No to No to AV...

I don't know if you are for or against the Alternative Vote - that's between you and the ballot box - but what I do know is that I really don't like the way the 'No' campaign is being run.

In the post yesterday was a flier from the 'No' campaign informing me that that if I vote 'Yes' then I will be committing the governement to spending £130 million on electronic vote counting machines. I've looked into this. It's absolute piffle! There are no such plans.

In Saturday's 'Daily Telegraph' there was an article saying that the Conservatives calculate that it will cost three times as much to run a general election under AV. OK, maybe it would cost a bit more because of the extra counting when the leading candidate doesn't get 50% straight off, but three tomes as much? How do you work that out?...

Well, apparently the Conservatives took the costs per head of running an election in Australia and then extrapolated it. Unfortunately, they neglected to mention that Australia is the size of Western Europe and in places very sparsely populated. Oh, yeah, and they elect both houses not just the one.

Then there's 'minority parties are evil' scare tactic. AV will allow the BNP to get seats in parliament. Maybe, but only if 50% of the electorate vote for it.

And, of course, our troops will die from lack of equipment if we spend the money on AV. More crap - even if we don't spend the money on AV you can bet your life the troops won't get any of it.

And let's not forget this classic : "Changing the way we vote will give the politicians more power to ignore the verdict of the voters"! How the hell do you work that one out? They already ignore us!

I'm all in favour of a vigorous debate, but it strikes me the 'No' campaign is aptly named - it's 100% negative.

There are pros and cons on both sides of this debate. At the end of the day it's up to the voters. Personally, I would couple this to compulsory voting, because if you don't vote then you have no right to complain about what you get.

The one thing I would say about AV is that I find it hard to understand how political parties can elect their own leaders under this system, but want to deny us the right to do the same. But that's politicians for you - one rule for them and another for us.

Personally, I'm in Greece on polling day, so I've already posted my vote. How about you?

No to No to AV...

I don't know if you are for or against the Alternative Vote - that's between you and the ballot box - but what I do know is that I really don't like the way the 'No' campaign is being run.

In the post yesterday was a flier from the 'No' campaign informing me that that if I vote 'Yes' then I will be committing the governement to spending £130 million on electronic vote counting machines. I've looked into this. It's absolute piffle! There are no such plans.

In Saturday's 'Daily Telegraph' there was an article saying that the Conservatives calculate that it will cost three times as much to run a general election under AV. OK, maybe it would cost a bit more because of the extra counting when the leading candidate doesn't get 50% straight off, but three tomes as much? How do you work that out?...

Well, apparently the Conservatives took the costs per head of running an election in Australia and then extrapolated it. Unfortunately, they neglected to mention that Australia is the size of Western Europe and in places very sparsely populated. Oh, yeah, and they elect both houses not just the one.

Then there's 'minority parties are evil' scare tactic. AV will allow the BNP to get seats in parliament. Maybe, but only if 50% of the electorate vote for it.

And, of course, our troops will die from lack of equipment if we spend the money on AV. More crap - even if we don't spend the money on AV you can bet your life the troops won't get any of it.

And let's not forget this classic : "Changing the way we vote will give the politicians more power to ignore the verdict of the voters"! How the hell do you work that one out? They already ignore us!

I'm all in favour of a vigorous debate, but it strikes me the 'No' campaign is aptly named - it's 100% negative.

There are pros and cons on both sides of this debate. At the end of the day it's up to the voters. Personally, I would couple this to compulsory voting, because if you don't vote then you have no right to complain about what you get.

The one thing I would say about AV is that I find it hard to understand how political parties can elect their own leaders under this system, but want to deny us the right to do the same. But that's politicians for you - one rule for them and another for us.

Personally, I'm in Greece on polling day, so I've already posted my vote. How about you?

HELP! I agree with Miliband

I find my self in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Ed Miliband - a man whom I despise and would never vote for if my life depended on it!

In an article in the Guardian which you can read here, the Mighty Milipede argues that a vote for AV is a change in the right direction. He says :

AV offers an opportunity for political reform, ensuring the voice of the public is heard louder than it has been in the past. And given the standing of politics that is an opportunity we should take. It is a system that combines the direct representation of first-past-the-post with one that will make the votes of more people count.

The fact is that the present system is flawed. True, AV is also flawed but it is a better system and maintains the link between the MP and the constituency which full PR would destroy.

I believe that if we combined it with compulsory voting with a positive abstention as is the way in Australia, then we would have a considerably better system of electing our MPs.

That's a fight for another day, but at least a 'Yes' vote for AV would be a good first step.

HELP! I agree with Miliband

I find my self in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Ed Miliband - a man whom I despise and would never vote for if my life depended on it!

