Westminster

The Sun Still Has Not Set

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / 1 Comment

“You can’t have occupation and human rights.” – Christopher Hitchens

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I threw out this week’s planned newsletter (a defence of the Tourist Levy) in response to some breaking news on Thursday morning that concerns a story that I’ve been following for some years (albeit very much from the farthest fringes of the outside).

The UK, after many years of arguing against an international consensus that campaigned against their illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Chagos Islands, has agreed to hand sovereignty of the islands back to Mauritius who were stripped of the territories when they won their independence from the UK in 1968.

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The Devolution Deficit

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / Leave a comment

“Humanity’s true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy” – Milan Kundera

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Despite plenty of warning before the elections, new Chancellor Rachel Reeves has suddenly discovered a massive “hidden” black hole in the UK’s finances and she needs to make “difficult choices” to fix it. This is hardly to excuse the last 14 years of Conservative rule – it’s not as if they made a particular secret about their attempts to hollow the nation out for their own benefit – but as Robin has explained, political figures never seem to make “difficult choices” that would make things difficult for those who can afford it.

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The Election That Everyone Lost

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / Leave a comment

It is almost unnecessary to observe that the British Government had for more than a century been and could only be a Whig Government; and that the present administration is, as every administration in this country must necessarily be, a Whig administration. – UK Government Ministerial Memorandum to the Prince Regent, 1812

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If you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support this blog, you can here.

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Who were the winners in the General Election? I can tell you who won power for the next few years, but it’s harder to find who actually “Won” rather than just who lost less hard than everyone else. This is a major problem for democracy in the UK and one that needs to be fixed before the next election or we’re going to be put in a potentially very dangerous situation. The low turnout and catastrophically unfair First Past The Post voting system we have has resulted in a government with massive power, almost no possible accountability but simultaneously the most brittle mandate for that power possible.

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Democratic Mandate

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / Leave a comment

“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.” – E.B. White

This post and the research underpinning it is undertaken in my own time and outwith other political work that I do. It is presented here free to access as a public service but if you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support this work, you can here.

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It’s time to do a democracy.

Between 7am and 10pm on the 4th of July 2024, the people of the UK (well, those who are allowed to vote) will choose the next government of the UK. If polls are to believed, this could be the most significant election in almost a decade and a half though whether that is a good or a bad thing will be a subject best answered between you and the pencil in the Polling Station.

Even if no-one in your constituency has won your vote, I would still ask you to turn out and spoil your ballot if that is the best option you can think of. As someone said to me recently, not voting says that you are happy with the result regardless of what it is while spoiling the ballot tells the politicians that you’re not happy with any of the choices given to you.

If, however, you have made up your mind, remember that your chosen candidate won’t get your vote if you don’t cast it so please make every effort to do so.

If you’re still not sure how your vote translates into seats and power, read my guide here.

And if you’re still not sure who to vote for, then check out my manifesto library which might help you come to a decision.

I’ll be back after the results come out to let you know what I think and where Scotland may be going from there.

And to all of the candidates brave enough to subject themselves to this contest, Be true to the reasons you’re standing, and good luck!
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The UK’s Democracy Is Broken – Why Does No-One Want To Fix It?

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / 1 Comment

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker

(This is an extended version of an article that previously appeared in The National. You can throw me a tip to support this blog here.)

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Given the audience likely to read this column, the statement “UK democracy is broken” isn’t going to feel uncontroversial or even particularly objectionable, but it is one that is being forced into sharp relief by the ongoing UK General Election campaign. We’re are all, regardless of our political leanings, being ill served by it.

This column started with a thought around the claims that the UK Labour Party are eyeing the potential of winning a “supermajority” after next Thursday with the loudest complainants of such a result being those in conservative circles. Understandably so as it would mean Labour winning a majority so large that they can’t possibly be challenged by the Opposition and so large that they don’t even need to worry about a rebellion on the back benches or the inevitable trickle of by-elections triggered by scandal, illness and the march of time threatening to flip the balance of power.

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What Happened To GB Energy?

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / Leave a comment

“In a world where vows are worthless.Where making a pledge means nothing. Where promises are made to be broken, it would be nice to see words come back into power.” – Chuck Palahniuk

(This blog post previously appeared in Common Weal’s weekly newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter here.)

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One of Common Weal’s most important policy successes has been how we’ve pushed the debate in Scotland and beyond on the issue of publicly owned energy. Energy is absolutely vital to our entire economy regardless of which side of the left-right spectrum you believe that economy should serve (as Prof Steve Keen puts it: “Capital without energy is a sculpture; Labour without energy is a corpse.”) and in the UK we, unlike many other states, have decided to sell off our energy sector to the point that more of our energy is owned by the public sectors of other nations than is owned by our own, never mind the vast swathes owned by private multinationals that are the size of countries.

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UK General Election 2024:- The Manifestos

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / 5 Comments

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

(This post and the research underpinning it is undertaken in my own time and outwith other political work that I do. It is presented here free to access as a public service but if you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support this work, you can here.)

Vote

The campaign for the 2024 UK General Election is underway and parties are now laying out their positions and are courting your votes. As I have with every other election since I started this blog, I’ll continue keeping a place here for party neutral information, including a post aimed at first time voters on how to vote in the elections and how that vote is translated into seats. I have written a guide on how to vote in the upcoming election and how your vote is translated into MSPs’ seats. You can read that guide here.

