Same where I live. The vast majority of Yorkshire is secure Labour territory. The only seat that isn't that I know of is Sheffield Hallam, which is Lib Dem, and York which I believe is actually Tory. The MPs and councillors couldn't give a hoot what the people want. If they did, they'd ask occasionally. Uber-secure seats like ours are met with supreme disinterest by the representatives; they know they're theirs and that's it. I wouldn't be surprised if it came out in years to come that many were fixed.I live in the Henley constituency of Oxfordshire. Or at least, that's where I'm registered to vote. We've only had one non-Tory MP in the entire history of elections, and he only lasted one term, which was from 1906-1910. When Boris Johnson became Mayor of London and we had a by-election, a lot of people thought we might have an opportunity to change something, but then the Tory candidate won by more than 10'000 votes, and then stayed elected by more than 17'000. I had to check Wikipedia to even know his name, but that's just how this system works. I agree with Ash: this is not a democracy.There's no point me voting in South West Hertfordshire - always has been, and always will be, fiercely Tory. I believe my little village is somewhat Liberal, but the surrounding duchies, mansions and landlord estates have voted the same way since 1950.
What, just like the one we've got now? Cleggy seems to be cooperating just fine. I love how we accidentally didn't vote for the government we've actually got. We accidentally put a total snob in charge of nearly ten million people who live below the poverty line on benefits, and thirty million more barely surviving on a living wage thanks to high inflation and absurd taxation.I don't doubt that they're planning on making a bust of Machiavelli to be the fifth statue in the House of Commons. The parties can never give a good enough answer to not adopting PR, except that it would form 'weak, unstable and uncooperative coalitions' - hmm.
The precedent still exists, and could technically still be used. Can you imagine a government under Mandelson? Jesus Christ there'd be death squads stalking the streets!Well, the last member in the House of Lords to be Prime Minister was Lord Salisbury at the start of the 20th Century, but I agree that their privileged position are entirely unwarranted.
Those are basically the same rights afforded to our monarchy.Well, at least in Britain, the Queen doesn't have any political power, unlike in Holland... Here, she decides which person will lead the coalition forming process, who has great influence in the decision which coalition will ultimately be formed. On top of that she earns millions a year, everything she buys is paid by the working tax payer, has private jets and huge landhouses all over the world, and is one of the richest women on Earth. Purely because of her birthright and a couple of groundlaws, which means we'll probably be stuck with her and her family forever.
Correctomundo. Same deal in the UK, unfortunately.And even if we get to manage a decent government through a decent election process, it won't help at all. The Netherlands have given away far too many rights to the European Union, who now decide for us how to run the country. Of course, the leading figures of the EU aren't democtatically chosen.
