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Monday 3 May 2010

Verity Murphy | 11:10 UK time, Monday, 3 May 2010

It may be a bank holiday, but with just days until the election this is no time for the politicians to let up, nor for Newsnight either - so tonight we have a programme at the earlier than usual time of 7.30pm.

Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are spending the bank holiday hitting key seats they hope to win on 6 May.

Michael Crick is in Ipswich where the prime minister is campaigning, flanked by Dragons' Den entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne.

With the polls suggesting that the election result remains in the balance we have gathered together a focus group of undecided voters to get a snapshot, albeit an unscientific one, of what they are thinking.

In a revealing session they talk about hung parliaments, change, and what they think about each of the main party leaders.

And we also hope to be joined by senior politicians from the three main parties.

Join Jeremy Paxman at 7.30pm on 91热爆 Two.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    BIGOTRY BULLIES CUSTOMERS (91热爆)

    "They will be talking hung parliaments, change, and what they think about each of - the main party leaders. And we also hope to be joined by senior politicians from - the three main parties." zzzzzzzzzzz

    And so the charade continues. With 91热爆 attempting to force-feed the GBP with the impression that there are only 3 Big parties worth considering for your vote. This is not Equality, it is UNFAIR discrimination. 91热爆 BIGOTRY writ large.

  • Comment number 2.

    What if the polls are wrong?

  • Comment number 3.

    #120

    I appreciate your point, indignantindegene, but doesn't it all swing in rounabouts with mega rich Arabs and Russians spending and investing their money here while mega poor Russians, Ukrainians, Vietnamese go to work in Poland and then taking with them or sending to their respective countries Polish zlotys?

    The UK, as I understand it, is also one of the biggest investors in Poland. Only the other day my brother told me that M&S is opening a big store right in the centre of Warsaw but they've already been in other parts for years, as have other retailers.

    Chaffed to hear you enjoy playing Chopin. If it's not too busy I might twirl later to the Finale of one of his
    Sonatas but earlier I 'mucked' about to a very modern piece by Penderecki.

    mim

  • Comment number 4.

    flicks

    Thank you for your e-mail via flickr under the name of stopped_time asking me whether i've given your telephone number to anyone. I don't think I'm imagining things that it's all on record.

  • Comment number 5.

    @DEMOCRATICIST

    Jeremy? Remember Philippa Stroud - the Real Bigot? - - This is a favour to democracy - not to me 'only'

    @DEMOCRATICIST

  • Comment number 6.

    #3 addendum

    - managed Chopin despite quite a crowd of mixed race female teenagers, all of them wearing mostly blue and black who must have liked my twirling as they asked me whether I could show them how to do it which I happily did.

  • Comment number 7.

    oh goodie, another boring bank holiday rescued by a bonus newsnight...hope it's worth it!

  • Comment number 8.

    I think when I get home I'll record one of James Bond's tunes on to my iPhone.

    It seems to me this country, if not the globe, is in desperate need of one, or of a Bond couple, as a matter of fact.

    mim

  • Comment number 9.

    more tired cliches from the Big 3拢?

    oh yummy, i can hardly wait.

  • Comment number 10.

    WOO-HOO MAURO! IF WE ARE ON THAT TACK, LET'S START A REAL FIGHT (#5)

    "Blessed are you, Hashem, King of the Universe, for not having made me a Gentile."
    "Blessed are you, Hashem, King of the Universe, for not having made me a slave."
    Blessed are you, Hashem, King of the Universe, for NOT HAVING MADE ME A WOMAN.

    I suggest the day will come, when we long to know just who and what we are AND WHICH STEREOTYPE TO CONFORM TO for peace of mind and a stable society.

  • Comment number 11.

    The wrong kind of surge.

    ..The most significant revelation in the report, however, is that General Stanley McChrystal and the United States-North Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO) International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) joint command now acknowledge officially that the Taliban insurgents dominate a vast contiguous zone of heavily populated territory across southern Afghanistan that McChrystal regards as the most critical area in the country.

    ...foreign troops have been unable to clear insurgents from Marjah, and that local leaders and elders in Kandahar are opposing US military operations in and around the city, that objective now appears to be well beyond the reach of US and NATO troops. ...



    whose doing the surging?

    perhaps in an extension of the new allied policy of 'churchills choice' [the old method used in the Empire days] we should start using a few of the other methods of the empire idiom and start stringing people up to 'encourage the others'? If we are now to openly be imperialists at least we should be good ones?

    has milliband explained churchill's choice' to the nation yet? or even that infamous powerpoint strategy map?


