Jul 22
MoggyEducation, Geography, Life, Politics
Of all the realistic and possible ways of governing a country, it is clear that a capitalist democracy is the best, and many would agree.
However democracy in the UK has it’s limitations, and I intend to make my thoughts clear here. You may remember that in early May, we had a general election. People voted in their millions, all picking MP’s from their constituencies to help govern the country. It worked, turns out the Tories got the most votes, but whilst doing so, lacked a majority, and instead took the Lib Dems in with them forming a coalition.
And now they are demanding five years of this. Great, an election with 29,691,780 votes, and not one of these actually voting for the coalition we got. Not to mention it was Nick Clegg who chose to join the Tories in coalition, shaping the future of the country – a decision so massive for the future, and was conducted by a man who’s party shares only 8.8% of the seats in the House of Commons.
Some people think that Proportional Representation (PR) is a good alternative to the current first-past-the-post system. And whilst it may deliver more proportional results for the winning party, PR increasingly opens up more opportunities for smaller political parties (such as UKIP, Green Party, BNP, Independents, etc.) who will gain more MP seats, reducing the number of the main political parties – meaning it will be even less likely for the main two parties, Labour and the Conservatives to get their crucial majorities.
The other reason for my dislike of PR is that voting in a general election will require you to indicate in a rank order who would like to see as your next governing party. This may be ok for some, but my idea of voting is to vote for the ONE person I would like to see in power, simple as that. In constituencies where political parties, such as the BNP, which you may highly disagree with – you will be forced to vote for them somehow in that rank order.
Not even to mention that given the votes in the 2010 election, the BNP gained twice as many votes (563,743) in the popular vote than the Green Party (285,616) did, so who would you expect gets the elected MPs? The Greens got 1, but the BNP got none. If these results were under proportional representation, the BNP could have ultimately got 2 or even 3 MP’s into the Commons for this government. Think of it like that.
Aside from PR, I think the coalition is doing well. It is about time that we had a strong government trying to structure a decent economic recovery.
However Monday’s news was the “Big Society” plans being announced by David Cameron. I admit that I am more a Conservative supporter than any other party, but this Big Society bullshit is really rubbing things in. I, as a citizen on this country, do not need to be told how to live my life – let alone being part of a voluntary group that takes control of certain public services – which I personally feel is an insult to those hardworking people that do this already as their paid job.
And then it raises the question about who is right for what job in the cabinet, and it doesn’t take long to see that what we see in some positions is clueless people making huge decisions about sectors they know nothing about. Take for example, Andrew Lansley, the current Health Secretary – who has never been a doctor, nor has ever studied medicine. The closest he gets is his father, formerly a pathologist. Therefore how are we meant to believe for a second that he knows what’s best for doctors and nurses in the NHS? Surely a better person to ask would be Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary… He was a GP before becoming an MP, and he read Medicine at university, but no, Fox now has a job controlling the armed forces – something he knows nothing today.
The same goes for Micheal Gove, the Education Secretary. Never a teacher, nor head teacher, examiner, schools governor, etc. The closest he gets is an arts collection and a wife whose a journalist – surely he’d be better suited as an advisor to the Culture and Media Secretary?
I could go on, and turns out Labour was even worse. Over the past 13 years they had charge, cabinet ministers dotted between jobs all over the place in different sectors, as if they were teenagers looking for work experience in different industries.
So this is it. Democracy, where the cabinet contains people that can only presume what’s best for the sectors the instruct. Great.
Apr 29
MoggyBBC, Politics, Web Design, Website
With the General Election coming in a month, many of the news websites have fantastic interactive map guides to the constituencies and the political party each MP represents. Here is a guide to the 5 best maps online:
Summary: My favorite is The Times, followed by Sky. They are both accurate, to scale maps with detailed information on each constituency. The Times more so because of extra features (such as the predictions) and it seemed to run a bit faster for me.
Mar 06
MoggyBBC, Media, Politics, TV
Recently we have been hearing that there will be three live debates, featuring the three main political party leaders in the UK, broadcast live on TV, before the election day coming up this year (currently widely assumed to be May 6th).
