[Keeping It Gimple]

James Meadway
1 hr · Edited ·


Some fairly serious outbreaks of magical thinking and/or naïveté about the "Tory coup". The great merit of an unwritten (that is to say, not written in a single document) constitution is that it allows for an extraordinary amount of improvisation - whatever various guides and precedents may say. Please consider:
1. One of Britain's most senior civil servants, Treasury Permanent Secretary Nicholas Macpherson, declared earlier this year that suspending the longstanding principle of civil service neutrality was justified in the case of the Scottish referendum because the threat to the state is so grave.
If they thought like that then, why will they not think along at least similar lines if faced with an SNP landslide in Scotland? It's nice that the civil service have drawn up a guide (the "Cabinet manual" of 2011) on what to do in hung parliaments. But it's a guideline, not a rule, and it's never been used before.
2. The Murdoch press have already created an almighty fuss about Miliband "conning" his way to victory in the event of Tories being unable to form a coalition. They have already lined up the arguments and, if needed, will deploy them with all the more force after today's vote. The aim, broadly, will be to deligitimise any government without the Tories in. Remember Florida in 2000. That was the Murdoch media, too.
3. The Conservative Party are, by some measures, the most successful ruling party in the world. They have dominated the politics of this country for centuries. They are now on the way out, and they don't like it. How many gambles and sacrifices do you think Cameron and the Tory leadership (to say nothing of their backers) will be prepared to make to arrest that decline? He's already thrown Unionism to the wind by talking up the Scottish threat.
So let's not be naive about this, at least. In the event of Cameron winning most seats, but not able to form a coalition, there will be an immense fuss created in the media to declare him the winner. The aim will be two-fold: ideally to apply such pressure to the Labour Party as to force its leadership to concede (aided and abetted by its own Blairite faction); failing that, to trash as far as possible a Labour-led government, ruining its claim to legitimacy and hopefully helping to force another election in short order.
That's why demonstrations after the event could matter. What we do in the next few days may help shift the political balance against the efforts being made to cement Cameron in power.#

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ernment-labour

It’s possible that the Tories may yet pull it off, as their Australian alchemist, Lynton Crosby, has always promised. The main parties may still be almost neck and neck. But undecided voters could break to the Conservatives. Soft Ukip supporters could finally deliver David Cameron the votes he needs to stay in Downing Street.

If so, we know what to expect. With or without Nick Clegg, it will mean even deeper austerity, harsher cuts to social security, accelerating NHS privatisation, more attacks on workers’ rights, new handouts to the wealthy, more poverty and job insecurity, and perhaps another downturn in the slowest economic recovery on record.

But so far the numbers still aren’t there. So in case Thursday’s election doesn’t deliver a parliamentary majority for Cameron – even with the support of the Liberal Democrats, Ulster unionists and Ukip – the Tories and their media cheerleaders are moving to implement Plan B. After weeks of stoking English nationalism and painting the Scottish National Party as a mortal threat, aimed at sapping Labour support north and south of the border, the Tory machine has a new focus: any government led by Ed Miliband and dependent on SNP votes, Conservative politicians and their press pack now claim, would be “illegitimate”.

The home secretary, Theresa May, declared that it would create the “worst crisis since the abdication”. Now the prime minister and his allies insist a Labour government would be a “con trick” – and, in an ominous vein, that Miliband is out to “seize power” without winning the largest number of seats.

The press onslaught on Labour now outstrips even that meted out to Neil Kinnock in the 80s and 90s. The non-dom- or tax exile-owned Mail, Express, Telegraph and Murdoch media groups have unleashed an avalanche of propaganda against Miliband, whose modest break with the political and corporate consensus has created something close to panic in parts of the establishment. His plans to tax the rich, and non-doms in particular, make it personal.

So Conservative politicians and their proprietor friends are determined to make sure that if anyone is going to seize power, it’s them. If Miliband fails to win the largest number of seats, Rupert Murdoch’s Times declared on Monday, Cameron should “occupy Downing Street”, regardless of whether he has a majority in parliament.

Cameron’s plan, he has let it be known, is to declare victory, cut another deal with Nick Clegg, and sit tight, backed by a media barrage and regardless of whether their parties are outnumbered by an anti-Conservative bloc in the Commons.

But to claim that only a party that wins the largest number of seats can form the government is to turn the parliamentary system on its head. As numerous precedents, the government’s own “Cabinet Manual” rules and common sense dictate, it’s only possible for a party leader who can command a majority in parliament to put together a government.

If, as the polls suggest, the Tories end up marginally ahead on seats and votes, Cameron can try to form an administration with the support of the defeated Liberal Democrats, the regularly homophobic Democratic Unionist party and the racially inflammatory Ukip. But if they can’t reach the effective majority of 323, then it falls to Miliband to assemble a government that can.

If it won the support of a majority of MPs, to reject that government as illegitimate and seek to bring it down would effectively be to support a constitutional coup. But that is exactly what the Conservatives and their friends have made clear they intend to do.

The idea is for Cameron to cling on to power and try to break the resolve of a Labour-led parliamentary majority to vote him down. Even the oligarch-owned Independent, now backing the Tories, claimed yesterday that Britain faced a democratic “legitimacy crisis”.

It doesn’t. If Miliband were to command a majority in parliament, it would be likely to include Labour, the SNP, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP, among others, representing perhaps 44% of the electorate. A Labour-Lib Dem deal would take that well over 50%.

On the other hand, if Cameron were to agree a new coalition with Clegg, it would be on the basis of maybe 42% of the vote, down from 59% when the first Tory-Lib Dem deal was struck in 2010. He might be able to tack on DUP and Ukip support, but teaming up a party that has shed numerous seats with the biggest loser of the night scarcely sounds like a model of democratic legitimacy.

