Who to vote for

[sam]

That's clickbait. Who you vote for is none of my concern.

I mean, feel free to share,

Don't vote human, they'll only let you down

but I'm not going to try to convince you to vote for anyone in particular.

I favour Jon Snow, who knows how to make the tough decisions.

[sam]

My plan to avoid reading or watching anything about the election has been shot to hell almost immediately.

Rishi trying to channel JFK.

National service to a country that doesn’t give a fuck about you? Sure.

National Service for all youngsters...every pensioner gets one free egg on St Swithin's Day...if your car is red you must pick up anyone waiting at a bus stop...training cats to work on cyber-defence...hire magicians to make crime vanish...unemployed to be sent to cull goblins.

(Alan Partridge has been called into service again - this is better than the others I've seen)

They get PTSD from the wrong pronouns, good luck with that one.

[Citizen X]

On second thought, Jon Snow is happy up north. He probably sees the aurora borealis all the time. Let's leave him in peace.

~

In 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader. Despite that he's blamed for Bush winning (the Supreme Court also had something to do with it, as well as tens of millions of Republicans), that remains the only one I don't regret, including Obama in 2008. You may call me naïve; I think any vote for someone you're pretty sure is going to make things worse is the wasted vote.

Obligatory George Carlin (because of this), unfortunately being interviewed by someone who turned out to be a sex creep, and yes it's a confusing title as Carlin died two erection cycles before filming. I also wonder if he'd change his tune re: "the beauty of the individual" circa 2024, but that's by the by...

This year I probably won't be voting in the US election (it's not worth the faff), and here at home I'll be writing "Party of Women" on my ballot, which alas counts as spoiling it,* there being nobody standing in my area. Back in the land of the free™ you're allowed to write candidates in and have them be counted.

KJK doesn't start addressing the crowd until around 3 minutes, and discusses the recent furore over her remarks about discriminating against men who say they're women and women who say they're men and people who claim they're neither. It's a lot easier saying "trans" than that mouthful, and I usually do, but I'm also of a view that it's a nonsense word at this point.

"You all belong to the cult now."

"I don't use any filters. I use a lot of light."

"Party of Women is about disrupting the broken political process that we have."

Works for me.

The thing about KJK is that she brings out of the woodwork people who want to scold women, particularly articulate interesting women who speak up for women's rights. Moths to the flame. They can't help themselves.

*I read a story, don't know if it's true, that someone drew one of these bad boys on their ballot, and as it penetrated a box, they counted it as a vote for that person. So I'll be careful where I write it.

[Citizen XY]

Checked the results of my poll – not normally something it occurs to me to do – and was surprised to see two more supporters for Jon. Unfortunately he doesn't have a platform other than 'Winter is coming'.

It turns out I get to vote for someone nonfictional after all: Julia Long. As the Party Of Women currently has 16 candidates standing in 650 parliamentary constituencies, this feels a little like winning the lottery.

Happy to admit I'm a single issue voter: reality.



That's Julia back in 2019, recording herself getting kicked out of an inclusive event.

The gap between her front teeth also swayed me, as I can relate.

on edit:
This is interesting: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/80776/nigel-adam-jacklin
Another candidate who has pledged to protect single sex spaces and sports. Plus he's listed a favourite biscuit – Nairns Gluten Free. That has me wavering, as we have a coeliac in the house.

[XX Party]

Perhaps Doc Stock is right, and the new wealth creation party is going to be better than the current lot on the "bigger issues". We've all got a right to dream.

[sam]

Maybe not a great history lesson, but catchy enough. As I sat in front of the TV singing along back in the 70s, little did I know that one day I'd end up with a king, though I rarely pay attention to what Charles gets up to.

A lot of voters are going to be saying "No more Tories!" today. Personally I hate the foregone conclusions of polls, but here we are with the flip-flopping heir-presumptive.

Another little clip from history:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4579269/user-clip-message-care

You do wonder how much people care about reality.

[sam]

That Rosie, of course.

(Some people with the Northumbria police really need to go. More here.)

Also glad about Kemi, whom I very much respect.

[sam]

BBC: Growth is UK's 'national mission', chancellor to say in first speech

Basically this:
Labour is not going to deliver

Labour is planning to base all its policies on growth and wealth creation. Neither makes sense, and they're in direct conflict with each other economically. It's as if they have announced in advance that they plan to fail.

Of course they're going to emphasise growth, because a) that's what governments tend to do, b) they don't know any other mantra and c) it's what the markets like to hear.

I think there will be little changes here and there, but it's hard to imagine anything positively transformative, and not just because we can't afford it. Starmer & co. don't have any integrity, or the desire to truly attack the root causes of our woes. They're just something different, yet more of the same, going back to Thatcher and of course Blair. They aren't the adults in the room that we need.

[sam]

Old video of our new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport responding to (but of course mostly not answering) questions by Julia Long, the woman I voted for.

Happy clappy mostly male audience didn't get it then; wonder if any of them have had their eyes opened since.

See also:
This never happens
Except it does. All the time.

[sam]

le deluge

How better to describe Anneliese Dodds succeeding Kemi Badenoch and becoming Minister of State for Women and Equalities? On one hand a bold, beautiful woman – so fearsome to cry-bullies that they wished she didn’t exist – who put herself through college by working at McDonald’s and who defines what differentiates women from men as ‘Puberty, menstruation, menopause… it is very biological’. And on the other, the over-privileged and expensively-educated Dodds, who has never had a job outside of politics and academia and seems to be utterly baffled about basic biology.