The terrible bloodshed unleashed by Colonel Gaddafi will not save him.

Gaddafi, one of the longest-serving non-royal rulers in history, makes the case for term limits unanswerable. That's what I think.

The Middle East and Magreb have been home to autocrats and tyrants for decades, yet the West has turned a blind eye. Until now.

The uprisings across the region are unstoppable and impossible to ignore.

And the revolutions are secular, thank God, yet the splendid Robert Fisk tells us everyone is blaming religion.

Not me.

From what I can tell the men in beards are thin on the ground. This is indeed a blessing.

Seems to me we’ve been a bit slow to make the case for greater democracy in a region notable for its absence.

In May 2007, at Foreign Office questions, I asked Margaret Beckett:

Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle) (Lab): There are only three or four fully functioning democracies in the 44 states of the Islamic world. Why should that be the case?

Margaret Beckett: That is a very interesting question—to which, I fear, I do not feel inclined to try to give a full answer in the middle of Question Time.

Yes. I suppose it was a difficult question requiring some thought.

A House of Commons made of glass

It remains to be seen whether the decanting of Canadian MPs into a House of Commons made of glass will change their behaviour.

Somehow I doubt it.

MPs in Ottawa are notoriously boisterous and seem to enjoy shouting and bawling in the Chamber.

I know the feeling.

It’s juvenile but easy to get swept along in the current.

Calls for more decorum in Ottawa are guaranteed to fall on deaf ears.

AV down under

Now that the debate on changing the voting system for the Westminster Parliament is under way, it’s time to look at this useful briefing (see attachment) on the alternative vote from the Australian Electoral Commission.

AV is used for elections to the Australian House of Representatives. The lower House.

Attachments:

australia_alternative_vote.pdf	[AV in Australia]	143 Kb
electoral_voting_systems_research.pdf	[Australian Electoral Commissions. Voting Systems]	541 Kb