First Time Voter? Not Sure What to Do?

The BBC has got a really easy to follow guide of the basics of how to vote. If in any doubt visit your local council website for further advise that may be specific for you.

Gentlemen and Ladies Start You Engines

Gordon Brown has now been to the palace to visit the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament. There will now be an election on 6 May and election where the voters really can have a bigger say than ever before.

 

If you truly want to vote for change look not at what either Labour or the Conservatives are saying they would like to do, look at what the Liberal Democrats have been trying to do over recent only to come up against the roadblock that is the Labservatives. We've tried to make things more open, we've tried to make the expenses system more like the private sector but we've been knocked back at every attempt to reform.

The way Britain's run means the Government doesn't have to listen to you. One party can get control over Parliament even if only a quarter of people vote for them. So individual people and families don't seem to have a voice to influence what happens. The old parties are comfortable because they know they'll get into government every few years - so they never change things and they never will. But people are fed up of being ignored. It's time to make a real change. We need to have an open political system that's designed to listen to people and deliver what they need. Everyone should have an equal voice - not just people who can pay for big donations.

The Liberal Democrats will throw open the doors of government, reinvigorate Britain's democracy and give power back to people. We will modernise government so that it serves the interests of all people, not just the vested interests of politicians, corporations or rich donors. Liberal Democrats plan to reform government so there will be no more privileged patronage, no more dodgy dossiers, no more excessive secrecy. Government should uphold the law, as well as our liberties, not seek ways to undermine them. We will create a British democracy for the 21st century that people can be proud of.

We've also seen Labour erode our civil liberties. This Government has given up on ordinary people’s rights – like freedom of speech and privacy. They have created more than 4,300 new crimes – one for every day in office.

The Government has over a million innocent people’s DNA on file. Thousands of schools monitor children’s fingerprints, and parents aren’t allowed to stop them. An Identity Card scheme is planned that is more complex and intrusive than anywhere else in the world. And worst of all they keep losing all the information they hold instead of keeping it safe.

Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to defending our most important rights. The threat of terrorist attacks must be taken seriously but it does not mean that we should sacrifice our liberty in the name of security. Previous generations died to protect our freedom, and politicians shouldn’t try to take it from us. That doesn’t just mean warm words about British tradition: it means action. The Conservatives aren’t serious about freedom – they want to scrap the laws that protect our human rights and personal privacy.

Liberal Democrats will introduce a Freedom Bill to restore and protect our most important liberties. We will scrap expensive and unnecessary ID Cards; remove innocent people from the criminal DNA database; restore the right to protest and freedom of speech; and restore other vital freedoms. We will protect people’s privacy by strengthening data protection laws and stopping unnecessary state intervention in our lives.

If you want a change that restores your liberties and restores Parliament to a place where you the vote have sway vote Liberal Democrat on the 6th may.

The Wikio MacBlogopshere Rankings April 2010

I'm doing to just give you the list of Scottish blogs in the top 100 political blogs this month. No padding as I'm busy. Though I will apologise in advance that next months will be late, the 5h May will be the eve of poll it appears.

1. 8 (7) And Another Thing....Tom Harris
2. 16 (21) Cute Greek Baby
3. 30 (29) Subrosa
4. 33 (27) Alex Massie
5. 43 (32) SNP Tactical Voting
6. 49 (48) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal
7. 58 (49) Bishop Hill
8. 61 (79) Rantin Rab
9. 62 (62) Caron's Musings
10. 77 (65) Andrew's Running Blog
11. 89 (68) Scottish Roundup
12. 90 (86) Two Doctors
13. 91 (74) Andrew Neill's Blog
14. 97 (NE) Underdog Bites Upwards
15. 98 (88) Yapping Yousuf

Double Standards of the Tories Over Gay B&B Comments

Example 1: A Conservative shadow Home Secretary says just the other week that it should be acceptable for a gay couple to be turned away from a B&B should the proprietors say they want to on no other grounds than their sexuality.

Example 2: An Ulster Unionist B&B owner from Antrim is prevented from going forward
to the UUP v Conservative decision to stand as the MP for Antrim South for saying in 2006 he felt 'uncomfortable' having same sex couple stay in his B&B, before the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

Quite rightly Antrim Mayor Adrian Watson who had the backing of 90% of the local Ulster Unionist party is pointing out that Chris Grayling has gone further than him. Yet he is being barred from standing possibly on the same grounds that Grayling has yet to even be censured by his own leader. He says:

"Are they going to veto their shadow home secretary now? Is Owen Paterson [Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary] going to go back to London and say we have set a precedent in Northern Ireland? If there is no disciplinary action against him then it is serious discrimination, David Cameron talks about equality, where is my equality?"

Shouldn't the same standards be set for Epsom and Ewell as for Antrim South?

