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Britain: A Functioning Democracy It's Not

Tyler Durden's picture




 

We discussed the farce that was/is the UK election last night... consider...

 

Or more clear...

  • SNP + LibDems 4.3 million votes = 64 Seats
  • UKIP 3.8 million votes = 1 Seat

 

 

*  *  *

And now The Automatic Earth's Raul Ilargi Meijer dives deeper into the fact "the people have not spoken..."

We at the Automatic Earth always try to steer clear of elections as much as possible, because there are no functioning democracies left in the west -no more than there are functioning markets-, and no journalists reporting on them either. Interesting question, by the way: how can a journalist report on a democracy that isn’t there? And where in that setting does news turn to mere opinion, and where does opinion then become news ?

Still, of course we caught some bits of the UK elections along the way regardless. The decisive moment for us must have been when Jeremy Paxman interviewed David Cameron at the BBC, and asked him if he knew how many foodbanks had been added in Britain since he took office 5 years ago.

Cameron, well duh obviously, had no idea, and instead of answering the question he started a flowery discourse praising the many volunteers who work in the foodbanks he didn’t know existed. Paxman cut him short and said there were 66 when Cameron came to power, and 421 now. Apparently in Britain, volunteers are needed to take care of the needy, they’re not going to pay people to do that. You would think that takes care of Cameron’s candidacy, but you couldn’t be more wrong.

At least Paxman seemed to try, but interviews like his should take place on the eve of an election, not 6 weeks before them like this one. That leaves far too much time for spin doctors to repair damage done by their candidate’s ignorance and gullibility. It’s crazy enough that party leaders can refuse to discuss each other, let alone the public, in public. Then again, that too would only be significant if there would be an actual democracy in Britain.

As things are, they might as well have put the royal baby in charge as soon as she was born, or for that matter the newborn macaque in Japan that ‘stole’ her name (at least there was an honest public ballot for that). Or perhaps the adorable little monkey can take over polling in the UK, since we can’t imagine any British pollsters still being employed tomorrow morning, not with the degrees to which they missed any and all election outcomes today.

A whole bunch of ‘leaders’ will leave too, but there’s plenty of shades of dull grey humanoids waiting in the wings to replace them. Besides, though Nigel Farage has often been dead on in describing, in the European Parliament, the inherent failures of Brussels, at home he’s never been more than a sad lost clown. I had to think hard about LibDem Clegg’s first name, even needed to look it up -it’s Nick- , and that sort of says it all: he would do well to change his name to Bland.

And perhaps Ed Milibland should do the same. Can anyone ever really have believed that this lady’s underwear salesman could have won this election? Or did they all just fudge the numbers so they had material to print? Ed Milibland never stood a chance. And Russell Bland can now go lick his wounds from supporting the guy, and no, Russell, saying now that you’re just a comedian won’t do the trick. You’ve been tainted. If it’s any consolation, you screwed up the same way Springsteen did when he played Obama’s support act. No surrender, no excuses.

Milibland, by the way, had one last no-no to offer in stepping down. He tweeted: “I am grateful to the people who worked on our campaign and for the campaign they ran. The responsibility for the result is mine alone.” Sorry, boyo, but that just ain’t so. The responsibility lies at least as much with the people who put you in the leader’s chair that doesn’t fit you, and with those who kept you in that chair throughout the campaign.

All Brits should feel blessed that they’re not in America, where these campaigns, which are equally hollow and devoid of democratic principles, last ten times as long. If your blessings are few, do count them.

But then, we all get what we deserve.

If the Brits want to be governed and gutted by the same people who raised the number of foodbanks the way they have, by a factor of seven in five years, and who fabricated the pretense of a functioning economy by blowing the biggest bubble in British history in selling off London town to monopoly money printing Chinese, Russian expat oligarchs and other such impeccable and blameless world citizens, if that’s what the Brits want, then let them have it.

One things’s for sure: Cameron and his ilk, now that they have a majority, will let them have it. And then some. In reality, though, even if they deserve what they get, there’s no vox populi here: the people have not spoken, the people have done what the press told them to do. Like in so many countries, there effectively is no press anymore in Britain, at least not in the sense that we used to knowl; the press no longer asks questions. Which begs yet another question: what is first to go, the media or the democratic values?

Peter Yukes wrote this for Politico just before the election:

The British Press Has Lost It

For months polls have put Conservatives and Labour close with about third of the vote each, and smaller parties destined to hold some balance of power. But there has been no balance in the papers. Tracked by Election Unspun, the coverage has been unremittingly hostile to Ed Miliband, the Labour challenger, with national newspapers backing the Conservative incumbent, David Cameron over Labour by a ratio of five to one.

 

Veteran US campaign manager David Axelrod finds this politicization of the print media one of the most salient differences with the US. “I’ve worked in aggressive media environments before,” he told POLITICO, “but not this partisan.” Axelrod may have ax to grind as he advises the Labour Party, but even a conservative commentator and long-serving lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch has been shocked. “Tomorrow’s front pages show British press at partisan worst,” Andrew Neil, former editor of the Sunday Times rued. “All pretense of separation between news and opinion gone, even in ‘qualities.’”

Excuse me, but how is ‘this politicization of the print media one of the most salient differences with the US’? Which US paper has not long been grossly politicized? It’s a shame Yukes devalues his article with such statements.

And that’s the difference. The whole newspaper industry seems to be affected by the tabloid tendentiousness trade-marked by Murdoch’s best-selling the Sun when it roared, in 1992, “It’s the Sun Wot Won It.” The Daily Mail specializes in political character assassination and the ‘Red Ed’ tag was predictable. But when the paper went on from attacking Miliband’s dead father to a hit-job on his wife’s appearance, the politics of personal destruction sank from gutter to sewer.

 

In this precipitous race to the bottom, perhaps the Daily Telegraph had the steepest fall. Known as a bastion of the Tory thinking, it had long been respected for separating fact from comment. During this election cycle is was caught sourcing its front pages direct from Conservative Campaign HQ, seeming to confirm the parting words of its senior political commentator, Peter Oborne, that it was intent on committing “a fraud on its readership.”

Well, at least it’s no surprise that the Telegraph does what it’s always done. Nobody expects them to be impartial.

The paper of record, The Times, fared a little better, in that there has been two vaguely positive front pages about Miliband — compared to 18 for Cameron.Meanwhile, the publication that arose in rebellion to Murdoch’s acquisition of the Times in the 80s, The Independent, shocked most its staff and readership by backing a continued Lib Dem/Tory Coalition. Reports said the endorsement was a ‘diktat’ from the wealthy Russian-born owner, Evgeny Lebedev, causing many to mock its original ad slogan “The Independent: It’s Not. Are You?” or renaming it ‘The Dependent’.

 

Even the sober, tight-lipped Financial Times, which once supported Blair and endorsed Obama, lost credibility. The paper said it backed another Conservative-led coalition because Ed Miliband was too “preoccupied with inequality.” But that magisterial tone was undermined when it emerged the leader writer, Jonathan Ford, was pictured in the notorious 1987 photo of Oxford’s elite hard drinking Bullingdon Club next to the Tory mayor Boris Johnson and just below David Cameron.

A bigger problem would seem to be that Milibland can’t have been far from that club; he attended much of the same educational institutions the other ‘leader elites’ did. Yukes is on to something, but he’s missing the point.

Therein lies the problem, and an indication the newspaper world is a microcosm of a wider malaise. The Conservative politician John Biffen once said “whenever you find a senior politician and a powerful media owner in private conclave, you can be certain that the aims of healthy, plural democracy are not being well-served.” This election that conclave looks like an exclusive club.

