Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[smjjames]

UK: 37% votes for Conservatives giving 51% of the seats in parliament
France: 32% votes for En Marche! giving at least 71% of the seats

I hope anyone lambasting the UK election system will do so for the French election system as well.

That's a, uh, curious comparison there. Though there are factors involved in the French election which aren't involved in the English one, such as the French one being more fractured and the fact that the two former main parties got walloped by two others.

[martinuzz]

That French election outcome is really insane. Socialist Party is right. If the second round doesn't change the result, there will be no opposition, and parliament will not be able to control the government, or debate.

[martinuzz]

Meanwhile in Germany, 3 passengers from the UK have been released. Yesterday, a plane made an emergency landing after passengers reported to the crew that 3 fellow passengers were speaking about terrorism, and using the words 'bomb' and 'explosion'.
The police reports that there was no indication of the 3 posing a threat, and they have been released. Nine people were injured during the evacuation of the plane.

So folks, first rule about the recent terrorist attacks: You don't speak about the terrorist attacks.

Hint for terrorists: you don't need AK's or bombs. Just shout 'bomb!', or 'run!' in a crowd, and the crowd will make the casualties for ya.

[smjjames]

Well, it's just the lower house, I don't know what the upper house ratio would be. And yeah, it is just nuts, just shows how much the other parties collapsed.

I bet that such a large amount will quickly fragment into various factions, like the Republican party here did, so, yeah, I can see them having difficulty controlling the government.

There's also like, really low turnout, under 30%, compared to around 60% in previous years.

[scriver]

I still hold to my idea that non-voting population should still be represented in the government. I mean, it would probably have the unfortunate effect of every country turning into Belgium, but the people should not be denied, dammit!

[Sheb]

I still hold to my idea that non-voting population should still be represented in the government. I mean, it would probably have the unfortunate effect of every country turning into Belgium, but the people should not be denied, dammit!

Do you say that because we have mandatory voting? Because I've never seen our gridlock being blamed on mandatory voting, usually just on the mix of proportional seatings and two nations jammed into one country.

Also Re: Macron, it's to be noted that given France's two-round legislative system, there is much less tactical voting in the first round. LRM will have a far larger %age during the second round. So far, only 4 seats have been won (there is no run-off if a candidate score higher than 50%) of while LRM won two.

Still, there if you think that a strong opposition is a good thing, things are not looking good. This is compounded by an interesting argument I've heard*: about half of LRM's candidates are member of "civil society" (largely heads of small business, proffessionals and others notables, rather than member of NGO or other non-party political groups). Those candidates with no political experience, no political career of their own to further and not party machinery to oppose Macron means he'll probably face way less opposition from his own MPs than is usual. Some are already talking of rubber-stamp parliament.

Also of note is that the FN only score 13% (Same %age as 2012, but given lower turnout that means 2.9 millions votes instead of 3.5). For the record that %age translated to 2 seats last time around. It seems that the mental image of the FN voters as highly motivated needs to be updated: as the party removed itself from the fringe, it also picked up a lot of apathetic voters it seems.

*Amusingly, those among my aquaintances making this arguments are usually the same ranting about getting all politicians out and getting rid of party politics. Well, how do you like post-party politics now uh! So yeah, this provide me with large amount of Schadenfreude.

[scriver]

No, I mean Belgium as in a state with no government. Because if voter participation is only 30% you'd have 70% no-vote seats. Participation would have to always be 51% for even a coalition government (of all parties at that) to form.

[Sheb]

You have no idea. We have some many governments. Governments all over the place I tell you. 

[martinuzz]

In an unsurpassed act of Belgianism, the second appointed Dutch (in)formateur failed to form a new government. Which is hardly surprising, because he tried to get the same 4 parties that failed to reach agreement with the previous formateur to try again.

It's already 89 days since the elections.

EDIT: in completely unrelated news, the city of Madrid is trying to get rid of the macho culture, and promote acceptance of homosexuality.
288 of the city's pedestrian traffic lights had the image of a walking man replaced with images of both hetero, and gay couples walking hand in hand, as well as single women.
Furthermore, it is henceforth forbidden to manspread in the city busses. The busses have been fitted with a sign showing a man sitting with his legs wide, and a big red cross through it.

The traffic lights were placed in preparation for the World Pride, which will be held in Madrid this year. About 2 million lgbt folks are expected to visit Madrid at the end of this month.
The manspreading ban is in line with the city's governing leftwing party's policy to denounce macho culture. The city's metro does not join in the ban. This is because the metro is run by the region, which is governed by the conservative Partido Popular, while the busses are run by the city, which is governed by the progressive left Ahora Madrid.

[da_nang]

Fun times ahead: Finnish government has collapsed.

Potential coalition with Swedish People's Party and Christian Democrats for a majority government; or a minority government; or *gasp* snap election.

[ChairmanPoo]

In an unsurpassed act of Belgianism, the second appointed Dutch (in)formateur failed to form a new government. Which is hardly surprising, because he tried to get the same 4 parties that failed to reach agreement with the previous formateur to try again.

It's already 89 days since the elections.

EDIT: in completely unrelated news, the city of Madrid is trying to get rid of the macho culture, and promote acceptance of homosexuality.
288 of the city's pedestrian traffic lights had the image of a walking man replaced with images of both hetero, and gay couples walking hand in hand, as well as single women.
Furthermore, it is henceforth forbidden to manspread in the city busses. The busses have been fitted with a sign showing a man sitting with his legs wide, and a big red cross through it.

The traffic lights were placed in preparation for the World Pride, which will be held in Madrid this year. About 2 million lgbt folks are expected to visit Madrid at the end of this month.
The manspreading ban is in line with the city's governing leftwing party's policy to denounce macho culture. The city's metro does not join in the ban. This is because the metro is run by the region, which is governed by the conservative Partido Popular, while the busses are run by the city, which is governed by the progressive left Ahora Madrid.

Not actually banned. You wont actually get fined or anything for wanting to get a bit of oxygen to your hanger-ons

[Pwnzerfaust]

Furthermore, it is henceforth forbidden to manspread in the city busses. The busses have been fitted with a sign showing a man sitting with his legs wide, and a big red cross through it.

The manspreading ban is in line with the city's governing leftwing party's policy to denounce macho culture. The city's metro does not join in the ban. This is because the metro is run by the region, which is governed by the conservative Partido Popular, while the busses are run by the city, which is governed by the progressive left Ahora Madrid.

That's so stupid. "Manspreading" is such a bullshit sexist term.

[smjjames]

Furthermore, it is henceforth forbidden to manspread in the city busses. The busses have been fitted with a sign showing a man sitting with his legs wide, and a big red cross through it.

The manspreading ban is in line with the city's governing leftwing party's policy to denounce macho culture. The city's metro does not join in the ban. This is because the metro is run by the region, which is governed by the conservative Partido Popular, while the busses are run by the city, which is governed by the progressive left Ahora Madrid.

That's so stupid. "Manspreading" is such a bullshit sexist term.

It sounded more like trying to dissuade men from being overly obnoxious with personal space. I don't live in Spain, so, I have no idea if that's actually a problem in Madrid or whatever.

[Pwnzerfaust]

It's stupid to gender it like that, though. Men and women both take up more space than strictly necessary. You often see it with women placing their bags on empty seats beside them. Also, the biggest offender of taking up more than one's fair share of space are fat people. Are they gonna have "not fatspreading" campaigns too?

[TD1]

I think those are called health campaigns

But yea, plastering sex propaganda all over the city. Lol. Can you imagine what would happen if sceptics did something similar?