoke some humility.
The one real worry about the timing of this is that it might boost the BNP's vote in some areas; not likely in these parts, but in bits of England, maybe. That would be a very depressing result. Good for the Archbishops of York and Canterbury for speaking out against the BNP: I wouldn't normally like faith leaders doing something like that regarding party politics, but if the BNP are going to claim that Jesus would vote for them, it's fair enough for the bishes to counter that.
It would be good to think that we are about to see a major reform of the political system to make it more representative and inclusive; but who knows? As Iain Banks said on Friday, Lenin said there would be a revolution, but not in his lifetime... in 1916.
Anyway, tomorrow going to take my father to hospital; I would like to think he would be sorted out before I go off on holiday, but I wouldn't bet on it. (I travel a week on Tuesday.) *sigh*
[*Which was fun, by the way, and we got some interest for satellite_2 too.]
The one real worry about the timing of this is that it might boost the BNP's vote in some areas; not likely in these parts, but in bits of England, maybe. That would be a very depressing result. Good for the Archbishops of York and Canterbury for speaking out against the BNP: I wouldn't normally like faith leaders doing something like that regarding party politics, but if the BNP are going to claim that Jesus would vote for them, it's fair enough for the bishes to counter that.
It would be good to think that we are about to see a major reform of the political system to make it more representative and inclusive; but who knows? As Iain Banks said on Friday, Lenin said there would be a revolution, but not in his lifetime... in 1916.
Anyway, tomorrow going to take my father to hospital; I would like to think he would be sorted out before I go off on holiday, but I wouldn't bet on it. (I travel a week on Tuesday.) *sigh*
[*Which was fun, by the way, and we got some interest for satellite_2 too.]