Electoral Gerrymandering, not Reform: Lewis Carroll couldn’t have made it up

On ConservativeHome, as elsewhere, there’s speculation about the fall-out from the Labour nuclear explosion that will be the European/local election results (Lab 15%). The pandemic of insanity that has followed the expenses scandal [fixed-term parliaments, electoral reform, etc] is leading to Labour desperation and a potential move towards PR and a Lab/LD stitch up. As I commented there…

Propping up a lame-duck Labour Government would destroy the Liberal Democrats, and would lead to LD –> Tory vote-switching on an unprecedented scale. So, in effect, it could tip the Tories over 50% and destroy the Centre Left’s case for PR.

Also, PR would give us BNP MPs!!! Nick Griffin MP? Is Alan Johnson serious??? (actually MRLP’s R U Serious MP would be more like it.)

We’re in Lewis Carroll territory here.

… but, whatever happens, this iniquitous Labour Government must be destroyed as soon as possible. Not only have they presided over the humiliation of the House of Commons, economic disarray, and much else, but now they’re prepared to pervert democracy to cling onto their positions. Labour must be ousted and an honest, decent Government needs to be ushered in asap.

Sectarian murder in Northern Ireland

Just as we in Northern Ireland were appalled by the murders by the Real IRA/Continuity IRA of 2 English soldiers and a Catholic policeman and the attempted murder of two pizza delivery men earlier this year, it is repulsive to hear of the latest sectarian killing.

As an Ulster Protestant and like any right-thinking person, I am disgusted by the murder of Kevin McDaid in Coleraine (where I went to university for 6 years). He was killed by a mob because he was a Catholic. And the violence occurred after Rangers winning the Scottish Premier League – hardly, a reason to kill someone (so much for celebration – why target Catholics because of this???).

The Belfast Telegraph reported that:

The son of a father-of-four who was killed on his doorstep as he tried to save another man during sectarian clashes in Coleraine, said today he is devastated by his dad’s death.

Kevin McDaid (49), a plasterer, was kicked and beaten to death in front of his son Ryan in the Somerset Drive area of the town at around 9.30pm yesterday.

His wife Evelynn was also attacked during disturbances involving a crowd of 40 loyalists armed with homemade weapons.

Mr McDaid’s son Ryan (22) today described the people who killed his father as “thugs” |and “animals” and added that he hopes they will be brought to justice.

In the run-up to the European elections – and the marching season, usually a powerkeg in some areas – and with the Devolved Institutions in Northern Ireland in good shape (and delivering for the people of the province), and despite the CIRA/RIRA killings earlier this year, we do not need another round of sectarian bloodletting. Sectarian attacks are on the decline, although occasionally (for example, the devastating and brutal murder of 15-year-old Michael McIlveen in Ballymena in 2006 and various other atrocities.

Politics, in particular through the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, is the only way forward – we can’t go back. But that won’t erase the hurt felt by Mr McDaid’s family at this heartbreaking time. Such attacks have to stop: for our children’s future. And they have to stop now.

So it’s the worst recession since the 1930s

According to the thinktank NIESR, it is the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression:

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said in 2009 the country’s GDP could contract by 4.3%, and then grow in 2010 by 0.9%.

But the Nationwide Building Society said UK consumer confidence saw its biggest rise in two years last month.

Separately, a committee of MPs has criticised the government’s growth forecasts as “too optimistic”.

The government has predicted the economy will shrink by 3.5% this year, and then grow by 1.25% in 2010.

But the Treasury Committee said it was “very concerned about the state of the public finances” in its report on the Budget, and questioned the chancellor’s assumption that positive growth will resume in the final quarter of this year.

Whether it is as bad as the Great Depression depends on whether the lenders manage to con people into buying what are still overvalued properties; whether the jobs gloom worsens; whether consumer confidence and, therefore, spending improves; and, in other words, whether we return to the vicious cycle of debt – credit-card or mortgage fuelled – that led to this recession.

I should know about job losses, as mine (and another colleague) is due to go in September, unless one of the people who are responsible for the finances in the university decide to keep us on. My future is in their hands – and whether I can continue living at home, or have to emigrate again to Great Britain to continue my career, or at least  earn a living. I’m not the only one whose life is on hold, but at least I don’t have a mortgage any more. I do have a pension, but having a job is essential to securing it for the future.

There are sadly many people in Brown’s Britain who don’t have the option to go elsewhere looking for a job, because they’d be penalised by the tax and benefit system; it would break up their marriage or wreck their family; whereas many others can sit in their state-paid-for welfare-houses and do nothing.

Getting on my bike, as Lord Tebbit once said, is an option for me – but, sadly, not for most Britons. Brown must go.