Author Archives: Joe

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-23

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  • Having slept on it, I was harsh on ITV's 'The Prisoner' – a little time to dwell on it and it makes MUCH more sense – will watch again! #
  • Apparently the 'Purple in the Peace Gardens' demo about democracy has been blocked from the Peace Gardens by SYP. Irony…. #
  • Finished watching the ITV revisioning of 'The Prisoner' last night – quite interesting concepts, ultimately disappointing. #
  • RT @motivational: He that allows himself to be a worm must not complain if he is trodden on. -Kant #
  • RT @Toltecjohn: 'Between friends, differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality' WH Auden #
  • "Don't mention the war – I mentioned it once but i think I got away with it…" – one Labour Leadership candidate to another…. #
  • Writing Financial and IT policy Documents…hmmmm….fun! #fb #
  • Playing catch up – Python code beta released and documented , development plan for some software sent, now time to write letters and stuff! #
  • Finishing documentation for Python program this morning – then Financial Procedures for #HillsboroughForum #
  • RT @CSLewisDaily: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less-C.S.Lewis #
  • I'm scared…two days in a row and the post has arrived before noon….most be an evil portent! #fb #
  • God..being followed by a US Patent Lawyer – blocked the bugger. #
  • FFS – we're not dying, eejit! RT @guardiantech: The free digital lunch is over. Now we pay with our lives | Jemima Kiss http://bit.ly/djFCBW #
  • Interesting and scary stuff! RT @newscientist: Immaculate creation: birth of the first synthetic cell http://bit.ly/c0Weua #venter #
  • Yup…you got caught. RT @Twitter_Tips: Google's Brin on Wi-Fi spying: 'We screwed up' http://ow.ly/1Nqvf #
  • Are Clegg and Cameron actually Kang and Kodos? #fb #
  • Don't agree with all Dianne Abbott's politics but she's a good, solid old fashioned, 'Conviction Politician'. Not a hope.. 🙁 #
  • Hear, hear. RT @Paulscriven: Nice to know civil liberties and political reform at heart of New Govt agenda. #
  • Very exciting morning at Hillsborough Forum! #
  • Started day with 7-45 meeting and some invoice chasing! #fb #
  • Hmmm…looking at my inbox I'd say there are new spammers in town… #
  • Damn right! RT @StarSparkle_UK: "FlashForward" is getting so good – it's a crying shame its been cancelled. #
  • RT @joindiaspora: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/ check your FB privacy settings, automagically! #whyisntthisbuiltintofacebook 🙂 #
  • Before NuLab scream to loud, the 6billion cuts is only 2% of spending… via @guidofawkes: Reality Check on Cuts: http://bit.ly/9Z2ckH #
  • http://open.spotify.com/user/joepritchard/playlist/5JUh9hNeDECoXVcxLIBnmg Spotify playlist: Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat #fb #
  • More Python coding today, methinks! #
  • RT @philo_quotes: May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law. ~ Kant http://bit.ly/a4qLIY #

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Demonising Tories…or anyone…is so last century…

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Now that the smoke of battle (and confusion) of General Election 2010 has cleared and we have a Coalition Government that hasn’t yet been proven to be the spawn of Beelzebub, can I make a suggestion that demonising anyone in politics – even Tories – is not a good move?

Twenty five years ago, during the Thatcher years, a few of us on the Left made the observation that it was potentially unhelpful to refer to the politics espoused by her Government as ‘Thatcherism’, even as a shorthand.  Our argument went that if you attach a name to a branch of politics in that very overt way, then as soon as the individual dies, quits or gets voted out of office then, almost by definition, that form of politics disappears from the scene.  There is a historical precedent; whilst 99% of everyone called the political beliefs of Hitler and his followers Nazism or Fascism, a few people in the 30s – often doctrinaire Communists – referred to it as ‘Hitlerism’.  Whereas we’ve been able to spot Nazism over the decades, spotting the politics underlying ”Thatcherism’ seems to have been harder – the monetarist and ‘Shock Doctrine’ policies of the Chicago School have come back repeatedly to haunt us in many ways, culminating in the years of Bush Junior Government in the US.

