Remember I told you that the Comet were only going to invite the Con, Lab and Lib Dem candidates to their hustings? Well, the Churches are at it now too. Churches Together in Stevenage (CTIS) are also holding a hustings and although I will be invited to tender my answers to the questions and have a couple of minutes to introduce myself I will not be allowed to join in the Q&A session owing to "time constraints". Perhaps they got their lead from the Comet?
But the best bit of all is that I am a member of CTIS myself...! You got to hand it to them, no "jobs for the boys" there... but then not exactly fair, equal or impartial either... as a lay preacher in a CTIS church I feel a few sermons are in order!
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
2-Tier Democracy
Running as a General Election candidate I keep coming across a definite "them-and-us" 2-Tier democratic process. There is Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem and then there are "the others" of which I am a member. A kind of "Elite" party and "Plebian" party divide if you like.
The latest incident was last week when I discovered that the Stevenage Comet local newspaper was hosting an election candidate hustings for a business forum but had only thought it necessary to invite half the candidates. I will leave it to you to guess which half? To make matters worse, when I pressed them on the matter the reason given was lack time available for the number of questions. It struck me that halving the number of questions was the easy solution.
If we are not careful we will end up with a democratic system along the lines of nations like Iran where anyone can set up a party as long as it is Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem!
The latest incident was last week when I discovered that the Stevenage Comet local newspaper was hosting an election candidate hustings for a business forum but had only thought it necessary to invite half the candidates. I will leave it to you to guess which half? To make matters worse, when I pressed them on the matter the reason given was lack time available for the number of questions. It struck me that halving the number of questions was the easy solution.
If we are not careful we will end up with a democratic system along the lines of nations like Iran where anyone can set up a party as long as it is Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem!
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Darling puts off declaring cuts until after the Election
I am sorry, I am new to this game but is not the purpose of an election to vote for what a party is going to do? So how can you do that if they are not going to tell you until after the election? Now I am not going to be part of the next government, just an MP is as far as I can go, but I am going to tell you right now BEFORE the election where I am going to get the money from. I am going to gang up with Vince Cable and he and I are going to rob the banks of OUR money and then when we are done with that we are going to cut them down to size so they cannot hold us to ransom ever again.
So, if the Labour party refuse to tell you what you are voting for, the answer is simple... don't vote for them!
So, if the Labour party refuse to tell you what you are voting for, the answer is simple... don't vote for them!
Monday, 22 March 2010
Politics at an all time low!
If the expenses scandal wasn't evidence enough for a sea change in politics then comes along outgoing MP's using the dying embers of their priviledged positions for personal gain with seemingly no shame or respect to the people who elected them there to represent them.
I have been questioned about my lack of experience in politics but if that lack of experience means I don't know how to cheat on my expenses or line myself up for cushy executive board advisory jobs or be a non-Dom is that lack of experience really all that bad a thing?
Seriously folks, if you want a sea change in politics you are going to need to vote for a whole new bunch of politicians so make sure you choose the ones with no experience!
I have been questioned about my lack of experience in politics but if that lack of experience means I don't know how to cheat on my expenses or line myself up for cushy executive board advisory jobs or be a non-Dom is that lack of experience really all that bad a thing?
Seriously folks, if you want a sea change in politics you are going to need to vote for a whole new bunch of politicians so make sure you choose the ones with no experience!
How does a "None of the above" option actually work?
Let us suppose that in every election there is now a "none of the above" option on the bottom of every ballot paper. If it does not get the majority vote then one of the candidates will have won and are duly elected. Although this is stating the obvious I included it to show that "none of the above" is still a First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system.
Now suppose that "none of the above" gets the majority vote? What has happened here is that the electorate have declared "no confidence" in the candidates standing for election in that constituency. The "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" party however, does not believe in having no governance so this situation has to cause an immediate and automatic by-election and the electors come out again to either vote for new candidates that they can believe in or new policies or both. If the same candidates peddle the same policies then the electorate simply votes "none of the above" until the situation changes. The essence here is the voter has an option to say NO until the prospective representatives find out what the voter wants and provides a votable set of policies or stand as Independent on their character credibility.