In an article in the Guardian which you can read here, the Mighty Milipede argues that a vote for AV is a change in the right direction. He says :

AV offers an opportunity for political reform, ensuring the voice of the public is heard louder than it has been in the past. And given the standing of politics that is an opportunity we should take. It is a system that combines the direct representation of first-past-the-post with one that will make the votes of more people count.

The fact is that the present system is flawed. True, AV is also flawed but it is a better system and maintains the link between the MP and the constituency which full PR would destroy.

I believe that if we combined it with compulsory voting with a positive abstention as is the way in Australia, then we would have a considerably better system of electing our MPs.

That's a fight for another day, but at least a 'Yes' vote for AV would be a good first step.

The Welsh parliament

March 3rd is a big day for the Welsh Assembly.

A referendum is to held to ask the people of the principality to vote for increased devolved powers for the Assembly, including tax raising powers similar to Scotland and the power to make decisions without prior approval from Westminster.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, it is a bloody silly idea that every time the Assembly makes a decision in the areas in which they have devolved powers, they have to be referred to Westminster for a committee to decide whether they are appropriate. Effectively this hands London a veto over everything Cardiff wants to do. So what is the point of devolving powers under these conditions? It's silly and it just creates expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy.

Having said that, on the other hand we did ask Scotland and Wales whether they wanted their own Parliaments. Scotland grasped the nettle and went for it and on the whole this appears to be working quite well. But Wales bottled it and took the wishy-washy option of an Assembly. In effect this is just a big council with limitted authority.

So now they want to put things right and have another vote, although they seem careful not to rebrand this a parliament..

But from what I have seen on the news, the biggest problem seems to be finding anyone in Wales who knows what the issues are, or indeed gives a toss anyway. I expect a low turnout...

The Welsh parliament

March 3rd is a big day for the Welsh Assembly.

A referendum is to held to ask the people of the principality to vote for increased devolved powers for the Assembly, including tax raising powers similar to Scotland and the power to make decisions without prior approval from Westminster.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, it is a bloody silly idea that every time the Assembly makes a decision in the areas in which they have devolved powers, they have to be referred to Westminster for a committee to decide whether they are appropriate. Effectively this hands London a veto over everything Cardiff wants to do. So what is the point of devolving powers under these conditions? It's silly and it just creates expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy.

Having said that, on the other hand we did ask Scotland and Wales whether they wanted their own Parliaments. Scotland grasped the nettle and went for it and on the whole this appears to be working quite well. But Wales bottled it and took the wishy-washy option of an Assembly. In effect this is just a big council with limitted authority.

So now they want to put things right and have another vote, although they seem careful not to rebrand this a parliament..

But from what I have seen on the news, the biggest problem seems to be finding anyone in Wales who knows what the issues are, or indeed gives a toss anyway. I expect a low turnout...

AV - Blurring the issue

In my view, this poster is not worthy of the 'No to AV' campaign :

By all means let's have an argument about this issue. I have declared my 'Yes' view by the banner on this blog, but regardless of this I think that this poster should be withdrawn

The issue of whether our troops should be being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to support American foreign policy is nothing to do with funding or how we vote.

If we can afford billions in aid to countries better off than most, then we can afford both. And, let's face it, anyone who believes that scrapping AV will lead to increased funding anywhere else is seriously deluding themselves.

I think this debate needs to concentrate on the issues around the fairness of the voting system and not be clouding the issue by how much it is estimated (big word) it might cost to change it.

Emotive and meaningless comparisons like the one above do nothing to strengthen the 'No' vote case - and bear in mind I say this as an opponent their views...

AV - Blurring the issue

In my view, this poster is not worthy of the 'No to AV' campaign :

By all means let's have an argument about this issue. I have declared my 'Yes' view by the banner on this blog, but regardless of this I think that this poster should be withdrawn

The issue of whether our troops should be being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to support American foreign policy is nothing to do with funding or how we vote.

If we can afford billions in aid to countries better off than most, then we can afford both. And, let's face it, anyone who believes that scrapping AV will lead to increased funding anywhere else is seriously deluding themselves.

I think this debate needs to concentrate on the issues around the fairness of the voting system and not be clouding the issue by how much it is estimated (big word) it might cost to change it.

Emotive and meaningless comparisons like the one above do nothing to strengthen the 'No' vote case - and bear in mind I say this as an opponent their views...

Vote counting - an interesting experience

Despite earlier expectations, I am awake! I got to bed at about 5 this morning and my wife woke me up when she got up at 7:30! I love her dearly but - Arggggghhhhhhh!!

Anyway, our local Tory increased his sizeable majority by about 50% but we still had to recount in case the Green Party lost their deposit. In the end they got 5.1% and we got to go home an hour later than the ideal...

One meets a very interesting selection of people at a count. Predominently they are aged 50+ and about 80% are female. Yours truly felt a little out of place but compensated by taking the lead of his little group.