This last election has been truly bizarre, with people repeatedly warning me about ‘re-electing Thatcher’ in the form of David Cameron.  The irony is that some of the folks who’ve been most vociferously demonising Thatcher and the Tories were in the twenties and early 30s – in other words, when Thatcher was in power these folks were either foetuses or snot-nosed kids. 

Demonising any individual politician is fraught with danger for those doing it; unless your target is very obviously evil incarnate (in which case the vast majority of people will see it anyway and you’re ‘preaching to the choir’) then folks will just regard it as sour grapes and ‘ad hominem’ arguments.  One thing that has started happening in recent times in the UK is that people have become disillusioned with the political process, politicians and the whole schoolyard ethos that seems to have permeated British politics for the last 20 years.  The demonisation of one individual or party by others involved in the same ‘game’, so to say, has all the elements of ‘pot calling kettle black’ and people have responded to it accordingly.

It IS last century – just look at the nonsense at ACAS last night when BA Chief Willie Walsh was surrounded by a good old fashioned British ‘leftie rent-a-mob’ that seemed to belong more in the 1970s at Grunwick than in 2010.  The union chief was furious, ACAS was embarrassed and angry, Walsh commented on the disgust he felt in the situation he was in.  The demonstrators focused their chants on Walsh, and have probably significantly damaged chances of settling the dispute.  Seeing the placards from groups like ‘Socialist Worker’, for those of us who were in the Labour movement in the 80s and 90s it was like a return to old times with the ‘Usual Suspects’ – the professional hecklers and agitators who have no great desire to settle these disputes but simply seek to benefit from them.

Boys and girls, that approach is over.  It was always pointless and now people see it for what it is – egotistical tantrum throwing by typically over-privileged, under-occupied political performance artists.  If you want to achieve change in our society – get involved with genuine community groups and put your  backs in to getting some work done.  Demonising the opposition is childish and pointless.

4 Lions – when does bad taste become dark humour?

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Back in January 2009, there was a little article in The Guardian referring to thefunding of a film by Chris Morris by FilmFour, the film production arm of Channel 4.   The film, “4 Lions”, has now been produced and released to mixed reviews, some of which will have undeniably been influenced by the subject matter of the film – a comedy about Islamic extremist suicide bombers planning a bomb attack on the London Marathon.

The film was described as  showing the “the Dad’s Army side to terrorism”, as four incompetent jihadists plan an attack.  For some reason the description of the film reminded me of the description of the spoof musical ‘Springtime for Hitler’ as ‘ A Gay Romp WithEva and Adolf at Berchtesgaden’ in the movie ‘The Producers’.  Interestingly enough, given the calls from relations of people involved in the 2005 bombings for the film to be not distributed or screened, ‘The producers’ had some difficulties at the start of it’s life with problems with getting it made or shown.  Eventually it was released as an ‘art house’ film and then got big ‘word of mouth’ takeup.

Now, I love ‘the Producers’, but I’m rather less enamoured with Morris’s film, and it set me thinking about what makes some ‘bad taste’ films acceptable and others unacceptable.

I guess the first thing is the timing.  When ‘The Producers’ was made in 1968, WW2 was 23 years in the past; whilst easily within living memory, it wasn’t raw.  Less than 5 years have elapsed between the July 2005 London bombings and the release of this film.  Probably too close for comfort – and releasing the film around the time of the 2010 London Marathon was probably a brilliant wheeze  from a marketing point of view but a little ‘naff’ for those taking part in the Marathon or remembering those killed in 2005.

Then there’s the closeness to real life.  Let’s stick with ‘The Producers’ as our control here.  They made one of the two most evil men of the 20thCentury look like a buffoon, and had a series of song and dance routines that were so far over the top – and intended to be so – that there was no real link to reality.  “4 Lions’ has a group of four would-be bombers – complete with Yorkshire accents – coming down from the North to London to do the attack.  Sound familiar?  Just a little too close.

