Texas abortion law

Yes, I cannot disagree. The world is coming to a pretty pass.

If only there were some way we could stop electing populist, right wing, conservative politicians (who, in the case of the US, have biased its most important legal entity to the conservative, religious right for a generation, and in the case of the UK are trying to remove the scrutiny of the Courts from and Parliament from the government of the day's activites), and return to the societal progess we had been making since WWII.

Feeling disenfranchised is not really much of an excuse to usher in an era of illiberal, authoritarian ploitics and governance. Here, my right middle finger is feeling a bit disenfranchised, I'll cut it off and replace it with a chainsaw. Problem solved.

There are anit-abortionists in the UK of course, take a look at Northern Ireland (another thing our populist, right wing, conservative (no quotation marks required, whatever you're implying with them) politicians don't give a fig about), one wonders if such tripe will filter into "mainstream" right wing politics now that we've opened the door to it. Brexit was only ever going to be the hors d'oeuvre. Continuing to vote for those who did it to us is only going to lead one way.

What was it about the liberal-left government of the 1997-2010 era which so "disenfranchised" people, that the only answer was the appalling authoritarian situation we are now seeing unfold? Yes, war, I know. Terrible, terrible, terrible decision, and one which the Tory party would probably have jumped into far more quickly and enthusiastically than Labour. So let's not use that. It seems to me that the "middle England, disenfranchised" voter was akin to Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" - he was right, she was a bigot, and so it seems are millions of my fellow countrymen.

And where, please tell me, is this "crusading left you be moan? The Tories have been in power for 11 years. And anyway, before, 2010, who were they "crusading" against? Nobody, that's who. Absolutely nobody. There were simply moves to enure equanimity of opportunity and basic rights to the real marginalised groups in our society - brown people, women, homosexuals. All good. Is that what they aer so angry, so "disenfranchised" about? So "disenfranchised" that they used their franchise to elect the Tories 3,476 times and yank us out of the EU out of spite?

Where are we now? Export and import business, ruined. 150,000 unnecessary deaths. Food shortages.  Supply chains in chaos.  Freedoms of movement - gone. Rights to protest curtailed. An assault on the independence of the judiciary. Summary contempt for Parliament, unlawful behaviour as a matter of government policy, cronyism at levels never imagined here, billions shovelled down the necks of Tory party chums and acolytes, that's where we are. It's only getting worse. For what? What are we gaining? Where is the winning? I'll tell you where. The bigots and racists and xenophobes and corrput politicians and the immoral, filthy rich - the genuine elite of the country are laughing up their sleeves at us, undercover of their crusades against a non-existanc "liberal metropolitan elite".

I tell thee, EIII, I'm sick of it. And I can't comprehend how any intelligent, right thinking person can't see it.

But don't get me wrong. I'd never voted Labour in my life until December 2019, when they got my vote tactically to ensure we kept a rotten populist, authoritarian, right wing Tory candidate out of our constituency. I'd far rather have voted Lib Dem, but their candidate had zero chance here, so I did the next best thing I could, in the (vain) hope of a hung Parliamnet reigning in the cruelty and excesses of the Tories, and arranged with a Labour voter to vote Lib Dem in a consitiuencty where they could win.

The Labour voters you speak of are being tricked.  Do you really think the Tories mean to "level up"?  Do you really think they've got Sunderland man's back?  Dream on.  They will do the square root of nothing for these people.  They are not interested in them any further than conning votes out of them, by waving their vile Brexit flag.

Let's not have any hand wringing, please, about creeping illiberalism like anti-abortionism or any other kind, whilst we still elect those who set us on the path in that direction. We must be rid of them, soon. This has to end. Or we risk following the path you bemoan in Texas.

I think both of you need to vist the north. There is huge difference between those people who felt disenfranchised and those who manipulate the system for personal gain. What WDB said about the number of seats versus the percentage of voters can also be levelled at other non-Conservative governments. So if you want to change the system you need to change the voting system; but that way leads to coalition which also means stagnation (see Germany), or even more radical policies at the behest of minority parties holding extreme power (see Scotland or Israel).

Change is needed - as a business owner I feel disenfranchised that my life is now controlled by large organisations to whom I have to pay large to remain 'compliant' or simply on their supplier list. My profitablility remains static whereas theirs increases daily. I'm not sure a change of government in the UK would do that; it needs international change.

I'm quite familiar with the North, EIII.  My Mum was born in a Northumberland pit village to a coal miner's daughter and my grandparents were the kind of racist Labour voters who would have voted Leave and done so on the (spurious) basis of keeping the darkies out - even my Maltese Grandad who had grown up in India and was utterly contemptuous of the "wogs" he had to work with in his engineering job in Slough.  I've family up there still, and connections to the Nottingham area as well, not forgetting my father's family came "doon" to that London from even further north than that self obsessed, intropsective, woe-is-me, bitter band of England (with the noble exception of some of the larger cities whcih I am aware are pretty liberal in outlook on the whole) which sits between Birmingham and Berwick.  All this "oh you'll never understand the North, it's special, we're different, we suffer uniquely" rubbish is one of the things at the heart of our current national malaise.  It is being cynically exploited by the Tories to stay in power, at the real world cost of the well being and opportunities of those who elect them in that very part of the country.

I'm absolutely arguing for a change to the electoral system. It is the single largest reason I have almost always voted Liberal/LibDem.  They are the only major party who propose such necessary change.  I firmly believe it is the single most important political issue in this country.  But, of course, it is ignored and the current system is gamed by the big 2 parties to rotate perpetual power between themselves, leaving us with perpetual governance by the loudest minority.  Coalition government is not to be feared, it is in fact a far far better path then we travel under FPTP.  Waving your hand at Germany and ignoring the fact the this country is in actual, observable crisis, and arguing that people are right to vote for those who are inflicting it upon us with aforethought and malice and extreme prejudice, is somewhat baffling.

My apologies, it seems my cynicism was uncalled for. The Great Levelling Up has begun: