Lightly Salted

The 2016 elections in Australia and the USA have sparked many excellent discussions on politics. The more I discuss these topics, the more my thoughts come back to GK Chesterton's one-line critique of so-called reformers of the sixteenth century. "A reformer is often right about what is wrong, but wrong about what is right."In other words even if you agree with someone that a particular problem is indeed a problem, it does not follow that you automatically agree with their proposed solution.

Almost everyone agrees that the problem with modern political campaigning is that it is driven by fear.

It has been a disappointing week for Australians. For those who do not care about politics, the disappointment has been that everybody keeps talking about politics! :) For those of us who care about politics, the disappointment has come in many types and flavours, and it keeps coming.

A double dissolution is the mechanism built into our Australian Constitution to resolve a deadlock in parliament.

Further to my previous post on preparing for the 2016 Federal Election, it is worth noting where the various parties advise their supporters to distribute their preferences.

Until this election, the parties could direct all your preferences if you voted "1" above the line in the Senate, and so their preference distribution list was a big deal. This election they can only advise their supporters.