A well hung Parliament?

The election that Theresa May called in order to gain some stability and give her the mandate she claimed that the British voters wanted regarding a hard Brexit, has been and gone. She didn’t win enough seats to form a majority government and, if she wants to remain, she’ll probably have to form a coalition which is pretty far from stability. I think this proves how bad she is for the country given she has no idea that having an early election is not a stable decision.

The Labour party did very well, thanks in no small part to Jeremy Corbyn (which is very funny given the number of leadership challenges he’s had to withstand since becoming leader), while UKIP was almost reduced to disappearing up its own racist butt. If nothing else, the election proved that the majority of voters who voted are not keen on the xenophobic politics of UKIP. And that’s an excellent result. I guess the whole Brexit thing was their only reason to exist.

In our constituency, naturally, the penguin won again but with a reduced majority (-4.1%). Almost 75% of our electorate turned out to vote as opposed to just over 70% in the last elections in 2015. And that’s a good thing. It’s probably because more young people voted this time after urging by just about everyone. I know that Dawn & Nicktor’s boys both did for the first time.

It’s been 30 years since the Conservatives have held a significant majority. In that time we’ve had the global financial crash, a coalition government, the awful civil war in Syria resulting in refugees which in turn resulted in a racist backlash across Europe, Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood, Trump, social media and the growth of the Voice of the People, the Internet…to name but a few. It’s all been very turbulent and unpredictable to say the least. Not that there’s a link between the lack of a majority and all the other things…though I’m sure they’d be people who would try and draw one.

Then, late in the day, Theresa May was talking about forming some sort of partnership (she didn’t say ‘coalition’) with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. With the DUP seats, it would give the combined parties the majority they would need to get things through the House a lot more smoothly.

However, this is being seen as a deal with the devil given the DUP’s medieval attitudes to just about everything. They are against gay marriage and abortion, even in the case of rape, they believe in retrograde religious nonsense and some of them actually think the world is only 6,000 years old. They were responsible for getting the National Trust to include their Creationist views at the visitor’s centre for the Giant’s Causeway. I’d not be surprised if some of them believe the earth is flat. Clearly a good match for the daughter of a vicar.

Anyway, it makes me wish that the great Lord Buckethead had been elected in Theresa May’s seat rather than her. He managed to get 249 votes, a new record for him. Here is a link to a BBC piece on him. It’s what I LOVE about UK politics and something that MUST NEVER BE LOST!

Back in the, sadly, real world…will there be another election before the end of this year? Possibly and very, very annoying. I guess that’s the ‘will of the people.’

As for me, I woke up with gout in my right toe, where it belongs. It was fine until Freya stood on it. When I shrieked, she went flying across the room only to return looking somewhat dismayed and apologetic. I’ve been teaching her to give me a high five (like Carmen used to) and she started batting me with a paw to make me feel better. I assume.

Weatherwise, it rained all morning off and on…though mostly on. I was stuck indoors not just because of the gout but also because Mirinda’s new library chair was being delivered today. It arrived at about 3:30pm.

The material pattern is a cheeky fox, a few owls and a hedgehog. Here’s a close-up of the material:

Then, at 6pm I was off to the Maltings to see a very, very delayed live streamed La traviata from the Glyndebourne 2014 season.

It featured Venera Gimadieva as Violetta and Michael Fabiano as Alfredo. And while Venera is certainly beautiful and has a fabulous voice, she wasn’t frail enough for me. I just didn’t believe she was dying of anything, let alone consumption. Mind you, she managed a wonderful death, falling into a heap at the end. Superb.

Fabiano, however, was a perfect Alfredo. His voice, his desperate need for Violetta, his love…I thought he was utterly convincing.

Obviously, being Glyndebourne, the whole thing was wonderfully done with cast and orchestra both perfect.

Of course, as usual, the above is my opinion which is drenched in a very limited knowledge of the technicalities of opera…however, I do love La Traviata and have seen a few productions to compare and contrast.

There was a pretty good audience in (around 200) and I think they all enjoyed it. I should also point out that the average age was about 70.