  • Comment number 12.

    ...Five months into our new strategy, things look bleak

    Quite simply, the ambitious goal of stabilizing southern Afghanistan is increasingly unrealistic - and with the lack of an effective host country partner to solidify gains, of dubious strategic value....



    basically the surge was meant to buy time for a political process but all it seems to do is buy time for more corruption and drug dealing?

    the conservative party worker who came to the door said they had no plans to withdraw uk troops in the next 2 parliaments because it would 'make things worse'.

    Afghanistan-heart of darkness, mind of madness.

  • Comment number 13.

    #121

    don't trust you, 'mate, whatever you say or do, or whoever you make friends with

  • Comment number 14.

    #13: why?

  • Comment number 15.

    I JUST FOUND TONY - ON THE NEWS CHANNEL IN TAMWORTH.

    He broke off from the usual claptrap, in 'support' of Brown, to tell the crowd (effectively) that the Labour Party is supremely relaxed about individuals who get filthy rich. Phew!

    No one mentioned the war (or Dr Kelly) - certainly not Tony! Why has no one made an arrest?

  • Comment number 16.

    #14

    because

  • Comment number 17.

    Why so few elderly on your focus group tonight given they are such an important voting group - ie more likely to vote than the young?

  • Comment number 18.

    Excellent Bank Holiday Jeremy & Co tonight :o)
    :p Oh the thought of Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper indulging in pillow talk......... I feel nauseous!

  • Comment number 19.

    Watching the labour gliteratti today, i get the sense subliminally (body language, the tired eyes..something) that they finally know in their hearts that the game is up.

    Conservatives with the most seats with the lib dems supporting them is, I sense, what the balance of the population would want, you get the conservatives decisiveness tempered by lib dems moderating influence on their worst excesses (e.g. inheritence tax).

    They will all have to roll thier sleeves up, i did a descent family shop today, nothing i would term unusually excessive, it cost 155 plus 60 to fill up the car for afamily of 4.

    I can manage, i am paid more than most, but there must be a huge swathe of families already living on a knife edge of income v outgoings, if interest rates have to go up (which seems ineviatable in the next year) with grossly inflated house prices and the huge sensitivity to interest rates that creates in terms of disposable income, it is starting to look like acatch 22 situation.

    As paul mason has said many times, there is no ammunition left, the locker is empty, if the existing monetary policy measures do not work, then there is nothing left. The feeble growth generated is no where near enough once cuts kick in.


    It os going to be deeply uncomfortable for millions, most people just dont know it yet.


  • Comment number 20.

    #18

    Mistress76uk

    As much as I do not support them, not trusting them, etc., I don't think that's a very 'nice' thing to say. Are you yourself so glam and 'dishy'? And even if you are, and may not fancy, or even feel repulsed by somebody's looks, unless they impose themselves sexually on another person, I don't think there's any benefit in shouting out and clear about things like that.

    mim

  • Comment number 21.

    gnu

    I didn't feel like responding at all to your last post but after tonight's programme, I have a few questions and impressions I'd like to ask or write about.

    1. What do you mean by saying that Jeremy is 'our' superstar and why have you included the ;) emoticon? What does it suppose to represent?

    2. Do you by any chance switch allegiances like gloves simply to satisfy your own 'bodily needs'?

    3. You seem to exaggerate now about the EU which is in a financial mess to say the least and some decisions they used to make, like forbidding bent cucumbers and bananas, were more than idiotic and there are still plenty, much more serious rules and regulations, that don't make sense, as for example, some of BYT's posts.

    4. Do you think you are powerful? If so, could you please tell me why and what means do you have at your disposal, apart from blogging, to be boasting about it?

  • Comment number 22.

    As it is not at all a secret and it is, in fact, very widely known that I'm one of Jeremy's fans, I'd like to add that when I glide and twirl, apart from doing it out of my own inner need, etc., I actually dedicate quite a few of my 'pieces' to him. Call me mad, call me deluded, call me whatever you want, but when I 'do' 'Moonlight Sonata', for example, I do it with him in mind but when I do Leonard Coehn's 'Villanelle for our Time', I go beyond personal into the global.

    mim

  • Comment number 23.






