Pancakes and Politics
Long time no blog post. I know and the usual apologies are due. But this weekend has been a bit of a full on one so it's only really now I'm taking the time to sit down and write to you.
I shall of course, as I know you have been waiting frantically refreshing this page, update you with what I've been up to this week before getting down to the main event.
So this last week has been another particularly busy one with no free evenings until Friday when I just flopped with Netflix and a cup of tea. However within this hectic whirlwind of life there was so much fun. On Monday I managed to find time to have coffee/lunch with my friend Jess (who also has a blog- check her out here) and it was so nice to just sit down and catch up. I definitely like that my later lecture start on a Monday means I can choose how I fill it, then I had some work shadowing and then work later in the evening.
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| Following on from the delicous Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate of last week I had a tasty White Hot Chocolate. As usual Jess had my marshmallows. |
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| She's so cute :) So glad I have lovely friends to talk to at uni. |
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| Interval wedges are the best! |
Tuesday was one of my favourite days of the year- PANCAKE DAY-so I made sure to have time before my 9am lecture to celebrate the goodness that is pancakes. I also got to go in the evening to a talk about the Green Party (more about that later) which reminded me about why I do love a good political speech.
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| Gotta have all the condiment options! |
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| MMMMMMMMM |
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| Natalie Bennett :) |
Wednesday was another wonderful day as it meant I got to go for more coffee (read as herbal tea) and a talk on how to reduce food waste as well as the arrival of Itchy Feet in Sheffield. A group of my friends and me had booked to go to this a while back and I couldn't quite believe it had finally arrived. For anyone who doesn't know it's an alternative night out that tours the country and has live music as well as a DJ playing swing, jazz, etc and other 1950s non chart music that was a breath of fresh air. I had always managed to miss it the past few times it had been in Sheffield so it was lovely to go, get glammed up and dance the night away.
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| Stylin and ready for swingin' |
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| The live performance was really good! |
Thursday I was knackered but had another long day so had to solider through on very little sleep but lunchtime with friends, a cracking netball match and an interesting discussion LGBT and Theology at SCM it was well worth getting out of bed. The weekend was mainly spent catching up on sleep and doing reading for this week although I did go an visit a very nice art gallery.
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| Some people let off fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year |
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| I had noodles after I got home from work |
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| So many sculptures! |
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| One of my favourite paintings I found! Depicting Venus wooing Anchises. |
What I'd really like to share with you is - serious tone shift- actually about politics. (A more emotive piece than political intellectualised jargon I will admit) I haven't done a topical blog in a while and I thought, with the general election fast approaching, this would be a good one. (Not only because my friend Jess encouraged me to do a blog with a bit more of a 'rant' in it so beware, you have been warned.)
From ever since I was young I would say that politics has been on my radar because of the household I was brought up in. I was taught to care about others, the world around me and how those in power have a chance, nay a responsibility in order to take measures to ensure that everyone had the basic necessities and freedoms to live and live well. But perhaps that's just the liberal in me. I therefore quickly grew to be outraged at the governments that only looked out for money and power, keeping the rich in profit whilst ignoring and influencing the general hardship of the population. Due to other values and pacifist views this also lead me to believe- and I still do- in the power of the voice and peaceful protest. Hence why my family and I partook in the march against the Iraq War in London. It also accounts for my love of the music of Billy Bragg and other left-wing singer/songwriters who use music to raise issues of political issues.
I think whilst we have people who moan that democracy is failing and that politicians are all the same and therefore what is the point in speaking up or voting because whoever we end up with is going to screw us over anyway, this is still a system that can work. It does have the power to change the aspects of life that need to be changed. It's just a case of getting the right people there to do that. The right people may be very different to both you and me because we all have different views and priorities, and that makes life interesting.
But I can safely say that I do not want another 5 years of the Conservatives sharing with another party or as this party is one that I have very little time or respect for (the only one lower would have to be the ridiculously racist yet still given air time UKIP). Because any party that just tries to gloss over economic issues, whilst keeping the rich rich (I mean where else would they get that campaign money?), ridiculing the welfare system, reducing the benefits based on the small portion people that abuse the system rather than the majority who need it to survive, cutting costs to the mental health provision, trampling all over the education system (Michael Gove need I say more). I know you'll say sweeping statements glossing over 5 years where they have managed to achieve things and keep going through a time of enormous economic upheaval, terrorism surges and the like. And yes I will grant you that woman bishops and same-sex marriages have been achieved but that's basic fundamental rights that should always have been and we can't excuse everything else based upon these. I'm not going to go into the finer point of Tory Policy and failings here or provide an elongated nuanced view of why I really can't stand them. (If you want that debate feel free to drop me a message) I just feel it's not a party which supports the ideals and views I have or looks out for the needs of the majority of society and particularly the working and middle class.
I suppose though once we have established that the question turns to the alternative? If we want to get rid of them then what now? I can't decide, nor would I presume to, for you and this blog as it always has been is a representation of my own personal views. But I personally haven't adopted this communal view of the Lib-Dems as a demonised turncoat party that a lot of opposition is quick to point fingers at and blame. Yes they made a mistake, a big mistake, by entering into a coalition with the Conservatives and that has ruined the creditability of a party which swept up the hearts and minds of a particular the student population prior to the last general election. And they failed to deliver on several key pieces of policy they had promised (*ahem tuition fees*) but is an ineffective party really on the same scale as one that is purposefully going out there and creating problem? Not in my book but it still doesn't make it a viable choice for me to vote for.
I have always been more left leaning within the camp of politics firmly in support of Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens but it's when it comes down to a point of actually voting for a party that is going to to make a difference that comes the hard part. I'm also at a point where I have become particularly exasperated with tactical voting, voting to keep people out rather than voting for the people you actually want to put in government. And yes this may be a flaw of the voting system itself that it brings people to do this but then we end up with a government that doesn't actually represent what people believe. This is why come May 7th it is more than likely that I'm going to be voting Green than Lib Dem or Labour. Because the Lib Dems for me just don't seem to have a sense of conviction to enact actual change and with Ed Miliband in charge and it's oppositional policies Labour doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Yet the Green Party actually stands for values that I agree with such as welfare protection, sustainability, taxation of the rich and disabling the pointless money wasting machine that is Trident. As well as a whole host of views you can check out here at your leisure.
I really enjoyed the talk that local Green Party candidate, Dr Jillian Creasy, and leader Natalie Bennett gave last week as it restored my faith that there is a party which does acknowledge the deep seated social issues and actually want to do something to change them such as eradicating the need for Food Banks. Yes people may accuse me of political idealism and pandering to a party that can't outright have control of the government but I'd rather vote for a party who's policies I believe in than one to just get rid of another. And yes there are several months to go now before the election and I could well change my mind if another party's policies allied more closely with my views after I've taken a full read through of polices and how well they deal with questions if they ever have the TV debates. I fully admit that but right now the other alternatives just aren't that appealing for me. (You can check out the recording of the talk here and if you really want at the end of the video search out the response to the question about Mental Health that I asked in the Q&A section of the evening :P)
Regardless of whether you think I'm barking up the wrong tree, living in a delusion or simply not politically well enough informed of the nuances of the system (which I have been accused of in the past- but at least I care enough about the outcome to take an interest, if not a backed up by data every other sentence one) you all should vote and vote for the people that you believe are actually going to make a real difference to people's lives. Not just vote to get rid of someone you don't like and especially not vote at all because you think the political system is pointless. We can only change things from within, having a voice and reforming not just sitting on the sidelines fed up and pointing fingers at who's made the biggest mistake and removing ourselves from the responsibility to vote and try to change things. It won't always work out the way you want it too but one of my favourite quotes is "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." This holds true in this instance and you can bet I won't be sympathetic to your complaints about how rubbish the state of our country is if you haven't bothered to change it.
Don't just believe me though, have a look at your local candidates, read up on party manifestos, open your eyes to other possibilities but most definitely, regardless of who it's for, exercise the freedom you have to vote and enact change that affects each and everyone of our lives.
To check you're registered to vote and register if you haven't then go to: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
If I haven't bored you too much with my political ravings head back to Observations of a Fictional Girl soon for a blog post about mental health and my February Alphabetical instalment.
Much love,
Mx
Song of the blog post: Waiting For The Great Leap Forward- Billy Bragg (Gotta be a track from the Braggster) and also from one great Billy to another It's Still Rock and Roll to Me- Billy Joel
Okay, I read this last night and thought I'd take a little while to collect my thoughts, because this is obviously quite an in-depth post!
ReplyDeleteI thought instead of just replying to everything you've said here, I'd tell a bit of my own story, and how I came to be the person I am politically.
I too was taught from childhood that the needs of the least in our society should, in general, come before those of people with the most. Like you, I marched in Hyde Park in 2003, aged eight years old, holding my Dad's hand.
His politics, like mine, came largely from his family. His dad was the youngest of 13 children, born to Nebraskan farmers in the 1920s. My grandmother, his mum, was born a few years later. The Great Depression hit both their families hard. My grandma tells a story of being six years old and dropping to the ground in floods of tears when her father, my great-grandfather, after months of searching and saving, brought her home a used bicycle.
But then President Roosevelt took office. A Democrat, not a radical socialist or a communist. And in general, things got better. His was the first nation to really undertake Keynes' theories, before most people even knew what they were. They spent money, yes, but they build dams, and roads, and bridges, and artworks, and they created thousands of jobs in the process, established the minimum wage and gave millions of people dignity and security in their livelihoods, just 50 years after the end of the Old West.
And 70 years later, my first really aware political act was running down to the post box in my village with my dad's envelope in hand, to cast his vote for John Kerry, the Democrat, in the 2004 Presidential Election.
Democracy, as you say, is powerful stuff. People criticise all politicians and all governments, but that is the beauty of it. It gives us the power to make our own decisions.
I came to be really interested in politics around 2009/10, towards the tail end of the last parliament. I was swept up, like a lot of people, in the hype surrounding Nick Clegg. And although I urged all the adults I knew then that the objective was keeping the Conservatives out by using the vote that was most effective where they lived, I was still pretty taken in by it all. But if there was one lesson I learned from that, it was that you can't trust impossible promises.
I think it's interesting that you choose to forgive a lot of the Liberal Democrats. Perhaps through the filter of the campaign I'm involved with against Nick Clegg, it becomes hard to see them as much different from the Tories, now. When I look at their election literature, printed in blue, distributed to enormous houses in Dore, I don't just see a party which is interested in looking after the poorest in our society, or making society more equal. I see a party which has become quite cynical, and willing to use any means necessary to obtain power. I have great sympathy for the cause of social liberalism - but the best in that particular party, I feel, have now either left or will soon be going.
I went to see Neil Kinnock, the former leader of the Labour Party, speak on Thursday night (and a 72 year old with more energy in public speaking you will not find anywhere!)
He had a few words to say about the Green Party, and they were less combative words than I thought they might be. The gist of what he was saying was that if you take off the rosettes, the values behind most supporters of Labour and the Green Party look very similar indeed.
There are policy snags, sure - Labour believes in economic growth and not everyone within it wants to get rid of Trident, for instance - but the basic belief that people can only be liberated from poverty, inequality and discrimination by a democratic, internationalist, enabling government is a big unifying value.
I think it's one of the great tragedies of British politics how, from about 1981 onwards, the left of centre vote has been divided when the politics of the people who vote that way very often converges.
ReplyDeleteThink of all the good those 50,000 new members of the Greens could do if they joined 200,000 people who think very much like them in Labour, which decides its policies and its executive democratically. If the 6/7% of people intending to vote Green voted Labour, it wouldn't just be a win, it would be a landslide of 1945 proportions.
And that wouldn't just be victory for victory's sake. It would be a government which would increase taxation on the rich with a 50% top tax rate (up from 45%), decrease taxation on the poorest with a 10% starting rate (down from 20%), force other countries to stick to their commitments on climate change, reduce our own emissions by 80% by 2050, repeal the Bedroom Tax and NHS Act 2012, and invest enough money to create a million new jobs in the green sector.
But there are more emotional, less rational reasons I'm Labour. And I have to admit that basically these are negative reasons. Some of it is personal. The current government's cuts to education funding ultimately led to my mum losing her job - she's still unemployed. Their refusal to tackle unfair workplace practices has meant her husband can only find work on a zero hours contract.
But it's not always personal. A lot of it is to do with people I've met through politics. I went to Heywood in Greater Manchester for the by-election there in October, and met a woman whose first response when she opened the door and saw my red rosette was "Oh thank God you're here". She and her family had been suffering with mental health problems, and she said she needed someone in government who would help them.
Just a couple of weeks ago in Totley, in Nick Clegg's constituency, I met a woman who was illiterate, living in social housing, and had had her benefits cut. In one of the richest constituencies in the country - one in which there is also now a food bank.
All these stories, I hope, tug at the hearts of Green supporters just as surely as they do Labour ones. And what those experiences have all taught me is that this government cannot be permitted to remain. I know the electoral system is awful. It needs to change, and Ed Miliband is a leader who supports changing it. But this time round at least, this government needs to go by whatever means possible. And then, even if you hate everything we do in office, you'll have five years to build a party to kick us out - rather than the two months the Greens have left themselves now.
This isn't a statement which is morally pleasant to me, but I don't think people (at least in marginal seats) can always afford to take the risk of voting for their wildest dreams if the electoral system means that could plunge thousands of people back into their worst nightmare. There is an alternative - and it may not be perfect, but it is hugely, hugely better than what we have now.
There are two claims that are often made about Labour, by different people. The Greens and the SNP and Plaid Cymru like to tell you that we're no different from the Tories. The Tory press like to tell you we're raving Communists. Neither is really true - Labour is a party of the left of centre. It is relatively moderate, true - but its heart is in the right place and its policy platform sits well to the left of anything Blair or Brown ever produced. So maybe worth checking out the manifesto when it launches in March!
I'm really glad you advocate voting wholeheartedly. It's one of the biggest shames that so many people don't, and I think it's entirely dangerous for people like Russell Brand to go around advocating it. This was a good post and it was really interesting to hear your point of view, so keep looking into these things!