Rayvyn.com

Mood: 

So, David Cameron and The Conservatives constantly argue they’re for the man on the street.  Just as long as they’re not gay and want equal rights.  Hell, Cameron’s own back benchers today even wanted to try and force through an ammendment so that registrars wouldn’t have to perform the ceremony if they didn’t agree.

This is why The Conservatives are trying so hard and failing so much to appeal to the normal, ordinary man on the street.  And it’s why UKIP are succeeding.  Because they are so far out of touch with the common man on the street that they don’t know what a normal, decent person wants.  They know what bankers want.  They know what businessmen want.  They probably know what the guys and girls from the cast of Made In Chelsea want.  But people more like those in The Only Way Is Essex?  Not a clue.

The thing is, UKIP have one very interesting, very unique tactic.  Nigel Farage visits a lot of pubs.  Not wine bars.  Not bistros.  Pubs.  He even made mention that he drank a lot of bitter in the lead up to the council elections because of this tactic.  But it’s a crucial one.  Because normal, working class people visit pubs.  And you don’t think he listens?  Or that he has people listening?  From there he can begin to make policies based on what the ordinary, normal people want, from what he or his flunkies hear.

But of course, Conservatives will never do this.  I live in an area where my local MP is Desmond Swayne.  He’s a Conservative and a good friend of David Cameron.  We have a LOT of bars around here.  And he drinks at one of them.  The bar where a lot of yacht owners and businessmen drink.  Of course, there are bars where the normal, everyday people drink.  But you’d never catch our MP there.  Typical Conservative.

So whilst we have Cameron putting restrictions on who can do what and who can’t, when it comes to the same thing, you know that The Conservatives still just don’t get what the every day person wants and needs.

Mood:

So, it has emerged today that UKIP is now the third most popular party in the UK.  It’s actually worrying that people are getting behind UKIP.  The problem is, they think that if they support UKIP, all the boogeymen will go away.  They won’t.  Farage is a sham.

You all think Farage is some incredible, amazing, new thinking kind of politician.  Well.  How many of you would be surprised to know that Farage is an ex Conservative.  That could be a reason why so many Conservatives are leaving the party and going to UKIP.  They want to be with their own, in a slightly different party.  The only reason Farage left the Conservatives and was a founding member of UKIP is that he was opposed to the Maastricht Treaty.  If that Treaty hadn’t come into effect, Farage would have been happily in Government, screwing us all over.  Because that is what Conservatives do.  They do not understand the common man or woman.  They only understand their rich friends and that lifestyle.

The other, really interesting thing about Nigel Farage is that his wife isn’t British.  She’s German.  Which strikes me as really odd when Nigel doesn’t like Europe, and Nigel doesn’t like immigration.  Uh, Nigel, if you sent all the immigrants from Europe back to where they came from, you’d have to send your wife back to Germany.  Citizenship, residency, whatever, it’s not that bit that the people don’t like, it’s the fact that they’re not from around here…

Plus, they’re not even a professional party.  This is a party that last year, forgot to put their party name underneath their candidate’s name on the London Mayor Ballots.  Come on guys, that is elementary!  It’s politics 101, the party name goes under the name of the candidate!  Then their press officer called Baroness Warsai, the then chairman of The Conservatives,”A bitch”.  Really?  Mocking and ridicule and an element of name calling is par for the course in politics.  But calling someone a bitch?  That just shows a lack of class, professionalism, and maturity.

This is the problem with UKIP.  They’re not organised.  Popular?  Yes.  Making people interested in politics again?  Yes.  Are those good things?  Of course!  But real people are really going to vote for them.  And they could get seats in parliament.  The problem is, they will have a say in how the country is run.  That would be a disaster.  Hell, they can’t even agree simple matters like policy amongst themselves.  Think about how that is going to affect you and me if they actually have a voice in how the country is run…

Mood:

First up, as an Open Source and Copyleft advocate, may I suggest that Andrew Feldman, consider using this as the Conservative Party election trail anthem.

Mood: 

So, if we leave Europe, we’ve got a bit of a problem.  Who is going to help us?  We’ve avoided a triple dip recession – just.  But that was because of an anomaly in spending by the public.  No-one is really sure where it really came from, but it did save us from a triple dip recession.  However, yet another major player in banking is screwed, Co-Operative Bank has just had it’s debts reduced to Junk status.  Effectively, that means they’re never getting that money back.  And they lost £663 million last year alone.  That is bad.

