A Guest Post From John

Below is a guest post from John (menelausJohn on Twitter - add him. He's a good man) A former Medic in the British Army - who like me got a suntan in Iraq... Sage words indeed.


"We've had confrontational, argumentative governments in the UK for years and witness the effect:

- prime ministers questions becoming prime ministers obfuscation,
- entirely negative electioneering (witness Brown and Mandelsons myriad
mendaciousness)
- the very real possibility of the Liberal Democrats winning the popular vote in
2010 and their still being third in terms of seats.

Match this with the courts during the last parliament concluding that manifesto promises are meaningless and we're the blind being lead by the stupid.

For the late John Smith MP who campaigned vigorously for one member, one vote in the Labour party, the current electoral system must be making him spin in his grave amongst the other acts - including war crimes - committed by his protege and former colleagues.

Compare and contrast Germany. I'm writing this blogpost on a train in Munich from the airport to a clients site. The main observation is peace, quiet and order - the order that comes from grand coalition government - government of national unity, as in place since 1945, in which each vote matters and no-one is disenfranchised.

We in the UK are utterly, utterly screwed in public finances. Any number quoted for public sector borrowing is soon out of date and the markets have shown a willingness to downgrade: see Greece and Portugal. Greece are paying more interest on their national debt than a sub-prime mortgage.

To fix it, we need to get past this election and within six weeks have:

- repealed many of the more obscure laws of Labour
- arrested and remanded Blair, Brown, Mandelson and Darling for perjury and fraud
- start a short, sharp, shock campaign for proportional representation (PR)

Note, not STV or AV - both halfway houses and as is the case with halfway
houses, compromises which satisfy no-one - but true, public preference, PR.

Onwards!"

Cheers
John