All the results of Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe have still not been announced but it looks encouraging.

According to results already released and exit polls, the opposition MDC has beaten Zanu-PF.  But not by enough meaning that a run-off between Morgan Tsvangirai and Rubert Mugabe is inevitable.

MDC reckon they’ve taken 60% of the vote and Mugabe has only taken 30% and that the delays in announcing the results are so that the Zimbabwean government can rig the result.  Which is quite likely actually because there have been reports of people disappearing off the electoral register and loyal police officers intimidating voters inside polling stations.

I don’t think MDC will have taken such a large share of the vote but I think they will have won the election and with enough votes to avoid a run-off.  Whether Mugabe manages to rig the vote enough to secure a run-off remains to be seen but don’t be surprised if they’re going through this again before the end of April.

Technorati Tags: Mugabe, Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai

Dr Crippen is a bit (belatedly) upset that the Taxpayers Alliance have criticised the Chief Executive of Kent County Council’s £229,999 salary.

It turns out that Peter Gilroy is a former nurse which, it would appear, perfectly justifies a taxpayer-funded salary that most of us mere mortals can only dream of.  Kent County Council have increased their Council Tax by 3.9% this year and that’s before parish, police, fire and NHS precepts have been added on.

The Queen has cancelled her diamond wedding anniversary party this year because she thought that such extravagance was insensitive in light of the financial difficulties of the population, it’s a shame local authority Chief Exec’s don’t have the same sense of empathy with the people who pay their wages.

I don’t understand how anyone can justify paying the Chief Executive of a local authority more than the Prime Minister, even if said Prime Minister is a vacuous little shit and a part time MP.  I can’t speak for residents of Kent but I know that the current and previous Chief Executives of Telford & Wrekin have been contemptable Liebour stooges who treated residents like inconvenient piggy banks and elected councillors like obstructions to the advance of their empire.  The previous incumbent at Telford & Wrekin, Micheal “The Traitor” Frater, rubbed everyone up the wrong way in Telford, was almost universally despised in the borough and then trotted off to Nottingham where he’s been given the order of the boot after less than two years because he did exactly the same there.  He’s one of the highest paid Chief Executives in the country and he’s shit.

Regardless of the history of a Chief Executive – whether they were a successful businessman, the Pope’s foot rubber or a bloody dustman – the taxpayer should not be expected to pay the kind of salary you’d expect to see the Chief Executive of a large corporation to be earning.

I think perhaps the problem is that local councils are increasingly being run as a business rather than a service.  They don’t have residents any more, they have “customers”.  They rarely provide services themselves, they contract them out to private (often foreign-owned) companies.  Telford & Wrekin actually set up their own private company using taxpayers money to contract their own work out to themselves and then sold it to a Spanish company!  Then there are the “regeneration partnerships” set up with unelected regional quangos and “the business community”.

Local government is a public service, supposedly an instrument of democratic government; it is not the private sector and those working in local government should be doing it because they’re interested in public service, not three figure salaries.

Technorati Tags: Local Government, Snouts in Troughs

The Queen has cancelled plans to thrown a party to celebrate her Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

According to the Daily Mail, she has cancelled the party because she thought it insensitive when her subjects are suffering from the credit crunch and the country is on the brink of recession.

This won’t go down well with Prudence Brown who spent 10 years devastating the economy before handing over to his useless Scottish (naturally) colleague, the King of the Caterpillars who has just introduced what is probably the least popular budget since the Poll Tax was introduced.

Liebour is desperately trying to convince the public that the economy isn’t on the rocks (excuse the pun) and that our economic wellbeing is in good hands.

Gordo, you’re convincing nobody – even the Queen knows you’re a lying scumbag.

Technorati Tags: The Queen, Recession, Economy

Via: Toque

Technorati Tags: Alistair Darling, Barred

I went to watch Telford United today. As a Shrewsbury Town fan I should, strictly speaking, only venture into Telford’s ground with a can of petrol and a box of matches but my employer sponsors the club and we got a box for free so I bit the bullet and went with my colleagues (including the Ginger Liberation Army’s chief nuclear physicist at Views from the Asylum).

It was a good laugh – Telford were absolutely dire and lost 2-0 to Barrow but it was a good afternoon. The Telford fans were goading the Barrow fans who were already a bit hyperactive (too much Sunny D on the coach down I think) and the stewards spent quite a lot of their time down Barrow’s end in the hour preceding the game.

Just a couple of things worth noting if any Barrow fans read this:

The non-stop chants of “Who are ya” were very inspired but the fact you’d just driven to Telford and the name of the club was printed on the tickets you bought, it was a bit of a stupid question. And the immensely entertaining “You’re Welsh and you know you are” is what they sing to wind up Shrewsbury fans who live in Shrewsbury which used to be near the Welsh border a few hundred years ago.

