Three weeks to go and everything to play for

The General and local elections are three weeks today.

One of the consequences of having a free country is that people can think and vote the way they want to, and not the way I or anyone else thinks they should.

Part of me is very cross that an election which I think ought to be a Conservative landslide given that Labour are utterly unfit to govern is looking close, but the realist in me keeps reminding me to work in the world we have not the one I would like, and the democrat in me keeps reminding me that everyone has the right to their own opinion.

Nationally it does still looks very close and every vote could count.

Three weeks tomorrow David Cameron could be preparing for his second term, or Ed Miliband preparing to move in to Downing Street. Or an extensive round of negotiations to see who can form a government might be about to start. (Shudder!)

Locally in Copeland it looks close too with a voodoo poll for a local Newspaper suggesting Stephen Haraldsen neck and neck with Ed Miliband's Labour candidate. I don't pay too much attention to that kind of poll but our canvass returns and some of the national polls are also consistent with a very close result.

I think the local elections here are close too - we are picking up a LOT of discontent with the outgoing Labour administration and many voters hungry for change, which Conservative and Independent candidates are offering, and Labour cannot.

Have you noticed by the way that the Conservatives are not afraid to use David Cameron's name and are campaigning on the fact that if we lose Ed Miliband becomes PM, but nobody on the Labour side mentions Ed Miliband or Elaine Woodburn in their local literature? Funny, that.

And by the way, SUPPORT OPTION ONE - we need consultant led maternity at West Cumberland Hospital and FGH.

Comments

Jim said…
Its 3 weeks before a general election, and one thing i noticed tonight.

I am in a car school so it means I get to be a passenger quite often so can have a good look around, the route we use dropping people off takes us through st Bees, whitehaven, and on past parton to jam eater land. Anyway 3 weeks before an election i noticed a distinct lack of "vote Labour" signs. usually that route would be covered in them by now.
Jim said…
"Part of me is very cross that an election which I think ought to be a Conservative landslide given that Labour are utterly unfit to govern is looking close, but the realist in me keeps reminding me to work in the world we have not the one I would like, and the democrat in me keeps reminding me that everyone has the right to their own opinion"

well, I shall try and answer you as best and as honestly as I can.

Firstly Labour are entirely unfit to govern, that is true, but then the conservative party dont fall out of that bracket either. Its just one is slightly less unfit to govern then the other. Labour cant seem to understand that people see immediately through the plan to try and bribe them with their own money, I think the conservatives by the same token need to learn you cant take "being better than them" as a free pass, and you certainly can not bribe me with my own sovereignty, which was never in your re-mit to give away in the first place.

So should it be a dead cert landslide for the conservatives, well no, not really. and as more and more people understand that, then less and less are voting.

the turnout for the Scottish referendum was high, it was high because people thought their vote would make a difference, but people dont feel that in this election, at the end of the day we will end with an authoritive government telling us what we must pay in tax and how it will be spent, what laws we must abide by, and many of us wont even be represented as such as our MPs are minsters, whips, or even Ladder climbers, who would never vote againt the whip due to lack of promotion prospects.

its the reason the turnout is so low, its the reason the younger people are not interested. If there was a democracy then people would learn to use it, but there is not.

Honestly, Chris, this election is more of a Referendum on do you want a rigged election on the EU in 2017 or do you not.

that is how its being perceived and that is why it wont be a conservative landslide (many who want a referendum dont want a rigged one).

And lots of the above are why we need Harrogate.

Jim said…
Not that i expect any party to change (they all have a "not invented here", "we must work within the system we have", type attitude), I was just explaining why that attitude is failing.
Jim said…
I have read 3 manifestos so far, green conservative and UKIP.

The green one well, less said the better, the conservative one contradicts itself endlessly, and the UKIP one is well, its UKIP, lets have the single market with out freedom of movement (er, sure everyone will buy that). I have not yet had the pleasure of the labour one, but I am certain that will be a barrel of laughs.

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Quote of the day 24th July 2020