Vernon Bogdanor on PR...

"Proportional Representation is rather like the incoming tide, flowing into the estuaries and along the rivers. It is becoming difficult, if not impossible, to hold it back".

Vernon Bogdanor on Wikipedia.

Results of the LibDem/Tory pact

Messrs. Cameron and Clegg in a breakfast meeting at the Conservative Party HQ, one summer morning a couple of months after forming a coalition in the wake of the 2010 General Election.

The LibDems should "Just Say No" to the Tories

Just prior to noticing a bottle of 25-year-old Laphroaig has appeared recently behind the bar and thus ending up unable to hold conversation, Acid Rabbi conducted a short informal survey among friends and acquaintances in the pub last night so as to be able to get some idea of popular public opinion re. the probable Conservative/Liberal Democrat pact.

The general consensus appears to be as follows:

Tory voters: "Who cares?"

Labour voters: "No! We need them! And they have more in common with us!"

LibDem voters: "If Clegg goes for it, I'm never voting LibDem again."

No, Nick! Those sweeties are poisoned!

Let's have a look at those in reverse order. LibDem voters, it seems, feel cheated by the prospect of a pact between the two parties - this is, in large part, because with the LibDems edging slightly leftward and Labour wholeheartedly stomping rightward ever since 1997 and the rise of Blair, the LibDems are frequently left of Labour these days. This has caused many traditional Labour voters, finding themselves without a Socialist option to vote for in national elections, to up sticks and support the LibDems instead; these being the sorts of people who maintain a deep-seated loathing for the Tory party and all Tory policy. Other - traditional - LibDem voters will feel, if such a pact is made, that they have been duped and that their LibDem vote was a scam, allowing the Tories into power. So, all in all, Nick Clegg risks alienating a large percentage of LibDem support.

The LibDems quite probably do have more in common with at least some sections of the Labour party, which still has a few traditionally-minded MPs - the hoary old socialist warhorses are long gone now, but there remains a phalanx of leftists who spend most of their time being quiet nowadays but, once in a while, wake up; as is the case with the Socialist Campaign Group, to whom the Dark Lord Mandelson was almost certainly referring when he warned Gordon Brown of a shadowy group of MPs who sought nothing less than his downfall back in June last year. Groups like that might very well make good allies for the LibDems - not least of all because the SCG advocates the scrapping of both Trident and ID cards, both LibDem policies.

Tory voters are so convinced that, due to the Conservatives being the largest party in the Commons, they have won the election that they don't seem to see any need to form a coalition with anyone, thank you very much. They may well be right: the party came so much closer to an overall majority than either Labour or the LibDems that if another General Election is called soon, as is very likely to be the case due to the hung parliament, they won't have anything like as much work to do to achieve the extra seats they need. This, however, does not necessarily make them a backdoor to power for the LibDems, because it seems highly unlikely that David Cameron will allow many of Clegg's requests - the Conservatives are far less favourable when it comes to the EU than the LibDebs, are absolutely opposed to scrapping Trident and, Cameron has made clear since the election, not willing to even discuss electoral reform in any seriousness. All of which are matters very close to Liberal Democrat hearts.

As we all know, we're going to see deep and savage cuts in all sorts of services and raised taxation may well become necessary as, at the time of writing, each and every British taxpayer needs to pay over £32,000 if the nation is to pay off its debts (there's a counter at the bottom of this page if you want to know the exact figure). Though all three main parties discussed this at great length during the run up to the election, the matter was heavily glossed-over during public debate, leaving us in the dark about just how savage these cuts will need to be - the only thing that seems certain is the next few years are going to be very hard indeed. Whichever party finds itself in power - either by forming a pact with the LibDems or, as Labour would need to do, with the LibDems and some other groups - might just find it has shot itself in the foot here, because when the public feel those cuts and realise how deep they are, they're not going to be happy. Had we have been properly warned, we might have had time to accept - but we haven't been properly warned, so many people will react with anger which, in five years' time when another General Election comes round, will probably manifest itself as a massive swing away from whichever party finds itself on top once we're out of the current hung parliament mess.

Whichever party that is, it's likely to find itself all but annihilated for at least ten years, possibly a generation. The larger parties would, in time, recover - it'd hurt the Tories but they'd survive, just as they survived Blair. Labour would be hit hard, but they too would survive - they managed to live on after the disastrous 1983 election when under Michael Foot's leadership they were hammered by the Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher who was riding high following the UK's triumph in the Falklands. The Liberal Democrats, however, despite having seemed strong enough to move into second place in the Commons just two and half weeks ago, are a considerably smaller and weaker party, as has been shown by Thursday's results. A body blow of the type they'd experience if they're part of the next government might easily finish them off for good - it could well be a killer punch, rather than the mere knockout it would be for the bigger parties.