Generally, all went smoothly and we all rubbed along together, but the candidates and their scrutineers were an odd bunch indeed. If you had stood the candidates in a line and picked them by appearance alone without knowing which was which, you would picked the Tory out as the only one who looked like he was dressed to appear in public. The liberal was the rather tired looking middle aged bloke in a crumpled, shiny M&S suit. The Green was, of course, the bloke with the beard and the UKIP man was the man dressed like Doctor Who. That only left the Labour candidate.

Labour's wife and scrutineer decided to give me a hard time. I had already decided I didn't like them. Frankly they just seemed rather unpleasant and oily! She had the irritating habit of talking about us common counting scum as if we weren't there, taking every opportunity to criticise and interfere - just like the rest of her party really.

On a minor, but by no means unimportant point, the Tory took the time to come round after the count and thank every counter individually. One else bothered to even thank us collectively. Manners maketh the man.

I have to say that I was impressed by the organisation that went into it all, although it seems incredible to me that in the 21st century, we still count votes by putting them on little bits of paper then sorting and counting them by hand. Still, no hanging chads here and it did give one voter the chance to add Robert Mugabe to the ballot paper - not that it counted!

So after all that, isn't it great to know that the result is all buggered up, Broon is still at number 10 and we will probably have to do it all again in 6 months...

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!

Vote counting - an interesting experience

Despite earlier expectations, I am awake! I got to bed at about 5 this morning and my wife woke me up when she got up at 7:30! I love her dearly but - Arggggghhhhhhh!!

Anyway, our local Tory increased his sizeable majority by about 50% but we still had to recount in case the Green Party lost their deposit. In the end they got 5.1% and we got to go home an hour later than the ideal...

One meets a very interesting selection of people at a count. Predominently they are aged 50+ and about 80% are female. Yours truly felt a little out of place but compensated by taking the lead of his little group.

Generally, all went smoothly and we all rubbed along together, but the candidates and their scrutineers were an odd bunch indeed. If you had stood the candidates in a line and picked them by appearance alone without knowing which was which, you would picked the Tory out as the only one who looked like he was dressed to appear in public. The liberal was the rather tired looking middle aged bloke in a crumpled, shiny M&S suit. The Green was, of course, the bloke with the beard and the UKIP man was the man dressed like Doctor Who. That only left the Labour candidate.

Labour's wife and scrutineer decided to give me a hard time. I had already decided I didn't like them. Frankly they just seemed rather unpleasant and oily! She had the irritating habit of talking about us common counting scum as if we weren't there, taking every opportunity to criticise and interfere - just like the rest of her party really.

On a minor, but by no means unimportant point, the Tory took the time to come round after the count and thank every counter individually. One else bothered to even thank us collectively. Manners maketh the man.

I have to say that I was impressed by the organisation that went into it all, although it seems incredible to me that in the 21st century, we still count votes by putting them on little bits of paper then sorting and counting them by hand. Still, no hanging chads here and it did give one voter the chance to add Robert Mugabe to the ballot paper - not that it counted!

So after all that, isn't it great to know that the result is all buggered up, Broon is still at number 10 and we will probably have to do it all again in 6 months...

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!

Get off your arse and VOTE!

Frankly, I just can't be bothered with apathy any more!

This General Election is IMPORTANT! If you choose not to exercise your vote - and I will grant you that you have this right - then you abdicate your right to complain.

If you vote and your party loses, then fair enough you can criticise the winner.

If you vote and your party wins, then you can complain that you don't like the way they are doing things.

If you don't vote at all, then shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear it!

SO GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND VOTE!!!

Get off your arse and VOTE!

Frankly, I just can't be bothered with apathy any more!

This General Election is IMPORTANT! If you choose not to exercise your vote - and I will grant you that you have this right - then you abdicate your right to complain.

If you vote and your party loses, then fair enough you can criticise the winner.

If you vote and your party wins, then you can complain that you don't like the way they are doing things.

If you don't vote at all, then shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear it!

SO GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND VOTE!!!

Timing is everything

At last! I have been highly critical over the last few weeks of the lack of policy statements coming out of the Conservative Party.

When this campaign started at the beginning of the year, I understood why David Cameron was reluctant to put detailed policies on paper. Only an idiot would give his opponents the opportunity to steal their policies and present them as their own - and let's be honest, Labour are experts at doing precisely that.

Even in Thursday night's debate, I felt that Cameron did not nail Brown by coming out with concrete promises and guarantees, and consigning the Labour scaremongerng machine to the dustbin of history.

Well, I'm sorry Dave. I apologize. Your leaflet today leaves me in no doubt that I have greatly underestimated you because here it is at last.

I'm also sorry that I waited until today to vote, because like many others I was swayed by the polish and style of the LibDem performance. But while I think the electoral system is wrong, I'm not going to pay for changing it by giving amnesties to illegal immigrants and joining the Euro.

