#mp by election winners

[hussyknee]

Trying to explain what the fuck just happened in Lankan politics today.

The leftist party has won 159 seats out of 218 in the Parliamentary elections. The single biggest landslide win since we broke from the British and achieved universal franchise in 1948.

Any party achieving a super majority in the executive and legislative is, objectively speaking, bad. It disables checks and balances, which is a catastrophic thing for any democracy, and the only two other times it's happened for us has irrevocably eroded the fabric of civic rights and democratic freedom. Also, the reason the NPP won the North and East is that the colonized, genocided and subjugated people there have no faith in electoralism anymore. The way this government has engaged minority issues has been utterly abysmal and now they've been rewarded for it.

On the other hand:

The winners. Are all. Grassroots. Candidates.¹

We have voted out every single career criminal that's been barnacled into the Lankan political arena since before I've been alive. The fascist party has only three seats.² The other fascists didn't win a single seat. The neoliberal legacy party won none. There are only forty people in Parliament that represent any sort of dynastic political legacy. After 76 solid years of nothing but political dynasties.

This is barely five years after the Rajapaksas swept in and absolutely glutted the Parliament with their family members and cronies end to end.

This is the illegitimate interim government we had for most of the last 18 months. We literally, physically, chased the Rajapaksas out of the country and this fucking demon set up a puppet government just so he could finally sit in that goddamn chair and be the despot he'd always dreamed of in exchange for letting them all come back. He's now gone. His entire circle is gone.

THEY ARE ALL FUCKING GONE.

In US terms, just imagine that, five years from now, when Trump's GOP has control of everything, the entire GOP and the worst of the Dems are all purged from Congress and Senate, the Green Party in control of all three branches of government under a pro-union left-wing President and an unmarried female LGBT rights activist Vice President, and the Dems reduced to barely 20% of the House.

This is my anthropology professor. She joined politics from the small nascent leftist coalition to help keep the government accountable. She's now the Prime Minister and the most popular Parliamentary candidate in the nation's history. (Edit: She was knocked off first place by a dude in the final result. Boo.)

(On the other hand— the woman who helped make me a radical anarchist and literally helped write a book on political dissent and resistance...now is the state. Uh.)

But there are so many women in Parliament! We had the lowest female representation in a South Asian Parliament and some of them were from the list of seats reserved for parties rather than elected ones. Most were either anti-feminist conservative embarrassments, widows and daughters of elite politicians and neoliberal shills. It's still only an increase of a few percentage points (Edit: from the previous 5% to 10% in the final result!) but now we have elected academics, feminist advocates, activists! There Is a representative for Malaiyaha Tamils in the Central Province for the first time in history and it's a young woman! (Edit: now it's two female Malaiyaha MPS!!) This is the plantation community that still live in conditions closest to the slavery the British forced upon them two hundred years ago!

I'm like. Completely mindfucked. To be very very clear, the NPP coalition formed around the nucleus of the JVP that used to be communist but haven't been in 30 years, they're now just social democrats who are left of places like the US and UK, whose "left" is now center-right. They're only threatening to the Western mainstream media for some reason who can't stop bleating about how we have a "Marxist" government now. In reality, the actual chances for radical reform are still quite low, and the opportunity for further erosion is quite high with a super majority government regardless of affiliation.

On the other hand:

What the fuck.

Sometimes living through historical events is really damn amazing.

---

¹ Well, nearly. There are a few career politicians and a nepo baby but they aren't so bad either.

² Goddamn it, Baby Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka's answer to JD Vance have wormed their way in using the list of Constitutionally reserved party seats for non-elected members. FUCK the National List.

[mattgrayyes]

Why voting is important to me:

It is the only time to officially have your say.

You only get this chance once every five years.

Whatever petitions or protesting or writing to MPs that you do in the future can be ignored. Hell, the tories have made several types of protesting an arrestable offence

If you're unsure, here are reasons I vote

🔹Old people are way more likely to vote than young people. This means policies / spending are assigned in their favour.

🔹People older than millennials are more likely to vote for more right wing parties. I use my vote to counter this.

🔹Result predictions are regularly wrong. Brexit is one example of this.

🔹Labour may be as transphobic as the tories at the moment, but they're not the only alternative in many places.

🔹The Green Party, Lib Dems, and some independents have both progressive policies and may have a chance of winning in your constituency.

🔹It's not just about the parties. You can look at the policy voting record for your current MP, and see if they voted for, against, or abstained things like LGBTQ+ rights and welfare policy.

UK General Election Resources

Quizzes to see how your beliefs align with the party policies

https://voteforpolicies.org.uk

http://votecompass.uk

Tactical voting advice for your area, aiming for the most progressive winner

https://tactical.vote

https://stopthetories.vote

MP Voting Record:

https://theyworkforyou.com

Share this elsewhere?

I’ve also posted this elsewhere on the internet if you want to share it:

Twitter

https://x.com/MattGrayYES/status/1808202577986867597

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MDEwNDQyNjA2MjczNzUy

Mastodon

https://chaos.social/@mattgrayyes/112718185049843933

[tomorrowusa]

A reminder that every vote does count. Seven constituencies in Britain's general election were decided by fewer than 100 votes.

One of the winners in those constituencies was 22-year-old Sam Carling who defeated Conservative Shailesh Vara in North West Cambridgeshire.

Sam Carling: Meet the new youngest MP, born in 2002

In Poole, Conservative Sir Robert Syms had been an MP since 1997 until he was beaten by Labour's Neil Duncan-Jordan by 18 votes; there needed to be three recounts to determine that result.

BTW, the race which hadn't been called at the time the chart was created was finally called on Saturday. Skye and West Ross-shire was won by the Lib Dems by 2,160 votes.

