13 thoughts on “UK Election”

  2. That’s exactly the kind of view that brought my other country 8 years of George Bush. There are differences. And they matter.

  3. lol, just to be clear, you’re not saying they don’t stink. You’re saying they stink but they stink a lot less, or that however much less they stink that difference matters. Right? Or are you saying Blair and Brown don’t stink?

    I mean, I didn’t say they don’t stink less or that their stinking less doesn’t matter. I was just pointing out that they also stink and giving a concrete and important example. I take it you’re not saying that even though they stink we should pretend they don’t because then we’re more motivated to vote for the less stinky ones?

    Just trying to clarify in order to see whether there’s any disagreement between us.

  4. They’re all very imperfect. But I think Brown and Clegg stink a hell of a lot less than Cameron, and I think that matters. I don’t think we disagree all that much. (Though I do have brief flashes of naive optimism from time to time, and it sounds like that doesn’t happen so much to you. It’s nice while it’s there, but in the end the disappointment is much worse when I return to reality.)

  5. You’re right. Check this out, though, for some kicks.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8661984.stm

    I have some questions for anyone who knows about these things:

    1. Can you explain this rosette thing? I’m just confused both by the question and by their answer.
    2. How come the Queen can’t vote because she’s part of the institution of parliament but the MPs themselves can?
    3. Is ‘Ghetto blaster’ the correct term for ‘boombox’ in the UK? I was just surprised to see it there.
    4. If being drunk is ok and bringing my dog is ok, is it ok to both bring my dog and be drunk? I presume bringing a drunk dog is not ok.

    Thanks!

  6. With some dogs it is quite hard to tell. And it is not unheard of for dogs to have a pint (half-pint?) in the pub.

  7. ‘Ghetto blaster’ is OLD slang – I think it might have been in currency in the eighties. (Although it could quite easily be what all the kids are saying these days, as I seem to have become hopelessly out of touch.)

  8. It might be retro slang.

    It depends on how drunk the dog is. If he’s staggering around and singing old Bedlam ballads*, that might disturb the other voters.

    *Also other ballads. Or songs in general.

  9. Thanks. Could you explain this, too?

    ‘[Cameron] said his party appeared likely to win more seats than in any election in 80 years, but avoided making claim to the keys at 10 Downing Street, saying, “What will guide me will be what’s in the national interest.”’ This is from NY Times, but I saw the same claim on cnn.

    I just looked on wikipedia and it says in 1983 Thatcher got 397 seats, so what’s this 80 years stuff about? I must be missing something. Is this including elections other than the house of commons or something like that?

  10. I presume the 80 years date is significant because it was in 1929 (i.e., about 80 years ago) that women got the vote, so elections since then have got more claim to properly represent the people’s opinion, rather than just the opinion of the country’s men. And I presume Cameron’s claim that he was going to win more seats than the Tories had done for the past 80 years meant he thought he was going to win more than Maggie.

  11. I should also add, women over the age of 30 had the vote a bit earlier than 1929, but the age was lowered to 21 in 1929, bringing women’s voting rights into line with those of men.

  12. I see. I just thought it was insane, since the predictions put him at 309 or so, and everyone even before the exit polls predicted either a hung parliament or an extremely tight majority, so I didn’t think he could possibly think or even disingenuously claim he was going to get 400. Live and learn.

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