UK General Election - 6th May

So it's been a while since I have blogged but I have been following the political campaigns pretty closely. It goes without saying that all the parties of fighting of each vote. 

It has been fasincating to see what the parties have been doing to try and get people to vote for them. 

I think Labour led by Ed Miliband have done well to be so close in the polls. Ed has had a strong message about making the UK a fairer society and get people who are not paying tax to pay tax. 

However his message may not be getting through due to the backlash from the right winger media. 

They are doing everything in their power for Ed to come across as incompetent. What they don't realise is that they coming accross as bullies which is why is not helping the Tory campaign.

The Tory campaign has been an unmitigated disaster, after they had spent the last year telling the British people how well the economy is doing we find out the economy is going backwards and there has only been 0.3 growth in April. 

Yet David Cameron is at pains to stress how the UK is thriving but the reality is the ones at the top have benefited whilst rest of the UK keeping it's head above water. 

Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats is trying to cling to power by stating that if there is a hung party then they will be the kingmakers which is unlikely as the polls are suggesting they will lose half there seats. 

UKIP have been making a lot of noise but they have gone quiet about there determination to leave Europe as they know it's not a vote a winner. They will be lucky to get three MPs.

So it's there is still all to play for but I am hoping that Ed and his wife Justine will be standing on the doorsteps of No10 as he is elected Prime Minister. 

General Election. BBC debate

Last night was the second General Election debate and it was hosted by the BBC. Both Nick Clegg and David Cameron were missing from this debate. 

Nick Clegg was strangely not invited and David Cameron declined his invite. For David Cameron this probably the biggest political gamble he has made and could hand the keys of number ten to Ed Miliband. 

Ed Miliband had a great night and he came across strong and assertive and oozed with charm. 

Nicola Sturgeon was not as strong as she was in the first debate and I almost found her cringeworthy at times when she was begging for Ed Miliband help. 

Nigel Farage did not have his best night and it culminated with him accusing the BBC of left wing bias. It was Nigel melt down moment which will not be easily forgotten. 

The other two  leaders Lianne Wood and Natalie Bennett had a pretty quiet evening but still have to convince  voters to vote for their party. 

Overall Ed Miliband did a fantastic job of looking Prime Ministerial and if he keeps this up he make get enough votes to get the majority that he needs to govern. 

General Elections - Manifestos

This week each of the parties vying office launched there manifesto and the first party to launch there manifesto were the Labour Party. 

I would say that in all the years that I have watched and followed politics I have never taken such a keen interest in the manifestos. 

I was very impressed with Labour and Ed Miliband as they did not make any unrealistic promises they know cannot be achieved and it seems like they had spent time to cost every pledge out. 

I would say that they did not provide us with specific details as to what areas they will cut and how much of the cuts the UK public should expect. 

However it was somewhat a of good manifesto and it was presented very well by Ed Miliband. 

The next day it was the  Conversatives and David Cameron turn and their manifesto was a complete contrast to Labour's.  

The Conservatives were promising to spend money left, right and centre. This after spending three years telling us that there was no money. 

David Cameron presentation of this manifesto was weak. He seemed very red face and came across like he was not comfortable with what he was saying. 

He also seemed to gloss over the manifesto and did not  go over the weekend announcements of more spending in the NHS. 

Liberal Democrats were equally woeful as their leader Nick Clegg only selected one journalist in the question and answer session. 

Overall a good manifesto launch for Labour and now they really need to capitalise on this launch and build up a lead in the opinion polls.  

Leaders debate - 2nd April

It's  is now just a month to the next General Election and  last Thursday the leaders vying for the keys to number 10 met for a debate. 

This debate was definitely better than I imagined it to be and it was good to hear from all the political leaders. 

To start of with Nick Clegg had a poor night and sounded more like a Personal Assistant than a leader of a political party. He looked tired and wounded and did not come across like he had any political fight left in him.  

David Cameron came cross like he had been told to say as little as possible and if so it backfired because he looked like he was out of his depth.

Ed Miliband did well and he came across as confident and self assured. He just needs to relax or he will come across as not being Prime Ministeral. 

Nigel Farage attendance to these debates was not good for him or his party.

 When he was asked about the NHS he banged on about how the NHS should stop providing non UK citizens with HIV drugs. To me he sounded cruel and almost bordering on evil. 

Nigel Farage showed his true racist colours and I can only imagine what he putting his half German children through. 

