More government politicians that don't understand business

Call for cap on fuel bill surcharges http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27509378

Why are we obsessed with prices being bumped up? There isn't a surcharge for not paying by Direct Debit, there is a discount if you do. What they are calling for here is for the direct debit discount to be reduced so that DD payers are worse off. I wish there was anyone in government who understands business or finance, what a wonderful world it would be!

#CostofCameron More like #CostofMiliband

I Posted a few days ago about Miliband's ridiculous idea to make me change Bank Services Provider even if I am perfectly happy with who I currently use. I was wondering how bad for the Economy Miliband actually is so I thought I would look at the effects of his words.

The Twittersphere is awash with the #CostofCameron being pushed by Labour at the moment, essentially Labour pushing the myth that if they had stayed in charge then despite constant rises in the previous 13 years prices would have suddenly stopped going up somehow. And please don't be deceived in thinking that Labour want to keep down inflation, inflation in an economy is only used to reduce the size of government debt, therefore the party who is the biggest debt addict will also necessarily be the biggest inflation addict.

Anyway, as I said, I wanted to know exactly how bad Ed Miliband is for the UK economy, bear in mind this is only as "Leader" of the Opposition, Were Labour to get control of the economy this would only get worse.

Before Ed Miliband started to leak the details of his "Forced Bank Moves" policy then the UK top four Banks had a combined market capitalization of £617 Billion, After he had finished and the news had been discussed widely the Market cap had fallen to £608 Billion.

Therefore the #CostofMiliband is around £8.979 Billion per speech.

Now I know that many people may think that this is just the Rich being hit so why should we care, but don't forget that less than 1% of shares are held by individuals, If you have a pension, then Miliband just made you poorer.

Even more directly he has also reduced the value of the Government's investments (80% of RBS and 33% of Lloyds) the effect of Ed Miliband's speech on the coffers of the Government were:
Value before speech £38.533 Billion (Actually £38.533.518.240)
Value now £37.346 (Actually £37,346,059,216)

Therefore the Direct #CostofMiliband is £1,187,459,024 

To add some context, according to The Guardian this would be enough to build 23 Hospitals or 39 Secondary Schools - Or Heaven forbid, actually pay off some of the debt taken out by Labour in the first place.

So next time you hear that the #CostofCameron is £1,600 after three years in power, remember that Ed Miliband cost us all (Well anyone with a Pension, Savings or who pays Taxes) £8 Billion just by opening his mouth.

Just to make things more transparent, here are the figures I used.

False information in Political Life

I have just been reading a blog post on the site of Duncan Crow (Conservative Councillor for Furnace Green on Crawley Borough Council) about a misleading mailer put out by Labour in the local area

Now whilst I don't know the in's and out's of this particular case from my experience with the Local Council it is really not a surprise, I have always found the comments made in many political flyers to be very misleading at best and downright deceptive at worst. When I was campaigning I regularly read things that entirely mislead the reader and encountered many tactics like the one Cllr Crow mentioned where something that can not be accepted is proposed simply so it has to be turned down.

I have always wondered how effective this kind of dirty tricks campaigning is as I would hope that the general public would be too smart to go for this, but then as the people who do it keep getting elected I guess my faith in mankind may be a little too idealistic. But anyway my main reason of bringing this up is to say isn't it time that the contents of Political literature is checked for accuracy? I find it crazy that the Advertising Standards Commission do not have the power to check these things for accuracy, in fact you can make any outlandish claims you want and to hell with the truth (I call this the Lib Dem Model)

Going forward I would like to see not just the leaflets checked for honesty (With very harsh penalties for deliberately misleading voters) but I would also like to have all politicians held to account for the contents of their manifesto with an annual review where they would have to update the electorate on progress against what was promised, this doesn't mean that plans can't change as that would obviously hamstring the council to a policy that may be 3 years out of date but at the very least if they are not keeping their promises they need to stand up and say why.

