Front page of today’s Independent. Brilliant encapsulation of a crazy electoral system that gives one party the powers of an “elected dictatorship” (to use Quintin Hogg’s famous phrase) with a minority of the popular vote. Labour got 35.22% of the votes, but 356 MPs. The Lib-Dems got 22.05% but only 62 seats.
Apple software is generally pretty well designed, so it comes a shock to find the company making the kind of dumb mistake that is normally a Microsoft speciality. The new version of Mac OS X (codenamed ‘Tiger’) comes with a facility called ‘Dashboard’ which runs ridiculous little applets called Widgets. These are basically small programs masquerading as web pages. But Tiger also includes a new version of the Safari browser with a crazily insecure default setting which could leave your system wide open to malware via these same widgets. See here for the grisly details. You can turn off the default, of course, but I guess many of the non-technical users Apple is now targeting with the Mac Mini won’t realise the need to do that. As I said, this is the kind of stuff Microsoft does (as when it shipped XP with the firewall turned off by default — now rectified, I’m glad to say).
… in 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.
From David Aaronovitch’s column…
Now the Prime Minister threatens us with listening. Nothing makes me more worried than the demand that politicians should listen. For a start, some people talk much louder than others and are far easier to hear. Take top-up fees, an issue on which the Lib Dems probably gained tens of thousands of Labour votes. Nowhere during the campaign did I hear or see the question of support for poorer students raised with candidates or in the media. I would think that most people simply have no idea that these students will not have to pay fees and will receive, for the first time for years, a substantial maintenance grant.
The issue didn’t come up because the parents of such poor students don’t work in journalism and they won’t write to the papers or go on marches. The redistributive nature of top-up fees has been successfully obscured by middle-class self-interest. In the same way, the Iraqis who want British troops to remain while they build their country are not heard with the same Lib Dems arguing for withdrawal, no matter what the situation is.
If the net had been designed by New Labour, we’d still be waiting for permission to connect.
This morning’s Observer column.
Well, well. Before the election, I thought that the best result would be a Labour government returned with a workable but drastically reduced majority. Difficult to arrange in the UK’s patchwork of constituencies. But now that most of the results are in, it looks as though Labour is back with a majority in the mid-60s. And a BBC analysis this morning reported on Radio 4 that 58 of those Labour MPs who rebelled against the party whip on critical issues have been returned. Given that the British system amounts to legislative dictatorship (in that a Prime Minister with a large majority can do as s/he damn well pleases), this is a terrific outcome. Blair & Co cannot now behave over national security, ID cards etc. with the arrogance that characterised their second term. Interesting times ahead. Yippee!
It’s 2.45am and the TV networks are now predicting that Labour will be returned to power with a majority of 82 (having earlier predicted a majority of 66 on the basis of exit polls). Given the astonishing diversity of the results in most of the key marginal seats declared so far, and the contradictory nature of many of the outcomes, I’m sceptical of any overall prediction. What we’re seeing, I suspect, are the non-linear effects of a three-party contest in a system which has hitherto been accustomed to two-party politics. Anyway, I’m off to bed. We’ll know in the morning.
…said Churchill, is the worst form of government — except for all the others. I suppose I should be more cynical, but for me there’s always a magic about a general election. It’s the idea of a society collectively making up its mind — Hobbes’s Leviathan in reflective mood.
I voted at lunchtime today. It was a beautifully sunny day. The polling station was the village hall. I was the only voter about at that time of day (most people hereabouts seem to vote either in the morning or after work). Later on, I drove through some other villages, all basking in the sunshine. People were going about their daily business. But everyone I know has voted. And nobody knows yet (this is written at 9.17 pm) what they have decided — though the news media are full of clamorous predictions.
In about three hours we will have some idea how it’s gone. But, despite the tawdriness of some of the campaigning, this democracy is a wonderful thing, and something that we take too easily for granted. I remember wondering, as I watched news footage of people queuing to vote in Iraq a few months ago, how many of us would vote if doing so was dangerous. Or would we value our freedom more if it were threatened by thugs, terrorists and armed bigots?
Just realised (from writing a cheque) that today is 05-05-05. When I mentioned this to the kids, they looked at me pityingly. I know that look: it says “Poor Dad: he’s quite cool but a bit slow on the uptake”. Er, they’re right.
Yep. PhotoShop CS2 is out, with even more features than the CS version I use. I’ve worked out that if I learn how to use one CS feature a day, (there are apparently 494 separate menu commands) I will have mastered the program by the end of 2006. And now the goalposts have moved.
(Thinks… Ostrich posture best strategy: don’t upgrade. Pretend CS2 never happened and hope Quentin doesn’t notice.) David Pogue of the New York Times claims that there are “at least 95 Photoshop how-to books, 3 Photoshop magazines and 4 annual Photoshop conferences”. I’m not surprised.