    What exactly is going on with the broadcast media? Have they lost the plot or is there something more insidious going on?

    Top Con was on the Marr show yesterday.

    Mr Marr was almost bowing from the hips! Quasi-prostrating himself in some kind of genuflection to a living deity! As Mr Marr pointed out - then - a hundred hours to go and all we get was a deferential 鈥榃ell, you鈥檙e almost there so we鈥檒l just go through the motions鈥

    Everything that Top Con said could stroke should have been chewed up and spat out by Mr Marr so that 鈥榳e鈥 know exactly what 鈥榳e鈥 are going to be forced to swallow. It is immensely ironic that Top Con wants 鈥榰s鈥 to be part of 鈥榟is鈥 government and yet - still - we know only what he wants us to believe! The adage 鈥淭here is no 鈥業鈥 in team鈥 needs to be re-thought with regard to 鈥業 am Top Con鈥 Man.

    In 鈥榟is鈥 team the letters ME stand proud!

    Oops! Getting that slightly wrong! .... Sorry!

    Hanging on to his coat tails are a couple (?) of Pillionnaires.

    (鈥淗anging on鈥 .... Pillion .... Get it? .... Oh come on.... I know it鈥檚 bad but not THAT bad!)

    These two 鈥榖ack street one client cash points鈥 are going to want a very good return on their investment and nobody chooses to consider what that payback will entail!

    Does Top Con even know what being in hock to the Devil will really means?

    If he needs an answer he only needs to go down to a few sink estates and ask around!



    The Lib Dims - Also known as 鈥極ne man whom has some idea of what needs to be done and his assistant Mr Clegg鈥 - are still trying to hold on to the possibility of getting a Government Internship. Paid or unpaid they aren鈥檛 bothered!

    Their leader now acknowledges that he wasn鈥檛 aware of the Nurse whom encountered the full venomous wrath of the PC brigade because she offered to pray for a patient.

    Question: How out of touch do you have to be to aspire to being Prime Minister? A few weeks ago only 4 per cent in a survey knew who he was, now he鈥檚 better than sliced bread!



    The most cringe-making moment to date ....

    Mr Brown trying to answer questions from, and engage with, a class of primary school children!

    A man totally out of his environment!

    (Arguably not as worrying as 鈥榬olling up your sleeves, maybe not having enough cash on you to pay for purple broccoli ( Get the subtly of the hint, i.e. I鈥檓 鈥榮hort鈥 of funds like you but read as 鈥業 daren鈥檛 pay with my platinum card, the cameras are rolling鈥 ) and then going home to calculate the annual interest on investments!

    Mr Brown IS NOT a perfect candidate in what has sadly become 鈥淴 Factor鈥 Election!

    Everyone raved about Jedward (Classic image over substance) and look at what has happened to them!

    To continue with the analogy ....

    Could it be that Mr Brown might be the 鈥榥ext鈥 Susan Boyle?



    The top 鈥榯ragedy鈥 ..... so far!

    ALL three parties are allowing the suppression of 鈥榩ublic鈥 dissent whether it be the jostling of, and stealing a handbag from, a protester (Nu Cons), the ejection of a heckler (No Lab), or the ripping up (? down) of a held aloft banner from an opposing party (Lib Dims). In fact the prize for the worst 鈥榤anhandling鈥 so far goes well and truly to the Lib Dims ! Nasty stuff or what? But it鈥檚 only been shown once to my knowledge .... Why?

    Coming this way .... Now!

    Third world 鈥榙emocratic鈥 campaigning!

    Great 鈥榠nnit!


    Finally .... Stay with me, I鈥檓 almost done!

    Newsnight has finally broadcast opinion from - some of - the Great British Public!

    Hip hip - loobdy - Hooray!


  • Comment number 24.

    .."As you fight for fairness, you will always find in me a friend, a partner and a brother." ..



    fairness seems to have been chosen as the highest idea of the mind in the uk even though it requires human sacrifice?

    the good is the highest idea of the mind. a thief can be fair, multicultural, equal, without bias in stealing from everyone but they cannot be 'good'.

  • Comment number 25.

    well what a letdown....must not watch early NN again if this is their fare, hopeless people in a 'focus group' that could not talk and had no opinions about policy but could comment forever on 'dress sense' please spare the mindless studio discussions with carboard cut outs and groups with nothing to say....waste of time....

