The Referendum

Next year, probably on May 5th, the UK will once again go to the polls. Not to decide the outcome of an unwinnable election but to indeed decide how we go about such elections. The referendum to decide our voting system, which was a key factor in the coalition agreement, is supported by our default Prime Minister, but not by his secretary/deputy, Nick Clegg. I'm not sure how this is going to work. The Government as a unit is proposing this electoral change and I suppose will publicly push for it, however, it is well documented that Cameron and most of the Conservative contigent of the cabinet are against changing to the Clegg-preferred, AV system.

Voting reform: the options explained

The same questions will arise as we approach the next general election, if the coalition lasts that long, both Clegg and Cameron will campaign for their own parties whilst defending the same Government. Until the point when the cabinet have to get serious about the referendum, they will continue to use the 'It was in the Labour manifesto and now their against it' gag. This is of course true, although where the majority of Conservatives are against the switch, it is only a minority of Labour MP's who a similarly adjacent to the idea. As far as I know, all of the Labour candidates are supportive of changing the system and my view is similar but not at the same level of Nick Clegg or indeed his Yellow Tory Party.

In truth, the UK parliamentary system is archaic; leader of the Greens, Caroline Lucas recently compared it to the Brussels-based, super-contemporary, European Parliament and stated that as we are one of the most developed countries in the world, the UK should be moving with the times and modernising our system as needed. This is one of the few points I will probably ever agree with her on. This is the key. Not changing the literal way in which we elect our government but the way in which parliament runs. I believe that if the Houses of Parliament and the system its working under was actually modernised, all parties would be able to function better and get their views heard in the Chamber. This of course includes the smaller parties who are more in favour of switching our voting system, if they could interact in'direct politics' without the 'motion to solve a query about a bill which was revised in the Lords under another motion about a different bill proposed by an EDM' - that's just stupid, but's that's how it is. The UK are basing politics on the sentiment of keeping our tradition in place. We need an urgent revamp of Parliament, I think changing the voting system is the least of our worries. Direct politics, that's what we need.

The rise of the state comprehensive

1970's Britain. The state education system was not exactly benefiting from a good reputation and as John Crace rightly points out in his recent 'G2' article, many schools featured rapidly decaying Victorian buildings and other more 'modern' structures were coated in asbestos. These schools continued to endure hard lives as the UK embraced the 80's and another 18 years of Conservative rule. Of course, these Tory rulers were subjected to  slightly more privileged surroundings while they were educated.

Eton, Westminster, Winchester and Harrow. Just a few of the schools that have educated Prime Ministers, London Mayors and Royals. But I think that their prestigious reputations of creating the egos to fill the top positions is coming to an end. John Crace compares two schools; Eton, former school of David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Princes William and Harry, with North London comprehensive Haverstock, alma mater to the Miliband brothers, 2012 London mayoral candidate Oona King and Liverpool football player, Joe Cole. And the article makes the obvious point that although Eton has produced some illustrious names; Haverstock could soon boast both the Labour leader and the Mayor of London.

Now, in May, I left the comprehensive school that has taught me for the past five years and taken me through my GCSE programme; Noadswood. It like most other state schools in the UK benefited hugely from the 13 years of Labour who rightly invested huge amounts in education. Noadswood has not quite seen a complete rebuild but has definitely seen huge refurbishment and development; as has Haverstock; which now boasts contemporary buildings with modern classrooms and wide corridors. An age of austerity for the less privileged but not for the more privileged, which will inevitably occur while Tories are in government, will only bring down the continuing success of many state schools whose GCSE results are ever improving as a direct result of this extra investment.

Of course, cuts need to be made, we all acknowledge this, but halting the Building Schools for the Future Programme, then ring fencing the International Development budget is not the way. The need for cuts, I believe, is met equally by some schools with the need for redevelopment. There are schools in this country falling to pieces, literally. Just 3 months in to a coalition, a great mistake has already been made. This doesn't bode well for the next five years of this parliament. If sustained spending can be kept at schools then perhaps the cases of Noadswood and Haverstock can be the cases seen across the UK, I can't see it happening though, not while the coalition is in place. Before the election, the Labour needed the country, now, the country needs Labour.

A leader you can depend on, a wage you can depend on

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) today announced that unemployment in Britain has soared by 20,000 up to 2.47m. However, the most shocking statistic outed was a 29,000 people strong rise in those who were deemed 'economically inactive' meaning they are contributing absolutely nothing to the economy or similar to what a 7 year old would offer. This, of course was layed out to us by coalition clown Chris Grayling, who was quickly demoted from his Shadow Cabinet role of Home Affairs to Employment Minister in the Government. But of course, a Conservative being a conservative preached that the jobless would be back to work soon and they would endeavour to get unemployment levels as low as possible. So, how are you going to do that Mr Grayling? By cutting the Future Jobs Fund, like your coalition have done? No. I don't think so. It is obvious that the new government are taking an attitude of disregard to the threat of mass unemployment and we look set to be once again Con/Dem-ned to the Tory toils of the 1980's.