The Campaign for Elected Police Commissioners Starts Here

Once again it would appear that a significant political event is looking like it may occur unnoticed, as the title of this piece would lead you to understand I am talking about the elections in November to elect police and crime commissioners (PCC). For me this is a massive change in the political spectrum and one that I have personally supported for a long time, I am disappointed however that such a seismic switch in the political landscape should come without a referendum and a mandate from the people (As is happening for the elected mayors) obviously as a supporter of the idea I would have voted for it however there is a certain argument that could be put forward that the police service should not be accountable to politicians and that the Police must be free to uphold the law without being subject to the whims of the majority (Don’t forget that both Racial Segregations and Fascist Governments have been brought in by popular vote) so it would have been nice to have the debate first.

All that being said this is now going to be one of the most important locally elected officials, I think you could actually say the most important after all this one person will have a real effect on crime and disorder in your area and this is something that will affect everyone, for the most part the local council services are passive to use where as when it occurs crime is intrusive – If you try you can basically ignore what the council is doing where as crime can affect anyone at any time. So for this reason I am going to give the Sussex campaign as much attention as I can so at least my two readers will know a bit more about what is going on.

I am also looking to leave any party political bias out of my writing of these campaigns, my personal ideal of an elected police commissioner would be for an independent, in fact I think these roles would be ideally suited to someone with Job knowledge who also knew how the political games worked, for example Ray Mallon who is the Mayor of Middlesbrough.

In the Next Few Days I will be reviewing the people who have so far thrown their hats into the rings but for now here is the information I obtained from the Police Foundation.

But as a start here are the people that are looking to stand in the election.

Name: Paul Richards
Party: Labour
Website: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2012/01/13/power-to-the-pccs/
Occupation: Labour Author and Commentator
Political Experience: Losing Parliamentary Candidate in Lewes

Name: Ian Chisnall
Party: Independent
Website: http://ianforpcc.wordpress.com/
Occupation: Works extensivly in the voluntary Sector including working with Brighton Street Pasters and Sussex Churches Together
Political Experience: 2004 - 2009 Member of the Sussex Court Board, Since 2004 Member of he Independant Advisory Board.

Name: Peter Jones
Party Conservatives
Website: www.votepj.com/news.aspx
Occupation: Worked in Investment Banking and was a non-executive director for a number of companies, he retired in 1994.
Political Experience: Peter Jones was elected as an East Sussex County Councillor in 1997 and leader of the council from 2001, Peter was chairman of the Sussex Police Authority from 2005 – 2007 he was also Deputy Chairman of SEEDA
Other: He is married to Ex-Conservative MP Jacqui Lait (MP for Beckenham until 2010)

Name: Paul Dendle
Party: Conservative
Website: http://www.pauldendle.blogspot.com/
Occupation: Paul was Managing Director of Avro PLC until he sold the company in 1995, in his websites profile he lists his business interests as varied among travel, technology and property.
Political Experience: Paul was elected to Arun District Council (Arundel Ward) in 2003 and has been cabinet minister for central services since 2006.

My Thoughts on Alternative Vote

I have been engaging people in several discussions recently on the AV referendum and my stance on it so I thought I would write an entry on AV (Alternative vote also known as Instantly Transferable Vote) just to give a bit of background on a) What it is, b) What it isn’t and c) why I am against it.

I will start as I do with each article I write which is to declare my bias, I am not saying that I will not try and be fair in my summery but it is important when reading my post to realise that I am against AV and there is a chance that this will colour my view, although I will endeavour to make sure it doesn’t until the final section (Why I am against it.)

WHAT IS AV?

AV or Alternative Vote is a system of polling where the voter lists the candidates in order of the preference in which they want them to be elected. So assuming we have 5 candidates

Mrs C Tory Conservative Party, Mr A Socialist Labour Party Miss B Eco Green Party Mr R Racist British National Party Mr A Comrade Communist Party of Britain

Now when people vote they will list the order of anyone they want to vote for, and leave blank whoever they don’t want to. So someone may list their votes as: 1 - British National Party/2 – Communist Party/3 – Labour Party/4 – Green Party/Blank – Conservative Party

Now if after the first round of counting (Votes numbered 1) we have the following results 10,000 Conservatives; 8,000 Labour; 1,500 Green Party; 600 Communist Party; 490 British National Party

With a total amount of 20,590 voters no one would have a majority (Over 50% of the votes) therefore the lowest amount of the votes is disregarded and they get their second choice so with the BNP being out the votes are recounted (Our fictional voters vote will therefore now be for the communist party)

After the second round then the votes sit at 10,010 Conservatives; 8,300 Labour; 1,550 Green Party; 730 Communist Party

Still no one would have hit 50% of the vote so the votes of the Communist Party are now disregarded and the votes are counted again. Our Voter is now classed as a Labour Voter 10,010 Conservative Party; 9,000 Labour; 1,580 Green Party

Still no clear winner so the Green party are kicked out and their votes are now rolled down to the next level.

