Letter to the Thurrock Gazette

So Jackie Doyle-Price is against the change to the Alternative Vote system - who could have possibly predicted that?  Well, everyone really.  Apart from the fact that the Conservatives do very well with the first-past-the-post system we currently have, Ms Doyle-Price is well known for not rebelling against her party's edicts.

My concern about this state of affairs is that Ms Doyle-Price is supposed to be the elected representative for the residents of Thurrock so what happens if her constituents have views that are the polar opposite of the Conservative party?  Yes, she was elected but how many people actually voted for her and how many didn't vote in the election at all due to the lack of any worthy candidates?  Is Ms Doyle-Price one of those MPs who got elected on fewer than 50% of the electorate?

In my opinion, MPs should only be allowed to explain the options open to their constituents on the subject of the referendum on the Alternative Vote system and should not be allowed to make their own opinions known.  As Ms Doyle-Price is a Conservative who, due to her reluctance to rebel against her party, is little more than a Tory drone with no apparent autonomous decision making skills, she should be even more careful of giving 'her' views in a column for the Gazette.

The decision on how we vote for MPs is up to the Great British public and to make that decision we should be given the facts about the options and not party political propaganda designed to frighten voters one way or the other.

Return of the revenge of the Thurrock local election running commentary

With less than a week to go until Election Day, the Grays Riverside candidates, apart from Labour, have been conspicuous by their absence.

I was hoping for some sparkling debate on my doorstep with people who were enthusiastically trying to get my vote; instead I have been given even less incentive to use my vote at all.  I haven’t even received any campaign literature from any of them either.

If a person decides that they wish to represent the residents in their ward, surely they should be prepared to meet them?  They should make the effort to show that they care about their constituency and the people in it, not just turn up at the Polling Station on the day of the election with a self-satisfied grin on their face and hoping that a quick handshake will get the people to vote for them.

If only the other candidates would make an effort then more people might make the effort to go out and vote rather than complaining about being in a safe seat for one party or another; in my case, a safe Labour seat.

We live in a democracy, apparently, but our representatives, both local and national, seem to be elected on a smaller proportion of the electorate each election.  This is wrong.  People fought and died for our right to have free democratic elections and to throw that sacrifice back in their faces by not voting is the highest insult.  That said, how can the electorate truly be inspired to vote when the people who wish to represent them refuse to make the effort to show they care about the position they wish to fill?  At the moment, the only impression the prospective candidates are giving is one of complete indifference and that only feeds into the view many people hold of politicians as people who are only in politics to feather their own nests with allowances and expenses.

Someone has to change the system to make candidates for public office truly work for their position and, if they fail to do so, the system must have procedures in place to remove them from the electoral process in favour of someone who will.

The case for the legalisation of brothels in the UK

In a time of economic hardship such as the UK is now in, I believe that a solution to extra tax revenue is being over-looked due to what would seem to be a rather old-fashioned, head-in-the-sand attitude.  That solution would be to open licensed, legal brothels.  Now, I can imagine that there will be a few raised eyebrows at that suggestion but I believe that it is a reasonable solution that has nothing but positive benefits for society.

One of the arguments against legalising brothels is that it somehow encourages prostitution; this is a fallacy because prostitution goes on regardless.  Some women have no option but to turn to prostitution to survive and it is these women who will benefit the most from the legalisation of brothels.  Rather than risking their lives on the streets, potential prey for any rapist or abusive clients, they would have scheduled appointments in a location away from any family they may have and to whom they do not wish to draw undue embarrassment.  The brothel manager would employ the women; meaning that there would be extra income from the tax and National Insurance payments each employee would be paying.  And I am quite sure that the Government would make sure that ‘sexual services’ would be subject to Value Added Tax although as a lot of MPs take advantage of these types of services, perhaps, they wouldn’t be inclined to make them VATable.

Legalising brothels would bring in revenue from the sale of licenses (subject to approval) and have the effect of removing an unsightly problem from the streets of towns and cities.

A major advantage would also be that legalised brothels would ensure that illegal prostitution would be minimised and the spread of sexually transmitted infections would likewise be reduced due to regular screening for STIs.  The health benefits of STI screening would reduce the cost of treating those infections on the National Health Service, a massive benefit at a time of cuts in NHS funding.

The women who are forced by circumstances to turn to prostitution would be safely taken out of the hands of exploitative and/or abusive pimps and given some degree of safety on premises that could be visited on a regular basis by the police or some form of Local Authority inspector to ensure that the environment is a safe one.  Legalised brothels would also enable the industry to have standardised pricing for their services, ensuring that those women unfortunate enough to have to provide those services are not being unduly exploited, as the prices would include a percentage that would go towards the upkeep of the brothel and the management personnel costs.

Prostitution is a problem that is not going to go away whether it is legalised or not but if it were legalised at least it would provide a shot in the arm for the economy and safety for the women who provide the services and their clients.

I'm watching you, "Call Me Dave" Cameron!

Tomorrow, the UK is going to be gripped in a wave of patriotic flag waving because of the Royal wedding.  I, however, will not be joining the rest of the country, as I believe that we are being distracted from more important matters by all the media attention being given to the wedding.

I don’t really see what all the fuss is about as the Royal family has become nothing but a joke in the last couple of decades and, without trying to doom the marriage before it’s happened, I really don’t think that it’ll last that long.  I give it about six years which is my most generous estimate but I really don’t think it’ll last as long as that.

