UK Local Elections & Voter Turnout

Voters outside a polling place, Brisbane, Queensland, 1907 Men and women form a line outside a polling place in Brisbane, watched by officials. 1907 was the first year women voted at an election in Queensland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, the UK holds its elections on weekdays not Saturdays. Voting is voluntary so the turnout varies. Thursday 3^rd May 2012 was the day that elections were held in 181 local government authorities throughout England, Wales and Scotland. There was a 32% turnout in England and Wales. Scotland doesn’t start counting ‘til after I publish this post. Well, now at 10:50 Ayrshire looks like about 45% voter turnout. Better. Further update puts the all up Scottish voting contingent at about 38%. Not that much better after all.

Photo of a polling station in a portable cabin in the South of Coventry. The structure was temporary and in position on the 3 May 2007 for the local election. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have to say that all three times I have had occasion to attend a polling place in Scotland I have seen only one party leafleted by only one person. Additionally I have met a maximum of half a dozen voters while I was there. I recall local elections in Mullumbimby. Every candidate represented by up to 4 supporters handing out voting preference slips; queues of voters waiting in line at the polling station. Amicable banter all around; mind you, the weather was more conducive to casual socialising than it is here in Scotland.

And in both State and Federal elections in Australia, the candidates’ supporters are out in numbers regaling voters with preferential voting slips for their candidate as the voters walk the gauntlet to the polls. I have not seen anything like that in Scotland.

It is the engagement with the political process that is most marked. I see little, if any, evidence of it here versus the obvious and voiced engagement in Mullumbimby, which maybe has, in part, to do with the type of community in Mullumbimby. I also think that compulsory voting plays a part in the whole community engaging with itself in the election process, which is quite lively in Mullumbimby and in Australia generally. I have lived in many areas in Australia and have voted in different elections in different places – the larger the electorate the more muted the obvious engagement.

Although, the local elections in the UK employ a preferential system of voting which is a marked improvement on the antiquated first-past-the-post system that the UK uses in its Westminster elections, I can’t help but wonder if the voters actually understand the system.

 While FPTP is commonly found in countries based on the British parliamentary system, and in Westminster elections in the United Kingdom, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh National Assembly use a form of PR known as the mixed member system, after New Zealand adopted it in 1993. Five Canadian provinces—British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick— are debating whether to abolish FPTP.^{[citation needed]}

 Australia has used a preferential system of voting for some time, in the Federal elections since 1918. The good thing about preferential voting is that smaller parties and independents, first preference votes are recorded as having achieved that amount of primary votes. This is a good statistic and can be used by the candidate and/or party to build its platform for coming elections. Even though the first vote will probably not get over the line in terms of the set quota, what does happen is that the canny voter is able to register his vote so that none of his/her preferences is wasted. He/she can craft the vote in order that the preferences go down the line and extinguish where the voter wants his vote to extinguish.

There was one comment to my previous post on compulsory vs voluntary voting that again mashed the percentages in an attempt to prove an advantage which just isn’t apparent. I have noted that comparing apples with oranges just doesn’t wash unless you are colour-blind or have your paintbrush dipped in your own paint; otherwise known as having taken a partisan stance.

Of course, cherry picking rarely does work and comments that emanate from a partisan point of view are often able to be shown to have used partisan data that obscures rather than illuminates.

It may well be fair to say that more and more voters in either compulsory or voluntary electoral systems are less and less interested in politics as we all realise that politik speak is a form of bullshit fed to us by newspapers that are owned by media moguls and others who wish to direct the political debate and pepper it with salacious gossip.

At the moment, in the UK the Murdochs are receiving a drubbing that will leave them diminished. In my partisan way, I have to say that is a good job being well done by the Leveson Inquiry. I am finding the Inquiry fascinating and it informs me inter alia in psephology. A laudable pursuit in my older age.

Related articles

• Council results due in Scots poll (bbc.co.uk)
• Vote 2012: Voting is a duty, not a right (leftfootforward.org)
• Another low turnout – but better (hamptonroads.com)
• lincolnshirecommentator.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/…

Ulema Council & Karzai hobble Afghan women (again)

In the middle of oppression, there is hope. I have written before above the cultures behind the wearing of the shapeless body and face concealing clothing. I have lampooned Lauren Booth adopting Islam (a capitalist westerner; loves photo shoots of herself doing ‘good works’).

Just prior to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan (1979 to 1989), in the midst of growing oppression of women in Afghanistan, there rose up a young woman known as Meena. She was, by all accounts, a remarkable woman who, with other women intellectuals, ferried women and children out from Kabul to Pakistan and an uneasy safety. She set up refugee camps and classrooms to combat female illiteracy and teach children in Pakistan. Their efforts were always fraught with raids by Islamist men. The women knew that education was the only way to break gender repression. The irony was that in the 1960s, girls and women, including Meena, were educated and intellectually productive members of life in Kabul.

