#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-Green Party

I've honestly tried to take the Green Party seriously, but come on, their manifesto reads like a twelve year olds first effort at drawing up a manifesto for the school mock election. There must be a hell of a lot of people suffering Nutterly Bennett style 'brain fades' to have come up with that drivel.

Looking on the bright side Caroline Lucas is likely to hold on in Brighton, or 'Brain Fade Central', but elsewhere they are unlikely to win a seat. This is good because they are probably second only to the Scottish National Party in terms of hard core authoritarianism. Tie this with Nutterly Bennett offering to work with SNP MPs and there is potential for an alliance that would rival those cuddly chaps in North Korea. But thankfully the prospect of some kind of coalition involving the Greens and the SNP is about as likely as the Green Party manifesto being taken seriously.

So, if you fancy ending up living in a cave, trying to light a fire of twigs for some heat and light then vote Green.

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-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.

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.

The Problem with Protest Votes

More and more people seem to be becoming ever more disillusioned with political parties. They seem to trust politicians less and less which is hardly surprising looking at the ever increasing number of broken promises and scandals such as the expenses farago and the Chris Huhne fiasco. But is a protest vote the answer or is abstention the better option? Personally I prefer spoiling the ballot paper, at least you show that you have bothered to turn up and spoilt ballot papers are counted. Not turning up could be seen as not caring or being just too lazy.

In the run up to the elections tomorrow I have seriously pondered abstention but have been told, by several people, that I have a duty to vote, that people fought wars for my right to vote. No they didn't. They fought to protect our national interest, to defend us from invaders and yes, to save our democracy. But that democracy includes the right to vote, it does not mean I have to vote. True democracy means that you have choice. I have the right to stand for election, but choose not to. I have the right do lots of things but choose not too. It is not democratic to merely go into a polling booth and vote for a person or party you do not support just because it is the lesser of several evils, especially because you are forced to or expected to. If I have no candidate I feel able to vote for why vote just for the sake of it?

If we choose not to vote for a mainstream candidate why vote for a fringe/protest candidate we don't know or necessarily agree with? The risk of electing a nutter is far too great. This last fortnight we have seen a stream of nutty candidates exposed, mainly UKIP candidates, but the leader of the Green Party was on the BBC last week and struck me as being seriously unhinged. Indeed I have seen Green Party and UKIP activists at close quarters and the prospect of either running my city or county council is quite terrifying. I prefer not to even contemplate either party actually forming a government.

The problem with minor parties is that they tend to attract either single interest eccentrics, or serious obsessives. Numerous fringe candidates have been exposed this last fortnight and been disowned by their party, mostly too late to be removed  from ballot papers, meaning there is a danger that a disowned fruitcake could still be elected. But if a handful of fruitcakes have been exposed standing for fringe parties, out of several thousand candidates in total, how many loonies have not been outed and could be elected? UKIP have accepted they have not vetted their candidates. Is potentially inflicting a loony on the electorate a sensible form of protest? Is it even true democracy? I don't think so.

Unless you have spent a relatively short amount of time doing a little research I would suggest a protest vote is far more dangerous than abstention or spoiling your ballot paper. Then again, if you can't be bothered spending a few hours researching the people who may spend the next five years representing you, then maybe you get what you deserve.

UK Politics, The Home of the Bland

Now the sham Alternative Vote system has been consigned to the bin how are British politicians going to reconnect with the British public? Indeed, how are people like me, someone who has become disconnected after more than 30 years as a political activist, going to be reconnected to politics? Those are the multimillion dollar questions.

There are two strands to this issue. What must the politicians do and what must the public do? I don't pretend to have all the answers, just my opinions, that's what blogging is about, and if you are so thin skinned as to find somebody who disagrees or disapproves of your position 'hateful' then please stop reading now and go and do something more suited to your vulnerability, such as knitting or playing crown green bowls. You see that makes you bland, and that is the crux of the problem with politicians today, they are bland and can't take robust opposition without squealing and crying foul. Just look at Cable and Huhne over the AV sham.

