Liberal Democrats RIP

The death of the Liberal Democrats RIP was brought into sharp focus on Sky News this morning. Representatives of the three main parties were introduced, but the woman in yellow was not a Liberal Democrat RIP but a Scottish Nazionalist.

As the Liberal Democrats RIP have never been either liberal or democrats why don't they just do us all a favour, pack up their rucksacks and fold up this sorry excuse for a political party. I'm sure Labour in England and the Scottish Nazionalists up there would welcome you.

#GE2015-Playground Politics

We were in a pub in Lancaster on Thursday night around 10 15 when we witnessed the first couple of lefties with faces like slapped arses. Oh how we laughed, they had just heard the news that the exit polls had predicted a Tory majority. You'd think the crusty old bearded sandal wearers had just been told that they would have to take cyanide with their next pint.

This election has shown the childishness of the left, and by that I mean Labour, Greens, Lib Dems RIP, Scottish Nazionalists and Plaid Cymru. Constantly repeating the mantras "end austerity" and "we need progressive policies" are trite and meaningless, they all did it.

Constantly banging on about ending austerity begs the question how? And none of them, especially Labour, bothered to answer that. There are only two ways to end austerity their way, tax and borrow, and both would plunge is into crisis and leave billions of debt for future generations.

Those are two ways to end austerity that would not lead to prosperity. The only way to get us out of the economic mess is now austerity plus. Cut, cut and cut again. We can't slag off the feckless for squandering their money then running up massive debts going to Wonga for a payday loan then elect a Wonga government. The only way forward is to keep taxes down and axe spending which will stimulate economic and business growth which will then create wealth and jobs. Put simply if you keep borrowing against your home you have to cut your outgoings or risk losing your home. Similarly with government because, contrary to the apparent belief of the economically illiterate lefties, government money doesn't grow on trees.

Nicola Sturgeon has been treated like some kind of political sage in this election. In reality she is a nasty, simplistic, soundbite specialist who, if she was English and talked as she does about the Scots as does about us would be attacked for racism and xenophobia. All we heard was the mindless chant of "progressive, progressive, progressive". This word can mean any number of things depending what you want people to believe. It can mean slow and gradual, as in "a progressive decline in the number of people active in politics". It can mean favouring change or innovation as in "the Bauhaus was a progressive school of art". It means all things to all men. The ultimate soundbite.

The Scots over the last two years have bored the arse off the rest of us with their bloody referendum and their incessant whining and obsessing about England and Westminster. Their claim to have been ignored and left out at Westminster doesn't bear the lightest scrutiny. They are liars. These politicians were Scottish:

Tony Blair
John Smith
Robin Cooke
Gordon Brown
Donald Dewar
Douglas Alexander
Lord Irvine
Alistair Darling
George Robertson

They are the ones I can remember as being cabinet members under Blair/Brown. I am sure a little research would uncover even more Scottish ministers.

The Scottish Nazionalists are like the rest of the left, they lose then throw an almighty tantrum as if they have been the subject of some underhand conspiracy. Look at the filth in London yesterday, attacking the police and daubing graffiti on war memorials. The left has been infantilised by political correctness. You lost the election, accept it as we had to accept Blair/Brown bombing the crap out of Iraq and bankrupting the country when you won elections.

Throughout the election campaign the left proved how vacuous and juvenile their arguments are. I lost count of the number of times I saw totally baseless accusations of racism and homophobia directed at Nigel Farage, a man I detest but he is definitely neither of those things.

The left think they have a monopoly on wanting to help others. On numerous occasions during the campaign I heard patronising lefties declaring how they supported Labour because they cared about the NHS, cared about the unemployed, cared about the mentally ill, cared about the unemployed. They never got round to telling us what the reality of voting Labour would be for these groups they care so deeply about. Two of the worst offenders were Steve Coogan and Eddie Izzard. At least Coogan admitted he was minted and came from a nice, cosy middle class background.

As for the lefties' constant lies about the Conservatives and the NHS let's put that one to rest once and for all. I would love to see the NHS privatised but it's not going to happen. I was aware of Labour lying about the Tories and the NHS in 1974, they've lied about it ever since and enough gullible people fall for it every time to make the lie worth repeating. Blair/Brown were the biggest ever privatisers of the NHS with billions of pounds stacking up as debt for future generations through PFI in the health servce and the university sector. But I suppose it's easier fro the untellectually challenged to ignore reality, they probably blame Thatcher!

I voted Conservative as the best of a bad bunch and to keep Labour/SNP out. I hope Cameron now holds true to his word on a referendum on EU membership, although I think we could lose and end up staying in. But that might be good for UKIP if you look at the SNP after losing their referendum.

We had to endure 5 years of the Lib Dems RIP in coalition with 58 MPs. The Tories now have a clear majority with the SNP having 56 seats, 2 fewer than the Lib Dems RIP had in 2010. UKIP got 3.8m votes and 1 MP the SNP got 1.5m and 56 votes. The SNP took part, as a regional party, in free and fair national elections to a body they want to leave. They should now be shunned and sidelined in Westminster as UKIP should be in Brussels for the same reasons.

Cameron is offering a referendum on the EU and the abolition of the Human Rights Act. That's a good start. Slash the waste in the NHS and elsewhere in the public sector, cut taxes and you may be en route to convincing us that the true Conservative Party is on its way back. If the infantile left continue rioting and generally behaving like political misfits we will know that the government is doing a good job.

