A few hours from now, the polls will open.
To decide the electoral system for the House of Commons. To devastate the Lib Dems' municipal base. To elect the first Welsh Assembly with increased powers.
Probably to give a surprise second term to Alex Salmond in which he can spend another five years not doing the only thing that his party exists in order to do. Possibly to install a member of Sinn Féin as First Minister as Northern Ireland.
And, most significantly of all, to give, for the first time, a parliamentary seat to one of your humble servant's university contemporaries.
Tomorrow's votes are vastly more important than those cast last year, between what were then still New Labour and New Labour. Yet has the world been set alight? If not, why not?
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'Probably to give a surprise second term to Alex Salmond'
ReplyDeleteIf it does happen (and I’ll be voting for Salmond as first minister), I don’t know that it would be a surprise. In terms of brains and charisma, Salmond is way above any other mainstream Brit politican I can think of. There is a large disparity between the numbers of Scots who support independence and the ones who think Alex Salmond is the best guy for First Minister. Look at the options:
-The unfortunately (yet fittingly) named Mr Grey for Labour. Whilst I’m impressed by Ed Miliband in many ways, Scotland has long been a Blairite dumping ground and seen as a serfdom.
-Lib Dems? What to say? The only pics I’ve seen of Clegg have been on anti-coalition leaflets/ posters. Danny Alexander is nowhere to be seen on any leaflet. And I honestly don’t know who the Lib Dems want (if anyone) for first minister.
-Annabel Goldie who reminds me of the old joke that Scots never voted for Thatcher because she reminded them of their Presbyterian schoolmistresses. I’m not a conservative so can’t really argue this one very well, but in the one area I would be considered conservative (the right to life) Salmond has a fairly good record. In terms of patriotism he is far more genuine than the neo-liberal Atlanticist Tories. He gave them a thrashing in the Tory strongholds of the East Lowlands: no reason why he won’t this time. His ‘hands off North Sea Oil’ combined with his supermarket tax are sure to be popular with the Tories there.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed at this stage, and I wouldn’t be surprised if helping to form a Labour/Tory/Lib Dem coalition could be the first major dilemma for Ed Miliband to face.
Politics just isn't very interesting without Blair to kick. Cameron is a poor imitation, although we could have hated David Miliband like that and could hate George Osborne if he took over. It would be very energising.
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