Then there’s the delicate issue of who makes the film.  ‘The Producers’ – bad taste comedy about the Nazis made by a Jewish producer, with Russian and German Jewish parents, and who also served in combat in WW2.  4 Lions is the brainchild of a comedian / comedy writer who’s best known for sketches and set-up pieces that often involve unsuspecting people who believe that they’re taking part in something ‘straight’ and are actually the butts of the humour.  4 Lions could well have been more acceptable had it been made by another comedian or had the involvement of someone directly involved.

Basically, as far as ‘4 Lions’ is concerned it’s badly timed, too close to home and made by a team who appear to be unsympathetic to the issues involved.  Morris and the film makers apparently did a great deal of research in to the whole mindset and culture of extremists to make the film.  Perhaps they should have researched whether it’s just too soon.  Or whether it’s a good idea at all to laugh about people being blown up less than 5 years ago.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-16

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  • Doing some Python Bioinformatics today – finally making a wee bit of use of my degree after a couple of decades… #fb #
  • Off to church! #
  • I'm getting all Wagnerian for Saturday evening – the overture for Tannhauser is brilliant! #fb #
  • By heck – either I'm on a roll or I've missed something – I'm about 6 hours ahead of where I expected to be!! #
  • Nope – too much like cutting nose off to spite face. RT @mashable: Facebook Exodus Planned for May 31: Will You Quit? – http://bit.ly/bsdeCq #
  • Hopefully today will see another system ready for go-live! #
  • Why wouldn't I be surprised – RT @newscientist: Will UK civil service scupper civil liberties reform? http://bit.ly/cObDuQ #
  • A productive day – looking forward to next week when I'll have more time to Blog and Tweet! #
  • RT @johncusack: RT @extroversion: War in Afghanistan: $6.7 billion/month. War in Iraq: $5.5 billion/month. http://bit.ly/c8LHmx #
  • http://open.spotify.com/user/joepritchard/playlist/2VCXNnqdsMkbzvE4jMsAPj Spotify playlist: System 7 – System 7 #fb #
  • Scary – Blackberry lost network for 30 mins here in Sheffield. I was all cut off! Alone! Alone, I tells you! #
  • Managing to get lots of meetings conducted 'en passant' at funding fair! #
  • Very busy and useful funding fair at Sheffield town hall. #
  • Absolutely not – 7-00hrs is the best time… RT @ashleymoran: Dear housemate. 7.30am is not an appropriate time to have a bath. That is all. #
  • Hope they get it going!! RT @Samibouni: Diaspora: An Open Source Facebook http://ht.ly/1KtcA [article[[forum] #web #socialmedia #
  • Yesterday cleared all known bugs from a system set to go live…today working on another application due to go live at end of month #
  • Anyone explain why there is hysteria about the proposed 55% rule? We've had Govts before protected from confidence votes by their maj. #
  • Excellent AGM / ctte meeting for SYAR #
  • http://open.spotify.com/user/joepritchard/playlist/5bKIEEwsAglBBpAOjv8UQW Spotify playlist: Steve Hackett – Voyage of the Acolyte #
  • The last 2 bugs before going live! We shall prevail, oh yes! #
  • Good Lord….I'm sliding in to AORage singing along to Jackson Browne…. #
  • http://open.spotify.com/user/joepritchard/playlist/3jeQaKbBfaHTsjTmC8Km4D Spotify playlist: Jackson Browne – The Next Voice You Hear #
  • No news to us in UK…now Skull and Bones… RT @MyEbisu: PM Cameron Oxford brats club destroyed restaurants for fun http://ow.ly/17lrKI #
  • Pound on the up….LibCon is go? #
  • On every Downing Street interview at the moment you can hear the music from 'The Godfather'….making Gordon an offer he can't refuse? #
  • RT @guardiantech: Top 50 Twitter climate accounts to follow http://bit.ly/a5qweq #
  • RT @britmic: RT @hughmacd: If the BBC have fixed it, here's a screenshot of what that last tweet pointed at. http://twitpic.com/1mwwd3 #
  • RT @guidofawkes: Ed Balls said to have been "belligerent" in negotiations with LibDems. What a surprise. Not like him at all. My, my, my. #
  • When politicians refer in respectful tones to 'The Electorate' (note capitalisation) you KNOW that we're SO screwed…. #
  • Will Adam Boulton soon turn up in a news story that ends with 'before turning the gun on himself?' Let the poor bugger rest! 🙂 #
  • Today we are at a crossroads. One road leads to hopelessness and despair; the other, to abject penury. Let us pray we choose wisely. 🙂 #
  • Re. Labour / Liberal talks…have the big knobs pulled it off? #
  • RT @AbiNielsen: "If you have a garden and a library, you have all you need." Cicero #
  • RT @iaindale: Blogpost: Labour's Potential 'Homophobic' Ally http://tinyurl.com/34zyemz #
  • 3 people understand STV…one is dead, one is in an insane asylum in Guatemala, and I'd be awfully grateful if the third can contact me..#fb #
  • However the political marriage works out – we still want a REFERENDUM on electoral reform details – not just have it foisted on us. #fb #
  • Another bug fixing day – hope it's as effective as yesterday! #
  • RT @tonycarroll: Just heard the bad news the Kraft is looking to cut jobs at Bassets in Sheffield. Cadbury takeover not so sweet. #
  • RT @safety: For an update on today's follower/following weirdness, please see: http://status.twitter.com/post/587210796 #
  • Gordon is a true economist…he's redefined 'I Quit' to mean exactly what HE wants it to mean!! #fb #
  • I like it!! RT @douglasi: L: Hurry, unfollow those coworkers and family members you never really liked, and blame it on the bug!! #
  • RT @mashable: Twitter says "follow/unfollow is temporarily offline while we fix a bug." – http://bit.ly/9dRK6z #
  • Will Brown's power play piss off the LibDems and drive them to the Tories? #
  • Anyone used Ext / JQuery with Firefox and had issues around mouseclicks? #
  • Aye Caramba…does SCC really need a 'Parental Engagement Officer'? #
  • Busy day of dealing with Firefox / IE click handling inconsistencies…joy…IE works, FF doesn't. 🙂 #
  • Very strange dreams last night…need to lay off "The merciless peppers of Quetzalacatenango… grown deep in the jungle primeval"… #fb #
  • After 4 days of strangeness, one of my two primary email accounts is back…now just need to check 4 days or mail! 🙂 #
  • Nick and the Lib Dems are finding out the joys of Big Boy's Games played by Big Boy's Rules…..whatever happens they'll get the blame! #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-09

