No they don't. This is collective punishment, punishing people not responsible for the wrong acts being punished. It also happens to be a war crime under Common Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. And he has no excuse for not knowing that because he used to be a fucking human rights lawyer.
What he should have done was condemn both Hamas's attack on Israelis and also Israel cutting off essential supplies indiscriminately to the whole population of Gaza.
So what we have here is more than reason enough to consider voting Labour is impossible because I for one will not be responsible for electing as PM a man who supports war crimes. Up till now I've had differences of opinion with him but this is a moral matter.
Of course I have some thoughts on this:
1 I have thought for some time that Labour are looking around at the sheer task involved in sorting the mess of 13 years of Tory rule, know that of course they're the only party likely to be voted in at the next election and are getting cold feet. They are therefore doing all they can to ensure they lose as much support as possible and don't get a majority.
3 The Tories are nearing the end of their asset stripping so need Labour to be elected soon so they can blame them.
4 Up till now I have advocated tactical voting to get the Tories out and still think that is the moral option as long as the tactical vote in your constituency isn't Labour. If it is I would vote for the minority party of my choice: in fact this is what I will be doing because this constituency is a safe Labour seat so there's little to no risk of returning a Tóraidhe MP.
5 Hear me out on this one: the wiser voices in the Conservative party have been pushing for them to call an election for ages, because they're like a cartoon character running off the end of cliff in thin air. But (deep breath) I never thought I would say this, and would obviously always condemn anyone voting for them as a cunt, but I think the best long term outcome for the country would be if we have another Tory government. If we elect Labour they'll just come back in the future, but if we have another term it will ensure the annihilation of the Conservative party permanently. Both because of their disastrous policies and because even more of their core supporters would have died off.
6 If that happens Labour will take the Tory party's place and decent people will vote Lib Dems/Green/True and Fair. I am not sure how much actual support Labour would get at that point, having carefully frozen out so many of their supporters.
But I know that I expect the PM to condemn war crimes and this is where voting is an even more moral issue.
When I saw the title I assumed you meant the U.S., but honestly, the title is apt for a lot of countries these days unfortunately. Greed is a disease and greedy people thrive on power.
ReplyDeleteExactly. And one of the reasons I tend to keep up with the Trump thing is for distraction from what's going on here, and certainly not to ignore the real horrors of things happening in lots of countries as you rightly say.
DeleteWell nobody said that things would be peaceful as human life veers to its end. The only blessing is the rapture has happened so there are no Christians left. 😉
My practical side is all for tactical voting, but I think it would be best if everyone voted for who they actually, really and truly like and support (and didn't have to suffer the "So, who did you vote for?" inquisition by all their friends/family/colleagues/random nutters afterwards).
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the reason the Tories and Labour usually get the majority of votes is because of all the tactical voting. I'd love to see the results of a non-tactical, "real" vote. And if it turns out to be a massive catastrophe we'll just have to instigate the coming to power of a benevolent dictator like Vetinari!
I would certainly rather be living in fiction at this point, that's for sure. I'm sure Granny would tell us not to discount the power of inbreeding!
DeleteSpeaking of, we could do a lot worse than getting rid of the political parties and let Charles & Co. run things for a bit.
DeleteAnd if we do have to retreat to fiction, I am NOT living on the Sto Plains as they stink of cabbage.
You do mean 'get rid' as in 'line them up against a wall and shoot them as the first step of the bloody revolution' don't you?
DeleteI'm holding out for us to be invaded actually, but I don't think anyone wants to.
Your comment would have appeared much sooner if blogger had bothered to tell me about it.