General Election 2015-Morecambe and Lunesdale Constituency

In some ways this has been a highly tedious election campaign but in other ways I've quite enjoyed it.

It's the first election in decades that I haven't been involved, either as a candidate or campaign director/election agent. It felt strange at first but being a spectator gradually became very enjoyable, it has given me a chance to really see how much waffle candidates come out with. But, for all the waffle and playing it safe from the politicians, we have more access to information than ever via the internet so people have no excuse for not finding out who to vote for or not to vote for. Get off your bums, even now, and look on t'interweb you lazy gits!

Now then, I think I've decided who to vote for although over the length of this campaign I have 'floated' a few times, and there are still four days left. But here is my rationale on why I am voting as I am unless there is a major political earthquake between now and Thursday.

Green Party-No, I'm a grown up. Maybe if you like Russell Brand (aka 'Massive Twat') but want to ignore his advice to not vote then the Green Party will do for you.

 

Northern Party-No. Regionalisation/devolution will merely give us another costly layer of politicos and bureaucrats increasing our taxes and squandering our cash. For God's sake there arre states in the USA that are bigger than us and Westminster is only 4  hours or so from virtually anywhere in the UK, less by plane.

Liberal Democrats-No. I did British Government and Politics 'A'-Level and by my reckoning they are neither liberal nor democratic, they are social  democrat/authoritarians. Then there is Nick Clegg, Vince Cable et al. I needn't go on.

Labour-No. I did Economics 'O'-Level and while I'm not claiming to be an expert on the strength of that a quick look at the economic mess left behind by every previous Labour government does a job,  you don't have to be Keynes or Friedman. Then there is the Labour candidate who lives in Gorton, Manchester around 70 miles away.

UKIP. No. They used to be libertarian but are now one of the most authoritarian parties around. Yes I want out of Europe but voting UKIP in my constituency will not bring that about, it is probably going to let Labour in. Furthermore in previous elections we had at least one leaflet from UKIP, this time we have had none. If they can't be bothered then neither can I.

Conservative-Our local candidate, elected in 2010, is an idiot and widely ridiculed throughout the constituency by conservative minded people and opponents alike. But this is a marginal constituency and changed hands in 1997 and again in 2010. The prospect of Labour winning here fills me with horror so, reluctantly, I will hold my nose and vote Tory. If I help keep Miliband and the Scottish Nazionalists out then it will have been worth it. With our First Past the Post electoral system tactical voting is sometimes unavoidable.

General Election 2015-Morecambe and Lunesdale

Well the full list of runners and riders is now in for the Morecambe and Lunesdale Constituency for May 7th. I have to say, for a marginal constituency that could have a serious bearing on who forms the next government it isn't exactly inspiring.

There is David Morris for the Conservative Party, likely to be signing on come May 8th after wasting the last five years on the Tory benches in the House of Commons. You may remember him as the MP who in one year claimed nearly £76,000 in expenses. That's around £1,460 per week!

The Labour Party have a councillor from Hulme in Manchester called Amina Lone. She's spent 20 years fighting poverty apparently, so nearly 15 of those years were fighting poverty caused by her Labour Party government.

The Greens and the Lib Dems have candidates too, but we've had no leaflets from either since the last election and I can't remember their names. To be honest if they can't be arsed popping a leaflet out until the election address is delivered by Royal Mail I can't be arsed looking their names up.

There is a UKIP candidate, Steve Ogden who has a bike shop in Morecambe.

There is also a candidate who has no party name and doesn't even have 'Independent' in the box for party name on the Notice of Election. A quick internet search suggests Michael Dawson, if it's the same one, could be the founder of the Northern Party. To be honest, if he can't be arsed popping 'Independent' in the box, or omitted his party name by mistake, I can't be arsed voting for him.

So there we have it. Please wake me up on May 8th.

General Election 2015-Liberal Democrats

I know we shouldn't speak ill of the dying but come on, the Liberal Democrats? I think the last five years have shown what many involved in politics have known and stated for decades, that the Liberal Democrats are unprincipled political whores who would sell their souls for short term political gain. Oh, sorry, they did sell their souls for short term political gain. Remember them scurrying like rats through a sewer after the last election from Cameron to Brown begging to join their gangs? Not one of British politics sunnier episodes and look at the last five years, no wonder they are set for meltdown.

The next time you hear a Lib Dem taking the holier than thou moral high ground remember David Laws being suspended from parliament in the expenses scandal. Forgotten about that? Follow this link for the full story .

Remember Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South? Well he got himself into trouble for 'making inappropriate advances to a vulnerable constituent'. Follow this link for the full story .

Dodgy donations? They're aren't as pure and innocent as they claim about donations either. Remember Lord Strasburger? If you don't follow this link for the full story .

Ibrahim Taguri, prospective Lib Dem candidate for Brent Central stood down last month in another donations scandal. Follow this link for the full story .

I'm not sure I've ever quoted from the Daily Express before but there is a cracking article from that newspaper about the sordid sex scandals of the Liberals/Liberal Democrats over the decades. From Gladstone 'saving' prostitutes to recent Lib Dems hiding their sexuality and so on. Follow this link for the full story .

