I’m not a Mumsnetter but even I’ve picked up on the “Not all That Red Actually Ed Milliband” interaction that’s got some contributors frothing. There’s a Twitter hashtag #frothers and a new blog on the block I know I am going to enjoy.
And it’s not alone.
Sometimes I wonder if we walk around in private bubbles…. except they aint see-through so they’re some weird bubbles. There’s one Mum I talk to at the school gates who is equally amazed at how little we protest about the things this government are doing. I still can’t understand how the Con-Dems managed to make such sweeping, fundamental changes to the constitution within days of taking office and nobody even peeped. 5 year fixed term parliaments and a change in the vote of no confidence rule to 60% and the people of Britain barely squeaked.
What happened to us?
There’s plenty going on in the political landscape up here in Scotland, so much so that by comparison we’ve become resigned to the “fact” that the rest of Britain is happy with what’s going on.
But it’s not.
And it’s rumbling, and frothing a bit.
So I’m off to join Mumsnet.
Just in case the Independence referendum doesn’t go the way I want and I have to live with Westminster rule for another generation.
Brilliant, brilliant post! I don’t know what has happened to us – we’re one extremely dissatisfied nation, and rightly so. Yet we keep quiet about it, absorb blatant misinformation from the media, and do nothing but whinge in private – like your school-gate friend and the people in the pub.
I wonder whether people born since 1980 have simply assumed they’ll always be comfortable? That governments make sweeping changes and it all turns out okay? It’s not going to this time. We really need to remember they work for us, they’re not our bosses!
Keep #frothing
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I didn’t even know they’d made those changes!
In a way I think my generation is still a product of Thatcher’s governments when it didn’t matter how much people protested, the government still went ahead with their plans. We saw that happen in the 80s and expect the same from any Conservative government, so we don’t see the point in protesting. I don’t think the strikes on Wednesday have made one iota of difference, the government have NOT been negotiating over pensions and they continue to come to the table and NOT negotiate, we can’t stop them so why bother trying?
Disillusioned of Manchester
No confidence votes are still a simple majority i.e. 50%+1 or 326 votes in this parliament.
I get why your annoyed at 5 years. I personally think it should be 4 years but do you really think that the PM should have the power to set the date of the election to benefit his/her party?
I wrote to the political and constitutional reform committee over fixed terms as well as the AV referendum and constituencies bill.
If we want to change the way we do things, we have to build grassroots momentum and get people protesting.
Oh that’s good – I’ve read variously (in the past year) that it was 55%, 53%, 60% and 51% so I went with the highest for shock value (whistles nonchalantly…..). I do think the government should be able to call an election as and when suits them, much as I think the SNP should be allowed to call our Independence Referendum as and when suits them – Alex Salmond has said til he’s blue in the face that it will be in the second half of this parliamentary term – doesn’t stop everyone asking him tho….. over and over and over…..