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  • Pouring petrol…. RT @StarSparkle_UK: We're waiting now for some smoke to appear above no.10… – does anyone know where Gordon is? 😀 #
  • You've had 13 years – don't come crawling now you've lost. RT @UKLabourParty: Please retweet if you want Proportional Representation #
  • RT @iaindale: If Norman Tebbit can't say anything helpful why can't he just shut the f***ety-f**k up. This is not the 1980s. #
  • RT @rachelolgeirsso: Electoral Commission asking 4 emails frm anyone who cdn't vote yestdy info@electoralcommission.org.uk #ge2010 #
  • This Election MUST mark the start of a total revision of election process in the UK – from voting system to logistics. #ge2010 #
  • Hazel Blears survives – classic example of stick a red rosette on a dog and folks will vote for them….. #
  • RT @StarSparkle_UK: I bet the "Guardian" is feeling a bit foolish right now… 😀 #
  • One thing – no way can we carry on with this amateurish Election Process in the UK – truly pathetic! #
  • This Election has made me too excited to sleep! 🙂 #
  • RT @tonycarroll: Dep returning officer in Sheffield tells me legal advice will be taken on whether re-run is needed following Ranmoor #
  • RT @SheffieldPDC: RT @seismicshed: Breaking news: Robert Mugabe has offered to send electoral monitors to cover future uk elections. #ge2010 #
  • RT @guidofawkes: Swing from Labour to Tories Averaging 8% So Far: http://bit.ly/c4gIyQ #
  • Rumours coming out that Caroline Lucas of the Greens MAY have won Brighton Pavillion…. #
  • RT @bettakultcha: RT @OneRedSock: In Botswana people queued from 5am waiting to make sure they could cast their vote. #ge2010 #
  • NuLab clearly learned a few things from ZanuPF about running elections…. 😉 #
  • Support a good cause and have some fun!! RT @fubart76: right, just a small matter of shifting Life's a Beach tickets. #
  • Nigel farage has a 'Johnny Cyclops' moment – last desperate attempt to get some media coverage! #ge2010 #
  • I have determined by empirical observation that today is leave brain at home day. Hope folks remember brain when they vote! #fb #
  • RT @StarSparkle_UK: Quick reminder on the eve of the Election – Dave does "Common People" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKFTtYx2OHc #
  • Sorry guys…more Gordon / Golden stuff… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmI4BNA6vsg&feature=related #
  • Gordon Brown / Golden Brown Bigot Mix…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gaJB3qDJCo #
  • http://open.spotify.com/user/joepritchard/playlist/5bKIEEwsAglBBpAOjv8UQW Spotify playlist: Steve Hackett – Voyage of the Acolyte #
  • Depends how badly I need the penny… 😉 RT @dasgrafik: What would you do for a penny? A shiny new penny? #
  • Awesome people. RT @louiebaur: 6 People You've Never Heard of Who Probably Saved Your Life http://bit.ly/9G6BY3 #
  • RT @davidtheprguy: 9 Social Media Topics that Need To Die http://bit.ly/bSw2Lj #
  • Back to debugging – a long weekend off work does wonders! #
  • I may not agree with NuLab but I feel for Gordon Brown as a man right now – surrounded by incompetence and disloyalty. #fb #
  • Strong the Fourth is with this one! RT @bettakultcha: May the 4th be with you #starwarsgags #
  • D'OH!! RT @guidofawkes: This isn’t exactly the headline Labour would want forty-five hours before the polls open… http://bit.ly/bU7oes #
  • With bets to make it interesting….RT @marcjohnson: OH: "open gladiatorial combat is the only answer to our political system" #whmj2 #
  • Working on my first Twitter application…should be fun! #
  • RT @timoreilly: RT @mattBernius: @doctorow at #fooeast "People pathologically undervalue the future worth of their privacy" #

