The morning after the night before

Today I suppose we are suffering a National collective political hangover.

I took myself off to bed and lsitened to  the results being declared on the radio. Once the pattern, or rather, patterns started to emerge it became quite predicable.

I rapidly realised that I was not that surprised at what has happened. The one thing that gsave genuine pleasur was the resurgance of the pro-Union vote in Scotland and the sense that maybe - maybe - a corner has been turned there.

Otherwise I felt this was the verdict of the electorate on an unnecessary election, one that witnessd areturn to the two-party dominance we have tended to be used to, but without giving a clear result. Frankly it is a mess - Mrs May has only herself to blame for the biggest electoral miscalculation inliving memory, and Labour has got itself into the conundrum of gaining seats but with a leader whom many clearly perceive as unelectable. The Conservatives have their best result in terms of the popular vote for over twenty years, yet lack a Parliamentary majority. The Liberals continue to pay the price for supporting the Conservative-led Coalition from 2010. The distrust of established political parties and politicians by electorates across the western world has claimed more scalps, yet the politicians appear unable to address that dissatisfaction. Those who do, like Mr Corbyn clearly has to some extent during the campaign, nonetheless have that dangerous popularist appeal that bodes ill.

In the words of Oliver Hardy "Another fine mess you've got us into."

General Election

Well, this morning I have gone and done my duty and voted in the General Election.

It has been the most sterile and depressing election I can recall, with bad temper and cheap jibes abounding, and interrupted by terrorist violence  - which remind sus all of what the real issues are.

We shall have to see what the results bring overnight but I continue to feel this has been an unnecessary campaign and one which from the government side has been badly managed and presented.

An Election is Called

I was somewhat surprised to learn from my iPhone this morning that the Prime Minister has requested adissolution of Parliament and that there will be a General Election on June 8th.

Mrs May repeatedly said she would not do such a thing, and, quite correctly, did not call one to "seek a mandate" - we do not elect the Prime Minister, but rather MPs, and from whom the leader of the majority party or of a coalition is asked by The Queen to form a government. Now she has changed her mind.

I suspect people are getting sick of trooping off to the Polling Stations - certainly they must in Scotland having had the Referendum in 2014, the General Election in 2015 and their own General Election in 2016 as well as the Europe Referendum. Politicians tend to forget that real people, normal people, are not like them and obsessed with politics.

This is compounded by the nonsense of the Fixed Term Parliament Act wished upon us by the Coalition - any proper Conservative government would  have got rid of that, and then moved on to repealing the enormity that is the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 - Constitional Deform Act more like.

Well, we shall see what happend in June, but a long Election campaign is fraught with risks for all parties.

Post-election ruminations

I am minded, at least for the moment, not to become yet another instant expert on election analysis, PR in its numerous forms or historic precedents - other than perhaps to point out that similarities to the 1970s are not very relevant: if we want similar circumstances we need to look at the 1920s.

However I was struck by hearing part of Clifford Longley's Thought for the Day on Radio 4's Today this morning. He quoted prayers from the Coronation service, pointing out the way in which they outline a vision of good governance. This I thought timely in that lacking a written constitution it is to such formularies that we need to look. To the modern secular eye they may appear antiquated, yet they are not at all - therein lies a set of values we either take for granted, or disregard, and we do both at our peril. History, theology, liturgy will not tell us what will happen next, but they will tell us where we have come from as a community, and what has guided us along the way. Maybe Her Majesty should give the text of her Coronation service to her incoming ministers as serious food for thought. In case you want to read it the text is here.

Election time

The announcement of the impending General Election inevitably brought to my mind Evelyn Waugh's dictum that he did not vote on these occasions as he considered it a presumption on his part to advise his Sovereign on her choice of ministers. Whilst part of me sympathizes with such a view I am minded to think that as Her Majesty has graciously invited her subjects to send representatives of their communities - I am not sure if they are still expected to be knights of the shires and burgesses of the cities, boroughs and towns of the ancient demesne, though obviously they should be - to assemble at Westminster, or wheresoever Her Majesty summons them, and, with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and herself comprise a Parliament to advise on the good governance of her realm - and let's face it, there has not been an abundance such good governance for a very long time - well it would be churlish to refuse to participate in the process.

This election is an important one. However I fear that many of the issues that I suspect my readers and I consider important will not get much coverage in the popular media. I suspect that I shall be tempted to address some of them over the next four weeks.