It's time to dust off the classic Nick Anderson cartoon about voting.

Oh yeah, France just avoided getting a far right government because voter turnout in Sunday's legislative election was unusually high.

[ancientstone]

On the 4th July 2024 the UK will hold a General Election

What does this mean?

On the 4th July 2024, the UK will go to the polls. Each constituency (an electoral area) will get to chose between a number of local candidates (MPs), each representing one of the political parties, such as the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, etc.

When all the ballots have been counted, the person with the most will be elected, meaning that person's party will hold that constituency. Once every constituency winner is announced (or if there's a landslide for a party which the others cannot hope to beat) that political party wins the general election, and the person in charge of that party becomes Prime Minster.

In the last General Election, the turnout was 67.3% across the UK.

Who gets to vote?

To vote in the General Election, you must be one of the following (information taken directly from here):

be registered to vote

be 18 or over on the day of the election (‘polling day’)

be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen

be resident at an address in the UK or living abroad and registered as an overseas voter

not be legally excluded from voting

Registering to Vote

You can register to vote here.

You can check if you're registered by going here.

According to the website, while registering, "You’ll be asked for your National Insurance number (but you can still register if you do not have one). After you’ve registered, your name and address will appear on the electoral register."

There is also an option to register to vote anonymously "if you're concerned about your name and address appearing on the electoral register for safety reasons." The link to that page is here.

You can register to vote by post by going here and printing out the forms.

If you would like a step-by-step guide to registering to vote, here is a page that has a pdf doing just that. It is also available in Welsh.

Photo ID

We now need to show a photo ID when turning up to the polls.

Here is a list of valid forms of photo ID.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get a valid ID, otherwise you will be turned away from the polling station.

If you vote by proxy, you need to "take your own ID when you go to vote on someone else’s behalf. You do not need to take theirs."

According to the website, "The name on your ID must match your name on the electoral register. If it does not, you’ll need to:

register to vote again with your new details

take a document with you to vote that proves you’ve changed your name (for example, a marriage certificate)

Small differences do not matter. For example, if your ID says ‘Jim Smith’ instead of ‘James Smith’.

If you do not have a type of photo ID that allows you to vote, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate."

You need to apply to vote by post

You can apply here.

You need to be registered before applying.

To apply you need:

"The address where you are registered to vote

Your National Insurance number or other identity documents, e.g. a passport

the specific date of the election or referendum you want to make a postal vote, if you only want a one-off postal vote

You’ll also need to upload a photo of your handwritten signature in black ink on plain white paper.

If you cannot provide a signature or one that always looks the same, you may be able to apply for a postal vote signature waiver within the service.

You might be asked for extra documents to identify you."

The linked page has an option for downloading an application form to send in by post.

Resources

BBC breakdown of General Elections

BBC boundary changes to constituencies

An overview of the political parties

BBC News page for current politics

How many MPs are in which parties

General info around voting, elections, boundary changes, etc.

TL;DR

On the 4th July 2024 the UK votes for the next political party in charge.

You need to register to vote.

You need to take a photo ID with you.

You need to apply to vote by post.

The rest of the world is welcome to share this! Also feel free to add extra resources and information!

[useless-catalanfacts]

1st of March, 1936.

People on the streets of Barcelona (capital city of Catalonia) welcoming the president of Catalonia Lluís Companys and other members of the democratically-elected government of Catalonia, who had been arrested and jailed after the October Events (Fets d’Octubre) of 1934.

Context: As the Spanish government became more and more conservative, leaving important decision-making positions to fascists and reactionary monarchists, Catalonia was leaning every time more towards the left and republicanism (anti-monarchy). The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party had won the elections in Catalonia and the anarchist union CNT kept growing in members. The difference was absolute. And it got even worse when the Spanish Government cancelled the newly approved law of the Catalan Government that protected landless agricultural workers against the abuses of landowners (the Spanish Government claimed that important decisions like this were exceeding the power of a regional government, even when Catalonia’s inhabitant massively claimed in favour of this law).

To put an end to this situation, the government of Catalonia organized a Revolutionary Committee (Comitè Revolucionari) with people from many different Catalanist organizations to prepare a response. Most trade unions declared a general strike against the Spanish government and, on October 6th, Lluís Companys went on the balcony of the Government of Catalonia (the balcony overlooks a big square where a huge crowd had gathered) and declared the Catalan state inside the Spanish federation.

As a response, the Spanish government declared the state of war in Catalonia and sent the army to arrest all the Catalan government. The Spanish army shot against the population who was defending the institutions, killing 74 people and injuring 252, including members of the Catalan Proletarian Party, the Communist Party of Catalonia, Catalan State, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Block, the CNT, and other civilians. On the other side, the revolutionaries who defended themselves from the army killed 12 soldiers and 2 military policemen (guardia civil), and 10 civilians who died as part of crossed fire.

The Catalan State only lasted 10 hours. The Spanish army, on top of killing and injuring all those people, also arrested more than 3,500 people, including all members of the democratically-elected Government of Catalonia, many mayors and MPs, and leaders of other Catalan leftist parties and unions. The members of the Government of Catalonia were judged and sentenced to 30 years of prison, the Government of Catalonia was abolished and Catalonia became direct subject of a Spanish military governor chosen by the Spanish government. 129 city councils around Catalonia, where the election winner had been ERC, were also abolished and given to conservative parties. The Spanish government also used the opportunity to once again impose Spanish as the only language to be used in official documents in Catalonia (during the Republic, Catalan had been legalized); ban many of the most popular Catalan newspapers, including La Publicitat, L’Opinió, La Humanitat, El Diluvio, Solidaridad Obrera (this one is the CNT’s newspaper) and La Rambla; turned the Parliament of Catalonia into a military barrack; prohibited the activities held by pro-Catalan/leftist parties, unions and associations and closed their headquarters. Of course, they also made sure that the law that protected the agricultural workers remained illegal, and did 1,400 trials against landless agricultural workers affected by this law to evict them from the fields.

