Last link

This page won't last long, you'll be redirected.

But if you're not, go here:

The current blog

 

 

Error Message

If you came here having seen my blog's error message then you'll understand my frustration at managing my own hosting.

Suffice it's in hand!

 

 

Blog Recovery

For reasons I am still slightly scratching my head about my old WordPress blog has come back to life. Dataflame should still be congratulated on their assistance even over a bank-holiday weekend.

Anyway, the blog's back and it's redesigned at the old address:

www.gavpolitics.co.uk/blog/

 

 

 

Kiva.org

I am slightly reticent to publicise this at the moment given that the BBC just has. But Kiva allows people to lend money to a specific cause in the developing world.

You can choose your cause from a list and, when the money is repaid by the donee, it can be redirected towards other good causes. Unlike charitable giving there are no expenses taken by Kiva and you can choose causes that you believe will help the country in question to progress.



 

 

 

Tories and the SNP

I know it won't happen, but it should.

The LibDems are being described as 'KingMakers' but if the Conservatives in Scotland really believe in democracy, they can ensure the SNP's power is not watered down by going into coalition with them. A minority coalition of Labour and the LibDems is the last thing Scotland needs and exactly what they did not ask for.

The Conservatives could ensure that Scotland gets to express its opinion in Independence and also show the Scottish electorate whether the SNP is able to run the country as they claim.

Party	Seats
SNP	47
LAB	46
CON	17
LD	16
Others	3

Source of table

The announcement by Cameron that the Conservative Party in Scotland is going to be outsourced should enable this freedom. A unionist party is, today, as relevant as would be the Communist Party. Parties should stand on principle — I've said it many times since Cameron started abandoning it — but when something becomes irrelevant there's no sense in hanging onto it. If we were to leave the EU (one can dream) then pro-EU parties would share a similar relevance to the "and Unionist" part of the Conservative Party's name has today.

Let's see the SNP and Conservatives work in coalition in Scotland. Let's see bravery in our parties.

 

 

 

First Thursday-itis

For the third year running I have been ill on the first Thursday of May...

I wonder if it's a coincidence or something to do with the elections!

Anyway, well done to all those Conservatives who have successfully defended their seat, or won a new one. Brighton & Hove Council's results are particularly heartening with the makeup changed from this:

Labour - 23 seats
Conservative - 19 seats
Green - 6 seats
Liberal Democrat - 3 seats
Independent - 2 seats

to this:

Conservatives - 26 seats
Labour - 13 seats
Greens - 12 seats
Liberal Democrats - 2 seats
Independent - one seat

And this despite the political nimby-isation of the planning process in Brighton & Hove particularly over the King Alfred.

 

 

 

The BNP as protest

Is it any wonder that the BBC's Have Your Say implies the BNP will make gains tomorrow? In a country where political opinion (if not considered appropriate by the state) is illegal (evidence here and here), what chance of an honest, racist manifesto from the BNP?

People everywhere say "The BNP aren't racist — check their manifesto". But their manifesto could not be published if it were racist, so that's no argument surely.

I agree with those who say they will vote BNP, that the movement of Blair and Cameron to the middle ground has left an ideological hole on the political extremes (more commonly referred to as the location of the silent majority). But that doesn't mean that a vote for extremists is any less dangerous.

The BNP should be feared and if you must protest abstain or vote UKIP. Of course, if you realise what the local elections are about, a vote for the Conservatives is the right option (see my last post).

 

 

 

NH yeS - relevant?

I watched a recording of the Conservative's Monday-night Party Election Broadcast last night and I must say I was confused.

The elections tomorrow are for local Councils: Borough, District or Unitary. They are for all sorts of services (depending upon the type of Council) from libraries, local roads and schools (Unitary) to Council housing, leisure centres and refuse/recycling collection (Borough and District). There's plenty to talk about, and plenty to be proud of for Conservative Councils.

So why was Cameron talking about the NHS? The NHS is the one public service thing that local government has little control over. Yes, it's important to show that the Conservatives are the ones who are more likely to reform the NHS (they always have been, despite the neglect of the 1980s), but that's not the fight these elections represent.

If you are voting tomorrow, then know this: Your vote will decide whether you pay for Council waste through your Council taxes or whether your Council works tirelessly to stop central government's policies from costing Council Tax payers too much.

You should vote Conservative tomorrow, not because we're saying warm things about the NHS, but because we almost always run Councils better than the LibDems or Labour.

 

 

 

Planning tonight...

Would you believe the planning meeting only justed ended?

Christ!

 

 

 

Merkel's Admission

In a letter that was supposed to be internal (i.e. not for leaking) Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany, the country that holds the rotating EU Presidency) admitted that the EU constitution was not dead and that it would be implemented by alternative means despite being refused by multiple referenda.

Merkel's words are:

to use different terminology without changing the legal substance

This has shocked me for two reasons:

1. We are so used to the EU treating us with disdain, running rough-shod over democracy and pretty much being the bad guys that we have allowed this piece of news to go past almost unnoticed (forgive me if I missed it).
2. This passed without so much as a protest march by those great masses of unemployed who were able to turn out about Iraq

For some reason, when human rights are being eroded in the Third World, Amnesty International and the do-gooder foundation come out en masse. But when democracy is being bare-faced ignored, and when that ignoring is being done by one of the world's big three governments (450 million people qualifies it for that honour if you ask me) they are strangely silent.

Okay, I'll be fair. I am sure Frank Field and Tony Benn (those two Labour MPs we can all respect) were angered, but that's not good enough people.

My party may not realise it again since they were humiliated in 2001, but the EU is the most important political issue of our time. In 2001 we lost an election and anything associated with that campaign is now considered bad... What madness — CameraOn has seen that the media is more important than policy, so why are the 2001/2005 manifestos now so unattractive to the decision-makers?