 

Rarely have the economic interests of the handful of wealthy men who own most the press (nine men own 90% of all national and regional titles) appeared so brutally transparent. Most of the conservatives among them don’t like Cameron’s modernizing project, or the fact he looks set to fail to get a majority for a second time. But they fear Miliband with a passion because he threatens their power in several ways.

They fear(ed) Milibland? I don’t believe that for a second. I think it’s much more likely that they’ve all intentionally exaggerated Milibland’s poll numbers to make it look like there was an actual race going on. That they were only too happy to have a guy run against theirs that everybody could see from miles away would never be a contender (maybe if his first name would have been Marlon? or Stanley?)

Plus they have the outdated and somewhat inane electoral system, in which for instance the Green Party got – roughly – one million votes and 1 seat, while the Conservatives accumulated 10 million votes and 331 seats. If you can work that system in your favor, you’re half way home. Moreover, if and when you hire the cream of the crop American spin doctors, as the Cons have certainly done, who love purchasing media, you’re way past halfway.

The system can certainly be given some sort of name, but a functioning democracy it’s not. If anything, a democracy is “A system of government in which power is vested in the people”. Makes us wonder how many clients of the 421 foodbanks and counting have voted Conservative and figured they were proudly doing their democratic duty.

 

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Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:30 | 6074949 goldhedge
goldhedge's picture

CAMORON.

 

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:36 | 6074959 Comte de Saint ...
Comte de Saint Germain's picture
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:36 | 6074967 Budnacho
Budnacho's picture

"You....You with the singing....Get back to work!"...*Whipcrack*

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:52 | 6074999 0b1knob
0b1knob's picture

Most people know the difference between a Constitutional Monarchy (which Britain is) and a "functioning democracy" (which seems to exist only in the mind of the blogger).

What will the Automatic Earth discover next?   That the US is (gasp) a republic and not a democracy?

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:01 | 6075017 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

dysfunctioning demonocracy

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:23 | 6075041 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

Hahahaha.  Ukip gets the third most votes, but one seat.  Sinn Fein, whatever the fuck that is, gets a tiny fraction of the vote and more seats.  Any questions?  Perhaps I should join the Royal service and start paying more attention to the news about the Royals on Drudge.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:23 | 6075051 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Are the pommie bastards as despicable as the bloody yanks?

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:31 | 6075068 fascismlover
fascismlover's picture

Aren't we over suckling at the UK teet yet?  Now we even have it on here?

'

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:35 | 6075081 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

Most Yanks are Irish

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 01:02 | 6075183 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

The UK is hands down one of the saddest countries in the world. Drunk, for the most part. Mind controlled. Food controlled.

And yes, look at the number of voets vs. seats.

+ Electronic voting machines?

Game, set and match.

The Sun ISIS setting ont eh Brit-ish empire...

Meanwhile, sequence 17: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BrvoWEw2J8

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:11 | 6075228 Macchendra
Macchendra's picture

Should we shout? Should we scream?
"What happened to the post war dream?"
Oh Maggie! Maggie what did we do?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:59 | 6075407 negative rates
negative rates's picture

This is what happens when one goes off the gold standard,  you/and the place, go straight to hell, and do not pass go.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 07:37 | 6075431 wintermute
wintermute's picture

LetThemEatRand, people don't diss the Sinn Fein unless they are looking to write a book on "Life Without Kneecaps".

3 MPs for their small number of votes, they think that is fair.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 11:08 | 6075691 tonyw
tonyw's picture

i would have slightly more respect for this article if they could correctly add two figures.

"...

Or more clear...

  • SNP + LibDems 4.3 million votes = 64 Seats
  • UKIP 3.8 million votes = 1 Seat

..."

No, the LibDems plus SNP got about 3.8 million votes 

2.36m + 1.45m = 3.81m not 4.3m

The population have voted sensibly for a party that has not promised endless freebies but instead one that is trying to reduce the annual deficit as a share of GDP.

 

"...the press coverage has been unremittingly hostile to Ed Miliband, the Labour challenger..."

 just up from there he describes Miliband as a seller of lady's underwear, perhaps he should consider that if the press also determined thisd then why should they support his feeble policies over Cameron ??


Sat, 05/09/2015 - 14:07 | 6076083 RadioactiveRant
RadioactiveRant's picture

Its promised a long list of freebies including discounted purchase of housing, and free childcare for the relatively wealthy, while maintaining free money (Winter Fuel, Free bus pass) for rich pensioners. The people that won't get a fucking thing from the Conservatives are the disabled, and those working full time and trying to support themselves on minimum wage (US$10ph). This will be the most divisive government in British history.

Quite how Cameron and Osborne are planning to cut to eliminate the £90bn deficit while spending £8bn more on healthcare, another £6.8bn for subsidised house purchase, and state pension (triple lock) increase that could be double the rate of inflation (described as absurd by the Institute of Fiscal Studies) that could cost 10s of billions is beyond comprehension.

Conservatives love freebies, they just direct them at the already rich.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 18:07 | 6076650 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Those colors remind me of the Ukraine flag - a country where bought-and-paid-for corrupt politicians do the US bidding. Clearly there is no resemblance whatsoever to the UK in that, though it does rain a lot.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 07:03 | 6075411 Pool Shark
Pool Shark's picture

 

 

Britannia Rules the Waves,

but English voting law Waives the Rules...

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:40 | 6075498 Pool Shark
Pool Shark's picture

 

 

Shocking!

You mean UKIP should have another 1/20th of a seat?

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:56 | 6075520 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Right, cause when you can't tell the difference between right and wrong, who cares how many seats you have.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:43 | 6075304 goldhedge
goldhedge's picture

German.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:29 | 6075063 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

Its Irish if you dont fucking mind

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:35 | 6075078 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

And how is that Irish self-determinat'in workin' out for ya?

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:38 | 6075084 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

Good Guiness and fishing

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:33 | 6075073 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Sinn Féin is the political front of the IRA, in which most officials "elected" on the party ticket are made men. 

In other words, it's much easier to get into Westminster by killing loyal Britons than being one. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 18:11 | 6076659 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

It is interesting that the long running Irish terrorism pronblem was resolved just in time for 9/11. I guess it would have been embarassing to have a war on terror if the US-supported Irish nationalists were still going around killing people and blowing stuff up. It was probably just one of those amazing coincidences that seem to happen all the time.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:45 | 6075096 falconflight
falconflight's picture

It's their version of "minority" gerrymandered districts.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:52 | 6075270 beaglebog
beaglebog's picture

Sinn Fein is the party of the Irish Republicans.

 

 

Don't let the word "Republican" fool you, though..... it actually means "hard-core Socialism".  Just like in the USA.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:53 | 6075271 CarpetShag
CarpetShag's picture

So Farage didn't know that a single solitary seat would cost > 3 mill votes? Poor chap.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 11:40 | 6075772 anti-republocrat
anti-republocrat's picture

Sinn Fein is an Irish national party.  Used to be the political "wing" of the IRA.  It has a geographical base I presume in N. Ireland, which is still part of the UK like Scotland.  SNP was also far below UKIP vote totals, but won over 50 seats.  In first past the post, single office per district "republics" like the US and UK, a party absolutely must have some sort of geographic base to have any chance of winning any seats.  I've often wondered what would happen in the US if residents of the primarily minority inner cities formed their own political party and started forcing coalition governments in the blue states.  Probably not much, and it's unlikely to happen given the current state of what Bruce Dixon referred to in 2011 as the black misleadership class:  http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/occupy-atlanta-vs-kasim-reed-bl...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 14:26 | 6076120 RadioactiveRant
RadioactiveRant's picture

Sinn Fein are the political front of the IRA, which Americans were happy to fund until their cities started getting blown up by terrorists.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 11:38 | 6075771 upWising
upWising's picture

dysfunctional demonfuckracy

It's much more poetic.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:05 | 6075025 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

"...That the US is (gasp) a republic and not a democracy?..."

