This Voting Lark Aint Easy

Following up from my post earlier today I have now had had a chance to investigate the opportunity’s for my impending vote.


Write to Them is a great website for finding out who represents you. Just type in your postcode and you are presented with details of your councillors , MP, MEPS etc.

I am currently represented by a Tory councillor. Who knew ?

A quick visit to my local council website and I find that there are 4 candidates for election in my local ward. Bit disappointing because its only the usual suspects  Conservative , Labour, Lib Dem, and Green.

No independents, UKIP, Respect or anybody else to consider.

So what does each candidate stand for then ? This is where the fun really starts.

Conservative

The incumbent has a small profile on the council website , is not even mentioned on the local conservative website ( other candidates are but not him ), appears to have no website of his own, but does appear on a local facebook page for the Tories asking for my vote. Not on twitter.


Green

Name appears on a candidate list on local green party website. No profile, no website for the candidate.  Not on twitter.


Labour

No local party website that I can find,  a local facebook page with no info about anything ! No candidate website. Not on twitter.


Lib Dem

Nothing on local Lib Dem page. No candidate website. Not on Twitter  , Nothing on my local Lib Dem MPs page.

This is not going well !

So it appears that i am supposed to rely on whatever has been flung through my letterbox as sufficient reason to give them my vote.

Pathetically lazy that non of the candidates can be bothered to engage online.

Not giving up yet, my investigations continue.

I'm going to vote on Thursday

I'm going to vote on Thursday.

Given the nature of this blog, I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone.

But at this relatively late stage I have no idea who I am going to vote for.

Obviously I have my own political leanings but should I follow them ?

Should I exercise a protest vote against the current government ?

Should I vote strategically to keep or disrupt the balance of power on my local council ?

Should my vote be based on a specific local issue ?

I can tell you that in 15 years of living at the same dress only once has my doorbell been rung from a doorstep canvasser ! and that was a while ago.

So, can I draw the conclusion that non of my local candidates are worth voting for because they cannot be bothered to doorstep me ? Probably not because I have not been bothered to go to any public meetings ( if there have been any because I have not been advised of them either ).

I've had the odd leaflet through the door but that’s not really listening and debating with me is it ?

Everyday out of curiosity I do a search on twitter for my local town. its an interesting search and I always find out something new. But I can tell you now there is no political or social debate going on. I find this so sad.

My vote is up for grabs and no one seems to be putting any effort into getting it.

So over the next few days I hope to update the blog on my progress to make an informed decision to exercise my democratic rights.

I will vote regardless of the apparent apathy of my local candidates to earn my trust.

Immoral, Under Attack but working damn hard (allegedly)

If I'd been called immoral by the head of the catholic church in Scotland I'd probably think I'd done something right!

If I was been targeted by the Murdoch empire I'd be confident I was on the right path.

Unfortunately if this is the best news Call me Dave can find this week then he has big problems.

Apparently, Dave has no embarrassment about his contacts with the Murdoch's but defends it on the warped logic that he talks to all the press powers so he can get his message across to the plebs ordinary people.

Systematically across the Europe the governments of the arrogant are being thrown out. Thats what all politicians should be watching.

Its too simplistic to say that governments that impose austerity are signing their death warrants. The backlash is against politicians whose lives bear no resemblance to our own.

Just , maybe , the mainstream press is waking up to the idea that electorate is revolting. You never know but they might wake up to life outside of London next ?

Wheres Oiky ? The chancellor , the economic mastermind, rarely appears on any platform where the public can question him directly. A cowardly chancellor can hardly be effective and a politician that runs away from debate and engagement deserves to be viewed with nothing more than suspicion.

Culture minister hunting is entertaining but so predictable. Its the euro, its the economy, its growth and jobs that matter at the moment.

Am I the only one who finds the fact we are in a recession now very scary ? With the Olympic spending peaking , where would we be without it ? The last quarter of the year will be the real test.

Flashy offered nothing new this morning. God its depressing and so is your Cardinal in Scotland.

Working hard and working smart are not the same thing. Worked that out yet Dave ?

Dementia for Dummies

Last night on BBC2 Louis Theroux presented a documentary on dementia.

Entitled " The capital of the forgetful " it can be found on iplayer here.

I'd encourage everybody to watch it.

Dementia devastates lives and with a growing and ageing population the problem is getting out of control.

Currently over 800,000 people have dementia in the UK and that is predicted to grow to over 1,000,000 by 2021.

The financial cost of dementia to the UK will be over £23,000,000,000 in 2012.

Check out the excellent Alzheimers Society website and their shocking stats page.

What the documentary does very well is give you a real reality check as to the destruction of lives.

The best medical research now believes that dementia is not a sudden onset disease but builds over 20-30 years. And during this onset your mental abilities decline and the speed of cognitive decline accelerates.

So if we ignore the costs and the fact that there is no coherent plan to meet our need now, or into the future, what is our problem ?

The state pension and public sectors pensions ! With the retirement age ever extending, more and more of us will be working into our late 60's and early 70's, how will dementia impact on the states growing requirement for income tax and national insurance. I have yet to hear from any sage of wisdom what the state expects me to be doing to earn an income at 67, 68 ? And are the projections being used to calculate the states requirements based on my earning potential at those ages recognising any physical or mental decline ?

Confession time, the writer is the registered carer for my father who has had dementia for the last 6 years and who is currently having residential care provided by the NHS and so I have seen this awful affliction from a very personal view.

I want to criticise one core aspect of last nights programme. Only for a very short segment of the programme did we witness people with the later stages of dementia ( the 4th floor if you watch the programme ). Choosing my words carefully, the majority of participants were early stage sufferers who were not showing large amounts of distress. I've spent the last 2 years with my father surrounded by later stage dementia suffers. Drifting off into lala land might be for some but equally being trapped in their own worst nightmares for years is a reality for many.

Visiting a dementia ward is harrowing and should be avoided at all costs. The thing that hits you is the howling and screams, the continual screams 24 hours a day. In a long gone moment of lucidity my father turned to me and asked to be killed ! As I was left trying to mentally process what had just happened, the lucidity evaporated. It was replaced with  more screams.

Flicking the V's to Mp's

Today Permanent Secretary Jonathan Stephens was asked by the Public Accounts Committee about guidance he gave to Jeremy Hunt special adviser Adam Smith re passing information to News international during its bid for BskyB.

For 10 minutes , he refused to answer questions about his role, the footage is here.

His Official position is

" The permanent secretary did not feel it was appropriate to provide further information ahead of the department's evidence to the Leveson Inquiry ”

2 things strike the writer :-

He refused to answer as too his own conduct

and

There is no suggestion (yet) that Jonathan Stephens will give evidence to Leveson

Now my late mother was a civil servant and I have a HUGE admiration for these maligned creatures. But the civil service must be independent of politics and answerable.

Any MP who uses civil servants as political footballs is acting shamefully. Without a doubt the invasion of spads and the conduct of some MPs and ministers has eroded the independence.

Confirming facts can not be prejudicial. Probably the select committee would not have left it there and he knew it and then showdown the conversation.

So Jonathan Stephens wins my big balls award of the day, but also almost ( but didnt ) wins my Twonk of the day award.

I want to hear his answer as to his role and then decide.

Economic Burdens Not Fairly Shared

Globespan has released details of a survey that the have conducted on behalf of the BBC World Service.

61% of 11,740 people interviewed across 22 countries ( including the UK ) believe that economic burdens are being unfairly distributed among populations.

The percentage of dissatisfaction has increased from previous surveys.

Not surprising, but a further indication of strains between citizens and their masters. 

The UK is now officially in recession which ( using the Spanish data within the survey ) is only going to result in an increase of anger and pain in the UK electorate.

However, would an economic miracle and a dramatic increase in wealth across the board persuade everybody that the current economic model is perfect ?

Put another way, would a unregulated free market resulting in the magic " silver bullet " convince the British that there should be no regulation of banks, big business etc ?

I genuinely think not. There are generations that will never forget the current economic downturn and the behaviour of the City and the banks,

Therefore some sort of regulation of business and markets is a prerequisite to a citizens perception of well being. If this principal is accepted then the only questions that remain are :-

What types of regulation ?

How much regulation ?

Who regulates the regulator ?

Small government does not sit easily with this ethos nor does " light touch regulation ".

Nor does the mantra " keep the markets happy " because the markets will scream blue murder at any controls on their behaviour.

The moral of the story is that whenever you hear a politician, economist or worst of all, a " City expert " saying that the government must bow to market forces  and deregulate, what you really hearing is that person saying " screw you ! I/we don’t care as to your well being "

Good to remember this next time you vote.

30% of UK Electorate will not to vote !

The Hansard Society has just published their annual report on engagement of the UK electorate with politics.

Its depressing and scary.

The BBC has a good summary here.

To summaries the BBC report keys points :-

"

• 42% of people said they were interested in politics - down 16% on 2010 and the lowest figure since the audit was first carried out
• 48% of people said they would definitely vote if a general election was called tomorrow - down 10% from last year and again, the lowest figure in the audit's history
• 30% said they were unlikely or absolutely certain not to vote - up 10% from 2010
• 24% of people believe the current system of coalition government is working "reasonably well" - a fall of 7%
• 56% agree their involvement in politics locally could bring about change, but only 38% actually want to be involved

"

The single most shocking finding is the decline in people willing to exercise their democratic rights and vote.

Compare this to the first round of the French Presidential Elections which had a turnout of over 80%.

In recent times the turnout for UK general elections had risen,

Can we draw any conclusions from the fact that voter disillusion in France results in high turnout, whilst in the UK the same disillusion drives down the vote ?

Could it be that in the UK the " engagement " between our elected representatives and citizens is so broken that significant numbers of people consider that it is a waste of time to vote ?

Simply, the answer is yes !

If true, the social disengagement millions of people from our government can only lead to disaster and social breakdown. Remember the riots of summer 2011 ?

There is no easy answer but it starts with effort, by everyone to win back the trust in an essential relationship. So if you are an elected representative, ignore the spin doctors, ignore the spads and engage with real people. Face to face is good, twitter is good etc

I wish that on every ballot paper there was a " none of the above " option. If every candidate knew that that they could all be rejected its a different voting model.

And if you don't vote then you are a Twonk !