Where are the big ideas on the big issues? Where is the difference in policies betwen the main parties on such as the NHS? The answer is that the drive to the 'centre ground' has rendered civilised debate on issues such as healthcare redundant. Whatever anybody suggests regarding improving the NHS political opponents will scream about privatisation through the back door and how the NHS is the bedrock of our very existence, which is arrant nonsense. But the drive to the bland centre ground  has killed debate. What has happened to Lansley's NHS reforms? Some criticism and they are withdrawn for further 'consultation'.

The NHS is the prime example in another way of where we have gone wrong. Increasingly the public are distrustful of politicians and government. So why leave something as crucial as you and your family's healthcare in the hands of the politicians? Would you prefer one state owned shop to buy your groceries from? One state owned car company to buy your car from? One state owned brewery selling you your pint in the state owned pubs? I thought not. People complain that the government, through taxes, steals their money and wastes it. They become bitter at how local and national government waste their hard earned cash. But dare to say that there is millions wasted in the NHS too by the government and you are accused of wanting to privatise healthcare so that the poor will die young because they can't afford healthcare. The NHS is the UK's sacred cow. Political censorship crushes debate.

I don't intend to argue here for privatisation of the NHS, I am merely making a point about the stifling of discussion. The same principle applies to discussion of immigration, where those who believe in controlling immigration are accused of racism. The same principle applies with those who disapprove of Islam, they are branded Islamophobes. Those who don't believe that women should referee mens' football games, they are sexist. You disagree with Britain's membership of the EU and you are a Europhobe or worse a xenophobe. The level of political debate in this country has been decimated by political correctness. Remove the shackles of political correctness and we can start to breath in the fresh air of freedom again. But the politicians are trying so hard not to disagree with anybody that they have bored the electorate into a stupor.

Then there is the electorate. They complain about being disconnected from the politicians but you have to help yourelf sometimes, you can't always be spoon fed. They complain that they only get a leaflet at election time, often true. But it is volunteers who deliver leaflets by and large and people aren't volunteering any more. If those who whinge actually looked at the parties' policies, found one they supported then contacted them to leaflet just their own street then the difference would be huge. I don't expect people to spend every minute of their time climbing the political ladder, but that time spent whinging used practically, could make a huge impact. Instead, as in many things they sit back and expect everybody else to do something. Then they are shocked when they see the calibre of the average politico.

But too often the politcal parties take the few activists they have left for granted. The activists in the Labour Party voted for David Miliband but got Ed instead. I'd have been pretty angry as a Labour activist if my vote had been usurped under the Alternative Vote sytem in that way, so that the unions got their man rather than the activists. Then, a few years back Labour activist Walter Wolfgang was manhandled out of the Labour conference, under anti-terror legislation, for heckling a speaker. Not the way to treat your activists I'd have thought.

But what really angers me is the when I hear people boasting of voting for one party all their lives, or even worse having been a member of one party all their lives. I always wonder in that case, who hasn't developed, matured and responded to changing times, them or their parties?

So what's the answer? I don't know, but I do blame the public and the politicos in pretty equal measure for the bland nonentities currently strutting like peacocks across the political stage. Maybe the public gets what the public deserves.

Yes2AV Launch

It seems that the Yes2AV launch is happening today ahead of the referendum in May. Of course it involves Eddie Izzard, fast becoming the latest luvvy darling mascot of the Labour Party. It seems that the Gallagher brothers are bored now and are playing something else, or maybe they threw their toys out when their pal Blair moved out of Downing Street.

What I find amusing is that the luvvies are lining up to launch their latest fad claiming it to be a politician free campaign. Really? Well what was the campaign launched earlier this week by the Milibandroid, Caroline Lucas, Shirley Williams and Charles "Pass the Bottle" Kennedy? It was the Yes2AV campaign. No doubt they will claim to be two seperate campaigns but I doubt it. It is just the kind of childish posturing that made me question the Yes campaign, then the AV system itself. I've been getting info from Yes2AV for some time and it has actually led me to decide not to vote for AV in May.