Now, remember, in part it was Northern Rock collapsing that got us into this mess.  Northern Rock collapsed, which made other banks nervous, which meant they stopped lending to people and each other.  That slowed the flow of money.  It is said you can effectively build your way out of a recession, but then that only works if the banks are lending money to people to buy houses.  Which they’re not, which leaves that avenue firmly shut.  Which means maybe we could use manufacturing?  Nope.  Why would people buy for more from here, rather than for less from China?  Don’t believe it’s true?  Go look on eBay for things, and see where the cheapest electronics can be bought from.  If that is just consumer goods, imagine what the wholesale marketplace must look like…  But we could always buy our way out of a recession!  No.  Not going to happen.  Not whilst George is insanely determined to grip onto austerity for as long as he can.

So what happens if our economy goes the way of Greece, Spain, Ireland, etc?  Well, we could get a bailout from Europe.  Oh, wait, maybe not if we leave them.  You think the London riots were bad a couple of years ago?  That is nothing compared to how it would be if we had Greece and Spain’s austerity measures.

Whilst we have links with Europe, we’ve got a Plan B if things go tits up.  Plus we have trade links, which if we had a smarter chancellor, he would play with export duty so we could exploit them.

Mood:

So, the Huffington Post had an article today about whether UKIP are to blame for making immigration the “hot” issue at the moment.  Just to mention something they mentioned, UKIP’s success hints that 25% of people are more concerned about immigration than anything else.  Including local crime and the local economy.  Very interesting.

Anyway, I’ve got a question for people who are opposed to immigrants or immigration.  Have you been through the process?  Do you even know what the process entails?  And I am not talking about the European immigrants.  I mean from outside of Europe.  Because if you had, you might revise a few of your opinions.  Even a well read, well educated co-worker of mine was surprised when I explained the process to her when my wife wanted to come here.

First off, no, just because my wife married me does not entitle her to live here.  Sorry folks, TV lied to you.  Secondly, it’s not free.  It is far from free.  It cost me £851 to even just apply for her visa.  That doesn’t cover the cost of sending it to the embassy on her side of the world.  Another £50.  Because you have to have evidence you were actually together.  Photos.  Airline tickets.  Receipts.  E-mails.  Chat transcripts.  In the end, we sent 6kg of documents.  Plus she had to travel to an embassy in Columbia and another in Panama.  That involved flights, hotels, etc.  Plus, that £851, it’s just an application fee.  And it’s not refundable.  If you apply and you say no, that’s it.  Your only choice is to appeal, which is another £80 for a paper decision or £140 for an oral decision.  It took about 12 weeks for us to receive our decision.  During which, you hear nothing.  Not a jot.  Which when being with your wife or husband is concerned, isn’t helpful and just adds to the stress.

So put yourself in that position.  Imagine if just to be with your wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend, you had to go through all of that with the constant fear of someone saying “No, we don’t believe you’re really in love”.  And the next time you bitch and moan about immigrants, especially those from outside of Europe, think about everything they’ve gone through to get here, and ask yourself, could you put yourself through that?

Mood:

So, Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce are out of jail after a frankly pathetic 8 weeks in jail.  These are supposed pillars of society.  Chris Huhne was one of the men in charge of making and passing policy through Parliament.  It is one of the most responsible jobs in the country.  Vicky Pryce was an economist.  Again, an insanely responsible job.

And how do we show those in society that what they did was bad?  Let them have a few days in a regular jail, before sending them to an open jail for a few weeks, and then releasing them early.  Well, that is definitely going to send a strong message to those who consider trying to dodge speeding fines and penalty points.

A lot of people have been saying they have freedom, but freedom with restrictions.  Bull.  Shit.  Let me get this straight: so they drag an offense out for 10 years, finally get convicted, do a week in a regular jail, seven weeks in an open jail, then get released on a tag.  Do you really think they’re suddenly going to go balls to the wall if they break their tagging restrictions?  Do you think their tagging restrictions are as severe as regular peoples?  I somehow don’t think so.

Apparently Huhne’s political career is pretty much ruined.  Well, never mind, look at the Hamiltons.  They’re running for UKIP next year, so there is still hope for you Chris!  And Pryce is planning on returning to her career as an economist.  Oh well, let’s just hope she’s got her bitterness and hate issues sorted in the 2 months she was in jail, considering she is now regarded as rehabilitated.

And for anyone wondering why I’m not an advocate of second chances – how many damned chances do these two need?  This case has taken place over a decade!  Why not make an example of them and force both of them to do the entire length of the sentence in a regular jail.

Mood:

I am not scared of UKIP because they’re a “threat” to the Conservatives.  I am not a fan of the Conservatives.  I am a fan of parties with policies.  Real, actual, complete policies.  Not just “throw out the foreigners” and “let’s leave Europe!”  For the record, in my mind, both policies are idiotic.  But that is for a later post.

The problem with UKIP being this popular this fast is that they actually stand a chance of getting MPs voted into Westminster.  That is a problem.  Because whilst they might not have a lot of power in small numbers, they have a problem.