Our final round of voting therefore will end up 10,200 Conservative Party; 10,390 Labour Party and the Labour Party candidate would become the winner.

Obviously this is a very simplistic view but that is intentional as I want to clarify the system more than show a true representation of what could happen.

WHAT AV ISN’T

I just wanted to write a quick piece on what AV isn’t just to try and stop any misconceptions, Alternative Vote is not Proportional Representation (PR), PR is a system where everyone votes and then the results are added up and each party receives the percentage of seats in keeping with that percentage of votes, PR is the system that we currently use to decide the European Elections.

Under PR you would no longer vote for a person but rather for a party and they would decide who gets to be elected. PR is considered, by voting reformers, the fairest way of deciding an election. However what it does is drastically remove the loyalty of an elected official to the electorate. Already in our system it is actually more important that you are popular inside your party than with the voters as an MP who is in good standing in his party will be given an easy seat, and if that fails there is always the unelected Lords (Peter Mendelson for example, who was unelected by the voters and then last year was actually placed in charge of the country during Gordon Brown’s holiday.)

Switching to PR will force a system where an elected official will owe everything to the party list (The only way of getting a seat will be to prioritise your party over your constituents) If you want an example of this I suggest you see how many people around you know can name your MP, and then try with your Euro MP – I would predict that the amount of people who can your name your MP is pathetically low but will be huge compared to your Euro MP.

WHY I AM AGAINST AV

Now I wanted to say why I am going to be voting No on May 5th obviously this is just my opinion and I don’t claim that this is the view of anyone but me, simply my reasons for voting no.

1) One Person, one Vote My main reason for being against AV is that it is a core principle of our democracy that there should be 1 person 1 vote, under the example I gave above as a Conservative voter I would have 1 vote, however the BNP voter was instead allowed 3 attempts to vote. Apparently this is fair but I personally do not want my vote to be worth the same as a BNP supporter’s third choice.

2) Doesn’t achieve its goals We are told that AV will break up the dominance of the Main 2 Parties however I really do not think that this will be the case, I can not see a time where the BNP or Communist Party receive over 50% of the vote (At least I hope not) so it will simply be an aggregation result – effectively what you are saying is “We know you want to vote for a smaller party, but which of the big two do you really want to vote for.” In fact using my home county of Sussex (East and West) as an example we can see that only Crawley and Brighton would have needed recounts the rest all going to Conservative with 1 Lib Dem. Also there is a very real chance that Caroline Lucas the Green Partys only MP would have lost her seat on subsequent recounts actually strengthening the hold of the main parties.

3) Time Spent Counting On a personal note, I really enjoy election night, I love watching the votes come in and I love seeing the situation unfolding, already there are often some votes which spill over to the next day but in any constituency where there is not a 50% winner (So obviously not too much of an issue in Sussex) in the first round this will start to necessitate second rounds, combine this with recounts (Possibly even recounts of the smaller parties to see who get removed next) and it is not uncommon for AV systems to still be counting a few days later.

4) Stepping Stone to PR Above I outlined my problems with PR, even the people I have met who are out actively campaigning for AV have suggested that it is a stepping stone to a “fully representative system” what they mean is PR, This is a very dangerous road as although PR may be in their eyes fully representative as I stated above it actually removes representation as people are no longer answerable to the people. It also encourages “Inertia Voting” This is where people vote the same way they always have regardless of what they are voting for. You would be shocked if you knew how many people are voting based on what they believe parties stand for and how few of them can actually say what that is or which policies back up their beliefs.

5) Gordon Brown would still be Prime Minister The final point that should not just make you vote no but to wake you up in fear every night is that under AV it is widely predicted that Gordon Brown would still be Prime Minister, Labour left office with the country bankrupted, debts piling up and millions deliberately trapped in poverty. After having spent all of our money, then borrowing billions more the outgoing Labour government still pledged millions they didn’t have on projects that were not necessities. Losing the election was the best thing to happen to Labour (and the country for that matter) as five more years would most likely have brought the country to its knees and ensured that Labour would have endured many years out of government. For the Conservative Party allowing Labour to hang themselves would have been preferable to taking the tough decisions of repairing the country, but unfortunately it is unlikely the country could have made it.

