Lay your bets

[said]

Great another one to run the country down, you will certainly be amongst friends on here.

Why not?A bit of Britain bashing does you good and saves pi..sing off the Russians.

[local]

Why not?A bit of Britain bashing does you good and saves pi..sing off the Russians.

The self-appointed intelligentsia haven't the wit to get a few tattooed monkeys to vote correctly it seems.

Blaming the electorate is a moral and political dead-end that Labour has been doing for years.

Then the Remoaners piled on the blame the voters or anyone else bandwagon.

The rather unfortunate fact that they lost the intellectual argument and then had it shattered by a confirmatory election must not be mentioned.

Instead like disgruntled exes they sit whinging from the sidelines.

[sandGroundZero]

Fractured France from The Economist describes a pattern similar to both the UK and the USA. Adherence to the 20^th century's political parties has been replaced by a socioeconomic divide with a distinct geographical dimension. Prosperity has tended to concentrate in urban centres and be distributed less evenly than that which developed in Les Trente Glorieuses.

This is of course reminiscent of the often repeated explanation that BREXIT was largely a 'cri de Coeur ' of the so-called 'left behind' of England. The economic and social trends of recent decades has favoured an elite well educated, cosmopolitan minority at the expense of the bulk of citizenry, generally.

I suspect it goes without saying which group favours Mme. Le Pen and which M. Macron.

[local]

Yet Macron wants a substantial reform of the EU to reinstate the Franco?German lead, very much against its principles.


But Le pen also wants to reform not leave the EU so it ain't that clear,
but that reform includes scrapping the arms alliance with Germany.

Both of them are duplicitous.

[Dirac]

Le Pen fails where De Pfeffel didn't - the French display sense in their presidential choice, rejecting the right wing populist. It helps if you have an electoral system that isn't stupidly out of date, of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...n-results-live

[donkey22]

Le Pen fails where De Pfeffel didn't - the French display sense in their presidential choice, rejecting the right wing populist. It helps if you have an electoral system that isn't stupidly out of date, of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...n-results-live

Thank god for that. European leaders must be breathing a sigh of relief.

[Dirac]

Another illiberal populist bites the dust.

If only we could get rid of ours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_S...ntary_election

[Dirac]

We really need to do something about the FPTP system.

Imagine if every single vote cast actually counted. The government might represent the country properly.

[local]

Worrying that amongst the first to congratulate Macron was Putin.


Boris wouldn't receive the same congratulations, Putin's probably supplying the party gate assault team.

Poor French what a choice, still good luck to them their choice was clear.

Le Pens probably had a note of commiseration from the evil one.

[Dirac]

Worrying that amongst the first to congratulate Macron was Putin.

I assume you can provide us with evidence of this.

You seem to be suggesting that Putin's early approbation (assuming you back up your assertion) taints Macron's win. Wait until you find out how enthusiastic he was about Brexit.

I have no idea why...


Putin tells May to 'fulfil will of people' on Brexit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-of-the-people

[said]

I would lay claim that the socioeconomic divide has more to do with the modern vogue of vote fixing!

As to your last paragraph - the elite are not so well educated as you are led to believe. The more money they use to support any establishment leads to higher paper grading and better connections. Cosmopolitan citizens? I take it you are referring to the Woke society which is on its way out.

[said]

I assume you can provide us with evidence of this.

You seem to be suggesting that Putin's early approbation (assuming you back up your assertion) taints Macron's win. Wait until you find out how enthusiastic he was about Brexit.

I have no idea why...


Putin tells May to 'fulfil will of people' on Brexit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-of-the-people

Perhaps because Putin also visualised the lack of democracy under the EU and the leaning towards Empire Building that most people want no part of. The only argument against this, comes from those who financially benefited highly from the EU or from those who were too apathetic to read about the EU.

[Dirac]

Perhaps because Putin also visualised the lack of democracy under the EU and the leaning towards Empire Building that most people want no part of. The only argument against this, comes from those who financially benefited highly from the EU or from those who were too apathetic to read about the EU.

The level of democracy in the UK is worth checking.

We use a badly flawed FPTP electoral system, and we have a second chamber, the Lords, that is completely unelected.
The effects are - a party with only 43% of total votes cast gets a huge majority, silencing the other 57%.
The government stuffs the Lords with its friends and the odd Russian oligarch, allowing it to circumvent the will of the people even more.

To make it worse, Iran is the only other country in the world with unelected clerics in its government. This is probably the only way in which we really are "world-leading".

There is a Democracy Index that ranks every country according to how democratic it is.

Western Europe has an average score of 8.23
The UK scores 8.10

In comparison, MEPs are elected using PR, making the European Parliament more democratic.

[Polly Trott]

We really need to do something about the FPTP system.

Imagine if every single vote cast actually counted. The government might represent the country properly.

The votes that weren't cast also are worth considering

"Result:

Macron: 18,779,641 - 58.54 percent (of valid vote)

Le Pen: 13,297,760 - 41.46 percent (of valid vote)

Not voting: 13,655,960 - 28.01 percent

Blank ballots: 2,228,012 - 6.35 percent

Spoilt ballots: 790,987 - 2.25 - percent

Turnout: 71.99 percent

These results and those of the first round give a snapshot of a deeper reality. Macron lost about two million votes compared with 2017, Le Pen gained over two million.

Despite polling which often showed a narrower gap, more people abstained or cast a blank/spoiled ballot than last time and they again numbered more than Le Pen's vote. Most of Macron's vote, according to several studies, was delivered to stop Le Pen rather than a positive choice for him. But efforts to stampede others equally opposed to Le Pen to vote Macron ran up against a lot of people recalling that they did so in 2017 only to face five years of major assaults on workers' rights. This was a social phenomenon that cannot be explained by what one or other socialist group said."

https://www.counterfire.org/articles...ntial-election

[bensherman]

"Two questions continue to haunt the establishment. How did a young unknown rise to such dizzying proximity to the president? And why was he apparently protected?"In the UK, the affair would have led by now to the resignation of the home secretary," says Prof De Voogd says. "In France - nothing."


He says French voters are left to conclude that there is one rule for the people at the top - and another for the rest.


Ask any random group of voters what adjective they would use to describe their head of state, and odds are they will use the word "arrogant".


Time and again, President Macron has been caught on camera saying things about his fellow citizens that are construed as insensitive and insulting.


The most recent occasion was at an open day at the Élysée, when he told an unemployed gardener - who'd complained about not finding work - to try another line of business, like serving tables." BBC

That's gone well for you, hasn't it?


Macron i snot perfect but thank God democracy prevailed. Le Pen was deeply exposed during the last two weeks, as it became clear she had no way to fund her promises; that she was Putin's puppet ( to a large and very-well documented extent); and that she had to back pedal on her anti-EU rhetoric as she finally realised that support for the EU still has a sizeable majority.