Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Election Blues

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Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

We've got a bleedin' election on Thursday.
So all the sodding lampposts and walls are covered in logos and propaganda guff. The sight of all these thrice-damned SNP logos everywhere is making me nauseous. Bah!

And I have to decide who to give all three of my votes to. D'oh!

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"Plagues extinguished, the world becomes smaller.
For a long time there is peace in empty lands.
People will walk safely by air, land, sea, waves.
Then again wars will be stirred up..."

- Nostradamus, 1568

[This message was edited by Montgomery on May 05, 1999.]

Posted by Feste on :

Montgomery - In Scotland are there candidates like Screaming Lord Sutch (sp?) of the Raving Loony Party in England?

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"'I'm afraid there's nowhere for you to sit,' I said coldly; 'the verandah is full of goats.'" --Saki "The Guests"

Posted by Chimaera on :

You get three votes? How does this work? Are there three different elections going on at once?

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"Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
-Commander Riker, USS Enterprise

Posted by David Sands (Member # 132) on :

Interesting topic of constitutional law you've stumbled upon, Montgomery. Here in the US, the Supreme Court has specified in the case Baker v. Carr that each election for a single district be for (usually) one candidate with every person casting one vote (the exception is when, say, a city votes on an at-large memebr representing the entire city population). I just saw last year a town in Alabama (which is the only part of the USA you could get away with this in) where all members were elected at large and you got 7 votes to cast amoung however many candidates chose to run. Needless to say this could prove quite a case should William Jefferson Clinton and his minions ever try to take this electoral arrangement to court. It could change the whole country. Yes, I'm rambling, but I thought this might provoke a spirited discussion on how we vote and why.

So how exactly IS this election working Montgomery?

I was also just told while writing this message that Sean Connery is so concerned with how the election is going that he flew back to express his views on it. Out of curiosity, anyone know what he's saying?

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"Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Tao to survivial or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed."

"...attaining one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence. Subjugating the enemy's army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence."

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 6th century B.C.E.

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Feste:
Alas no. Well, at least none who would admit to lunacy. Although we have a couple of fringe groups standing.

This is the UK dipping it's toe in the bath of "Proportional Representaion". The Scottish election today involves three ballot papers.

The first is to elect a MSP to represent your constituency in the new Scottish Parliament.
The second paper has a list of parties, with a list of names under each. These people will be allocated extra "regional" seats as a kind of "top-up".

This link will enlighten if you are interested....

BBC News Election Pages

The third paper is to elect a local councillor.
This morning I had to choose a party for the second ballot from a paper as long as my arm!

Sean Connery is an outspoken nationalist, siding with the SNP in wanting Scottish independence and a breakup of the UK. He apparently has flown in especially from his tropical home to encourage the voters...
Personally I disagree with everything he says, and resent this attempt to capitalise on his celebrity.

Still, I'm looking forward to the elction coverage on TV.
That is, assuming BBC Scotland don't opt out of Peter Snow's Swingometer extravaganza in favour of someone with a bit of cardboard, but an all-important scottish accent.

- Nostradamus, 1568

[This message was edited by Montgomery on May 06, 1999.]

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

Hey, it turns out that the elections in Scotland made the fron page of the L.A. Times. Talk about serendipity.

At any rate the article can be found here.

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We sell forbidden objects from places men fear to tread.
We also sell frozen yogurt, which I call "Frogurt"!

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Pity then that Connery has been to Scotland about as many times as I have.

And that must be the first time UK news has got on the front page o US papers that hasn't been about our sould-crushing occupation of Northern Ireland. Makes a change...

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'You want the moon on a stick, don't you?'
-Richard Herring

Posted by Feste on :

The three U.S. papers that I saw all used the phrase "Scots wrestling with their identity" which the more I think about it, sounds like a Python sketch...

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"'I'm afraid there's nowhere for you to sit,' I said coldly; 'the verandah is full of goats.'" --Saki "The Guests"

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

LOL

*entraps his identity in a devious headlock*
Ha-ha get out of that!

- Nostradamus, 1568