Bloggage will be light today, as (like everyone else) I'm watching the UK election. The results are just starting to appear, and at present it looks like the UK is on track for a hung parliament. Watching British talking heads boggle over this is amusing; MMP has meant NZ voters have completely internalised an understanding of coalition politics and confidence and supply. In the UK, still suffering under FPP, its a foreign concept.
The big news of the election is the failure of the UK's electoral administration to cope with the turnout (which looks high for the UK but is still crap by NZ standards - FPP again). People all over the country (and in particular in key marginal seats) have been locked out of polling stations or turned away due to them not being able to cope. For this to happen in a supposedly first-world democracy is an utter scandal, a disgrace, and again it underlines the ramshackle nature of the UK's democracy. They need a serious reform - but institutionally, the UK seems incapable of it.
I expect to have at least a couple of posts later today (the one about FPP just writes itself). As for NZ political news - well, they're all watching the election too.
