30 April 2007

On being patronised...

I always enjoy the pontifications of the London commentators on Scottish politics. There is a classic example in The Times:
Having spent a few days in the Scottish capital last week, pacing the streets of two key constituencies, employing a wet finger held aloft in the air and an open pair of ears, I conclude that the result on Thursday will be less clear-cut and more complicated. If not immediately, then within months, it will become obvious that the only political combination that will work in forming a Scottish executive is the “traffic light” option – the alliance of Labour (red), the Liberal Democrats (yellow) and the Greens.

Oh wow! Having spent a few (two? three?) days in Edinburgh and visited two constituencies, this guy has been able to intuit that the only obviously stable coalition involves Labour, LibDems and the Greens. Remarkable.

And how about this for sophisticated analysis:
Despite the best attempts at public education, there remain hundreds of thousands of Scots who think that being asked for a second vote means that they are obliged to identify their second favoured party, which they are not (if strong partisans they should back their own party twice).

So we, thick peasants that we are, do not understand our electoral system. Is there any evidence of these hundreds of thousands of moronic Scots? No, but do not let evidence get in the way of a London commentator jumping to conclusions.

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