My official political stance is "it doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in".
I was watching The Iron Lady last night, and as abysmal as the 80's were in terms of shafting the poor, causing riots, etc, etc, etc - at least Thatcher came from a poor background. She also, for a while, turned the country around. Then it all went pear shaped and Anthony Head had to resign and it was funny because he was playing Mr Whippy Head.
My issue is that politics in this country is run for the politicians and their friends and not for the good of the people. Whenever anyone tries to make big business or the rich pay more, the politicians back away rapidly. The poor are also well looked after (relatively anyway) - so if you don't/can't work, you will still get a roof and food. The issue tends to always be in the middle, where the people working 40 hours+ for more than minimum wage support the entire country. When the money starts to run out, it's the middle earners who have to bear the brunt. More taxes (either directly or indirectly), lack of means testing so even if working you have no money left after food and rent, you get no subsidies, etc, etc.
It's hard to think that multimillionaire Cameron has ever had to struggle to buy new glasses for his kids because there's not enough money left over.
That's by the by though really. The biggest issue for me is that if I was Lord Harumph of Miserableshire and I donated £1,000,000 of my money to the Gits Party (probably tax free and with tax benefits), then I have a vested interest in that party when they come to power. If they want to then start taxing sad faces in £200,000,000 miserable mansions in miserableshire, then there's a conflict of interests if I say "don't forget that £1,000,000 donation and I'm just writing the cheque for next year...". If the Gits Party pass the tax, they lose funding and the party may not have enough to put up a decent stand in the next election. If they drop the proposed taxes, then they are in contempt of office. Yet, that's pretty much how it happens.
How can you trust any government that is more beholden to the people who pay for the party to run than to the people they govern?*
And don't get me started on cabinet appointments! How can somebody move from say, Ministry of Transport, to become Minister for Health? What education in either of those industries do you have, and how can you run a department you have no working knowledge of? Why are so many large scale projects and service changes cancelled or run over by billions? I suspect a link...**
And the idea of a four/five year term where at the end there's no punishment for failed ideas or projects if you are ousted? "Sod it, it's somebody else's problem now we've screwed it up".***
And backtracking. Eugh. What is the point of an opposition party if the first thing they do is keep everything that went before anyway? I'd forgotten about the Poll Tax riots. Labour did an excellent job of getting rid of that in their term didn't they?****
Bunch of ****, the lot of them.
Douglas Adams quote here, works just as well for Prime Ministers
Douglas Adams said:
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
*Solution: for this it's easy. The government at every election issues an "election bond" to each party based on the number of MPs they have. This is the only money that can be used to canvas and "advertise" their party for elections. There should also be a cap on the amount of money that a party can accept for day to day operations - all audited. That way everyone gets a fair slice of pie and nobody ends up financially dependent on anyone.
**Solution: Specialist areas of expertise that you work in during your political career. If you want to become Minister for IT, then you need to obtain a qualification in IT. If you aren't academically qualified (or have XX number of years experience in the industry), then you can't do the ministerial job. Positions in the cabinet should be more akin to applying for a job than a reward for arselicking.
***Solution: Full audit of the reason for the failure and the people in charge or responsible get struck off and are never allowed into politics again. A nice fine wouldn't go amiss either...
****Solution: Put the whole bloody lot of them against a wall and shoot them.