You cannot reduce unemployment by scrapping grants from the Future Jobs Fund. If anything, the government should be ring fencing such initiative in times like these and supporting Ed Miliband's campaign for a living wage. It was a great thing that the past Labour government set up a minimum wage, but that was only the first step to a truly fairer, living wage for those whom, when it comes down to it, usually work harder in worse conditions. The lowest paid in shops and banks as well as councils need their wage increased, so they can live. The word 'live' is often derived harshly away from its true meaning. But in this case, a LIVING wage doesn't just mean it pays to keep a person from entire subsistence, but it means a person can LIVE their life without having to scrape by, a wage where a person can treat them self every so often, a wage where a the stresses of final demand letters become a thing of the past. A living wage. So I am asking you to support Ed Miliband for Labour leader, he can be a strong realistic leader who can fight against the likes of Chris Grayling and Cameron himself and once again stand up for fairness, equality and social justice that was being built up over the past 13 years under Labour, that in stark contrast, is now in danger of being completely dismantled by an elitist Government.

Support Ed's campaign HERE.

Lost election, new leader!

I'm in the middle of my GCSE exams at the minute so there is likely to be a few more breaks in my posting. Sorry. To keep the whole thing fresh, I have also given the place a makeover! Hope you like!

Onto the politics, I haven't actually posted since before the Election, so after reading my last post you'll realise how very wrong I was. In fact, I couldn't of be any more incorrect. And although, for obvious reasons, I don't want to dwell on the election, it was very interesting watching how the country didn't take to Nick Clegg as much as the poll said they would and how good, old Gordon finally conceded defeat.

Anyway, moving very swiftly on, to the new leader of the Labour Party! Miliband, Miliband, Burnham, Balls or Abbott? Well, i'm going for Miliband, Ed that is. I don't want to tempt fate but I do believe he is the best option and I do believe he will become our leader. Although I wouldnt begrudge any of the other candidates the leadership, except maybe Ed Balls, but David M is fantastic on foreign affairs and the other three, I believe just don't have the spark needed to salvage Labour, which apparently, is no longer New and the New Statesman-organised leadership debate outlined that, although, Diane Abbott spoke very well on the main talking point of the event, immigration, Balls & Burnham preached the usual "power to the people" talk and David, I'm afraid to say, seem to do a lot of sucking up to various factions who are supporting him, such as young people. Put simply - EM4Labour. Support him now.

And that really has been the hot political topic since the election...oh, except the, ahem, cuts. The cuts devised by George Osborne and David La- Danny Alexander. As unclear as they were, what stood out was a repulsive decision to scrap the Child Trust Fund; an initiative introduced by the former Labour government to support children, financially, once they turn 18. Just another sign of the Conservative minded way in which the finances of the country look set to run over the course of the next Parliament. £6.2 billion has been taken out of the budget, yes, while the economy is still trying to recover. I fear for the future, to tell the truth. £620m comes out of Education and £836m from the Communities budget, the strong infrastructure put in place by Labour, slowly being dismantled. The coalition are criticising the former government for wasting money, so what are they doing now by scraping initiatives and re branding departments?

Anyway, i'll try and keep up the posting, although, there is now the added distraction of a certain tournament taking place in South Africa...

The similarity of the salesman

The Politics Show with Jon Sopel, today featured a Question Time-styled audience interrogating Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. Immediately, as Clegg's responses were heard, I felt the presence of a certain David Cameron. In the run up to the election, it has become obvious that Cameron is a salesman who lacks any real substance on policy, but never had I considered Clegg's real qualities as a leader until today. The way Clegg talks, his mannerisms, the smile, they are all strikingly similar to that of the Tory leader.

So, with both parties offering ''change'', they may be best placed to look across the opposition benches at one another and actually try to clarify what sets them a part as leaders and potential prime ministers. Well, only one thing sets them apart of course, policy. Thankfully for Labour, as the polls continue to suggest a hung parliament, the Lib Dems are still far from compromising on policy with the Conservatives; and as much as Clegg will deny it, they are much closer to the Labour Party than any other.

I apologise for stating some of the obvious there, but I found it quite amazing how Cameron and Clegg can be so close yet so far apart. The leader debates will highlight this once again, on personality, Cameron and Clegg may come out on top, but on policy and substance, Gordon Brown has it in the bag.

