Archive for the ‘Election’ Category

Over.

Finished.

Kaput.

In the history books.

The May 2010 General Election is over, and the Conservatives are the largest party, 16ish seats short of a technical majority.

So what does this election result tell us?

1) Labour & Gordon Brown have been rejected by the Country.

2) The electoral system needs changing, firstly with a standardised size of constituency. Give Labour & the Conservatives 60,000 votes. Labour could win 3-4 seats, the Conservatives 2. If all seats are the same size, there can be no complaints.

3) People weren’t 100% by the Conservative message; think back to 1979-83 (ok, I wasn’t born, but bear with me!). The change in Britain was that drastic that people who remember the era may be harder to convince in the need for change. As such, the mandate given is for a Conservative Government, with a left-wing ‘nanny’ to make sure nothing too drastic happens at the moment.

4) People realised the Lib Dems couldn’t realistically form the full Government, and as such the Labour vote held up better than I had anticipated, particularly here in Chester, with the former Labour MP still polling 16,000 votes compared to Stephen Mosley MP’s 18,500.

Next up is the apparent agreement/full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Personally, I’m hopeful that a coalition is agreed, probably resulting in Nick Clegg taking the role of Home Secretary, and I hope that the following 5 Conservatives, above all others, remain in their appropriate departments:

Michael Gove, Education
William Hague, Foreign Office
Phillip Hammond, Treasury
George Osborne, Treasury
Ken Clarke, Business

(Gove MUST be allowed to complete his education reforms.)

The beauty of the possible coalition, at least for this Tory, is that the ‘leading’ Lib Dems have much in common (Google ‘Orange Bookers’) with the direction Cameron is taking the Conservatives. Think about it, keeping a nuclear deterrent, giving less powers to Europe and not giving an amnesty to immigrants are the only things off limits.

3 things from a combined 250+ page manifesto.

Both believe in low taxes, both believe in civil liberties (which, in my mind, is why Clegg could never work with Brown/Labour), and both believe in a smaller state. Both would be happy with a 10% cut in MPs and equal constituencies, and both favour reform of the House of Lords.

The only issue that could be a stickler to the Lib Dems is, according to the media, how votes are cast in elections. (I’ll discuss this in a seperate post)

My message to Conservatives and Liberal Democrats is this – factor in all the things where compromise would take place, prioritise tackling the economy. Agree a coalition to deal with all the above lasting 12-18 months (12 would mean an election taking place at the same time as local elections, including those here in Cheshire West and Chester), then hold an election outling PRECISELY what sort of voting system each party favours. Alternatively, develop a referendum for electoral reform to take place at the same time as the next General Election.

So simply this: Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, work together for the benefit of our country. We must put Britain before Party.

Courtesy of Total Politics:

Over at Liberty Central on the Guardian’s website, you can read the following article.

Within it, are 10 questions to ask your parliamentary candidates – which, following on from my previous post about asking questions of the candidates in the City of Chester, have also been put to them.

For a quick and easy link, the postcard with questions are below:

If you live in, or have an interest in Chester, you may want to visit this website: http://chesterforum.posterous.com/ – alternatively, follow http://twitter.com/chesterforum on Twitter.

It’s being run by a Chester resident who’s taking questions to put to three of the Parliamentary Candidates – Christine Russell (Labour), Lizzie Jewkes (Liberal Democrat) and Stephen Mosley (Conservative).

Current questions that have been asked are:

1. What individual difference can you make in the Commons? (No nonsense about Brown, Cameron, Clegg being wonderful etc)
2. Would Proportional Representation be more appropriate in a seat like City of Chester?
3. Will you blindly follow the party whip or can you express your genuine concerns in public?
4. What support will you give businesses in Chester?
5. How would your best friend describe you?
6. What proportion of your time do you think you’ll spend in Chester vs the Commons?

So go on, ask!

The question I’m asking?

What’s your perspective on the erosion of civil liberties and freedom in the United Kingdom?

I was quite surprised at how many of my ‘non-political’ friends watched the leaders’ debate on ITV last night, and a running theme emerged, which was duplicated in the post-debate polls – Nick Clegg won, and if you were a Labour supporter you thought Brown easily came second, and a Tory, Cameron.

My take? Clegg started off fastest out of the blocks – no doubt about it. He was cool, calm and measured, and being on the end meant he was able to appear to distance himself from Cameron and Brown – his tactic for the evening; he constantly tried to paint the ‘Labservative’ picture, that Labour and the Conservatives are the same etc. The problem with this tactic was that he reinforced the notion that the Conservatives and Labour are the only two choices for Government, despite his efforts. The catchphrase coming from the debate ‘I agree with Nick’ – primarily from Gordon Brown who tried to snuggle up to the Lib Dem leader, only for Clegg to knock him down like an over-enthusiastic light-weight at every opportunity – will, in my opinion, do more damage to Labour. I think this is the case because Labour and the Liberal Democrats are closer ideologically than the Conservatives and Lib Dems – as such, disillusioned Labour supporters may be more likely to vote Lib Dem because of the agreements Gordon had with Nick, as opposed to Tory voters who know the best way to get rid of Brown will be to vote for Cameron.

Cameron started off slowly – you could see his nerves come through, which I think may, in the long-term, play in his favour; it showed that he was not pure substance, and that he genuinely cared. Indeed, I think if a post-debate poll was taken on empathy he would win by a landslide! His closing statement though was sheer brilliance – yes, as a Tory I’m likely to say that, but I am trying to be as objective as possible – the choice of hope over fear is a point he needs to keep reinforcing. As a libertarian, yes, I want Cameron to go further in what he offers, but I’m acutely aware that Brown is not a ‘giver’. He wants the public to be reliant on him and his over-inflated state. For people who are unemployed to rely on his benefits culture and his JobCentre Plus for jobs. The reality is that the private and voluntary sector should have a much greater role to play.

A tweet of mine that was re-tweeted a lot last night was this: “Brown = Scaremonger who wants you to be reliant on him & the state. Disgusting.”

That’s precisely what he did; tried to instill fear that a Conservative Government would make cuts – I hope it does, the state is too big as outlined by my previous post regarding income tax. Cameron’s belief of ‘getting more for less’ is one I champion daily – Government should be run like the private sector – devoid of waste and overspending, concentrating on providing the best possible service for the least amount of money. That way everyone will have more money to spend on what they want to spend it on.

So that’s my, short and sweet take on last night’s debate.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Turns out Brown said “I agree with Nick” 7 times!