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The farce of the 2010 General Election

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Less than 2 hours after the closing of the Polls in the UK’s General Election, it’s clear that there have been some cock-ups in the logistical management of the election that makes most developing world elections look like the Acme of organisation.  Let’s face it – this is THE most important election for probably probably 20 years – and one might have expected that such an election would be run in the most professional, efficient and effective way possible.

Unfortunately, it appears to have been organised by people who make Fred Karno’s Army look like the SAS.  Let’s just take a look at what seems to have been happening in the last few hours of polling.

  • People turning up to find massive queues at their polling station, going away, coming back repeatedly, then finding themselves being turned away when the Polling Station closes at 10pm.  Although in some places, people queueing when the Polling Station has closed have been taken in to the Polling Station and allowed to vote.
  • Other people turning up to vote to find that there aren’t enough Ballot Papers and so they can’t vote.
  • People in some places have been turned away an hour BEFORE the Polls closed, and have been told that they Polling Station can’t handle the queues. 

In other words – some Polling Stations have been under-resourced, badly staffed and inadequately supplied.  How can the Local Authorities and the Electoral Commission have allowed such a sorry and anti-democratic situation to arise?  After all, it should not have been a surprise that there would be a higher turnout in this election than previous ones – people have been excited by this election in such a way that I’ve not seen for some years.  We might therefore have expected the Returning Officers and Electoral Commission to take this on board and plan accordingly.

