It's a Fix!

Now there's a surprise: Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidential election. Of course, according to the media it was all a fix and his supporters somehow rigged the vote. Even so, I think he deserves congratulations - at least he managed to rig an election to give himself a clear majority. Unlike the Tories at our last General Election, who, despite having the overwhelming support of the press and other media, which ran all sorts of disinformation against Brown and the Labour government, still couldn't manage to get a majority in Parliament and instead had to cook up a shady back room deal with Nick Clegg to steal power. Oh, I know that you'll say that the two things aren't at all the same, but I beg to differ. Whilst the kind of things Putin's supporters allegedly did to rig the vote were far cruder than the Tories' efforts, the fact is that having such a vast propaganda machine at your disposal gives any party a huge electoral advantage.

Make no mistake, much of what is passed of as news stories in this country are no more than propaganda. I'll give you an example: remember all those news stories about how ill-equipped UK soldiers in Afghanistan were that the press used to run during the days of the last Labour government? Sure you do - hardly a day went by without the likes of The Sun and the Daily Mail splashing yet another relative's anguished denouncement of the government for causing their son/father/brother's death through a lack of body armour, or helicopters or some other equipment. These, in turn gave ammunition for Cameron and his cronies to attack the government. Seen anything similar since the Tories seized power? Of course not. Despite the fact that defence spending and procurement are being slashed and that troops are still in Afghanistan, lack of equipment suddenly doesn't seem to be a problem. If those relatives are still complaining, the press certainly doesn't care any more. All of which means what? That the whole 'issue' was simply Tory agit-prop? You bet it was.

But don't worry, Dave is cleaning up his act and isn't planning to repeat this trick next time around. Instead, he's planning to rig the vote through constitutional changes: reducing the number of MPs, flooding the Lords with new Tory peers, redrawing constituency boundaries to give the Tories an inbuilt advantage and fixing the conventions on votes of confidence to try and ensure his coalition from Hell a five year term. But don't worry, it's all legal. Or at least, it will be, once he's finished tearing up the constitution.