You do not know the will of the electorate!

so please please PLEASE stop pretending you do.

It seems in the eternal and slowly soul destroying reporting of our current political quagmire we have no small number of oh-so-smug reporters announcing “the electorate want/don’t want this,” “the electorate has said.”

REAAAAAAALLLY? Let’s have a look at a few of the things the electorate has “said” shall we?

“The Electorate has said they don’t want any party to win.”

Y’know, I don’t recall a box on my ballot form saying “screw you guys, I don’t want any of you to win” the closest we have to that is deliberately spoiling your vote and that was hardly a majority position.

No, I got lots of ticky boxes for parties. As did everyone else. I crossed one. As did most people. Most people seemed to want a party to win – we’re just divided about which one.

Now, you can argue that the electorate as a whole didn‘t want any party to win, but we’re not exactly a hive mind entity here,

“The electorate has said they don’t want Labour to win”

Which basically assumes that labour should STFU and bugger off. But, y’know NO party has enough seats to ‘win’ outright. Hence the mess. Labour haven’t lost so many seats to either a) make them irrelevent or b) make it impossible to be part of a ruling coalition. So maybe the electorate isn’t saying that?

“The electorate have clearly supported Tory leadership”

Then why isn’t that oily little used-car sales man, Cameron currently in No. 10? Oh yeah, Hung Parliament. The electorate may want to be a little “clearer” about being clear.

“The electorate didn’t vote for a hung parliament!”

THIS section of the electorate did. I wanted a hung parliament, albeit not this hung (do NOT make innuendos here. It will only lead to unpleasant mental images about the party leaders. Except maybe Clegg) Did you miss all the pre-election speculation and hope about a hung parliament? Did you miss the many people hoping for one, pushing for one, expecting one?

“The electorate DID vote for a hung parliament!”

Was there a “hung parliament“ box on your ballot paper? There wasn‘t on mine – just asked me which party I supported. Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dems and then a dozen or so very very silly people (no, these two points are not mutually exclusive. My point is you can’t say what and why the ‘electorate’ voted the way they did)

And you know what? Given that you can become an MP of a constituency with less than 40% of the votes cast and still be considered an MP on equal footing as one with 80% of the votes, given that the majority of votes in this country are utterly pointless because of the various boundary shifts and overwhelming safe seats – and even if you support the candidate your vote is pretty much meaningless there because it doesn’t matter if a candidate squeaks through or is overwhelmingly supported, and given the habit of voting for a lesser of 3 evils and the amount of tactical voting going on AND given the trainwreck of the last election with polls closing with people still wanting to vote, running out of ballot papers, etc…

Well I question that ANYONE can conclude ANYTHING about what the people want based on these election results.

So speculate about what the electorate wanted? Sure, go ahead. But stop telling us what the electorate said – because you really don’t know

And if you really really WANT to know the will of the electorate, then I suggest you push for electoral reform – because you have no chance at the moment

Asylum – a GBLT issue.

Asylum seekers – or, as I much refer to say, refugees. I know it’s not strictly accurate, but the British press has so demonised “Asylum Seekers” that it has become a convenient avoidant term. We use asylum seekers to imply fakers and slackers coming here to steals our monies and our jobz while being too lazy to work. Yeah, whatever. Call them refugees – call them what they are – people desperately fleeing from persecution. People fleeing from oppression, persecution, torture and death. People who have lost everything and are running for their lives. At least be HONEST about the hell you want to throw these people to!

Refugees and their rights are very much something GBLT people need to be interested and involved in. Because they are often our brothers and sisters. We know that, in much of the world, persecution of GBLT people is extreme to the point of genocide. The only reason it isn’t named as such is because the powers that be are often rather content with our destruction and are afraid of offending the religious lobby by acknowledging our persecution to such a degree. In fact, the UN resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity, asserting that GBLT people should have human rights and not be persecuted, had to be reduced to a “gesture” declaration with numerous voices speaking against it (including the Holy See, no surprises there, and considerable initial opposition from the US) and a 57 nation bloc supporting a counter-declaration declaring the opposite – that we don’t have and aren’t worthy of human rights.

