UK Election 2015
While I wait for TS2 to install on my laptop, I churn out some UK Politics thoughts.
For those not from the UK, brief background: general election in about a month, there was a TV debate on last night between seven - yes seven - party leaders. Those being:
- Conservatives, current biggest Party in terms of seats, right of centre
- Labour, the only real competitor capable of getting a Prime Minister, left of centre
- Liberal Democrats, the smaller coalition partner with the Conservatives leading the country right now, centre/left of centre
- UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), has been growing in recent years and now has representatives in the House of Commons so could no longer be ignored, right of the Conservatives
- Greens, only has one MP, Conservatives insisted they should be included if UKIP are, left
- SNP (Scottish National Party), can only actually be voted for in Scotland, left
- Plaid Cymru, can only actually be voted for in Wales, left
To be honest, I don't think the SNP and Plaid Cymru should have been there at all, and Scotland and Wales should have had their own separate debates where the main parties could have addressed those places specifically, because of course the SNP and Plaid Cymru leaders only really had to appeal to one section of the country each while the big ones had to appeal to everyone at once. Having said that, their leaders - both female - were pretty awesome, especially Nicola Sturgeon. I can't agree with her intentions because obviously she's Scotland uber alles, but she makes an impressive politician in an Angela Merkel-like vein. And at least it's apparent to everyone now that both of those parties are on the Left (it's England that provides basically all of the support for the Conservatives).
The Greens... I think they need to get real, because they're selling an ideal without any reference for how it could be made to work in terms of cost and implementation. Of course those bits aren't as fun or interesting, but they are necessary. Or, they would be if the Greens were likely to get anywhere. It's why I respected the woman from Plaid Cymru more because she said that they wanted to have no tuition fees, but admitted that wasn't realistic right now, so in the meantime they were going to keep them at a (comparatively) low amount. The Greens probably will increase their share of the vote from young people disillusioned with the Liberal Democrats and/or people who want to protest vote and also object to UKIP, but I think I'd be surprised if they gained any more MPs than they have.
Labour... I'm afraid I personally don't have any faith in Labour and see no reason why I should. Nothing in their policies I've heard stands out to me as a good idea (that other people aren't doing). Ed Miliband isn't impressive himself and... there's just nothing there for me. I think they need to clone an English Nicola Sturgeon, then they might get somewhere. They may well still gain votes from people who voted Lib Dem last time, and swing voters turned off by incumbent Conservatives, but I'd be amazed if they were the biggest party after the next election.
Lib Dems. Oh, honeykittens. Background for those who don't know: the Liberal Democrats did better than they have possibly ever done before (though in our political system they managed to gain votes and lose seats, of course), partially on the back of students who wanted them to abolish tuition fees. They wound up as the minor coalition partner with the Conservatives, who they then failed to prevent massively raising tuition fees, so needless to say a large part of their supporters will be gone this time regardless. Because a lot of people don't understand how coalitions work, including those who say that they should have formed a coalition with Labour instead... even though that's ridiculous because the Conservatives clearly won, they just didn't have a majority. So they will do badly regardless. I might vote for them anyway because, although I was a student at the time, that wasn't why I voted for them last time: I want electoral change (rant on this at the end), and nobody has mentioned that this time, but at least the Lib Dems did manage to get a referendum on that, even if it didn't work.
Conservatives - My money's on them winning again, probably not a majority again. I couldn't say whether the upturn in the economy was going to happen at this point regardless or if their policies have helped, but David Cameron is a credible (if not always well-liked) Prime Minister and the country's not doing so badly (though I know some people have suffered a lot). I just hope that if there is a coalition again, their coalition partner involves the left to temper some of their further-right impulses.
