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Marshall Walker, Manchester: 'Be wary of becoming too occupied with voting someone out. You may lose sight of what you're letting in'
Photograph: Marshall Walker
Locally i.e for Hexham vote Dr Steven Ford, nationally if the Lib Dems don't get in we may never get real democracy in the UK
The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.
It can start as low as 0.005 per cent – and average 0.05 per cent . But when levied on the billions of pounds sloshing round the global finance system every day through transactions such as foreign exchange, derivatives trading and share deals, it can raise hundreds of billions of pounds every year.
And while international agreement is best, it can start right now, right here in the UK.
That can help stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK, and aid the fight against global poverty and climate change.
Why now?
Because of the financial crisis, frontline services at home – like the NHS and our schools – are under fire.
At the same time, poor communities and the environment are being hit hard – as aid and green budgets are slashed by rich countries.
So it’s time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up.
Who’s in?
Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel (the German Chancellor) and Nicolas Sarkozy (the French President) have all spoken out in support of a tax on financial transactions.
Plenty of business bigwigs are on-board too. Lord Turner (from the Financial Services Authority), George Soros (the philanthropist) and Warren Buffet (US businessman extraordinaire) have all backed transaction taxes. And then there are the hundreds of economists who have backed the idea, too.
This isn’t some crazy pipedream. It’s a simple and brilliant idea which transcends party politics and which – with your support – can become a reality.
Should the Robin Hood tax start, like charity, at home?
Click on link to go to the Robin Hood website.
to not show photographer information -->to not show image description -->(David Bebber/The Times)
here with the id "dynamic-image-navigation" is used so that the innerHTML can be written to by the JS call below. -->Nick Clegg, pictured being interviewed during a train journey to Southampton
Nick Clegg has told The Times that the Liberal Democrats can supplant Labour and has stated that his ambition is to become prime minister.
He insists that the Liberal Democrats have become the leading progressive force at the ballot box. The latest Populus poll for The Times shows the party still in second place ahead of Labour with only eight days to go.
Mr Clegg believes that the May 6 vote is now a two-horse race between “two competing pitches for change” — the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. He says that Liberalism has replaced “Labour statism” as the driving argument of the Centre Left.
And whoever wins, he insists that the momentum for reform of the political system is unstoppable. “Reform is now unavoidable. You can’t duck it.”
Click on link to read Times article by Roland Watson and James Harding
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party is still riding high in the polls, says that electoral reform could be a deal breaker for a post-election hung parliament arrangement.
Along with a substantial minority in the Labour Party, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and other small parties, the Lib Dems argue that proportional representation is key to a fairly elected democratic assembly.
Mr Clegg says that whoever formed the next government will now have to accept that reform of the electoral system is inevitable, and that any Tory opposition to such reform would be a "massive strategic error", reports the BBC.
Changing the unfair first-past-the-post system, which enshrines a two party monopoly in Britain, even though millions of voters are choosing other parties or independents, is something political reformers right across the spectrum say is essential - and it is an important part of what those who want to see a hung parliament are lobbying for (http://hang-em.com/).
Click on link to read article.
Answer to title question - because they want absolute power, and they don't believe in real democracy.
The ‘politics of Britishness’ and related constitutional matters have not – as yet - played strongly in the general election either in manifestos or during campaigning, though all the main parties of the Union agree that further powers be devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This would not be surprising but for considerable time and effort invested by Gordon Brown, David Cameron and others in engaging in such debates over recent years. The term ‘Britishness’ is absent from all UK party manifestos except for the Democratic Unionist Party. Although the Liberal Democrats identified fairness as ‘an essential British value’, identity politics is generally not considered to be a vote winner.
Responses to the ‘English Questions’ have also proven muted and vague, with Labour failing to engage at all with constitutional dilemmas largely created by its own radical reform agenda. Moreover, though the Conservative manifesto promises to ‘introduce new rules so that legislation referring specifically to England, or to England and Wales’ and the Liberal Democrats seeking to ‘address the status of England’, scant details are given about how this will be achieved. Although Timothy Garton-Ash claimed the first TV debate woke us up to devolution, Simon Lee rightly noted in an earlier OD post that the absence of England in the election is striking.
Similarly, the extent to which the legacy of the British Empire continues to influence contemporary politics and society has also been overlooked by most parties. Only the Conservatives have acknowledged it as a policy aspiration, promising in their manifesto that they will ‘strengthen the Commonwealth as a focus for promoting democratic values and development’. However, their intention to establish annual limits on non-EU migrants suggest that Conservative views towards the former empire continue to be infused with elements of colonialism –
Click on link to read Andrew's article.
After years of hand-wringing over youthful disengagement, it seems that the young people of Britain are finally on the move – in the direction of the nearest polling station. Announcing a record late rush to register last week, the electoral commission was desperate to trumpet the success of a recent Facebook campaign, with just over 40% of those visiting its dedicated website hailing from the coveted 18-24 age group.
Apparently, it's all down to that steady-gazed Nick Clegg (as have been most things over the past seven days, aside from volcanic ash and Jennifer Aniston's continuing inability to find lasting love). Nearly half of registrations came after last week's first leaders' debate, while YouGov figures show that the Lib Dem surge evidenced disproportionately among the young. Clegg himself stated his untrammelled joy at the prospect of increased youth participation in an article for the Guardian last week.
But the assumption that the younger generation has only just woken up to Old Politics thanks to its presence in New Media is a dubious one, as is the impression that first-time voters are more likely to plump for the Anyone-But-You-Lot candidate than the rest of the electorate. Perhaps it was just because they couldn't see he had his hands in his pockets, but Radio One listeners were plenty happy to monster Clegg about immigration policy and expenses on a live phone-in, just as they had Gordon Brown before him. As usual, when politicians actually talk to young people rather than about them, they discover they are as nationally disenchanted, locally primed and non-consensual as everyone else. When Cameron next attempts to explain what he means by Big Society (ideally without an egg-throwing unhuggable hoodie in the background), he would do well to remember that, over the last year, it was the under-25s, as well as the over-65s, who scored the highest levels of volunteering in the country.
Click on link to read full article by Libby Brooks - Guardian online
One would be forgiven for thinking that there is not a single news website, programme, newspaper or political magazine that has been without updates of the ‘Cleggmania’ sweeping across the country. The Lib Dems climbed to a high of 33% in the voting intention polls this week, and it seems that this figure could be higher if Clegg’s party were perceived by the majority to have a significant chance of winning the General Election come May 6th. Just under half the country (49%) would vote for the Liberal Democrats if they were seen to have a reasonable chance of winning. Only 25% would vote for the Conservative party in these circumstances; a comparatively meagre 19% would vote for Labour.
An impressive 29% of the public would be ‘delighted’ to see a Liberal Democratic government after the next election, while a further 38% claimed they wouldn’t mind. Only slightly fewer (25%) say they would be delighted if a Conservative government rose to power on May 6th, but in contrast to the Lib Dems they are not supported by as many who ‘wouldn’t mind’ (20%). Only 18% would be delighted to see a fourth term for a Labour government.
Click on link to read full article
