What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Politics Just Became More Interesting

    There’s a lot of soul searching going on in the UK over the European Election results. Here’s my take on it all…

    • Those complaining most about the low turnout need to think about what they want to do in order to stop low turnout. The best thing to do is to join a political party and work to get people to the ballot box to vote for what you believe in.
    • Trouble is, I don’t find a party I want to belong to.
    • The above 2 points are the problem.  (Or at least, they are my problem with politics at the moment).
    • The media coverage from the BBC seemed particularly biased. I don’t like criticising the Beeb because I love it but it really did seem to have become the UKIP Broadcasting Corperation and I still can’t quite fathom why.
    • I don’t think I know a single person who has told me they were supporting UKIP. Now – is that because I’m in a little bubble and I genuinely don’t know anyone who votes that way or is it because voting that way is not socially acceptable?
    • Nick Clegg made a number of strategic errors in taking on Nigel Farrage in TV debates. Firstly it got Farrage even more coverage and allowed him to appear to be an equal when he wasn’t. Secondly Clegg failed to merge the UKIP and Tory brand. (People like me wonder whether he is opposed to the Tories at all – he just doesn’t come across as disliking what they stand for and someone in his position needs to be able to convey something a little stronger than dislike). Thirdly, he didn’t really do it well enough – die-hard party members were impressed by him but that’s not what the exercise is all about. Keep it Simple is still effective. (One of the posts that I had up recently which got lots of traction was about why I’m supportive of the EU because of mobile phone roaming, oh yes, and because we don’t tend to go to war in Western Europe with one another as once we did).
    • Policywise I hope that political parties concentrate on those who didn’t vote rather than those who voted UKIP.
    • I fear they won’t.
    • I was surprised that the SNP did not increase their share of the vote.
    • I wasn’t surprised that the Lib Dem vote collapsed.
    • I feel for the Greens who were struggling to get a word in edgeways. I kind of wish that I could vote Green but the trouble is, they’ve got their policies.
    • The Liberal Democrats are not going to do better until they have a change in leader and until there is obvious contrition. It is going to get worse before it gets better.
    • I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but I can’t take the leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland seriously.
    • Thank God there was no “Christian” party on the ballot paper.
    • Politics just got more interesting because people don’t know what it all means and don’t know what comes next.
    • That’s the best politics in the world.

    You got your own take? Share it in the comments below.

    , , ,

15 responses to “The Trump of Judgement for Liberals”

  1. Guy Avatar
    Guy

    I heard someone talking on the radio who had looked at actual voting data (wherever such people get that from). Predictors of whether someone was a Trump voter, though by no means decisive ones, were whether someone earned more than $50000, had never gone to college or had done so but dropped out, was male, and over 44 years old. But there were people in those categories who had voted for Clinton as well. Even the much spoken of Hispanic vote was not as big a predictor of voting preference as thought and there were too many women who hated Hilary Clinton for misogyny to be the overarching factor.

    The stand out predictor which went across all categories was colour, whites going for Trump, up to %58.

    This vote was an anti-Obama backlash from people who couldn’t quite forgive the fact that an African-American had been running the show for eight years, whether the racism was of the vitriolic nasty sort or the more urbane sort that says that some of the other lot are probably ok, but only as long as we don’t have to actually mix with them and they’re somewhere else, it amounts to the same thing. The analyst speaking referred to a sort of nostalgia for when whites seemed to be in overall charge of everything.

    As to our response: as far as I can see the reason American politics is so vitriolic is because Liberals and Conservatives hate each other and also want to remake the other side in their own image.

    Love the other: well very gospel, but pretty darned hard when you struggle to even like xenophobic misogynistic lgbt-haters, let alone love them!

    Love might be the attitude that those of us who call ourselves Christians have to struggle towards, but I’m less sanguine than Kelvin is on this one and the verse that keeps going through my mind is the bit in Ecclesiastes about there being a time for this a time for that.

    Sometimes conflict is inevitable and has to be fought to a finish. You can’t react to the kind of person who shouted out at Trump’s victory speech “jail Obama” on the basis of well, six of one and half a dozen of the other. And such people aren’t exactly amenable to sweet reason.

    On the other hand sometimes people have just to be left alone. Forceably trying to remake the other in your own image just antagonises.

    I think our response has to be to discern the difference between the two situations. And to redouble our efforts to make sure that a Trump can’t become Prime Minister in the UK.

    Reply
  2. Eamonn Avatar
    Eamonn

    A prophetic and timely warning, Kelvin. What Trump represents is on the way to becoming a global phenomenon. The tone of his rallies, and the chanting of mindless slogans, is all too reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. The fact that his election has been welcomed by Marine le Pen and other far-right leaders in Europe speaks volumes.

    Reply
  3. Guy Avatar
    Guy

    Something to think about: when it penetrates the general consciousness that the majority of white conservative evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, what if anything will be the fall out for Christianity as a whole?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • The Jury is Out

    Now, the question is this: if you were accused in court of doing some nefarious deed, would you want to see me on the jury bench? Well, that is not quite the question. The question is really whether or not you think that clergy should have an automatic right to be exempt from jury service…

  • West End meets Maryhill Road

    Don’t miss Layclerk’s story about what happened to him on the way to a choir party over the weekend. An excellent account of what happens when the West End meets Maryhill Road. Layclerk lives in what I think is called the Outer West End of the city. Once you’ve read his tale, head on over…

  • Morning Prayer, anyone?

    Remember the post I made about liturgical typography? It still gets plenty of readers. Even though it was a bit of a rant, it did spur me on to produce quite a lot of wee bookies for morning prayer, to make it easier for those coming for the Daily Office at 0930. It is a…

  • Still snuffling

    I’ve spent most of the last week snuffling. Many tissues have been expended, much lemsip has been consumed and all the while, I’ve not been moaning. “Do you have a man-cold?” I’ve been asked on more than on occassion. I’ve denied it so far. After all, I think it is far better to leave man-colds…