And finally UKIP, because I need to talk about these guys since I can't help but feel the coverage is being a little unfair. The point of their name is that the UK is a part of the European Union and they don't want to be, and a large part of that is linked to immigration since there is a principal of free movement within the EU that the EU leaders have confirmed they will not budge on, and the UK tends to receive a lot of people from poorer countries. Needless to say, the party attracts racists and xenophobic people. And we don't know how much politicians lie and tone things down, but... from the things their leader Nigel Farage said last night, the party and idea itself does not necessarily have to be either of those things. The other parties are keen to shut him up and if you so much as mention misgivings regarding levels of immigration you are immediately branded racist or xenophobic, so you can't discuss it properly. But if nothing else, our arrangement with the EU has screwed over potential immigrants from other parts of the world; one of my Dad's clients would love to be able to bring over some IT people it deals with in India, but can't because - trying to appease people's concerns about immigration - there have to be even harsher limits on the rest of the world to make up for the fact that we can't do much of anything to limit arrivals from Europe. Nigel Farage mentioned getting better ties with the commonwealth instead and, talking in terms of racism, the commonwealth is far more diverse than Europe is. If it weren't for his adamant, unqualified and completely unconcerned talk of ending all foreign aid (paired with his comments about people coming here with HIV - so we won't help them here or there? We're one of the wealthier countries in the world and we just don't care about people now?!) I could almost maybe consider maybe voting for them since the situation doesn't really make sense as far as I can tell. But no.
And now to my rant, which I've probably ranted about before and will again. Because for all of that, and for all of the people out there insisting that you simply must vote, my vote isn't worth the paper it will be printed on. My local area has been solidly Conservative since the 1920s. Normally the closest rival here is the Liberal Democrats and even last time - when the Conservative guy was new and the Lib Dems were at their zenith - even then it wasn't that close. The outcome is dependent on the swing seats, they might as well not bother campaigning anywhere else. And as I said earlier, even if a party gains a large amount of votes, that doesn't even guarantee it won't lose seats instead! I hate the voting system and I know from my degree that they manage to make better versions work elsewhere. So when there's handwringing about disillusionment and young people not voting: that would be my reason; because it literally means jack shit in most cases.
Will I vote? Meh, maybe. And even if I do, it may be for no better reason than because I saw a thread last night discussing which Games of Thrones characters each of the leaders would be, and it was decided that Nick Clegg was my favourite character (in what wasn't supposed to be a good way). Why should I take my vote any more seriously than that? It doesn't even matter.
For those not from the UK, brief background: general election in about a month, there was a TV debate on last night between seven - yes seven - party leaders. Those being:
- Conservatives, current biggest Party in terms of seats, right of centre
- Labour, the only real competitor capable of getting a Prime Minister, left of centre
- Liberal Democrats, the smaller coalition partner with the Conservatives leading the country right now, centre/left of centre
- UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), has been growing in recent years and now has representatives in the House of Commons so could no longer be ignored, right of the Conservatives
- Greens, only has one MP, Conservatives insisted they should be included if UKIP are, left
- SNP (Scottish National Party), can only actually be voted for in Scotland, left
- Plaid Cymru, can only actually be voted for in Wales, left
To be honest, I don't think the SNP and Plaid Cymru should have been there at all, and Scotland and Wales should have had their own separate debates where the main parties could have addressed those places specifically, because of course the SNP and Plaid Cymru leaders only really had to appeal to one section of the country each while the big ones had to appeal to everyone at once. Having said that, their leaders - both female - were pretty awesome, especially Nicola Sturgeon. I can't agree with her intentions because obviously she's Scotland uber alles, but she makes an impressive politician in an Angela Merkel-like vein. And at least it's apparent to everyone now that both of those parties are on the Left (it's England that provides basically all of the support for the Conservatives).
The Greens... I think they need to get real, because they're selling an ideal without any reference for how it could be made to work in terms of cost and implementation. Of course those bits aren't as fun or interesting, but they are necessary. Or, they would be if the Greens were likely to get anywhere. It's why I respected the woman from Plaid Cymru more because she said that they wanted to have no tuition fees, but admitted that wasn't realistic right now, so in the meantime they were going to keep them at a (comparatively) low amount. The Greens probably will increase their share of the vote from young people disillusioned with the Liberal Democrats and/or people who want to protest vote and also object to UKIP, but I think I'd be surprised if they gained any more MPs than they have.