Welcome to 2010

'2K10' has arrived, or that's what all the chavs are going to call it now...There is quite a lot to look forward to. And also quite a lot not to look forward to. Personally, there is still a metric ton of coursework to do by Monday, an exam to revise for, To Kill A Mockingbird to read and a mock exam results day and that's just in January!!

Elsewhere, it's election year!! Woo! I know we are all confident of a Labour landslide :\

I think it may time for a hung parliament. I don't feel any party will have a good enough majority to form a Government. Labour will probably lose poor old Gordon...As a member, I would like to see David Miliband or Jon Cruddas as our next leader and I desperately hope the Conservatives are subject to the most almighty demise between now and May similar to the one seen at the end of John Major's tenure as Prime Minister.

Of course, there are other things that are going to happen. Formula One is back with Team Britain v Team Germany, England are second favourites to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and it's look as though 2010 will be a yaer of recovery from a difficult recession. The year 2000 was supposed to be a new start for the world, it was quickly followed by 9/11 and the war on terror. Terrorism isn't going to stop in this next decade but let's make a better start to this one than we did the to the last.

Happy New Year to All

My new syndromic views

As you may have noticved I have,as promised, renamed my Blog. The Syndrome, as I'm suer you'll agree is a lot better. And, it allows me to use the word 'syndromic' alot more! It effectively means 'diseased', on second thoughts, perhaps I won't use it that much...

....so has the 'fightback' promised at the Labour Party Conference begun? Well, with the excellent by-election results from Glasgow North East, I think it has. It was going to be a safe seat anyway, but Labour's candidate Willie Bain still won it by quite some majority with 59.9% of the vote, a majority of 8,111.

Also, the Daily Mirror have today published a Labour advert that shows the gruesome twosome of David Cameron and George Osborne sporting hairstyles similar to those of the X Factor twins, John and Edward. But the tagline warns: "You won't be laughing if they win." I think that's genius, certainly a sign of positive fightback.

It will be interesting to see the next polls when they are published....

Hello Again. Remember me?

You may have noticed my distinct lack of posts since the start of September, but the start of the school year has been so hectic and busy (and expensive!!). I also promised a new blog title, as you can see, I haven't managed that either...

Currently I have a kind of check list I need to go by..

1. Plan something for my damned Drama/English assessment
2. Finish my Geography coursework and Science homework
3. Read more than a chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird (Even if it is incredibly boring)
4. Go to sleep before midnight, at least one day a week.
5. In some way help Labour's doomed election campaign.

There is more, but I find reading checklists become tedious after about the first five. However, at least it is the weekend and I have football watching and the Singapore GP to look forward to and maybe even a BBQ (Probably the last one until next summer). It's sunny and it's September (I think that's a oxymoron), ishouldnt moan too much! England match and Thorpe park too look forward to next month!!

The election is emerging on the horizon...

As Parliament is recess, nothing has really happened. Newsreaders persist on claiming what a slow news month it is with nothing to talk about but a 11 year old girl crashing her grandfather's car off of a cliff. With all this quiet, it gets you predicting how the start of the parliamnetary year will begin. Not just a new parliamentary year but an election year, by this time next year, parliament could be in recess with a certain David Cameron in charge of Britain (God forbid). But you never know, there could be a very drastic change in fortune for Labour, and Gordon Brown could win his first elected term in the top job. But in the words of Mr Obama himself, we need change and we need it fast. We need some fresh impetus for Labour and for British politics. A fresh impetus to get the public back an interested in the workings and goings on of Parliament, and that certainly does not mean electing a Conservative government. Enthusiasm is something Westminster has been lacking since the election of 1997. I am sure Gordon Brown can deliver given the chance, but to do this he must use the talents of David and Ed Miliband, Peter Mandelson and Andy Burnham, the first and the latter of those names, I feel, are the future of Labour, maybe even the future Prime Ministers of Britain. Election 2010 will be an interesting one, certainly for the younger generation who only vaguely remember the 1997 election when there was a change in government, from that you can probably tell I expect a change in premier as much as I hope against it.

A Facebook Conversation...

I began this blog a couple of hours after the resignation of James Purnell. When that story broke I had BBC News on in the background whilst trying to defend Gordon Brown's leadership of the Labour Party. I thought for my first post I could show you all that converstation to just give an idea of how passionate I am about Politics and the Labour Party for that matter.

The Conversation:
(I have censored the names of the people in the conversation as they may not wish to have their names published in my blog.

Ash Giles is thinking poor Gordon...Bugger Blears!