The idea is based upon the similar American debates that happen on the other side of the Atlantic – and usually, a political strategy that has crossed the pond to us usually has me worried. But not this one…
To sum up for those who don’t know, here is a short quote about the debates from a Guardian news article:
The first programme, to be presented by ITN’s Alastair Stewart, will cover domestic affairs and come from the north-west. The second show, presented by Sky’s Adam Boulton, will cover foreign affairs and come from the south-west. The third, presented by the BBC’s David Dimbleby, will cover the economy – seen as the most important election issue – and will be broadcast from the Midlands.
And here are my main opinions:
- Firstly, the three debates are on three different broadcasters (starting with ITV1, followed by Sky News, and lastly the BBC), meaning there can be no ‘blame’ or ‘bias’ to a single broadcaster or host for a single show. I know it’s against broadcasting law to be politically bias, not just for the BBC, but for all channels in the UK, but I suspect Sky News will show their true right wing colours at some point… or maybe thats just me.
- I am also interested to see that none of the three debates will be held in London, but in varying locations across the country. I would like to see at least one set somewhere in the countryside, so people who don’t live in urban areas (which makes up rather a large proportion of the UK’s population) feel their opinions are heard.
- Which party will benefit most? For me, the Lib Dems. As mentioned on a Question Time debate a few days ago, the Lib Dems will be on the same level or debate as both the Tories and Labour. I suspect that a larger proportion of the mainstream public will change their viewpoints to the Lib Dems.
- I am also glad to see some of the ’strict’ rules put in place for the debates’ format. One that particularly grabbed my eye was the rule that the audience may not applaud during the live debate, and will only do so at the beginning at the end of the show. By not applauding, TV audiences will not be influenced to what the party leaders say based upon what the studio audience thinks. That to me, is a good thing, as the public needs to make their own mind up.
- I am, however, not happy at the reaction given by some of the smaller parties, such like The Green Party, UKIP, the SNP, etc. The thing is, these live debates are for the mainstream, large parties, which are their to promote a future prime minister, not to reinforce opinions of local MP’s – which is what these smaller parties need. Plus, the SNP and Plaid Cymru can bugger off, their policies have nothing to do with me living in England – don’t you dare say that their opinions need to be heard throughout the UK!
So, finally – my political opinion? Well, as I have made it clear before, I am more of a right-wing person, but I will promise myself to base my political opinion solely on the outcome of these debates… this should be interesting!
Sources: BBC News / The Guardian / Sky News / PA; Image source: Sky News
Update: Here is a good graphic I have created to summarise the 3 debates and their dates:
Oct 30
MoggyMe, Media, Politics
By next June, when the next general election is to be held (or before then), I will have not reached my 18th birthday, and as a result will not be able to vote… I’ll be 17 years and 11 months. Great. Thankfully, I’ll not have to worry about who I would vote for next year… but it makes me wonder who I would vote for if coincidentally, my parents timed their night in just a month or two earlier.
More
Oct 24
MoggyBBC, Media, Politics, The Delicious Irony Series
On Thursday, 8 million people tuned in to watch Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party (BNP), ramble on about some useless twaddle about how Britain needs to remain British. I watched the programme, and thought it was fantastic; the debate was very interesting, and I loved watching Griffin squirm as he couldn’t give an answer to anything respectable.
More
Oct 07
MoggyFamous People, Politics, The Delicious Irony Series
I understand I’m rather late on posting the news, but this just had to go in my delicious irony series.
Turns out that about 3 weeks ago, the head of the UK’s legal system, Baroness Scotland, was under investigation that she had hired an illegal immigrant to be her housekeeper. Ok, that’s pretty ironic right… she’s the Attorney General for the UK, and she’s been fined £5,000 for breaking the law… not a very good role model, eh?
Well, this is where it gets interesting. Turns out she was fined for breaking the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which… wait for it… she helped impose herself into the House Of Lords when she was a Home Office Minister.
So you have a job, just so happens your job is to impose new laws, you help impose one particular new law, she suddenly becomes the head of the legal system, she then breaks that law, gets fined for it, and then denies any wrong doing, and then rejects calls to resign.
Bollocks to that.
Read more on this story: BBC News, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Guardian.
Twitter
Facebook
RSS
Recent Comments