The devil you know

Polling day in the UK yesterday. Here in Nerja, the first banners are being hung and bill boards are being mounted to contain posters for the town's mayoral election. I remember this happening the first time I was here on duty. I haven't yet registered when the local election takes place.

This afternoon I walked uphill again into the San Juan deCapistrano urbanizacion, hunting for more bird photos, but was unsuccessful. I did catch sight of the remarkable pair of brightly coloured birds. I disturbed them on the ground, and they took flight before I could get my camera working, but this is supporting evidencd for the fact that these are indeed hoopoes. Maybe if I return again a little more alert, with shutter in multiple shot mode, I may get lucky next time.

I kept BBC News on after the polls closed, 23.00 here in Spain, to catch the exit polls, greeted with disbelief at the possibility of a narrow Tory victory, landslide SNP vote and collapse of the Lib Dems and near demise of the minor parties. It was grimly entertaining watching various politicians trying to talk themselves out of accepting the statistics. A subjective view of events rarely matches reality.

By 03.00, I was falling asleep, surrendered, and went to bed. By 08.00 I was up again and hunting for the results, if not waiting for them to come in. A good Lib Dem MP lost to a Tory victory in Central Cardiff, our constitutency last time around. The standing Labour MP in Cardiff West re- elected, and Cardiff North goes Tory, along with the Gower. I stuck it out with breakfast and elevenses in front of the TV, giving up only when I was satisfied that Nigel Farrage had not been elected, and UKIP had only got one seat. 

Then the victory celebrations, followed by three party leadership resignations in the same hour. At 15.00, Clegg, Milliband and Cameron were stood shoulder to shoulder at the 70th VE day anniversary ceremony at the Whitehall Cenotaph. A final public act, giving closure to a challenging era in British politics, of coalition following a hung parliament, and endless speculation that UK was becoming more like other states in Europe where coalition political brokering is the norm not the exception.

So, in effect, we're back to majority rule by virtue of an antiquated, anomaly ridden first past the post electoral system which our european partners have for the most part abandoned. Whilst I detest the policies and ideology of UKIP, across the board they got 13% of the vote on a 66% voter turnout. That equates to 8% of the total electorate. Under a proportional representation system, UKIP like other minority parties would have got more representation, like it or not, but all parties would have to engage in a conciliation process from which all would learn and realistic compromises of policy would be reachable that ultimately all but the real crazies would be able to own. It's messier and less efficient, but I believe would be more beneficial. 

So, I'm sorry the coalition has been crushed by the majority of voters, in favour of the status quo. It's what the more mature political analysts said would happen anyway. People mostly need certainty and the uncertainties of coalition are less preferable than the default first past the post position. In other words, better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.  But what happens when the devil you know betrays the confidence so anxiously imparted to it? We shall see. One can only thank God that the democratic process itself is secure, established and not subject to the kinds of threat it has to endure in so many countries around the world.

  

After a dozy afternoon I emerged for a stroll in the sunshine down to town and back, conscious of the need for plenty of exercise to boost my activity level, after a couple of TV couch potato days. Down in the Plaza El Salvador, I saw for the first time Nerja's shiny new tourist road train. It's electrically  powered by rooftop solar panels, so much more congenial and unpolluting than the former diesel powered one. Let's hope that the new mayoral administration doesn't decide to axe it, the way the tram got axed in Velez Malaga.