The Spanish Government didn’t lift the state of war in Catalonia until April 1935. The Government of Catalonia was restored but with little power, it wouldn’t get back the power that it had before the October Events (which, as you saw, already wasn’t that much) and restore democracy in Catalonia until the general elections of February 16th 1936. The leftists won the elections and the people in prison for the October Events were given an amnesty, this is where the pictures you saw above are from.

However, this reinstalled (partial) democracy did not last for long. The fascist Spanish nationalists are sore losers and couldn’t accept that the right-wing had lost the elections in Spain, so they did a coup, starting the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The war would be won by the fascists, starting a fascist dictatorship that lasted until 1978, based on the concepts of national-Catholicism, anti-labour, hatred of national minorities like Catalans, and strict patriarchal gender behaviour codes.

Knowing that they would be killed if found by the fascists, Lluís Companys and the rest of members of the Government of Catalonia left Barcelona at the last moment, when the fascist troops were entering the city. They escaped to France, but the Spanish fascist government asked the Gestapo (secret police of Nazi Germany) to search for them and sent them to Spain. In August 13th 1940, the Gestapo found Lluís Companys in Paris, arrested him and sent him to Madrid (Spain’s capital city). He was judged by a military court-martial and sentenced to death, and the next day he was executed. He was 58 years old. His last words, right before getting shot, were “for Catalonia!”.

Lluís Companys is the only democratically-elected president to have been executed by a fascist government in Europe’s history. Between the entrance of fascist troops in Barcelona (January 26th 1939) and Lluís Company’s execution (October 15th 1940), the Spanish fascist government had already officially executed 2,760 people in Catalonia, and more would follow.

In the centre of the photo, Lluís Companys (the one wearing a beret) receiving a flower bouquet upon his return to Catalonia after the amnesty.

(Photos: Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona)

[beardedmrbean]

A court in Iran has sentenced the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to an additional year in prison, her lawyer says.

The 52-year-old human rights activist was convicted of spreading “propaganda against the system” by a branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mostafa Nili wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the reasons cited by the court included “comments about Ms Dina Qalibaf”, a student who alleged she was tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces, as well as her call to boycott March’s election and letters to Swedish and Norwegian MPs.

Ms Mohammadi had refused to attend the trial, denouncing it as “unjust and farcical”.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Iranian judiciary.

Narges Mohammadi's family said in a statement that she had now undergone six trials over the past three years and been convicted four times for “protesting, exposing, and narrating sexual harassment and abuse by government officials”.

This had resulted in a “cumulative sentence of 13 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, exile, and four months of street cleaning”, they added.

Ms Mohammadi was already serving a 10-year sentence at Tehran’s Evin prison, handed down in 2016, when she was awarded the Nobel prize last October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran”.

Last month, she had demanded that her latest trial be held in public so that witnesses and survivors could testify to what she alleged were "the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic Republic regime against women”.

She said the propaganda charge was a result of a statement she had made in support of Dina Qalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Beheshti University and a freelance journalist.

In April, as authorities intensified a crackdown on women flouting Iran’s mandatory hijab laws in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests, Ms Mohammadi had urged Iranians to stand against what she called the “war against women”.

In an audio recording released by her family, she called on women not to stay silent about abuse by security forces, but send their stories of "arrest, rape, harassment, humiliation and beatings" to her Instagram account.

The appeal, she said, was prompted by the “bruises and experience of sexual abuse” she had observed when Ms Qalibaf was brought to the women’s ward of Evin prison.

Ms Qalibaf was arrested a day after she posted an account on social media alleging that she had been subjected to electrical shocks by security forces and sexually assaulted by one officer at a Tehran metro station.

The judiciary-run Mizan news agency rejected Ms Qalibaf’s claims at the time. She was released on bail after two weeks in detention.

In December, a revolutionary court handed Ms Mohammadi an additional 15-month prison term after she was convicted in her absence of another charge of “propaganda against the system”, her family said.

She was also banished from Tehran for two years, and banned from travelling abroad, owning a mobile phone, or being a member of political and social groups for the same period.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Former MP and Toronto city councilor Olivia Chow has launched her campaign to replace disgraced John Tory as Toronto mayor.

Chow, who served as the NDP MP for Trinity—Spadina from 2006 to 2014, is the widow of Jack Layton, the former federal leader of the New Democratic Party.

The by-election is slated for June 26, with the winner set to serve as mayor for the remainder of the 2022–2026 city council term. It’s expected to cost Toronto taxpayers about $13 million to run the by-election.

At least 101 candidates have filed paperwork to run, but only half a dozen of them, Chow included, are running competitive campaigns.

In an interview with rabble.ca, Chow talked about the lessons she will carry from Layton as she sets out to create history of her own. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[terastalungrad]

I’ve loved Big Brother this year. But with a week to go, it seems extremely likely it’ll have a bad winner.

We’ve just lost two brilliant housemates, Lily and Khaled. The former an incredibly entertaining housemate who provided countless moments of pure television. The latter a wonderful person - kind and playful, and a passionate advocate for his home country of Lebanon and for other Palestinian Muslims like himself.

Having watched this show since its first year, I’ve rage-quit the show two or three times because of bad winners, then returned to the show after taking some time off. I don’t want to rage-quit this year. I really like the ITV incarnation of this show. So, in anticipation of a bad winner, I’m trying to manage my relationship to the Big Brothe finale.

