Marginal seats and Tory money again
Labour MP Bill Rammell is bleating in the Guardian about the Tories flooding marginal constituencies with the Ashcroft millions.
How can we have a level political playing field if the rich can buy influence, asks Bill Rammell
To which the only reasonable reply would be:
How can we have a level political playing field if the voters in marginal constituencies buy influence, asks the democratically-minded
Rammell as a majority in his Harlow constituency on just 97.
Some votes are worth more than others – it’s a fact of our electoral system. Around 200,000 voters hold the balance of power in this country and therefore must be bribed and cajoled by the political parties by whatever means. I don’t remember Rammell complaining when stories were doing the rounds that the then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt was looking to soften hospital closures and cuts in Labour marginal constituencies. How’s that for a level playing field?
Rammell conveniently forgets that the power to make all this go away is in the hands of his party – the governing party. Give us a fair and equitable electoral system where all votes are as valuable as each other. Exterminate the marginal constituencies. There’s your level playing field.
Posted on October 25th, 2007 at 9:48am under Affronts to democracy, UK politics
| Related posts... • At the margins • Levelling the field • ELECTION 2007: Britain tosses a coin |
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• 7 Comments |
Well, up to a point, but PR isn’t an answer to the general point he’s making, which is that the wealthy and their preferred party have an enormous advantage in, as he puts it, buying influence.
Which presumably would be why Mr Rammell’s government might be tempted to attract rich donors of their own by offering them peerages, not that they did of course.
ejh, I think that PR might indeed make a large dent in the ability of the party-for-the-rich to attract huge donations.
Firstly, by eliminating marginals, PR turns the entire country into a battleground, meaning that an individual large donation will have to be spread a lot more thinly.
Secondly, due to the nature of PR, the largest party in parliament would still have considerably less influence on policymaking than a government of today. So there’s much less motive for individual donors to give large sums to individual parties, since the party would be less able to help the individual by passing specific laws.
That’s not to say that I’m necessarily “pro” PR, just that it might help with this particular problem.
.
Support GLBT Rights! Fight back against those that stone gays to death! Democracy NOT Theocracy!
STOP KUFFARPHOBIA Demonstration at Whitehall in London, 12pm Friday 10/26/07!
I think we all must start calling the Islamofascists ‘racists’. We should scream that they are hateful towards the Christian race, and the Jewish race, and the Hindu race, and the Atheist Race, that they are Christianityphobiasts. They will scream that Christianity is not a race, and we’ll say:
“See, Islam is NOT a race either.
And by the way, the Bible doesn’t say to convert, conquer or kill non-Christians; like the Koran says to do to non-Muslims. So there YOU RACIST hater of non-Muslims! You’re a Kuffarphobic!”
Be careful all you in London Friday 10/26!
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don’t call a spade a spade
Islamist terrorism
not related to Islam
absurd thought -
God of the Universe wants
many Taliban planets
stonings and beheadings
billions killed daily
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
be very afraid…
of saying the wrong things
TRUTH is especially BAD
http://absurdthoughtsaboutgod.blogspot.com
. .
And by the way, the Bible doesn’t say to convert, conquer or kill non-Christians; like the Koran says to do to non-Muslims.
I presume you’ve never actually read the bible, right? In the Old Testament, exhortations of violence against The Other are too numerous to mention (start with the Books of Numbers, Leviticus and Ezekiel if you want to track them down for yourself). Ezekiel contains an absolute classic… God instructs a man to go through the city and made a mark of penance upon the forehead of the faithful. Then comes this gem as God instructs a group of ‘the faithful’:
Yowsa!
Though of course you could respond by claiming that the Old Testament is more Judaic than Christian.
In which case, however, in order to remain consistent and retain any level of credibility at all, you do need to classify Jews with Moslems when trumpeting the moral superiority of Christianity’s sacred text.
More than that though, you’ll need to edit even the New Testament I’m afraid. Most of us who had a Christian education (for better or worse) will recall the parable of the 10 talents (or 10 minas or 10 pounds, depending on your version). It is Luke’s report of a parable spoken by Jesus on the way to Jerusalem (Luke Chapter 19). But how many of us recall that it concludes thusly:
Well fine, Christians long ago grew out of such barbarity, Radical Muslims have not. They are savages.
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
you have NO rights
to hate religions
that demand to convert you
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe calls
for sick ideologies
that deny human rights
KILL adulterers and gays
.
USpace, you write an outright (and very easily checked) falsehood:
And by the way, the Bible doesn’t say to convert, conquer or kill non-Christians; like the Koran says to do to non-Muslims.
Then you return; admit you didn’t know what the hell you were talking about last time; and make a new and different claim. You have demonstrated a clear willingness to lie (or at least write what you think may be true without bothering to check it) in order to promote your own position, so why should anyone believe anything at all that you say on this topic?
I was conceding your point that there are a few passages in the bible that are violent. My being misspoken doesn’t change the facts. Also, there are many more such violent passages in the Koran.
And besides, the most important thing is that the planet Earth doesn’t have millions, let alone 200 million or more nut-job Christians who advocate making the whole planet adhere to Christianity through violent means like the Islamofascists are trying to do with Sharia Law by committing almost 10,000 terrorist attacks since 9/11.
The Leftists and so-called ‘Liberals’ claim to support Women’s rights and Gay rights yet they more strongly support an Ideology which is the most degrading to women and the most homophobic ideology in existence.
They are seriously deluded people and they must choose. Do they support the rights of women, gays and all human rights? Or do they most strongly support people whose ideology is TOTALLY against ALL those things they have claimed to champion for all these many years?
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
you may have many wives
they will be your property
divorce them just by speaking
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe said
just ignore Hitler
now don’t believe jihadis
claims to want to destroy you
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe thinks
women are inferior
the Left should sacrifice them
to not offend religions
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
KILL ALL homosexuals
according to Sharia
the Left will not condemn you
.
http://absurdthoughtsaboutgod.blogspot.com
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
.