It is NOT a republic and it does NOT use a republican form of government, any more than it is a democratic republic. It's a polygarchy, through-and-through. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:32 | 6075150 Alvin Fernald
Alvin Fernald's picture

don't forget the fascist part.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 12:39 | 6075859 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"Most people know the difference between a Constitutional Monarchy (which Britain is) and a "functioning democracy" (which seems to exist only in the mind of the blogger)."

 

Do they?  "... defending freedom and democracy around the world."

How often is the term democracy repeated over and over again, in the U.S., as opposed to the term republic? 

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:37 | 6074969 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

We've still got a few boats and at least one aircraft carrier I think

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:53 | 6075000 Achilles Heel
Achilles Heel's picture

Row well & live #41

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:39 | 6075089 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

You're Airstrip One.

You don't need boats.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:44 | 6075093 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

that's absolutely marvellous, old chap

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:03 | 6075019 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

The Battle of Hastings left a scar in the UK's national consciousness.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:09 | 6075031 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

Well I live here and most of the inhabitants look pretty disturbed. The Norman tyranny was not pretty and has probably left a deep psychosis in the serfs

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:33 | 6075353 Arnold
Arnold's picture

They need more immigration to settle them out.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:46 | 6075391 Usurious
Usurious's picture

 

 

on WW1..........

'As Germany's industrial and financial power as well as its trade increased, a growing antagonism between Germany and the British Empire arose. Everywhere the ambitious German industry confronted a British competitor avidly observing the growing danger to his monopolistic trade relations, jealously guarded until then. A 1910 conversation between Lord Balfour, leader of the British Conservative Party, and Henry White, then United States Ambassador in London, shows the contrast between the two European industrial powers, and the attitude of the British leadership: /8

Balfour: We are probably fools not to find a reason for declaring war on Germany before she builds too many ships and takes away our trade.

White: You are a very high-minded man in private life. How can you possibly contemplate anything so politically immoral as provoking a war against a harmless nation which has as good a right to a navy as you have? If you wish to compete with German trade, work harder.

Balfour: That would mean lowering our standard of living. Perhaps it would be simpler for us to have a war.

White: I am shocked that you of all men should enunciate such principles.

Balfour: Is it a question of right or wrong? Maybe it is just a question of keeping our supremacy.'

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v07/v07p-95_Franz-Willing.html

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:54 | 6075574 Usurious
Usurious's picture
BRITAIN: THE WORLDS WORST MASS MURDERER

http://mikiversepolitics.blogspot.com/2012/07/britain-worlds-worst-mass-...

 

 

ps........the britishEmpire was run/backed by the tribe..........just as the US empire is........

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:56 | 6075579 Lea
Lea's picture

Usurious, quoting from a Nazi revisionist website usually means whatever you quote is highly questionable.

Better not bother.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 11:57 | 6075797 anti-republocrat
anti-republocrat's picture

Which "Nazi revisionist website" would that be?  The website Usurious quotes footnotes the Balfour/White exchange thus:

8. Allan Nevins, Henry White. Thirty Years of American Diplomacy (New York, 1930) p., 257 f. Albert Wedemeyer, Reports (New York, 1958), p. 13f.

Do you have evidence the "Nazi revisionist website" misquoted the exchange?  If so, could you please provide a corrected quotation?  If not, how is the presumed fact that the website is a "Nazi revisionist website" relevant to anything?  Seems like a purely ad hominem attack to me.

 

Mind you, I do not agree with the implication that the British people are, on the whole, genocidal monsters.  But I do think it may be true of the leadership of the Anglo-American Empire over the centuries.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 12:25 | 6075834 anti-republocrat
anti-republocrat's picture

I would also add that the charge of being genocidal monsters applies not only to the Anglo-American Empire, but to all the European Empires, for example the Belgian devastation inflicted on the Congo and setting up Hutu-Tutsi hatred in E. Africa, the pre-WW I German doings in Angola and elsewhere in Africa, etc.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:35 | 6075253 dariomilano
dariomilano's picture

at least they choose their own election law with 2011 referendum, in Italy politics imposes its own rule

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:47 | 6075509 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Look Cameron's wiki - his clan have been working for the Red Shield financing wars for 200+ years. Financing wars = murdering innocent people for profit.

The wife's klan is also dual shit-i-zen as is marxist Milliband.   All the leadership in the UK is like the Ukraine's - dual shit-i-zen types.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:55 | 6075517 Ass Burger
Ass Burger's picture

TIL that Tylers steals and doesn't cite content from Reddit...for shame.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:10 | 6076205 j reuter
j reuter's picture

I freelance over th? internet and earn about 80-85$ an hour. I was without a job for 7 months but last month my paycheck with big fat bonus was $15000 just working on my computer from my home for 5-6 hours. Here's what i have been doing... www.jobs-review.com

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:46 | 6074986 HonkyShogun
HonkyShogun's picture

Maybe West Africans and Indians will handle the terrible little island better than the Limeys.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 22:47 | 6074988 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

Camoron is a decendent of King William IV and his great-great grandfather was Emile Levita a German-Jewish financier. Democracy uber alles!

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:00 | 6075013 goldhedge
goldhedge's picture

Look at his wife's pedigree.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 12:47 | 6075875 Freddie
Freddie's picture

The wife looks 100% dual shit-i-zen.  Cameron's klan financed wars for the Red Shield.  i.e. his family financed the mass murder of innocent people. 

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:00 | 6075012 kowalli
kowalli's picture

Problem that they vote for people, who didn't care about them, same if i wanted to go to jail by myself

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:04 | 6075117 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Or the problem could be that it matters now for whom you vote but rather who counts your vote.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:09 | 6075122 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

What I mean to say is how ridiculous it is that poll after poll after poll had this as a horse race until the election is a wipe out.  So... we have multitudes of polls by different organizations all agreeing and one election that completely disagrees and everyone is questioning the polls?

WTF is wrong with you people?  This is like having ten eyewitnesses to an accident.  Nine of them say the guy in the limo is at fault and one says it was the guy in the Honda so naturally you believe the guy pointing at the Honda and question the ethics/narrative/what-the-fuck-ever of the other nine.

The world is upside down.  People are insane.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:56 | 6075177 Wile-E-Coyote
Wile-E-Coyote's picture

The alternative view is the election was fixed. Cameron didn't even believe he was re-elected.

The atmosphere here in the UK is very strange at the moment; people are subdued after the election, there is none of the post election hoo haa you would expect. Deep down they know something is not right.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:38 | 6075300 Shropshire Lad
Shropshire Lad's picture

This is the third election in recent times where the outcome was radically different from the polls:  the Scottish referendum, Israeli general election and now in the UK.  In each case it was the worst elements (Israel-controlled, Monarchy-controlled) who benefited.  Election rigging is now part of the norm -- not just in Chicago, Ohio and Florida.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:42 | 6075666 kwatinhu
kwatinhu's picture

Eye God will you conspiracy theorists never stop, next you'll be saying Obama didn't win 2012's election cleanly and clearly. I mean just because I don't know anyone who voted for him ( he won my state, Fla) and he got more votes in some Penn districts than there are registered voters, I mean where is the mystery?