In my own polling Station I saw no more staff than usual, but did witness a higher throughput of people than I’ve seen for some time.  It was the first time I’ve actually queued to vote for as long as I can remember, despite the fact that the turnout is only a few percentage points higher than previous elections, going by the current returns.

So what’s happened?  For what it’s worth, here’s my twopence-halfpenny.

  • Perhaps in some places people left it too late to vote; there were stories about people going to vote at 6pm, finding a queue, then coming back an hour later, finding another queue, then going away again and then finally getting in the queue at 9pm…..why not stay in the queue at 6pm?  Polling Stations are open for over 12 hours – perhaps folks could get their arses in to gear a little earlier if they are determined to vote?
  • Returning Officers clearly have lacked guidance and possibly understanding of the Law in the way in which they have reacted to the queues – some have kept the station open after 10pm, others effectively closed it before that time, etc.
  • Has there been additional time taken in distributing the ballot papers and handling enquiries about Council elections as well as the General Election?
  • Has there been enough staff at Polling Stations, and has the staff been used effectively – when I voted it appeared that 3 members of staff were only capable of processing one voter at a time.  Why weren’t additional staff deployed to reduce the queues earlier in the day?
  • Have some Local Authorities tried to save money by cutting staff?
  • Have attempts been made to save money by printing Ballot Papers to suit the projected turn out rather than printing one paper per voter and a few hundred extras ‘just in case’.  It’s not friggin’ rocket science!

So….if any of the seats where this nonsense has happened generate narrow results then we could see challenges and possibly re-runs.  It looks like the rules have been ignored, and there’s been clear incompetence at a local level.  Let’s hope that lessons are learned and at least a few heads role where needed.

Don’t Panic! A Very British Coup or a Terribly British Compromise?

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 Over the last few days there’s been some very strange stories emerging and then submerging again in the UK Media – the General Election has made the silly season come early this years.  One story about a prospective Tory candidate has been apparently blocked with a gagging order, and another story about a possible car bomb in the Aldgate area of London fell off the radar.  Combine that with military ‘Chinook’ helicopters being seen operating in the vicinity of 7 or 8 towns and cities in Britain (whether the helicopters were black or not I’m not sure) and we have a very panicky media right now.

A story that seems to be pretty popular right now is that on Friday morning, whether or not he wins an outright majority or not, David Cameron will go to the palace, tell the Queen he’s forming a Government and basically trot back to Downing Street and demand Gordon Brown vacates the premises.  The various posts / Tweets / etc. are best seen here.  Whether Downing Street will be emptied with the aid of a team of crack chinless wonders from Conservative Central Office, or whether Brown would tell Cameron to bugger off is debatable.

Just how likely is this to happen – to be honest, I very much doubt it’s likely to happen at all.  To me it sounds like a good ol’ bit of Labour FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.  If you don’t vote us in, the Tories will take over by the back door, so give us your votes.  This from the Government who have:

  • Remove Habeus Corpus from the statute books for certain crimes.
  • Gone to war on some very dodgy legal grounds.
  • Introduced a series of laws that have repeatedly eroded our civil liberties.

Of course, something like this would put the Queen in a rather bad position – were she to be asked to allow Clegg or Cameron to form a Government before Gordon Brown admitted defeat – even if he were leading a minority party – it would put her in the insidious position of being asked to support the new boy against Labour or Labour against the new boy – not at all a good place to be.

It’s times like this that I wish we had a written Constitution in this country and a Head of State of some sort to apply it.  As it is, we’re going to be relying on common sense on Friday morning to see us through the next few days, as I believe a hung Parliament is almost inevitable.

Earth calling Tim Cook…

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There’s a scene in Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’ in which a character asks ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’  This is then followed by a host of other characters giving many useful things that the Romans HAVE provided for the people of Palestine.

