#mp by election winners

[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

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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!

[our-queerkid-experience]

my queer kid experience is absolutely awful (tw LOTS of homophobia/transphobia)

I go to a Christian private school that, when the Cheeto man was announced as the winner of the election, the students AND teachers in my school halls cheered. All of them. During lunch, a few boys that sat at my table proudly said stuff like “if I ever met a gay person, I’d leave them on the streets to starve and die.” and other stuff like that. My own teacher said “I know we’re supposed to love LGBTQ people and stuff like that, but they’re absolute idiots and are dangerous. Only God could love them.”

Every single day, I have to live with comments like this. I’m aroace, but my best friend in this school is a closeted lesbian (? She’s still trying to figure out if she’s bi or a lesbian lol) and she heard a student say that he would want to move to a country where the murder of LGBTQ people was legal. She went up to me (keep in mind the student in particular normally is nice to her) and whispered, “does that mean he wants to kill me?” I just…I don’t know, I’m so deeply scared right now, especially since my own mother believes every word that Tr*mp says and is extremely deep into conspiracy theories. She told me that every trans person was groomed into being that way, and all LGBTQ people are an abomination of God and all that stuff. My only hope in this environment would be my father, since when I used to be homophobic (I believed every word my mother said at one point) and said something homophobic, he told me to chill out and just let people be. Idk if he’d be supportive or anything like that, since he’s barely religious, but he’s the only adult I know irl that would be somewhat chill with me being queer.

I do have a few supportive friends (the lesbian/bi friend and a therian/furry friend) but other than that, I’m so hopeless. I’m going to public school next year, and I’m praying that I’ll be able to meet other queer people, bc I’m in an orchestra connected to the public school and there’s this one person that presents really masculine and has a masculine name, but they also sound extremely feminine and stuff, so I’m literally praying they’re queer.

sorry for venting if that’s not allowed here. also, I hope you’re doing well :)

Venting is allowed, don’t worry about it!! We all need a place to let stuff out.

[mariacallous]

Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that the election of 17 MPs in the current parliament was illegitimate because of various irregularities detected in the voting process in the October 27 general election.

The MPs come from all parties in the assembly. They include Temenujka Petkova, Rumen Nenkov, Pavlin Yotov and Nikola Djambazov from the election winning party GERB; plus Esheref Esheref, from ARF (Alliance for Rights and Freedoms) and Metin Kachan and Stanislav Anastasov from MRF – New Beginning.

The ARF and MRF both emerged from the dissolution of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which attracted the vote of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish community and had a history of electoral fraud allegations. 

The other MPs named are Svetoslav Todorov and Viktor Papazov from the pro-Kremlin party Revival; Andrey Vulchev, from the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party; Ivaylo Mitkovski, from We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria; Deyan Petkov, Borislav Petkov and Rosen Ivanov, from the nationalist Unity, Moral, Honour; and Emil Trifonov, Ivan Kyuchukov and Aleksander Markov, from GERB’s ruling coalition partners, There’s Such a People.

All of them were elected by votes cast at polling stations where problematic practices were noticed, such as unregulated changes in staff, invalid ballots counted as valid and vice versa, or with information edited by the staff, differences in data between votes gathered and votes recorded, plus other kinds of administrative mistakes.

The verdict follows a four-month investigation into suspected fraud in the October elections. This culminated in a public dispute between the judges of the Constitutional Court and the Sofia Prosecution.

On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court chair claimed the Sofia Prosecution had acquired evidence, data and devices from the Central Election Committee that was not available to the court. 

The dispute prompted protests about an alleged cover-up of electoral fraud in several towns on Wednesday night. In Sofia, thousands joined a rally demanding reforms on all levels.

The case started in November after the opposition parties We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, along with a citizens’ organisation, Bulgaria United by One Goal, filed a complaint about voter manipulation allegedly connected to the MP and oligarch Delyan Peevski, who entered parliament as leader of MRF – New Beginning. 

Meanwhile, another party, Greatness, demanded a re-count after it narrowly missed the 4-per-cent threshold needed to enter parliament, by just 21 votes. A recount might send it back to parliament.

With the verdict on Thursday, the court has assigned the Electoral Commission to issue complete and final data on the voter turnout – and whether Greatness candidates should now retroactively be made members of parliament. According to the court’s calculations, the 4-per-cent threshold at the last elections was 97,390 votes, while Greatness won 97,497 votes.

This development would threaten the fragile ruling coalition, comprising election winners GERB, whose member, Rosen Zhealyazkov, is Prime Minister, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the nationalist There’s Such a People – with the important support in parliament of Ahmed Dogan’s ARF. Greatness is likely to join the opposition in parliament.

Nationalist fringe party makes a comeback 

Nationalist, Eurosceptic party Greatness proved a surprise phenomenon in the June 2024 elections after crossing the threshold on its debut, with a campaign conducted through the party’s social media channels, associated foundations, in-person meetings and free newspapers. 

The party was founded by the circle of entrepreneurs connected to a tourist site near Varna called Historical Park, which was investigated for years as a suspected Ponzi scheme by Capital newspaper. 

Greatness seemingly lost momentum: last summer, its parliamentary group disintegrated after a fallout between its two co-leaders. This also came as the prosecution probed the business enterprises of its founder, Ivelin Mihaylov, who has also been accused of developing a paramilitary unit.

For all its ideological similarities, Greatness is not allied to the main pro-Russian far-right party Revival.

Its potential return to parliament sparked criticism on Thursday from GERB’s leader Boyko Borissov, who alleged on Thursday that if Greatness enters the legislature, it might affect Bulgaria’s planned entrance to the eurozone.