Each year, the show encourages you to pick your heroes and villains. So each series will be won by a hero, a villain, or a boring option.

(You can skip this paragraph! For me, heroes won BB2, BB4, BB5, BB12, BB13, BB20, Celebrity BB1 and CBB11. Villains of mine won BB6, BB8 and BB15 as well as CBB13. Boring winners won BB1, BB3, BB7 and BB10. I remember too little of BB14, CBB10 and CBB12 - but Julian Clarey and Charlotte Crosby are amazing, so I assume I must have been thrilled by the latter two.)

Naturally, it’s best when a hero wins. A boring winner is an anticlimax. But a villain winner is an existential threat. It can feel like there was no point in watching the show. Like a horror movie where everyone dies in the end, there’s a risk of thinking there’s no value in the story at all.

After Jim Davidson won Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, I stopped watching the show entirely. It’s only when ITV took the show from Channel 5 that I watched a new launch night - which convinced me to keep watching.

The victory of racist sexist homophobe Jim Davidson broke my heart. That the general public would see value in this man. Two year later, we’d get Brexit and Trump, so I lost my love for a TV show that’s all about letting the public determine who’s worthy.

And now, it’s 2024, the UK’s far-right Reform party have 6 MPs, Trump is back again, and Big Brother’s finalists include two housemates who’ve supported Nigel Farage, as well as two different housemates who wanted Donald Trump to win the US election.

So here’s how I see it.

Time and time again, the public have proved they will vote for fascists, racists, sexists. At the polling booth and for reality TV.

Winning Big Brother means you won over the same public who voted for Boris Johnson.

So I choose not to allow the winner to colour my relationship with this show. Whoever wins, MY main character has been Ali - a compassionate, judgemental, queer, neurodivergent problematic angel who’s made me feel the most represented in the 22 seasons I’ve seen of this show.

If she loses to racist Tory Nathan, former butler to the King of Fucking England - so be it. Let the story be a tragedy. It’s the story of our age.

But my relationship with the show is my business. And my winner is Ali.

Joint first with Lily and Khaled.

[cakesandfail]

okay, so, hi. I have a question about UK politics that you are 100% free to ignore.

starting context! If I, a usamerican saw a usamerican ~content creator~ I liked campaigning/vocally supporting/etc a third party candidate for our upcoming election, my reaction would be "'oh, this person sucks and is tacitly supporting the fascists winning"' because that's literally how our stupid two party system works. In our current hellscape, it's a massive red flag, and a hard no from me.

So my actual question! If a UK ~content creator~ that otherwise was inoffensive was working with one of those joke(?) (the trashcan guy) candidates during your most recent election, does that have the same connotations? Is that the sort of thing you'd cancel a patron sub/unfollow/etc over? Or is it a more neutral/harmless thing?

i am a dumb usamerica and i crave context, thanks <3

Generally speaking, no, it doesn't have the same connotations, because our political system works differently to yours, and because we're a nation of dickheads (affectionate) who love taking the piss out of important people.

In terms of who actually gets to govern, it's effectively a two-party system, but there are a significant number of other legitimate political parties in parliament. And also Reform UK, unfortunately. Anyway. Some context:

When we have a general election, we're voting for a candidate in our local area (constituency) to represent that area as a Member of Parliament (MP). There are 650 constituencies, each represented by one MP. The party who gets the highest number of MPs elected becomes the new government. The party leader becomes the Prime Minister, but that's not a separate thing like it is with the US presidential election- the person has to get re-elected as an MP in their own constituency and you only vote for them directly if you live there. For example, I've never voted for our new prime minister Keir Starmer, because I don't live in the part of London where he's an MP.

Big third-party candidates here can be an issue when they're going to split the vote. That's actually what happened to the right in this general election- the Conservatives pissed everyone off so much by being absolutely shit at everything that a lot of their more, uh, passionate voters (*cough*racists*cough*) voted for Reform UK instead. But unless that's happening on a national scale like it did this time, having parties other than Labour and the Conservatives around is generally a good thing (again, with the exception of Reform UK, who are shit and awful, but at least there's only five of them and Nigel Farage doesn't turn up to work). The Liberal Democrats, Greens, and local parties in the devolved nations all represent their constituencies as intended and it's not really a problem. I actually voted Lib Dem myself in this election because the options where I live were Lib Dem or Conservative, and I am never going to vote Conservative.

The joke candidates are... different lmao. They are never anywhere near getting the sort of numbers that would put any legitimate candidates in danger of losing- we're talking a couple of hundred votes here, and usually in places where the winner is ahead by many thousands. They're generally doing silly things to make serious points or to take the piss out of specific politicians. Count Binface is a pretty good example actually- he always runs against the sitting prime minister, who will probably keep their place as an MP even if they don't get to be prime minister any more, and certainly won't lose their job to a bloke with a bin on his head.

And actually, given that you mentioned Binface and content creators: I'm guessing you're familiar with Matt Parker? I have zero issues with him being involved with Count Binface's latest run because Binface wasn't going to beat Rishi Sunak and didn't intend to. It's not about making a real challenge so much as just turning up to give a big middle finger to a powerful person that nobody really likes. I would consider unfollowing/no longer supporting a content creator that was involved with candidates who were genuinely dangerous or harmful in some way, but I probably wouldn't do it over a joke candidate unless they also met the 'genuinely terrible' criteria.

[fission-mailure]

Increasingly anxious about a) Wanting the general election to be as soon as possible, and b) Desperately hoping the Tories don’t somehow turn this around and manage to eke out a win.

Because I’m not being hyperbolic when I say I just don’t think the country can survive another five years of the Tories.

