To many people it's very important that certain things are done a certain number of times. However, some people believe that this certain number should be prime, whereas others hold that the number should be highly composite. This is probably more important to some people than the actual Left/Right divide.
Consequently I propose the Nineteen To The Dozen Party System. There are still two wings to politics, but rather than dividing them between Left and Right, we should take the word "division" at face value and divide them into divisible and indivisible, the Prime Party and the Composite Party.
The Prime Party should of course be headed by the Prime Minister when in power. There should be three Prime Ministers, since one is not really a proper prime number. A third of each individual's body should represent the Prime Minister collectively, so that there is in fact only one actual PM, for example the legs of one politician, the torso of another and the head of a third.
When the Composite Party is in power, the country should switch to being headed by a Composite Minister, consisting of twenty-four individuals, of each of whom a twenty- fourth of their body contributes to the Composite Minister.
Policies should be enacted thus:
Money: Currency should be ninety-seven smaller units to the larger unit. This would be inherently unfair as it would be impossible to divide such a currency equally. Taxation should likewise be levied as a fifth, a seventh or whatever of the value. In fact all expenditure and revenue should consist of prime numbers of units of currency. The Composite Party should use some kind of highly composite number such as 144 in a similar way.
Administration: The Prime Party would divide the country into nineteen first-tier local authorities, each of which should be divided into seventeen smaller authorities. The Composite Party would do the same with a highly composite number of first and second-tier authorities.
Education: For the Prime Party, schooling should begin at five and end at seventeen. The English three-year first degree system would remain. For the Composites, schooling would begin at six and run to eighteen, and a degree would last six years, which is a perfect number of years for it to run. All degrees would therefore be Masters level or above, or in Medicine and Surgery.
Retirement: 60 for the Composite Party, 61 for the Prime Party.
Weights and Measures: Duodecimal for the Composite Party, units of eleven for the Prime Party.
Since there are two parties, the Prime Party would promote the educational doctrine that two is a prime number and the Composite Party that it isn't. I don't know why.
And so on.
In terms of left and right, both parties would be centrist because it's not the socialist/liberal/laissez faire thing that counts (note the word) so much as the number of things or times that something is done.
Much more sensible.-- nineteenthly, Mar 12 2018 // There should be three Prime Ministers, since one is not really a proper prime number.// Why not two?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018 Yeah, I thought that skipping over 2 to go right to 3 was odd, also.
Don't let the Irrational Populists take over--there are simply too many of them for Rational types to deal with.
Would this be a good place to press the Tau Manifesto?-- RayfordSteele, Mar 12 2018 [MB}, because the question of whether two is a prime number would complicate the issue. Whereas it is, it's also the most composite integer up to that point, and the number of parties involved adds up to two, meaning there would be a prime number of parties, and also a composite number, so it has to be obfuscated to avoid looking like a concession to the composites.
[RayfordSteele], the Tau Manifesto is so manifestly true that it has been written into the constitution by this point. Both parties agree.-- nineteenthly, Mar 12 2018 Umm, since when was 2 NOT a prime number? It has 2 factors: itself and 1. Therefore, prime. Other than that, this is good. It would require politicians to have at least some understanding of maths, which is a Good Thing.-- neutrinos_shadow, Mar 12 2018 Thanks.
Regarding denial of twor primeness, well, since when has reality been an impediment to the actions of politicians?
The point is that admission by the Composite Party that two is prime would be tantamount to giving ground to the Primists, which cannot be allowed.-- nineteenthly, Mar 12 2018 Classic halfbakery cavilling over arithmetical niceties, lost completely to the elegant majesty of this the nineteenthliest of ideas.-- calum, Mar 12 2018 I would never join the Prime party. They're far too full of odd blokes.
Poor even-keeled 2 is out-of-place there in spirit, even though he does meet membership qualifications. Why, he's practically founder of the Composite Party.
Where do the imaginary constituents belong?-- RayfordSteele, Mar 12 2018 random, halfbakery