Elections

[alicambs]

Are now over thankfully! Politics, dirty and otherwise, has filled our TV screens here in New Zealand in the lead up to the general election for over a month now. After all the kerfuffle we've ended up with the incumbents re-elected for a third term on a slightly bigger majority

Comments

[haldoor]

Oh my, talk about dirty... it's seldom been so bad before. And I too am glad it's all over, even if they now have to spend ages analysing it. At least that's easier to ignore than all the placards and signs!

Pity about the result, but at least I put my two penny's worth in.

[alicambs]

It was nasty, mind you I think the Dirty Politics book and all the 'moral panic' backfired on the left and Internet Mana, (wherever it stands on the political spectrum). Plus David Cunliffee maybe a 'jolly nice' man but he sure lacks charisma.

[haldoor]

Lacking charisma is a good way to put it! I guess they'll be looking for someone new now, anyway.

[alicambs]

Well... he's resigned then put his hat back in the ring. Kind of leaves you wondering what's going on TBH.

[byslantedlight]

I wonder if other people tend to have a clearer picture of what a particular nationality is than we do ourselves? So it's not that there's any real question of what it means to be English, unless you're actually English? I mean, if you asked a Scot what it means to be Scottish, I wonder what they'd say? Or a New Zealander, or Australian, even? I once asked an American to describe exactly what it was that she'd die for, when she said that she'd die for her country, and she absolutely floundered, she couldn't say at all. We eventually teased it down to the ability to buy cheap trainers and have a good lifestyle and she was perfectly happy to add and if we exploit you to get it, then it's your own fault for letting yourself be exploited. But I don't think that was really really what she meant when she said it... So I wonder, too, if being nationalistic is necessarily the same as knowing what it means to be from one particular country as opposed to another... /meandering. *g* You know, it's your own fault for asking interesting

[alicambs]

Ha!

Well... I don't think I'd die for my country. I might die for a belief and I'd certainly die for my kids, but my country... no that's just too woolly.

I'm English and after the Scottish vote I'm even more likely now to say I'm English rather than British, cos the Scots got up my nose something chronic with their anti English rhetoric. But as to Nationalistic, no, possibly because the history of English Nationalism tends to be right wing and rather nasty. Then if you ask me what is is to be English I'd probably turn that round and ask you what you think it means as an Aussie having lived in England for oinks. :-)

Now, when are you settling down, I have a 'Welcome to your New Abode' card to write!

[byslantedlight]

Going to see another place today - cross fingers. Only thing is, internet is via a dongle, apparently (just as I'd got used to the superfast broadband here...).

And ha - I'm not entirely sure what I am, because I feel more at home in England than Australia, and always have - and it's so long since I've been there that my ideas about being an Aussie are probably outdated anyway. I'm always surprised that they seem to have tighter regulations about alot of things - and on the other hand they seem to be a much more socially aware country in some ways. But then that doesn't gel with advertised attitudes to refugees etc, so I'm a bit lost about what it means to be Australian these days! My HSC (A-level equivalent) history course was actually Australian history connected to nationalism - not in a BNP kind of way, but as Australian identity. Interesting that there was a school course in it, come to think of it - but it was rather connected with Australia's relationship with Britain, and becoming an independent country. Which brings us back

[luesietjuh]

*Said kid bounces in*

[sally_maria]

I was very relieved at the result of the referendum, both for economic and emotional reasons. Being British is pretty important to me, being English rather less so - but I wonder if it's partly a question of relative size.

A lot of the English people I know are really Northerners, or Yorkshiremen/women, or West Country folk - our emotional ties are less to England in general, but more to our particular region. But if you're Welsh or Scottish, your region happens to also have been a country in legal memory.

[alicambs]

Yes I agree with you, we English do tend to identify ourselves from where we come from within England rather than England as a whole.

I too was relieved at the referendum results, but I have no doubt that the Yes campaign will be agitating for another election until they get their own way. By the time that comes I'll probably be yelling at them to bugger off and shut the door on the way out. :-)