  • Comment number 26.

    Talking of the EU

    My original fears have been confirmed although I'm not denying some merits of its existence.

    When I first got into politics, thanks to my Mum who bravely fought along the Solidarity movement and for whom I immesurably scared, and Maggie Thatcher who knew how to use her handbag against communism and European excesses, my gut feeling was that federal Europe would not work. That feeling was partly based on my observations of the USSR breaking up to pieces by statism which is not the case with the USA as it is by and large based on democracy and respect of freedom, as per its Constitution.

    The EU does seem in need of a dramatic overhaul although I would not go as far as UKIP insisting on total withdrawal from it.

    As I am not an expert on EU laws or specific rules and regulations, I'm not going to start saying how exactly it should reform but I think a more loosely conceived cooperation between more independent states might be a way forward.

    mim

  • Comment number 27.

    OH BOY GEORGY (Girl)

    Just caught Iplayer.

    I simply do not understand the fascination with giving precious air time to people who have nothing of consequence to say or to the 'man/woman' in the street either!!!!!!!! That way Madness Lies!

    Gordon is behaving as if it is Monte Carlo or BUST - and his henchmen and women are playing desperate games. But I was trying to recall the accuracy of polls in recent elections. Still all to play for???? or should we all just whistle?

    Still my son has his proxy sorted - so all's well with the world. Or maybe NOT.

    Matthew Parris in the Times on Saturday sees the wood for the trees.



    (If the link doesn't work search for M Parris and change.)

  • Comment number 28.

    #27

    I've just come up to my laptop feeling even more unkempt than usual but am responding immediately just in case you're there because I'm so happy that you're alright. It's been some time since you wrote. But, I think I'll do some Fleet Street search first before responding fully.

    Hope to be back by my laptop in quarter of an hour.

    mim

  • Comment number 29.

    #28

    Brightyangthing

    I was by my laptop as planned but made an entry into my diary first.

    Now, there is quite a bit in your post to respond and react to and I think I shall be going down 'memory lane' while doing so.

    1. Delighted to hear you can now exploit the wonders of the iPlayer. I bet it's a great thing to have.

    2. For some reason, there seems to be a lot of nonsense going on in the streets when I cycle or sit outside Queen's but occasionally I catch a warm and sympathetic look in the eyes of some passers by, like for example elderly people and fathers with their young sons - some not all.

    3. I'm sure that Gordon is more after a fortune than sorting out the future of the country resorting to desperate and treacherous measures trying to fool me. However, I'm not sure who's the worst, Mandy or him.

    4. STILL TO PLAY FOR!!!!

    5. 'Matthew Parris in the Times on Saturday sees the wood for the trees.' - I was once told by one of my SSEES tutors, i.e. DB, that I didn't see the wood for the trees. I now know what he meant but he has done himself out as far as I'm concerned. He's now resorting to brute force and occasional flattery which are not ways of gaining my affection. I shall carry on calling him headless chicken.

    6. A good article, that. I met him once.

    7. Back to the title. Georgy Galloway's or Georgy Osborne's girl?

    mim

  • Comment number 30.

    BYT

    I know that you're a kind of amalgamate and yet....

  • Comment number 31.

    So this is what we've come down to, electoral fraud.



    How will it be checked on, almost impossible I would say, when we don't have a clue who's living here anymore. Or who's voting from overseas, back to the Ballot Box only I feel. Even the good old Beeb found fraud in Pakistan.

  • Comment number 32.

    SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVILS

    A little story .....
    I spend much of my work life involved with committees and management teams of voluntary organisations in charity/NFP/third sector. My role is usually officially in development/management of some part of their activity/business, yet I find myself all too frequently getting caught up in administrative and management structure issues. One particular group/issue has recently given me some sympathy for senior politicians in particular but also big business managers.

    Remember, these are voluntary/charity/third sector organisations, where this is an openly elected management team/committee. Team A has recently grown and developed to close to its optimum size for its facilities. This success has opened many doors for dissent since what were once a few clients who never had to vie for time/space on less than adequate facilities, now have to pre plan and manage their erstwhile off the cuff activities on busier, well funded and managed top quality facilities.

    This has resulted in clients/members who are not used to having to read and operate by rules and guidelines, or allow others a right to access etc, infighting, complaining and causing strife amongst 鈥榝actions鈥 all claiming that THEIR Needs should come first. And strange as it may seem, those who contribute the least, scream the loudest for their RIGHTS.