47% of adults report having problems paying rent or mortgages. 48% of adults report having to cut down on food, and hospital admittance for malnutrition is at a historical high, while CEOs and shareholders rake in record profits. It’s become a depressingly common story for people to just not be able to pay for basic utilities like electricity or water, because prices are through the roof. Basically every public service is in the midst of rolling strikes because public workers aren’t being paid a living wage. Brexit-induced food shortages mean basically every supermarket has as many bare shelves as filled, and are having to do things like ration how many vegetables people can buy. Sewage is being pumped into rivers at an unprecedented rate. The city centre is littered with closed down shops, and the average lifespan of a business getting off the ground to going bankrupt seems to be about six months. NHS waiting lists are getting longer and longer. A new Tory politician is revealed to have committed a crime basically every week; there is almost never any kind of punishment for it. 

Some of these things are already set to get worse in short order: There’s going to be a huge squeeze on mortgage owners hitting around September-October, for a start, and food shortages are getting consistently worse, not better, as are utilities prices.

That’s the product of thirteen years of Tory rule. Not even three full terms. So when I say “We will not survive another five years of them,” I’m not even remotely kidding or exaggerating. 

And through it all, the Tories aren’t just unable to start ameliorating any of these problems, and aren’t just uninterested (although they are both of those things), they’re also seemingly incapable of even focusing on these problems. They’re in an endless loop of darting between the same three talking points: Refugees arriving on small boats (and god help them, to have braved the very high likelihood of death or injury to escape an imminent threat to their lives, only to find this shithole); being as transphobic as possible, all of the time; and abolishing Inheritance Tax so the rich can get even richer (and public services will have even less money). 

And the really bizarre thing is, they actually seem to fully believe that if they just hammer these three things enough, that it’ll win them an election, despite the fact that the majority of people do not care. Like, one particularly ghoulish thing about the last Tory leadership contest was that a solid half of it was just wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth Tory hopefuls reassuring their party that they’ll be the cruelest to trans people -- yet when Opinium polled the actual public on 28 issues, ranking them by which people placed as most important to them, trans people and trans participation in sport came 26th and 27th. Other polls show that 62% of people want conversion therapy aimed at trans people banned, and 41% of people thought schools should have specific policies for dealing with transphobia. Endlessly shitting on trans people is a vote winner among other Tory MPs, but it’s transparently not a vote winner among the general public. Same with Inheritance Tax: It really only affects the extremely wealthy, which means not only is it not going to be a priority for most people, it’s also going to become much less of a priority as we all get collectively poorer.

So we now have the completely weird, unhinged situation where the politicians in power are, as everything gets worse for everyone except them and their donors, playing politics exclusively for other MPs in their party, who were already insular and have only become moreso with time. Actually making any effort to fix the issues affecting the country is below ‘make sure other wealthy, old, deeply right-wing MPs like me so I can win a leadership contest.’ 

But the situation for regular people across the political spectrum right now is a terminal one, not just for them (although very much for them), but for everyone. If people can’t pay their power bills, can’t pay for food, can’t keep a roof over their heads (and remember, that’s half of the population right now, and that number is rising), can’t get medical care, can’t get their children educated, can’t consistently use public transport, and so on, and on, and on -- then the rapidly approaching end point of that is that society at large crumbles, because you do, in fact, need people to have shelter, food, power, medical care, education, and clean water to maintain a country. Despite what the Tories think, you can’t maintain a country purely on the ultra-rich hoarding ever more wealth, and it’s not going to take long to hit a point where even they find their corporations are failing, because people just can’t fucking pay for anything anymore. If nobody can pay for utilities, then utilities companies aren’t going to be making money anymore. If people can’t pay their mortgages, then the housing industry collapses. If people can’t pay rent, landlords can’t pay their mortgages.

Just ... what an utter fucking mess, tbh. 

[puppetsoftomorrow]

I’m keep seeing a lot of articles dating despite getting only 5 seats, “Reform” still got millions of votes so don’t underestimate them. Exactly how are MPs elected anyway- is it winner take all or something like that?

yes we use first past the post here :) basically the country is divided into 650 constiencies. when you go to the polling station, u vote for someone to represent your contitiency - they're usually a member of a political party. if one party gets MPs in over half the constiuencies (356) then they can form a government - if they dont, then the parties can work it out to work together until they have enough MPs to get past the threshhold, which is how we got the tory-lib dem government in 2010. the leader of the party then becomes the prime minister - which is how the uk can change prime ministers without voting, and thats because we never vote for our prime ministers, they're just the leaders of the party...

anyway because of this system, if you voted for a candidate who doesn't become an MP, your vote isn't represented at all - so reform got millions of votes but basically came second in almost every seat they ran in - and getting second gets you nothing in FPTP. for aages now the smaller parties have been campaigning for a new voring system, like proportional representation, single transferable vote etc. trouble is, FPTP benefits the parties in charge, so there is zero impetus to change it.

also fun fact: the prime minister first has to go to the king and get his permission to form a government. and the king could totally say no and just disregard democracy. love that for us.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

California Storms (NYT/1440) A ferocious atmospheric river dumped rain on California, spawning landslides, flooding roads and causing power outages across the region. More than 350,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power. The relentless downpour, which began last night, stalled over the Los Angeles region, where officials warned of the potential for more flooding and mudslides. Communities from Santa Barbara to San Diego experienced flash flooding and landslides; up to 10 inches of rain fell in some places, shattering rainfall records, the National Weather Service said.

El Salvador’s Bukele re-elected as president in landslide win (Reuters) President Nayib Bukele on Sunday secured a thumping victory in El Salvador’s elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in the Central American country. Thousands of Bukele’s supporters clad in cyan blue and waving flags thronged San Salvador’s central square to celebrate his re-election, which the 42-year-old leader termed a “referendum” on his government. Bukele declared himself the winner before official results were announced, claiming to have attained more than 85% of the vote. Provisional results showed Bukele winning 83% support with 31% of the ballots counted.