The majority of AV supporters seem to me to be jvenile activists upset that they don't seem to be getting what they want under the current system. So the answer to them is to change the system. I came to regard AV as the same as the football abuse at the height of political correctness. The system whereby if one kids' football team went two goals up they had to lose a player to give the other side a chance. Much better to just accept you're crap at football and get on with it or try something else. A bit like Eddie Izzard, a crap comedian so he's now decided to become a crap politico.

Enviro-Fascism

To me some of the most arrogant people on the planet are the green/environmentalists. They are convinced that man is so poweful that we have it within our power to destroy or save the planet. The reality is that we are much more likely to be destroyed by the planet than the other way around.

So I wasn't surprised to read this article by James Delingpole about how the eco-fascists have destroyed the careers of Johnny Ball and David Bellamy.

They say the path to hell is paved with good intentions. I tend to believe that there are people who are just driven by hatred of other people. Not all environmentalists are like that, but certainly those who can treat other human beings the way Ball and Bellamy are being treated seem to be driven by a hatred of their fellow man, and the environment is their chosen weapon of assault.

Postal Voting

I've had it with postal voting. Normally you give voting some thought, get into the polling booth and stick a coss on the ballot paper. The deed is over and done with in seconds. With a postal ballot the envelope sits there, unopened for days while you think about it.

Conservative? Vacuous Dave and the chance of silly George, the one Dave has hidden in this campaign, becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer? Scary.

Labour? Enough said.

Green Party? Leather patches and dandruffy beards? If I want to vote far left I will thank you.

Liberal Democrat? An in/out referendum on the EU sounds good. But up to now Nick has promised to join the Euro, not join the Euro and to join if circumstances are right. Then he wants to grant illegal immigrants an amnesty. Then he calls his kids things like Jose Maria Clegg, Juan Antonio Clegg and Francisco Santa Maria Clegg, making them sound like an an Anglo-Spanish version of 'Last of the Summer Wine'. Why didn't he just take his Spanish wife's name or call them Compo and other Yorkshire names?

Then I had UKIP on the ballot paper. But my old friend Nigel was on the election address and somebody I've never heard of was on the ballot paper. On top of that their party leader has told everybody to vote Tory or Labour.

So, until the state dicates that I have to do it by post, I will be cancelling my postal vote for future UK elections. Doesn't matter in EU elections because I don't intend voting in them.

Broken Britain?

A young slapper called Ellie Gellard has been in the news this week, goes to show what a useless bunch of prats our politicians are if that pathetic little attention seeker gets national publicity. But for some bizarre reason Gordon Brown had her sat next to him at their manifesto launch, despite her calling for him to resign not too long ago. Maybe he was right not to listen to a 20 year old idiot who thinks Britain isn't 'broken'. But why have her sat up there on the podium? Because Gordon the Moron is desperate and wants to show how they all love him really, and he has united them.

In fact that summarises nicely British politics at the moment. What can you say when a nothing like Vince Cable is about to be sainted as some kind of financial and economic messiah? Maybe even Chancellor of the Exchequer if we have a hung parliament after May 6th? That really would be time to shift all your savings and other assets safely away to Zimbabwe for example!

Yesterday I was off the campaign trail on family business in East Manchester. In the area now called Eastlands, much to the annoyance of locals born and raised in Miles Platting and Bradford, the council estates built in the 1960s are being demolished. Those who bought under Right to Buy are now having their homes compulsorily purchased way below market value. Many of the deck access flats built in Hulme, Ardwick and Beswick in the 1960s have already long since been demolished. Communities were wrecked to make way for those developments, and now they are being split asunder yet again. And Labour talk of 'community'. They are the wreckers of communities.

