If you live in the UK (and probably most other places too) there is no way that you could have avoided all the hype around the general election. Before the election there was the fuss of the leaders’ debates, the polls about the popularity of the various parties and speculation over whether there would be a hung parliament. Now that a hung parliament is a reality, how and who will govern is the big issue and the “breaking news” of Tuesday evening was the resignation of Gordon Brown and the instatement of David Cameron.
Now, I’ve never really been into politics much (partly why this blog isn’t exactly covering actual breaking news) but that doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions.
Although some people are calling the governing arrangements a “Con Dem Nation” I’m fairly optimistic for how they’re going to govern. I mean, if they’re working together they’re going to have to focus more on what is good for the nation rather than what is good for them. At any rate, it will good to see them trying to work together. Hopefully I’m not being too optimistic and that this change will be for the better.
The thing is: no party is going to be able to please everyone. It’s like in Bruce Almighty (a film which I’m not particularly fond of but is excellent for demonstrating this) where he lets everyone have everything they want. Utter chaos ensues. No one is particularly happy and letting it continue would not have worked. Although government is on a slightly different scale, the same principle applies. Whoever is governing they can’t please both the pro-life and pro-abortion groups; satisfy those who want better air transport along with the ones who don’t want it in their “backyard”; cure the cry for lower taxes and improve the NHS to stop the constant complaints. We have to realise that whoever governs, there will be compromise and there will be complaints.
Half the problem is that the majority of people look out for themselves only. They don’t want to pay taxes but they still expect services like the NHS to be at their beck and call. If everyone considered others more there would be less moaning and it would be easier for parliament to govern.
We had a “focus day” a while back at school where we played a game which really demonstrates this point. We were each given a set amount of money to start off with each round we were asked to give a donation of however much we liked. The average of everyone’s donations was calculated and the “bank” gave everyone back the average plus 2% or something like that. If everyone gave roughly the same, no-one would really encounter any major loss and everyone was happy. Even if the occasional person refused to pay, as long as everyone else paid there would be no huge loss. The issue is when everyone thinks they can get away with it. We found that if no-one bothered giving because they thought everyone else would pick up their slack. Everyone got very little return if they got anything at all and when people started losing money they reduced their giving meaning the return shrank even more. On the other hand, if we had all given as much as possible, if we had all been generous, we would have got much more out of it.
I think what I’m trying to say is that everyone needs to be prepared to work together. To think of others and be prepared to accept compromise on things that aren’t intrinsically important. We shouldn’t be moaning about the new government but supporting them to do the right thing because, whoever they are, they are going to have to make some decisions we might not like. So take a step back and, just for a minute, have a good look at the bigger picture.
DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!
(As a side note, check out my other blog where some of my friends post. I’m posting my friend’s related rant on there in a bit and if you watch out in future blogs I might be revamping it so that anyone can blog on there! *gasp* )
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