Students protesting on Parliament Square last year. Photo: Bobby D'Marca / Flickr

Students are back protesting on the streets of England, more than a month after the education bill was passed in British Parliament. The end of January saw demonstrations in Manchester and London and another protest has been organised for 24 February. But with the fees raised, and the teaching cuts in place, some wonder what the point of the protests have become.

The First Pint reports:

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Even purple animals were chanting at the 'Take Back Parliament' protest. Photo credit: Hanna Hauck

Britain’s so-called “First-past-the-post” electoral system has been called into question by protesters following the general elections last week.

Protesters gathered outside the Work Foundation in London today, where the Liberal Democrats reportedly held a meeting, asking the party not to agree to an offer by either the Conservatives or Labour unless it included a referendum on introducing an electoral system based on proportional representation.

The group called ‘Take Back Parliament’ chanted “Fair votes now” and “No deal without PR (proportional representation)”, calling for what they say is a fairer voting system.

Currently, the so-called ‘first past the post’ system is used in parliamentary elections in the UK. This means that only the candidate who gained the (simple) majority of votes in his or her constituency will represent his electorate in Parliament.

Guy Aitchison of ‘Take Back Parliament’ said millions of votes were lost under this system.

“If you don’t vote for the winning candidate in your constituency, then your vote has no influence on the make-up of Parliament”, he said.

Bigger parties tend to benefit from a simple majority system, as they can secure a big share of seats in the House of Commons. Smaller parties, however, are often left with a small amount of seats, even if they get a substantial amount of votes.

Protesters were marching for a better electoral system in the UK. Photo credit: Hanna Hauck

In last week’s elections in the UK, for example, the Liberal Democrats could secure 23% of the votes, but received only 57 seats. The Conservatives, on the other hand, received 36% of votes and 306 seats, whereas Labour got 29% of votes and 258 seats.

This is why ‘Take Back Parliament’ favours a system based on proportional representation.

“Under a fair voting system all the parties receive seats in Parliament according to the votes they receive”, Guy Aitchison claimed.

However, the BBC pointed out that the first-past-the-post system also has benefits. It is simple and tends to produce results very quickly, as well as clear majorities in Parliament. Also, under the current voting system in the UK each constituency has its “own” representative, whom people can contact about concerns and problems.

Related link:

CNN -  Q&A: The UK political system explained

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George Pokorny compares the current "spewing of political gibberish" to the past US elections. Photo credit: Andy Clarke

What an entertaining mess this election has turned out to be. Unable to affect the results in any way I am observing the ongoing outcome with spirited indifference. I am indifferent because I am not allowed to be otherwise.

While the result will directly affect my daily life, I have no say in the matter. and therefore really couldn’t care less about the ultimate resolution. However, I am spirited because watching it all unravel is tons of fun. It is at once educational and entertaining, like a David Attenborough nature program. Only instead of primates flinging feces we have political pundits spewing gibberish and counter-gibberish while the whole of the BBC news organization is narrating with minute-by-minute accounts of the whereabouts and happenings of the three leaders. Gordon Brown has been at his home in Scotland most of the morning. Fascinating.

Of course, I cannot help making comparisons to our own election debacle in the US ten years ago. Then, as now, while we inch closer to resolution the nation was inundated day and night by all manner of possibilities, each seemingly less likely than the last. In one month we learned more about our electoral system than we ever could in a lifetime of civics classes. Would there be a recount in Dade county? Would the electoral college debate the winner and what compromises would be made to ensure a winner? Would the loser take the matter to the Supreme Court or immediately press his party for articles of impeachment? In the end it was all a bit of a let-down as the matter was solved relatively quickly and decisively and without the exploding fun of a live battle in the US House of Representatives.

The biggest difference between this campaign and the Y2K election was that we saw it coming and could prepare for it. Right now there are thousands of protesters outside the Lib Dem offices in Westminster all shouting slogans, displaying placards and wearing the same colour. One wonders if they would be so well organized had they not seen this coming. Indeed since well before the campaign commenced the media have been pushing the notion of not having a clear winner and pressing Nick Clegg at almost every turn about his pending status as kingmaker. After his success in the first debate, however, things really kicked into gear as the political presses smelled potential chaos and stepped over themselves to educate the masses.