While the rest of the country is being distracted by the shiny-shiny event, I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the bad news that the Coalition Government will be trying to bury amongst the flag waving crap.  I will point out the bad news I find and hope people will listen but I somehow doubt they will.  Most people these days can’t handle thinking about more than one thing at a time and the Government is taking advantage of that fact.

Tomorrow should be interesting, if only to see how devious this Government is prepared to be.

Electoral reform (Saw style)!

We are a week away from the day of reckoning on the Alternative Vote referendum but will it truly be an acceptable change if it goes through?  Nick Clegg once said that AV was a miserable little compromise compared with the other alternatives in the electoral reform debate.  In my opinion, I don’t think AV will make MPs more accountable, likable or more trustworthy so I have come up with a rather outlandish and controversial version of electoral reform that will ensure that MPs will actually do what’s best for their constituents rather than what’s best for their party or themselves.

I am a fan of the Saw film franchise and believe that we can learn a lot from Jigsaw’s philosophy, perhaps not his methods but I think we should go with something I believe would work.  Not only would this idea help get a truly representative set of MPs but it would help with our ever-growing population problem.

Prospective candidates for public office would be taken to a location with traps similar to the ones in the Saw films and they would be hooked up to portable lie detector machines.  The candidates would then have to go around our trap-laden location in which people from their constituency will be caught up in the middle of dilemmas that will result in their serious injury or death if the candidate is not willing to do what is necessary to rescue them at the expense of pain for themselves.  During the whole experience, the candidates would also be asked questions that would reveal their true intentions for running for office – self-interest or the public good – and, should they lie, the trap in the room will be triggered and the candidate will suffer the consequences in pain and mutilation.  By the end of the trial by fire, we will truly have representative MPs who will do what’s best for the country as a whole because it will be ingrained in their thinking due to the experience.  We’d also have hours of reality television programming to broadcast.  Just think of the money we could make on the DVD sales alone!

I want to play a game. 

You are seeking public office but are you prepared to do what is best for the people you represent or are you seeking only to benefit yourself?  Are you telling your constituents the truth when you say you wish to represent them for their benefit?

In the traps that lie ahead of you are members of your constituency.  Are you prepared to do what is necessary to save them, knowing that you will have to endure pain to do so?

You are also hooked up to a lie detector that will trigger the trap in the room in which you are standing and cause you pain through increasingly high electric shocks.  Are you prepared to tell the truth to save your constituent?

You have sixty minutes to prove your worthiness for public office.

Let the games begin!

Revenge of the Thurrock local election running commentary

It really comes to something when prospective candidates for a seat on the council neither post campaign literature nor knock on people’s doors with little over a week until the day of the election.  Is it a lack of commitment that stays their hand?  A lack of campaign funds?  Or is it that they really don’t care?

I always imagined that people would be falling over themselves trying to secure my vote so that they could start to claim expenses and any payments for attending meetings and so forth.  I don’t believe that there is a shortage of money to be made as a councillor as it seems to me that all politicians seem to make a packet out of what they term their ‘civic duty’ or ‘public service’.  So where are all the candidates?

I know from experience that putting yourself in the public eye can backfire on you in the most awful ways but, if you really want to change things for the better and make a difference in your local area, surely you should have the strength of your conviction to face the people who you wish to represent?  And if you don’t, you shouldn’t run for public office.

I would imagine that the unsuccessful candidates would be the first to complain that no one voted for them and that they were a better choice for the seat on the council than their competitors but I doubt that they would see it as their fault.  They would blame the constituents in their ward for not having made the correct choice despite the fact that they made no efforts in outlining the alternative options that they represent.

It’s not rocket science.  Come to convince us to vote for you or shut up and stop whinging when you’re not elected!

Return of the Thurrock local election running commentary

Well, it’s been a week since the Labour candidate knocked on my door and there has still been no sign of the other candidates.  Is it any wonder that the Grays Riverside Ward is a safe Labour stronghold?  Don’t the other candidates realise that there is very little time left to convince me, and others, to vote for them?  One has to question whether the other candidates really want to represent their neighbours on the council or if they feel that each party has to put someone forward but, as they feel they don’t have a chance of winning the seat, don’t bother to knock on doors.

It seems to me that, with the lack of motivation from the other candidates, there is really no mystery behind the low voter turnout at local elections.  I mean, if the candidates can’t be bothered, why should we?

I have said, in my Your Thurrock blog, that I will vote for the person who convinces me to vote for them but it seems to me that the Labour candidate will get my vote by default and that’s just not right.  It’s also not right that the Labour candidate should apparently win the seat on the council without a fight.  Let’s face it – it’s undemocratic.

I can’t do anything about it this year and, as such, I will not be voting in the election unless another candidate visits me with sufficient time for me to properly consider which one deserves my vote.  It is a great pity as my vote could have decided which political party gains control of the council.

With such lacklustre competition in the Grays Riverside election, if I had the money to run a campaign, I would throw my hat into the ring as an independent candidate when the next seat comes up for grabs just so that the democratic process is properly adhered to.  I doubt I’d win the seat but no one should gain a seat on the council without a proper fight, which is the situation in which we apparently find ourselves now.

How many other floating voters are out there just waiting for someone to knock on their door to give them a choice in who represents them on the council?  I can’t be the only one, can I?  Or has the idea of democracy died here in Thurrock?  There are twelve days left including the day of the election.  Will anyone bother to vie for my vote in that time or will my voting card be left unused again this year?  Time is running out!