Politics amused more when you don't get to vote...
I see, reading the press, that London's finest arrested a Conservative MP for being Tory in a built up area. Twenty years too late for that, thanks, Mr Plod. However, the squealing and shifting by the MPs is interesting. Many seem outraged that one of their number can be arrested for passing on information that may, or may not, be covered under various secrecy laws. I have a suspicion that many MPs are shocked that they could be held accountable to the same laws that they enact and that the rest of the civilian population has to follow.
Meanwhile, on this side of the world, there is a four party system. The Minority Government has just had parliament suspended to avoid a three-party coalition taking power. Which would have ended up in the opposition being a single party (with the biggest number of seats) and Her Majesties government being a tri-partisan (possibly with added non-elected Greens) group that made up the rest of parliament.
The Conservatives (a recent union old school right wing Tories and more progressive centrist Conservatives), the Liberals (Centrists, not much unlike Nu Labour) and the NDP (Left wing, a social democrats and Union-style socialists), with the Bloc Quebecois (the SNP with a much bigger stick).
The Conservatives were recently elected back into power with an increased minority (or a closer to forming a majority, but still not close enough). Steven Harper then seems to have proceeded to make like Tony Blair and try force through his new fiscal policies, based on having a mandate that wasn't as clear as he supposed. This pissed off his closest allies in the house (the Liberals) and alienated the Bloc (who really hold the balance of power) by not offering anything much to Quebec.
He's now gone and got parliament suspended until the new Year and the Budget proposals, to avoid a vote of no-confidence. Which seems akin to stopping a home football match half way through by sabotaging the flood lights just after a penalty has been awarded. The left and right of the country are now arguing over whose fault it is, and whether this whole shebang is democratic (apart from the suspension of parliament by the Governor General (placed there by Her Majesty)), it would seem to be. The real kicker is that though 60+% of the country voted for one flavour of the opposition, the proposed leader Stephane Dion is less popular than the rather unpopular Stephen Harper (who looks more like a School Teacher with a bad haircut than the leader of a G8 country).
Still, I can't vote her, and I haven't re-registered there. It's all amusing to watch as an outsider.
Meanwhile, on this side of the world, there is a four party system. The Minority Government has just had parliament suspended to avoid a three-party coalition taking power. Which would have ended up in the opposition being a single party (with the biggest number of seats) and Her Majesties government being a tri-partisan (possibly with added non-elected Greens) group that made up the rest of parliament.
The Conservatives (a recent union old school right wing Tories and more progressive centrist Conservatives), the Liberals (Centrists, not much unlike Nu Labour) and the NDP (Left wing, a social democrats and Union-style socialists), with the Bloc Quebecois (the SNP with a much bigger stick).
The Conservatives were recently elected back into power with an increased minority (or a closer to forming a majority, but still not close enough). Steven Harper then seems to have proceeded to make like Tony Blair and try force through his new fiscal policies, based on having a mandate that wasn't as clear as he supposed. This pissed off his closest allies in the house (the Liberals) and alienated the Bloc (who really hold the balance of power) by not offering anything much to Quebec.
He's now gone and got parliament suspended until the new Year and the Budget proposals, to avoid a vote of no-confidence. Which seems akin to stopping a home football match half way through by sabotaging the flood lights just after a penalty has been awarded. The left and right of the country are now arguing over whose fault it is, and whether this whole shebang is democratic (apart from the suspension of parliament by the Governor General (placed there by Her Majesty)), it would seem to be. The real kicker is that though 60+% of the country voted for one flavour of the opposition, the proposed leader Stephane Dion is less popular than the rather unpopular Stephen Harper (who looks more like a School Teacher with a bad haircut than the leader of a G8 country).
Still, I can't vote her, and I haven't re-registered there. It's all amusing to watch as an outsider.