Miliband says No 2 to EU referendum - As he thinks we're all stupid

 

Was nice, but rare, to see Ed Miliband open his mouth without wiping millions of the stock market. This time he was joining the debate about an EU referendum by confirming, what we all new in the first place, that Labour would not be interested in going to the polls.

It is an interesting position for the official party of opposition to take, before he spoke the parties stood roughly where The Conservatives would hold an Referendum and the Lib Dems will only hold a referendum if further powers were passed to Brussels. Now Labour have set the cat amongst the pigeons by lining up directly behind the Lib Dems. Hardly a decisive new policy.

But my scorn for Miliband's ability as a politician aside what I found most interesting about his statement is his complete mistrust of the British People, he clearly believes that the British people are so stupid that they can not make a simple decision (But then I guess most of the voters he meets are Labour voters so I'm not that surprised.:-) ) The reason I say this is that Miliband stated in his speech that there is an "overwhelming economic case" for EU membership. So if the argument is so overwhelming why not let the people know it and trust them to make the sensible decision. As I see it there can only be two possible reasons for this:

1) The reasons are not really overwhelming (In which case Miliband is clearly lying)

2) Miliband has such a low opinion of the British People that he thinks they can not handle a real decision.

As if his turning up to the debate 6 months too late wasn't a sure enough sign that Miliband is atrocious at picking the big issues of the day his claim that he was setting out a "Clear Lead" - By copying the Lib Dems policy - is perhaps the biggest sign yet of his ineptitude, although where Miliband is concerned there is a great deal of competition for this category.

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.

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.

A Possible Appology to Mr. Clegg

Today I heard my first speech from a Lib Dem that I have ever enjoyed listening too. Which was good as I heard Lembit Opik talking earlier who always annoys me. But today Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister actually started to speak like a Liberal!

His proposed reforms, which I am not all in favour of, should at least take some power from Westminster and replace some back in the control of the rest of us.

He mentioned a partially elected House of Lords - I am against a "Partially" elected house as I think it should be either elected or unelected. That said whilst I agree with the principal of an elected Lords I do think it is often important to have an unelected watch on the workings of parliament as the views of the many are not always right (Hitler was elected after all.)

Scrap the ID cards - this is another that I am torn on, I actually think that an ID card is a good idea, what I would like is one card that can work as an ID card, Passport (not just in EU), Driving License (with no paper part.), NI card and anything else I have to carry around, I suppose in short I am not against the idea if it has a provable improvement to my day to day life.

Recall Corrupt MP's - I like this idea, personally I think it should always have been there, I would like some more detail though.

Ask the public which laws should go - this is an interesting one as the Lib Dems have removed the Tory pledge to repeal the Human Rights act, I think there is a very real chance that this may be one of the laws the public want repealed.

So my feelings are that whilst they have not brought up points which all appeal to me, I think after 13 years of "Nanny State" and Big Government, I am willing to give big society and "Adult State" a try, even if it means apologising to all the Lib Dems out there. Well except Lembit.

Entering the New Nuclear Age?

Chris Huhne has today outlined the coalition's feelings over Nuclear power, If I was still a member of the council I would have to declare an interest on this one as my company EDF are the world leader in Nuclear and after purchasing British Energy last year are also the UK's biggest Nuclear Generator. It would therefore be no surprise to know I am pro nuclear and strongly believe that the time to invest in the next generation of plants is here (in fact a few years overdue) I was pleased when the Tories went into the election in favour of Nuclear but have to admit was slightly worried when Chris Huhne was made Energy Secretary as obviously the Lib Dems were opposed.


However it does look like there will be a new generation of reactors after all as Mr Huhne has said that as long as no public money is involved a private consortium would most likely be successful in obtaining permission to build a Nuclear Power Station. Now I am not nearly senior enough in the company to know if they were hoping for public money but I doubt it.

The New More Efficient, Less Waste and Air Strike Proof European Pressure Reactor (EPR)

I know that the Lib Dems would prefer all energy to come from renewables, and whilst I think this is an admirable goal and I do personally love to see Wind Turbines, Dams and Solar Fields - In fact one of my favourite memories of travel is watching the Waldpolenz Solar Park coming to life at sunrise whilst taking a trip across Germany.

A small part of the vast solar generating park in Eastern Germany

But unfortunately I believe that we are at least two decades away from a permanent solution to the problems of Consistency and dependability which we have with Wind and Solar. And with many of our current generation options at or beyond their operational lifespan Nuclear is the only thing that can bridge the gap and offer the freedom from the volatility of fossil fuels that the economy and the environment so badly need.

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.