Dreaming of...

This whole election has been scripted by Armando Iannucci. It's getting funnier every day. Unfortunately, the final punchline is on us.

Hi William, I note you ask British voters to vote Green. I'd be interested for your take on the developments in Australia. The Green Party voted with the conservatives to prevent implementation of Rudd's emissions trading scheme. Two conservatives crossed the floor to vote with Labor, but still there wasn't enough support without the Green vote. Finally, Kevin Rudd has now put the ETS off the agenda altogether to prevent a conservative scare campaign at the next election until 2012 pending developments in the rest of the world. The Green party now blames the Labor government for this situation. Would you recommend voters in Australia to vote Green as well?

[Late reply: I know little of Australian politics. Just calling yuorself a Green party doesn't make you one. But nor is one mistake fatal. You should vote for the party prepraed to do the best for the environment, whichever that might be. In the UK, that is the Green Parry -W]

Actually, I'm going for the Lib Dems; not perfect (although much better than the other two), but if enough people do that then we might a shot at or at least some form of more representative voting.

After all, Labour got, essentially, 5 year's elected dictatorship based on 36% of the vote and hence about 22% of the electorate in 2005. That's not right..

The other thing is that PR would allow the Green party to actually get representation. Not that I'm a great fan of theirs, but votes should at least count.

The most amazing thing is the reaction of the Conservative/Murdoch press to the higher Lib Dem polling; the prospect of a lib/lab coalition which they have just made enemies of is bad enough, but the prospect of PR meaning that the Conservatives would never get full power again clearly has them extremely disturbed. Hence the hysterical hatred towards Clegg..

Yep, Brown has really alienated the bigot vote â political suicide in this country.

I wonât be voting. My current MP has a stonking 14000 majority. If I vote for her my vote counts for nothing under the first past the post system, and if I vote against her my vote counts for nothing. Voting is therefore a waste of my time and energy and the rational thing to do is not vote (of course if everyone thought like this we would be in trouble). Hopefully after this election the pressure for electoral reform will be overwhelming, but Iâm sure the Tories will still resist. PR might mean the BNP and UKIP with their official party line of denying AGW are represented in parliament, but it could be a good thing to have a few of the loons in parliament and under full public scrutiny, and it will help cement a link in the public mind between AGW denialism and far-right politics.

Can Brown win without the bigot vote?

Yes, the original comment was justified. They showed the film clip here in the US.

Gaffe: when a politician accidentally tells the truth.

The Daily Fail have an "edited transcript" of what the granny is supposed to have said. Amongst what she is reported to have said was:

'You can't say anything about immigrants. All these Eastern Europeans, where are they flocking from?'

...

'And what are you going to do about students who are coming in then, all this that you have to pay, you've scrapped that Gordon...'

Well roger me! Eastern Europe might be a good guess on the first. Which begs the obvious question of "What an earth was Broon thinking, calling her a bigot?" Idiot! ... Brown or granny do I mean? I'll let others be the judge.

bigot 2 An obstinate and unreasonable adherent of a religious or other opinion; an intolerant and narrow-minded person.

PS Is there anything more to "cocks" to the right in Cameron's thought bubble? No! OK then.

Shouldn't you be voting "banks"?

dreaming or effervescing?

funny

"Well roger me! Eastern Europe might be a good guess on the first."

If Brown had quipped "Eastern Europe, I suspect", it'd have been a lot better for him.

Ah well.

In Australia the Greens opposed the governments ETS on the grounds that it was far too weak and far too accommodating to big carbon polluters - which is all quite true. It is a matter of opinion as to whether this is a tactical error or not. Polling in Australia shows that something like 68% of the Australian population wants action on global warming but only 45% are prepared to pay for it. It remains to be seen if the lack of backbone shown by the Labor party will translate into further electoral support for the Greens in this years election.I think it might.

My own opinion is that extreme weather events such as another horrific bushfire season, return of drought conditions, a major severely damaging cyclone etc will again harden public attitudes to climate change sometime in the future.

Interestingly, it is reported today that the union representing telecoms workers in Australia will support the Greens rather than the Labor party in the forthcoming election over industrial relations policy.

William, Jon Stewart did the British election last night. Overall it's a little uneven, but I think you'll like the bit at ~8:00 minutes in.