US election 2016

Ok I have finally gotten over the disaster of the UK General Election. As this year US election, I though it was about time I started blogging about it. 

I have to say that I am surprised that Donald Trump is actually been taking serious and could potentially be the republican candidate. 

I am also surprised that Hilary Clinton hasn't been fast tracked to the democratic nomination. 

This US election has been quite suprisein get for me as I would have thought that Jeb Bush would be more popular with the republican voters. 

I am still waiting for Donald Trump to announce this was a big joke and he had no plans of running for the presidency. However I now realise he serious and I should take his campaign seriously. 

The little I know about Donald Trump I have no idea why he would be fit to be the President of the United States. 

All I can see is that he is running on an anti Muslim ticket and that seems to have got lots of interest. 

Bernie Sanders is another potential Democratic nominee who seems to be very popular. He comes across a little old school and a bit like Ed Miliband and look how that ended up. 

I have finally tuned in and taking interest it is an important election apart of me which that Barack Obama could run again.

Labour Party after the General Election

I cannot begin to express how upset I am about the current state of the Labour Party. I am not impressed with any of them standing for leadership of the Labour Party. 

Quite frankly I can the imagine the Tories are loving every minute of this debacle. None of them in my opinion has any realistic chance of becoming Prime Minister. 

What's more concerning is that Labour becoming more left wing than ever which seriously reduces any realistic chance they have of becoming elected to into power. 

So right now I am boycotting all UK political news because when I read about the Labour leadership battle does not really seemed to be going well. 

Once the Labour leader is selected we can look that person realistic chances of becoming Prime Minister. 

What happened to Sandra Bland?

According to the Texas Police Sandra Bland committed suicide three days after being arrested. This death through suicide came as a shock to her family and friends. 

I think what brought it to the public consciousness was that the video of Sandra's arrest which was then released into the the public domain. 

In this video Sandra is clearly upset with the Sheriff and uses a few choice words and the Sheriff then gets upset and promptly arrest her. 

I think Sandra's could have had a little more respect for the Sheriff but that does not in any way justify the total abuse of power and a lack due diligence that I think led to her committing suicide. 

Before she was checked into her cell she was given paper work to complete and in one these paper work she admitted a previous suicide attempt but other paperwork makes no mention of the suicide attempt. 

This makes this particular Texas county look incompetent and if they had showed due diligence then I believe this would have gone some way in preserving Sandra Bland's life. 

The investigation is ongoing and of course it will not bring back Sandra but at least they can review their practices to ensure that something like this does not become the new norm. 

General Election - A Conservative majority

Well I am still getting over the shock of the Conservatives winning the General Election and getting majority. The shock started on the 7th May when the BBC exit poll predicted that the Conservatives would win 316 seats. 

At first I thought this had to be a mistake but as the night unfolded true the Conservatives ended up getting 332 seats. 

How did they do this? 

Now this was the big question because all the polling companies predicted a hung parliament. Labour won most of the seats in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 

However the conservatives managed to win six seats from Labour and over twenty five seats from the Liberal Democrats. 

The Tories targeted their coalition partners knowing that their seats would be vulnerable and they were right and Liberal Democrats now only have eight MPs and I was not too surprised by this as I expected them to be punished for going to partnership with the Tories. 

So this was a thoroughly unexpected result and now the Tories now have the mandate to carry on making cuts to public services. 

It's not the result I expected or wanted but Labour now have this result behind them and work on winning those middle class votes in 2020. 

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.