Surely the people have spoken, elections have consequences, see mid terms 2014, see how the GOP is kicking ass now?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:28 | 6075643 Pure Evil
Pure Evil's picture

Welcome to the club. Everyone that voted Republican last November in the US now knows they've been sold out by their elected representatives.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:55 | 6075273 beaglebog
beaglebog's picture

The problem is that "we" accede to governance and the amorality of "voting".

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:29 | 6075606 Dewey Cheatum Howe
Dewey Cheatum Howe's picture

The problem is you don't know what true freedom is, never did because you've never had it once in your whole life for multiple generations now. It is a completely foreign concept and when the masses are controlled by emotion they wouldn't be able to recognize it anyways, they just attack it instinctively as an automated defensive reaction. People have been so thoroughly mind fucked they have no clue.

People can't accept that truth because it hurts more emotionally than believing the lie otherwise.

They spend a lot of energy on getting people to associate ego with self (they are separate entities) from the second you pop through the meat curtains into this world.

That is the biggest programming magic trick of the propaganda matrix.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:03 | 6075020 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Its kind of funny to call Cameron a conservative, given his chief campaign manager worked for Obama.

Hell, at least we don't call Republicans conservatives, and most conservatives don't call themselves Republican.

Best to just go back to Tories and leave the more descriptive terms to our imagination.

It may be possible that those getting aid might actually realize that it has been their great socialist ideals that have put them there.....

nah, ain't possible.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:14 | 6075134 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

I upvoted you even though you used "kind of funny" when you should have said "abso-fucking-lutely insane".  Do you understand what has happened?  Election erection inspection.  Our language has no meaning anymore thanks to these people.  Oldwood might as well mean youngfire or newstone.  What if dog is really spelled c-a-t?  Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:04 | 6075022 g'kar
g'kar's picture

Looks as unrigged as the stock markets.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:20 | 6075046 km4
km4's picture

Living standards have fallen for all but the wealthiest Britons  yet the UK re-elected

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:15 | 6075135 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Oh did they now?  Who counted the ballots?  Yeah. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:58 | 6075523 Dicey
Dicey's picture

Labour destroyed the UK in every conceivable way, and that INCLUDES the economy. It was the soft touch policy (banking deregulation) of Gordon Brown that caused the crash in the UK and it was Gordon Brown that ran around insisting the banks were too big to fail and bailed them out instead of the people. The Tories took over a bankrupt nation and can't fix it this time no matter how hard they try so don't bash on about living standards under the Tories after 13 hell years of Labour that caused the entire mess we find ourselves in and one from which we can't ever get out of. EVERY single time Labour come to power they ruin Britian, but those 13 years of hell have left Britian irrevocably damaged, the electorate aren't going to forget that EVER! Labour are finished, they'll never take office in the UK again.

Oh, and I'm no tory, they're just the lesser of two evils.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:05 | 6075527 nmewn
nmewn's picture

And on the bright side, the detestable George Galloway recedes back into the shadows.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:25 | 6075052 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

 what a bunch of cunts labour are! Under Tony Blair, Labour was fucking worse than the Tory crowd. Lib Dems? More wanker cunts! UKIP at least pushed up into third place.

 

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:52 | 6075100 Cityzerosix
Cityzerosix's picture

That is no way to refer to the honest, upstanding, noble, chivalrous, dedicated and humanist array of thieving British politicians.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:17 | 6075139 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

If the UKIPs were fully aware and forward looking they would all emigrate en masse.  Heads on stakes in their future otherwise.

Oh, and I'm a fan of Nigel.  I just think they are going to get utterly fucked.  No.  Utterly proper fucked.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:01 | 6075280 The_Prisoner
The_Prisoner's picture

Live coverage of V-day parade in Russia

http://9may.rt.com/

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:06 | 6075459 IReallyDontCare
IReallyDontCare's picture

I'm starting to think that UKIP were really the controlled opposition that suckered in normal poor Labour voters into blaming the immigrants for their economic woes,without UKIP Labour may have actually won instead of the Cuntservative party.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 12:57 | 6075894 Nick Jihad
Nick Jihad's picture

That UKIP would have drawn more Labour votes than Tory, seems farfetched.

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:36 | 6075077 HenryHall
HenryHall's picture

Part results as follows:-

CON gain from LAB (8)
Vale of Clwyd, Telford, Southampton Itchen, Gower, Plymouth Moor View, Corby, 
Morley & Outwood, Derby North,

LAB gain from CON (10)
Ealing Central & Acton, Ilford North, Enfield North, Wirral West, Brentford & Isleworth, Wolverhampton South West, Chester City,  Dewsbury, Hove, Lancaster & Fleetwood,

This, according to the mainstream media is a swing to the right wing (CON) away from the left (LAB).

Actually, it is a lot like the 1951 election, the collapse of the LIBs (now LIB-DEM) enabled the CON to pick up a lot of votes.

If LAB is to make a comeback it needs to become a lot more like the SNP. What happened was that in England LAB lost a lot of its traditional core left wing support because LAB said it would not do a deal with SNP. And LAB also lost a lot of centrist votes consequential of the CON saying that LAB would do a deal with SNP because LAB was lying when it said it would not do a deal (which is probably true).

If LAB is to have any future at all then LAB needs to join forces with the SNP and sink its differences.

 

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:40 | 6075091 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Jesus Tyler, May Day was last week.  Wuz up with all this progpigshit today?  Cameron and the "Conservatives" are as conservative as McConnell, Beohner, and McCain are here.  

Fri, 05/08/2015 - 23:54 | 6075103 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Proportional representation wouldn't help. Britain would be ruled till the world's end by a Con-Lab grand coalition, much like Germany's, with a cordon sanitaire around UKIP, unless UKIP got 50 percent plus one. 50%+1 would be a formidable task for UKIP even in a Britain without wholesale ballot box rigging organized by the City.

Of course, in Scotland, the Nats were allowed over 50 per cent of the vote, but that's because their plans to sell Scotland to the Germans is more in line with the bankster agenda. 

The reaction of the markets to the election results isn't what you would expect from banksters the least bit concerned about Cameron's respecting the results of an honest IN/OUT referendum---if he bothers with even the pretense of one now that he won't need Kippers to prop up his government.

If there's ever a risk that honest elections might change anything, our masters see to it that they don't take place. The City now have a Tory majority that won't have to explain itself to the proles for another four years. Judging from market reaction I dare say they got their money's worth.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:44 | 6075166 Bazza McKenzie
Bazza McKenzie's picture

Actually it is easier to build a party under proportional representation when you have geographically dispersed support.  Under current arrangements, when 3.5 million votes produces 1 seat, some people will get discouraged and give up and others will not be attracted.  Also each person elected is a paid salesman in the seat, employing taxpayer funded local staff to help hold the seat.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:35 | 6075387 drunkfish
drunkfish's picture

Yes, P.R. is the only way we could get change. Small parties could rise and the existing parties may split.

They won't allow it to happen, the media and political machines will campaign against it, the dumbed down electorate is fed the spin that the current system offers stability and strong government.

Libertarian ideas like weak instable government is a positive thing providing more influence for people on policy and less influence for vested interest groups, like the banker cabal, are never discussed in the mainstream

We need a revolution, lets hope the financial collapse happens soon and acts as a catalyst 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:01 | 6075112 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

What does it say about our language that the english conservatives hire american liberals to help defeat the english liberals after the american liberals have defeated the american conservatives?