Labour... I'm afraid I personally don't have any faith in Labour and see no reason why I should. Nothing in their policies I've heard stands out to me as a good idea (that other people aren't doing). Ed Miliband isn't impressive himself and... there's just nothing there for me. I think they need to clone an English Nicola Sturgeon, then they might get somewhere. They may well still gain votes from people who voted Lib Dem last time, and swing voters turned off by incumbent Conservatives, but I'd be amazed if they were the biggest party after the next election.
Lib Dems. Oh, honeykittens. Background for those who don't know: the Liberal Democrats did better than they have possibly ever done before (though in our political system they managed to gain votes and lose seats, of course), partially on the back of students who wanted them to abolish tuition fees. They wound up as the minor coalition partner with the Conservatives, who they then failed to prevent massively raising tuition fees, so needless to say a large part of their supporters will be gone this time regardless. Because a lot of people don't understand how coalitions work, including those who say that they should have formed a coalition with Labour instead... even though that's ridiculous because the Conservatives clearly won, they just didn't have a majority. So they will do badly regardless. I might vote for them anyway because, although I was a student at the time, that wasn't why I voted for them last time: I want electoral change (rant on this at the end), and nobody has mentioned that this time, but at least the Lib Dems did manage to get a referendum on that, even if it didn't work.
Conservatives - My money's on them winning again, probably not a majority again. I couldn't say whether the upturn in the economy was going to happen at this point regardless or if their policies have helped, but David Cameron is a credible (if not always well-liked) Prime Minister and the country's not doing so badly (though I know some people have suffered a lot). I just hope that if there is a coalition again, their coalition partner involves the left to temper some of their further-right impulses.
And finally UKIP, because I need to talk about these guys since I can't help but feel the coverage is being a little unfair. The point of their name is that the UK is a part of the European Union and they don't want to be, and a large part of that is linked to immigration since there is a principal of free movement within the EU that the EU leaders have confirmed they will not budge on, and the UK tends to receive a lot of people from poorer countries. Needless to say, the party attracts racists and xenophobic people. And we don't know how much politicians lie and tone things down, but... from the things their leader Nigel Farage said last night, the party and idea itself does not necessarily have to be either of those things. The other parties are keen to shut him up and if you so much as mention misgivings regarding levels of immigration you are immediately branded racist or xenophobic, so you can't discuss it properly. But if nothing else, our arrangement with the EU has screwed over potential immigrants from other parts of the world; one of my Dad's clients would love to be able to bring over some IT people it deals with in India, but can't because - trying to appease people's concerns about immigration - there have to be even harsher limits on the rest of the world to make up for the fact that we can't do much of anything to limit arrivals from Europe. Nigel Farage mentioned getting better ties with the commonwealth instead and, talking in terms of racism, the commonwealth is far more diverse than Europe is. If it weren't for his adamant, unqualified and completely unconcerned talk of ending all foreign aid (paired with his comments about people coming here with HIV - so we won't help them here or there? We're one of the wealthier countries in the world and we just don't care about people now?!) I could almost maybe consider maybe voting for them since the situation doesn't really make sense as far as I can tell. But no.
And now to my rant, which I've probably ranted about before and will again. Because for all of that, and for all of the people out there insisting that you simply must vote, my vote isn't worth the paper it will be printed on. My local area has been solidly Conservative since the 1920s. Normally the closest rival here is the Liberal Democrats and even last time - when the Conservative guy was new and the Lib Dems were at their zenith - even then it wasn't that close. The outcome is dependent on the swing seats, they might as well not bother campaigning anywhere else. And as I said earlier, even if a party gains a large amount of votes, that doesn't even guarantee it won't lose seats instead! I hate the voting system and I know from my degree that they manage to make better versions work elsewhere. So when there's handwringing about disillusionment and young people not voting: that would be my reason; because it literally means jack shit in most cases.
Will I vote? Meh, maybe. And even if I do, it may be for no better reason than because I saw a thread last night discussing which Games of Thrones characters each of the leaders would be, and it was decided that Nick Clegg was my favourite character (in what wasn't supposed to be a good way). Why should I take my vote any more seriously than that? It doesn't even matter.