A huge model comprehensive was built in Gorton in the 1960s. Now demolished and rebuilt. A Catholic secondary school was built in Gorton in the 1970s. Now demolished and rebuilt. A school for people with 'learning disabilities' was built in Gorton in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Now demolished but not rebuilt. A school built in the 1920s in Gorton, and extended only a few years ago, is about to be demolished and has been rebuilt a few hundred yards away. Another school built in Gorton in the 1970s has been demolished and not rebuilt.

One day we will find out financial the cost of all that nonsense. The social cost of our appalling governments, and I'm going back to before 1997, we can see all around us. The country is in such a mess that I find it increasingly difficult to regard myself as patriotic. It is not just the politicians to blame, the vast majority of the population have sat on their fat lazy arses, waddling away from Coronation Street only to pay homage at the new cathedrals to consumerism and greed such as the Trafford Centre, the Metro Centre or Meadowhall. Then back home to slump in front of their TVs with a bargain bucket of KFC to watch and learn from the Jeremy Kyle Show or Tricia Goddard. Meanwhile the country goes down the pan.

Yesterday I read about an 'ex-soldier' who got £100,000 compensation from the British Army because she couldn't get childcare, being a single mother, so went AWOL.

Then I read how to 'earn' £42,000 a year as a parasite sponging off the taxpayer. No, not by becoming an MP or an MEP, they get even more, this is the story of a family on Anglesey. The father realised he would be better off packing in work and sponging off us. So that's what he has been doing for years. They are now whining about needing a bigger house, paid for by the taxpayer, because the misfits are producing another little parasite to bleed off us.

Don't tell me that the Tories would do any better, they never have, although Margaret Thatcher did a great deal of what was needed, but not quite enough, from 1979 to 1990. Yes, you socialist misfits, she did leave Downing Street 20 years ago so stop obsessing about her. Bloody hell, in 1965 the country had long stopped blaming the Germans for everything and look at the mess they really did create 20 to 30 years earlier!

The Lib-Dems? Don't make me laugh, that shower are so firmly sat on the fence their arses are full of splinters.

UKIP? Do me a favour. Build more prisons is about all they can offer, apart from getting out of Europe. Tell you what, stop slamming people in clink for ridiculous offences and you might be surprised how many prison places you freed up. And don't tell us you are going to slash taxes and massively increase spending. We're not all stupid.

BNP? Let's be serious.

So that leaves the only socialist party fighting the election, the Green Party. I'd have more respect for them if they were honest about their extreme left-wing socialism, instead they disguise it behind claiming we are all about to drown under a melting ice cap if Caroline Lucas doesn't get elected in Brighton. Up against that wall you lot....

What a mess. And I haven't even started on Elizabeth Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha and her bunch of misfits. How apt that we have the matriarch of the most dysfunctional family in the world on the throne. Actually Ellie Gellard does have a look of Phil the Greek about her.

Independents, Independence And Alliances

There seems to be a growing feeling that politics is full of nutters, which attracts people of an independent persuasion to try and make a difference. This is a good thing in my view but too many of the people who find politicians of the mainstream to be nutters, and want to displace them, are even bigger nutters themselves.

Many such nutters were formally members of mainstream parties, but were found to be a little too eccentric and scared the voters. Others became tired of the slimy self-seekers in the mainstream parties and got out, seeking something politically purer. Some are so obsessive about a single issue that they got out to start a single issue party/pressure group. Others, so full of ego and vanity and a generous dose of insanity, were convinced that they had been stopped from becoming Prime Minister after two years activity because internal opponents, or security service operatives or both, had been conspiring against them, so they hopped it.

There are also a goodly proportion who are not nutters at all. They are extremely genuine, able and honest and only left the mainstream parties because those parties changed. They changed to such an extent that they had to leave in order to start or join a party that they actually believed in again, or to fight as independents. It is virtually impossible for a few capable, honest, hardworking party members to fight and defeat the huge professional forces of the major parties. If you doubt that look how the professional Labour party castrated the Labour movement.