Homosexuality is illegal in about 70 countries in the world. In 77 nations we can be prosecuted for having sex, for not being virgins, for not living a lie. Most of these prosecutions come with a prison sentence (and GBLT people in prison are amongst the most vulnerable there are). At least 27 of these can be sentences of 10 years or more. At least a further 8 nations will execute gay people. And that number is, shockingly, growing.

And this tells not even half the story. On paper, Iraq legalises homosexuality, yet it is one of the worst places in the world to be GBLT as a result of the occupation and rising religious control. South Africa not only legalises homosexuality but also outlaws all anti-gay discrimination AND recognises same-sex marriage. Yet persecution, including “corrective rape” is a horrendous problem and is rarely addressed by the authorities. On paper Egypt outlaws homosexuality with a prison sentence up to 3 years – but that doesn’t cover the repeated instances of torture inflicted on GBLT people.

In fact, one of the recurring problems of GBLT persecution is not only legal persecution by the state, but state indifference to persecution, state refusal to protect GBLT people from attacks, violence, rape, torture and killing. Often large organisations, communities and especially churches are ready and eager to encourage the persecution

This makes Asylum vital to these GBLT people. While we fight for the rights to be treated as full and equal citizens and to cling to what rights we have managed to obtain (vitally important) our GBLT siblings across the globe fight to exist, fight to live, fight just to be. They live in countries where even the most minimal tolerance is too much to ask and is fiercely denied. To these people the only sanctuary available is to flee and to be sheltered in a nation that will not see them dead or imprisoned for the audacious crime of existing.

But, very depressingly but unsurprisingly, we are not welcoming to GBLT people seeking safety. Amnesty international has decried the EU sending refugees back to countries where they will be tortured. Because accepting promises as a reasonable precaution would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic – to expect a torturer to play fair, especially since we hardly check up after wards, is ridiculous to the point of enraging – it is clear indifference on our part to allow this to continue. The torturer’s “promise” gives us sufficient excuse to turn a blind eye.

The UK has been deporting gay asylum seekers for years – under the hollow excuse that if they are “discreet” they will be safe… so long as they stay in hiding they may escape persecution. Never mind the societal pressures to marry and have a family that make such “discretion” impossible. Never mind the self-destruction that being closeted brings. Never mind that even when we are discreet, our sexualities can still be discovered, can still be exposed. Under the cover of “discretion” we have deported gay people to countries like Jamaica, Iraq and even Iran.

Our record with the protection of gay refugees is shameful – with a refusal rate that dwarfs even the shamefully high refusal rate we have with non-gay refugees. The ignorance, denial of GBLT people as being GBLT, the refusal to accept the state of GBLT persecution and the insistence that the closet solves all ills means we offer no sanctuary to even the most brutally oppressed GBLT people around the world. Frankly this whole report is enough to make me sick, despite having seen it up close, bringing it home like this -the ignorance, the homophobia, the privilege, the sheer indifference to the suffering is a matter for pure rage.

It should also come as no surprise that marginalised bodies – women, ethnic minorities and GBLT people are among those most likely to suffer under this negligence. Devalued both by the persecutor and by the country of supposed safety, the suffering of these bodies is too often ignored.  This is a true intersectionality moment – a moment when we should come together and recognise that those of us who society devalues are the most at risk here. These are the most at risk of persecution abroad and indifference at home and the most in need of help.

The least we can offer these people is safety. It is so little to ask – and we are failing them.

On coalitions

An aside on Brown leaving: I will miss him. Really, I liked the guy. He seemed as honest as a politician can be, he had no charisma, but was stolid and had an air of unflappable dependability that I value. I think he became PM at a bloody awful time, following Blair’s nastiness and during a worldwide recession which he is certainly not blameless of, but nor can he be considered responsible for. He wasn’t a perfect PM, he wasn’t a great PM, I’m not even sure if I’d consider him a good PM. But I liked him and I think Labour has done a lot of good that is very very much overlooked.  So I’m not going to say good riddance, even if I won’t weep for his leaving. I will; say a respectful goodbye and give him the nod for leaving with class and dignity.