I could go on but there are only so many hours in the day. But next time one of those pious, holier than thou Lib Dems claims that they are not like the other parties just remember , they are actually like the other parties, but with even fewer principles.

The highlight of the last general election night was seeing misfit Lib Dem Lembit Opik lose his seat. The highlight this year will surely be seeing misfit Lib Dem Nick Clegg losing his seat. Bring it on!

General Election-Morecambe and Lunesdale Constituency

Nominations for the general election close on Thursday, if you are wondering who has declared already then click on this link to find the details of candidates in Morecambe and Lunesdale. If you live in another constituency follow the link and then search for your own.

There are many reasons why this election is so mind numbingly tedious, two of the main reasons are closely related, which comes first is debateable. In my view the first reason is that so many people think it's fine to merely abuse politicians and those working for political parties, be they paid or voluntary. The lazy assumption is that they are all in it for the money, or for sheer power and status. This leads to reasonable people increasingly withdrawing from political activity thus leaving politics in the hands of the few, often people who fall into the categories in my first point. It's been almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This means that we now have a breed of political activist, especially parliamentary candidates, who are incapable of serious political thought and blindly follow the leader or the party line. Anybody who slightly deviates from 'the message' is likely to be dumped pretty rapidly. This means that there is little serious debate on policy within the main political parties, policy development is done by specialist units of professional politicos behind closed doors in consultation with only the most senior people in the party.

I attended several Tory Party conferences in the 1980s and there were some really impressive policy debates, especially on the conference fringe and ordinary people, rightly or wrongly, felt that they had a voice and influence within the party, but couldn't initiate or change policy.

During the 1980s Labour Party members actually had the power to change policy at their party conferences. It was Neil Kinnock who started the castration of the Labour Party membership when fighting the threat from the militants/trade unions in the 1980s. Labour members now have as much  influence over policy as Conservative members, they can no longer change or initiate policy at their conference.

The main parties now look to the media and the professional think tanks to formulate policy, the wishes of the electorate come way, way down their list of priorities. The EU, capital punishment and immigration are three main areas that highlight how the electorate has been ignored. Poll after poll suggests that over many years the populace has been ignored on these issues. The establishment has taken the view that it knows best.

We now have, thanks to political correctness, the tyranny of the minorities which has been extremely divisive and has fractured social cohesion. This is almost exclusively down to the left and the Labour Party. From 1997 to 2010 Labour had an open door immigration policy which has led to huge social problems, especially in our major cities. Labour/socialists then tell numerous ethnic groups that they are under threat from evil fascists but they will defend them. Guess who said ethnic minorities then support and vote for?

The Labour/socialists have done the same with gays, women, the disabled and any number of other  groups which has led to women only shortlists for parliament and quotas/targets in the workplace and education for assorted minorities. There has been a black lad on the TV news this morning claiming that he wouldn't be voting in the election because there weren't enough black and/or working class candidates. That always makes me wonder what black MPs would do that a white MP wouldn't? What would a working class MP do that a middle class MP wouldn't? Personally I just want the best MP for the job, if that's a black working class woman fine by me. If it's a white, working class gay bloke then fine, I don't care as long as they can do the job.

So to Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency and we hardly have an inspiring group of candidates up to now for the election. We have a sitting MP who seems to have alienated just about every person of a conservative persuasion that I know, more a lap dog for Cameron than a free thinking, get up and at 'em politician.

The Labour candidate is a councillor in Hulme, Manchester but bizarrely described as a 'local champion' on her election material. She also claims to have been running an anti-poverty campaign for twenty years, so for fifteen years she was fighting poverty under a Labour government, rather bizarre too. She also describes herself as a 'Common Purpose graduate'. I find Common Purpose an unpleasant  and worryingly influential organisation but don't subscribe to the wackier conspiracy theories about it that abound on the internet. I'll leave it for you to find out for yourself, there is lots about them on the internet.

So there we have it. Oh yes, sorry I forgot, we also have a Green Party candidate but suspect the people of this constituency are too sane to waste many votes on him, and we have a typically bland Liberal Democrat, neither of them have bothered with  a leaflet yet. We also have a UKIP candidate and I've heard there is a Northern Party candidate, a party of which I know little other than they sound like the bastard offspring of the Greens and Labour with an odd Tory cobbed in for good measure.

It's not an inspiring election, and our choice of candidates at the moment is even less inspiring. Still, two days yet to close of nominations and who knows who might pop up by Thursday.

General Election 2015

Nigel 'Mine's A Pint' Farage

British politics is a shambolic mess. I am sick of receiving surveys on social media from Cameron asking my views on immigration, welfare and so on. What do you actually believe Cameron? I suspect the answer is nothing, so he is trying to merely mirror back to us what we believe. That is cheap and shallow and is another reason I won't be voting Conservative next year. The main reason I am not is because I happen to have, in David Morris, probably the most lightweight, shallow, sycophantic little turd to have been elected a Conservative MP. A poor mans' David Cameron I suppose.

I don't have the time to chronicle all the reasons why I, like anybody with half a brain, can't vote Labour. If I just mention bankrupting the country whenever they are in government, limitless immigration and multiculturalism then I think that will suffice for now. Oh yes, and taxing us hard working people 'til the pips squeak' to buy the votes of idle, feckless welfare scroungers who choose not to work.