Meena Keshwar Kamal

It didn’t last; it couldn’t last. Her head, once above the parapet after she addressed the Internationalist Socialist Conference in France in 1981 was in the sights of the then KGB and its Afghan agents, the Afghan Intelligence Service and the Islamist fundamentalists. She was eventually assassinated in February 1987 when she was only 30. Her activist husband had been murdered 3 months earlier. The whereabouts of their children is still unknown. Here is a link to Amazon where you can find her story written by Melody Ermachild Chavis.

The best known image of Meena

Meena was the founder of an organisation that became dedicated to equality and education for women and give a voice to the silenced women of Afghanistan. That organisation has grown stronger and more vocal over the decades.

 The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an extraordinary organisation that is more active today than ever before. Its struggle these days is against the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban, its repressive, anti-women and male-chauvinism orientation. It is highly scathing of the role played by the USA in Afghanistan.

Today in the BBC News online there is an article that, while worrying in its content, allows some hope to emerge notwithstanding President Hamid Karzai endorsing the further oppression. Karzai is widely perceived as a puppet of America.

 ‘After a council of Afghan clerics issued restrictive guidelines for women, later embraced by President Hamid Karzai, young Afghans streamed to social media sites to lampoon the rulings, reports BBC Afghan’s Tahir Qadiry.

“It’s outrageous,” wrote one young Afghan on his Facebook page.

“The next thing they’ll be saying is that Afghanistan needs to be divided up in two – one half for men and the other half for women.”’

What is heartening is that there are cartoons lampooning the mullahs and their edict. This would not have been possible earlier.

Lampooning and satire can work. The mullahs need to be caged!!

Here’s another article stating that:

‘Afghanistan’s top religious council has said women should not mix with men in school, work or other aspects of daily life. The Ulema Council has also said that women should not travel without a male relative.’

In a country where women can be jailed for being the victim of rape, this step by the Ulema Council is so retrograde that after 10 years of gender gains in Afghanistan, one can only hope that a modern backlash may finally have some political clout.

More on Religion in Politics and Education

Freedom!

Well, the pious and most precious Pickles has signed into law that part of his Localism Bill, creating a ‘general power of competence’ that overrides the High Court ruling on the illegality of prayers in the formal business papers of Councils in England.

He said he would do this in his massive hissy fit after the ruling was handed down and 7 days later, he did. He knows best after all. He must do, he is an evangelical christian and, ipso facto, seriously believes in the literal word of the christian bible. The only problem is that no one knows which version or edition of the bible he uses. There are hundreds after all.

However, the Communities Secretary does seem to have decided that he is the arbiter of what is right and proper in all local authorities in England. It’s enough to make me mutter sotto voce “bring on separation Scotland”.

Not that Scotland has much to crow about really. The Scottish Parliament did away with prayers at the time of Devolution but, as a sop to the religions, substituted a weekly 5 minute Time for Reflection (TFR) delivered mainly by Church of Scotland clerics. No Muslims yet. I believe there have been a couple of Humanists.

The Scottish Parliament's debating chamber

The good christians decided to form a group called the Parliamentary Prayer Group and attend each TFR. They call themselves non-denominational, but in Scotland that usually means Church of Scotland.

This photo from their website is taken in the Public Gallery and shows the Group in place. The times I have been, I have only seen the ageing ladies each wearing a bright red blazer and sitting in a block in the front rows to increase their visibility to the Chamber. There are about 20 or so of them and they smile a lot.

Photo-op for the Parliamentary Prayers

Devolution happened in 1999 and a deal was done between the new Scottish Parliament, the Catholics and the Church of Scotland to keep school prayers (suffer the little kiddies) in place and ensure that religious representatives had unelected places on local education committees.

Public funding is still in place for religious schools and I have come across the absurd situation where within the confines of one school property, the Catholics enter from one side and the Protestants from another. Two staff rooms, toilets, school rooms and playing fields. And, of course, two different complements of teaching staff, all in one building – a big building.

Shared separation at Motherwell primary

This is an excerpt from a letter written to the Belfast Telegraph on school integration:

‘In the Scottish shared-campus experiment, the old segregation problem still persists once children walk through the door, or, to be more precise, separate doors. In one attempt at a shared campus in Lanarkshire, the Catholic Church’s demands for separate facilities even stretched to different toilets for Catholic and non-Catholic teachers.

