Scarlet Reflects on the Election

The dust is settling on the most incredible election we have seen since 1992.  Indeed the parallels between this one and 1992 can be drawn across the board however Scarlet isn't going to go into depth about that, that is for the far more intellectual and boring bloggers.  Scarlet is going to sit back with his Bacon Sandwich (as a tribute to the leader of the opposition) and look at the key points after the day after the night after the day of the election.

Narrative

Scarlet posted his vote after work.  This being Scarlets second general election I was surprised by the amount of people about.  It may simply be a case of my arriving at 6pm but the turnout seemed considerably higher than 2010, perhaps a sign?  Scarlet posted his vote and kept well clear of the irritating people who stand outside the polling station and undermine the entire principle of the system.  It amazes me that these people are allowed to stand there, annoying members of the electorate and making them generally feel awkward.  It seems to Scarlet that this is the problem with a party system.  These people are highly beneficial to the Tories, Labour etc.  So why would a Conservative Government get rid of them?

I got home and found that everyone in the house had voted for a different name on the ballot paper, interesting thought I, this seems to be the feeling of the nation at the moment.  Everybody voting for a slightly different party they don't believe in as opposed to the standard everybody voting for the same party they don't belive in.

And so the evening in front of the coverage began (The Scarlet household voted for BBC, you can't beat a bit of Dimbleby with lashings of Nick Robinson), an exit poll and a thunderbolt!  Surely not?  Tories up the other side of 300?  It seemed propesturous and the wily old foxes of Ashdown and Campbell agreed - doubt that happens very often - could DC have achieved this late swing?  Indeed an incredible outcome, we won't know how or why the pollsters got it wrong but my goodness me a shock has run through our nation.  The success of the SNP was long predicted but a Tory majority will stun the UK to its core.  Scarlet thinks it is a bloody good outcome but there are many who will not, the PM has some tricky days ahead of him so I hope he enjoys what will surely be his finest hour.

The UK fading away...

It seems that the Nationalists triumph in Scotland is the latest step toward the breakup of the union.  Scarlet wonders if we will get another general election as the UK?  It really looks that bad.  The SNP party machine has convinced the Scot's that the grass is greener what is the PM to do?

It seems to Scarlet that full fiscal autonomy for the Scot's is the way to go.  It won't last long, Scotland has been mooching off of the English tax payers money for years and i'm sure that the second Scotland is responsible for its own money the reality of life will set in, of course it will all be the fault of the English.  It always is.

Europe

The long awaited EU Referendum is finally going to come.  Cameron's policy of renegotiation will begin straight off the bat, the success of Cameron's renegotiation will be the foundation of whether Britain stays in the EU or not.  Should the Europeans rebuff DC saying 'thems is the rules, like em or not' the British people will react with fury, as a major player in the EU surely we should have a say on policy?  Well if not, sod them we'll go our own way, I'm confident this will be the view of the Daily Mail and it's possible the electorate will rally around this view.  Can the PM bargain with Brussels?  It may well define his second term.

The UKIP vote is still there you know.... There is still plenty of anti EU running about the place, what's going to happen? 

What next for Labour

When Labour elected Ed Milliband there was a feeling around the country "they've picked the wrong one".  The British people have definitely backed this one up; Red Ed was never popular and we've kept him out of Number 10 one wonders how David would've done, or Alan Johnson?

Labour is looking in trouble now, they need to turn to someone to make them look like a modern political unit.  The message of Labour was re-invented by Blair but the Blairite vote might as well go to the Tories now that the smear marks have cleared.  The old left looks dead and buried and where does that leave the party?  One suspects the Labour Party would do well with Alan Johnson at the helm, maybe Labour won't shoot themselves in the foot this time.

An incredible result is in the bag for Cameron but now and the tough times will come thick and fast.  Our PM needs to make the changes before the British people remember how much they don't like him. Good luck Dave, Boris will be combing his hair waiting for his tomorrow.

Voter Turnout

For any given reason it would seem that loads of British people don't vote...

Scarlet has no desire for this to turn into a rant about people who don't vote and why they should really and how they are all enemies of freedom.  Scarlet is just going to lay out a few of the reasons why I think these people don't turn up at the ballot box:

Apathy

Do I vote? No, can't be bothered.  Surely this is the feeling of many British nationals who don't turn up?  Whilst it is not entirely fair to say that everyone who doesn't vote simply doesn't care about what happens on the Governmental front it would certainly appear that in a good few places people merely don't consider it important enough to bother.  Scarlet wonders what these people would do if we were in a police state like North Korea?  Would the apathetic position continue or would it be a case of 'I wouldn't bother voting but I want that to be my choice not theirs' or would they submit?  How often do the apathetic really use their freedom?  The only time we consider freedoms important are when we go to court or engage in political activity (like this here blog), and how many of us do that?  