Nicola Sturgeon apparently won the debate which is easier to win when none of her party policies are being forensically analysed.

Overall Ed Miliband did reasonably well and he now needs to up the ante if he is going to get the keys to number ten. 

Autumn political conferences

The political conferences have now taken place and Labour Party took place few a weeks ago. I was a little disappointed with Ed Miliband. 

I did not expect him to say that he will continue with the same destructive Tory policies. 

I really hope Ed can up his game in the next eight months because this is his election to lose.

The Conservative party conference got off to a bad start with the resigniation of MP Mark Reckless. 

The Tories did not say anything new but instead doubled down on their destructive policies that many have suffered from. 

UKIP where the next to hold there conference and Nigel Farage was buoyant from the defection of Mark Reckless from the Tories to them. 

Farage was again promising to cause an earthquake in British politics. Sadly he is probably right and his brand of extreme right wing politics will probably succeed. 

Liberal Democrats held there conference last week and Nick Clegg is a man in deep trouble experts have predicted that the Lib Dems will lose almost half there MPs in the next General Election. 

There really wasn't much Nick Clegg could say that would change what the experts are predicting. I suspect he has lined himself with a nice job in Europe. 

So none of the parties had a game changer of a conference party so there is still lots for each of the parties to do. 

Review of the UK Euro elections

The results of the Euro elections was announced yesterday and as expected UKIP got the largest share of the vote. 

Although UKIP did well and came top, like the local elections they didn't do particular well in the major cities. 

The Conservatives came third overall and this was bad result for David Cameron and it has put pressure on him to either form a pact with UKIP or call the EU referendum earlier. 

Neither of which Cameron wants to do and it leaves him and his party in a perilous situation. 

The Labour Party had the best set of results since 1999 and doubled the number of MEPs in London alone. But strangely the BBC said was a terrible result for Labour. 

The Liberal Democrats had a bad Euro election and they only have one Euro MEP down from eight. Like I said in my previous blog Nick Clegg should do the honourable thing and resign. 

Overall great Euro election for UKIP and the Labour Party but the Labour Party have a lot to do to ensure they get that majority in May 2015.

Review of the UK Local Elections

Last weeks local elections had some very surprising results. It was clear from the results that UKIP are no longer a fringe party and they made significant gains in the local elections.

UKIP made some surprising gains in the North and South East England. But where unsuccessful in inner London where Londoners rejected there Euro/immigration policies. 

Whilst I accept that UKIP have made some considerable gains, the media especially the BBC said it had been an "earthquake" to UK politics. 

Which I think completely oversimplifies it yes UKIP made gains but they failed to make any inroads into various cities in the UK so they have some work to do to convince black and ethnic minority groups that they are not a racist party. 

Meanwhile Conservatives had a poor local election losing councils like Hammersmith and Fulham, Croydon and Cambridge. 

A loss of these councils would be a bitter blow to David Cameron and his party are losing vital support and getting a majority government in 2015 is looking more elusive with each passing day.

The Labour Party had a successful local election they gained over three hundred seats. 

But if you watched the BBC and other media outlets then they had a terrible election and this thought is not backed up with the statistics. 

Labour need to work on ensuring that they can get the people from the main cities to vote and this will ensure they are elected as a majority government. 

The shock of the local elections was the Liberal Democrats who did very badly and even lost the running of Kingston Borough Council to the Conservatives. 

I personally think that the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg should resign and allow the Lib Dems to regroup and salvage some proud. 

So overall I don't think any of the parties where outstanding and they all have some real work to do before the next General Election. 

UK immigration policy

As regular readers of this blog would note that I am not this current administration biggest fan.

 So when I reviewed the speech the new Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire made on immigration which included the controversial part about the rich elite employing foreign nationals. 

I couldn't believe the breathtaking hypocrisy, most of you will not have forgotten the recent advertisement that this administration run urging illegal immigrants to "go home".

We then find out that the Immigration Minister, Mark Harper, who sanctioned this advert was employing an illegal immigrant to clean his one bedroom flat. 

In the last week David Cameron, Teresa May and Nick Clegg have confirmed that they have employed foreign born nationals and two of which have gone on to get British passports. 

All this really means that the Tory chase for UKIP votes has backfired badly. What remains to be seen is whether it will matter when voters go to the polls this year for the European elections and next year General Election.