OFF: The Clones of Tony Blair[no BOC/HW]

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, Keith Henderson wrote:

> Mike writes...
>
> >At least Jesse Ventura seems partway libertarian on social issues. If I
> >were there I'd evote for him or John McCain, who certainly was in
>                 ^^^^^
> >Vietnam and wasn't having a fun time as a POW.
>
> You mean they allow that now??  Man, are we ever going to need to leave the
> house in the future?

        Well, two general elections over here, there was a chap stood in
one of the West Country constituencies on the platform that the only
sensible way to conduct democracy in this modern age was to get a terminal
in every house on which referendum information would be sent to the
families and population at large and they would send in their votes, thus
taking the government right back to the people.

        He was unfortunately sued because he got surprisingly many votes
(for a loony fringe candidate, in that, he didn't lose his deposit) and
the number he got would have been enough to shift one of the major parties
into second place rather than third. They were the Liberal Democrats, he
was the Literal Democrats, and they said he had obviously been set up to
confuse the voters (they were next to each other on the (alphabetical)
ballot). However, I don't believe they won, although I don't know what did
happen.

        The idea has a superficial attraction, but then you get the 1984
gag reflexes and/or a sense that the best place to be there is feeding the
populace its information... Insert lyrics from Calvert's `Acid Rain',
Porcupine Tree's `Every Home Is Wired' and Hawkwind's `Fall of Earth City'
and `Living On a Knife Edge' at random from this point on... Yours,
                                                                    Jon