I was reminded of this sketch when I encountered this article about Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook in which he comments that there isn’t a single thing that a Netbook does well.  Time, I have some bad news for you, sunshine; there are lots of things that Netbooks do well – however, they’re probably things that Tim Cook doesn’t do.  In the last week or so:

  • I used the Netbook to test an ADSL connection at the point of entry of the phone-line to the house.
  • When out and about I used it to write a blog article whilst waiting for an appointment.
  • Hooked it up to my amateur radio gear to decode some weather fax images.
  • Downloaded some code from an SVN repository, made a quick fix and uploaded it again.

In other words, stuff I couldn’t use my Blackberry for, and stuff that I needed a real keyboard for – whilst the Crackberry is great, I don’t fancy writing 500 words of blog post or trying to debug code on it.

But it’s real, genuine work being done, and not stuff I could do on a keyboard-less, USBless iPad.  Sorry Tim – here on Planet reality we’re not all managers and critics and reviewers and surfers.  Some of us actually do real work on the move, which at the moment (and probably will do for some time to come) requires a real keyboard and a piece of kit that I can actually install software on – not a closed garden that looks good but is at the same time too big to put in my pocket and too small to act as a sensible paperweight.

I love teh concept of the Pad – but this sort of arrogance from Apple – following on from their recent attacks on development toolkits and the serious limitations in connectivity of the iPad – really makes me wonder whether the bods at Cupertino ever spend time in the real world watching how people use technology.

Please vote positively, and then plan for the future…

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The little grey cells are still going through the mill here at Pritchard Towers as I try and work out who it is I’m going to be voting for on Thursday morning.  Actually, I’ll be voting twice – local election and General Election – and it’s probably safe to say that I’ll vote for different parties in each election.

In a previous post here on Joe’s Jottings I commented that negative voting is not the way forward, and I’m still maintaining that viewpoint.  My current approach is to look at the policies that each party is offering, and the record of the parties in terms of ‘What they say against what they do’.  The policies that matter to me are going to be very different than those that matter to my friends and colleagues, and the general confusion that all of us seem to be having this time around is reflected in the closeness and volatility of the opinion polls, and the intense and occasionally bad-tempered debate and discussion that I’ve witnessed between party activists and leaders in the media and amongst people who I know who are usually pretty much apolitical.

Passion is politics is good – provided it’s positive and focused and not just a knee jerk – ‘Against x because of who they are’, as I said here.   When there is passion and nowhere to focus it, that’s often when the extremists manage to score points by creating policies designed to harvest the strong feelings from people who feel ignored and disenfranchised by the major parties.  I have no doubt that any significant gains by extremist parties within the UK in the General and Local elections will be based on the harvesting of negativity rather than on affirmative votes for the policies they offer.

The question remains for a lot of people – who to vote for, when none of the major parties seem to offer what we want in it’s entirety.  Whichever party gets in, I’m not convinced that there will be significant differences in the what happens in the UK in the next few years.  One party’s cuts may be deeper and more rapidly applied; another party may spread the pain.  Whatever happens, that pain is going to have be endured unless the Government of the day is happy to allow the IMF to influence the policy of the government as it is now doing in Greece (and is likely to soon find itself doing in other Eurozone countries).

So, what to do.  First of all, I’m going to vote for whoever will do the least long term damage, with particular relevance to the policy areas that matter most to me – civil liberties and personal freedom, sustainable and environmentally sound economic development and a reduction is state interference with people’s day to day lives.

Then, I’m going to continue to stay involved with my community ‘on the ground’ by working with community groups to make lasting, sustainable improvements to my community.  I’m not bothered about the politics of those I work with – I would just like to think that we’ll all be working for the long term benefits of our communities, rather than political parties.

Who knows – analysts have already said that whoever gets to make the decisions for the next year or so may well be out of Government for several years to come.  Perhaps we’ll see massive cowardice from whoever is elected, in that they’ll put party before country.  I hope not. 