Why I can't vote Liberal Democrat. Because they're a gang of unprincipled, snivelling opportunists who couldn't run a bath let alone a council or government. I'd rather shoot myself in the temple.

So who does that leave? Well some people seem to be falling for the UKIP illusion. Problem is UKIP are like a rather attractive shop window display, but when you walk into the shop it is completely empty, bereft of any goods let alone decent quality goods.

This weekend they made a cheap play for Labour votes by promising to raise VAT on luxury goods so that the rich are squeezed. They don't seem to understand that VAT at 20%  means that if you pay £50,000 for a car you already pay more in tax than if you buy a £10,000 car. A cheap shot by Comrade Farage and co if ever I saw one, prostituting themselves for the votes of a few class warriors.

Like the other parties UKIP is prepared to swap policies when it suits if it buys them a little short-term gain. In fact, looking at their 'ban the burka no we won't' policy change they are looking ever more like the Lib Dems, the biggest whores on the political block.

It seems that UKIP, despite claiming to be a libertarian party, stand for big state and high taxes. Having said that they have yet to come out with cogent policies that can be funded without tax hikes, they never have and I suspect they never will. Even this weekend they were unable to come up with a united response to airstrikes on IS/ISIS/ISIL with some senior figures saying they did support airstrikes others claiming they didn't.

To confirm the claims of the Tories that a vote for UKIP would put Miliband in No 10 UKIP have announced that, assuming they win seats at the general election, they would be prepared to go into coalition with Labour if Miliband promises and EU referendum.

Then you have Nigel Farage, probably slimier than Cameron and Clegg put together. But I've said enough about Farage elsewhere so that's it.

The Green Party? I'm not even going to waste space on that bunch of eco muppets.

The English Democrats? At first sight, and I've only looked at them briefly, they appear to have a strong authoritarian streak. But I intend to take a closer look just in case.

My conclusion is that it's looking increasingly like I'll be spoiling my ballot paper next year. I'm no longer prepared to vote the best of a bad bunch. If there's nobody worth voting for my conscious dictates that I won't vote

With Nick Clegg We're Up Shit Creek!

I saw Wednesday's debate between UKIP's Nigel Farage and Lib Dem Nick Clegg and it really scared me. That Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister terrifies me. I don't rate David Cameron but pray to God that he is never debilitated enough as Prime Minister to leave Clegg in charge. The man is an idiot, and by that I mean thick, unintelligent and plain stupid as well as a smarmy liar.

In the EU debate he offered not a single reasoned argument for staying in but persistently lied that those of us who want to leave want to recreate a Britain of decades ago and want to live in isolation. No we don't you prick, the world is ever smaller in terms of travel and communication and we want to trade with the world not remain locked into a stagnant and ever more authoritarian European superstate. We are not Little Englanders, you are a Little European.

He claims that the EU gave us a market place of 450m people. No it didn't. That market place existed before the EU imposed it's clumsy and costly bureaucracy on us. As did the market place that is billions of people around the world that the EU now imposes tariffs upon. Yes, including the developing world. While we give it billions in aid the developing world is being held back by punitive EU trade charges.

Like Farage I don't believe that we should intervene in Crimea, as we shouldn't in Syria and as we shouldn't have done in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. According to Clegg that makes us Putin lovers. No it doesn't you idiotic prick, it means we are just not bloodthirsty warmongering mongs like you. Since Blair came to power I have been ashamed of  my country's readiness to bomb the crap out of foreigners and Cameron and Clegg are as bad as Blair in that.

Our governments slaughter each year millions of people in the name of democracy and we constantly re-elect them. Murder one person and you get slammed in chokey. I'm much more scared of my government than I am of my fellow citizens, especially now I've properly seen how thick our Deputy Prime Minister is.

The only thing that disturbs me as much is that Vince Cable claims that Clegg won the debates. Our Business Secretary is clearly as deluded as Hitler in the bunker in April 1945.

Vicky Pryce-More Lib Dem Hypocrisy

While I strongly believe that those who commit crime should be rehabilitated the case of Vicky Price stinks of hypocrisy and double standards. You may remember she was the missus of Chris Huhne who went to chokey for lying about taking his speeding points for him. It went on for a long period of time and only came out when he buggered off with another woman and Ms Pryce wanted to vent her spleen, or drop him in it.


Vince Cable, often seen as the most effective leader of the opposition in the current parliament, has taken her on as a government advisor. So a loony like Cable, whose instinct is to pass ever more interfering, nanny state laws that he expects the rest of us to obey, is happy to be advised by a jailbird. (Full story)


At a time when confidence in politicians is as low as it has ever been, and confidence in our democracy is at a similar low, what kind of idiot invites her back as a government advisor? An idiot Lib Dem like Vince Cable.

UKIP-Nutjob Alert

When I first heard Tories proclaiming that a vote for UKIP would let Miliband and Labour in I wondered if that was the best they could do. But UKIP do have a habit of proving that they are truly on the lunatic fringe. Well, look at Nigel Farage for starters. Somebody who tries so hard to be 'a character' only proves himself to be a completely mad, egocentric, attention seeking berk.

Now UKIP councillors in Norfolk have proved that this problem is apparent throughout the party. The nutters UKIP councillors on Norfolk County Council have gone into alliance with Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems and a Labour leader has been installed. The Tories are the largest group on Norfolk County Council.