With that in mind, the best thing for Nick Clegg to do could be to take a step back and forget power for the time being, ride out the storm and wait, keeping his party intact and independent. A week is a long time in politics yet, strangely, five years is not. If the Tories rise to the top, the electorate - when they're fed up, aching and furious that they weren't warned about the extent of the trouble ahead - will be wanting to make their anger felt. Many, looking at Labour, will still remember how determined they were to punish them in 2010 and so instead they'll want an alternative - and the LibDems, promising once again a different, fresh approach - will be there, with Nick Clegg working the magic we saw in the Leader's Debates and Vince Cable seeming as ever a much more human prospect than George Osborne, looking for all the world like an attractively-wrapped birthday gift.

Your time will come, Mr. Clegg. Just have patience.

Twelve points from Griffindor!

According to the BBC, the British National Party have lost all twelve of the seats they previously held on Barking and Dagenham Council.

So stick that up your fat Nazi arse.

This is a clear message to the party and its leader Nick Griffin, who was comprehensively defeated by Labour's Margaret Hodge (54.3% to 14.6%) in this constituency where he hoped to find sufficient support to enable him to take the BNP's first Parliamentary seat, that they are not wanted by the British people.

It's also more proof that, anywhere people fall for all the lies and give the BNP any sort of power, they rapidly discover the truth and waste no time in getting rid of them as soon as they possibly can.

Will Nick and the BNP finally realise they're destined to always be a marginal party, supported by nutters and loathed by the majority? Will they, as a result, crawl back under the stone where they rightfully belong? I doubt it - but this confirmation gives the rest of us reason to be cheerful.

Lady Jakobovits dies

El maley rachamim shochen bam'romim
hamtzey menuchah nechonah al kanfey haschechinah
bema'alot kedoshim ute'horim
kezohar harakia mazhirim
lenishmat Malia bas Frummit.


shehalchah le'olamah
ba'avur she'bli neder
eteyn tzedakah be'ad hazkarat nishmatah
began eden tehey menuchatah
lachen ba'al harachamim yastireha
beseter kenafav le'olamim
veyitzror bitzror hachayim et nismatah
Adonai hu nachalatah Vetanuach beshalom al mishkavah
venomar amen.

God full of mercy who dwells on high
Grant perfect rest on the wings of Your Divine Presence
In the lofty heights of the holy and pure
who shine as the brightness of the heavens
to the soul of Malia bas Frummit (Lady Amelie Jakobovits).
who has gone to her eternal rest
as, without making a formal vow,
I pledge to give charity in memory of her soul.
Her resting place shall be in the Garden of Eden.
Therefore, the Master of mercy will care for her
under the protection of His wings for all time
And bind her soul in the bond of everlasting life.
God is her inheritance and she will rest in peace
and let us say Amen.

Lady Jakobovits

Eil na rafa na la.

We're too busy drowning our LibDem sorrows today - we expect Nick Clegg to show up in the pub ready to sink a fair few any moment now - to blog today, but we needed to do this.

Jewish BNP candidate stands in Epping

The Jewish Chronicle's article "Election 2010:Jewish candidates await the results" includes a list of "other key Jewish constituencies to watch" - one of which is Epping in Essex.

A very brief bit of research reveals that candidate Patricia Feldman Richardson is - apparently - ethnically Jewish, though she does not practise the faith.

The BNP's Jewish candidate Pat Richardson

Image from Hope Not Hate.

Now, we sincerely hope that Jewish readers of Acid Rabbi are not the types to vote for someone simply because they're Jewish. However, politicians are well aware that there are people out there who pick which candidate's going to get their X on the ballot paper according to such criteria as how attractive the candidate is, whether or not they dress well and, indeed, their religious and/or ethnic background. What politicians won't admit - because it'd make them look elitist and lose votes - but we will is, basically, quite a high percentage of the population are not all that bright. In fact, we'd even go so far as to say quite a lot of people are thick as shit.

With that in mind, anyone from Epping tempted to vote for Ms. Richardson simply on account of her ethnoreligious status should think carefully before doing so, as a quick look at the ballot paper will reveal she's standing for the extreme right British National Party - and the BNP who are certainly no friends to us Jews, no matter how often party leader Nick Griffin claims to no longer deny the Holocaust. Nor, for that matter, how many times Ms. Richardson says the party is neither antisemitic nor racist.

Since 2009, Richardson has been leader of the BNP on Epping's council and during that time the group has campaigned against Muslim prayer groups. Jews, throughout the millennia that we have existed, have been subject many times to attempts to prevent us practising our faith and so it is our duty to protect other people's right to practise their own.

