Category: Politics

Who’d be a politician?

Two Scots politicians made the news this week. One told some lies, was totally back stabbed by his party but then gained respect in how he finally stepped down. The other has also told some lies (but no one can really prove when), has also been back stabbed by his old party and could only find respect by naming his new party after the word.

…just a bit of a dick.

So a well done and sympathies to Charles Kennedy who suffered a pretty messy execution by his own party. I actually thought he did well for the Liberals and took them to places they could only previously dream about. It’s also a ‘wish he would just go away’ to George Galloway who entered the Big Brother house this week. I remember when he was MP for Glasgow Kelvin – I thought he did nothing for his constituents then – how can he be serving those in Bethnal Green when he’s on a TV show bathing in his own self publicity. Murial Gray summed him up nicely in today’s Herald – just a bit of a dick.

Election 2005

After a slow start the election is starting to get interesting. This time round there are some fantastic websites that really make you think. I’d started to group some links together for a post but plasticbag’s article says it all plus more so it’s a better starting point.

If you can’t be bothered reading the article then visit some of the following links. Political Survey 2005 is a series of questions that are then used to compare/contrast you with the rest of the electorate..well those that have bothered to take the survey. The results are great – highly recommended. Next up is Who Should You Vote For. This is a bit more simplistic than the Survey as it asks your opinion on 23 statements and from that determines who you should vote for. I’ve published my results at the end of this post.

Next up are some stat pages. First is The Public Whip which allows you to see how your mp performed in the House of Commons and also has some surveys to try. The Ministerial Whirl is superb and well worth a visit. For more detail on your mp and links to Guardian content try They Work For You. Some very telling stats including how much your local mp claims back in expenses. Shocker. There’s also a good search engine at the site for everything that has been said in parliament since 2001 although that can also be found at the Houses of Parliament.

The major news websites are also doing their best to explain in plain language exactly what each party stands for. This is partly based on the success of similar sites set-up during the American elections last year. The Channel 4 website has introduced FactCheck and also election blogs. FactCheck hopes to analyse each of the main parties claims and verify who is actually telling the truth seen here when analysing a George Galloway quote. The blogs are also a fairly good read and give an insight into some of the electioneering that goes on although not all of them are up to date.

BBC also uses a blog but for it’s reporters only though the reporting is more honest than the reporters regular news reports. BBC wins for it’s news coverage, seat calculators and poll tracker. Everything an election stat whore could dream of.

After all that if you still can’t be bothered to vote, at least register with Not Apathetic and let the world know why. Finally, my who should you vote for results are…

Who Should You Vote For?

Your expected outcome:

Labour

Your actual outcome:

Labour -16
Conservative -29
Liberal Democrat 39
UK Independence Party -9
Green 24

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Shameful

Well done to Jamie Oliver as the government finally bows to public pressure over the amount spent on school meals. But did we really need:

  • A programme to highlight how bad school meals currently are and how it affects kids diets?
  • Labour lies. They had been working on the issue for quite a while said Tony Blair. Election on the way?
  • The ever more desperate Tories saying they would match anything the government spends. In fact…they’ll do more. Hang on a minute lads. I got a great idea. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm (think Italian Job).

    • If this is what the next 6 weeks are all about I’ll see you in June.

    Judgement Day

    Tomorrow is voting day in the American elections. From afar it’s hard not to feel that Kerry is the better choice. However his comments on Afghanistan have been rather sobering and it does make you wonder what choice the American voter really has. Bush is nothing but a liar and a warmonger but he seems to be able to convince enough Americans that his way is the right way. More than ever they have a real arrogance about what they can and cannot do when it comes to world politics. It’s Iraq now but where would it stop….Iran? North Korea? Probably Iran – part of the Axis of Evil and fourth on the list of most oil reserves.

    In many ways tomorrows election has a bigger effect on the UK and the world at large than our own election next year will. I for one don’t want another four years of Bush logic driving US & UK foreign policy. I hope Kerry will make a difference. I hope he gets the chance.

    Let Me Finish

    The first election debate in the USA has generated a fair bit of debate. Not on policies. More one how the two candidates looked and acted on TV. First was the analysis of the podium heights. All well and good, but the height of a guy surely doesn’t translate into votes? Course it does, which makes the podium mistake all the more amusing.

    Second is the ‘earpiece’ question – Bush was seemingly wearing an earpiece during the debate. Listen to this mp3 and you’ll hear him asking to ‘Let me finish’ when nobody in the debate was interrupting him. The smart money is that he was asking the guy speaking in his ear to let him finish – another article here points to the change in his speeches over the last year and how the technique is similar to those in the film industry that wear an earpiece. If true, its sad that the most powerful president in the world can’t string a sentence together but that’s nothing we didn’t know – the fools in the US will probably still vote him in. Or forget how to count.

    Scottish Pairlament

    So. First reaction to above is that I’ve spelt it wrong. Nope – it’s taken directly from the Scottish Parliament website. Clicking on ‘Scots’ to the left of the site takes you to a Scots welcome page.

    We hae producit a publication cried “Makkin Yer Voice Heard in the Scottish Pairlamentâ€? that tells ye aboot the different weys that you can let the Pairlament and the Memmers o the Scottish Pairlament (MSPs) ken whit ye think.

    Bloody hell. I think it’s bad enough we have to put up with Gaelic versions of sites and the Gaelic TV that we have to suffer but this is taking the piss. Also added are some spiffy new video’s for each of the MSP’s. All filmed in the new parliament building and lasting just over 4 minutes for each MSP, Tommy Sheridans is worth a watch just for the line on how he prefers a Tory as although he dislikes them at least he knows what they stand for unlike the Labour party. Class. If he wasn’t a buffoon and the policies he stood for added up economically I would consider voting for him. Would never carry it out though. Not with that suntan.

    I never actually realised that there was a Holyrood.tv website where you could watch most of the parliament debates live. The server is fast and quality is good. Watching first ministers questions from last week shows just how much the SNP had Jack McConnell on the run.