What’s best for the UK?  A hung parliament, perhaps with some electoral reform, might be what we need to make a further long-term improvement in the political processes of the UK – the rise of ‘Independents’ in Parliament, who are loyal to know party but will vote for what’s best for their communities.

When slogans are not enough

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I was 18 years old in 1979; people of a certain age will remember that year as being the start of the ‘Thatcher Years’ – the start of 11 years of Tory Government that was characterised by radical right wing policies, many originating from the Chicago School of Monetarism, jingoistic manipulation of the electorate in a popular war (The Falklands).  The economic policies ensured a destruction of large swathes of British manufacturing industry, steel and coal, and it might be argued that it was a ‘mild’ form (relatively speaking) of the shock and awe school of political change that alumni of the Chicago School had already inflicted on Chile and other countries in the 1970s.

I entered the workforce in the middle of all this, working in Education for 18 months or so before becoming self-employed in IT, and witnessed the destruction of the communities in which I’d grown up and the politicisation and vilification in the media of family and friends in the  mining villages and towns of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.  I witnessed troops used as policemen and experienced roadblocks that prevented free travel within the UK.  It’s safe to say that those years coloured the political views of a whole generation – and still do today.

Which is why I could initially understand the surge of groups on Facebook and other online communities with names like ‘National Don’t Vote Tory Day’.

And after a while I began to think that this is rather a dumb and negative way to decide who to vote for.  To start with, it’s 13 years since a Tory Government – twenty years since Thatcher lost power when the great and the good of the Tory establishment decided that she was a liability and threw her out in a coup.  You need to be at least 31 years old to have actually been an adult under a Tory government, but it seems to be within the under 30 age group that this sort of group is popular.

As will be known to anyone who reads this blog or follows my tweets, I have little time for New Labour.  I have little time for the Tories or the Liberal Democrats either.  Which, I appreciate, means I have some serious thinking to do before the General Election.  I believe in small Government, subsidiarity and local, sustainable communities.  I believe in freedom of speech and expression, reduction in the intrusive powers of the state and controlled and managed immigration to the UK based on a points system for economic migrants and proof of oppression in the last country they were in for political asylum seekers. I believe in strong defence, continued possession of a tactical nuclear weapons capability, healthcare free at point of delivery, and a benefits system as a last ditch support for folks who genuinely need it.  I’m interested in seeing whether a flat rate of taxation would work, along with reduced red-tape for business, closer scrutiny of banking institutions, no further formal integration with Europe, repeal of the majority of Human Rights legislation and replacement with a written constitution.  And on a more personal basis, reform of copyright, patent and libel legislation to take on board the fact that the world’s changed.

In other words, a rag-bag, hodge-podge of policies which no party will offer.  But at least I’ve thought about what I believe in, and can make most of it join up.  Which is where the ‘Don’t vote Tory’ sloganising is ridiculously naive.  Wheeling out any party as a bogey man – especially one out of power for 15 years – is daft.  I demonise New Labour when, in my eyes and against the principles and policies I personally believe in, they deserve it – I’d like to feel that folks who’re signing up to the ‘Don’t Vote Tory’ sites have at least thought through their own political views and aren’t just signing up to the latest ‘slogan of the month’ based on what happened before many of them were actually old enough to directly experience it.

Slogans aren’t enough; I’d say one thing – if you disagree with a party’s politics, know WHY you disagree with them.  Think about it.  If you don’t like any of them, vote for the one that you disagree with least.  There’s an assumption of trust and competence here, which I’m not sure we can give or expect from any of the major parties this time around. 

I’m still to make my mind up.  I have significant issues with New Labour and the Tories; I was sort of leaning towards Liberal Democrat until I looked at their policies on Europe and Immigration policy, and I’m not convinced that their finances add up.  And I’m still not capable of trusting them on civil liberties and issues of Government intrusion in to the lives of citizens. 

But for crying out loud – please, please, think about it.