First past the post

Subject: First past the post.

One of the interesting things happening in conjunction with this remarkable series of events in Parliament is the scene outside Parliament. The media are camped outside the Palace of Westminster on what is called Palace Green. The big guns in television have set up a media camp to interview the politicians and other political commentators on the matters taking place in the House. 
Since the referendum three years ago, on the periphery of the Green the demonstrators are gathered with their flags and bull horns.  Day in and day out, whilst Parliament is sitting they keep a vigil giving a visual performance of the different views held on this divisive issue of Brexit. 

 The flags today are billowing in the wind and it's interesting how the representative nature of flags have changed over time. There are the Union Flags, the blue European Union flag, the yellow UKIP flags, the Irish flags, the Welsh flags and Scottish flags amongst a few motley flags who's reputation is questionable. 

Over the months which led up to this voting frenzy the mixture contained as many Brexit supporters as those supporting Europe. Today the flag of the EU, twelve yellow stars on a blue background far outnumber the others as the campaigners draw their own conclusions as to the final outcome. Do one wonders, these campaigners reflect the temperature of the electorate as a whole or is the persuasion more a determination of the Remainers who seem to be out-flanking the Brexiteers in the Palace itself. 
The politicians who made no bones of their horror at the result of the Referendum  have been conniving since the referendum to turn the tables on the voters. 
The politician by definition are largely what we call middle class. Many have been to university and shown an interest in a degree in politics. Their path to glory is sometimes, through the PPI route, the patronage of existing politicians which inevitably binds them to their political career but irrespective of that, the political process certainly entrenches a world of isolated thinking since the process of power and the regimentation of that process make blue water thinking very difficult.
For all the commentary about what the political community in Europe think of us because we find it difficult to find agreement, it is interesting  that Europe, a collection of disparate nations who's governments are formed from parties who's pedigree is as wide as political opinion gets. Facist 'far right' parties, Communist 'far left' parties, and much of the middle ground occupied by the conservative middle class. The tensions in these countries are acute and varied. The Greeks are impoverished, the Italians are broke, the Hungarians are determined nationalists, the French are plagued each weekend by the marches of the yellow jackets, the Germans have massive problems integrating the one million immigrants who Mrs Merkel invited in. 
At least our streets are clear, there are few signs of fascists or communists taking over power. For all its pantomime, the business of politics is still carried out with decorum, with people who despise each other's political position but who are willing to be civilised towards each other.
Perhaps the Mother of Parliaments still sets some sort of standard. Unlike most of the nations who make up the EU's individual nations, where the majority are made up of governments which consist of an amalgamations of different parties who have formed a series of coalitions which represent a wider series of views across the electorate.  These  coalitions are the result of 'preferential voting' a system we unfortunately defeated in a referendum held during the Liberal/Conservative joint coalition.
With the 'first past the post' system the electoral voting often does not represent the society and many voters who passionately believe in a specific party which represents their beliefs have no representation being drowned out by the main two the Conservatives and Labour. As an example of this was when three million people voted for UKIP but because of the 'first past the post' their votes were diluted and they only gained one seat in Parliament. 
The lack of plurality means that the make up of Parliament is adversarial with little experience of negotiated compromise. This serves us well in providing the winning party with the ability to govern from a position of strength but when the party is weakened by a poor election result, as was Mrs May, then the edifice of Parliament begins to groan, a groan which has grown into a whimper.