    These MM's often appear to have too much spare time on their hands, time dedicated selflessly it might seem briefing against and putting spokes in all of the wheels of the machine that is powered by those individuals who put their heads above the parapet, trying to do their best often against the odds and alongside their day jobs, families, business problems to give of their time and energy (and often money) to try and make a difference.

    None of this leadership team are perfect, singularly or together (It is fascinating to be able to watch the balances shift, see different skills 鈥搊r lack of - being brought to bear at the right or wrong times and places and the not so subtle character strengths and flaws interplaying) but they mostly, despite some enjoying the perceived power they hold, do so at huge personal cost. In money, in time, in stress........ Far too many late night meetings for me (A Lark by anyone鈥檚 standards). Thank gawd for iplayer!!!! I now, Spin Doctor like am tasked with putting 鈥榟ow it is鈥 into language and shape that is easily swallowed and will appease the moaning minnies. Hiding to nothing springs to mind.

    And guess what, some of our clients are dogmatic, blinkered, intolerant, opinionated, narrow minded, prejudiced....... Ooh, what that be the B word then? Most are mindlessly selfish too. Thinking only of their wants and not of the greater good or requirement to share, or face pain before gain.......

    Wonder whether cabinet or government department meetings, of whatever colour, are in any way similar?


    (Returns to task whistling Georgy Girl...... Thanks NN!

  • Comment number 33.

    Something positive and nothing to do with me or any other NN blogger:

    I can't remember whether I've already written about the Princess of York, Sarah Ferguson, but this is a story of an 'errant' lady come good.

    For years now she has been running a hospice in Poland for terminally sick children in order to make their last days as peaceful and 'easy' as it is possible.

    On 17th May she will be interviewed by one of my favourite Polish journalists, i.e. Jolanta Pienkowska, who is not only a very pretty blonde but also a highly intellgent and skilled person, having even worked as an interpreter to George Bush Snr.

    I understand she has received several awards for her work as a journalist, among them for sharp writing. I only know her from the box but whenever I watched I always felt a sense of reassurance for some reason and I never had an impression of her flaunting her pretty looks.

    mim

    P.S. Her images are available on Google should anyone wish to have a look and there is an article about her on Wikipedia but I've only found the Polish version.

  • Comment number 34.

    BYT

    I'm not at all sure certain what you mean by the last line unless it's ironic, but the rest rings very true with me!!!!

    mim

  • Comment number 35.

    Barrie - saw this article and thought of you!
    Source:

  • Comment number 36.

    #34 addendum

    Ir'a interesting, BYT, that those who think they've got it all sussed out are the most errant ones.

    I could write more but I think I'll jump on my bike now.

    mim

  • Comment number 37.

    No 36 features on vans bearing JJ letters, He must be very happy I got 'trapped', as if it's going to make any difference whatever.

  • Comment number 38.

    Feeling reassured these days by the right kind of suppoort, personal and official, though I cannot specify the details, I feel the TIME IS RIPE to start revealing all.

    mim

  • Comment number 39.

    IRONY, IRONY, IT'S ALL ABOUT IRONY...........

    #34 Mim

    Not really irony, just picking up on NN playing out with the theme tune of the film Georgy Girl in honour of Lyn Redgrave whose death was announced.

    Judith Durham, singer with the Seekers, is in my top 5 female vocalists along with Ella Fitzgerald, Karen Carpenter, Dusty and a fight between 鈥榯he Elk鈥 and Frederica Von Stada 'Flicka', opera singer who has just retired.

    Not always too fond of female voices. They need depth and resonance otherwise are often too screechy. If only Kirsty was subtitled I could watch her like Wallander, and call it a language lesson.

    On a two hour train journey at the weekend, two young girls about half a carriage away did not stop inane screechy natter the whole way. First time in my life I wish I鈥檇 had an ipod to block it out.

    I have been a smidge 'hors de combat' recently as well as snowed under with work, playing catch up.

    Not sure if I should be glad to be an amalgamate or not. I Am a product of many elements, blended in an interesting way - as indeed we are all I think.



  • Comment number 40.

    #36

    In the first line it should be 'It's', I don't understand how the error has occurred.

  • Comment number 41.

