Pause for thought

For Conservatives, yesterday was the equivalent of the first sunshine run in a new convertible So how did the Cameron Spyder perform?

Some commentators suggested that, if Labour lost less than 300 seats, it would be business as usual. They seem to have lost about 200. Some thought the Tories should be aiming for 400. If so, they were disappointed. They were careful to “manage expectations” though, and today claimed that the results were “at the high end” of their target range.

A government in its third term, mired in sleaze and characterised by the hubris usually so hated by the voters should not be doing so well. The promised BNP protest vote didn’t really materialise either. Two-thirds of voters simply didn’t bother.

We can’t say they were wrong (though Left-wing think tanks and sundry politicians are proposing to force them to vote). In a democracy, broadly speaking, the majority determine what’s right and wrong. The majority decided not to vote yesterday.

I don’t think ordinary Brits are stupid or apathetic. My wife served on a jury lately and found her random cross-section of the population inarticulate and badly-educated, but laudably serious, diligent and keen to “get it right”

Voters were acting rationally yesterday. Most “local government expenditure” is allocated from national taxes. Local councillors are irrelevant busybodies. Voting only encourages them. Until money is raised locally to spend locally (rather than stolen from opposition voters to give to Government voters) it is perfectly rational to ignore local elections.

Assuming the minority who turned out were representative, yesterday’s vote told us that most people don’t want Labour. We knew that. They currently rule Britain with the votes of only 20% or so of the population. On that slender mandate (as if these power-mad crooks really gave a damn about legitimacy) they are destroying our liberties and damaging our economic future.

People don't not want Labour, but they don’t want the Conservatives either. God only knows why they should, when Cameron is a mere Blair impersonator. All our elections, local and national, are delivering a clear message; “a plague on both your houses.”

If we were starting a democracy today, Labour, the Conservatives and the LibDems are not the parties we would found. They are hangovers from history. The voters, quite sensibly, are telling us so. So what are we going to do about it?