Just WTF do they teach in schools these days?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 11:56 | 6075796 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Both Labour and Conservaties used Obama advisors. The UK has fully adopted US-style negative elections

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:12 | 6075127 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

Devolution is certain!

Snide Dave Boy Cameron is going to feel the heat from his backbenchers on Europe.

The No vote victory in Scotland was rigged and Boris Johnson is now talking control of own taxes ( too late ). TRIDENT will be the dagger for Independence.

With SNP controlling every major council in Scotland Cameron will feel the wind running through his fat arse on a daily basis ( and it won't be soppy sod Ed Mil oe Bilderberg Balls serving up the Medicine ).

Fortunately for Dave C he will NOT understand 90% of the Venom directed at him and his BankerParty

Eg See you toerag diz yer ma sew , well tell her tae stich that ye bam

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:34 | 6076270 css1971
css1971's picture

Scots are sheep, they had their chance and totally bottled it. They'll  bleat in parliament and be completely ineffectual. SNP seats in westminster are an irrelevance for Scotland. The sole effect is to keep the conservatives in power.

(expat Scot)

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:34 | 6075154 UncleSparky
UncleSparky's picture

I voted Conservative for the last 30 years, now consider myself educated in matters bankster and TPTB.

Will never vote again, it only encourages them.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:57 | 6075180 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/obamas-latest-scam-the-splitting-of-...

 

 

The Israel Firsters are happy... ukip is 'right wing' and 'anti immigrant'... not good, decent folk like Likud and Jewish Home and Shas...

 

Meanwhile, as noted in the link above, the ZOG is hard at work advancing the Oded Yinon/PNAC scheme using your tax dollars to ensure further death and chaos in the area around Israel.

 

Strangely, ISIS made it to Texas but has lent no support to their oppressed Sunni brothers in Palestine, preferring to destroy those portions of Iraq and Syria not bombed by the Saudis, Americans, or Israelis, who have also been bombing in Yemen, presumably because the Houthi minority was going to attack Dimona once they stopped being murdered by the US puppet regime.

 

Cameron, Netanyahu, Hillary, and their Dark Legions will work very hard to spread more war and death in Iran, and Russia, and beyond.

 

Always, of course, in the name of 'fighting terror' or non-existent nukes, or Russian 'aggression'.  And while their control of media and money gives them power, their greatest strength is the docile stupidity of the American people, who do not even feel the chains being slipped over their necks, nor do they see that their government is not theirs at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:41 | 6075501 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

ISIS may have made it to Texas, but they sure didnt make it back out...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 00:58 | 6075181 Bazza McKenzie
Bazza McKenzie's picture

Just to rub salt into the wounds, the bulk of UKIP supporters are British born and also tend to be older than the electoral average, so have spent more years working and supporting the country. Yet parties pandering to immigrants and opposed to traditional British values get most of the seats in Parliament.

The party rejected by almost 2/3 of the electorate got a majority of seats and government. At least last time the Cons/LibDem coalition represented 60% of the electorate.

Expect a lot more public hostility to this government than its predecessor.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 02:04 | 6075230 mvsjcl
mvsjcl's picture

So fucking what. The public don't matter any more.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 01:03 | 6075185 q99x2
q99x2's picture

They haven't gotten rid of Farage yet.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 01:42 | 6075211 Flybyknight
Flybyknight's picture

Americans laughing at UK politics? I don't like whats happened here as it does not represent the desires of the people of UK but only about 50% of USA population vote because they know its a waste of time. There is no significant difference between Reps and Dems  both fascists. What I can't understand is why the UK voted to support the most fascist party there. Maybe Tony Blair's reign convinced them the same applies in UK   The one ray of hope is the scottish result. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:25 | 6075272 GuusjA
GuusjA's picture

In netwerk WitteGejT heeft Saudi-Arabië de rol van de VS overgenomen. Koning Salman zal door de VN verantwoordelijk worden gehouden dat het (iteratief) waarheiddelen tussen de Jemenitische regering en de Houthi-rebellen niet was gefundeerd op vreedzaam samenleven. 

http://nos.nl/artikel/2034388-kerry-dringt-aan-op-bestand-in-jemen.html

 

Cameron mag in zijn laatste ambtstermijn als premier iedere afgevaardigde van een disctrict informeren dat Groot-Brittannië wel/niet zal meedoen met het uitrollen van de context van de wiskundige definitie van de absolute waarheid. 

 

http://www.volkskrant.nl/opinie/als-cameron-geen-leiderschap-toont-kan-e...

 

De oplossing die BloemigeJeroen en TimmerendeFrans hebben gevonden voor het Griekse vraagstuk, zal Groot-Brittannië niet slikken. Het is dus nog steeds iedere MUNTunie voor zichzelfs en de absolute waarheid voor ons allen. Europa, Washington, Moskou, Groot-Brittannië en China zullen goed moeten nadenken hoe hun bevolking zal reageren, wanneer ze door krijgen hoe het systeem 'Liegen om te Leven' heeft gefunctioneerd. 

 

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/harde-eisen-imf-frustreren-akkoord-o...

 

De Italiaanse minister van Financiën Padoan heeft in de 'Parodie van de Waarheid' al een usb-sctick van de paus gekregen met een script voor IMF-baas Lagarde om ...

 

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

     info@chrisaalberts.nl

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:32 | 6075352 GuusjA
GuusjA's picture

Netwerk @0ranjePapegaaY: "Het huidige beleid is hypocriet, schizofreen en inconsistent". 

 

http://nos.nl/artikel/2034747-van-vollenhoven-softdrugsbeleid-is-hypocri...

 

Oud-Kamervoorzitter Gerdi Verbeet mag als beloning voor het geheim houden van de 'wiskundige definitie van de absolute waarheid' voorzitter worden van het Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei. 

 

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/05/06/verbeet-nieuwe-voorzitter-nationaal-...

 

Netwerk @MinPres mag dan wel beweren dat we het ergste achter de rug hebben, maar volgens netwerk @SuperWil moet de echte crisis nog beginnen! Zaken die je vandaag als compleet ondenkbaar beschouwt, staan te gebeuren ergens in de komende 12-24 maanden.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOhHZZ3tOV8

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:56 | 6075404 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

The Dutch govt are a bunch of fucking cowards who do what the Zionists of the USA and Israel tell them.  They were paid off with gold to shut up about Kiev being the people that shot down MH17.  

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:07 | 6075406 GuusjA
GuusjA's picture

??? ?????? ?? ?????? ? ??/BUK Fire on parade in Russia

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=50&v=S2DRni6c0Z0

 

De code voor de Nachtwolven om ...

 

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/motorclub-nachtwolven-toch-bij-oorlo...

 

... RuitenTeam in te lichten dat het Kremlin weigert zich te onderwerpen aan KlaverenTeam. 

 

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/david-camerons-bitter-tru...

 

KlaverenTeam (Poolse president Bronislaw Komorowski, secretaris-generaal Ban Ki-moon van de Verenigde Naties en de president van de Europese Raad, de Pool Donald Tusk) informeert de presidenten van Oekraïne en diverse andere Centraal-Europese landen. Poetin (SchoppenTeam) treft de Kazachstaanse president Noersoeltan Nazarbajev, de presidenten van Vietnam en Zuid-Afrika en de Tsjechische president Milos Zeman.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 01:59 | 6075226 samjam7
samjam7's picture

Maybe I didn't follow the election system chagne referendum in 2011 closely enough since I was south of the Rio Grande then, a bit cut of from things...but wasn't that a chance to alter the messed up winner-takes-it-all system at least a little and was in the end hugely rejected by voters?
Maybe a Brit can elaborate on that, because otherwise I don't get why everybody's complaining about how unfair the vote is when they had the chance to change it a few years back and didn't do it... :S 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 04:37 | 6075328 Victor999
Victor999's picture

The people always have the chance to make structural changes.  So why don't they?  There are many reasons, but a couple of the major ones can be brought forward.  First, special interest groups (who actually rule in most 'democracies') and the established major political parties won't allow an objective assessment by the people - they fund major propaganda campaigns to twist truth and promote lies - the people are out-gunned from the start.  Secondly, the media work closely with the Establishment and its political leadership to make certain the people are filled with messages of fear about change.