What difference would my vote make? The (X Party) will just get in anyway

This one is an issue of the system, the dated FPTP system does tend to make safe bets of many seats in our Parliament.  Of course the mainstream parties tend to treat this one with kid gloves, complacency is a big problem in politics and they have to make sure some people actually do turn up or we could get the wrong winner simply because no one bothered to vote for the person everyone actually wanted to win.

They're all as bad as each other

Why would you vote if you thought that all of the candidates were self serving imbeciles?  It seems a fairly good question, most of us consider our politicians corrupt but go and vote for them anyway so shouldn't we just not bother going and wipe our hands of the whole sorry mess?

Scarlet looks at the modern political class and can't disagree with the position.  To get any kind of political pull you need to know the right people and this upper middle class political clique is very much the old boy network of our time.  However it is not the case that they are all like this!  No seriously they're not, if you look at your ballot paper you will in all likelihood find a clean cut candidate amongst the Old Etonians.  You've never heard of these people because nobody votes for the good guys, because all the people who would appreciate them are either voting for the system or staying at home.  Scarlet believes that if you look down the list and see no one worthy of your vote you should do something to show it off, to use the freedom at your fingertips.  You may not wish to stand for election yourself but why not join a party to try and make it better and more inclusive?  Why not start an online blog and at least tell the world what you think?  Perhaps we are getting round to apathy again....

Scarlet will vote tomorrow and Scarlet will await the results with the feelings of a true nerd.  Scarlet will try to hold on to his freedoms because Scarlet cares, but it would appear that many do not.  The question remains will they ever care?  Is the voice of not voting as strong as that of the voter?  Who knows, but tomorrow night the 60% of us that bother will have made a call, and I strongly hope we will vote right and save our nation.

A Video Blog - Scarlet the Atheist

Driving home from a shoot I wondered something, and I couldn't be bothered to write it down:

Why Scarlet will leave if the SNP get in

Just a quick one today, Scarlet needs to get back to checking out the immigration policy of several nations around the world.

It looks more and more likely like Labour will get into bed with the SNP and seize control at the election next week, this may not be the disaster it looks on the face of it in economic terms, at the end of the day Mr Milliband's policies aren't all that bad but there is a bigger threat which concerns Scarlet.  The United Kingdom is predominantly made up of England both in terms of land and in terms of population, it is natural that the English would hold a lot of the cards politically, it has been part of the union since day one and it is fair this way, one person one vote.  A growing nationalist fervour is growing in Scotland, the Scots have remembered that 500 years ago there was some unpleasantness and apparently 300 years of being the same country doesn't quite make up for it.

The SNP exist to break up the UK, that is their top line policy, the SNP care about the people of Scotland and will always put them first, this is the problem on nationalism, this is why the EU hate UKIP, because they don't want to be in Brussels in the first place.  Now it appears that the bias in the system towards local parties as opposed to national appeal (such as UKIP, who will maybe get 3-4 MPs) is going to hand the power in the house to the nationalists.  You cannot blame the people of Scotland, they have been fed this nonsense that in some way everyone in England has a much better life and look North only to give the troublesome Jock's the occasional penny to keep them happy, they have been fed it and they have swallowed it, it is a lot easier to get people to believe your message if you tell them they've been hard done by and could do better.  The simple numbers show how Scotland benefits from being in the UK, ever heard of the Barnett formula?  Ah yes but of course the nuclear submarine base is in Scotland and that is a great burden for the Scots to carry...  But, hang on a minute wasn't it put there to boost employment in the area?  Does it not give Scots stable work?  Seems to me that if they had built it in Scotland the SNP would be calling it another example of Westminster giving work to rich England instead of poor Scotland.

The SNP will overstep their mark, Milliband will be a lame duck and the resentment will start, the English will rebel, they will have enough of it and it seems the United Kingdom will crash down with a thud.  Scarlet has mentioned this before but it is really bothering him now.  To have a small party espousing 19th century nationalist nonsense dominating the commons will be too much to bear, it will be proof that our nation is finally ready to die, an experiment which saw the largest expansion in the history of the world will fall on its face, this is how it ends...

So Scarlet will be off, probably to another nation which has some pride in itself, struggles like recessions bring people together rather than rip them apart, Scarlet may be about to leave our nation, because he loves it too much to see this happen.

I may be wrong, there may be a surprise in the offing, but it appears that the UK is going the way of many nations before it, we are blaming each other rather than working together and it'll cost the UK a patriot, a romantic and a dreamer...