Diary Blog, 13 November 2024, including a few thoughts about proportional representation, and about Starmer-Labour’s lack of real popular mandate

Morning music

Labour mandate (lack of)

As I blogged previously, in relation to both the USA election and Labour’s present situation in the UK.

The difference lies in the fact that the people of the UK had 14 years of inept “Conservative” misgovernment 2010-2024, and the voters wanted the Cons out, at almost any price.

Having said that, and as previously noted several times on the blog, out of every 20 eligible voters in the UK at GE 2024, and in rough figures, about 8 were so disenchanted with the whole political process, with society, and with the political choices available, that they voted with their feet (did not vote at all).

Of the remaining 12 out of 20, again in very rough figures, 4 voted Labour, 3 voted Conservative, 2 voted Reform UK, 2 voted LibDem, and 1 voted Green. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election#Full_results.

For me, the most significant figures would be the 8 out of 20 who did not vote, and the 2 that voted Reform UK.

Obviously, Labour, Starmer-Labour, has little real popular mandate, particularly in view of the fact that Labour’s “4 out of 20” or “4 out of 12” would have included those who, faced with a Lab-Con fight in many constituencies, voted Lab to do down the Cons; the same, in reverse, may also be true, though to a lesser extent; those who voted Con to prevent Lab from winning. Negative voting.

There is at present, or as yet, no sign of a real social-national party emerging in the UK.

I think that Matt Goodwin may be right, i.e. that Reform UK will emerge as the real opposition to Labour in the public mind.

Reform UK now has 5 MPs, though all are rather underwhelming. Reform should of course (were the electoral system not both illogical and unfair) have had about 93 MPs, not the mere 5 awarded to them under FPTP.

It is ridiculous that a party, Reform UK, can get 14.29% of the popular vote and end up with 5 MPs, and that another party, the LibDems, can be voted for by only 12.22%, yet end up with 72 MPs! That does offend the still quite strong sense of fairness and fair play in this country.

Come to that, Labour itself captured only 33.7% of the popular vote, not greatly more than double the vote of Reform UK, yet now has 411 MPs.

A pure proportional-voting system would have given Labour 219 MPs, the Conservative Party 154, Reform UK 93, LibDems 79, and Green Party 42.

In other words, under pure proportional voting, on GE 2024 vote figures, the UK would still be under a Labour Party government, but it would be a minority one.

In practice, 320 MPs give a UK government a Commons majority. Under the proportional-voting scenario, and in order to get over the line, Labour would have been required to compact with either the Conservative Party, or with Reform UK, or with both the LibDems and Greens. I suppose that that last choice would have been the most likely— Labour with LibDem and Green support.

Having said that, were there a fairer and more proportional voting system in the UK, voters would be able to cast their votes knowing that, unless they were to vote Monster Raving Loony Party or the like, their votes would almost certainly result in at least one MP of their preference getting elected. On GE 2024 figures, even George Galloway’s party, Workers’ Party, would have had 4 or 5 MPs in the Commons (0.73% of the popular vote, 210,194 actual votes).

There is little doubt in my mind that, were the UK voting system fairer, most UK voters would not be voting for the System or “legacy” parties. Not only would Reform UK surge forward, but a real social national party might be able to capture both the imagination and the votes of the British people. That, of course, is why System politicians want to retain the present voting set-up.

Tweets seen

As said on previous similar occasions, a one-sided and rose-tinted view, but still largely correct, taken in the round.

That is about Simon Myerson, Leeds-based barrister and one of the “CAA” and “UKLFI” Jew-Zionist crowd, who was sacked as a Recorder (p/t judge) several months ago as a consequence of his extremely unpleasant and persistent social media trolling.

According to Myerson, the terrible slaughter visited upon the people of Gaza is, “legally”, not “genocide”, presumably because not all Gazans have been killed or wounded (“only” 150,000+, i.e. about a tenth of the population), and because the Israelis at least claim not to intend eliminating all Gazans or other Palestinian Arabs from Israel/Palestine.

Well, could not a similar claim, mutatis mutandis, be made by Germany about the Europe-resident Jews of the early 1940s?

Not my area of law (when I had “areas of law”). In any case, my own view of the Gaza slaughter is not based on some “dancing on a pin” legal sophistry. I say, just look at what the Israelis have been doing, and what they continue to do. Whether it is called “genocide” or not is irrelevant, really.