    POSTAL VOTE FRAUD

    #31 EcoLizzy

    Interesting article. Perhaps NN could look into this seriously in lieu of more comedians, analysts, the GB public etc ........

    In our constituency, NOT particularly marginal, we had a visit from the incumbent LD last week. The door knocker was the Provost, who I know quite well and whose daughter had the same problem as my oldest son - viz postal application sent away for the day after the election date was set. Apparently, although sent in plenty of time it was not received in the right place in time (10 days!!!)

    Provost has requested an investigation. Both have by skin of teeth managed to get Proxy vote.

    It is all very easy to say that anyone NOT in the country or their home location on the day should be eligible to vote, but that would exclude:
    Son no 1, up a mountain in the NW Highlands on geology field trip
    Son no 2, still at Uni and starting exams
    Husband - in hospital (and no we cannot postpone an already overdue procedure
    One brother on a long planned overseas business trip
    My mother attending her brother's funeral at the other end of the country. Admittedly 'arranged' after election date set, but not entirely planable.

    ALL are illegible and WANT the right to vote.

    So the dismissive approach of some of the comments on that link is not exactly FAIR is it?

    Would be interesting to know the number/percentage of people thought to be unable to be in their home constituency at any time that the polls are open. I would imagine if you take students, business people, offshore workers, Long distance lorry drivers, long haul airline pilots, not to mention holiday makers who have had long planned unavoidable absences.......

    Not sure of the answer though if fraud is so widespread. Seems like the system is not anything like as tight as it could be. Perhaps if elections were on a fixed term rather than called at last gasp................. there would be more time to implement and check applications.

  • Comment number 42.

    "THE VOTER IS BOSS" (#27 link - Matthew Parris)

    You might almost think (ex MP) Matthew Parris is a product of Westminster! Yes - the voter IS boss - but only WITHIN THE LIE.

    Even a battery hen has the choice of which leg to stand on while gestating the next GDP egg.

    Parris has his take on our anger; he writes: "Change is the last thing the British people want". Well - full marks for a journalistic line Matthew, but I reckon a DRAMATIC REDUCTION IN HYPOCRISY would amount to 'change' - a change long overdue.

    I seem to be alone in identifying the WESTMINSTER ETHOS (a time 'honoured', complex lie) as our enemy. But I hold the view that GENERAL ANGER comes from a public SENSE that we are being led by fools and knaves, plus a near-certainty WE CAN DO NOTHNG ABOUT IT.

    To paraphrase 'Jesus': Parliament will only acquire integrity, when it comprises sufficient individuals who are prepared to 'LAY DOWN THEIR AMBITION FOR THEIR CONSTITUENTS'. While we can only vote for Westminster's 'creatures' (through the party filter) we will remain battery hens. Have you ever met a contented one?

    VOTE RADICAL

  • Comment number 43.

    I may end up having you all up the garden path, BYT.

    My favourite singer remains Nina Simone. Don't really know the others though have heard of Dusty but am not in a hurry to listen to her/him.

    mim

  • Comment number 44.

    Brightyangthing

    You've kept me by my laptop though ultimately it's my fault for giving in to curiosity of what you might be writing about.

    mim

  • Comment number 45.

    #41

    Too many comedians - I didn't laugh even once last Saturday when they were on with Jeremy though occasionally he himself makes me chuckle. I love his dry wit, BYT.

    mim

  • Comment number 46.

    #43 addendum

    fooling you all out, that's what I meant

  • Comment number 47.

    FORGET POLICY. THE IDS/BLAIR WAR WAS DOWN TO PERSONALITIES.

    As the wannabe frenzy of Clegg/Brown/Cameron rises to a shriek, it is surely obvious that they are of the SAME ILK?

    POLICIES are shuffled, highlighted, sidelined, mutated or forgotten, ALL IN THE INTEREST OF GAINING POWER, or in response to the latest change in direction of some political breeze. What remains constant, is the RAW AMBITION OF THE GREAT LEADER and the pathetic, slavish support of the dazzled, unthinking acolytes.

    This system gave us Anthony Blair (look at him now) and 'The Quite Man' IDS (who is VERY quiet about the war he granted Tony). LOOK AT THEIR PERSONALITIES! Policies come and go. A bad policy dies - ultimately, a leader with a flawed personality, just comes up with another daft scheme, while deviously holding on to power.