This happened in 2011 with the referendum.  It also happened in 2014 with the Scottish referendum - the people were fed lies and promises that would not be kept if they voted no. 

Most people are not informed enough to make reasonable judgements on such matters because they do not take the time to investigate - and investigations take a lot of time - time away from family and other onterests - better to watch the mainstream news and read the papers quickly to 'keep informed'.

The crowd control methods used by those in power to keep and maintain their power are scientifically proven effective.  The people as a whole have no chance to gain a proper understanding of events because they live in a fishbowl created by sinister powers.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:15 | 6075341 samjam7
samjam7's picture

Thanks for your elaboration!

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:26 | 6076248 css1971
css1971's picture

Or put another way. You get the government you deserve.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:03 | 6075337 Shigure
Shigure's picture

The alternative voting system 'offered' in the 2011 referendum was not popular - TPTB could have presented much simpler and fairer alternatives to choose from - it's called "choice architecture" these days I believe.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/06/reasons-av-referend...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:27 | 6075346 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

Someone did something similar with the Swiss Gold Referendum last year, that went right over the heads of a lit of the sheeple who flock to ZH.  The most common and damaging manifestations of choice architecture are a "choice" only between Dumn and Dumber (or Dumbest).  It's actually not a choice (something about politicians naming laws as the the antithesis of their function comes to mind).  It cannot be a choice when the alternative offered is actually a suicide pact masked as "offering the proles what they asked for".   

To paraphrase the American Bolshevik Henry Ford- You can have any color government you want, as long as it is oligarchy.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:14 | 6075340 hooligan2009
hooligan2009's picture

compared to merkel the erkel, the lemur or the headless ball carrier in the first one or two pics here?

http://sputniknews.com/photo/20150508/1021881202.html

:)

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:24 | 6075345 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Watch out for the razor blades. BTW the eyes are dead. There is nothing there.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:19 | 6075292 smacker
smacker's picture

"The responsibility lies at least as much with the people who put you [Red Ed Miliband] in the leader’s chair that doesn’t fit you, and with those who kept you in that chair throughout the campaign."

That was the Trade Unions. Using the block vote system to elect Labour Leaders they parachuted Red Ed into the top job several years ago in the hope that HE would win the election for THEM and THEY would then govern the country.

And it could easily have happened because apparently, voters have mostly forgotten that it was was Red Ed's Marxist mentor "Gordoom Brown" who wrecked the economy leading up to the 2008 crash.

Red Ed will now be free to spend more time in his GBP 3 million London home whilst he ponders the future of Marxism.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 04:23 | 6075318 Victor999
Victor999's picture

It has already been established that it was the bankers who detroyed the british economy in 2008, not any political party.  Just as the bankers destroyed the global economy - and still are.  Politics is little more than a charade that the bankers hide behind to deflect guilt and attention.  When we finally learn that, progress can be made.  Until then, however, the bankers strategy of 'divide and conquer', setting us against each other in various ways, will be most successful.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:48 | 6075362 smacker
smacker's picture

Of course it was the banks who actually wrecked the economy but have you forgotten that banking regulation is the role of government and Gordoom Brown changed the regulatory structure by splitting it into three groups with his low-level cronies running the official regulator and he introduced a 'light touch' regulation which opened the doors for the banks to go mad. Much confusion followed his change of structure to the point that not even the BoE knew who was responsible for what. The Brown structure has now been replaced.

There is no doubt that the 2008 crash was primarily caused by the last Labour govt thru its own incompetence and flawed agendas of Messrs Brown & Blair and then Brown himself.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:03 | 6075457 Victor999
Victor999's picture

You are of course correct that Labour changed the rules.  But the underlying problem is that the City has great power and influence over both major political parties.  Labour didn't do this unguided, not any more than the Tories are allowing the same economic conditions to evolve today under the same influence.  The same happened in the States - the bankers pushed for certain legislation and acquired the services of bought-off politicians to have their way - starting with Glass-Steagall under the Democrats and finishing in 2008 with the Republicans.

Stop the bankers and stop the Zionist influence on Western governments, and you have solved most of the socio-economic problems of the world today.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:27 | 6075347 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Sure, it was GB's own idea to sell the gold at the bottom of the market, in a blare of publicity, rather than wait for a better price as suggsted by his totally impartial financial experts.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:33 | 6075298 smacker
smacker's picture

This article contains a lot of truths about the British system of fake democracy. But it fails to record that several years ago British voters were offered the chance of switching to some sort of PR and they said NO.

Q: Why was that? A: Brits don't really want a fairer system of electing a government which takes account of everybody's views/input because they know it would require compromise and moderation of policy. What they really want is "their" favoured party to win an election so it can impose its policies on their behalf.

That's why the nation is so politically polarised. Both sides of the political coin fight tooth and nail to win and govern. What the two sides don't admit is that whichever party you vote for, you end up with the same government because it isn't really our elected politicians who dictate vast tracts of policy, but The Establishment.

This is what made Nigel Farage's election campaign so ridiculous: his stated ambitions of tearing down The British Establishment were little more than fantasy.

You cannot change "The System" from the inside. It is designed to prevent that.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 04:01 | 6075309 samjam7
samjam7's picture

Thanks for that explanation, so no pity with the Brits for chosing this voting-system to be ruled by the same elites on and on!

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:35 | 6075356 sirik
sirik's picture

"...be ruled by the same elites on and on!"

 

Elites are by definition a minority group !

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 07:58 | 6075357 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

Perhaps divide and rule really is a better translation of divide et imperium.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 03:41 | 6075302 Klemens
Klemens's picture

The NWO is trying to destroy our families! We all have to make everywhere our protest against the NWO-Agenda!

http://www.filialappeal.org/

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:39 | 6075358 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

Destroy the family and you destroy the cohesiveness of the nation. This fact has been long recognized by those socially reengineering us. Great for making us all atmized drones at the service of the NWO. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:11 | 6075332 Herodotus
Herodotus's picture

If all the UKIP voters moved to Hampshire, for example, their votes would be concentrated and they could win more seats.  It worked for the Communists; they all moved to Vermont and were able to get Bernie Sanders elected.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:45 | 6075338 hooligan2009
hooligan2009's picture

which of the below 9 fun facts best represents the farce that goes for representative government in the UK:

  1. fully one third of voters didnt bother to vote and thats the lowest "none of the above" in 5 elections
  2. the tories got 37% of the 2/3 that voted, meaning they got an outright majoirty with just 24% of the eligible voters
  3. UKIP got the third largest vote at over 12% of those voting and got one seat
  4. the scottish national party got less than 5% of the vote and got ...wait for it...56 seats..
  5. that means the UK electoral system disproportionately gave each scottish voter 56/5 times 12 = around 132 times the voting power of UKIP..
  6. thats like minnesota getting 31/435 congressman and 5 senators .. would anybody ..even minnesotans think that was even remotely rational?
  7. scotland doesn't raise enough in taxes to cover its welfare bill so it fits well into todays modern attitude of using "mobocracy" to impoverish anyone with money
  8. it the english threw out the scots, they would be better off - check this out, scotland has a population of 5.29 m (1bout 2/3 that of New York) and runs a deficit of 18 billion dollars a year "even by the most generous measure, Scotland raised £53.1bn in 2012/13 and spent £65.2bn, leaving the country £12.1bn short." making a detroit and greece like sucking noise of 4,000 dollars (2300 pounds) for every man woman and child http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-28879267
  9. the uk government is not accounting for upcoming supe welfare deficits, in much the same way as germany, france and the US http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/ i bet you scotland is going to be as least as bad as the rest of the uk

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:29 | 6075383 smacker
smacker's picture

All of them apply.