I will be looking at the Labour leadership wrangle when I have the head space. But I will say ahead of time to all the people saying “ZOMG THE LABOUR LEADER WON’T BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE!!” bullshit to buy a clue and look at OUR system not the damn American system. We do not have Presidents. We have prime ministers. We NEVER elect party leaders, we NEVER elect the prime minister. We elect the parties.

I heard the Lib Dem/Labour talks about coalition and was heartened – and I am now desperately worried about early reports that it has failed

I think a Lib Dem/Labour coalition would be good not only for people like me who are desperately chanting “not the tories not the tories not the tories” but also good for the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems will be much better with a Labour coalition than a Tory coalition. I could talk about shared values, about alienating their base, about scaring off all the people who voted Lib Dem to try and keep the Tories out – but in the end I think the killer is electoral reform

The Lib Dems need electoral reform. Really really need it. The system at present is so strongly arranged against them it’s almost comic. Look again at the results:

Labour:     8,431,224 votes -  29.1%    Seats: 253
Liberal Democrat: 6,636,297 votes – 22.9%   Seats: 54

That is wrong. Clearly and unambiguously wrong. And while the system remains like this, the Lib Dems (and any party that isn’t Labour or Liberal) will only EVER get any power is during a hung Parliament. And they’re not common. If the Lib Dems do not secure a change in the system NOW then it could be years, decades, before they are remotely relevant again (perhaps even longer. I mean, here the Lib Dems have the biggest opportunity for change they’ve had in decades – if they miss this, why would their voters trust them to ever fix it?).

The Lib Dems have a choice – coalition WITHOUT electoral reform – and have up to 4 years of moderate to minor influence before sinking back into obscurity. OR demand electoral reform and become a viable party for the foreseeable future.

The Tories are vehemently against electoral reform – and for a very good reason (other than being conservative and hating change). Electoral reform and proportional representation especially, will result in governments NEEDING coalitions. And that favours Labour – because there are a lot of minority left wing or left leaning parties that can ally with Labour with minimal grumbling. We’ve been talking a lot about rainbow coalitions – and it’s true, there are a lot of parties that can line up alongside a Labour/Lib-Dem alliance.

Now look at the Tories. How many parties are happy to ally with them? Not so many, not nearly so many – worse the ones that WOULD are often pretty damned objectionable – BNP, UKIP, Christian whatevers, English Democrats. These are not parties the Tories are going to want to align themselves with.

Maybe they could rely on the Lib Dems coalitioning with them now and then – but again, the Lib Dems and Labour have more in common than the Lib Dems and Tories do. For the Tories, electoral reform would be a horrendous blow. Not that Labour would exactly welcome it – but it would hit the Tories harder and, as things stand, Labour needs the Lib Dems enough to maybe give it to them

I’m hoping that, despite all indications, coalition between the Lib Dems and Labour will still work out. I don’t think it will but I hope so. I do not see how the Lib Dems will prosper with any deal without electoral reform – not only do they need it, but we need it

We have a Conservative Prime Minister

David Cameron is now PM. Words can’t express how depressing this is.

The part of meanness, cruelty, callousness and bigotry is now in power. Hopefully their lack of a majority will hamstring them from reversing all that we have achieved these last few years – some of it will go, certainly. We’re heading to a less fair, less equal, less compassionate and less valued society – but enough is entrenched and the Tory’s mandate is slim enough that most should be safe.

Going forward is unlikely to be on the cards – in any area.

The silver lining is hoping that the Lib Dems have enough principles to oppose the worst of the Tory excesses – or whether they’ll just act as an easily bought rubber stamp. It remains to be seen.

I despair of humanity – and the country – that so many are willing to support such a callous, bigoted group as the Tories. Maybe we don’t deserve better.