The BNP are a group so hungry for power that they will say just about anything if they think they might get a few votes out of it. In Britain today, that means claiming not to be racist - "racism" is a dirty word, and even those who admit to such beliefs are frequently apologetic when doing so ("Well, I'm sorry but I do think they're just over here to claim benefits..." "I know I shouldn't say this, but if I see a black man in the street at night..."). However, "Islamophobia" is not - following the terrorist attacks in New York, London and other places, British Muslims have been demonised in very much the same way that we were at various times in our history and the BNP are taking advantage of that by using people's fears to advance their racist ideology by stealth.

Remember Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous poem about the inactivity of German intellectuals allowing the Nazis to rise to power?

THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

It still rings true today - the only difference being we've moved a few notches up the scale as the fascists have identified new enemies.

THEY CAME FIRST for the Muslims,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

THEN THEY CAME for the Poles,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Pole.

THEN THEY CAME for the Africans,
and I didn't speak up because I was not an African.

You can be certain that, if the BNP achieved power and removed Islam from Britain, they'd pretty soon move onto their next target. It might be Poles, or it could be Africans, or it could be homosexuals. However, sooner or later - no matter how many other groups were targeted first - it'd be our turn, because the ultimate aim of the BNP is and has always been a Britain populated solely by white, Anglo-Saxon BNP supporters.

Pat Richardson may be ethnically Jewish, but that's no guarantee that her party is not antisemitic. Her membership and position on the party, in fact, seems a calculated attempt by the group's leadership to prove that the BNP is not antisemitic - she may be convinced the BNP is not antisemitic but would they retain her, do you think, if antisemitism was as widespread among the general population to whom the party is trying to appeal as it is among its members? Poor Ms. Richardson is yet another victim of the cynical BNP's lies.

Make sure you don't fall for them too - and if you live in Epping, don't vote for Pat Richardson even if a candidate's ethnicity is the best reason you can think of to vote for them. There are far, far better reasons to vote against her.

You doing anything on Saturday night...?

If not and you're anywhere near Cambridge, it might well be worth your while to pop down to the Cornerhouse pub on Newmarket Road (right next to the Renault garage, opposite the Coldham's Lane junction) during the evening. Partly because the Cornerhouse is a very friendly community pub (used to be a Lyon's Cornerhouse, apparently) but chiefly because it'll be playing host to a Cambridge Unite Against Fascism/Love Music Hate Racism event.

Unite Against Fascism

Bands on the night will be Ten City Nation, who I have seen and will freely pronounce as being extremely good and The Shills, who I haven't seen but have heard good things about.

The Cornerhouse does excellent food too, including being able to cater for vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free diets, so you might even want to get down there a bit early for a nosh).

Music, beer and food - oy vey! What better way to oppose the Nazis?

Frankie Boyle: Israel "terrorist"

Your analogy would be worth something, Frankie, only if the cake regularly fired explosive candles into towns inhabited by unarmed civilians and taught its little cupcakes that all Jews are evil and should be destroyed.

Frankie Boyle - no stranger to controversy with his briefly-funny-but-becoming-tiresome brand of shock humour - is in the headlines after claiming that Israel is a terrorist state in a response to the BBC's decision to apologise for a joke the Scottish comedian made in which he claimed to be learning an Israeli martial art - "I know sixteen ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back," he said.

In his response, he states that “The situation in Palestine seems to be, in essence, apartheid. I grew up with the anti-apartheid thing being a huge focus of debate. It really seemed to matter to everybody that other human beings were being treated in that way. We didn’t just talk about it, we did things, I remember boycotts and marches and demos all being held because we couldn’t bear that people were being treated like that.” He also mentioned the BBC 2009 decision not to broadcast a humanitarian appeal aimed at helping the people of Gaza, which in the Corporation's opinion was sufficiently biased towards the anti-Israel movement that broadcast contravened the strict impartiality clause that makes up an important part of its mandate, claiming that the BBC is "now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying."

The full letter can be read here.

The joke ended with Boyle saying, “I've got an analogy which explains the whole thing quite well: if you imagine that Palestine is a cake – well, that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.”

That would be worth something, Frankie, only if the cake regularly fired explosive candles into towns inhabited by unarmed civilians and taught its little cupcakes that all Jews are evil and should be destroyed by any means possible, including blowing yourself up. You said, as part of the joke in question, that "People think that the Middle East is very complex" - that's because it is. It's much more complex than your analogy suggests, and when it comes to Israel and Palestine neither side is as pure as the driven snow. While your brand of humour doesn't require any in-depth research, make sure you have at least some idea of what you're talking about. You look like an idiot otherwise.