The Sunday After

Labour leader Bill Shorten and sausagegate :D (image from the Telegraph)

After the Lord Mayor's show (literally) which was the British referendum on whether to stay in Europe last week, yesterday Australia had a general election. There are some differences in the UK and Australian voting systems that are important to understand.

1. Voting is compulsory in Australia. I'm not sure this is something I agree with. As preferences have to be put in order, this becomes even more imposing on the voter who has to choose between a certain number of candidates.

2. The UK has a first past the post system, Australia has a form of proportional representation. In theory, a vote for a minor party is important in Australia, though in practice the election has been similar to the UK system with a race between the 2 major parties, and the majority of voters not prepared to vote with their conscience as they believe this to be a wasted vote.

3. Australia has a federal system, while the UK is still a central parliamentary system. The states in Australia have considerable legislative, and budgetry powers which make them semi independent entities. The federal system is composed of 2 houses, the Senate and the Representatives which exercises a balance of power, apparently. The head of state is nominally still the UK monarch, but why I don't know.

4. Australia's economy is good, and it is considered a major economic power in the world, especially our mining industry. In reality, Australia's position seems to rely heavily on economic relations with the superpowers, America and China. Diplomatically, Australia is a minor player on the world stage. This is the opposite of the UK where economic strength is based on finance rather than raw materials, and international relations remain a high priority, even in our post-colonial world.


The biggest difference from my point of view of the UK referendum and the Australian general election seemed to have been the intensity of feeling involved. Now I know the UK referendum was about a single issue, but that issue was connected to almost everything about the way the country runs.The UK referendum was hotly debated, with pomp, anger, mistrust, frustration, and even violence among the emotions involved. The Australian election seems to have been conducted in an almost party spirit, with a relatively low key build up from the combatants. (my letter box got one electioneering pamphlet from our local Liberal candidate, and a guide on how to vote) Twitter was awash with pictures of the Labour leader struggling to eat a sausage at an election barbecue

The aftermath has been remarkably similar, though, with no one being any the wiser to what is going to happen. The UK finds itself in limbo waiting for someone to make a decision as to whether the referendum will be taken as a sign for the British Government to invoke Article 50 and leave the EU. It's over a week and no one seems prepared to push the button. Here in Australia, the vote was inconclusive and we wake up to a non-result. Not only is there no winner, the votes haven't even all been counted, and they won't until Tuesday! So we have until then, and possibly later, to discover who our new government will be, or if there will be a new government, or the need for another election.

Crazily long Senate ballot paper (image from http://voiceaustralia.news/)

Saying that, the ballot papers in this year's election were ridiculous. The senate paper was too long to lay flat in the voting booth, and it wasn't set out in alphabetical order, or any other order that seemed to make sense. It took me quite a while to find my first choice party and then I had to search for the second choice. I guess like many, I wasn't fully aware of all the parties I'd be putting preferences down for, but I knew which main parties to vote for or not. This made it rather cumbersome choosing a 5th and 6th choice at the polling booth, and next time I go to the polls, I'll be going with 6 definite choices.

One Week Left

I have one more week of work before my break. There are just 9 days before flying off to America on holiday with my wonderful wife, Caroline. On the ease down from work, my Saturday was rudely interrupted by having to vote for a bunch of people I didn't want to elect. I've always felt it funny that I have to vote for somebody. I mean, I can understand a secular country demanding its populace to cast a vote on who they think should be elected, but if there is really no one who appeals, then there should be a "None of the Above" option. My main ballot had 6 choices and I had to nominate candidates with numbers 1-6. Now While I could certainly have cast 2-3 preferences, there were at least 3 who I didn't want to even put as a last preference. I asked a helper if I could leave some names blank as I didn't want to show any preference at all for certain candidates, but apparently that would have made my ballot paper invalid. Besides this, I was given an enormous list of parties and told I had a choice. Either vote in section A for just one party, or list all 97 parties in section B in order of preference. Doh! As if I can be bothered to even show a preference between 2 parties, let alone 97!

This sign sums up my feelings of today's Australian election (from zazzle)

So anyway, I did the right thing and cast my vote, going Green, if you must know! I heard on the news a little while ago that Abbott is our new PM. Now I was never a fan of US President George W. Bush jr, but I think it would have been amusing if he'd been in power at the same time as Tony Abbott, just to see which one could appear bigger idiot. (Go check out this funny story about a chess match between US Presidential Candidates, Kerry and Bush from 2004!) However, whichever party is in power, life still goes on for the average person, and I've got one more week of work, 9 more days, or about 18 coffees before lift off. In that time I would like to say I've got loads to do, but that would be a lie. I've got to run my chess classes, and that's about it except for the normal daily duties of eating and sleeping. My lessons for the week are already prepared, so I don't even have to worry about that. Life is good!

In fact, I've even started thinking about some future projects. One of these will be creating a new weekend tournament in the Victorian calendar, and helping to really generate interest in our new local Glen Eira Chess Club. On Friday, some ideas were thrown around about the possibility of running a weekender sometime next year. As we are a new and small club, trying for any more would seem a bit optimistic, but our future seems guaranteed for at least a year as we have successfully applied and received a grant from the council to help us with hiring facilities. As this is the major cost of any club, it is a big help to us. I'm not going to reveal any more than that here now, but I will say that if the tournament goes ahead, then we are thinking of using a slightly different system to what would normally count as a weekend format. As soon as something definite can be said, I'll post more!

From just a chess point of view, I've seen the same endgame reached in my classes 3 times in the past week. It is a pawnless endgame where one side has king and queen, and the other side has king a rook. I tend to find that certain pawnless endings can be great for kids to look at, and this is one. Giving them a position to aim for, and then explaining to them that it is "zugzwang" is a good way to introduce a difficult concept. Take the following position.

With black to move, it is a win for white, as every move that black can legally make will allow white to either checkmate quickly, or force a fork of black's king and rook. Try to work it out, it's good fun and a good exercise! Of course, if it's white to move, then white's queen can give black the move by triangulation: 1.Qe4+ Kh8 2.Qa8+ Kh7 [2..Rg8 loses to 3.Qh1#] 3.Qe8 and we're in the above position!  Of course, from a practical point of view, it is not easy to get to this position in a real game. But funnily enough, having something to aim for will help a player to find better moves over the board, and although forcing the above position to happen is not easy, neither is defending the position with the rook! Anyone who starts to master this endgame, will then be able to add pawns to the rook's side, and discover blockades, and when there are no blockades. These are very useful endgames to know, and will help improve a player's general understanding of the game and their overall playing strength.