lecoqsportif
Well-known member
What a disgrace in the UK. Such a shame and a waste of time. They can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the head.
OT: World Politics
- Thread starter zeke
- Start date
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
That's a spin that makes sense I hadn't considered.
lecoqsportif
Well-known member
Heh. No surprise here. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...aid-homes-and-offices-of-opposition-activists
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
So it appears that the Bibi era may have come to an end in Israel. A centre to centre left party has edged him out in the election. Now the coalition building fuckery will decide where Israel goes. Fwiw, the leader of the Kahol Lavan has already said that he won't join any ruling coalition that includes Bibi, and the odds are Benny Gantz will be the new PM when the smoke clears. Gantz is the former head of the IDF, so it's not like he's soft on national defence or anything but he's still a very welcome change from Bibi.
His platform:
- prime ministerial term limits
- indicted politicans can't serve in the knesset
- Extending the nation state laws (basically a full on xenophobic law that sets jewish israelis above all else legally) to all israeli's of any nationality
- Stripping some of the powers from the rabbinate, mostly taking the power of marriage away from them and making it civil.
- Re enter peace talks with Palestine and is willing to make some "territorial concessions" (settlements)
- Improved early education and health care funding
- Allow public transit on the sabbath
His platform:
- prime ministerial term limits
- indicted politicans can't serve in the knesset
- Extending the nation state laws (basically a full on xenophobic law that sets jewish israelis above all else legally) to all israeli's of any nationality
- Stripping some of the powers from the rabbinate, mostly taking the power of marriage away from them and making it civil.
- Re enter peace talks with Palestine and is willing to make some "territorial concessions" (settlements)
- Improved early education and health care funding
- Allow public transit on the sabbath
Altair
Well-known member
Thank god
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
It's not done yet, the right wing bloc is still bigger than the left in Israel but there appears to be some apetite for change even in the Israeli right wing. There's another election coming in 8 months anyway with Bibi's pending indictment if they go that way. This is a chance for some stability.
Altair
Well-known member
I really hate proportional representation.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
I'll take the volatility if it injects new ideas into policy making discussions. Canada has been ruled by the same 2 parties for fucking decades. They don't have a monopoly on wisdom or good ideas.
Altair
Well-known member
The political horse trading is disgusting.
The small parties holding the big parties by the balls is ridiculous.
Give me majority governments any day.
lecoqsportif
Well-known member
Big tent parties have internal factions that are a pain in the arse too. e.g. Nothing gets done re: guns because NRA members can take out Dotard by staying home.
lecoqsportif
Well-known member
It’s basically up to Lieberman now, no?
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
big tent parties have a habit of falling in line if the leadership group rules with a strong enough fist.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Sure, have your majority....if they have a majority of voter support. The idea of 37% dictacting to the other 63% with a reliable iron fist is fucking dumb.
Altair
Well-known member
Only one solution.
Ranked voting.
Pick your top 3 parties, and let the first candidate to top 50 percent of the vote for the riding win.
No stupid neverending minorities and the winner will have won a absolute majority in their ridings and thus the country.
(Funny how proportional governments have the same leaders for decades... Merkel, Bibi. So much for change.)
UWHabs
Well-known member
All voting systems suck in one way or another. Proportional you have to worry about coalitions, and it tends to favour smaller parties that can pull above their weight as the tipping point in a coalition. However, it does tend to help out parties which have a more broad base of support (like the Greens in Canada).
FPTP is your tyranny of the minority. While majority governments are more stable, yeah, you get the cases of 37% of the electorate having a super-majority control for 4-5 years.
Ranked ballots tend to favour centrist parties, but because electorates are kind of simple, people often think they're too complicated. And at a local level, people do tend to hate having the guy who got the most 1st place votes end up losing.
But in the end, as long as you have more than 2 parties, you essentially always will either have one party gain a majority with less than 50% of the vote, or else you have coalitions. Virtually every system will correctly handle a party who gets over 50% of the vote having majority control, but it's these 40-35-15-5-5 type vote splits and how to handle them that's the problem.