I was watching TV in the Tesco Metro on Dean Street this evening - they're not selling TVs in there, they just have a TV by the checkouts showing Sky News, presumably to make the queuing experience less tiresome (I wasn't even shopping there, I was just killing some time before meeting up with my folks - take that Ian Tesco).
My old boat race colleague Anna Botting was on interviewing some oleaginous man from the British National Party. Disappointingly there is apparently a danger that if a few more idiots vote for them in the upcoming local elections then they might get quite a few seats. The thin-lipped racist was trying to claim that his party was not racist. But it is, as sure as his lips were thin and his skin was oily. He trotted out some well rehearsed lines about how respectable he and his fellow racists were and how they weren't racist, also claiming that many black and Asian people have told him they will be voting BNP because they're fed up with lazy immigrants sponging off the state or such-like.
Now I am quite a fan of democracy and believe that people should be able to say what they want, no matter how clearly wrong or offensive it might be. Democracy has just one drawback as far as I am concerned and that is that it gives stupid people an equal vote to everyone else. And it is only because of these stupid people that thin lipped homophobic racists have a chance of having a say in government. I don't think stupid people should be given equal rights to the non-stupid. I am not advocating a
geniocracy . I am just saying that stupid people should not be allowed to vote. Anyone of above minimal intelligence can have their say, but if you have not proven yourself to have the ability to think clearly and consider arguments then why should you have the same say as someone like me who reads the Guardian and who has thought about stuff a bit?
I think the principle way that we should determine ineligibility to vote is that if anyone has ever voted for the BNP they have shown themselves to be stupid and immediately be disenfranchised for life. This might seem against the spirit of democracy, but it's the exception that proves the rule and I think is a water-tight means of demonstrating stupidity. We must fight fascism with fascism. Maybe there should just be a 10 year ban to give people a chance to reconsider. But if a black or Asian person votes for thed BNP then they have shown themselves to be so stupid that I don't think they should ever get the vote again. Admittedly this is slightly racist in itself, as I am discriminating against black and Asian people, but to be fair only against the really, really stupid black and Asian people. Fight fascism with fascism.
It's the only way forward.
Here's a cool lists of other governments you might like to try - personally I like the idea of government by 11 people. It's for people who've tried government by 10 people and realised that there's no way out of 5 votes against 5.