In the case of No.2, it's even worse because the calculation only compares those who actually voted with those registered to vote. This provides your answer of 24%.

But there are a lot of people who are eligible to vote but don't even register because they lost all confidence in the electoral system a long time ago. The Guardian put this figure at about 10% of the voting age population at the last election.

So 24% then reduces to about 21.6% of "total eligible voters" who voted Tory.

There are others who don't register because - contrary to what successive governments and the MSM say - voting is NOT secret in Britain. Every ballot paper has a unique serial number printed on it and this number is entered against your name when you arrive to vote at the polling station and get given a ballot paper. The ballot papers are then taken away for counting and stored afterwards. Guess who might have access to them weeks/months/years afterwards? Yep: the Security Services (MI5), Met Police and other shadowy agencies of The State.

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 05:30 | 6075350 sirik
sirik's picture

"At least Paxman seemed to try, but interviews like his should take place on the eve of an election, not 6 weeks before them like this one"

Conclusion:

Bearers of iphones have a memory, worse than that of a donkey or a dog.

Bearers of iphones think that NATO bombardment on Libyia was less than putins five helicopter raid at the crimea and that nor Blair nor Cameron have anything to do with that.

 

"Makes us wonder how many clients of the 421 foodbanks and counting have voted Conservative and figured they were proudly doing their democratic duty."

What is more important: 1.421 foodbanks or empty gold vaults ?

Not one single word about money printing !

 

Makes me wonder.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:07 | 6075367 metastar
metastar's picture

Food banks - now they want to lend us good at interest.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:45 | 6075397 nixy
nixy's picture

Perhaps its time to vote for how much fresh air debt we want?

 

Would Greek people have voted for 180% of gdp?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 06:53 | 6075402 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

The UK is USA light, turning into a real shithole.  Should be a lesson to all European countries to stop kissing the ass of the Useless Snakes.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 07:07 | 6075413 anonymice
anonymice's picture

It's sad really, but even a country like Iran is more of a democracy than the UK.

If you're clergy in Iran and want a seat in Parliament you have to pass the ballot box.

In the UK the state church gets guaranteed seats in the upper house. Look it up; they're called the Lords Spiritual

 

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:02 | 6075456 Cactus
Cactus's picture

As a UKer, even I am shocked at the result. Cameron played a blinder, he used the press to frighten the English vote (Scots & Lab will be radical left wing with loads of public spending). He made sure the Lib Dems were ball & chained to the coalitions' abysmal record. Then there was a series of t.v. programmes ridiculing UKIP supporters. Murdoch and his media sorted out the press coverage so really Cameron didn't have to work hard on his actual campaign, he sat pretty. God help us all now that he has a majority. The system is as corrupt as ever , may they rot in hell.  

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:36 | 6075495 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Britain is being invaded by Muslim scum .... who don't have to assimilate .... they stay in touch with their culture on the web .... it's reverse colonization .... well, reverse discrimination is discrimination .... so, let's just say colonization .... meanwhile, British churches are spending billions on converting Catholics to Protestantism in Christian countries like Mexico .... their calling should be back in Britain .... rescuing their own culture .... from the Islamo/Fascist invasion .... onward Christian soldiers ?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:36 | 6075496 Dicey
Dicey's picture

This article comes across more as a left winger angry that the Tories won, it sounds more like sour grapes to me. The simple fact is no one, not even those in the media, want to return to the hell, ABSOLUTELY HELL, that was 13 years Labour gave us, that's why they mostly backed the Tories. Miliband is a Marxist, he only got power of the Labour party due to backing by militant communist union thugs, these nutters controlling Britain would utterly destroy what little there is left, the media were right to attack Labour, the same media that previously overwhelmingly backed Labour. The article writer is just bitter about the failure of Labour to take office.

As far as democracy goes, of course there isn't any, there never will be, they don't call this period under the illegitimate EU the post democratic era for nothing!

Finally the polls are just propaganda, the status quo were very worried about UKIP so they made out it was neck and neck and anything could happen. This ensures those traditionally Tory voters wanting to vote UKIP would race back and vote Tory to keep Labour out, and those Labour voters wanting to vote UKIP would race back and vote Labour to keep the Tories out, it was manipulative propaganda and it worked because the people are stupid.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:37 | 6076277 bentaxle
bentaxle's picture

You're suggesting the Tories are good for the economy, so deserved to be elected? (When you say no onewanted a return to the "hell" Labour gave us? By us, I take it you include yourself?) QE was done on the Tory watch 2009-2012 (they were in power from May 2010.) The Tories added £600 billion to the UK national debt and that's only so far. Even their own economic plans involve running deficits for at least the next 3 years and as a result the debt must increase further. Finally in a co-ordinated action with other Central Banks the UK has had its own ZIRP for 6 years as well....and for all this they get a a pathetic GDP growth of 2.3% which took to the end of 2014 to achieve. And a first Qtr in 2015 of 0.00% - blamed on the oil price collapse. What you FAIL to appreciate dumbass is that the Tories ARE as bad as Labour at the economy as anyone. All they have done is made the stockmarket rise, bond prices rise and property prices rise. ALL of this is only of any use to the f....ing bankers of this world. TheTories have said they will only Ring-Fence the banks from 2019! And already they have put plans in place to water this legislation down. Is Your name Dicey Dimon, by any chance? Just fuck off! The people of Britain were stupid, really, really f...ing stupid, to vote either Tory OR Labour!!!!! I DV'ed you BTW.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:41 | 6075500 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Some certain financial functions like Mortgage Banks only work for society when they are run like Utilities.  

Now we find that newspapers or media outlets only work well for society when they are run like utilities?  

WTF, pretty soon you will be saying that we don't have a "Free Market"?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 08:44 | 6075504 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Muslim invaders on welfare .... having babies like crazy .... free time to pray in the streets, demonstrate and promote terror ! Did you ever see the movie A L I E N ?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:01 | 6075587 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Better than Jews for Jesus getting in my face as I walk down the street.  or Christian fucktards asking me if I found Jayzus. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:13 | 6075531 NoTTD
NoTTD's picture

Well, perfectly clear which side of the spectrum AE falls on: Anything but Tory.

 

What a load of codswollop.

 

PS to AE:  UK is a constitutional monarchy, not a "democracy".  You should take a moment and look that last word up - then go back to not paying attention.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:26 | 6075547 hooligan2009
hooligan2009's picture

heh..very good!

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 09:54 | 6075576 rejected
rejected's picture

Like Merika is a constitutional republic?   LOL

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:02 | 6075582 Dewey Cheatum Howe
Dewey Cheatum Howe's picture

Yep there seems to be a concerted effort to push the word democracy into the public's conscience used in ways it was never meant to mean in the first place. Like programming secondary and third meanings especially in emotionally charged contexts. You see it all over the place from the MSM to doom and gloom emotionally charged soapbox speakers bastardizing the word and it's intended meaning. You'd think there was something coordinating the propaganda on a global scale around this idea.