Christmas Craft Market

The Crawley Conservative Association and The Crawley Conservative Club are having a Victorian Themed Christmas Craft Fair and Fun Day.

There will be over ten stalls selling a variety of Craft Items and gifts just in time for Christmas.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

The Event is at the Conservative Club in Jubilee Walk, Three Bridges, RH10 1LQ from 12:00 - 16:00

The Budget Cuts have Landed

Well the cuts are out there, well to be honest the actual details will be coming out over the next few weeks but we know the kind of cuts we are looking at.

Immediately the usual complaints started, The Unions asked why the Public Sector were the hardest hit, Labour asked why young families were the hardest hit, Age UK asked why pensioners were the hardest hit, Disabled groups asked why the disabled were the hardest hit - all whilst at the same time it actually turns out that the top 2% are actually the hardest hit and the top 15% stand to be 10k a year worse off. On top of all this several analysts have actually come out suggesting that Osbourne has not gone far enough. So what does this all mean?

Personally I think that this is probably proof that the cuts are, as Osbourne has been saying, spread across the board surely if everyone is complaining (Well not the middle class as after all there is no one to speak up for the silent majority.) then it means that the cuts are spread out.

Now obviously there are going to be complaints that the poorest are the hardest hit, but as I posted previously that is unfortunately unavoidable, when the country has run out of money it will be the people who are net costs to the state who will be hardest hit. It is very simple maths, if you receive more money from the state than you give then you will be at risk, for those of us who are net contributors then we will simply have to give more, there is a clear limit to what the government can withdraw from me and that is limited to Child Benefit as that is after all the thing they give me, in actual fact it goes to my wife so personally the government can not withdraw anything from me as they do not give me anything in the first place.

The only question that remains to be asked of the government is can they get all of the disparate groups who are feeling like the victims to see the suffering that is being spread around. If the coalition can not give a sense of empathy to the public then we may see that, as predicted by Socrates over 2300 years ago, Democracy is doomed to fail. Socrates stated of the Athenian Democracy Project that Democracy is always due to fail as the demos will always vote in their own interest at the expense of society, eventually resulting in a society which is unable to support itself (Sound familiar?)

Blue Boris Vs Red Ken - the rematch

Well news has come through that it will be comrade livingstone who will take on Boris in the 2012 election to find out who gets VIP status at the Olympics, oh and they also get to be mayor of London.

Obviously as I now live in Crawley I am not covered by the London Assembly, but maybe it's because I'm a Londoner at heart that I really do care what happens, or maybe it is just that the UK lives and dies financially by the health of The capital.

Any way, the result is in and it will be Boris vs Ken, I doubted that Oona King ever had a chance to win the Labour nomination but having seen a few interviews with her the last few weeks I have to say I am glad she didn't get selected as I think she would have given Boris a real run for his money.

Now as long as the Lib Dems pick Lembit Opick it shouldn't be too hard a campaign for Mayor Johnson after all.

Rory Stewart Says Sorry after Mirror Fabrication

A Tory MP has apologised after saying that some of his constituents held their trousers up with a piece of string, Rory Stewart MP for Penrith and the Border was quoted as saying “Some Areas around here are pretty primitive, people holding up their trousers with bits of twine.” Rory Stewart who has only been an MP since May apologised for any offence whilst not denying what he had said. Mr. Stewart, who I believe was previously a provincial governor in Iraq, was actually trying to highlight rural poverty. However the Sunday Mirror ran the story claiming that he called his constituents “Primitives” which is a clear stretching of the facts – in as much as talking one word from a statement and running with it as if it is fact – Maybe they have invited Piers “Fake Photograph” Morgan back for a guest Edit.