Forgive me but I am not aware that supporting that motley crew of statist misfits is very libertarian, which UKIP claim to be. Did the people of Norfolk who voted UKIP really expect to find their county council led by a Labour councillor because of the support of UKIP councillors? I doubt it.

Furthermore, on Twitter I saw a UKIP member asked what the party's position was on the legalisation of marijuana. The UKIP member replied that the party would hold a referendum to find out what the populace wanted. Oh right, so would they hold a referendum to find out if 51% of the population wanted murder legalised? What a cop out to avoid answering a question on a controversial issue. Again, if UKIP was truly a libertarian party it would support the legalisation of marijuana, and be honest about that.

Like wanting out of the EU but wallowing on the gravy train, UKIP are just proving themselves to be the most cynical of the political parties rather than an alternative. Making the right noises to attract protest votes on a range of issues, but offering nothing of any substance. Their policy of massively increasing state expenditure, but cutting taxes, would bankrupt the country faster than you could say Gordon Brown. They aren't bright and I would warn anybody to look beneath the surface if you think these nutjobs are a credible alternative to the LibLabCon.

Don't Blame UKIP-Blame Cameron!

The Tory Party is in denial, and UKIP is their convenient scapegoat. But let's be perfectly blunt, the reason they are heading for defeat is David Cameron. The man is a totally unprincipled, clueless, uncharismatic chancer who has blown his opportunity. So the Tories blame Farage, a totally unprincipled, clueless chancer who at least has a little charisma, but ultimately is a con man who will be exposed by the glare of publicity heading his way.

Cameron and the Tories claim that they must occupy the centre ground. But all that seems to mean is 'let's piss everybody off, not just the wet pinko liberals'. Ultimately it means trying to be all things to all men and it just doesn't work. Tory activists who try to defend this government increasingly sound like occupants of a certain Berlin bunker in April 1945, or Comical Ali as US troops marched into Baghdad. 'Swivel eyed loons' maybe?

What the Tory Party leadership has done, is what the party has been doing for decades, it has driven solid hard working supporters into the arms of a party whose leadership, not just its membership, consists primarily of swivel eyed loons. Attacking and vilifying defectors from your own party is hardly going to tempt them back. What the Tory Party needs to do is to stop being so arrogant and aloof and look at the real reasons, reasons far deeper than the mere existence of loonies like Farage and UKIP.

It is evident to most people that the desire to be free of the shackles of the EU, and the need to control immigration, are two positions that are based on common sense. A majority in this country clearly have deep concerns about these issues, they therefore represent the centre ground. The more Cameron and company cling to their nice cosy idea of their own peculier centre ground then the more activists and volunteer branch officers will walk away. Cameron seems happier pissing off his party activists than pissing off the political elite in London's trendy bars and tearooms.

You only have to look at the set of daydreams that UKIP call policies to see that apart from leaving the EU, they still have no credible philosophy or practical policies. Indeed, it makes a dedicated anti-EU campaigner like me wonder if membership of the EU would actually be preferable to an independent Britain under UKIP rule. Their policies are every bit as barking mad as those of the EU, Farage and his MEPs have learnt well during their time on the gravy train.

With two years to go there may just be a chance of the Tories changing and taking a common sense approach but that would mean ditching Dave. Even then it would be a tall order, but at least there would be the chance to install a leader who could use common sense and start rebuilding after the defeat in 2015 that looks increasingly inevitable.

Let's face it, Cameron couldn't win the 2010 general election when Brown was the loathed, ridiculed and generally despised successor to Blair. What chance against Miliband in 2015 when you have driven a sizeable proportion of your natural supporters out of the party?  Sitting on the sidelines, playing nicely with Clegg and Cable while blaming UKIP is patently absurd and lazy. It's Dave stupid!

The Centre Ground. What is it?

Modern politicians are grey, bland nonentities. That's not a mind blowing statement, it's actually pretty much a given. The pitiful mess that was the election of Police and Crime Commissioners last year, and the poor turnout at last week's county council elections, wonderfully underline that point. People no longer trust our politicians, and the more disliked they become the more they cry about staying 'on the centre ground'. But what is this sacred 'centre ground'?

The centre ground seems to be a political euphemism for doing very little that anybody could actually disagree with. It is the ultimate in political correctness, don't upset, offend or disagree with anybody. Those on the centre ground are basing their political careers on not rocking the boat by having a firm belief that somebody else may oppose. European Union? We know it's not working so we'll renegotiate. Immigration? We can't do anything about that because of the EU, but we'll pass some minor tinkering legislation that sounds good. Sick of murderers and other serious criminals being released early, often to reoffend? We'll clamp down on criminals, we'll take their tellies off them. And so it goes on. It pisses everybody off.

Increasingly when I see Clegg and Cameron, looking like bland genetically modified versions of Blair, I feel like throwing a heavy object at the telly. They are patronising zombies with about as much passion as a pair of beached jellyfish. If they represent the centre ground it's time we rocked the boat and dumped them overboard.

I have never known a time when politicos despaired quite so much about the mainstream parties in England. I don't include the Lib Dems in that, they have never really been more than political whores prepared top sell their grannies to get a town councillor elected, they epitomise the centre ground, so they don't count. By mainstream I mean Labour and Conservative. Few socialists I'm acquainted with regard the Labour Party as a party they can actively support. Few conservatives I know regard the Conservative Party as a party they can actively support.

