Kern wrote:
Over on 'Wings over Bath', [
'a Scottish expatriate' - Ed] has written an intersting
piece on Labour.
Nicely written as per, but (IMO) it's complete wishful thinking, face-saving, delusional twaddle, of course. One for the "home audience" I suspect; such people need to be comforted and reassured.
Apparently, the SNP's late avowed intention to "lock out the Tories from Westminster" [ergo subvert the democratic will of the English] via the formation of an 'anything but the Conservatives' ramshackle alliance with Labour [with far fewer seats than the Conservatives] had *nothing* to do with the en masse mobilisation of soft Tory support, floating voters and weak/wavering support from other parties, oh no (honest guv), resulting in an unprecedented upset which, okay, old dickheads like me saw coming from a mile off (and said so), but not the professional pollsters. I mean
really, I ask you - talk about not wanting to face up to the inarguable reality...
The good people in the Southwest, as generally elsewhere in England, convulsed in sheer horror at the thought of an SNP coalition and all the being held to ransom and chaos that would ensue, which is why it's now a ubiquitous sea of solid, unwavering blue, and we've a Conservative majority government. Hell, Stu should know, as he lives there! A fine, very classy and genteel place, Bath, albeit not particularly renown as an epicentre for crisps and other junk food, mind. Possibly the odd
Happy Shopper newsagent still lurking somewhere, selling such
Haute cuisine as Pot Noodles or whatever? (Spent many happy years in Bath at the engineering college, enjoying all the fine culture, good rugby, fabulous architecture, gourmet food, drink that great Roman city has to offer. Some of the locals are very easy on the eye too, as I recall...).
Anyway, I digress. It's why the Conservatives, not quite believing their blind luck in what had been a lacklustre, faltering campaign - with Cameron's refusal for a TV debate backfiring badly and Miliband performing much better than anyone had expected - immediately rushed out all those posters of Milipede in Salmond's pocket in all those marginals, most of which were subsequently won. As they would be, of course.
For me, the SNP represent the very worst of chip-on-shoulder, grievance politics - but I'll always bless their little tartan socks for being quite so useless in tactical nous terms, and for overplaying their hand so spectacularly, replete with laughably obvious and entirely predictable outcomes. Bless.
Sincerely, I do so hope they enjoyed their briefest moment of elation at so having utterly vanquished Labour (with the help of ever vocal, ever lobbying Cybernats everywhere), before the awful reality of what they'd incidentally facilitated for their new found political grown up peers finally dawned on (even) them? (Man alive, Mrs C and I drank a fair few scoops between us the following evening I can tell you, and of the copious bubbles, none were to be found in sugar-laden soft drinks...).
No, surely theirs is the most Pyrrhic of all political victories, ever, of all time - a near clean sweep of 56 utterly powerless, useless MPs in a WM Parliament that'll very shortly have electoral boundaries redrawn to more or less guarantee a Conservative majority government for the foreseeable. "Vote SNP, get Tory" was an oft-quoted phrase during the election, but even I didn't realise there was a "forever" missing in there.
De-lish. Thanks, guys, couldn't have done it without you.
_________________
Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong