Dinner party rules....NEVER discuss politics.

Let me clear this up straight away. I know nothing about politics and I am in no position to persuade anyone on who to vote for in the forthcoming elections as to be quite honest, I am not sure who I am going to vote for myself.
The reason I am writing this is that, like me, a lot of people do not know much about politics and we have to get by on two things. Number one is our gut reaction and number two is what the spin-doctors and politicians choose to tell us. Lets face it, the average everyman doesn’t have time to read through three party manifestos.

Most people, myself included will probably form their opinions based on the televised election debates and what they read in the tabloids. I think this is a good idea as what is important is that you make up your own mind about who you think will benefit you the most. To me, I think the way to look at the election is three-fold. Number one – Who will benefit you the most. Two- who will benefit your family the most and finally, who will benefit your community the most.

We must watch these electoral debates with an open mind and not fall for the charm and spin. We must ask questions about everything that the candidates say and weigh up the pros and cons.

I was surprised when I read the papers this morning about how Nick Clegg managed to get the majority vote in viewer’s polls after the debate. Sure, he was charismatic and charming and looked into the camera to say his most important lines. He mentioned the audience by name and it was interesting that he had as much camera time as his two rivals.
We British love an underdog and he knows this only too well. What I didn’t like is his veiled claims that he was an alternative to the big dogs. Just because two of the three choices were bad, it does not, by default, make the third good. He kept using the phrase ‘these two’ when it was his turn on camera, belittling the opposition before giving his own (and his party’s) views. He also mentioned that ‘the more you two go on, the more you sound the same’ which to be fair is true, but he also sounded pretty similar. He seemed to be saying that he was an alternative to the big two, but he didn’t quite say how. The biggest boost for the liberal democrats and Clegg is that he was seen on an equal footing as Brown and Cameron and given as much time as his rivals, of course that is going to win him votes. But should he have been there in the first place. As I understand it politics is based on majority. The more votes you get the more seats in parliament you gain , to make it fair Clegg should only have been given 20% of the air time. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and fair play to the man. Gain he did.

Correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that, with the rise of the BNP, immigration seems to be the hot topic on the public and politicians lips. To me this is a shame as we Brits are a little bit too worried about the island we call home. We hold tradition in far too much regard. My view is that we should have an open world and anyone can live where they want. I realise this is idealistic but eventually it would all even out. Nobody would want to live in a crowded Britain so people would stop coming. The Brits are very hypocritical about immigration too. We have expatriate communities in just about every country in the world. Go to Costa Del Sol and you will find a mini Britain, they will, mostly, not speak Spanish, have an English breakfast everyday and shun the siesta and then complain that shops aren’t open because ‘the lazy fucking Spaniards’ are sleeping. We do not uphold their traditions and culture so why should we be so special.
I think that just because you are born in a country it does not give you ownership of a country. Birth is incredibly random, you (and I mean, the perfect you, the you you are now) would not even be here if your parents had sex the day after they did.
Why do you think all these people want to come to Britain? Because we live in a great country, built by foreign invaders. Nobody can claim to be 100% English because we have no indigenous people. Just because our ancestors migrated here from Africa 50 million years ago does not mean that we own this country.

I have completely digressed from the point I was making. The hot-topic should surely be global climate change as this is far more harmful to all of us than a few immigrants. It did not get mentioned once last night and I will be surprised if it does in the next few debates.

It was nice to see Gordon ‘Churchill’ Brown having a bit of fun with some of his lines. The airbrush comment was, although written beforehand, delivered with expert timing and accompanied by a wry smile.

Cameron’s high point was when he asked the guy who asked the question to wave so he could speak with him directly (he was behind a camera). This made him come of as human and an expert, infallible public speaker (Obama lessons perhaps)

Clegg was easily the most charismatic and charming throughout. He also got the balance of make-up right. Cameron looked far too vain with his abundance of slap and Brown could have done with a bit more. I know this seems trivial but it is massively important to the average voter. Appearance is everything (it shouldn’t be) when Nixon debated Kennedy, Kennedy was tanned and calm and youthful while Nixon had just come out of hospital and looked pasty and sweated it out a bit. Radio listeners thought Nixon had the upper hand, TV viewers gave it to Kennedy.

I am going to stop now but my next blog article will kind of be related to this final point. Try not to be too passionate about opinions, always be ready to change your mind when faced with logic, evidence or a better opinion. It is a strength to be able to change your mind. Not a weakness. So listen to all sides and make your own opinion. But don’t stick with it if something better comes along.