John Major garnered 13m votes in 1992, then the Tory Party moved to the centre ground. In 2010, despite being up against a generally loathed and ridiculed Gordon Brown, Cameron's Tory Party could barely muster 10m votes. Welcome to the centre ground Dave. You stay there while the rest of the country looks for something else. Problem is, while you sit on the centre ground the ever growing vacuum you create will be filled by some potentially very dangerous opportunists.   

David Ward Lib Dem MP and Holocaust Memorial Day

Another twat MP. Thank you Bradford!

Well what an utter turd David Ward really is.

He accuses "the Jews" in Israel of "inflicting atrocities on Palestinians...on a daily basis".

According to him he was "trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust".

The Lib Dems have "condemned his use of language".

Mealy mouthed shits Ward and his party aren't they? But what do we expect from Lib Dems?

Holocaust Memorial Day is 27 January!

It would be awful to think that Ward was merely ingratiating himself with the Muslim population of his constituency. Surely Lib Dems aren't such political whores?

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections-November 15th

In the run up to the last few elections I've pledged to boycott, abstain, spoil my ballot paper or whatever. But when push came to shove I always caved in, held my nose and voted for the least scary option.

This time though I have followed through and spoilt my ballot paper for the PCC elections on November 15th. I have a postal vote you see. I wrote 'just another gravy train' at the top of the ballot paper and 'muppet' next to the name of each candidate. If nothing else it may give the poor counters a giggle when they have the boring job of counting. Mind you, they won't be too bored this time as turnout is likely to be an all-time low, so they'll probably be done in half an hour.

However, just because I've told them what I think doesn't mean I shouldn't hlp those who may wish to join in this charade of democracy. So here is a useful link to a website that links, when you enter your postcode, to details of your candidates.

I only found it today but it made me even more convinced that abstaining is the only way. My candidates look like a right bunch of oddballs, loonies and fruitcakes.

When Voting Becomes Collaboration

These are strange times indeed. Have politicians ever been quite as despised as they are now? Have protest movements ever been as hysterical and puerile as they are now?

Let's start with the wailing and gnashing of teeth about individuals and businesses not paying enough tax. In the sixties the protest movements would have wanted to pay as little to the state as possible, so that they weren't feeding its war machine in Vietnam for example. Today there is faux moral outrage at people and businesses paying, perfectly legally, as little tax as possible. I suppose those headbangers at UK Uncut are happy to pay ever more tax to fund an increasingly paramilitary police force and ever more morally dubious foreign adventures by our military. Those that pay tax that is.

Another about turn by the lefties is attacking Andrew Mitchell for shouting at a bobby. I howled with laughter at seeing the type of nutters who turn a march into a game shoot, with the police being the game, suddenly wanting to string up evil bastards who call the police names. Suddenly they are fanatically pro-police-nothing to do with Mitchell being a 'posh Tory' of course.

Then you have a government that nobody elected. Yes, I know how our system works and that if a big enough group of MPs can band together and cobble a majority then they form a government. But does that mean it is right? I certainly didn't vote to have idiots like Clegg and Cable lording it over us.

Then, as I've said before hundreds of thousands of us have signed petitions, campaigned and marched for a say in our relationship with the European Union. What do we get? The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners! I don't remember thousands and thousands of people campaigning for PCCs.

But it isn't enough to blame the state. I've been actively involved in politics since schooldays but eventually became disillusioned with the ever increasing apathy of the public. In many cases it was because they had no idea how the sytem works. They didn't understand that at a local level activists are volunteers who give their time freely to leaflet, stand for election and canvass the voters, admittedly in ever dwindling numbers. In many cases they didn't know the difference between a councillor, an MP and an MEP. So eventually I walked away from active politics.

Back in the 1980s I attended a meeting addressed by Enoch Powell, one of several times I was fortunate enough to hear him speak. During questions he was asked how he felt that people should vote in the upcoming European elections. His immediate response was: "I wouldn't soil my hands on a European ballot paper".  He then explained that taking part in the process was akin to validating it.

In many recent elections I have voted for the least bad option. I have not voted for any party from conviction for many years. But now is the time to say enough is enough, beginning with the elections on November 15 for the PCCs. They are a sham, another gravy train for the political class and I do not accept their validity and am no longer prepared to validate what I no longer believe in by holding my nose and plonking a cross in a box.

Furthermore there is no longer a party in this country that I feel able to vote for. They have lied, cheated and broken promises for far too many years and the forging of this despised cioalition was the final straw. In future I will not be voting as I am no longer prepared to vote for something I do not believe in. And before people cry about people dying for my right to vote, they did not! They fought and died for our freedom and that includes the right to vote or not to vote.

I will no longer be voting as voting has becone collaboration.

Conservative Party Variety Show

A few years ago I attended a number of party conferences and Tory conferences in the 1980s used to be great affairs. Although policy couldn't be changed there were serious politicians and serious debates with excellent contributions by the membership from the floor. When did it change? Was it Blair, and the Tories copying his slick PR style that did it?

This year's Tory conference is more like a variety show. At times it looks they're using a breakfast TV studio and then there is music blaring out from Take That, or somebody else seen as 'trendy' by Tory grandees, while a dreary video is shown. The tedious habit of making speeches while strolling around the stage is another instant turn-off. How apt that geeky Miliband uses that particular technique.

