Like Lazarus, I have Risen...

Well, that was interesting... The election, that is. And I just have to comment on it.

The Conservatives are handed a majority and are now able to run amok with whatever plans they have for reducing government spending. Brilliant. I may just have to resurrect this blog for good to comment on what a shit option that is.

The real story is that voters are wary of a coalition they can't control. If there was an option on the ballot paper that stated "more of the same please" then you would have probably got that ticked more than any.

But the thing is, with the current system you can't guarantee the numbers will work out so that the Conservatives don't quite get enough to make a majority and the Liberals get enough to hold them to ransom.

Instead people voted for "Not Labour" in as manifestly emphatic and desperate way they could. Liberals switched to Conservative in huge numbers, simultaneously locking out Labour and chastising their own for not going far enough while in coalition.

Up in Scotland the "Not Labour" vote was big enough to create a one-party state. It will be interesting if the "Not Labour" vote continues when it comes round to voting for MSPs. Only the diversity of Holyrood will save Scotland from disaster. If it goes the way of the general election and does create a one-party state then the Scots will only have themselves to blame for what happens afterwards. Never put your eggs in one basket and always keep your options open is something that should be taken up North of the border, but unfortunately the passionate Scots never do things in moderation.

Before I talk about Labour's performance, let's dwell on what should happen to the Liberals now. First the bad news: they don't have enough MPs from which to chose a viable leader. I see no-one in the group of elected MPs that anyone would vote for in significant numbers. They have all been pretty faceless and uninspiring. Only politicos in the bubble would put forward any of them as a potential leader. Sorry Liberals, you are going to have to bite the bullet and maybe elect a non-MP leader in order to make up ground in future. You know, someone with charisma and that has lead a life.

Now Labour. What a sorry mess that party is at the moment. The only constituencies that voted Labour are the ones where you could stick a Labour rosette on a pig and they'd still vote for it. No thought, no intelligence, just mark the Labour box on the form "Because that's what we do round here, stick up for't working man".

Except Labour hasn't been sticking up for the working man for at least two decades as far as I can recall. Not since the times of John Smith have Labour really, truly followed that path. Instead they work for the corporations just like the Conservatives do, providing pigs in rosettes for Labour voters to crayon their cross by.

I mean, look at the options people are really putting forward as replacements for dead Ed. All of them professional politicos. I doubt any one of them has toiled 12 hours a day wiping bums and drool off the sick and old for minimum wage, none of them have cleaned public toilets in order to make a living like I have in the past. I really doubt one of them has brought up a disabled child, seen how shit the benefits system really is and how discouraging high tax rates are for those that want to get on. I have. I've been at the bottom and I've been at the top and the faces of the people put forward as potential Labour leader show they have lead a lifeless life. They are ideologues with no clue about what their party should stand for. Okay, maybe they know what it should stand for but are unable to enact it. Who knows. All I know is that the Labour line that they stand up for the working man is a croc of shit. These days they are more likely to stand up for the non-working man (or woman), the immigrants and the big corporations. i.e. anyone but the working man (or woman).

Instead they quote party history like the good little test tube MPs. Not one of them quotes from actual experience. They spout dogma to convince the faithful but their actions betray what they are actually about.

And that my friends is why dead Ed failed and why the next rosetted pig they put in place will also fail. Only some places will vote for that pig wearing the rosette, the others have a brain and still retain the ability to analyse and choose. Maybe not wisely, but between the lesser of two evils.

Oh, and the Ed Balls moment.... how sweeet was that? It's pity the one eyed buffoon decided to retire or we could have seen the same happen to him.