What News from Cameron on the Acceptability of Same-Sex Couples in B&Bs

Chris Grayling's the Conservative shadow Home Secretary comments about it being acceptable for B&B owner to turn away same sex couples first came to light late on Saturday evening. That has given leader David Cameron a whole 36 hours to issue the following comment (I'm posting it in full):

"









."

Grayling himself has issued the following apology:

"






".

Has this had an impact? Well Pink News were in the middle of running their second monthly poll on the LGBT community's voting intentions and it certainly has done. The Lib Dems are now the most popular in the overall LGBT vote on 29% up 5% while the Tories are down 5% to 20% a direct swing as Labour remain unchanged. Amongst first time voters they also drop 5% to 35% just ahead of the soaring Lib Dems at 32%. The poll was about half way through when Grayling's revelation came to the attention of the press, as Pink News says:

"The PinkNews.co.uk poll had already begun prior to the publication by The Observer of comments by the shadow home secretary Chris Grayling where he appeared to back the rights of bed and breakfast owners to ban gay couples. But the swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat did increase markedly in the early hours of Sunday."

So the swing Conservative to Lib Dem may well be bigger than that indicated as a result of Grayling's comments but for people already casting their vote. The Conservatives have kept silent at the top end too long over this, they are haemorrhaging votes that they are unlikely to regain in the time between now and the election from a part of the electorate they had been courting.What is encouraging for the Liberal Democrats and Nick Clegg is that the support appears to be shifting straight over to us, with no leakage to Labour.

Lib Dems to Expand the Rail Network

The Liberal Democrats were the party who fought for the current rail expansion that is going on in Scotland ahead of the 2003 election. Living as I do in Bathgate I get an almost daily update on the progress of one of those projects with the Bathgate to Airdrie extension. Today plans to shift £3bn from road to rail projects has been announced as part of the Lib Dem plans for a greener UK.

In what will be the biggest rail expansion since the Victorian era thousands of miles of tracks. Precise details of what will be opened will have to wait until they are tendered but here are some of the schemes that will be considered as priorities.

The electrification of lines from Manchester to Liverpool, Leeds and Preston; from Birmingham to Bristol and Basingstoke; and between Leeds and York. New or reopened stations could be funded in Ilkeston, Kidlington, Wantage, Corsham, Tavistock, Middlewich, Ashington, Blyth, Washington and Skelmersdale.

New lines could link Southport with Preston, Bournemouth with Ringwood and the Midlands main line with the Birmingham-Derby route. And track could be reopened between Exeter and Okehampton; Tavistock and Plymouth; Penrith and Keswick; and Galashiels and Carlisle.

The Galashiels to Carlisle link effectively completes the borders connection not just linking north to Edinburgh but also south to the mainline connections.

Lib Dem transport spokesman Norman Baker said:

"The Liberal Democrats will transform the railways with the biggest expansion since the Victorian age.

"Labour has allowed the railways to wither on the vine and punished passengers with huge fare hikes while more polluting forms of transport have got cheaper. All the while, the Tories have been sharpening the axe they will take to the transport budget.

"High speed rail is hugely important, but it is only part of the 21st-century rail network Britain needs. Our plans will reopen thousands of miles of track across the country and make our railway great again."

Cameron Says 'Vote Lib Dem You Become King Makers"

Ok he didn't exactly but may as well have. Here's why.

David Cameron has admitted that there is a possibility of a hung parliament, or course says he doesn't want it, that it 'would damage UK'. Why is he so scared? Because a hung Parliament is a defeat to the Labservative Party's game of pass the parcel. Because a hung Parliament could, should and would lead to a major shake up of the politics of this country as we know it.

But his argument that a strong Government is what is needed to make long term decisions. But do majority Governments always make good long term decisions. Let's take a lesson from history. Just at random lets take the 16th September 1992 as an example. Now we need an eye witness to what happened that day to tell us exactly how long term decisions were not getting made that day.



No not the guy in the front, my MP at the time and all the Chancellor of the Exchequer the guy in the shadows. Yeah you see it wasn't a hung Parliament that was unable to make long term decisions that Wednesday it was one with a majority. The government up the base rate from 10% to 12% to 15% to the above when they pulled out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism and returned the bases rate to 10% all in the space of a few hours.

So of course the Labservatives learnt from that lesson and freed up the banks to make their own decisions after 1997. Only then of course the banks messed it up all by themselves.

You see only one party is prepared to make real changes that will prevent either of the above happening again. The Labservatives, hey just want to trim around the edges, the Lib Dems are however looking to make a radical change that will cut to the heart, a change that will make the recovery sustainable possible. The Labservatives are scared that they have lost the initiative, Vince Cable came across well in Monday's chancellor debate and now it looks like people want the Lib Dems to run the economy. Of course that is bad news for Cameron, but not going to damage the UK.