Now suppose that "none of the above" gets the majority vote? What has happened here is that the electorate have declared "no confidence" in the candidates standing for election in that constituency. The "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" party however, does not believe in having no governance so this situation has to cause an immediate and automatic by-election and the electors come out again to either vote for new candidates that they can believe in or new policies or both. If the same candidates peddle the same policies then the electorate simply votes "none of the above" until the situation changes. The essence here is the voter has an option to say NO until the prospective representatives find out what the voter wants and provides a votable set of policies or stand as Independent on their character credibility.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
What about your expenses?
I have declared that my motivation to finally get up and do something about our political situation was spurred on by the expenses scandal so mine had better be spot on. I have decided to declare all my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet downloadable format from my campaign website. My goal is to ensure that the expenses spreadsheet is never more than 24hrs out of date. Please note that whilst I am just a candidate I don't actually get any of my expenses paid back. There is no tax payers money in my campaign at all, I am largely self-funded with donations from a few supporters, but you can see for yourself: http://www.steveofstevenage.org.uk/about/expenses.htm
Monday, 15 March 2010
What do you do with an MP?
In speaking to people in Stevenage it has become clear that many people are not quite sure what the difference is between an MP and a Local Councillor. As it is very likely that both will be elected on May 6th I thought I should blog something about it.
Essentially, the basic difference is that your MP deals with national issues on behalf of the people of Stevenage whilst your Local Councillors deal with local issues within Stevenage. Let us not forget that there are also County Coucillors that deal with county-wide issues, Hertfordshire in this case, and MEP's that deal with European-wide issues such as currency, borders, trade and European law etc.
Some examples of these might be: If you wanted to speak out about a law that was being billed by Parliament, either in support or objection, or you might want to have your say about our troops in Afghanistan or the economy and taxes etc, that would be a matter for your MP. If, on the other hand you wanted to complain about the roads in Stevenage or a play area etc these would be matters for your local councillors. Then there are the County Councillors that deal with county-wide issues like our schools and highways and byways between towns. The example I gave about the roads may actually involve any of the representative groups like so: potholes in residential roads of Stevenage would be your local councillor, lighting on a stretch of "A" road in Hertfordshire would be your County Councillor, building a new Motorway from London to Stevenage would be your MP and building a road bridge across the channel might be your MEP.
There are some grey areas that confuse some. The best example is the Lister Hospital. This hospital is part of a National Service (NHS) even though it only serves Stevenage and the surrounding area. As such it is a concern to your MP and any such talk about merging services with QE2 Welwyn Garden City would most certainly be an MP issue. Local schools might seem to be a local issue and thus the concern of your local Councillors, however, they are all owned and managed by Herts County Council and are thus a County Concillor concern, the curriculum however, is national and thus a concern of your MP.
Confusing isnt it? But I hope I have managed to clear up some of the confusion. In any case, any of the representative groups can advise you of who you should be talking to.
Essentially, the basic difference is that your MP deals with national issues on behalf of the people of Stevenage whilst your Local Councillors deal with local issues within Stevenage. Let us not forget that there are also County Coucillors that deal with county-wide issues, Hertfordshire in this case, and MEP's that deal with European-wide issues such as currency, borders, trade and European law etc.
Some examples of these might be: If you wanted to speak out about a law that was being billed by Parliament, either in support or objection, or you might want to have your say about our troops in Afghanistan or the economy and taxes etc, that would be a matter for your MP. If, on the other hand you wanted to complain about the roads in Stevenage or a play area etc these would be matters for your local councillors. Then there are the County Councillors that deal with county-wide issues like our schools and highways and byways between towns. The example I gave about the roads may actually involve any of the representative groups like so: potholes in residential roads of Stevenage would be your local councillor, lighting on a stretch of "A" road in Hertfordshire would be your County Councillor, building a new Motorway from London to Stevenage would be your MP and building a road bridge across the channel might be your MEP.
There are some grey areas that confuse some. The best example is the Lister Hospital. This hospital is part of a National Service (NHS) even though it only serves Stevenage and the surrounding area. As such it is a concern to your MP and any such talk about merging services with QE2 Welwyn Garden City would most certainly be an MP issue. Local schools might seem to be a local issue and thus the concern of your local Councillors, however, they are all owned and managed by Herts County Council and are thus a County Concillor concern, the curriculum however, is national and thus a concern of your MP.
Confusing isnt it? But I hope I have managed to clear up some of the confusion. In any case, any of the representative groups can advise you of who you should be talking to.
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