We've gone, these past weeks, from the pantomime that is the UKIP conference, through the Labour and Lib Dem charades to the Tory variety show this week. If nothing else they have shown what a busted flush most of our political parties are. They have also confirmed that none of them will be getting my vote next time around.

Sadly theses conferences can't be called victories of style over substance, even the style is dreary and tedious. Bring back the statesmen and serious political thinkers of yesteryear. Or am I just becoming an old fart?

Democracy

I'm feeling a little unsettled at the moment about the nature of democracy. I'm not sure whether I just don't understand what democracy actually is, or whether my idea of democracy has changed over the last however many decades.

I know there isn't a simple definition of democracy, and that some of the most horrendously barbaric dictatorships in history have called themselves 'democracies', usually 'people's democratic republic' or similar. I also know that our idea of democracy in action differs from many countries in the world who we would regard as 'democratic'. It isn't simple is it?

So to a large degree this week, with the Lib Dems attempting to hijack the word 'democracy' to justify a botched attempt at reforming the House of Lords, the nature of democracy seems to have become defined by voting. I'm not sure about this. If we had a vote on whether to slaughter the first born in every household, and 51% voted in favour, is that democracy in action so get on with it? If our unelected monarch said: "Whoa, one's not keen on that idea, I refuse to sign the act." Would that be an unelected head of state subverting democracy?

In rexcent years there has been a proliferation in the number of elected posts in public life. Many cities now have elected mayors. I don't know why, I don't see the point. Do elected mayors make our system more democratic? I don't see how when they seem to be nothing more than an expensive add-on to already elected, and very costly city councillors.

Our cities have police authorities made up of people from a range of bodies and elected councils. They are accountable to the populace. So why do we need costly elected police commissioners? I honestly don't see the point. Especially when commissioners, like elected mayors just seem to be washed up politicians jumping on a shiny, new, very well funded gravy train.

Are supporters of this move to ever more elected public officials really saying that prior to these innovations there was a huge democratic deficit? There obviously wasn't, as I've explained above.

If Clegg and Cameron are so convinced that the ballot box is the root to true democracy then how can they justify not having a rteferendum on the European Union? A referendum on the death penalty? If an unelected House of Lords is undemocratic why is only electing 80% of it democratic? Why do we have an unelected head of state? Are Clegg and Cameron closet republicans or are they just being intellectually inconsistant? Or are they being intellectually dishonest?

I'll be perfectly honest, I don't see plonking a X on a ballot paper every five years as being the be all and end all of democracy. Not when our politicians then ignore us, and what they promised in their manifestos, and foist a bastard government like this on us. Then proceed to ignore what we want until they next have to tempt us to vote for them by publishing manifestos full of even more lies.

So what's the alternative? I'll have to think about that. But would an unelected leader/government that actually listened to what the populace wants, a kind of benign dictatorship, be any less democratic than our current revolving dictatorship?

Lib Dems and the House of Lords

The best way to reform Parliament would be to cram as many Lib Dem MPs, MEPs and councillors as we possibly can into the House of Lords, then blow it to kingdom come.

Nicky Clegg seems to think tinkering with the House of Lords is crucial for our democracy, after all we can't possibly have unelected people involved in law making can we? No, that won't do will it? If you elect people they all behave impeccably don't they? Acting in our best interests, never getting anything wrong and never fiddling their expenses. Don't they?

Just look at our glorious elected leaders. We had Blair and Brown. We now have Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. Paragons of virtue?

So Clegg, and this bastard government, wants to have most of the House of Lords elected and to bung them £300 a day for turning up when elected. Oh yes, and they'll be elected for fifteen years! That's not another gravy train for politicians is it?And let's face it the Lib Dems love a gravy train more than most.

Personally I like the idea of the House of Lords being made up of people who are there on merit. In fact isn't 'meritocracy' the other big word in your average Lib Dem's vocab? I don't see electing idiots, with no qualfications for the job, particularly meritocratic. Especially when they will all have political axes to grind.

Furthermore, the House of Commons is s4/ubservient to the House of Commons, it is a scrutinising chamber. Who will be first 'Peer', elected for fifteen years, to shout to an MP: "You were only elected for five years, people think I'm bettter than you"? Bingo, constitutional crisis.

Maybe if some of the criteria for standing in a House of Lords election were practical things, such as the person can prove they have never been a member of a political party and have never before held elected office, I might see some point. But while it is obviously just another gravy train for politicos stuff it.

Apathy And The Right To Vote

Our politicians have become so bland, uninspiring, sometimes corrupt, often disingenuous that they are driving people away from involvement in politics. In millions of cases they are driving people to abstain from voting.

We didn't have local elections last week, but all the friends and family I've spoken to who did have elections live in Manchester, and they didn't vote because they didn't have a candidate or a party standing for election that they trusted. In Manchester city centre ward turnout was just 13 per cent. Manchester as a whole had a turnout of 26 per cent, Salford 27 per cent.

In 35 of the 215 wards across the Greater Manchester councils fewer than one in four people bothered to vote and in 134 wards the turnout was under 33 per cent. Only three wards registered a turnout of over 50 per cent, and they were all neighbouring wards in Oldham. The highest average turnout was in Trafford with 37 per cent.

