Bumbling idiocy, thy name is politix

Gahwd. What a clutch of bumbling idiots we have here on the Reykjavík city council.

Some of you may remember a post from about three months ago when – without warning – a new majority was formed in the city and before you could say whostabbedwhointheback we had a new mayor and a new city council. Well, today – some 100 days later – we had a switchback, meaning that once again we have a new local government. Except that, well, it's pretty much the old local government.

The scenario last time around went something like this: The Independence Party, which needed one seat on the council to form a majority, decided to recruit the single member that had been elected from the Progressive Party to form their majority coalition. Pretty precarious business, since the balance of the majority hung on that one seat BUT clearly they trusted the man. [Note bumbling idiocy factor.] Before too long those two parties were enmeshed in a major dispute too tedious to record here and, well, long story short, the single council member from the Progressives decided to abscond, swung over to the other side, and presto! a new coalition was formed, and the Independence Party was in a minority.*

Predictably, the old coalition was pissed as hell, and now it appears they’ve gone out and recruited someone they thought the could persuade to cross over to the other side, to give them back the majority they needed. They found their man in one Ólafur F. Magnússon, one of two representatives for the Liberal Party on the city council, enticing him [some would say 'buying'] by promising him the office of mayor for half of the remaining election term. He’ll sit until the end of this year, when the former mayor [who incidentally during the abovementioned dispute signed away a Very Significant Document With Serious Implications without reading it because it was written in English – note BIF] will take over once again.**

Friends: these are the people who are now going to be running our affairs in this fair city. Delightful, wouldn’t you agree? So, what I’d really like to know is, how the hell do they expect the people of Reykjavík to take them seriously – to say nothing of trust – with machinations of this sort? [BIF] Of course their argument is that they’re simply doing what someone else did three months ago, but hey, at least the guy from the Progressives had an ideological clash to use as an excuse. Whereas these people evidently have no excuse, except their blatant yearning for power. And their bumbling idiocy.

APPROPRIATELY WE HAVE A MAJOR STORM FORECAST FOR TONIGHT
With gusts up to 28 m/s and rain or sleet. Temps are crawling upwards, currently 4°C [39F], with sunrise at 10.41 and sunset at 4.37 pm.

INCIDENTALLY!
Apropos the last post – old Bobby Fisher did not have his state funeral, nor was he laid to rest at Þingvellir – apparently he had a quiet burial this morning somewhere near Selfoss, attended by his Japanese partner and four of his close friends. This was in line with his own wishes. Which begs the question why his friends were prattling on about the whole state funeral thing in the first place. Which I will not consider now because my head hurts too much. Goodnight.

* This is the short version – there was lots more dirty intrigue that we won’t get into here because actually we don’t give a damn.
** And incidentally, the other member of the Liberal Party is staying where she is. Confused yet?