I have noticed that some of the non-Jews (who are pro-Jew-Zionist or, maybe better said, pro-Israel), and some of those who are part-Jew (what the Reich termed Mischlingen) but Zionist, are actually more fanatical than many of those who are fully-Jewish. Strange. That phenomenon has been covered on the blog, on this very popular page: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/07/18/theyre-coming-to-take-me-away-ha-ha/.

Migration-invasion— the madness gets worse

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14077423/moment-residents-told-migrants-altrincham-receive-private-healthcare.html

A public meeting descended into chaos after locals were told hundreds of illegal migrants staying at a hotel could soon be getting access to ‘free private healthcare’. 

The bombshell accusation was made during a fiery debate led by members of Trafford Council, in Greater Manchester, sparking an outcry of anger from local residents.”

[Daily Mail]

Late tweet

The deliberate destruction of society as we know it, aka “the management of decline”. Only social nationalism can save Britain and all Europe.

Late music

[Michael and Inessa Garmash, After the Opera]

15 thoughts on “Diary Blog, 13 November 2024, including a few thoughts about proportional representation, and about Starmer-Labour’s lack of real popular mandate”

  1. The most horrible of zionists are full of glee on Twitter with the appointment by Trump of so many Israel firsters. So much for MAGA.

    Not only because they believe Israel will benefit, but because they are full of schadenfreude and laughing at those who are upset by the likely grim future for Palestinians. They are truly Satanic.

    Last time Trump gave jews their wish by opening a US embassy in Jerusalem, this time jews are hopeful Trump will allow Israel to annexe (Anschluß) the whole of the West Bank (Palestine).

    Jews are 2.8% of the US population.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Germany is just as bad as the USA is when it comes to the Zionist National Socialist, continual international law defying, quasi-terroristic bandit state.

      In their eagerness to deal with their past, Germany gives the Zionist state a free pass to do anything by selling them weapons, providing diplomatic cover for Zionist Israeli brutality and persecution of Palestinians. In Germany itself, their police beat-up pro Palestinian protesters and suppress their right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

      Germany should remember the Holocaust but not be so bound by that history that they give succur to Zionist terror and evil. It is time for Germany to stand on the right side of history.

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    2. The Zionist entity of Israel surely has enough Lebensraum by now, does it not? Mind you, occupied Palestine is small. If the original objective of Zionists was to have a ‘national homeland for the Jewish people’ then Palestine was the wrong place as it can’t contain all 18 million odd of the world’s Jews. If only the disaster of WW2 had not occured as then the French may have been persusded to give-up their colony of Madagascar which is a large island in order to found a Jewish homeland there. After all, that was the place the ‘founding father of Israel’, one Adolf Hitler, originally wanted it to be.

      https://twitter.com/TorahJudaism

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      1. The Zionist fanatics also say the Zionist state of Israel is ‘the world’s only Jewish state’ so don’t you dare criticise the Zionist entity’s government’s often horrific behavior.

        However, very few people are aware that Jews have a autonomous part of Russia that I believe I am correct in stating was once envisioned as a ‘Jewish homeland’. Yes, that area of Russia is not a fully independent state as such but it is a part of the world that has been set aside for Jews.

        At any rate, according to the Jewish religious book of the Torah, Jews are supposed to be a religious minority in the world’s countries and are not supposed to establish their own Jewish sovereignty/state. They are supposed to remain in a divinely decreed exile.

        The best solution for the Israeli/Palestinian problem would be the peaceful dismantling of the Zionist state and its replacement with a single, independent state of Palestine where Jews and Palestinians could live peacefully together as they used to do when it was the British mandate of Palestine.

        It is the domineering, expansionist, supremacist ,ultra-nationalist creed of Zionism that has caused the problem not Judaism.

        https://www.israelversusjudaism.org

        https://torahjews.org

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  2. It is doubtful whether the Monster Raving Loony Party would gain MPs under PR because the vast majority of PR countries institute a threshold of support where a party needs to gain a certain percentage of the vote before its vote share is proportionately represented in the parliament. In Germany, with its Mixed-Member PR system it is 5%, in New Zealand with their MMP system it is 5% whereas in Sweden and Austria with Open Party List PR it is 4%.

    In Europe, the only major countries with lower threasholds are the Netherlands with 0.67% and Denmark with 2%. The usual level is 4%/5%. These thresholds are put into place so that elections don’t enable too many tiny micro parties to gain access to parliament and therefore making strong, stable and effective governments too hard to form. They stop an excessive fragmentation of the political system as occured in Germany from 1918 to 1933. Israel’s parliament used to be extremely easy to get into with its barrier of 1% but it has become harder as you now need 3.25% of the national vote.

