By the time I get up for work in the morning, Gordon Brown will have gone to Buckingham Palace to reqeust a dissolution of Parliament, and the electioneering will begin. Already, opinion pieces are appearing. This will be an unusual election for me, having to follow the news across the internet and Canadian and American TV (and BBC World). At least it means that on election night, I can see the whole thing unfold from 3pm onwards, rather than having to stay up till stupid o'clock. I was reading some of the broadsheets online before dinner and nearly had a juice-laptop-interface moment when I read the following in the editorial of the Times:
"This is the 57th general election campaign that The Times has covered. Through this long history, we have never been a newspaper belonging to party or faction."
Did I wake up in some bizarro-world where the Times does not belong to Rupert Murdoch - not a British citizen - who does not interfere in British politics? In bizarro world, he doesn't stand to gain by the would be Conservative government emasculating the BBC so that BSkyB can make more money? Already, the vested interests begin to circle. Dig beneath that veneer of the new touchy-feely schtick and they're still the party by the rich, for the rich, judging by their apparent aversion to National Insurance contributions. Do you really want your money looked after by the shrill, unctuous George Osborne?
I think the best outcome is that election night sees a hung parliament, where the Lib Dems can team up with a Labour party shorn of a mandate by the nation. Labour hasn't achieved what it should, and deserves to lose this mandate. Above all else, they still deserve to for the terrible mess they made of Iraq, and taking a country to war on the basis of little short of outright lies. I wonder if they saw the leaked video today. By aligning themselves with a true left of centre party (which is what Labour were, once, after all ), maybe something radical and lasting -and for the better - in the way the country is run can be accomplished. The Lib Dems' Vincent Cable would certainly make a useful chancellor. He was, after all, one of the very few voices who foresaw the financial crisis of the 18 months. Odd, that as a former economist, he should spot it, don't you think?
People forget things too soon. Do they really want the Conservatives back?
"This is the 57th general election campaign that The Times has covered. Through this long history, we have never been a newspaper belonging to party or faction."
Did I wake up in some bizarro-world where the Times does not belong to Rupert Murdoch - not a British citizen - who does not interfere in British politics? In bizarro world, he doesn't stand to gain by the would be Conservative government emasculating the BBC so that BSkyB can make more money? Already, the vested interests begin to circle. Dig beneath that veneer of the new touchy-feely schtick and they're still the party by the rich, for the rich, judging by their apparent aversion to National Insurance contributions. Do you really want your money looked after by the shrill, unctuous George Osborne?
I think the best outcome is that election night sees a hung parliament, where the Lib Dems can team up with a Labour party shorn of a mandate by the nation. Labour hasn't achieved what it should, and deserves to lose this mandate. Above all else, they still deserve to for the terrible mess they made of Iraq, and taking a country to war on the basis of little short of outright lies. I wonder if they saw the leaked video today. By aligning themselves with a true left of centre party (which is what Labour were, once, after all ), maybe something radical and lasting -and for the better - in the way the country is run can be accomplished. The Lib Dems' Vincent Cable would certainly make a useful chancellor. He was, after all, one of the very few voices who foresaw the financial crisis of the 18 months. Odd, that as a former economist, he should spot it, don't you think?
People forget things too soon. Do they really want the Conservatives back?
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