 The director of the Catholic Education Service in Scotland is on record as stating, “We are very concerned that the sharing of facilities, like staff rooms, will erode the Catholic ethos of a school.”’

Don’t you find this to be a bizarre state of affairs in the 21^st century? I have lived in Scotland for four years now and I have to say, I am learning more about the absolute idiocy of religion than I thought I ever would, especially in this country.

I really find it hard to believe that this sort of thing goes on in a mature, western society that is supposed to have emancipated itself from such religious bigotry in the 1800s. By the middle of that century the Scots were amongst the most literate people in Europe. This was the time of the European and Scottish Enlightenment after all. This little country boasts such people as David Hume, Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, Dugald Stewart and Adam Ferguson. And then there were all the scientific, engineering and medical advances that emanated from Scotland. There is so much innovation to have come from Scotland that other countries looked to Scotland for inspiration and erudition.

David Hume and Adam Smith in Edinburgh

What happened? Or, probably a better way to ask that question is why weren’t those wonderful achievements built on to the eventual eradication of superstition and religious dogma and bigotry?

Maybe the dénouement is still to be read. Reason and science certainly seem to be suffering a new endarkenment in the world in terms of acceptance, funding and government backing. Schools and teachers seem to be less prepared to undergo rigor in curricula or instruction. The mass media pump out poorly researched articles while TV has Buffy the Vampire with vacuously high ratings. Or Big Brother or other silly reality shows of which there is a growing and mindless plethora.

Even the BBC which the above letter writer refers to as Believers’ Broadcasting Christianity is the media apologia for religion in this island.

It’s enough to make you despair. Really.

Free from Religious Indoctrination

Council Prayers & Political Abuse

I have to say I am very cross at the reaction of some British pollies and religites to a High Court decision that judged Council prayers to be not part of normal council business papers.

Well, of course they aren’t! What on earth have prayers to invisible gods got to do with the normal, practical and very mundane business of roads and fisheries, sewerage and housing estate planning, road maintenance and play parks?

Answer – nothing. When I look at overblown multiple-chinned politician fat-cats declaiming about religion in public life, I seriously go puce in colour.

It is all very well for Eric Pickles:

Eric Pickles - will end up in a pickle over this

to talk about tradition and its longevity in this country. It was Henry VIII who inaugurated the Church of England – that’s only about 500 years ago. Long before electricity and other trappings of modern life. I also watched Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter in which the Council of Bideford in Devon languishes talk about the Christian tradition that underpinned this country. What! Since Henry or long before – around Boadicea’s time.

The Bish of Exeter

What about Hypatia of Alexandria, about 1,500 years ago who was obviously much smarter than either Pickles or the Bishop of Exeter? She is quoted as saying:

Hypatia of Alexandria

No triple chin on this woman – she was brutally murdered by Christian fanatics in March 415. Yes, religious murders have been going on a long time. We seem not to have changed much in 10,000 years or so. There is a movie – Agora (2009). I haven’t seen it but it traces Hypatia’s life and death.

On Friday 10^th February 2012, the British papers and the BBC TV news ran headlines because the High Court in Britain declared, in the person of The Hon. Mr Justice Ouseley, that there was no lawful place for prayer during formal proceedings of councils – that includes England and Wales. The rational amongst us were delighted as we belatedly ushered in the 21^st Century. The churches, some pollies and the bishops spat chips. You would think that the world had come to an end. Talk about inappropriate reactions.

I was reminded of Cordelia Fine’s book – A Mind of its Own. This is a quote:

‘We can’t allow everyone with a common or garden belief to be defined into madness – there simply aren’t enough psychiatrists to cope.’

The word Ouseley used was ‘formal’ after all. That was all. It wasn’t as though councils were barred on pain of death from saying prayers. Those who wanted to commune with their invisible friend could easily go into a committee room and partake of their rites prior to the serious business of running the local area which is what they were elected to do.

But, no, the good Bishop and the Secretary plus others want the non-religious to be left out in the cold while they warmly look for non-existent guidance from above to help them know where to plant a new housing estate or where the sewerage should be routed.

So we have to deal with the religious so long as they don’t get too much out of hand. But I have to say that these guys are looking decidedly wonky at this stage of the proceedings. I will wait but will guess that Secretary Pickles will have his way.

One day we hope to usher the 21^st Century in for good. Then maybe grown men and women will have eschewed fantasies and myths and embraced a potent and obvious reality that may allow our continued tenure on this earth. Religious beliefs certainly won’t.