Person 1 at 07:59 on 04 June
poor gordon? why?

Ash Giles at 20:09 on 04 June
He's a good Prime Minister with a vision fo rthe future...but every one is ganging up on him! It's not all his fault!

Person 1 at 20:12 on 04 June
Errr hello.... He was the fricking chancellor for the last gazillion years..of course this is all his fault!!!

Person 2 at 20:14 on 04 June
??? good lord, ash. he had been chancellor for god knows how long, and i hadnt seen him do anything memorable - unless of course, you can name something :P i know you cant see him as all bad... well, maybe you can :/

Person 1 at 20:16 on 04 June
Here here Cody!! Although I feel sorry because he had a child that died!!!

Person 2 at 20:18 on 04 June
blimey never knew that - how long ago was it?

Ash Giles at 20:19 on 04 June
You got me started now, just ask Liam about my political rants! When Gordon was Chancellor the economy was in a boom time. During the boom time he made sure the NHS recruited 20,000 more nurses and built 30,000 new schools.Gordon Brown presided over the longest period of growth ever, creating two and a half million more jobs, and lifting 600,000 children out of poverty. Owned.

Ash Giles at 20:50 on 04 June
Gordon and his wife had a daughter in December 2001 and she died of Cystic Fibrosis in the January of 2002.

Ash Giles at 20:55 on 04 June
I tell a lie....the daughter was born prematurely and died...he also has a son who has got cystic fibrosis though :(

Person 2 at 21:09 on 04 June
hey, i didnt say he didnt do anything memorable, just not anything that i knew of. the only thing i would say about that is in a boom cycle, there wouldn't be many who couldn't have done that and more.i understand the death of a child is very hard, and not to sound cold or anything, but around about this time (7 years laer) something like that shouldnt be something to get in the way, nor an excuse for his inability to lead a country in a crisis.the final thing i find is that as good as you make him out to be, he and his entire party have been revealed as very corrupt, and while not the sole blame can be put upon him for that, if the "scandals" or whatever they are called were not revealed, it would be likely he would have allowed it to go on.again, he cant have sole blame - but he's the one spearheading the fate of the country, if he's so wonderful it shouldnt be to hard to overcome these problems.... Read more double your post size XD and i have more if you wanna discuss single points.

Person 2 at 21:10 on 04 June
woops i ran outta post space :/ all i wanted to add was; :P

Ash Giles at 22:50 on 04 June
Firstly, I think you may find that in no way has his child's death got 'in the way', Liam's mum just happened to bring it up....Secondly, it is not only the Labour Party that has been uncovered. The scandal involves MP's from both sides of the house (primarily Conservatives). I am not saying he is the best PM we have ever had but Gordon Brown has a... Read more vision for the future of Britain, he and Alistair Darling are currently leading the world out of the recession (he has advised Barack Obama on some issues), and lets face it, anybody is going to be better than having David Cameron as the Prime Minister. Tony Blair was the best Prime Minister the UK has ever seen (Yes, better than Churchill or Thatcher!), Blair was always going to be a difficult figure to follow. Tony also left Gordon with some loose strings to tie up, for example, 3,000 British troops were still in Iraq when Tony left office, all British troops have now been withdrawn. See next post>>

Ash Giles at 23:09 on 04 June
I think any leader, be it Brown, Cameron or Clegg, Obama, Sarkozy or Merkel, would laugh at you if you told them that it quote: 'shouldnt be to hard to overcome these problems'.The challenges we face are unprecedented. These are global challenges we must combat. You can't possibly only blame our government for the state of the economy because as I... Read more said this problem is not on the British stage, it is on a global stage. As a result of the 'scandals' Gordon Brown has announced complete constitutional reform which may well include an electoral reform (This could lead to the voting age being lowered to 16) and an expenses reform to enthuse trust in Parliament. Gordon Brown is not allowed to know the content of other MP's expenses to respect the privacy all MP's are entitled to. For that reason, there is no way Brown could of prevented this from happening. But he has now acted very quickly to address the issue and prevent it from happening again. Obviously, as a member of the Labour Party >

Ash Giles at 23:23 on 04 June
I will try to defend it at all times. But I am fully behind Gordon Brown, I believe he is the best person to lead the country out of this recession and into the next general election which should be in May 2010. As I write this James Purnell, the Work & Pensions Sec., has resigned. There will be a cabinet reshuffle next week and Gordon Brown and ... Read morehis new cabinet can focus on the real issues facing Britain, something David Cameron and the Conservatives are incapable of. The Conservatives lack substance and policy.A Conservative government for Britain would be a disaster.I think that post was about 3 times your last one...