Maybe the PH party idea is not so crazy

[unrepentant]

How often do we hear that all politicians are self serving aholes and that we need a "new party", a party of common sense etc.. It's just not practical people say, the political establishment have too big a hold on things, too much power, money and control.

Well in Italy the "Grillo five star movement", led by Beppe Grillo, a comedian who has run on a manifesto that vowed to clear out the political classes has taken around 25% of the seats in the Italian parliament!

Who knows, perhaps a party of common sense led by a charismatic leader could energise the electorate in the UK and actually win some seats?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21587123

[unrepentant]

Eric Mc said:

No point in setting up a party until you know what the party stands "for". This clown (and others like him) are very good at telling everybody what they are "against".

I think being against the excesses of the political classes and wanting to shake up the system is as good a reason for running as any!

[unrepentant]

rohrl said:

I don't want a "charismatic leader", I want a PM who knows what he or she is doing.

Charismatic leaders are nearly always a total disaster for the people they're leading because they believe their charisma will make up for other deficiencies, which it usually does until it doesn't.

Has there ever been a more charismatic leader than Churchill? Anyway, I don't think we're talking about a potential PM here. What the Grillo movement may achieve in Italy is a shake up of the system and that has to be a good thing. Imagine if a new party with sensible policies took 25% of the seats in parliament! Imagine that happening in the USA! We may actually get something done as the deadlock would have to be broken and there could be no more complacency. Unfortunately the electorate is even more entrenched here than in the UK.

[unrepentant]

jhfozzy said:

I'm probably missing something really important here so please forgive my ignorance, but does anyone else look at those percentages and think they don't correspond with the actual number of seats?

For example, Bersani has almost three times as many seats in the Chamber of deputies as Berlusconi (340 vs 124) but only 0.4% more in the percentage table (29.5% vs 29.1%).

Maybe the Senate uses PR and the chamber FPTP?

[unrepentant]

DJRC said:

Yes but most ppl who express political opinions on ph are complete fking morons who shouldnt be allowed to run a village hall let alone a country.

The Deej's 4th rule: Whatever a majority of ph thinks, the opposite is almost certain to be more accurate.

I wasn't actually advocating a PH party, just the idea of an alternative and how Italy has shown that a "movement" can rise up and take a huge chunk of the vote.

Obviously what I want is an Unrep party with me at the helm leading my people into a millenium of prosperity. One people, one empire, one leader. That sort of thing..........