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Wednesday 12 May 2010

From Court Jester to Kingmaker

About the only issue on which I can, thus far, agree with Nick Clegg relates to Electoral Reform. Alas, for entirely different reasons than his.

He may well want to babble on about referendums and proportional representation, but what I want to know is this:-
How can it be that a LOSING Labour Government clearly voted OUT by a democratic electoral process could, (and WOULD, had the Labour Cabinet been more accommodating to Clegg’s toadying), be voted back IN by a party who has been the laughing stock of British Politics for decades, and who finished with so few votes that they accrued nearly six time LESS seats than the party they eventually ended up sharing office with?

It’s the equivalent of Chelsea being usurped as the Premier League Champions on the basis of them not having quite accumulated enough points, and giving the Cup to Manchester United instead to be SHARED, equally, by bottom finishing Portsmouth.

Whatever intentions, aspirations or wild dreams Clegg entertained when he went into politics could NEVER, even remotely, have included walking the corridors of Whitehall with any position of power. I am perfectly sure that even today, he will still not quite believe that he is Deputy Prime Minister.

He may have momentarily had notions above his station when a bemused viewing audience decided he was the ‘winner’ in terms of his pre-Election TV showdowns with Cameron and Brown, but the truth and reality of his status was clearly etched on his pained face once he realised that he was to actually LOSE seats in the final reckoning.

So I find it somewhat astonishing, (as I am sure, did HE), that the current British Political voting system incorporates a means and procedure that enables the LEAST desirable, wanted and respected Political Party in the Country to effectively yield the GREATEST amount of power in those circumstances as we have just witnessed.

It is to Brown’s credit, and that of his Cabinet, that they clearly elected from the off not to indulge Clegg’s sycophancy and that of his Lib Dem colleagues, or we would be potentially looking at yet ANOTHER period of Labour, with a smattering of warring factions from Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Not to mention a ridiculous and, ultimately, impotent Clegg, posturing and preening in a position that even his most extreme dreams didn’t incorporate.

1 comment:

  1. Take it you didn't vote LibDem then?

    Geoff J

    ReplyDelete