Roll up, roll up for the tragical history tour!

 The final "leaders' debate" was held last night on the cozy old BBC, this time focusing on the economy. I was pleased to see some discussion of alternative energy in the form of wind farms, amidst being hammered by dangerous Dave's constant reminders of his "cut £1 in every £100" mantra. I found the audience members asking the questions much more interesting than the shiny faced dronebags on the stage; one woman was delightfully self centered in asking what would they do for people like her, with her good income family struggling to get onto the housing market? Oh, I'm sorry, we were focusing on ridding the UK of child poverty, but instead we'll focus on getting YOU into a suitably middle class address. For shame.

In an ill-advised move, David Cameron kept reminding us of the past. You'd think that the Conservatives would be wary of this, having to live with spectre of Thatcherism looming over them like grim reaper at a nursing home Christmas party. They thoroughly scuppered the manufacturing industry and private sector whilst in power, and now seem set to attempt the same with the public sector. There might be a fresh wave of voters now who don't remember the miners' strikes, the mass unemployment, the milk snatching - but they are outnumbered by the rumbling, angry crowds who do. If all of this rather purple prose makes you think I'm anti-Conservative, well I hold up my hands. Guilty as charged.

I couldn't help but agree with Nick Clegg on immigration and his proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants. In effect, he's trying to get to the stage where there's a tabula rasa, which he can then build a new system of immigration controls upon. Amnesty for illegal immigrants, and then we know where we stand, where they are, and how we can help them live happy, meaningful lives here. I'm quite sure it will lose him votes from the Daily Mail readers, who have been force fed the idea that immigrants are workshy, criminal radical Islamists who are here to kill you, rob you or even worse, take benefits! No matter that such an amnesty could save people living in this country from illegal work gangs (that amount to little more than slave labour), forced prostitution and crushing poverty; these are all the sides of illegal immigration that the foaming mouth brigade like to pretend don't exist.

My only thought on Gordon Brown that was his opening gambit of "I've made mistakes, but everybody's human, vote for me!" was interesting to say the least. A mistake is forgetting to pick up a bottle of milk on the way home, not calling one of your life long voters a bigot or selling off our gold reserves at the wrong time. I feel like I tuned out everything he said last night; I certainly can't think of anything meaningful to comment on here. Perhaps this is why he is running third in the polls - he's easy to tune out, to forget, to dismiss.

That's my not particularly eloquent view of last night's debate. I would recommend fellow curmudgeon Charlie Brooker's short article about it as a diverting few minutes reading - I guarantee the debate will appear more interesting if you imagine them all to have been wearing silver sparkling heels.

Green Party Political Broadcast

If I had one, I'd wear my green rosette with pride, so I'd better do some promotion. Here's their short broadcast:



If you fancy reading in more detail about their policies, I would urge at least a scan of their manifesto. I guarantee it will make your skin crawl 100% less than the BNP offering, which in the spirit of impartiality I actually read. Pity me.

That Bigoted Woman

I wouldn't be much of a political commentator if I didn't make some kind of noise about Bigotgate, or whatever the press will inevitably moronically label it. Prime Minister does not like being confronted by mildly irate middle aged woman! There was some other report about bears and something they do in the woods, but I didn't look at the specifics. Yes, it looks bad, but do you really think the other leaders haven't had that moment of venting about someone they'd rather have not clashed with on the campaign trail? I imagine they simply did it rather further away from a microphone.

Basically this is a lot of noise over nothing, more desperate clamouring to make this election about more than trivial issues such as the economy, healthcare or immigration. If you want something to really get angry about, something that really does show the level of hypocrisy in the government, then check out the story of Bita Ghaedi and how she's being deported despite almost certainly facing death. I'll let this story speak for itself.

It's Nick Clegg's fault.

Yes, it's the election that's got me all hot under the collar and actually bothered enough about issues to get me actively blathering about them again.

I grew up as a bit of a right-on environmentalist, fully paid up member of Greenpeace (or at least, their youth subscription) and all round bore, I imagine. Gradually, I could identify less and less with my fellow placard wavers, and by the time I went to university, when you would imagine I would be all firing on all cylinders rebellion wise, I had receded into a vaguely eccentric individual with no particular passions in the lobbying department. Maybe I'm now wiser as well as older, but recently I've been getting involved in causes from LGBT rights to environmental issues to feminism, and actually feeling incensed enough about issues to feel justified. I joined the Green Party as an actual paying member, for crying out loud. I only hope this isn't some terribly middle class mid-life crisis I'm undergoing, because if it is I'm going to die too bloody young.

So yes, this is the blog of a somewhat miserable campaigner, and will probably swing from political ranting to links about fluffy liddle baby birdies (awww). Blame Nick Clegg, it's probably his fault if the Murdoch owned press had anything to say about it.