[Politics] Conference season

[davywavy]

Well, the party conferences are out of the way and they've all been setting out their stalls for the election in 18 months time. I thought I'd do a quick round up.

UKIP
Headline policy: We don't like gays or women with an IQ over 70.
It's a downer. Back when UKIP were a single-issue pressure group campaigning to leave the EU, they had a simple message which nobody could reasonably disagree with. Alas, with their surge they've decided they had to come up with policies, and so they came up with really stupid ones. Somehow they've managed to go from being the anti-EU party to being the anti-gay marriage party. How did that happen?
And their proposal for a UK sovereign wealth fund holes their claim to economic credibility under the waterline. Still, it was nice whilst it lasted.

Conservative
Headline policy: We don't like people under 25.
And it was all going so well. Having handed Ed & Ed their arses on important stuff like the economy, welfare and education, they get up and announce that people under 25 won't be allowed to get the dole.
The problem for me here is that I was a doley dosser for a couple of years after I graduated, and so voting for a policy which would prevent people doing exactly what I did would be deeply hypocritical of me.

Labour
Headline policy: We still can't do sums
After a successful thirteen years of government proving they can't do sums, Labour are nailing their inability to perform basic mathematical functions to the mast and going for broke. Literally. Twenty years ago, there was a public outcry over "Teen Talk" Barbie because when you pulled the string on her back she said "Maths is hard". Now when you get up on stage at a political conference and do much the same it's hailed as a statesmanlike vote winner.

Liberal Democrat
Headline Policy: We'll do anything - anything at all - to get back into government.
The Libdems didn't really announce any policies beyond giving telling Labour and the Conservatives to make a shopping list of things they'd be willing to offer to a coalition partner. I was impressed by the commitment to both Liberalism and Democracy in this position.

The Greens
Headline policy:
I looked over the green party website and they didn't really appear to have a headline policy. I suppose the closest they came was a commitment to renationalising the railways, and I've got to say the irony of a bunch of people claiming UKIP want to take Britain back to the 1950s whilst simultaneously promising a round of industrial nationalisation didn't pass me by.
The nationalisation plan is based on the old canard that Britain has the highest railway subsidies in Europe, which skips over the fact that the French have given their railways 30% more money than the UK in the last decade, and the Greeks spent triple the UK subsidy per passenger mile - which was instrumental in their subsequent national bankruptcy.
I can only assume that when the Greens demand evidence-based polices, they don't mean their own.



Anyway, that leaves me back where I was about 5 years ago, with nobody I can realistically vote for. Any suggestions?

Comments

[ddraiggwyrdd.livejournal.com]

The choice should come down to Education policy.
If the party is at all concerned with raising a generation of literate, numerate, reasonably knowledgeable, logical thinkers then they get my vote.
Since each is solely concerned with raising a uniformly compliant electorate ready to swallow the marketing and buy the merchandise I don't think they will get my vote.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point; the tie-break should be education, and for the reasons you outline.

Gove currently winning on points, then.

[vampyrefate.livejournal.com]

I typically vote for an independent, if one is standing. Otherwise I try to tactically vote against Labour.

But it's irrelevant over here anyway, as it's Blunkett Country.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Round here the Independents we get are by and large beardy fruitcakes who the Green party wouldn't take for being too batshit. Not really an option.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Left Unity? ;-)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are a wag.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I start off by only considering those candidates who I think honestly intend to try to implement their stated policies. That's all the big ones off the list.
Then I cross off the ones who're obviously Evil. Bye-bye, BNP and their friends.
That used to leave me with the Monster Raving Loony Party, and a few others who were far less sane.
Now? I dunno. The Greens are probably the closest to getting my vote. At least they seem to be well-intentioned and honest.

[omentide.livejournal.com]

Leave the country.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Which party leader would you most be prepared to go for a drink with?

[(Anonymous)]

UKIP for Europe next year, thereafter you're on your own.

[(Anonymous)]

Is that when they aren't purging each other?

[(Anonymous)]

No, they aren't.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathies, since I'm in a somewhat similar situation myself. I have nothing helpful to say, except that party disloyalty is a wonderful democratic virtue. This is a good omen considering that it's apparently extremely easy.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes they are

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Because I think they might be good company or because I'd relish the opportunity to get close enough to land a decent punch?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I see no value at all in being loyal to a party. They're supposed to be public servants, and if you tell a servant you will definitely give them a job then what incentive do they have to offer you anything you want? Similarly, if you tell a servant you definitely won't give them a job no matter what, why should they change what they do to offer something you want?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty confident that's what you were saying about the Labour party in 2008.

And here was me thinking relentless optimism in the face of experience towards a latest fad was the preserve of my user icon.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

If it is the latter, be careful with David Cameron. I'm convinced he's a vampire.he keeps looking fatter and sleeker while Nick Clegg looks more and more ragged and desperate.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'd say that Cameron looks to be the one I'd be most likely to go for a drink with on that basis; at least he looks like he knows how to have a good time. I reckon Farage would just annoy me after about ten minutes, Milliband would be no fun as he'd fall asleep after a half, and thingy from the Greens would be like going for a drink in the old student union bar five minutes after an exec meeting had finished.