Election Fever

I received a red coloured glossy election flier from my local Labour MP. She is apparently a hard working campaigner, campaigning against all sorts of things, whatever that means. Included in her campaigns have been bank charges, post offices and jobs (her own perhaps).
It reminded me that I have written to her twice this year concerning things I felt strongly about. On both occasions I only received a standard email response “Your email communication is acknowledged and the information has been noted”.
Perhaps I have high expectations, but that wasn’t really the response I wanted. What I hoped was that she would support the objection I have written to the Licensing Board. Until recently, my area has had relatively few pubs, but something odd happened a while ago. A hairdressing salon asked for a license; apparently their customers needed a gin and tonic to calm their nerves. Of course the councillors granted it; albeit with a bit of mirth. And what do you know, the hairdressers has morphed into a bar. Now they want to increase licensing hours till midnight. This is what happened in Byres Road a few years ago, now the residents in the area have to put up with sleepless nights due to disorderly behaviour. Some have been forced to move away.

What's wrong with a hung parliament?

Many in Government and the City are trying to scare us about the consequences of a Hung Parliament. Should we be worried?
Well, actually we have had one in Scotland since 2007. It has forced the ruling party to seek consensus, and so far, prevented them from unleashing an Independence Referendum on us. Many of the disasters of the last ten years have been because of large majorities:

For example, it would have been hard for the Government to have invaded Iraq if they had a wafer thin majority.
The Labour group in Glasgow City Council was able to set up all these private companies and hand out jobs to elected members, because the opposition could be ignored.

Forcing governments to negotiate and compromise can mean less laws, but better ones.

Some common misconceptions about politicians

There are some misconceptions that regularly get bandied about regarding politicians. I often hear “Why bother voting, they are all the same”.
Would it be correct to say that Michael Foot was the same as Tony Blair? If you have ever tried to contact your local politicians, you might notice that some are quite diligent and others try to fob you off. In general, the ones with small majorities are keener than the ones who expect to get back in at each election.

It is also widely believed that all politicians are dishonest. My stint in that profession taught me that there are quite a few who don’t fiddle their expenses.
People, understandably feel that their one vote doesn’t really matter. Well, I beg to differ. When I got elected, my majority was 43 votes.

Remember the environment

In the rush to save the banks, the Government seems to have forgotten that we need to save the planet. Fortunately some of us still feel that protecting the environment is nearly as important as protecting our wallet.
I was interested to attend a hustings meeting where people had the chance to question candidates. All the main parties were involved. It was interesting to see that Labour has selected the previous MP’s son to represent them. Keep it in the family, I say.
He explained his party’s pledges to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by 30%. Having targets is very eye catching, but has a poor record, and is no sustitute for taking concrete actions. In Kyoto in 1997, the developed nations agreed to a 5% emissions cut by 2012. But by 2007 these emissions had risen by 11%.
In Great Britain it is calculated that around 24,000 people die prematurely from breathing polluted air. We have agreed targets to reduce this. Unfortunately we have not met our targets on Nitrogen Dioxide or Particulates. Not to worry, the American Journal of Epidemiology estimated that victims of air pollution only die 9.8 years early.

Today I was lucky enough to read his exciting election manifesto; the headline, “Fair for All” is full of originality. Perhaps it might have been called “Don’t mention the Deficit”. It is crammed full of wonderful new recycled policies; I was especially impressed by his cunning plan to improve failing hospitals. As we know, hospitals are allowed to be the judge of their own performance, this is quite correct; it would be unfair if an external body was to monitor them. The Supreme Leader’s plan is: if the hospital judges itself not to be successful; it will be taken over by a more successful one. This is similar to Turkeys voting for Christmas, and cannot fail to work.
It was also reassuring to see his pledge that referrals to consultants would take no more than 18 weeks (approximately 4 months). If I were to be ill, I will be very patient and happily wait that length of time; after all, we have been doing so for a number of years.

Identity Cards

He also kept a very tight rein on his Government’s expenditure, diligently avoiding any unnecessary debt. The many billions he poured into the health service for example, have created a very valuable army of managers, who have been worth their weight in gold. It is very satisfying to hear of so many managers earning over £150,000 per annum.
It is astonishing to hear the global financial markets comparing us with spendthrift governments like Greece and Iceland.

His rivals at this election are unable to take the tough decisions he has done. They are suggesting that he cancels his plan for a National Identity Card. Comrade Supreme Leader feels it is well worth borrowing another £10 billion or so, to be able to eavesdrop on his citizens. It is quite wrong to suggest that civil servants could lose peoples’ private details, that has never happened. As a precaution he believes that our private details such as medical records, tax records, political activities and credit histories should be kept in a central database. At present they are kept in all sorts of separate files and that makes it difficult for fraudsters and private companies to access them.

Humble origins

Our dearly departed Leader was the pin up boy for New Labour; fêted by the party as a future First Minister. One of his last engagements was a meeting with Comrade Supreme Leader Brown. We will never know what passed between them, but shortly after, he announced his resignation.
Our comrade Supreme Leader Brown is, as we all know, of very humble origins. Brought up in a miner’s cottage, the family of six slept in one bedroom. As they had no running water, they took turns to bathe in a nearby river. There is a Tory smear which says he injured his eye in a rugby match; we all know he would never have played such a decadent upper class game. Actually his injury was sustained saving the life of an injured miner after an accident in the pit. There are further scurrilous Tory accusations that he attended University and was parachuted into a safe Labour seat.

Of course, our comrade Supreme Leader has been financially astute. He very cleverly spotted the bottom of the gold market and sold the country’s gold reserves at that time. During my career in the financial markets I now recognise my wrong thinking. I have in some cases bought shares at low prices and sold them at a profit.
He also, very cleverly, set up a new system for monitoring the banking industry, and we owe him a huge debt for that. Due to his careful scrutiny, they did not get involved in any hanky panky. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he abolished boom and bust, and in no sense was he responsible for the reckless lending of some banks. If two Scottish banks over extended themselves and lent money to all and sundry, can he be held accountable? That was the fault of the Americans, with whom we have a special relationship.