Category Archives: Elections

So it begins….well for some

by maxattacks

Chris Riddell 03.01.10

Within a few days I know at least the Conservatives will be firing up their campaign for the 2010 election. There will be soon a vast forray of PR and soundbites from the blue camp, nothing new there. But we need to remember, as always, that this is a mask, despite pledges of NHS cash boost for most deprived areas and a “War Cabinet” (which pointed out by the Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, would be rather pointless as Ministers often inform their shadows of events), there is always the same Tory party as also argued by  Liberal Democrat frontbencher Danny Alexander who said Mr Cameron “needs to be honest with people about his real priorities rather than simply parroting lines from spin doctors”.

How do we know this? Yes, there’s all the contradictory policies like the cartoon shows, but there is also the clear fact that, there never was any internal party upheval when “change” was implemented to the Conservative and Unionist Party, no internal struggles between the old and new factions. So take heed of this, only constant reminders can help the British public see though the smokescreen of PR.

Max

Happy New Year from all of us at the BULS!

by maxattacks

Like the title says, Happy New Year from all of us at the BULS and good luck in the coming election year! I thought I’d put all this on now as I obviously wont be here later to do so. Don’t forget about the Tory logo competition (http://bulsonline.org/2009/12/22/tory-logo-fun-again/), whoever can produce the funniest logo wins some sort of prize, it doesn’t really work with only one proper entry.

Max

Televised debates

by maxattacks

Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg

After a while of talks and speculation, a deal has finally been brokered between the three major parties and three broadcasting companies. The three party leaders will battle it out over a series of three broadcasts. The first is to be on ITV, hosted by Alastair Stewart, the second on Sky, hosted by Adam Boulton and the third and final debte will be on BBC, hosted by David Dimbleby.

Now clearly this is a golden chance to re-present politics to the increasingly bitter and disalusioned public. This being clearly something new to the British public will have I’m guessing, at least 10 million watching (well for the first and third debates anyway). There will also hopefully be the SNP and Plaid Cymru participating in the respective regional debates of Scotland and Wales with one also being held in Northeren Ireland.

I personally hope, that unlike in PMQs, where obviously the questions are directed at the PM, the British public will question Cameron on his policies (if he has enough for an hour and a half debate, which I sincerly doubt) and show that the Tories haven’t changed and that a change of logo and slogon doesn’t mean a change of mindset.

Max

4 points closer

by maxattacks

2 new polls published a fortnight after the previously blogged upon Ipos-MORI poll in the Observer (which showed the Tories lead to be shrunk to 6 points), show that the Conservative party’s lead over Labour have in both polls shrunk by 4 points, leaving it at a 10 point lead. Is this the fight back mentioned at the conference in Brighton caused by Cameron’s incoherant policy over Europe? The economic optimism? Or merely a (big) blip?

Class Warfare by another Name

by Chris Nash

This weeks Mail on Sunday has brought to light allegations (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231774/Camerons-bid-toff-Tories-backfires-candidate-tells-leader-I-like-double-barrelled-name.html) that Tory HQ (or more exactly Mr. David Cameron) is urging prospective parliamentary candidates with more aristocratic names to drop or change them for the election next year. The case mentioned is that of Ms. Annunziata Rees-Mogg, PPC for Somerton and Frome, who was asked by Dave to change her name to the more prole-friendly “Nancy Mogg”. While Ms. Rees-Mogg is known to her friends as “Nancy” (understandably), she has so far refused to budge on the matter, as indeed has her brother Jacob Rees-Mogg (PPC, Somerset NE).

Good for her I say. The inverse snobbery utilised by some Labour campaigns in the past (see Crewe and Nantwich, byelection) is nothing but a shameful perpetuation of old Class Warfare tactics in my view. I would argue that most voters have more intelligence than to back or spurn a candidate on the basis of name alone. If either of the young Rees-Moggs are overly privileged or out of touch, that will speak for itself through words and deeds come the campaign. There will be many reasons for the good folk of Somerset not to vote Tory in 2010 – a candidate having a fancy name or being well spoken should not be among them.

What do the good folks of BULS think? Is a posh name fair game for attack? Should Labour be wary of a successful “de-toff” campaign by Mr. Cameron?

Comrade Nash, BULS member (in exile, NZ).

Labour win in Glasgow NE

by chrisblewitt

The official results read as follows:

Labour – 12,231 votes (59.39%)

SNP – 4,120 votes (20%)

Tory – 1,075 votes (5.22%)

BNP – 1,013 votes (4.92%)

Solidarity – 794 votes (3.86%)

Lib Dems – 474 votes (2.30%)

Total votes cast – 20,595

Despite the worst turnout in a Scottish by-election ever, this result leaves me with the feeling that we aren’t totally done yet. I think this by-election at least gives us some hope in bonnie Scotland where the SNP seem to be crumbling away and the Tories are failing to make in-roads.

Time for Questions

by chrisblewitt

It has been widely reported that the BBC may be considering inviting BNP leader Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time. This could pose some problems for Gordon Brown as currently the Labour Party will not share a platform with the BNP. It seems to me that there needs to be a reversal on this policy now that the BNP have succeeded in winning two seats in the European parliament, if we want to beat the BNP we have to meet them in open debate. It is clear that there is electoral support for this party and we cannot ignore that, therefore I believe the Labour Party should send an MP to have an open debate on Question Time and tackle the hideous things that Griffin has to say head on. Only then can the truth about the BNP be truly exposed.

Zimbabwe: will there be real change?

by chrisblewitt

I took note today that Morgan Tsvangirai had been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, but will this actually mean anything for his people?

The new PM

Tsvangirai: The new PM

With inflation at meteoric levels, and cholera sweeping through the population, I find it very hard to believe that the new PM will be able to change very much with the Mugabe still casting a shadow over his country.

Surely this appointment is merely symbolic, with Mugabe still mostly in control of the police and armed forces, I cannot see how Tsvangirai’s postion has changed at all after being sworn in. Something more must be done to save these people, but what?

With South Africa claiming this as a victory, there seems to be a worrying consensus that this will be the end of the matter. I am inclined to say “time will tell”, but I am not sure how much time many Zimbabweans have as Mugabe continues his reign of tyranny

Scrap the SATS

by Brigidjones

We’ve all heard of this year’s SATs marking fiasco. We’re constantly told that students are over tested. We all know that schools put overemphasis on training students for the SATs rather than giving them a rounded education. And a lot of us hate league tables.

SATs were meant to be a test of schools, but have become a test of pupils too. Headlines report how students are without results, anxiously waiting; this is completely wrong, the point of SATs was to see how well the school had taught (whether it achieves this or not being dubious), not to be a level of achievement for each child to aspire to. Yes, they are useful for setting pupils, but schools can do that easily through their own tests with far less stress.

Please, please can we scrap the SATs?

Women in H+H

by Brigidjones

The Haltemprice and Howden by-election ballot paper makes interesting reading. In the absence of two big  mainstream parties, a huge number of independent candidates stood; I wondered how women would fare outside of the normal election environment.

Sadly, only seven of the twenty-six candidates were female. Of these, five were aligned to parties (although these tended to be small and included the Miss Great Britain Party) and two were independent. Contrast this with the nineteen men who stood; fourteen were independent and five had parties, although again given the size of these parties they are probably best counted as independent.

What got me most about the results, however, was that of the seven women standing, six occupied the top positions 2-7 after David Davis. Whether this was due to their being women or that they represented some of the more significant of the small parties is also up for debate- I suspect the latter, but still find it interesting, and somewhat heartening.