    Yet ALL THREE will tell you to judge on policies (while acting like prima donnas). That is the Westminster Creature, operating within the Westminster Lie. Only 'clean skins' (locally chosen independents) returned to Parliament can ever make a difference. (Not even Young Nick.)

    DEFEAT THE WESTMINSTER LIE

  • Comment number 48.

    DAY GLO TONY vs BROWN THE BLESSED

    Anyone notice Jeremy's reference to Tony's Perma Tan last night. Raised a chuckle. Looks more like the car showroom lothario from the Fast Show than ever.

    But Brown counters this morning with a meaningful interview on GMTV (I only heard about it on R4!) alongside the lovely Sarah. Suggesting that if he has lost the confidence of his party if they do not win outright he MAY step down and he and the lovely Sarah will do 'charideeeeeeee work'. Aw bless! Is this a Miss World Popularity Contest?

    I am in need of a secretary for organisation described above. A thankless task, with NO income, NO expenses paid, frequent LATE sittings, NO second home (committee room/hut has a sofa sink and toilet but NO heating - take a sleeping bag if expecting a late vote - last train leaves at 10:30) but it is only an hour and a half from Kirkcaldy on the train.

    Job requires someone organised and efficient, an honest and open countenance, with integrity and diplomatic skills bar none. Our meetings are recorded so care required in choice of words. Oh, and must be able to please EVERYONE, or at least manage their expectations to what is deliverable. In order to do that of course, one needs to KNOW and ACCEPT what IS and IS NOT deliverable. This is where the honesty comes in. And in managing all of those, one has to be prepared to cross 'BE LOVED BY ALL' off the wish list.

    Shame, he has all of the experience but NONE of the attributes. NEXT!

  • Comment number 49.

    A daily newspaper report:

    The South African Morning Star.
    Hope is what we want
    Hope is all you've got.


    Robert Mugabe's hand picked monitors for the UK general election have already found fraud within the postal vote system. The police were asked to investigate but they were too busy attending diversity awareness week..in Tower Hamlets; also something about them been bogged down with celebrity snooker matchfixing that has a Russian mafia angle, so they won't have any resources to investigate the alledged postal vote fraud.
    On hearing this report, a local South Manchester man phoned the Council, and after pressing 4 for English, he registered 800 names for postal votes. Questions were only asked when these bogus voters - with names such as 'Muhageen allah akbar' and Moohamed maamood - had cast their vote for a BNP candidate. At which point, the unnamed Manchester man was promptly arrested in a dawn raid, whisked away to a eastern European destination where he was questioned by intergovernmental agents before being sent to an undisclosed South American country.

    Former President of the British peoples Tone Blair will be visiting the Mandela Institute of hope. He will give a talk and later will be signing his latest novel '1984 revised for the 21 century'. He will be accompanied by his Witch Doctor Peter Bartoloue Mandelson.

  • Comment number 50.

    #48

    I don't thinkI would be volunteering for a 'job' like that, BYT, I do have very strong preferences, personal likes and dislikes, and one favourite.

    mim

  • Comment number 51.

    #50. addendum

    Isn't it one of the tasks that prostitutes set out, or are made, to do?

  • Comment number 52.

    #41 My bro in law came up with an interesting idea BYT.

    He said when a baby is born they are given a social security number, so why not give each baby a permanent mobile phone number as well. The phone companies would love that? ; )

    He said the mobile number would always identify you, and you could use it to vote with, particularly if we went to a referanda type of system. If someone is given british citizenship, they get an NI number, so could at the same time be given the mobile number, so they could vote as well.

    Now can some bright spark tell me why this wouldn't work, or can see obvious pitfalls, I thought it a good idea. Could this be fiddled like everything else is here?

    Or is it too like big brother?

  • Comment number 53.

    #21. At 9:18pm on 03 May 2010, mimpromptu wrote:

    "gnu

    I didn't feel like responding at all to your last post but after tonight's programme, I have a few questions and impressions I'd like to ask or write about.

    1. What do you mean by saying that Jeremy is 'our' superstar and why have you included the ;) emoticon? What does it suppose to represent?"

    simply that Paxman is one of the VERY few journos who have both the integrity to tell us straight when he understands something, has the intelligence to work out what IS going on, and is clearly scared witless by what he has seen on the horizon. Note how white his hair has become over the last few months.

    by the by, so has mine. The emoticon is simply to indicate the emotion i felt whilst writing.