I guess sometimes (And it appears particularly to the Mirror) the facts, or at best a lack of evidence, simply get in the way of a good story. Anyway, Mr. Stewart is considering taking the Mirror to the Press Complaints Commission; I really hope he does as newspapers need to start reporting the news and stop making it up. Or perhaps the Mirror simply needs to hire some journalists who can read a full paragraph not just pick out random words

Why Far Right is more Left than Right

I have been feeling a little bit annoyed recently with descriptions of conservative politics as Right Wing, in fact that is not strictly true what annoys me is when parties such as the BNP and Nazi Parties are called Far Right (I accept that this simply stems for the contempt I feel for racists, and how I hate to have them linked to me in any way.) it is often described as a scale going from Communism in the extreme left through Socialism and conservatism in the centre and out to fascism in the extreme Right, the problem is of cause that this, like most attempts to model a complex system is incorrect, this implies that Communism and Socialism are as far from fascism as you can get where as in fact they are the closest to each other, I would suggest that in fact the system is much more of a circle than a line with Communism and Fascism pulling support from roughly the same areas.

For example, Racism which is obviously a key tenant of fascism is all about pluralism, the dividing of people into constituent parts (Them and Us.) this shares the most parallels with Socialist ideals of a class war, Both of these ideologies share a common factor which can be dumbed down to “My life isn’t good, and it is their fault.” Like fascism, socialism looks not at what someone can do to improve their life rather who can be blamed. This is a theme that similarly binds fascism to communism, whilst on the surface they appear to be polar opposites they are both essentially about the redistribution of resources, in fascism from foreign born to domestic citizens and in Communism from the “Haves" to the “Have Nots" (although I personally think it is more frequently the “Earned” to the “Earned Not”) only capitalism and free market economics stand apart from this trend being purposely devoid of any state intervention of wealth redistribution. In a fully capitalist system there is total equality, no one is persecuted due to race, gender, religion or as in socialism success.

Another similarity of Socialism and Fascism is that they tend to broadly pull support from the same demographic, The BNP for example do not tend to take support from the Conservatives in elections rather they take their support from Labour, this is because they offer mostly an identical message, a message that “if you are unhappy with your life it is someone else’s fault” ties both parties to people who are not as concerned with what they have as ensuring that no one else has more then them. On the other hand the Conservatives promise that they will ensure that all people have equal chances (as opposed to equal output) pulls it support from inwards facing people who ask “How can I make my life better?” therefore it is much more likely that a Labour voter would vote BNP than a Conservative voter (Who is more likely to switch to UKIP) There is a clear link from the globalization of capitalism and the globalization of Human Rights, Capitalism works when everybody is working to better themselves and therefore a successful capitalist country is one with an extensive Middle Class and it is the creation of a Middle Class that drives the majority of democratisation as they ask for more say in their own country. Socialism, Fascism and to the greatest extent Communism look to prevent people from pushing for freedoms by replacing capitalist tendencies towards equality with “Big Government” control.

So next time you hear the phrase Far Right remember that the political landscape is less a line and more a circle.

Councillor Prosecuted for Racist Comments

I saw an article over on the BBC.co.uk’s magazine section regarding the rules of Speech Crime (When you can be prosecuted for what you say.) like many issues I can see both sides of the story on this one as I deplore racism and feel that anyone who uses racial (or other prejudice) language and insults against someone deserves punishment. On the other hand however I believe fully in freedom of the individual, I believe the answer to racism is not to silence the debate but to bring it into the open and therefore beat it with education and logic.

The article was written after the case of Cllr Shirley Brown (Lib Dem) on Bristol Council, apparently she called an Asian Councillor a “Coconut”, now I have to admit when I read that I was shocked and thought it was more PC nonsense, however on reading deeper it appears that Ms Brown called fellow councillor, Jay Jethwa (Conservative) a coconut as it is a well known insult for someone who is brown on the outside but white in the middle. (First I have heard it.) Ms Brown goes on to say "I must admit, I was angry because I thought it was an absolute insult, because she is of Asian background. I was thinking how could you cut funding that is going to impact so many people. So the first thing that came to mind, instead of saying 'you idiot', I said 'you coconut'." When I read this I found this incredible, so basically what she is saying is that if you are Asian, Black etc.. you have to vote (and I assume) think a certain way? Surely to believe that someone has to have certain opinions due to their skin colour is the worse form of Racism! And to say that someone is “white” because they disagree with you is insulting to the victim of the attack and every white person in this country, and I am sure there are many white people who would have been on her side.