We now all understand that to secure power a party must get 326 seats. Or is it 320, because the Sinn Fein folk don’t vote? Or is it 325 because the Green Party gained a seat? The Independent newspaper extolled three different ways that any single party could get majority of the overall votes, but still rank third in the number of seats in parliament. The trouble is, none of this parliamentary education really helped people decide for whom to vote. Which is fine by me, otherwise we would miss all the fun.

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Catherine came to London to study in 1998. She became a British citizen last year, and this is her

This moment felt very personal for Catherine

first time to vote – ever!:  “I’m coming from a communist country. I can’t vote in China. I feel like I have a sense of ownership now. Like I properly belong to something and I can have my say about who I want to govern the country”.

Follow Catherine’s once-in-a-lifetime experience in this slideshow:

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'Happy May Day, comrades!' shouts a not-Angry Russian. Photo Credit: Boris Zelensky

The first thing I ever remember about myself is this: I’m about four years old and my grandpa takes me to the demonstration (which was, like many other things in the USSR, obligatory). It’s a sunny but windy day, so I’m wearing my warm coat. I’m too short to see what’s going on around me, so grandpa puts me on his shoulders and I see a sea of red flags. There are portraits of old bearded men everywhere and long red stripes of cloth with white symbols I don’t yet understand. Somebody’s speaking on the megaphone, music is playing in a distance. Everybody seems happy, and I’m happy too.

Then, after 1991 and onwards, May Day seemed to be about the same flags, banners and speeches, but mostly about unhappy people. They wanted to go back to the times when everything was decided for them and they wouldn’t have to do anything: getting a job, paying taxes, worrying about health insurance, etc. The Soviet state provided everything. They wanted it back, those miserable old ladies clutching bunches of pink and portraits of Lenin, as if hoping that the leader of the Bolshevik party would emerge from his marble tomb and set things right.

Angry Russian as an angry youth

Then, in my 20s, I used to be a leftist-anarchist-that sort of thing angry young man with enough piercings in my body to set off airport metal detectors. I lived in a squat with lots of artsy revolutionary types, punks, vegans, and the like. We used to do quite reckless things by today’s standards. One day, the night before the 1999 elections that saw the Communist party seize power for the first time after the break-up of the Union, we, a bunch of drunk hippies, punks and whatnots, grabbed a dozen of spray cans and went on a graffiti rampage. On every vacant space we could find we painted the slogan “Against all parties!”. Amazingly, it took at least 40 minutes for the police to finally notice those huge black letters on every big billboard in the middle of a four-lane avenue. “Against all parties” went on to be the fourth most popular candidate with six-something per cent. Today things like that would guarantee any of us some serious battering at the station and, quite likely, a jail term.

May Day protest in Russia circa 2000. Photo Credit: Andrey Stvolinsky

But the most exciting moment in that freewheelin’, dope smokin’ life was when an artistic group called SVOI2000 (svoi means something like “one’s own” or “kin” in Russian) applied for a May Day parade and, in a very bizarre twist of fate, their application got approved. It was one of the best days of my life: we are in the very centre of Moscow, between two columns of hard-line, old Communist grannies – a bunch of several hundred mischiefs holding huge banners with complete gibberish or simply flower dotted bedsheets. The whole idea was that May Day had to be reclaimed  from the obsolete political bores and be simply a celebration of sun, spring and whatever. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. Here’s the photo album from that great day. Try to find yours truly in those photographs.

The next year we decided to change the agenda from simply fooling around to something more serious but equally hilarious. May Day in Russia and other post-Soviet countries is called Labour Day. Fine, we thought, then we’ll just celebrate labour, what we can do to contribute to the society. We all wore suits and bore banners advertising our skills and services, from non-linear video editing to construction work. We had a punk brass band heading the procession, it was a another great, sunny day. Check out the video and, again, try to spot the Angry Russian:

Angry Russian versus May Day in London

I would probably be equally happy yesterday here in London if I were some ten years younger. But now, having had my share of anarchist fun, I think that this is just one sorry bunch of idlers. At Parliament Square there was at least fifty different “organizations” with a hundred of different slogans, from demands to end all wars at once to equally impracticable demands to stop killing some critters or whatever. None of those made a single fucking bit of difference, and to most of those ‘protesters’ the whole thing seemed like a good excuse to get stoned and lie about on the grass listening to crappy techno on a portable soundsystem.

