I didn’t make it to the declaration of my local constituency which eventually declared sometime around 5 in the morning. As a result I’m basically functioning on tea infusions. I may have to whip up a super-caffeine latte in a bit. The results last night where all over the place. Some stonking swings to the …
Today is the general election in the UK. It’s the closest race I’ve ever been eligible to vote in and the outcome is far from certain. If you do one thing today please go and vote. That is all.
This will be my last post on the subject of politics for some time. Tomorrow is election day and even though blogging is not yet subject to the oversight of Ofcom the convention of not campaigning on election day seems like a good one to follow. The campaign has taken a certain negative turn, a …
Continue reading ‘Big Society vs Proportional Representation’ »
Sometimes I feel quite sorry for Gordon Brown. I have plenty of fundamental problems with his politics but sometimes he just can’t catch a break. Thankfully I’m rational enough not to base my vote on how lucky the candidates seem to be. Brown has joined a long line of politicians caught saying things in private …
Continue reading ‘The story is around the world before the rebuttal gets it’s boots on’ »
The election race in my constituency just got a lot more interesting. The suspension of the local Labour candidate offers up some interesting options for the voters. While the Tory incumbent has a fairly healthy majority he does benefit from a splitting of the opposition vote. Despite kicking the candidate out (who would never win …
The knives are well and truly out for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats ahead of tonight’s debate. They can’t exactly complain now they have been propelled from third party to potential front-runners (modulo electoral effects). While the “scrutiny” offered by the British press is predictably smear-like I’m hoping it’s policies that will come under …
Our polling cards arrived this morning. Now I know I can vote I’m still a little conflicted about who to vote for. Last night I tuned into ITV to see if I can clear up that confusion. The debate was certainly livelier than the chancellors debate. Part of that was down to the aggressiveness of …
Reading through the bullet summary of the Lib Dems manifesto I was struck at how well it aligned with the Tory proposals on political reform (smaller House of Commons). There are a number of other good proposals including per-flight instead of per-passenger flight tax, local income tax, shared parental leave (similar to Tory proposals). There …
It looks like it’s shaping up to be a very dirty election. The latest scare tactic involving cancer treatment also raised question about how the leaflets were targeted. The Labour party seem to be working very hard to promote the image of posh Tories waxing their moustaches between looking for puppies to kick. Health care …