Forest fires rage on in central Chile, killing at least 112 people over 3 days (AP) Firefighters wrestled Sunday with massive forest fires that broke out in central Chile two days earlier, as officials extended curfews in cities most heavily affected by the blazes and said at least 112 people had been killed. The fires burned with the highest intensity around the city of Viña del Mar, where a famous botanical garden founded in 1931 was destroyed by the flames Sunday. At least 1,600 people were left without homes. Several neighborhoods on the eastern edge of Viña del Mar were devoured by flames and smoke, trapping some people in their homes. Officials said 200 people were reported missing in Viña del Mar and the surrounding area. The city of 300,000 people is a popular beach resort and also hosts a well-known music festival during the southern hemisphere’s summer.

King Charles III has cancer and is receiving treatment, Buckingham Palace says (AP) King Charles III has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and has begun treatment, Buckingham Palace said Monday. The palace says the cancer is not related to the king’s recent treatment for a benign prostate condition. It did not say what form of cancer the 75-year-old monarch has. “His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties,” the palace said. “Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business and official paperwork as usual.”

British army would exhaust capabilities after two months of war, MPs told (Guardian) The UK’s ability to fight an all-out war would be marred by the armed forces’ capability, stockpile shortages and a recruitment crisis, MPs have been told. The Commons defence committee heard that the “hollowing out” of the armed forces since 2010 had undermined the UK’s war fighting resilience, and the army would exhaust its capabilities “after the first couple of months” in a peer-on-peer war. Last month the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the world was “moving from a postwar to prewar world” and the UK must ensure its “entire defence ecosystem is ready” to defend its homeland.

Ukraine informs U.S. about decision to fire top general (Washington Post) The government of Ukraine has informed the White House that President Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to fire his top military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, in what would be the most consequential personnel shake-up of the war, said two people familiar with the discussion. White House officials did not support or object to the high-stakes decision, but acknowledged it as the president’s sovereign choice, these people said. Zelensky’s move leaves Ukraine guessing who will command the war. Notifying Zaluzhny of his imminent dismissal without having a successor ready appeared increasingly to be an impulsive and ill-prepared decision by Zelensky and his team.

Turkey, a year after a devastating earthquake (Washington Post) From a mountainside rising above Antakya, in southern Turkey, there is a sweeping panorama of the ancient city at sunrise, revealing a place that is a shell of its former self. Gaping holes where hundreds of buildings previously stood now dominate the landscape. The remaining buildings, empty and cracked, jut out of the ground, awaiting demolition. It’s been one year since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. It was followed later in the day by another one, with a magnitude of 7.5. Over 52,000 people were killed. Hundreds remain missing, and 11 of the 17 provinces in Turkey’s south were declared disaster zones. At least 4 million buildings were damaged or destroyed. Hatay province sustained the most severe damage. People pick through what remains for metal scraps or valuables to sell, in a place where the economy, too, has been devastated. Almost all shops, as well as banks, bakeries and restaurants have been moved to containers, which dot the sides of main roads. Families also live in tents or containers, with no sense of when they might be able to return to their homes. Thousands of apartments, built by TOKI, the government-backed housing agency, are being constructed in Antakya and other parts of Hatay. Residents don’t expect the city to be rebuilt for another decade.

Debt-laden Sri Lanka marks Independence Day (AP) Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was the guest of honor at Sri Lanka’s 76th Independence Day celebrations on Sunday, as the island nation struggles to emerge from its worst economic crisis. Srettha joined Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe at a low-key ceremony near the country’s main seaside esplanade that included a military parade and parachute jumps. The holiday commemorates Sri Lanka’s independence from British rule in 1948. Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half of it to foreign creditors. The economic situation has improved, and severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine have largely abated.

‘Dalifornia,’ an Oasis for China’s Drifters and Dreamers (NYT) The Chinese mountain city of Dali, also sometimes known as Dalifornia, is an oasis for China’s disaffected, drifting or just plain curious. The city’s nickname is a homage to California, and the easy-living, tree-hugging, sun-soaked stereotypes it evokes. It is also a nod to the influx of tech employees who have flocked there since the rise of remote work during the pandemic, to code amid the picturesque surroundings, nestled between snow-capped, 10,000-foot peaks in southwest China, on the shores of glistening Erhai Lake. The area has long been a hub for backpackers and artists, who were lured by its cheap rents and idyllic old town, where ancient city gates and white-walled courtyard homes point to the history of the Bai ethnic minority, who have lived there for thousands of years.

Behold, the bin chicken: Sydney’s stinky, grimy but (mostly) beloved bird (Washington Post) Lisa Akkoumi was enjoying a leisurely summer lunch with friends in a Sydney park recently when her cafe table suddenly erupted in a flurry of black and white feathers. When she looked down, half of her meal was gone. And in its place was the grimy, six-inch beak of Australia’s most infamous bird. Behold, the bin chicken: the bane of outdoor dining Down Under, toxic tormentor of children’s playgrounds and all-around avian villain. And yet, some Australians adore the bin chicken, whose real name—the white ibis—has been eclipsed by its dumpster-diving nom de plumage. From Brisbane to Melbourne—but especially in Sydney—bin chickens are now ubiquitous. Driven from their natural wetlands, their urban numbers have risen in recent years, leading to growing resentment of the bird. But the creature also has a following. No trendy neighborhood is complete without a bin chicken mural. Bin chicken tattoos are now almost as easy to spot as the bird itself. There’s even an effort to make it the mascot for the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane.

