Sunday, October 14, 2007

British politics

The first semester of politics is all about British politics, and of course we look a bit deeper into Scottish politics. The thing about British politics is that the political system has always struck me as a bit weird and maybe a bit outdated. It does seem to work though, this country is not in ruins yet. I can't, however, claim to be an expert of British politics as I have only read a little about it in my English A course in Uppsala.
The more I read about it, the more complex I understand it is. And the more I read about it, the more weird and outdated I find the political system. I don't have the whole picture yet, and I'm not sure I will ever get it, as British politics is not the area I'd like to specialise in, but in a multicultural, multinational country with as big class divisions as this, I do find the first-past-the-post system to be a bit unfair, a bit undemocratic and very disproportional. It certainly has me perplexed, and very much so.

The distraction of the British political system and all the complexity that comes with it is very welcome as it seems I have things I'd rather not think about. I didn't really realise it until now, but I suppose there are always things you don't want to think about. Especially when you live in a country 2,5 hours away from your family and then another hour of domestic travel. When that is the case you would rather not think about it too much as great waves of homesickness can come over you and threaten to drown you.
Also, it might be the music. Apparently I've put all the depressing songs by Smashing Pumpkins on my "bra musik" playlist. There is nothing like Smashing Pumpkins to make me brood.

"I hope he's not brooding. I shouldn't like to think of him as being unhappy."
"I expect he's getting used to things." -
Brenda in conversation with Jock (A Handful of Dust, p. 172)


Sunday, October 07, 2007

Hunting is human rights

So apparently, according to an article in the Independent some people in Britain think that hunting is a part of human rights. I don't actually believe they really think that, but they've found some loopholes, or rather some laws they can press upon to try to legalise hunting again. I find it hilarious. Not the hunting, I don't really like hunting as a sport unless it is actually necessary in order to prevent overpopulation that will disturb the order of nature.
No, the thing I find hilarious is these people's intelligence and cunningness to use EU laws to try to override British laws. Well, if they actually had a case and Britain was doing something that wasn't according to EU laws, I suppose it would be fair enough, but using human rights as an excuse to hunt, that's just genious! Personally, I hope they won't get through the legalisation of hunting, but it still makes me giggle.
I am a politically correct person. It's against my personal beliefs to use something like human rights to benefit personally in this way, but I can't help but finding it brilliant. If I had no scruples and didn't really care for human rights, I probably would too. Although, I do find it wrong to use laws that are there to protect human rights to try to justify killing animals. That disgusts me. But due to the cleverness of these people I have to wish them good luck even if I hope they don't win.