Saturday 22 April 2017

We are not voting for a President on June 8th

Of the last six Prime Ministers Thatcher, Major ,Blair ,Brown,Cameron, and May. Three were first given the Job without a General Election.

True we a not as bad as Australia where ,Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard was ousted by rival Kevin Rudd in a leadership vote in June 2013 - months before a general election won by Tony Abbott's Liberal Party and its coalition partners the National Party.
Ms Gillard herself had ousted Mr Rudd as prime minister in 2010.
Then in 2015 Tony Abbott was ousted as leader of the centre-right Liberal Party by Malcolm Turnbull.

But it is a truth that we are not electing a Prime Minister  in the manner of a Presidential Election .

I like a lot about Jeremy Corbyn despite he seems to a poor grasp of devolution and wonder if I really see him as a true progressive, and a left wing centrist .

He does not seem to be much of an advocate for Proportional Representation either.

But even if he was to become Prime Minister , I wonder how long before the Parliamentary Labour Party still consisting of Red Tories would seek to undermine and replace him ?

Mrs May even with a huge majority, will still lead a party that is divided over Europe and if she is seem as dithering over a true "Hard Brexit" face a coup.

Certainly if she looses a Second Scottish Independence  Referendum she is will 

be dead in the water

Unfortunate there is not going to be a progressive alliance for this election, which promises major constitutional change which introduces Proportional Representation , which means that every vote counts.


Yes we need to try and unite against the Tories , but that does not mean that this simply involves voting for Labour if that Party's incumbent or challenger of a marginal seat  is little more than Red-Tory Blarite  . who doesn't support the party leader and may even seek to either replace him or form a new party.

We must remind ourselves on June 8th we are not voting foe Jeremy Corbyn  or Theressa May to become Prime Minister but for a member of Parliament

For those of us in Scotland , Wales and indeed Cornwall if the polls are right Labour can't win anyway is it not time we sought to get out of the Tories clutches through voting for Parties that seek Independence?. 



1 comment:

Leigh Richards said...

Forget 'presidential' - so far this election has all the hallmarks of a coronation for 'Queen' May. Yeah im fond of Jezza too but he clearly hasnt got the hang of this devolution thingy yet and the need to respect the distinct national identities of Wales and Scotland. So when Jezza talks about 'the country' as he did in cardiff yesterday he means 'britain' not Wales.

Meanwhile there are rumours doing the rounds of a welsh poll coming out on monday morning that will show the tories picking up seats all over Wales in addition to the ones they already hold, among them bridgend, wrexham, both newport seats and cardiff west - 'Walesshire' beckons :(