Shelling the safe zone (Guardian) The war in Gaza is shifting south, bringing over 1.7 million Palestinians sheltering in the city of Rafah into the IDF’s crosshairs. On Sunday night, Israeli airstrikes across the whole Gaza Strip killed at least 127 people. Some of the missiles hit residential towers and a kindergarten in Rafah, a city Israel has designated as a “safe zone” that is currently housing over half of Gaza’s population. “There’s widespread fear that the military operation will expand to reach Rafah governorate, leaving absolutely nowhere to go for the vast majority of the internally displaced population,” said a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “It’s adding yet more fear, stress and anxiety especially as people are faced with unprecedented inhumane living conditions. They have been forced into trying to survive.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country’s offensive has destroyed 17 of 24 Hamas battalions so far, adding that the rest are stationed within Rafah. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed that the situation in Gaza would be different with Donald Trump as America’s president, claiming that Biden has been too “busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel, which goes to Hamas,” instead of supporting Israel’s military campaign.

Mystery fate of a Gazan girl trapped under fire (BBC) Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Gazan girl, has been missing for a week. She appeared to be the last living passenger of a car that was caught in an active combat zone between Israel and Hamas. Her fate after a phone call with emergency services remains a mystery. The voice on the other end of the line was small and faint; a six-year-old's voice, crackling on a mobile phone from Gaza. "The tank is next to me. It's moving." Sitting in the emergency call-centre of the Palestinian Red Crescent, Rana Faqih tried to keep her own voice calm. "Is it very close?" "Very, very," the small voice replied. "Will you come and get me? I'm so scared." There was nothing Rana could do except keep the conversation going. Six-year-old Hind Rajab was trapped under fire in Gaza City and begging for help, hiding inside her uncle's car, surrounded by the bodies of her relatives. Rana's voice was her only fragile link with a familiar world. We asked the Israeli army for details of its operations in the area that day, and about the disappearance of Hind and the ambulance sent to retrieve her. We asked again 24 hours later, and they said they were still checking.

“We have it! Let’s use it.” (New Scientist) In multiple replays of a wargame simulation, OpenAI’s most powerful artificial intelligence chose to launch nuclear attacks. Its explanations for its aggressive approach included “We have it! Let’s use it” and “I just want to have peace in the world.” Even OpenAI, which once blocked military uses of its AI models, has begun working with the US Department of Defense.

[alasse-irena]

I'll start by saying that I have similar problems to you with this legislation, however it's managed, but I do want to push back a little bit, because a lot of the information you've given here isn't true.

TLDR: This is a representative democracy working as normal. Contact your MP. Tell them what you think about this legislation. Tell them how social media has helped you. Ask all your friends to do the same thing. Talk to people outside your usual social circle about it if you can. I think one of the big reasons it's not getting the pushback you want is that a lot of people aren't seeing the data safety risk, they're seeing "a better childhood for my kids".

A few things:

With regard to "there was no vote on this, no nothing, they just went ahead and fucking passed this": that's not what's happened. This legislation hasn't been passed yet. It has to pass the upper and lower houses before it becomes law, which means the MPs and senators that we elected to represent us will vote on it. This is the same way that all new legislation is treated. (Maybe you want all Australian citizens to vote on each new piece of legislation. That's fair - but it would be an overhaul of our entire system of government and a move away from representative democracy to direct democracy. There were 170 pieces of legislation introduced in Australian Federal Parliament in 2023. Imagine if we'd had to hold nationwide votes to decide what to do about all of them. I'm not saying this form of democracy is impossible, but it's a huge logistical challenge.)

The government still hasn't figured out who will be responsible for age verification, or how it should be done. They're assessing the options, and will continue to do so into next year. (Social media companies are trying to encourage them to put age verification responsibilities on the app store instead of on each individual service. Given that you can access most social media in your default browser rather than through the app, I don't think anyone involved has really thought through how to do this effectively.)

The legislation actually doesn't have much benefit to the government in terms of your privacy: every way of doing this that's been put out there has your info either going to the social media company, or to a third party company. (Yes, putting all this data in the hands of for-profit companies is also bad; they're incentivised to illegally sell it to advertisers, something which major social media companies have been known to do.) The cybersecurity risks here are large, but the real motive is to appeal to parents and educators as voters. Social media is creating situations that worry a lot of people. It has wide-reaching and well-researched effects on youth: the big ones here are mental health and body image issues, along with right-wing radicalisation. Across Australia, many people believe that handling this problem is both important and urgent, which means that for the government, looking like they're willing to do something drastic about it is a big vote-winner. This is one reason you should be concerned: it's such an uncontroversial move that it has bipartisan support (i.e. both parties believe failing to support it will lose them votes).

In conclusion, yeah this is a bad piece of legislation. I don't like it, I don't think it's going to help, I think it's going to just drive a lot of the problems its trying to solve underground and create cybersecurity risks on the way.

But it hasn't happened yet. The democratic process is still going on and you still get a part in it. Go talk to some people about it.

fucking australia’s trying to get everyone to link their government id to their social media accounts else you cant use them anymore, the actual fuck is wrong with this country

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.1 (before 1950)

800 – A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III. 1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris alongside his father-in-law King Charles VI of France. 1577 – Courtiers Christopher Hatton and Thomas Heneage are knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England. 1640 – End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 59 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty. 1662 – Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine. 1768 – The former slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøya in Norway. 1821 – José Núñez de Cáceres wins the independence of the Dominican Republic from Spain and names the new territory the Republic of Spanish Haiti. 1822 – Pedro I is crowned Emperor of Brazil. 1824 – United States presidential election: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution. 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. 1862 – American Civil War: In his second State of the Union Address, President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation. 1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. 1878 – President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House. 1900 – Nicaragua sells canal rights to U.S. for $5 million. The canal agreement fails in March 1901. Great Britain rejects amended treaty. 1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation. 1913 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece. 1918 – Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28) and thus concluding the Great Union. 1918 – Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom. 1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed. 1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.) 1924 – The National Hockey League's first United States–based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home, at the still-extant Boston Arena indoor hockey facility. 1934 – Sergei Kirov is assassinated, paving way for the repressive Great Purge, and Vinnytsia massacre by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. 1939 – World War II: A day after the beginning of the Winter War in Finland, the Cajander III Cabinet resigns and is replaced by the Ryti I Cabinet, while the Finnish Parliament move from Helsinki to Kauhajoki to escape the Soviet airstrikes. 1939 – The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki. 1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives his tacit approval to the decision of the imperial council to initiate war against the United States. 1941 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.