As a voter, it can be difficult to find information on what each of the parties are promising you – their websites can be confusing and there may be a lot of them. In this post I intend to gather as many of the political party manifestos as I can as they are published so that you can find them in one place. Unfortunately, I can’t cover independent candidates fairly and whilst I would like to be as inclusive as possible I may miss a few of the smaller parties or they may not be publishing a full manifesto (particularly if they are a single issue party). As this is a Scotland-focused blog my general rule is that for inclusion the manifesto must from from a registered political party that is standing at least two candidates across at least two constituencies in Scotland. However, I shall try to include manifestos from parties campaigning outwith Scotland but elsewhere in the UK. If parties release a distinctly Scottish version of their manifesto in addition to their UK version, I shall link to both. If you spot the publication of a manifesto before I do, please let me know and I’ll add it. I shall also welcome advance notice from party representatives themselves of when they plan to publish their manifesto.

All of the manifestos below are presented for your information and the presence or absence of any of them should not be taken as an endorsement or otherwise of any of the parties or of any of the policies that they may be promoting.

Note:- Parties marked in square brackets are placeholders for now and the prospective list may change as manifestos are published, parties emerge or, indeed, parties drop out of the electoral race.

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How Scotland Votes: A Guide to the 2024 UK General Election

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / 1 Comment

“Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.” – Terry Pratchett

(This post and the research underpinning it was undertaken in my own time and outwith other political work that I do. It is presented here free to access as a public service but if you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support that work, you can here.)

Vote

Disclosure and Disclaimer: Although I am politically active – albeit not a member of any political party – this guide is intended to be objective and politically neutral. This is a guide on how to vote and is written with a first time voter in mind. It is not a blog to try to convince you to vote for or against any particular person or party but to help you cast your vote and to understand how that vote translates and contributes to the final result.

For the first time since 2015, the UK has managed to complete a relatively normal length of time between General Elections, though since the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliament Act, a “normal” period of time is no longer the fixed period of five years but may be called at any time by the incumbent Prime Minister so long as not more than five years has passed. The absolute deadline for the current term was January 2025 but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pulled the trigger a little earlier than that (and a little earlier than most commentators expected as many thought we’d see an election around September or October). Whatever his reasons – and he doesn’t strictly need any – Parliament has been dissolved, all of our MPs have lost their jobs and many of them – as well as a slew of other potential candidates – are now courting your vote to try to win a seat in the House of Commons. This vote will take place on Thursday 4th July 2024.

If you want to take part in this election, and particularly if it’s your first time ever doing so or if it’s not but you’d like to know how your vote translates into seats and MPs, then this guide is for you. If you’re looking for someone to tell you who to vote for, then I won’t do that here but please do check out my list of all of the published party manifestos which may help guide your vote.

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“Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.” – Terry Pratchett

(This post and the research underpinning it was undertaken in my own time and outwith other political work that I do. It is presented here free to access as a public service but if you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support that work, you can here.)

Vote

Disclosure and Disclaimer: Although I am politically active – albeit not a member of any political party – this guide is intended to be objective and politically neutral. This is a guide on how to vote and is written with a first time voter in mind. It is not a blog to try to convince you to vote for or against any particular person or party but to help you cast your vote and to understand how that vote translates and contributes to the final result.

For the first time since 2015, the UK has managed to complete a relatively normal length of time between General Elections, though since the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliament Act, a “normal” period of time is no longer the fixed period of five years but may be called at any time by the incumbent Prime Minister so long as not more than five years has passed. The absolute deadline for the current term was January 2025 but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pulled the trigger a little earlier than that (and a little earlier than most commentators expected as many thought we’d see an election around September or October). Whatever his reasons – and he doesn’t strictly need any – Parliament has been dissolved, all of our MPs have lost their jobs and many of them – as well as a slew of other potential candidates – are now courting your vote to try to win a seat in the House of Commons. This vote will take place on Thursday 4th July 2024.

If you want to take part in this election, and particularly if it’s your first time ever doing so or if it’s not but you’d like to know how your vote translates into seats and MPs, then this guide is for you. If you’re looking for someone to tell you who to vote for, then I won’t do that here but please do check out my list of all of the published party manifestos which may help guide your vote.

Continue reading →

Extremism Bingo

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / 1 Comment

“Face your political opponents according to legitimacy, democracy, and the constitution, not hypocrisy, autocracy, and transgression.” – Ehsan Sehgal

(This blog post previously appeared in Common Weal’s weekly newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter here.)

Bingo

Rishi Sunak’s recent speech on the dangers and risks facing the UK said much more about his perceptions of the risks to his premiership than about the risks facing the people of the country itself.

This week Rishi Sunak gave a speech hosted by the Policy Exchange – a think tank that scores the lowest possible rating for financial transparency and which doesn’t appear on either the UK or Scottish Lobbying Registers. In it he unofficially but totally officially used his position as head of government to launch a party political campaign aimed to try to save his career ahead of a general election that he will have to announce within the next few months (Note: Since the initial publication of this article, Sunak has indeed called that General Election) – knowing that had he given that speech during that campaign, he almost certainly would have been forced to rewrite much of it to stay within election campaign rules. As it is, the “official” transcript of the speech is loaded with redactions where he crossed the line between Prime Minister of the Government and Leader of the Conservatives. Not that anyone who watched the speech on the TV would have been exposed to those redactions. It’s certainly an innovative approach to political transparency – to say things on the record knowing that they’ll be safely redacted from the record.

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Have The Conservatives Outlawed Themselves?

/ Dr Craig Dalzell / Leave a comment

“The abyss doesn’t stare back. It winks.” – Kresley Cole

Justice

The UK Conservatives have published their new definition of “extremism” in their continuing attempts to lock down any possibility of dissent against their increasingly authoritarian rule (the hope that that rule will only last another few months as an election looms can be quelled by the fact that the UK Labour Party isn’t particularly likely to roll back on any of these measures.

However, as with many attempts to capture as many “inconveniences” as possible under the new definition, the party has run the risk of putting itself on the list of extremists too.

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