    "2. Do you by any chance switch allegiances like gloves simply to satisfy your own 'bodily needs'?"

    *i* switch allegiances? I don't think so - i have been blogging about cooperatives, economics, banking, democracy, the environment and the vileness of 'our' political class for years. You must have gathered i am supporting the Green Movement - to what other do you think i choose allegiance?


    "3. You seem to exaggerate now about the EU which is in a financial mess to say the least and some decisions they used to make, like forbidding bent cucumbers and bananas, were more than idiotic and there are still plenty, much more serious rules and regulations, that don't make sense, as for example, some of BYT's posts."

    i don't blame the EU for BYT's posts lol ;)

    the EU is in the same long term financial crisis WE are in - it is only exacerbated by having a currency over such a large area, and by having a virtually non-accountable Parliament and Executive. They have the same concentration of Finance Capital and its having the ears of controlling politicians (the regions of the UK are very similar in their own way to what has happened to Greece, under Thatcher the North, Midlands and West were all subordinated to the Financial Centre in London, destroying UK manufacturing and people's savings and income. On the topic of which, just as Greece may end up recreating the drachma to give themselves the freedom to rebuild, so too the Greens are strongly promoting the idea of local UK development currencies alongside the Pound.)

    i am pro-EU (hugely!), but there are incredible strains upon it, just as there are now in the UK. The corruption in both structures is the same. And by and large, the solutions are the same as well.


    "4. Do you think you are powerful? If so, could you please tell me why and what means do you have at your disposal, apart from blogging, to be boasting about it?"

    power? No, i have actually spent most of my life trying my best to avoid HAVING power, although the times i have had it i have nearly always used it as wisely and as little as possible. Power corrupts, and power attracts the corruptible. Other than that, i have fairly good health, a decent enough IQ and EQ, and an above average understanding of what the World is facing. If i had a 'magic wand' i would wave it and take all the World's problems away, however (and probably for the best) that task is up to ALL people to take part in. All *i* can do, just as other normal members of the Public, is to be as honest as i can about what i understand is happening, and hope that such honesty can awake the People to their grave situation.

    i am not, btw, running for Election, i have no Green Party connections, and i will not gain by one penny or favour if they win this election. My concern is for the Future - and after watching the professional liars called "Party Leaders" i KNOW the only hope for the UK is to have a Green Govt that can be trusted to move us in the right direction again, instead of a growing Wealth Gap, corrupt unregulated bankers, non-transparent Parliament and an ancient electoral system that completely ignores the wishes of the majority of the UK in favour of keeping the Big 3拢 in power over us.

    --i was not aware of any boasting in my posts?


    "22. At 9:34pm on 03 May 2010, mimpromptu wrote:

    As it is not at all a secret and it is, in fact, very widely known that I'm one of Jeremy's fans, I'd like to add that when I glide and twirl, apart from doing it out of my own inner need, etc., I actually dedicate quite a few of my 'pieces' to him. Call me mad, call me deluded, call me whatever you want, but when I 'do' 'Moonlight Sonata', for example, I do it with him in mind but when I do Leonard Coehn's 'Villanelle for our Time', I go beyond personal into the global.

    mim"

    i also occasionally dance for the World, for Humanity, for joy, and for freedom. I used to do it far more, but as i have written over the last few years i have also *GRIEVOUSLY* irritated some *EXTREMELY* powerful people(ok, THATS a boast, i grant you!), and there is always a price to pay for such activities. Mine has been a campaign of whispers against me, to isolate and cut me off. Having to constantly deal with that, as well as being aware of some of the probable futures should we (the UK, the human race) continue with "business as usual", drains me to the utmost. I have no energy left to dance anymore, and i'm with no-one who makes me desire to dance with them.

    i am tired, lonely and afraid, both for myself and for our whole future.

    not very "powerful", eh?

    neil. x

  • Comment number 54.

    #52:

    actually, that is not such a bad idea, at root. Should the UK have a backbone network of Linux-based open-source encrypted communications (net and phone), so the State and Corporations cannot control it, or hack into our private communications, it could work.

    that is unlikely from a Parliament that recently passed legislation handing virtual complete control of ISPs and internet use of normal citizens into the hands of the Business Secretary - Lord Meddlesome at the moment, although any Tory would be as hideous in terms of net-liberty.

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