Too much newness

Two bits of newness.

I’ve taken the plunge and moved to hosting my own WordPress blog. The LiveJournal import script crapped itself a few times (it reached 13,000 comment imports; I only have 212 comments), but I think I’ve gotten them all across.

Also, I apologise for the lack of OpenID support, I can’t seem to get any of the plugins to work without either errors or interfering with a nifty way to set my blog as an OpenID provider without any provider software. I hope to fix this in the near future, or just hack away at it until it works.

The other is the Lib/Con government. I’ve had a read through of the agreement, and whilst I’m not thrilled about nuclear power, replacing Trident or the marriage tax rebates, I’m heartened that the LibDems can abstain from the votes and speak against them without jeopardising the coalition.

I’m more heartened by the wholesale adoption of LibDem policies, such as the £10,000 tax free allowance and political reform. Along with the common viewpoint on education and civil liberties, these are good things, whatever the nay-sayers say (Try saying that quickly repeatedly)

With respect to them, the LibDems have not abandoned their soul, lost the plot or sold out. Whilst a number of supporters would like to have seen a Lib/Lab pact (and had Labour got more seats it probably would have happened), it would have been more unstable than the current arrangement, and I have a gut feeling that the public would vilify the LibDems more for propping up Labour. I also suspect that once Labour were “safely” back in, the promises would get dropped as “too expensive”, “unworkable”, “not a priority”, or New Labour’s current authoritarian streak would assert itself.

I’m not fan of the Tories; I would not vote for them even if every other candidate were more unpalatable. The element that gets me enthused about the government are the LibDem ministers, providing liberal viewpoints to counter the conservative ones, to propose liberal solutions to problems. This strong counterpoint will be enough to hold back the Tories’ natural instincts whilst providing decent government.

I think I’ve finished drinking the KoolAid now. Cynical service should be resumed shortly. ;)