Technorati Tags: Telford, Barrow, Football

Iain Dale has published the results of a survey to find out who people would give a second vote to at the next election if the voting system was changed.

Bear in mind that his readership is predominantly Conswervative supporting but the results are encouraging, especially if you’re a UKIP supporter!

In total, 63.6% of people said they would vote Conswervative if there were an election tomorrow.  Liebour only managed 9.7% which puts them in third place.

A massive 41.4% of Conswervative voters said they would give their second vote to UKIP.  Interestingly, 8.1% said they would give their second vote to the English Democrats and only 2.8% said Liebour.  And considering it was Call Me Dave that started the green obsession in Westminster, only 6.8% would give their second vote to the Green Party.
36.6% of Liebour voters said they would give the Illiberal Dumbocrats their second vote and 22.8% would give it to the Greens.

Now very interestingly, the Illiberal Dumbocrats aren’t as keen on Liebour as Liebour are on them – only 14.2% would give their second vote to Liebour but 39.4% would give it to the Conswervatives.  Not a single Illiberal Dumbocrat would give their vote to the EDP and only 0.8% to UKIP but as a eurofederalist, English hating bunch of traitors, that’s hardly surprising.

50% of UKIP voters said they would give the Conswervatives their second vote, Liebour was inadvertently left out of the list and 16.6% said they would give their second vote to the BNP.  13.6% said they would give their second vote to the English Democrats which shows that Mr Farage should listen when I tell him that UKIP needs to support an English Parliament.
Iain seems to think the most noteworthy result in the survey is that 16.6% of UKIPers would give their second vote to the BNP but then he’s not averse to publishing non-stories about UKIP and who can blame him?  I’d be worried if I was a Conswervative and that many Conswervative voters were giving support to UKIP and with Camoron‘s inaction over the EU Constitution and his eurofederalist tendencies, it isn’t going to get any better for them.  Of course, there’s no telling what the results would have looked like if Liebour was included in the UKIP poll – it might have taken some of the left wing votes from the BNP or they might have got nothing.  I’d be interested to see the results of a revised poll with Liebour in it.

Technorati Tags: Polls

According to a MORI poll, Scottish MPs interfering in English affairs that they have no control over in their own constituencies is the constitutional cock-up that causes most dissatisfaction.

Prompted by Gareth, I sent the following to the Ministry of Injustice:

Hi,

I gather that a MORI poll has confirmed what everybody’s known for a long time but the British government refuses to accept – that English people are sick to the back teeth with MPs elected in Scotland interfering in English-only affairs that they have no say over in their own constituencies.

Apparently, 46% of people polled said that Scottish MPs voting on English-only issues is something they are not satisfied with – in fact, it topped the list.

So, what does the Ministry of Justice intend to do to balance up the constitutional abortion created by the Labour Party when they gave the Celts their own government but refused equality for England?

Stuart Parr

Technorati Tags: Constitution

In the 80s we were all going to die in an ice age.  In the 90s we were all going to die from acid rain.  In the 00s we are all going to die from global warming.  So what will the apocalyptic non-event for the 10s be?

Cast your vote in the poll below:

Gordo the Goblin King and his cabinet of all the talentless are giving their support to electoral “reform” that would have seen a swing of over 50 seats from the Conswervatives to Liebour, leaving them with an unassailable lead in perpetuity.

Let’s be very clear about this, politicians should have no involvement in this type of electoral reform because the only people it will benefit are those in control of the British government.

Here’s my wish list for electoral reform:

1. Devolution for England.  The rest of the UK has it, England should have it too and I don’t mean regional devolution either, I mean national pricing.
2. Elections for the post of Prime Minister.  Why should the office of Prime Minister be tied to the party system?  Why should independent MPs – elected for their policies and character rather than the party they belong to – be barred from leading the country?  It’s wrong, anyone should be able to run for Prime Minister without selling their soul to a party.
3. Bring back the hereditary peerage.  The only way to ensure any chance of opposition or impartiality in the House of Lords is if they’re there by accident of birth rather than patronage of the party with a majority in the Commons.
4. Amendment of the Parliament Act.  If the Lords reject a bill 3 times in one term of parliament then there must be a very good reason.  Allowing the Commons – who are going to vote for whatever will get them elected and/or what their party tells them to do – to simply overrule those objections is wrong.  The Parliament Act should be amended to require a binding public referendum on any bill that is rejected by the Lords 3 times in one term of parliament.
5. Ban the whip.  MPs are supposed to be elected to represent their constituents, not the interests of their party.  Extremely poor decisions are regularly made by MPs doing what their party tells them to do rather than what they know to be right or what their constituents want.  Parties should be there to form policy, not to force MPs to vote in a particular way.

Technorati Tags: Electoral Reform