If Cameron fails to form a government, the political and media establishment will pull out every stop to prevent Miliband becoming prime minister. It won’t just be a wall of noise about “legitimacy” and chaos. Already some rightwing Labour figures are being primed to try a mini-coup of their own, echoing the Tory claim that the second largest party shouldn’t lead a government. If Cameron and Clegg come close to a majority, a handful of Labour defections could even take them over the line.

Miliband hasn’t made it any easier for himself by giving credence to the insidious claim that any deals with the SNP – likely to be the third largest party – would be beyond the political pale. Some in the Labour leadership would welcome a pact with the Lib Dems, not only for stabilising ballast in parliament but as insulation against the potential influence of the Labour left. But that might require the head of Clegg. If all else fails, the Tories and their media friends will try to force another election.

The only way to counter the onslaught that will be unleashed if voters return an anti-Tory majority is to turn the tables on the real losers. It would be a naked struggle for power in which the other side certainly won’t play by the Queensberry rules. But if Cameron and Clegg lose control of parliament in this election, it will be a rejection of the Westminster establishment and a mandate for change. For the sake of the disabled, food bank users, zero-hours contract workers and those crushed by the bedroom tax, among millions of others, that would need to be turned into a change of government and political direction. Far from being illegitimate, it would be the democratic outcome.

[!@#$%!]

so, short version, how are they trying to steal the election?

[Keeping It Gimple]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

so, short version, how are they trying to steal the election?

tsdr

[!@#$%!]

no, seriously, too many details for a civilian

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anyway, no matter, my coffee is finished and i must fuck off

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I know Parliamentarian system is a bit more democratic than the masquarade Oligarchy of the US politricks but honestly, what did you expect DB? A revolution? I say vote for the Queen yo

 

[Rob Instigator]

i read the crone queen wipes her inbred diarrhea ass with the flayed skin of disappeared immigrant babies...

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

On the real though a anarcho-libertarian crustie friend of mine from our Oi days were just having this very same philosophical discussion on Sunday after Church.. Personally in Rastafari we are a Liberation movement, about Equal Right and Justice, but we are NOT about "representative democracy" indeed we are quite literally "constitutional monarchists" with "democratic" leanings. Indeed HIM Haile Selassie I instituted democratic processes..

In Rastafari we called democracy "demonacracy" because it is the same rebellious error of Adam and Eve in the Garden, or Joshua at the Valley of Decision. We don't support getting entangled in politician popularity contests, indeed that is the very deception of politricks. I support democracy for POLICY but not about changing or supporting individual politicians. Supporting politicians is a dead end, they get you to support them, and then they don't DO SHIT.

Vote for policy, not politicians.

[!@#$%!]

@ DB - see, i was the only serious one.

the format is:

1) headline

2) blurb

3) link to more

anyway i am moderately interested in this election, so updates are welcome (just less abstruse ones por favor)

[Keeping It Gimple]

god you guys i know you are an absolute gender essentialist society with a secret longing for the extravagancies of european history at its most grandiose since you founded your satanic little colony in oedipal defiance of it but give it a rest with this queen stuff. she doesnt have any power and there are those of us working dilligently to offer the world a pay per view execution.

i thought the links were obvious enough, the right wing press is gearing up to keep the conservatives in power even if they dont get enough votes to form a majority in parliament.

[demonrail666]

Exit polls are looking terrible for Labour

[Keeping It Gimple]

good.

good in the sense that its bad for everyone and it means more suffering and poverty and misery and suicide etc. - and more austerity which will tank the economy - this is all good because we will FINALLY be pushed towards the radicalism we actually need.

the current system is incapable of serving anyone but the elites.

and fuck labour they should have been FUCKING EXECU**D AS THE TRAITORS THEY ARE for going into iraq

(edited so i can avoid jail)

[Keeping It Gimple]

people will be forced to wake up to the fact that -

YOU ARENT GETTING RICH, YOU ARENT GONNA OWN YOUR OWN HOME, AND YOU'RE GONNA DO NOTHING BUT STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE OFF THE SCRAPS.

the system is broken to the extent that the reigning conformity just wont work anymore.

[Keeping It Gimple]

glad the lib dems are getting eviscerated "we're a solid centre ground party" congrats on your self image as the nickleback of politics. we all know you really function as right wing lapdogs you useless upper middle class dipshits.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Keeping It Gimple

god you guys i know you are an absolute gender essentialist society with a secret longing for the extravagancies of european history at its most grandiose since you founded your satanic little colony in oedipal defiance of it but give it a rest with this queen stuff. she doesnt have any power and there are those of us working dilligently to offer the world a pay per view execution

i thought the links were obvious enough, the right wing press is gearing up to keep the conservatives in power even if they dont get enough votes to form a majority in parliament.

We've had this chat before so surely you know im trolling you.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Exit polls are looking terrible for Labour

i saw this on the washington post.

so is there fraud like in florida as the title of this thread suggests? a conspiracy of some sort?

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

[Keeping It Gimple]

dont know about fraud altho very suspicious that labour borough of hackney (not rich and white) had serious problems.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

#Str8UpGangstaBitch

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by Keeping It Gimple

dont know about fraud altho very suspicious that labour borough of hackney (not rich and white) had serious problems.

The votes that weren't counted were ex-pats and it's the Tories who are kicking up the biggest fuss about it.

I'm surprised at just how bad Labour did but I don't suspect any foul play. I started to warm to Ed a bit but maybe it was too naive to think middle England was ever gonna do the same. Not surprised Labour was absolutely annihilated in Scotland, though.

Disastrous result for anyone but the comfortably off.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by Keeping It Gimple

dont know about fraud altho very suspicious that labour borough of hackney (not rich and white) had serious problems.

Hackney North or Hackney South?