How to win an election

Imagine you're David Cameron and you call a General Election. But you only hold it in the shire counties of England, your traditional power base. Then, as opposition, you nominate two of your own minor cabinet ministers to stand against you.


I think you're going to win, right? This is exactly what President Assad recently did in Syria, where he was returned to power with an 87.5% majority. I'm surprised it was that low. In the 1950s President Nasser of Egypt held elections where he was returned with a 100% majority- now that's what I call fixing an election. Come on Assad! You can do better than that.


Recently the rebel city of Homs surrendered to Assad's army. They had been bombed and shelled almost to extinction: perhaps 50,000 people were killed. Aleppo in the north faces the same fate. You may have seen footage of what that great Byzantine city looks like after Assad's attentions: it resembles Berlin in 1945, hardly a building left undamaged.


I understand it is a serious crime to go to Syria to fight against Assad- you go to prison for it. I have my problems with that. I am aware the volunteers may be fighting alongside Al Qaida, but don't people have a right to fight in what they consider to be a moral mission? Was it illegal to oppose fascism in the Spanish Civil War? Thousands of socialists from Britain did just that, and now they are thought of as heroes. So it may feel odd to have British born men going to fight in Syria, but is it wrong? I don't think so.