Yesterday I heard somebody attacking those people who didn't vote, using the hackneyed old argument that people died in wars for our right to vote. No they didn't. I doubt many soldiers have marched into war thinking they were doing it so that those who survive them can vote. Many may have gone into battle to defend democracy, our way of life, our territory or simply because their government told them to, but not so that I could vote for Fred Smith in my local council elections.

The right to abstain is as much a part of democracy as the right to vote. I have no wish to vote Conservative, Tory or Lib Dem. Is it really democratic to force me to hold my nose in an election and vote for a party I don't believe in when there are no credible candidates?

Unless I have a candidate or party I can trust I will also be abstaining in future. It seems to me that one of the greatest contradictions in a so-called democracy is compulsory voting. Compulsory voting is the only way rotten politicians can give themselves a veneer of democracy.

Watch out, they're looking at tax-payer funding of political parties because we don't want to financially support them on a voluntary basis. Compulsory voting will be next.

Local Elections 2012

A strange few days, especially as here in North Lancashire we didn't have any elections despite having more than enough elected representatives. We have town councillors, borough councillors, county councillors then MPs and MEPs. But I still stayed up far too late on Thursday night watching the results come in. I'm not going to ramble on too long here, there is more than enough coverage in the media, but I'm bound to chip in my two penneth.

UKIP bombed again. I begin with them as I know them best having stood in three parliamentary elections for them, numerous locals and a European election. Although they gained a reasonable percentage of protest votes in places, they just cannot convert that into seats, and their London mayoral candidate couldn't even muster 2% of the vote. They got no seats in the London Assembly.

Elsewhere I heard Farage, more of a problem for UKIP than he is an asset, claiming they didn't win seats because their support is not concentrated enough. More bullshit from the bullshitter-in-chief. They don't win seats because they have no coherent local or national policies other than getting out of the EU. It's like a form of Tourette's, UKIP candidates can't fight in a local election without blurting out Brussels, the European Union or that certain vote loser the 'EUSSR', which does set most ordinary people's nutter alert off. Even the dimmest voter knows a local councillor can do bugger all about Brussels.

Where UKIP, or any other party does well locally, is where they fight hard and long, not just popping a leaflet through the doors at election time. UKIP rarely do that although they have had some success, for example in Staffordshire Moorlands, where they did campaign hard and long on local issues. With the resources they should have at their disposal, one of their main reasons initially for taking their MEP seats, they should be running highly effective campaigns. But their MEPs have gone native, another huge problem.

The other problem for UKIP is that they claim to be a libertarian party but aren't. If most of their members looked at what libertarianism actually is they would be horrified. Of course to many people today libertarianism is a nice flag of convenience, that is the case with UKIP. Apart from the EU the membership would split down the middle on any other serious issue. That's why it is, and will remain, a single issue party.

Miliband needn't get too carried away, Labour did well despite him not because of him. Labour would be in terminal trouble if they hadn't done as well as they did on Thursday. It doesn't mean they can win a general election, otherwise they would have sent the Tories into terminal decline which, despite good results, they didn't. Deep down people know that the bankers were a contributory factor to a Labour economic mess, they aren't stupid enough to fall for Labour blaming it all on the bankers.

Despite tying Clegg up, gagging him and sticking him in the cupboard under the stairs for a fortnight the Lib Dems got bombed. Ironic as most parties look to emulate the kind of local campaigning the Lib Dems have always excelled at. But they've paid the price for selling out. Can't say I'm sorry. They may have been the best local campaigners over the years but they have lacked fundamental honesty at a local level, often prepared to sell their grannies for a few more votes.

It's the price the Lib Dems are paying for actually getting involved in power instead of just sitting in the House of Commons griping and whingeing. For years the Lib Dems have been all things to all men, but now they are in government and can no longer hide. What people are finding out is that they are a party of misfits, with the likes of Vince Cable, Chris Huhne and David Laws showing them in their true colours in the national spotlight.

So to the Tories. I liken them to the Church of England. They liberalise and lose support. So they liberalise a bit more, and lose a but more support and so on. Cameron couldn't win a general election when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, I doubt he could win one even with Miliband leading the Labour Party.

Cameron has a huge problem, he doesn't seem to actually believe in anything. He seems to be a chief executive reacting to circumstances, whereas we really need a captain who can actually set a course and fight his way through the storms and the choppy seas to get us to our destination. He seems to have the kind of faith in Osborne that Blair had in Brown, and look what a shambles Brown made of the finances. He has no real vision, just woolly waffle about 'big society' and.... Oops, can't think of anything else.

The Tories need to start listening to real people, including their real members, rather than the media luvvies and metroplitan elite they seem to be obsessed with. I've lobbied enough Tory conferences in recent years to know that their members, on the whole, don't like Cameron's policies but see him as the best of a bad bunch, their equivalent of Tony Blair. At least they're back in Downing Street so they are holding their noses at the moment. When their best hope for winning the next election is that Miliband remains Labour leader you know they aren't confident in their own leader.

So what the Tories need to do now is to learn from Thursday and toughen up. Yes they got a mid-term thumping, but they can avoid a general election thumping next time around by reconnecting with the traditional conservative support that has turned its back on them in the past two decades. But that leads to the next problem. The Tories aren't overly blessed with potential leaders are they?