The forthcoming general election is likely to see a record number of independent candidates and smaller, newer parties. Sadly, I also suspect that they will face meltdown as people desperately vote to get Labour out or to keep the Tories out. The media is virtually a closed shop, protecting the position of the big three while putting up a seemingly impenetrable barrier around the smaller parties and independents. Unless you are a political and media whore like Martin Bell of course.

Part of the problem for smaller parties is the single issue tag. It's one thing for the Greens, UKIP and the BNP to win seats in the EU elections, that is the election where hardened Tories and Labourites kick their parties in the pants, it's another for them to win seats in Westminster. I would put my house on none of those three winning a solitary seat on May 6th. The main reason being the Green Party is seen as nutty environmentalists, UKIP is seen as obsessively Eurosceptic and the BNP are seen as dangerous racists. They appeal to far too narrow an interest group and people in general elections vote on a range of issues, education, health, law and order and many more.

So the small groups, parties and independents then realise that breaking the monopoly of the three tired old parties is not easy. Up pops 'the alliance'. So our independents and small parties pretty soon realise that to achieve anything they need to go down a road that inevitably makes them bigger, forces them to work with lots of other people and effectively sets them off towards becoming political parties. But that's another argument.

What set me off in this train of thought was a recent chat with a friend about a new alliance that had been formed to act as an umbrella for independents in the May 6th election. So I've had a look around and below is a list of current alliances that I have been able to identify. There is even an alliance including New Veritas! Although New Veritas looks identical to the loonytunes outfit that split from UKIP, complete with boasts about being founded by Kilroy Silk. Or should that be by 'New Kilroy Silk'?

So, here is my list of alliances fighting the general election with candidates, some sticking to the party names others sing the name of the alliance:

Alliance for Democracy

Independent Leave-the-EU Alliance

Independent Network

There is also a huge array of alliances, networks and other pressure groups trying to get candidates to speak out on a whole range of issues but I'm not going into them all.

So if you don't have the good fortune to have a Libertarian Party candidate to vote for, a quick look at some of the alliances above might be helpful. Or at least some of them will give you a good giggle!

The Earth Is Flat

So eventually Liam Donaldson accepts what most of us knew all along, swine flu isn't such a big deal. I think it's time that nerd wandered off into the sunset where he can do less damage than he can as Chief Medical Officer.

We didn't create global warming either, which most of us knew all along. That theory was the result of nutty scientists being offered loads of money by misfits such as the UN, and others, to 'prove' that we were responsible. Of course the hysteria of the emotional incontinents of the green/environmentalist movement didn't help.

Which goes to prove another thing that most of us knew all along, that scientists, like all humans, get it wrong. Don't automatically believe all they say just because it sounds impressive, for example look at all that bull about the Earth not being flat. Just look at the website of the Flat Earth Society if you don't believe me!!

Climate Change

Many of us 'deniers' are taking a great deal of delight at the debunking of the environmental fascists and their hysterical claims about 'man made global warming'. James Delingpole, as ever, cut straight to the chase in the following tremendous article:

James Delingpole on Climategate

I've always been sceptical about those who put all their faith in scientists, just like the rest of us scientists can get it wrong too.

The only thing I would take issue with this week is the tagging of 'gate' (Climategate) on to yet another scandal/cock-up whatever you want to call it. Please give it a break.

Green Totalitarianism

Here is a link to an excellent piece by Melanie Phillips in the Spectator.

It's good to see the emotional retards of the environmental fascist movement getting their comeuppance.

Thanks for that Hugh.

Plane Stupid Or Just Sick Bastards?

The following shows the depths the emotional retards of the environmental fascism movement are prepared to sink to:



Then they expect us to believe that their certifiable ramblings about 'man made global warming' are based on reason.

Bollocks!

Labour Party Disaster?

What a strange election.

Yes Labour's share of the vote dropped by 7% and they lost 5 MEPs. But the Conservative vote only went up 1.2%, and they gained only 1 MEP. Scotland is yet to declare but it looks like the SNP will gain at Labour's expense.