Personally I think it is a shame that clearly racist individuals like Ms brown are allowed to hold political office, however as I said earlier this may be the price of freedom, I just hope that her constituents take the next opportunity to relieve her of spending time with people she clearly feels uncomfortable with.

Town Wide Fundraising

Had what will hopefully be the first meeting of the Town wide fundraising focus group last night. It was a good meeting although it became clear that my ideas may be looking for too much of a step change for some of our association. We did however come up with some good ideas and there was broad support for what I am trying to achieve, even if there was some reluctance over the actual details. Anyway we did agree a few things in principle.

1 - we will look to hold 12 events this year,
Four of which will be town wide "larger events" with 8 branch events in between.
2 - with the main associations permission we will look to create a separate website for fundraising events, along with a central diary of events.
3 - we will look to have two summer events along with a large event in late summer.

So now all I have to do is pull off the impossible and we are laughing.

Francis Maude - Paymaster General

Congratulations to Horsham's MP Francis Maude who I have just been told has been made paymaster general.

I have met Francis on many occasions and he has always been a commit ed MP and a great orator. I wish him every success in a very high profile position which ranks third in the Treasury.

The Coalition becomes clearer

Reading through the BBC News Website we have a lot more of an idea of the form the coalition will take.

Nick Clegg will become the Deputy Prime Minister, Vince Cable will work in the Treasury in charge of Banks and Business and Danny Alexander will take over as Scottish Minister.

From the Conservatives side Osbourne will be Chancellor, Hague Foreign Secretary and Fox as defence secretary.

The Agreed policy decisions are:

There will be Cuts this year to reduce the Deficit including £6bn of cuts this year, although out of a predicted 1.5 Trillion that we will be in the red this is unlikely to be enough.

Fixed five year parliaments so no more elections until May 2015 (So no more threat of another poll this year, would be very interesting if the coalition collapses.)

The Lib Dems drop the Mansion Tax in return for the Tories not changing the Inheritance Threshold - Personally I would be happy for both these taxes to have stayed but in reformed form.

They have agreed to scrap part of the "Job Tax" but will look to raise the income tax threshold. - This is good news for the economy but we will need to wait and see how affordable the income tax changes will be when the drains are up on the country's current account.

The lib Dem's will delay adoption of the Euro for at least one parliament, and agree to the Tory idea of a referendum on any future EU power grabs - Hopefully we will at some point be able to call ourselves a sovereign nation again at some point.

A cap on Non-EU immigration, another policy which without a proper understanding of how it will work it is hard to understand if it will be any good. But at least it is being considered.

Lib Dems will drop opposition to the Trident deterrent, this is unfortunate as this is pretty much the only Lib Dem pledge I agreed with.

A referendum on the Alternative Vote system, which is at least preferable to Proportional Representation. We will have to see how the public decide but I have a feeling it will get through.

I am sure a lot more will come out in the forth coming days and the budget which I am sure we will see soon enough.

New Prime Minister

So David Cameron is now the PM thanks to a helping hand by Mr. Clegg, I guess the real questions should start to be answered.

What role will the Lib Dems play in the government? Will Nick Clegg be Deputy Prime Minister? Will Vince Cable be taken into the treasury?

What has DC offered to form the coalition? I assume we will be having a referendum on Alternative Vote, ironically it will be promoted by a party who I would assume would then front the No campaign.

I am assuming that this will also put a stop to any chance to reduce the power of Brussels. The Lib Dems being very pro-Europe.

What else has been Horse Traded will show itself in time, but for now Prime Minister Cameron will need to take a look around and realise just how hard the task ahead is - I doubt that we have had the full skeletons out of the Labour Bank Statements just yet.

Politics, Politics Everywhere but not a bit to Blog

I can not believe the situation we are in, Not that we have the Lib Dems flippflapping around to fine the highest offer, or that it would appear that we are about the get a government excluding the most popular party – both of these are no surprise. What I can not believe is that there are so many things I am looking to blog about I can not workout where to start or how to proceed. I think the only way to do this is to just write a few bits and then add more as it comes to me.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a particular bug bear of mine, Why? As I am a Liberal, I believe in the Freedom of the individual I believe in a society of individuals treated like adults and responding likewise. The Lib Dems do not. I also believe in Democracy (After all my Thesis at Uni was Democracy: Ancient Greece to Post War Europe, so I have slightly more than a passing interest.) However I do not believe that PR fully represents democratic tendencies, more on that in a Minute. So I dislike the Liberal Democrats as I find them neither Liberal nor Democratic. To me the Liberal Democrats are similar to turning up at a shop called “The Kiddies Book Shop” but finding it full of Adult Movies – The Name has no link to the reality, and what you think may be nice and sweet is really just a lot of people getting F..Screwed.