The only more or less coherently appealing thing about the whole ‘protest’ was the claim that all politicians were corrupt bastards – oh, the enlightenment! – so everybody should just spoil their ballots (which is, by the way, what many Angry Russians have been doing for the past several years since the abolishment of the “none of the above” article). As if someone cared about your opinion.

Anyway, now I seriously think that the one-party system like what we have now in Russia is so much more practical and honest than the carousel of hypocrisy and complete waste of public money and time that I’ve been observing here in Britain for the past few weeks. By the way, I always wanted to say this out loud: you are a bunch of losers to grill a man – a politician, for dear God’s sake! – for actually saying what he thought once in a while. That lady WAS a bigot. Gordon, I’m with you here. And you, demented witch, just shut up. We evil forunurs are here to steal your fucking biscuits.

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The Tuesday before Lent, which is the 16th of February this year, is known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. This festival is celebrated in many different countries but of course the British have their own traditions and happily there are plenty of free activities for you to enjoy.

Back in the old days Christians who observed Lent weren’t allowed to eat rich foods during this religious festival. Therefore they wanted to use up all the eggs, sugar and butter they had and what better to make of these than pancakes? But forget about cleaning out your cupboard: these days it’s all about eating pancakes and participating in pancake races.

MP's feet and pancakes fly. Photo credit: grigorisgirl/Flickr

Although the most famous one is held at Olney, north of London, several pancake races are held in the capital as well. One of most entertaining ones to watch is the Parliamentary Pancake Race, where members of both Houses of Parliament race each other. This year it will take place on the 9th of February just outside the houses of Parliament.

If you want to take place in a race yourself, you have to go to Spitalfields Market, where there are not only prices for the fastest, but also for the best dressed and most well-behaved teams.

At the Tower of London and at the Bankside, businesses compete and you can see the businessmen racing down the street during their lunch break. To ease any guilt you might have about eating so many pancakes you can donate money to charity at most pancake races.

If you are one of those people that prefer eating over working out, pay a visit to Creme de la Crepe, where they are offering a voucher for a second crepe when you buy your first one.

Of course making your own pancakes is probably the most fun but for our American readers – don’t forget, British pancakes are thin, so take it easy on the batter.

Get your frying pan out and enjoy a Great British Pancake Day!

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Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d (or by God’s mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. (Holla*)
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!

That was the night in 1605, when Parliament, King James I and most of the British ruling class were almost blown up. Guy Fawkes and his fellow guilty conspirators were burnt instead, which the British celebrate to this day by lighting bonfires.

Yet today Guy Fawkes is even more popular than James I. Thanks to him, we all get to celebrate….. Guy Fawkes night! It’s one of the most anticipated events in the calendar. His acts have inspired the country to produce absolutely tremendous firework shows, fires, burning effigies, great food, great beer and ultimately a magical night.

There were oohs and aahs at Wimbledon Park, as the firework show lit up the smiles on the faces all around me. We had gathered on a cold night, enduring a slight drizzle of rain and a 20-minute delay, after having paid £7 to get in.

But it was all worth it when the first fireworks went flying up. The show was synchronised with music, a variey of rock, RnB, jazz and – quite bizarrely – the NASA recordings of astronauts; Neil Armstrong’s communications from the moon. Yet somehow it all worked. I forgot my feet were wet and freezing. For 30 minutes, we all forgot our worries and were simply happy.

Guy Fawkes night is celebrated in differently ways all around the UK and other parts of the commonwealth. If you fancy carrying a burning barrel of tar through the streets, go to Ottery St Mary in Devon. Lewes in Sussex closes the town centre and then holds a torchlight procession in costume through the streets, after which they prefer burning an effigy of Pope Paul V.

In the town of Edenbridge they choose a living person to burn in effigy each year. This year the town elected glamour model Jordan as their victim for the flames.

Parliament did survive that night on the fifth of November, but a few years later the British civil war killed most of those aristocrats, including James I’s own son, Charles I. Guy Fawkes must be having the last laugh.

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