I am most concerned that the smaller parties failed to make a proper breakthrough. Yes UKIP gained 1 MEP (vote up 0.5%) and the BNP, sadly, gained 2 (vote up 2.5%), but a low turnout has to be a huge advantage to smaller parties whose hardcore vote will turn out come hell or high water. Apart from UKIP and the BNP the smaller parties, although increasing their vote slightly, didn't make any significant breakthroughs with the Greens only retaining their 2 seats. Here is a full national breakdown.

So yes a terrible night for Labour and Gordon Brown but did the Tories really take full advantage? I would say no. Labour did poorly in 2004, admittedly not as badly as this, but went on to win a general election in 2005. In EU elections people know there is little point so will protest vote knowing that there is little at stake. It looks to me like the next general election could produce a tiny Conservative majority or, more likely, a hung parliament. Sadly there seems little hope of a smaller party breaking through yet.

Full BBC election results.

EU and County Elections

Almost one third of voters are not planning on backing any of the three main parties, according to research.

A ComRes poll for the Independent put support for "others" at 30%, up 18% since before the expenses row erupted.

The rating is neck and neck with the Tories - who have plummeted 15% from the equivalent poll last month.

Labour has dropped four points to 22%, while the Liberal Democrats were up one on 18%. The Greens were on 8%, Ukip on 7%, the BNP 3%, the Scottish National Party 2%, Plaid Cymru 1% and other smaller parties or independents 9%.

Meanwhile, an Ipsos Mori poll found support for Labour has plunged by 10 points in the past month, and the party is now running neck and neck with the Liberal Democrats.

The dramatic slump in Labour's fortunes has allowed the Conservatives to pull 22 points clear, according to the research.

While support for all the main parties has declined in the aftermath of the MPs' expenses scandal, Labour appears to have fared the worst by far.

The Ipsos Mori poll put the Tories on 40%, down one since the same survey last month. But Labour was down 10 points, putting the party on the same support as the Lib Dems, who were down four on 18%.

At the same time, support for minor parties has doubled in the past month to 24%, including 7% for the UK Independence Party, 6% for the Greens and 4% for the British National Party.

The poll will harden expectations that Labour will be given a drubbing in Thursday's European and local elections.

The big problem seems to me that the smaller parties could cancel each other out, especially in the Euros, thus allowing the big three in.

In my county council division the smaller parties are either not standing or have merely put up a paper candidate. They just don't get it, they will not win parliamentary seats until they prove what they can do at council level.

So for now, it looks like we are stuck with big empty gestures and useless protest votes, only the Green Party, of the smaller ones, actually seem to be taking politics seriously.

Mandy Arrest Shock

Forgive me if I've missed something here, but it seems to be big news that the pinko liberal greenie veggie type who turned Mandelson's head into a trifle has been arrested. At a time when our politicians are so loathed I was amazed that the pinko wasn't nicked there and then.

But no, she could have also sprinkled hundreds and thousands on his head if she'd been properly organised. You would have expected security around HM's Business Minister, whatever his title is, to have had her pinned to the floor within seconds, for forgetting the jelly and cream if nothing else. But she just casually walked away and had a chat with a few TV reporters. The following says it all:

Lord Mandelson...told Andrew Marr that he was "slightly surprised" his attacker "could just saunter off without being apprehended".

That's scary, I actually agree with Mandy. Maybe all the security fellows were doubled up laughing like I was when I saw it.

But trust Jacqui Smith to come out with crap like this:

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told Sky News' Sunday Live programme: "I don't think in a democracy where people are able to speak up that anybody should chuck custard at anybody in the street. It's not appropriate."

Tell you what Jacqui, it's a damn sight more 'appropriate' than bombing the crap out of other countries.

Want A Laugh At Mandelson's Expense?

This is brilliant.

OK so the girl is a pinko liberal greenie veggie type. But I still keep watching it again, and again, and again......

He has such a smug look before the custard flies. Magic.

Even better here it is: