It's Not the Voting To Which I Object, It's the Way the Preamble's Going
Heigh ho, only another four weeks til the General Election. Only another four weeks of Party Political Broadcasts (switch off and go make the tea!) Only another four weeks of the News being taken up by who did what and who said what today. (Then there'll be a week or so of 'analysis' of the results!) Only another four weeks of waiting for someone to come round doing hustings so I can ask the what their policies are on a) Foreign Aid, b) Climate Change and trying to reduce the causes of it, and c) what they're going to do for Portsmouth in particular.
Once upon a time we had an MP who, apart from being a bit of a twit occasionally, really was a Constituency MP. He was a local man, he cared about what was happening to us here. Which isn't to say that our present MP doesn't, but these days elections just seem to be more about the personalities of the Leaders. About what they're wearing even! !! !!!
Apparently we're moving to a more 'Presidential' system of elections. Yet another import from the States. Gah! Yes, we'd like the political parties to have good leaders (emphasis on good, rather than photogenic or giving repeatable 'sound bites'.) Even more I'd like the MPs to support their leaders - not to the exclusion of debate, but not keeping on sniping at them either. Jeremy Corbyn may be telling the country that Labour are the alternative to more Conservative 'austerity' (meaning cuts to services and not-so-subtle attempts to break and privitise the NHS, among other things) but if his MPs/would-be MPs won't stand with him . . .
Not that Labour would stand much chance here. It's Tory or SDP heartland. Trouble is the SDP candidate is on the City Council. He comes across more as a political point-scorer, blaming the Tories for all the ills in the city, rather than as someone really interested in getting things done for his constituents. Of course, the Council Tories are busily returning the blame for when he was City Council Leader and therefore 'responsible' for everything that went wrong then and since. Gah!
I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. I do get to vote after all. There is a certain amount of information available to help me make my choice - though it's increasingly guff and horrendously biased in favour of the party it's representing and seeks to almost demonise the other parties. It is still a democratic process - no matter how few potential voters actually exercise their right to vote. And that choice, whether to go vote or not, is also part of our democratic process.
Meanwhile it's another four weeks of 'what would you do about Brexit?' Immigrants and how to keep their numbers down (for all they keep our hospitals going and harvest a lot of our homegrown food crops, among other useful things,) and personal point-scoring.
So here's a comment on Brexit
Put up by Banksy in Dover.
Detail
Apparently it's already been vandalised! All part of our wonderful democracy, I suppose.
And Finally - Lindsay Ostrom, of the PinchofYum website (mainly brilliant recipes), lost her baby shortly before Christmas when Afton suddenly had to be delivered by Caesarean section several months early. She has been incredibly honest, chronicling the whole dreadful experience.
She has now written a post What To Do When Your Friend Loses a Baby. Go check it out, Dear Reader, read it, bookmark it. You never know when it might be of help.
Y'all have a good, and democratic, day now!
Once upon a time we had an MP who, apart from being a bit of a twit occasionally, really was a Constituency MP. He was a local man, he cared about what was happening to us here. Which isn't to say that our present MP doesn't, but these days elections just seem to be more about the personalities of the Leaders. About what they're wearing even! !! !!!
Apparently we're moving to a more 'Presidential' system of elections. Yet another import from the States. Gah! Yes, we'd like the political parties to have good leaders (emphasis on good, rather than photogenic or giving repeatable 'sound bites'.) Even more I'd like the MPs to support their leaders - not to the exclusion of debate, but not keeping on sniping at them either. Jeremy Corbyn may be telling the country that Labour are the alternative to more Conservative 'austerity' (meaning cuts to services and not-so-subtle attempts to break and privitise the NHS, among other things) but if his MPs/would-be MPs won't stand with him . . .
Not that Labour would stand much chance here. It's Tory or SDP heartland. Trouble is the SDP candidate is on the City Council. He comes across more as a political point-scorer, blaming the Tories for all the ills in the city, rather than as someone really interested in getting things done for his constituents. Of course, the Council Tories are busily returning the blame for when he was City Council Leader and therefore 'responsible' for everything that went wrong then and since. Gah!
I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. I do get to vote after all. There is a certain amount of information available to help me make my choice - though it's increasingly guff and horrendously biased in favour of the party it's representing and seeks to almost demonise the other parties. It is still a democratic process - no matter how few potential voters actually exercise their right to vote. And that choice, whether to go vote or not, is also part of our democratic process.
Meanwhile it's another four weeks of 'what would you do about Brexit?' Immigrants and how to keep their numbers down (for all they keep our hospitals going and harvest a lot of our homegrown food crops, among other useful things,) and personal point-scoring.
So here's a comment on Brexit
Put up by Banksy in Dover.
Detail
Apparently it's already been vandalised! All part of our wonderful democracy, I suppose.
And Finally - Lindsay Ostrom, of the PinchofYum website (mainly brilliant recipes), lost her baby shortly before Christmas when Afton suddenly had to be delivered by Caesarean section several months early. She has been incredibly honest, chronicling the whole dreadful experience.
She has now written a post What To Do When Your Friend Loses a Baby. Go check it out, Dear Reader, read it, bookmark it. You never know when it might be of help.
Y'all have a good, and democratic, day now!