UK Politics in 2014

We are now a few weeks into the New Year and it's about sixteen months before the next general election. 

Both the Tories and the a Labour party have a lot to do to convince the electorate that they are the right party to govern the UK.

The Labour Party need to prove to the electorate they can be trusted with the economy. 

They also need to be able to show how they would do things differently and be more successful than the current coliation government. 

Ed Miliband has been focusing on the cost of living and various policy areas such as energy and housing.

 He is hoping that this will continue to resonate with the electorate and they will elect him as Prime Minister. 

David Cameron has to be able to prove that the Tories can be the majority government. 

David Cameron has restle votes away from the UK Independence Party to have any realistic chance of leading  a majority government. 

For both Ed Miliband and David Cameron the big test will be how well the fare in the local and European elections this May. 

Prime Minister Questions - 15 January 2014

This weeks Prime Minister Questions was  heavily dominated by the news that the tax payer funded bank, Royal Bank of Scotland was planning on giving its bankers big bonuses. 

Ed Miliband asked David Cameron what he planned to do to stop it from happening. David Cameron was not clear in his response other than trying to win cheap political points. 

 

Ed also asked him about housing and the  fact that too many land owners are sitting on their land with little intention to build. 

David Cameron's response was similar to the bankers response, where threw some insults at Ed without answering the question.

It was a tough PMQ for Ed who wants to focus on policy and not sound bites. But unfortunately for him David Cameron is very much likes sound bites. 

Ed will probably need to go back to the drawing board or each week the political pundits will say that it is a win for David Cameron and Ed does not need to give David any kind of advantage. 

UK politics review 2013

Politics in the UK evolved over the year and by the end of year we had a better idea of where each of the political parties stood.

Ed Miliband

In my opinion Ed had a very strong 2013, at the beginning some political pundits where making predictions that Ed would not survive to end of the year. 

However Ed had a good year and towards the end of year, Ed's political opponents started taking him more seriously.

Ed has been able to connect better with the British people and he comes across has someone who cares about their concerns. 

David Cameron

David Cameron started off 2013 in a very strong position however it started to change and his own backbenchers seem unhappy with his leadership. 

The Tories spent the year obsessing over Europe and demanding a referendum. David Cameron has now promised them a referendum after the next general election. 

According to the various opinion polls, David Cameron is still seen has the right person to get us out of the recession but is opinion poll numbers have been going down. 

Economy 

At the beginning of the year the UK economy was in bad shape. However now the UK economy has started to grow again. This primarily to due the housing bubble and manufacturing growth. 

Health 

NHS was under real pressure in 2013 and the government response was to cut frontline staff. So NHS is under more pressure  than ever even though cuts to its service have been ring fenced.

Crime

The crime rate has remains steady from the start to the end of 2013. This has been a suprise to me as I thought because of the recession crime would go up but this has not happened.

Nutshell

So in a nutshell even though the economy has started to grow most people are not seeing the growth. 

Staff cuts to the NHS has put it under considerable strain. 

However the crime has not increased which I was quite surprised about. 

Prime Minister's Questions - 8th January 2014

The first Prime Minister's Questions of the year was a little subdued. It could have been because the respected Labour MP Paul Goggins and the tributes from across the  political spectrum made PMQ's a more somber occasion.

 

Ed Miliband asked questions about the government response to the recent floods. As well as the rise of the betting terminals in poorer towns. 

David Cameron gave a slightly more statesman response but was still trying to imply that is was all Labours fault. 

It was notable to me that Ed Miliband set the tone for this more subdued PMQ's. In my humble opinion Ed Milband is looking more Prime Ministerial than ever. 

Prime Minister Questions 18th December

Wednesday's Prime Minister Questions was about David Cameron trumpeting the reduction in employment figures. 

Whilst Ed Miliband was trying remind David Cameron how the cost of living is affecting people come and down the country. 

David Cameron has got this strange obsession with Ed Balls, one which only David Cameron can explain. 

I thought Ed Miliband did to stick the issues and trying to avoid throwing back cheap insults. 

Ed Miliband seemed calm and David Cameron seemed flustered and angry. Which in my opinion made Ed Miliband the better debater. 

Countdown to the 2015 UK General election

It is now seventeen months to the next UK General Election and the main parties are preparing their election manifesto. 

The Labour Party will probably campaign on improving living standards. 

Yesterday Ed Miliband went to the Tory heartland of Stevenage to promise that the next Labour government  will build more houses. 

I think this will resonate with voters up and down the country, many of whom are feeling the affects of the housing shortage 

Tories are also going to focus on a cost of living but from a different prespective. The Tories recently leaked their child benefit proposals to the Daily Mail. 

In this proposals, child benefit will no longer be given to parents with more than two children. 

I think this is disaster of a policy which in my opinion is unworkable. What will end up happening is that more children will end up on the poverty line. 

The Tories would also like to restrict free  movement of labour between certain countries and the UK. 

This is also an unworkable policy as the key principle of the European Union is the freedom of labour movement. 

So this would be very difficult for the Tories implement without contravening EU policy. 

Prime Minister's Questions

Prime Minister's questions was back yesterday and Ed Miliband focused his questions around the cost of living.

At first Ed asked about the proposed pay rise of MP's and both Ed Miliband and David Cameron are broadly against the pay rise. 

Ed then asked David Cameron about another tax cut for millionaires. Which David Cameron did not deny this surprised me. 

I would have thought millionaires where the last people that David Cameron would currently want to give a tax cut to. 

This really helped Ed Miliband to convey his message that David Cameron and the Tories are out of touch with every day people.

I thought that Ed did well and hopefully in time he will be seen as a credible alternative to David Cameron.