Well today in England, it’s our General Election. Which means it’s time for us lowly citizens to go and vote, in an effort to elect who we wish to lead us for the next four years. These are the main candidates, and my thoughts on each of them.
Charles Kennedy, Liberal Democrats
Do I want a ginger minger to be our next statesman? Charlie boy, you need to dye your hair and lose some weight, don’t you know that if you got into number 10, you would immediately become the likeliest person to suffer from a heart attack?
Can I remember what your manifesto was based on, apart from calling Tony Blair a liar? Erm, shit what do you stand for again?
Was I moved by the fact that he took paternity leave at the beginning of the election because his wife had just given birth? Not really, that just says to me that he hasn’t got the killer instinct, and that he would put his personal situation above that of the country’s, al la David Blunkett.
Am I impressed that Charles Kennedy didn’t want us to go to war with Iraq? Not really, I believe if he’d been in charge, he would have done the same thing.
Do I trust Charles Kennedy to do the right thing? Yes I do (score one for you Charlie Boy)
What’s my verdict? Well I trust him, and he means well, but I just don’t think his policies hold up under close scrutiny, and what’s this about cutting taxes? We all know that you can’t afford to do that, no matter how much we crave it, so nah, not this time Charlie Boy.
Michael Howard Conversatives
Do I really want to vote for somebody whose smile doesn’t ever reach his eyes? He smiles with his teeth (a la Victoria Beckham… but I like her) and comes across as being fake? Nope, he looks too predatory..
Do I want to vote for somebody who’s now 60 years old, does he understand what I need? I think not, he’s from Margaret Thatcher’s era, but with none of her presence or charm.
Do I really want to vote for somebody who made a hash of things the last time his party were in power? Yes Mr Howard, I’m old enough to remember what your legacy as Home Secretary was.
Do I want to vote for somebody whose campain slogan was “It’s not racist to discuss immigration” Hello, what about education, health, and crime bozo? That’s it, alienate the few people of colour who were thinking of voting for you. To be fair on him, he did change his campaign emphasis once the Bleeding Hearts criticised him for his approach.
So what’s my verdict? Fuck that, no way, Jose.
Tony Blair, Labour Party (Present Encumbent)
Do I think he lied over the Iraq war? Nope, I still believe he had dud information.
Do I think he’s in President Bush’s pocket, nope, he’s strong enough to make up his own mind about things, plus no matter what the other leaders might say, they would have taken the same action.
How’s our economy at present? Well, the Pound is strong (we get nearly two dollars for our pound) interest rates are low, unemployment is at an all time low, and has been for years. I know for a fact that unemployment in America has been rising steadily for a while now, so our economy is A-ok thank you very much.
How’s our health system? We English don’t know how good we’ve got it, if we get sick, we don’t have to worry about having paid up insurance before we can be treated. Waiting lists have been cut substantially since Tony Blair came into power.
Do I trust him? Implicitly, I believe he will always do what he thinks is right. I hate wish washy people, so he’ll do for me!
Dawn
May 5
10:45 pm
OK, so we are going to have to agree to disagree about Tony Blair (who I believe lied about the whole Iraq thing and I didn’t trust him before that anyway). Unfortunately, I do think that Labour will get in again.
Frankly, all the parties are almost as bad as each other, but we each have to decide for ourselves which of them we feel most comfortable with.
Paz
May 6
2:07 am
Good luck with your election results.
Paz
Jenn
May 6
5:58 pm
I am glad you are happy with the results.
I wasn’t with ours.
But I think overall we no longer get the best our country has to offer running for public office.
Politics is just another thing I have become cynical about.
I watch your parliament from time to time and it is fascinating.
Karen Scott
May 8
9:57 am
Hi Dawn, I’m one of the only people amongst my friends and family, who thinks that Blair genuinely did what he thought was best, so you’re not the firt to disagree with me, lol.
I’m still of the opinion that any other government would have done the same thing. It was easy for the Lib Dem’s to oppose the move, because let’s face it, they weren’t particularly influenetial either way, and the conservatives fully backed the war themselves, so you know what they would have done.
I was more annoyed at the amount of people who didn’t vote. Most of the friends who I asked if they were going to vote, told me no, they couldn’t be bothered. My hairdresser told me that she didn’t think it affected her either way, and besides she had a facial appointment that day.
I wish that more people wiould realise that their opinions do count for somethin, women are definitely the worst offenders!
Thanks Paz, I got the result I wanted!
Jenn, I think that if John Kerry had been more of a Bill Clinton type personality, he would have got through, even I as a neutral English person, didn’t like Kerry much, all that posturing and saluting was too much for me to take!
A credible opposition would have seen Bush ousted, mind you, I believe he had the hypocritical bible belt vote anyway!
Dawn
May 8
8:28 pm
I know what you mean about the not voting, Karen. It does make me angry when people don’t exercise their right to vote, and then they complain bitterly about what’s going on.
I’ve always voted, even to the point if I know I’m going to be away from home I’ll do a postal ballot.
I may not have changed the outcome, but at least I had something to say about it with my one vote.