Democracy is simple mob rule 51 to 49, it implies no government at all if it a voting system of all people and not proxies aka government institutions. Mobs aka democracies are controlled by emotion and rules by whim not logic or rules of law. The idea that they aren't is what is being programmed into people's heads as of late. Who or what is the puppetmaster then? It is always easier to control masses (especially stupid ones) through emotion than logic.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:25 | 6075636 rejected
rejected's picture

Why are 'Elections' even discussed? They're nothing but pomp, comedy and bullshit. The elections in all western nations are more rigged than a nine string puppet. One poster even went so far as to call the UK a constitutional monarchy... what the hell is that? Sort of like a constitutional dictatorship? or a democratic tyrant?

Yet the morons buy into this stuff like flies to honey. Throw a bone out and Voilla! The morons love you. And it's those same morons that eventually pay for the bone.

These pols are the banksters henchmen. The banks with their monopoly money run the world. They make law and tell us were uncivilized if we don't obey. (BS). That same law mandates we use their fiat (duh!) and now even dictates how much of it we can 'legally' possess. They already have us branded like cattle with their various universal numbering systems. Their law enforcers are shooting, killing, raping, assaulting, and robbing us blind but ....... 

We still go get our "I voted" sticker,,,,,,,,,,,, because "your vote counts"

HORSE HOCKEY!

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:39 | 6075659 Polymarkos
Polymarkos's picture

A conservative in modern Britain is a communist anywhere else. Just as in the USA, a modern democrat is a communist, and a conservative a commie-wanna-be.

 

We need a mass culling of the herd of professional politicians, their staffs, and all the 'insiders.' They're more inbred that a twelve toed cat.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 12:53 | 6075885 Direct Democracy
Direct Democracy's picture

It is time to consider implementing a Direct Democracy similar to Switzerland. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 14:04 | 6076059 Griffin
Griffin's picture

In my view the results of the elections were exactly as i would have wanted them.

The conservatives got the highest number of votes, 36,9 percent because they are the best alternative for the British people, as they have a relatively healthy view towards the EU, something that costs Britain lots of money and eats away her independence and freedom.

If someone wants to know why all those food banks have been opened in Britain, it could be a good idea to look at issues like immigration, if it is starting to costs more that it contributes to the economy, then it should be put on hold for a while.

Some improvements to border control could be a good idea as well.

What Cameron needs to do now is to look at the results of the elections and see what the British people expect of him and his crew and respond accordingly.

 

 

 

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 16:06 | 6076337 bentaxle
bentaxle's picture

To Griffin:

 

You're an idiot! I mean you contradict yourself in your own second para, suggesting the Tory view of the EU is "healthy" on the one hand, on the other "it costs Britain lots of money, freedom and independence!" WTF is "healthy" about that that?

Immigration is deliberately "out of control" in the UK for no other reason than its cynical politicians are making promises about pensions that they cannot possibly keep without new younger members of the population being suckered into the UK pension ponzi scheme!! The UK government is doing a Madoff! Only he gets thrown in jail, but Tory scam-artist politicians get cheered, re-elected and even more perversely a gold=plated index-linked government pension. Why are you even on ZH?

 

Border controls is all you have to worry about? fuck me! You want Theresa May introducing legislation enabling TPTB to snoop on your internet activity, phone calls, emails etc, something she was prevented from doing when she needed Lib-Dem support which she failed to get, but with the new parliamentary majority any objections can be ignored? Remember how Cameron tried to bounce the UK into a Syrian war September 2013, but failed  because their lack of a majority meant his attempt failed - he no longer has to worry about that.

 

New bank Ring-fencing regulation, not due to be implemented to 2019, already pushed back from 2018 and watered down, you reckon that's going to happen? I mean it was the UK's total lack of investment banking regulation that led to our economic implosion in 2008, and bank bailouts, QE and the embarassment of begging Iceland for our money back. The banking failure is what enables you to have a negative view towards Labour. Don't you recall at the time the Tories demanding the bankers should have even lighter touch regulation!? Labour's only fault was being re-elected in 2005. If it had been the Tories in power, they would have had the blame for the  Credit Crunch added to their ERM lunacy of 1992 and would now be seen as the party in who's hands the UK economy was not safe. You're an idiot. The Tories are the same scumbag politicians as the Labour party politicians, they just go by a different name. Only in your case that's enough of a differentiation, clearly. Idiot! 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 18:20 | 6076661 Griffin
Griffin's picture

@Bentaxle

"You're an idiot! I mean you contradict yourself in your own second para, suggesting the Tory view of the EU is "healthy" on the one hand, on the other "it costs Britain lots of money, freedom and independence!" WTF is "healthy" about that that?"

I am saying that the EU costs a lot of money, freedom and independence for Britain.

 

Cameron has promised a referendum on EU, its up to the people of Britain to decide wether they remain in the EU or not, as it should be.  This is something the Labour party would not have done, since they are very pro EU, like you ;)

Labour got the ass whooping they deserved. Rather than cry over it you should try to see the possibilities in rebuilding the wreck that is the Labor party. 

You have seen Labour loose its precious Balls among many others, Milliband is gone, Labor was exterminated in Scotland so you might see some changes there.

 

I am not saying that Cameron is the best thing on earth for Britain, but its usually smart to select the least destructive option.

 

The problem is that Labour has surrounded itself with unfortunate people, like Blair and Brown, all kinds of idiots that act as a magnet for misfortune. And some silly ones as well who are not as damaging.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11594419/Lord-Ashd...

 

Icelanders were never responsible for payments because of the bank crash, the banks involved in that were put into administration, so the estates of those banks paid the amounts in question tho those concerned.

It is standard business practice.

What the British and Dutch authorities along with the EU were trying to do was to make the governments (the taxpayers) responsible for the debts of failed private banks.  This was not accepted by Icelanders.

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 17:47 | 6076585 Arbeit_Macht_Frei
Arbeit_Macht_Frei's picture

Food banks give out free food to anyone who pops in and asks for it. In the entitlement society which is benefit Brittian it's like free money, they can spend their dole money on cigs and booze then. Whether you need the free food or not you'd be an idiot not to get involved. Simplez.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:48 | 6076295 css1971
css1971's picture

Who gives a fuck which political party is in government? That isn't where the power is. They're just puppets rubber stamping the legislation.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 18:44 | 6076745 Griffin
Griffin's picture

Russel Brand cares :)

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 15:59 | 6076326 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

Au Contraire Griffin it's Ethnic Cleansing of the British Working Class and Poor that's taking place, knocking down Council Estates to build Private Dwellings for FOREIGNERS escaping with Stolen Public Cash.

We can expect to see a 1000% increase in Food Banks in Cambo's 2nd Term up from a 500% increase during his 1st Term.

Fuck the Brits they'll get what they deserve ' A miserable existance '

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:14 | 6076729 Griffin
Griffin's picture

There is no ethnic cleansing going on in Britain. Immigration is great as long as the nation can afford it. I would think that it would benefit all British people, Those born in Britain and those who have immigrated equally to control this.

A strong economy and low unemployment would be a good foundation for uncontrolled immigration.  The obvious lack of those things suggest that some controls might be in order.

The way things are going in the world as a whole, it seems to me that a miserable existence is more or less guaranteed for most of us.

Unless..... there is a revolution ;)

Fresh ideas and new people could change things considerably.

 

 

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