But there is one thing I am not sorry about - watching the death throes of a man who has done more damage to this nation than Hitler. Better start booking the removal van, Gordon - and good riddance!

I am now beginning to really believe that the Labour nightmare is drawing to a close - and frankly I can't wait to see the destruction of Brown by his own party once the voting is over. Never has it been more richly deserved.

My vote is in the post. Now let's get on with sorting this shambles out...

Timing is everything

At last! I have been highly critical over the last few weeks of the lack of policy statements coming out of the Conservative Party.

When this campaign started at the beginning of the year, I understood why David Cameron was reluctant to put detailed policies on paper. Only an idiot would give his opponents the opportunity to steal their policies and present them as their own - and let's be honest, Labour are experts at doing precisely that.

Even in Thursday night's debate, I felt that Cameron did not nail Brown by coming out with concrete promises and guarantees, and consigning the Labour scaremongerng machine to the dustbin of history.

Well, I'm sorry Dave. I apologize. Your leaflet today leaves me in no doubt that I have greatly underestimated you because here it is at last.

I'm also sorry that I waited until today to vote, because like many others I was swayed by the polish and style of the LibDem performance. But while I think the electoral system is wrong, I'm not going to pay for changing it by giving amnesties to illegal immigrants and joining the Euro.

But there is one thing I am not sorry about - watching the death throes of a man who has done more damage to this nation than Hitler. Better start booking the removal van, Gordon - and good riddance!

I am now beginning to really believe that the Labour nightmare is drawing to a close - and frankly I can't wait to see the destruction of Brown by his own party once the voting is over. Never has it been more richly deserved.

My vote is in the post. Now let's get on with sorting this shambles out...

HELP! I'm in danger of voting Liberal!

Don't get me wrong - I probably want Gordon Brown out more than just about any other person on this planet.

Unfortunately, I don't get a vote!

"Rubbish!" I hear you all cry. "Of course you get a vote just like everyone else on the electoral roll." Not so. Let me explain this to you :

I live in a Tory safe seat. Before I moved here three years ago, I lived in an even safer Tory safe seat. So fair enough - I got what I voted for; a Tory MP.

"But I thought you said you didn't get a vote?"

That's right. I don't. The voting system in this country is so shit that votes like mine don't count. I'm going to get a Tory MP unless about ten thousand of us get arsey and vote Liberal which, frankly, isn't going to happen.

The future government is going to be decided in a small number of marginal seats. Not in my seat. That's why so far not a single election leaflet has passed through my letterbox. Not a single canvasser has knocked on my door and asked for my vote. I am treated with complete contempt. I do not count.

So I find myself on the horns of a dilema : Do I vote Conservative because I think they should form the next government or do I vote Liberal because they will change the voting system so that next time my vote does actually count?

And does it matter anyway because this is a safe seat?

HELP! Please tell me what you think I should do?

HELP! I'm in danger of voting Liberal!

Don't get me wrong - I probably want Gordon Brown out more than just about any other person on this planet.

Unfortunately, I don't get a vote!

"Rubbish!" I hear you all cry. "Of course you get a vote just like everyone else on the electoral roll." Not so. Let me explain this to you :

I live in a Tory safe seat. Before I moved here three years ago, I lived in an even safer Tory safe seat. So fair enough - I got what I voted for; a Tory MP.

"But I thought you said you didn't get a vote?"

That's right. I don't. The voting system in this country is so shit that votes like mine don't count. I'm going to get a Tory MP unless about ten thousand of us get arsey and vote Liberal which, frankly, isn't going to happen.

The future government is going to be decided in a small number of marginal seats. Not in my seat. That's why so far not a single election leaflet has passed through my letterbox. Not a single canvasser has knocked on my door and asked for my vote. I am treated with complete contempt. I do not count.

So I find myself on the horns of a dilema : Do I vote Conservative because I think they should form the next government or do I vote Liberal because they will change the voting system so that next time my vote does actually count?

And does it matter anyway because this is a safe seat?

HELP! Please tell me what you think I should do?

The Manifesto Song 2010

Click image to play

I've decided that we should commemorate manifesto week with a musical look back over Labour promisses of the recent and distant past just to prove that nothing has really changed at all. Some of these posters are classics!

Who could forget that great manifesto of 1997? After all, don't forget that "Things can only get better"...

Suggestions for other songs I can butcher in my own inimitable way are always gratefully recieved

The Manifesto Song 2010

Click image to play

I've decided that we should commemorate manifesto week with a musical look back over Labour promisses of the recent and distant past just to prove that nothing has really changed at all. Some of these posters are classics!

Who could forget that great manifesto of 1997? After all, don't forget that "Things can only get better"...

Suggestions for other songs I can butcher in my own inimitable way are always gratefully recieved