    Yes, it is a profoundly undemocratic disgrace and an utter FARCE that Reform UK has just five MPs whereas a LESS POPULAR party ie the Liberal Democrats has 72 just because the Lib Dems were able to concentrate that vote share far more effectively in certain geographical constituencies.

    https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_Representation

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    1. It is crazy to have what is supposedly meant to be a NATIONAL electoral system for a supposed NATIONAL, UK-WIDE Parliament composed ENTIRELY of single-member geographical constituencies. This leads to MILLIONS of ‘wasted’ votes at every general election.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Germany

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_New_Zealand

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_reform_in_New_Zealand

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    2. New Zealand’s government commissioned a review of their PR electoral system and it recommended that the threashold be reduced from 5% of the national vote to 3.5%. This will make it a bit easier for sensible, well-presented parties to get into parliament and lead to less ‘wasted’ votes but still act as a barrier for tiny, micro parties with silly ideologies or joke parties who would simply ‘bung-up’ the parliament and make strong, stable and effective governments hard to form.

      The ideal threashold seems to be around 3% to 4%. Infact, the Council of Europe recommends a 3% threshold for well-established democracies.

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      1. John:
        To my mind, 5% would be fine. At GE 2024, that would have allowed Lab, Con, Reform UK, LibDem, and Green Party (they got over 6%) to get MPs.

        In the UK, you would have to tweak the results for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to require a minimum of 5% *in that country or region*, so that the local fake nationalists etc would not be barred, which barring might stimulate radical action or even “terroristic” protests.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election#Full_results

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      2. In Germany and New Zealand there is an alternative threshold of 3 and 1 directly-elected First Past The Post constituency seats respectively so if a party can’t get 5% of the national vote its vote share will still be proportionately represented if they can win those number of constituency seats.

        Both Plaid Cymru and the SNP, even when they were at their weakest in general election popularity, have won at least one and normally a couple of constituencies.

        Infact, in Germany, there is a special clause in the electoral law for what are deemed to be parties representing ethnic national minorities. Germany has very few national minorities (the vast majority of the population is ethnically German) but one does exist near the border with Denmark and currently a party representing this very small German-Danish minority has a single list MP in the Bundestag.

        Similar arrangements here could be put into effect for the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

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  3. Allowing the US embassy to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalam was a deeply irresponsible action by President Trump and we and other European countries condemmed it and rightly so. There is no doubt the REAL ‘far right’ government of Benjamin Netenhayu took a great deal of comfort from that happening and it has emboldened them in their subsequent actions.

    I suppose Trump did it not just to please the excessively strong Pro Israel Zionist Lobby in America but also to gain support from a section of the Republican Party’s base ie Christian Zionists.

    These people need to remember that yes the Christian religion does have its roots in ‘The Holy Land’ which is now the modern state of Israel but that the Jewish religion AND Islam also have roots there too. This, however, does not mean Palestinians should be subjected to brutality, persecution or occupation. The Christian Zionists need to quit their ‘end of days/Armaghedon’ fantasies.

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    1. I read an article a couple of years ago which said the Jerusalem US embassy was a sham. There was no suitable building there to be the embassy. I think they slapped a US embassy sign on some small building in Jerusalem, but US citizens needing assistance still need to go to Tel Aviv.
      Smoke and mirrors.
      There is nothing to be found about that on the internet now, in fact it is impossible not to notice just how many articles etc simply disappear from searches, when they are either inconvenient or irritating to US/Israel.

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  4. One good and funny thing took place yesterday here with the news that the ‘Bible of the Liberal-Left’ ie the Guardian newspaper read and taken as gospel as it is by Tofu-eating and Starbucks Latte drinking liberal-lefties and about 90% of ‘Tory’ MPs will now no longer be advertising or using Twitter/X.

    Well, it is owned by the world’s richest ‘fascist’ South African-born Elon Musk and he did cause those race riots here in August (in reality caused by decades of British government stupidity and utter treason) and use wicked sarcasm against no real mandate to misrule us, Two Tier Kier, after all.

    He also helped to get Donald Trump elected again and made Twitter/X notoriously swamped by ‘fascists’ and ‘misinformation’ peddlars. There can be few greater crimes in the eyes of The Guardian and its readers!

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