[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.

[head-post]

HP_Insight

Le Pen’s arrest marks collapse of European democracy

French National Assembly party presidential candidate Marine Le pen, along with eight MEPs, has been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement of European Union funds.

The court’s verdict of four years in prison and a five-year restriction on the right to run for the cabinet has raised questions about European democracy, with critics describing the sentence as a political reprisal and an attempt by President Emmanuel Macron to get rid of a political rival.

The prosecution alleged that Le Pen had arranged sham positions of assistant MEPs for people who were actually carrying out tasks for the party she led. According to the prosecutor’s office, Marine Le Pen expanded the network of fictitious employees created by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Notably, the party’s deputies did not embezzle the money, as the prosecutor’s office insisted, but used it to pay for the work that the assistants did for them on behalf of the National Rally party, not the European Parliament. However, the substance of the accusation remains unclear, as parliamentary assistants often work both for the European Parliament and for a particular party.

Experts predict new crackdown on national-oriented European leaders amid trade wars with Trump. Critics of the European Union may use reputation scandals in an attempt to oust the authorities by pointing to ineffective foreign and domestic policies, experts warn.

Moving away from traditional “far-right”

Marine Le Pen has tried to adapt to public opinion in France by changing the party’s agenda, and her attempt to change the party’s previous image was motivated by a desire to move away from “far-right” rhetoric. To evade criticism of racism, she has also recruited North Africans into the party, with some of her bodyguards hailing from Algeria and Morocco.

Other national parties in Europe, such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) and the Sweden Democrats, have adopted a similar strategy. To increase popularity, these parties have begun to raise sensitive social issues such as the environment, cost of living and migration.

However, the tendency to promote national-oriented parties causes concern among European democrats. On several occasions, political retaliation has been used against European politicians. For example, the FPO leader was sidelined because of a political scandal, and some AfD activists suffered violent attacks.

While Le Pen is sentenced to prison, former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was forgiven for his bank fraud. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also escaped investigations into corruption schemes.

Decline of European democracy

So far, the only winner of the Le Pen scandal remains French President Emmanuel Macron, whose ratings are falling amid a failed domestic policy and ineffective initiatives to end the war in Ukraine.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini wrote on social media that what was happening resembled “a bad film that we have already seen in other countries, such as Romania.” In November 2024, candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round of Romania’s presidential election, but the results were soon cancelled under questionable pretext. After a protest by Georgescu’s supporters, the politician was arrested, released after some time, but then refused to register for a repeat election.

In the case of Marine Le Pen, the same tactic was used to prevent the politician from entering the elections, where he or she could have won. Here, as in Romania, the courts were involved.

As soon as the National Rally party became a serious political force, and Marine Le Pen, who is now leading in opinion polls, began to seriously aspire to be the next president of France, she was immediately deprived of her political future.

A few weeks ago in the German parliament, MPs called for the banning of the AfD party, which is experiencing the best time of public support. While the Greens insisted on outlawing the party, deputies from other factions tried to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court to declare the party unconstitutional. The case of Le Pen showed that it is enough to find a plausible excuse to remove a politician undesirable to European diplomacy from the race.

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.

Laurent Révial for Head-Post.com

Send your author content for publication in the INSIGHT section to headpost.social@gmail.com

[kampalaedgetimes]

Elias Luyimbazi Nalukoola Wins As Kawempe North MP with 17,764 Votes

National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Elias Luyimbazi Nalukoola has been declared the winner of the Kawempe North MP by-election after securing a decisive victory. Nalukoola garnered 17,764 votes, defeating his closest competitor, Faridah Kigongo Nambi of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), who managed 8,593 votes. “This is not my victory, nor my party’s. It’s for the people of Kawempe and…

[mariacallous]

Kosovo on Sunday will mark one month since its voters went to polls to elect a new parliament, but the process is far from over, as the Central Election Commission, CEC, still has not announced the final results.

“Certification of results first,” Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whose Vetevendosje party came first in the February 9 elections, said on Friday, asked when he will start consultations with other political leaders on the new government.

As the election winner, Kurti will be given a mandate to form a government. If he does not succeed, the mandate will pass to other leaders.

As matters stand, Vetevendosje will have 48 of the 120 seats in parliament, a figure that obliges him to find coalition partners.

After four years of ruling alone, it must likely strike a deal with one of three bitter rivals – the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, which came second, with 24 MPs, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, with 20 MPs, or the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, which won eight seats.

Under Kosovo’s electoral system, ethnic Albanian parties compete for 100 of the 120 seats, with the other 20 reserved for non-Albanian communities – 10 for Serbs and 10 for other non-majority communities, including Turks, Bosniaks, Roma, Ashkali, Gorani and Egyptians.

At loggerheads with the Belgrade-backed Sprska Lista party, which could claim all ten seats reserved for the Serb community, Kurti will have to hang his hopes on the ten other MPs coming from non-Serb minority parties.

Election legislation, however, obliges the Prime Minister to appoint at least one minister from the biggest Kosovo Serb party.

The PDK and AAK have already closed the door to any coalition agreement with Kurti, while the LDK has yet to make any commitment.

The CEC is meanwhile waiting for all procedures to be formally completed before certifying the election results.

“After the CEC announces the final results, there are some deadlines for the political entities and candidates, if they have any complaints about the results,” the CEC’s Valmir Elezi told BIRN on Friday.

Under the rules any complaint must be addressed to the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP, a panel of judges which rules on the matters.

“If parties are not satisfied with the ECAP decision, then they can address them to the Supreme Court and CEC has to wait for their decisions and implement them before the certification,” Elezi added.