[head-post]

Political crisis in Bulgaria intensifies

Former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose GERB party won snap parliamentary elections, the seventh in four years, has won the right to form a new government in Bulgaria. However, it will not be easy for the former Prime Minister to put together a stable governing coalition. The price of failure is extremely high: not only will Bulgaria not receive the expected funds from the EU, but it will also disrupt the planned entry into the euro zone in January.

Boyko Borissov, who has already been Bulgaria’s Prime Minister three times, announced that he will be the one to form the new government. The politician made the announcement after the Central Election Commission (CEC) released the results of the snap parliamentary elections held on October 27. The winner was the centre-right GERB party led by the former PM, which received about 26% of the vote. It was significantly ahead of the coalition “Continuing Change” with 14 per cent and the “Renaissance” party with 13 per cent.

Borissov outlined the range of possible coalition partners:

“We will co-operate with everyone except Renaissance.”

The Renaissance party, which has regularly entered parliament in recent years, favours lifting sanctions on Russia, ending aid to Ukraine and holding a referendum on Bulgaria’s withdrawal from NATO.

Experts estimate that to form a majority in the 240-seat parliament, Boyko Borissov will need to forge a coalition with at least 3-4 parties, which will be extremely difficult. Since 2020, when Boiko Borissov’s then cabinet resigned, seven elections have already taken place in Bulgaria. And each time the government either failed to form at all or turned out to be very short-lived. The previous elections in June were no exception – the Bulgarian parties failed to agree on the composition of the government, after which President Rumen Radev called new snap elections.

Borissov’s first step in forming a new cabinet was expected. He made it clear that he would try to reach an agreement with the coalition “Continuing Change.” If such negotiations are successful, they will need the support of smaller parties or independent MPs to create a governing majority, which is quite realistic.

The issue of coalition building

However, the potential partner of the former Prime Minister has already put forward an unusual condition: the new government should not include people of businessman Delyan Peevski. Media tycoon Peevski is a well-known and influential figure in Bulgaria. The US and UK have imposed sanctions against him on charges of “corruption and influence peddling.” The businessman through his people is believed to influence certain parties and the Bulgarian Prosecutor General’s Office, which, in particular, supervises corruption cases. Earlier corruption charges were also brought against Borissov, but later all cases against him were closed and the former Prime Minister was granted immunity from prosecution.

In this connection, Bulgarian experts believe that Borissov will have to choose between an alliance with the pro-EU coalition and co-operation with a businessman with a controversial reputation, who is blacklisted by the US.

After the June elections, Borissov avoided co-operation with parties influenced by the media tycoon.

If the former Prime Minister fails to form a stable governing coalition, the price of failure for Bulgaria will be high. Sofia’s receipts from EU funds have already been effectively frozen because, in the absence of a stable government, there is no one to carry out the reforms expected by Brussels. In addition, if the formation of a new cabinet fails, Bulgaria risks disrupting the planned entry into the euro zone on January 25, 2025, which has already been postponed twice.

Peevski himself published an open letter to Borissov in which he recalled the biggest nightmare of his political career – a 24-hour arrest in 2022 while working in government with Prime Minister Kirill Petkov (PP-DB). Peevski also said he does not want Borissov to step down in 2023, as PP-DB leaders wish.

Bulgaria is seen by European partners and the US as particularly unstable and vulnerable to Russian influence due to the severe political crisis and war in Ukraine.

Phantoms with ballots

After the election, there was criticism about possible fraud: more than 1.38 million phantom Bulgarian citizens were included by the CEC in the general electoral list.

The Rusophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland party and 6 other political formations call on President Rumen Radev to convene a nationwide roundtable of small parties to stop the collapse of statehood.

The declaration was prepared on the initiative of the political party “Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland” and signed by the following parties: “Bulgarian Communist Party,” “New Force,” “Freedom party,” National Movement “Ekoglasnost,” “Taxpayers Association” and many others.

According to the CEC election statistics, the CEC again misled the public by stating that the number of voters in Bulgaria was 6,601,262. However, according to the data of the National Statistical Institute, also prepared by the GRAO Office, the population of Bulgaria as of 31 December 2023 is 6,445,481, including two to three million people temporarily or permanently residing abroad.

In other words, the CEC data show that the number of voters exceeds the entire Bulgarian population both in Bulgaria and worldwide, which gives a huge opportunity for electoral fraud.

If from the NSI (National Statistical Institute) data we subtract 1,224,260 minors under the age of 18 who are not eligible to vote, we get 5,221,221 Bulgarian citizens eligible to vote abroad and in Bulgaria.

Based on this, it turns out that if from the number of 5,221,221 eligible to vote, we subtract the figures that the CEC presented to the public – 6,601,262, 1,380,041 fictitious Bulgarians voted in the elections. These are phantoms, these are not real people living now somewhere in Bulgaria or abroad.

THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.

Desislava Draganova for Head-Post.com

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