However what has got me about the Lib Dem’s this time round is that I am yet to find anyone who voted Lib Dem who can give me a reason, The worst one I had was “My Friends Told Me too” and the best so far has been “I Don’t like Labour and Conservatives” if the best thing I can get out of people is that they are a protest vote then why do they get to hold the balance of power?

Proportional Representation

Why do I not like PR? I understand that on the face of it, it would appear to be the fairest form of voting. However I do believe that it drastically reduces the links between voter and representative and currently with the low standing of politicians in our society these are links we need to strengthen not weaken. In a PR system the only thing that matters to a career politician is how high up their parties list they are, their first responsibility is to the party not to the electorate. After all how many of us know who our Euro MP is? I have to admit I do but that is because I was standing for County during the election last year. But most people struggle to name their Councillor or MP placing PR into the mix would place a buffer between the MP’s and the Electorate which will never be a good thing for democracy. Also if you want to know the dangers of PR just have a look at the current negotiations, PR would make it highly unlikely that we would have a majority government again and so we would be handing over our country to Mr. Clegg and his merry band of backroom dealers.

Unelected PM

Now as I have mentioned I am a Conservative Party Member, so it may be shocking that I am going to support Mr. Brown. Whilst I do not like his politics I must admit that he has earned a slight bit of sympathy to me, firstly on the point of him being an Unelected Prime Minister. Whilst I would say that the recent election gives David Cameron a mandate to rule the country there is still a point that if he becomes MP he would still be unelected by anyone outside of Witney. After all when I walked into the polling booth I was presented by a list of names, David Cameron was not one of them, I voted for Henry Smith, I voted for Henry Smith as I believe that he was the best MP that Crawley was offered. I believe that he knows Crawley and will put Crawley first which is why I voted not for a conservative government (Although I was obviously aware that this was the hopeful end goal.) but for My Representative in that Government.

The point of defence I would give to Gordon Brown is that I do not see that he has much of a choice in staying in Number 10 until someone else is ready to take over, He could not just have vacated the seat of power on Friday morning leaving the country with no one on the rudder. I agree with most commentators (And the price of my shares) that this has gone on far to long, however I do not blame Gordon Brown but Nick Clegg, it is Clegg who has drawn out this process and enjoyed the “King Maker” role (How different to his words during the election.)

Presidential Style Elections

I think there is a real case to be made for electoral reform. I like our current system and I am personally happy with how it operates however the issue is that we do not have an elected President despite the fact that the Public and the Media believe we do, obviously as you can see from all the Unelected PM comments spoken about above the people want to vote for their PM. Perhaps it would generally be easier instead of trying to inform the public of the difference between our system and the American system to have instead a directly elected prime minister; this would then also hopefully free MP Wannabes to be able to state their own case rather than being at the mercy of the Televised Debates.

Dodgy Electioneering

The last thing that has wound me up recently are the negative election campaign tactics used by Labour, from trying to scare the elderly to Eddie Izzard saying in a party political broadcast that the conservatives would bring back the feudal system it has been quite frankly disgusting. I was also amazed to find out that party literature is exempt from the Advertising Standards Agencies rulings that advertising must be Fair, Accurate and Truthful. How ridiculous is this when if there was one section of literature that should have to be honest it should be the leaflets asking for your vote. After all you can’t say that a Milky Way will not spoil your appetite but you can say that 300,000 people are looking to enslave people as modern day serfs (I must have missed that section on the website.) I once heard a Labour Councillor (In fact the Labour Councillor who recently won my seat of me) claim that it was pompous to follow your manifesto once elected – It is not Pompous it is the primary function of any politician to carry out the mandate they were elected on.

Anyway, This is probably enough ranting for one day, I am sure there will be some more as the day continues.