And Another Thing…

There’s political correctness, and there’s common understanding. A nine year old boy was recently forced to apologize in front of his school for saying “we have to shoot Germans”.

Here are some comments which are somewhat lacking in common understanding.

So is it OK to ask for WHITE coffee then?

And yes Sergeant Plodder, you’re quite right, positive discrimination is just as bad.

Iain Gill

I watch BBC Breakfast more than any other news programme, and my wife and I regularly try to spot a Nothern English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish newsreader/correspondent. A bit strange and perhaps not very PC, but quite a good game because there aren’t many. We have token weatherboys and girls from outwith the home counties but not much else.

@ Nicky

As a voter in an SNP – Tory marginal I can tell you that you are wrong. The SNP makes it clear to all they are a social democratic party and proud of it. It might not go down well with all the folk here but at least they stick to their principles. Unlike New Labour.

Don’t have a TV. Won’t be buying one of these. Didn’t have a TV when our kids were young. Kids really do NOT need TVs – especially when little (nor screens of any sort).

Bottom line. There is always something better to do than watch TV; look what it has done to our society, obsessed with non-celebrities whilst everything collapses around them.

PC language is unfortunate, but necessary, to change peeople’s views. In time terms become acceptable again because no-one would ever think of ‘paki’ (short for Pakistani) as being anything other than a contraction.

However, while trying to change the general public’s view there are many occassions where the line is not only stepped accross but is so far in the distance it is a dot.

This is also obvious when the government, under the guise of protecting us from those nasty terrorists*, remove vast swathes of rights and freedoms and give undreamed of powers to little men in uniforms and council offices knowing that they would never dream of using anti-terror laws to stop fly-tipping or to show some uppity person who’s in charge. Would they?

*nasty terrorists, while deadly and frightening, are less a danger to democracy and freedom that a government using public fear to put through legislation that only marginally improves security against the terrorists but massively increases surveillance of the public.

It is not an entertainment, its an election, and it is time they were held on sundays, counted on mondays (all of them) effected on tuesdays.

Then ALL constituencies would be nearly in concert in the practical matter of declaration, unless there was a recount, which would slow some down.

We need government which governs, rather than mimics the frantic efforts of paratroops embarking from helicopters.

I don’t care when the votes are counted – it’s the result wot matters.

It took weeks to count the votes in 1946 but I bet Labour’s victory was no less sweet to its supporters for that.

The tradition you seek to preserve is, like so many British traditions, younger than many people might suppose…

QZ said: “It is not an entertainment, its an election, and it is time they were held on sundays, counted on mondays (all of them) effected on tuesdays.”

While we watch the financial markets perform acrobatics on account of the potential uncertainty. And that is not just about share prices, its about gilts, credit ratings & currencies. Or do you suggest we just close the markets for a day or three?

If there is to be any change of this ilk, election on Saturday, count it on Sunday seems blindingly obvious.

Otherwise, leave well alone I think. And Tom is right, a little theatre and an “event” is no bad things.

Politics can’t all be about counting “tractor stats” !

Elections in most parts of the world seem to go pretty well on a sunday and their stock markets are not renowned for greater instability than ours.

Turnout would be expected to be higher on a sunday, and that is perhaps the deciding factor.

Exit polls on a sunday (when the stock market is closed I believe) would usually be sufficiently accurate that it would be clear who had won, most especially with AV in operation when clearer cut majorities seem more likely.

Even back in 1964 they managed to count 430 seats on the night, nearly 70% of the total.

If they could manage it back then, we should be able to do just as well today.

http://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2006/11/18/will-we-miss-the-traditional-election-night-programmes/

QZ – The london Stockmarket is not just any old market & in any case, its about gilts, credit ratings & currencies – things that are especially “precarious” at this particular time.

Exit polls ?? Conducted by whom?

(better think about that one some more QZ)

…and in the meantime lets just leave well alone eh?

Johnny – Do you mean the night I kept my mum company as she watched the results coming in? That was the May 1979 election.

As I have previously intimated, I do not always (rarely in fact) share the opinions of the member for Inverclyde, nor do I hold him in much esteem. But I must (reluctantly) congratulate him in securing that debate, and congratulate both him and yourself for your speeches to it;

I hope that some amendment IS made to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill on this; both on accountability of the unelected CEO’s (that are paid far too much as it is) and on the need to get the election count held as quickly as possible. It is vital to the functioning of our democracy that the votes are counted as quickly as possible after the polls close.

The very notion that ballot boxes could be sitting around, unguarded and uncounted for upwards of 12 hours after a count is repugnant to me, and I’m sure to many others.
I’d go so far as to say that if it were my decision (and sadly, it is not. Yet), locally at least, if my local authority decides to go ahead with counting on the Friday, I would see to it that all ballot boxes have an SNP seal affixed to them at the close of voting, and I would suggest that the other parties would do well to do likewise.
It is not just about the physical security of the ballot box, but about the intellectual security that people *know* it has not been tampered with, and that if these unelected bureaucrats cannot be held to account and made to hold the count on the night, then at the very least the political parties must do everything within their powers to demonstrate to the electorate that the boxes are unmolested.

Health & Safety??

And QT – why should weekend polling increase turnout? Polling stations are open for some 15 hours with postal voting for those who can’t make it.

Jay: Fewer people work on a sunday and so have more time and are less tired, ergo more likely to vote.

Also even in this day and age families are more likely to be in touch one with another so as to remind and discuss an election on a sunday.

The roads are less crowded than on weekdays, so that, on the whole, getting to a polling station should be less irksome.

It isn’t a new idea, and it remains a better one than thursday.

“Thursdays child has far to go,
…..
“And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.”

Sunday is a more positive day than thursday, just recall Chesterton’s “The Man who was thursday” for further evidence of these associations in our culture.

QT – how much energy and time does it take to put a cross in a box? Also aren’t polling stations located in the constituency therefore people don’t have far to travel and can vote on their way to or coming back from work.

Bet those who can’t find time on a Thursday won’t find it on a wet Sunday when they’ve got to get the car out of the garage ‘just’ to go and vote!

You can watch the 1979 election again here. Go to the playlists section:

http://www.youtube.com/ajs41

AndyJS: Mildly surprised Call me Dave hasn’t got his people (or Cashcroft’s) to have that taken down by now . . .

Trust you’ll be posting your link more widely.

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