Josh's Blog

Some brief thoughts on the election result so far, as of 1045 the morning after – Tories on 291, Labour on 248, Lib Dems on 51 and everyone else up to 27, 33 to declare. Pretty much everything I’m writing is just based on gut reaction, I’ve not done much maths or analysis beyond my reactions and feelings – only getting two hours sleep didn’t help. It’s a bit strange seeing it all from so far away, down a slightly dodgy stream of BBC World News and on the World Service.

First and foremost, I’m worried about how close the Tories are to an overall majority. I know they won’t get it alone now, not unless the next 42 seats are ridiculous, and that is some comfort, but they still don’t deserve it and their views, principles and policies still don’t even come close to matching the views of the majority in the country. I also have a strange pervasive dread of hearing the words “Prime Minister David Cameron”, and I don’t think it’ll wear any better with time.

I’m very pleased for Caroline Lucas of the Greens taking their first ever seat, despite the fact that it meant a Labour loss. On the flip side, I’m gutted for the Lib Dems, who deserved to do a great deal better – I was expecting somewhere in the region of 100-125 seats, and for far more of them to be taken from the Tories, neither of which seemed to happen.

Like almost everyone, as far as I can see, I’m pleased and relieved that Nick Griffin and his Nazi ilk didn’t win a single seat, though it’s really quite depressing that there are over half a million racist morons who voted for them nationwide… and that under PR, which I am still all in favour of (preferably via STV, including RON in the absence of a perfect system), they would probably have won more than one seat – a real worry, though obviously still no reason to continue propping up FPTP

Naturally I’ll be keeping a close eye on everything with great interest…

The recent elections made me completely furious… I’m sure many many other people felt the same. Yes, it was a washout for Labour, which is always bad, but what made my blood boil was the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament, largely because so few people could be bothered to take a two minute walk to their polling station and cross a box. Yes, there’s more to it than that, and a big chunk of the blame lies at the feet of scorn worthy ex-ministers for resigning in the days leading up to polling day, and the ongoing expenses scandal.

At the end of the day though, every single British, European or Commonwealth adult citizen in this country is responsible for casting their own vote. I’m disgusted that as someone who actually used their vote last week, I’m in a minority of just over a third of the electorate- UK turnout was only 34.48%.

I think the expenses scandal has been ridiculous, just like pretty much everyone. The next time I hear a politician whine “but it was within the rules…” I think I might scream. Yes, the rules were wrong, but I would hope the politicians I support and help return to Westminster would be bright enough to realise that without a month-long Telegraph exposé. We don’t want representatives who work systems to their own advantage as much as possible because it’s in the rules, we want MPs who are upstanding, responsible role models to society – they should have integrity, and at least try to be grounded in the real world.

Expenses are a necessary part of a fair political system, including second home allowances, and the Telegraph didn’t half ham up some of the claims, with their tendency to hone in on small parts of large claims, present them in isolation, and then say “what a scoundrel, couldn’t he even buy his own new toilet seat”. I don’t subscribe to an MPs halls of residence (I mean really, just think of the security risk for half a second) but MPs should know to be reasonable in their claims.

As for all this talk of Labour leadership elections, I’m glad the PLP got a grip. It was incredible to see a few self-serving members and even ministers try to ride the media’s storm to oust Brown, as if the expenses scandal were his fault, when the fascists are being returned to Brussels due to voter apathy. It’s a time for pulling together, ideally of all the moderate parties, to say no to the extremism in our midst, not for parties to be splitting down the middle.

All in all, a pretty awful week for UK and EU politics. I’m looking forward to seeing some improvements over the coming months.

The picture at the top was what I sent to Hope not Hate‘s anti-BNP campaign. It’s a petition which says NOT IN MY NAME. The petition will be handed into the European Parliament on the day that BNP leader Nick Griffin takes his seat. Sign the petition – let’s show the rest of the EU what we think of the racist BNP.

This is how cool Jen and I are: aged 15 (Jen) and 17 (me), before we’d even decided to go to Durham, let alone arrived and met one another, we both bought identically coloured red guitars of one type and another. She is the acoustic to my bass . To continue the similarities, neither of us can really play them, though she can strum out a few tunes while I’m not even at that level… so, we’ve been learning… or rather I have, Jen wasn’t really in the mood after our excursion yesterday.

I’m ridiculously proud to say that I can sort-of, accurately-ish, play the bass line to Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. Go me! I know it’s ridiculously easy (clearly a song made for n00bs), but even though I’ve owned the guitar for about 6 years, I’m very proud of that *sets himself up for a mocking*

Anywho, enough of that. Last weekend was my housewarming party… only small (7 of us) but it was fantastic – it was nice to be able to be able to have a proper sit down meal with every one (mm, yummy lamb), even if a couple of us were sitting on speakers due to lack of chairs… thank you to everyone who came, it was fabulous to see you all, and my house is feeling metaphorically, if not actually, warm.

Yesterday, we made good use of our matching National Trust memberships (only £21 if you’re under 26, join up, live the dream!) to visit Housesteads Fort on Hadrian’s Wall… it was very cold, though there wasn’t any snow left, which was probably a good thing. I’d never been to the wall before, it was surprising how much was still there really. I still found it  a little difficult to imagine how big it would have been, because it doesn’t look that much more imposing than the surrounding dry stone walls, but the museum bit gave lots of information that made it pretty clear that it was a formidable structure after all – as much because of the defensive ditches and peaks on either side of the wall as of the stone structure itself. Go and see it if you get the chance – Rome’s solution to the ungovernable people!

We had a 20% off day at work recently – while these are common in some retailers, M&S doesn’t usually go in for store-wide discounting as much as the competition. The last time we had a “Spectacular Day” was four years ago, so the store was absolutely rammed with people – mostly on GM, but the deal extended to wine too which meant foods was very busy as well – to the point where ten people filling the section all day couldn’t keep it full (the maximum we could get away with without crowding out customers!) It meant a very long shift for me and the other managers, but I did enjoy it. That was my first real taste of retail at Peak, so it’s a good sign.

A number of others from my intake of grads have recently left the business, where I’m really just beginning to enjoy it properly. I think a lot of that is because I’m happier being up here, and because my competitive nature is kicking in a bit more… I’m not sure how much I need to reign it in, but I’m getting good reviews at the moment, which is nice

I watched the government’s PBR this afternoon. All very interesting, and delivered masterfully by Mr. Darling. I think Osborne came on much too strongly, especially as the Tories don’t have any suggestions for what to do, but we’ll see how the media portrays their debate in the morning.

In terms of the policy, it’s a shame that VAT is effectively being kept on fuel, although with prices dropping anyway I suppose it’s not a big problem. I like the 15% VAT policy generally, especially the speed of implementation, but I’m disappointed that the changes won’t go further in reforming the tax system overall.

That said, without winning a general election with reforms as a manifesto, we probably shouldn’t go for a wholesale overhaul of taxation, however badly it is needed. I do think, though, that the reform of taxation after 2010 is the way to pay for the immediate tax cuts: a 50-60% rate for those earning over £100k, implementing a local income tax to replace the ridiculous council tax, and a freeze or cut of the 20% standard rate. I’m not sure whether the current 40% higher rate should change, but I’m inclined to think that any movement either way should be very modest.

That’s enough for now, I think.