Enfranchised – for the first time!

This may sound ridiculous but, at the age of 32, I am finally represented in the government by someone who I voted for! He wasn’t my first, choice, granted but…I’m represented nevertheless!

You have to understand: I’m English, and lived in England for 31 years. The voting system there is a first past the post system. This system has its merits – the traditional one that’s rolled out is that it “leads to strong governments”. This is true; and even good in some ways. In lots of ways though, the system is completely rubbish:

If you vote for the losing candidate, then you might just as well have stayed in bed.

Similarly, if you vote for a candidate who wins by a landslide majority then – again – staying in bed wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

Arguably, this isn’t particularly democratic. Certainly it doesn’t make one feel “involved in the democratic process” if ones vote is – essentially – irrelevant.

Situations are imaginable whereby governments can be installed with a majority of seats, but with (for example) just 20% of the “popular vote”. Less extreme cases have indeed happened. E.g. in the 2005 general election, the Labour party won 55% of the seats, having only secured 35.2% of the popular vote!

Ireland: Multiple-Seat Constituencies and Transferable Votes

There are two important differences here in Ireland.

Firstly, each constituency represents multiple seats in the Dáil (the government chamber – akin to the House Of Commons in the UK).

Secondly, you get to list your candidates in order of preference. If your first preference doesn’t get enough votes, then your vote gets transferred to your second preference, and so on… Furthermore. if your first choice gets in with a big majority, then a proportion of your vote gets transferred to your second preference, and so on…

Collectively, these two features make the electoral system a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.

So…I listed our candidates in the “Dublin North Central” constituency in the following order:

1. Bronwen Maher: Green Party (didn’t have a hope of getting in but…I wanted to register my political/social beliefs and…hey, you never know, enough other people might feel the same)
2. Derek McDowell: Labour (because this country needs some people suggesting radical changes to the way it’s run – certainly some redistribution of wealth is in order)
3. Finian McGrath: Independent (because…well I’m running out of candidates now and…he seems like a nice-enough fellow, and certainly cares for his constituency)
4. Richard Bruton: Fine Gael (because, at the end of the day, I really want a change of government – ANY change!)

And…well, my vote for Finian got used, and he was duly elected, in third place:

Hurrah! I’m represented by someone for the first time ever!

Speedy home-delivery

I know that countless people have had babies at home before but it was so far removed from being an everyday occurrence that the birth of our second child, “E”, definitely warrants a blog entry!

He was born at home, after a very quick labour.

It has been said that I delivered him. This is a gross exaggeration of events. In fact, my partner, “S”, has been getting a little peeved at the congratulations that I’ve been receiving considering that she did all of the gestating and the pushing. Genuinely, all I did was stick my hands out and catch him. Actually that’s not entirely true, I also told S that she should move away from the toilet as being fished out of a toilet bowl would be a rather humiliating way for a baby’s life to begin (although, according to the midwives it does happen with surprising regularity). I also spoke to the 999 operator who advised me to “not do anything”. Oh, and we wrapped him in some towels. No further remedial action was needed. Mercifully, E came out kicking and screaming, not needing a shred of encouragement to breathe/wake-up/cry (very unlike his big brother!). That was the only fear we had, and thankfully it was allayed pretty much straightaway.

It sounds a bit like we’ve turned into new-age hippies: “Yeah man, S was – like – birthing upstairs, watching the sun rise. The kids were in the house too, as we wanted them to – like – feel involved. It was – like – so-o-o natural.”. Or maybe that we’ve subscribed to the “freebirth” craze which is sweeping the world: (I say “sweeping the world”; what I really mean is “up to 12 people in the uk and, of course, a fair few crazy americans”).

Having said that I don’t want to sound like a hippy, S and I do both cherish that fact that E was born into his parents’ arms, without any third parties involved. Made for a pretty special (albeit highly-charged) 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived.

It was a startlingly fast labour. Indeed only 15 minutes before he was born, we were collecting a few things together in order to go to hospital “in a few hours, or so”.

I’ve never seem such a bemused look on anyone’s face by the way; E was truely saying “What the HELL just happened?!”.