The problem is with UKIP having MPs, is that UKIP would have MPs.  Having councillors is bad.  They have budgets and small bits of land they are in control of, but with nothing but a highly fractured policy.  Imagine scaling that up.  Imagine if UKIP, and their lamentably bad policy making controlled vast parts of the country.  The result would be a nightmare.  I highlighted things I have no idea of, regarding UKIP’s policies.  This despite all the massive press they have been getting:

Anti social drinking
Their stance on legalisation and control of drugs
The economy and how they would rescue it
What they would do about child to teacher ratios in preschools?
Their stance on the freedoms of users on the Internet regarding the “snoopers charter”
How they would act on Levenson?
What would they do about the troops left in Afghanistan and Iraq?
What is their foreign policy regarding states such as Iran and Syria?
What they would do about clamping down on benefit cheats
What they would do about tax avoidance schemes
What they would do about the pensions crisis

Those are massive, gaping holes in their national policy.  How coherent do you think their local policy is going to be if their national policy isn’t even up to scrutiny from a lone political blogger?  That is why UKIP are scary.  Not just because they’re taking seats from The Conservatives.  Because they’re amatuers and they’re risking taking seats from people who despite being assholes, somewhat know what they’re doing.

Mood:

Oh dear.  Gordon never learns does he?  Gordon Brown is launching a “United With Labour” campaign in Scotland which will attempt to reach 3 million homes in Scotland, to convince them to not vote Yes to independence.

So let me get this straight.  One of the most unpopular Prime Ministers in recent history, a shining example of a human being without a shred of charisma, is spearheading the Labour campaign to get people to vote against an independent Scotland, which will require someone both popular and charismatic to win.

Gordon.  This is why you’re going to lose.  The SNP have Alex Salmond.  The man is charismatic.  The man is (somewhat) popular.  Jeez, you even had to do a deal with Tony to get to be Prime Minister because you knew (which was later proven correct) that there was no way in blue hell that you were going to be elected Prime Minister by a rational minded public.

Mood:

So here is the thing.  All I have been hearing this morning is “UKIP”.  As a protest vote to send a message to The Conservatives, Labour and The Lib Dems, I have no problem with UKIP.

I have a problem when Farage comes out and says they’re now the third party, and when he claims they’re a real political force.  Nigel, you’re delusional.

UKIP has few policies.  I tweeted Farage and asked him what their policy was on welfare reform.  I got no reply.  I would assume that this means they have no policy.  I also reported earlier this week that they’re getting off the shelf Right Wing Think Tank policies and using them as their own.  As I said, they’re a fine protest vote, but if that idea grows, we could have idiots with no policies running the country.

We need one of the Big Three.  We just need them to change their behaviour a little.  I think South Shields made the right choice, but more on that in a different post.  Labour represent the working classes.  As much as I detested Brown and Blair, I was better off under them.  But every politician needs to be nudged in the right direction.  Fortunetely Rayvyn has the cajones to do such a thing.  So any grey haired, grey suited, dull, politician is in my sights.

I am every politician’s worst nightmare.  I am educated, intelligent, informed, articulate, I understand how they do things, what they do, how they manipulate and bend things so we see them their way, but I am not on their side.  I am on the side of the common man on the street.  I don’t take the side of the £65,000 a year MP.  I take the side of the £17,000 a year shop worker.

Mood:

So, I am dying for someone to explain this one to me.  If I were to say, as an example, David Walliams probably loves big glossy musicals because he’s camp and therefore gay and that being gay is wrong against everything ever! – that is homophobia.  It’s unacceptable.  Using the N word against a black person, that in most situations is racist.  Also unacceptable.

But we have this really odd situation in the UK where if you slate foreign people for daring to be here, that’s fine.  Yeah, sorry, it’s not.  It’s called Xenophobia.  It’s a fear of cultures that aren’t your own.  Theresa May has a terrible case of the Xenophobias.  Don’t believe me?  Check her policy on immigration.  And we made that woman the Home Secretary.

The Sun today has been reporting how by 2066 being white and British may make you a minority race in England.  Bear in mind that 2066 is 53 years in the future.  Let me point some things out.  In 1960, the Grand National was televised for the first time.  Doc Martens came out in the UK for the first time.  Apache by The Shadows came out.  We got our first nuclear submarine and kidney transplant.  Lady Chatterley’s Lover is unbanned, and subsequently sells 200,000 copies in one day.  Coronation Street began.  Black bin bags were introduced, as was Fairy washing up liquid.

So, imagine a world without Corrie, black bin bags, organ transplants, the Grand National, nuclear submarines.  That to us would be a really strange world.  And in the same way, people will think in 2066 that it’s really weird we got so scared of meeting people of different colours, nationalities, cultures, who speak different languages.  Because guess what?  Underneath everything you build up around these people, they’re human too.  Doing similar things to you every day.  Weird huh?