LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2022

Judging by how thing's are going in Britain these days if voting turn out was to drop they would make it law that you have to vote, or face a large fine.

 

Then get your wallet at the ready.

 

I don't think so @pete! Mr Cameron very cynically changed the voting registration rules - in direct confrontation with the sadly toothless electoral commission, who repeatedly pointed out his changes were a) unnecessary and b) would lead to wide-spread disenfranchisement.

Which they did. 800k voters were removed in the year aafter IER was introduced (2016). Something like 2 million peole have now fallen off the register. They are mostly pooer people, students and people on the margins of society for whom registering to vote is low on the agenda so re-registering annually is just not going to happen.

This was predicted to occurr - and it is hard not to be cynical about the intentions of those who implemented those changes, given that accurate prediction. In fact - I would say that, as in the US, voter suppression is the policy of the current government. The proposed introduction of voter ID for eg will have a very similar effect, curing an ill that doesn't exist and reducing participation in democratic processes.

I don't think the current government minds at all if voter participation decreases - as they seem to be pretty much always winners from that. That might just be my biases speaking there of course...

 

My typing is shocking! And I do go back and tryo to correct as well... sorry all.

 

I don't see how anyone can possibly describe Libertarian minarchism as extreme. It's essentially just wanting the population of a country to be as free as possible, with the smallest government possible, interfering in peoples' lives as little as possible. It's not a hard-right position by any stretch of the imagination, just a standard right-wing one really, I think you may be confusing it with Anarcho-capitalism. It's adjacent to Classical Liberalism on the other, more centrist side of the spectrum.

Nick

 

OK - noted. You could try to understand though, at least?

I think most folks in any mainstream European political position, understanding what Liberterianism is in any of the standard forms, would think it's extreme - not least because it seems to offer zero solutions to the major problems the world faces, and typically places reliance on market forces to achieve things which will a) leave huge numbers poor and vulnerable and b) create great conditions for those who would exploit others and the environment in particular, free to do so.

Sociopaths will rule us in a Libertarian dystopia - and it wouldn't be great for the vast majority. I see no mechanisms in a Libertarian society to reduce poverty or prevent environmental disaster.

Isn't that what we all want? The question is the degree to which that is possible or reasonable in a world with 8bn people and rising, and the very real threats posed to us by belligerant nations, the climate crisis and the insanity of conspiracy theorists.

I note too that it is a mistake - frequently made - to equate less government intervention with freeedom. In the US the freedom to carry weapons means the reduction - in very immediate terms - of the huge numbners of innocents who die from them. Greater freedom for all would be achieved by some simple gun controls. The assertion of my right to carry a gun without restriction, is the absolute negation of my right to live without fear or actual dying at the hands of a gun owner.

Freedom is not so simple as you seem to think.

Your freedom to drink and drive

Your freedom not to get vaccinated.

I could go on. This is not freedom in any meaningful sense. Your freedom - particularly when claimed by individuals and Libertarians - will be my prison.

The free-est societies I know are in Scandinavia and Switzerland. Societal happiness is also very high. Government intervention is also high.

Well - as before, we will just have to agree to disagree here. I - and I imagine many others from moderate left or right - have to consider libertarianism as extreme right. I certainly do.

 

Tends to be the little things that pee me off. Today’s is wipes, those disinfectant wipe packets that a lot of us have become attached to the last couple of years. A pack for the house, a pack for the car, don’t kill the habit, there’s always another variant swelling on the Covid bandwagon.

It always starts off good, one wipe at a time, all orderly, wipe, clean, discard in the discard pile, rinse, repeat, new pack opened.

Then the inevitable. You hit a clump. You try your best to separate the top one, the small flap opening works against you for letting your fingers get at it. You tear it, frustration building. The clumps still there, in a now, more twisted clump state. You try to get the clump out, but it’s so twisted, you’ll never get it back flat through the small flap opening. You’re stuck with the clump till you open the next pack, always aware when you get back in the car, the clump lies in wait to frustrate further. Or take the easier route of killing the habit, once the stock of wipes has run down.

 

Trying to get our passports renewed. It all must happen in sequence, first to book time off from work. Done. Then to book a time slot in Embassy in London. Not done, their website keeps crashing. An hour of trials... I'll call them on Monday and am already prepared for the phone queue.

Once that's done, and holiday adjusted accordingly, I need to book trains and a hotel. Let me guess there's nothing reasonable available. Probably a surprise second Half Term is declared as a gift to schoolchildren, or the storms turn back to re- shut the train services. I'm typing in the dark because the fancy LED bulb of my floor lamp died. My hip joint has declared itself as 1) existing and 2) old. I didn't get my hair cut. Shamefully lost a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Why is this life so difficult? Why, why?

I will now limp downstairs to prepare a supper of chocolate and wine. Most likely we are out of wine and the chocolate is mouldy.

Rant over, thanks!

 

Yes, apparently in the Selleri Universe things go mouldy minutes after they plop out from the backside of the chocolate cow.

On the bright side, I call the fluffy bits "White chocolate" and anything that doesn't run away, "a raisin".

 

Hmm....interesting.

Packet of Crystal Palace Lobelia seeds from B&Q = £3.00;
Packet of Crystal Palace Lobelia seeds from Wilko = £0.50.

Surprisingly, B&Q have run out of some of their seeds.

A brave pricing strategy by B&Q - I have to give them that....

 

Wilko is never an option for me, the one we have is in the shopping centre, £2 an hour to park.
You know where they can shove that charge.