Euthanasia, Assisted Dying is back on the Table

It is amazing how long supposedly progressive and developed societies take to change, amend or even tweak legislation that devolves any more power to Joe Public. Our societies are becoming more not less restrictive. The ancient Greeks would be horrified with our current do’s and don’ts enabled by our legislature and enforced by our police and judiciary. This is the Guardian article and yes!

Lord Falconer headed the Commission

The Commission on Assisted Dying was set up in September 2010 and Demos has made available a 400 odd page report on its findings and recommendations here. Its terms of reference were:

· to investigate the circumstances under which it should be possible for people to be assisted to die

· to recommend what system, if any, should exist to allow people to be  assisted to die

· to identify who should be entitled to be assisted to die

· to determine what safeguards should be put in place to ensure that vulnerable  people are neither      abused nor pressured to choose an assisted death

· to recommend what changes in the law, if any, should be introduced

Now I think they are very carefully worded aims and the Commission has been very circumspect in its recommendations and to my mind did not go far enough. After all, surveys of the public and of medical practitioners show a very substantial majority in favour of euthanasia being legalised. The Commission was far too accommodating to the religite mores that seem to abound on this island.

This is from the wiki article

 Even though polling in Great Britain reveals that “80% of British citizens and 64% of Britain’s general practitioners” are in favour of euthanasia being legalised, Parliament has refused to pass any laws of (sic) the issue.^[4] In 1997, the British Parliament voted 234-89 to defeat the seventh attempt to legalize the act. The Church of England view is that “physician assisted suicide is incompatible with the Christian faith and should not be permitted by civil law.”

Seven attempts!! Good grief. When will these parliamentary representatives learn? Those of us who are part of that public majority are rightly annoyed that our parliamentary representatives are not voting to reflect our wishes. The toothless CofE still seems to have its sticky fingers into our legislative decision making. I suppose the 26 appointed bishops see themselves as arbiters of moral virtue in this island regardless of the increase in atheism in this island.

So far as I am concerned, the Commission’s recommendations are not comprehensive enough. Not that it will matter to me personally. I will exit this life when I am good and ready thank you very much.

It is a shame that Pratchett is not seen as qualifying because he has more than 12 months to live with his dementia, nor is Tony Nicklinson who suffers from locked-in syndrome and will live for more than 12 months. So, from my perspective, the recommendations actually don’t progress this issue very far at all. The unconscionable cruelty and neglect for people’s wishes still exists.

This is from the BBC’s article regarding the Commission’s recommendations:

The commission has been quite clear that a person first of all would have to be terminally ill to be considered for assisted suicide under its proposals.

 The group has defined that as a patient who has less than 12 months to live.

 It said that they should also be acting under their own steam and not be mentally impaired in any way.

 In practice this means that dementia patients would not be eligible, including the author Sir Terry Pratchett, who helped to fund the commission, as those in the final year of the condition would not be considered mentally fit enough.

 Nor would a person who has a significant physical impairment, such as locked-in syndrome, as they would have longer than 12 months to live under normal circumstances.

 But a cancer patient with a prognosis of nine months would be eligible, if he or she met the other criteria.

This is tame stuff indeed. However, the religites have come out in force denouncing anything to do with suicide, assisted or not, as immoral and insupportable under their god’s supposed laws. These laws come, of course, in an ancient book, cobbled together with salient parts omitted by various rulers, by a group of illiterates in ancient lands purporting to be transcribing the word of their god. The rest of us call this fantasy visual and auditory schizophrenia, while the religites call it touched by god. Touched is right!.

I don’t have a problem with organisations like Care Not Killing, emotive though their choice of name is. Neither should they have a problem with

Terry Pratchett good solid citizen

Terry Pratchett’s Dignity in Dying or

Philip Nitschke’s Exit International or a myriad of other Voluntary Euthanasia societies worldwide. People who want to die need the assurance that those assisting them will not be treated as criminals. So yes, the law does need changing. It needs more than the Commission has recommended though. Poor Andrew Colgan

Andrew Colgan by himself

(and how many others) had to travel to Switzerland to Dignitas to end the life he did not want to continue with. And this is the wonderful Terry Pratchett.

It is not that long ago that suicide was a crime in itself. If you failed in your attempt to kill yourself you were charged with a crime and incarcerated. It wasn’t that long ago that having an abortion was a criminal offence. Slowly, very slowly, we are getting rid of religite influence in secular affairs but it is not quick enough for me. Religion’s perceived privileged role, now aided and abetted by the Tories in the sphere of education, is galling to a growing number of us. As well it should.

There is the British Humanist Association and the National Secular Society that keep trying to increase public awareness in this country; I wish they had more members and I wish more people spoke out publicly.

Come on you guys, either agree or add a comment. There are so many opinions, surely you have one.