Tuesday, 4th May, 2010
Politics
I know that this is a programming blog. And I know that I don’t, haven’t and most likely, will never get the chance to study politics. Either way, here is my £0.02 on the current (2010) General Election, especially with regards to the BNP, why I will be voting, and how I came to the conclusion to vote for the Liberal Democrats.
Stylistic
The British National Party
The BNP’s is very efficiently laid out. Almost everything is neatly categorised, and every point begins “The BNP…” as if one needs reminding about which manifesto is being read. Not that it’s easy to mistake the policies of any other political party (Cough, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, circa 1920 - 1930).
Every policy is summed up in a single bullet point, no expansion as to what it could mean for the British people, almost as if it doesn’t matter. Simply, “We’re going to do this, to hell with the consequences”. This manifesto is aimed at those with the lowest attention span and lowest reading levels, conveying the minimal information as simply as possible is the goal here.
Only once you dig further into the manifesto do you get some thing more: Paragraphs! What a novel concept. In these sections they do explain themselves, sort of.
The Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrat (LibDem) manifesto proceeds at a much more leisurely pace. In the Pocket Guide to their manifesto, each point is laid out with a paragraph. There’s a brief sentence in bold for those who wish to scan text for key points. After that, each point is well expanded on. What they will do, why they are going to do it, and what it will mean (very briefly) for any citizen. The full manifesto is oddly, the reverse, once again falling back to bullet pointed lists.
Unlike the BNP’s simplistic sentences, there’s usually a few sentences in each bullet point.
The manifestos are stylistically aimed at different audiences, the BNP’s makes the assumption that the reader is stupid, and lack’s basic English reading skills. The LibDem’s makes the assumption that you can get higher than a C at GCSE English Language.
Policies (repugnant and wonderful
The British National Party
“The BNP will institute a Community Award Scheme for young people”
That’s all the manifesto says about this. There’s no explanation of what it is, no explanation of what it will entail (cost-wise), and no explanation as to why.
What it actually is is a scheme where school leavers will entered into a compulsory community service scheme. That’s right folks, treatment usually reserved for criminals is going to be given to all 16 - 20 year olds! Oh joy! I can feel the BNP Youth Movement coming on right now, along with “Great is Griffin!” along with salutes.
As for the cost, it’s not mentioned, neither is how the young people will be trained for working in the community. A dearth of information is all that’s needed to cover up a bad and vague policy.
“The BNP will forbid the development and importation of genetically modified produce.”
So, GM is bad? Ah I guess we’ll have to throw away all of our bananas, domesticated dogs and cats, pigs, cows and anything else that humans have artificially selected over the last few thousand years f agriculture.
The only difference between artificial selection and genetically modifying the crops/animals directly is that instead of hoping that what we want will randomly happen, we make it happen. Increased yield to help feed our growing population at a lower cost and any excess can be sold to other countries for profit, or sent as aid, depending on your actual policy.
In short, the BNP wants to starve you and future generations. Nice!
“The BNP will repeal the Race Relations Act and all other far leftist social engineering projects, such as the Equalities and Human Rights Commission aimed at enforcing multiculturalism.”
Repeal the Equalities and Human Rights Commission?? Well, I suppose that treating other people fairly and such is simply a quality that’s not very British/Aryan. This one policy speaks volumes about the party.
“The BNP will deport all foreigners convicted of crimes in Britain, regardless of their immigration status.”
I don’t care that you’re a paediatrics doctor working at Great Ormond Street Hospital. You got a speeding ticket while going to work. That’s a crime, get out.
Another short sighted and ultimately racist policy. There will be lots of people who are affected by this. As far as I’m aware, I’m a foreigner in their policy, despite both my parents being born in the UK. So if I get a speeding ticket, I’ll be deported.
Thoughts
At a glance, their policies are very close to that of the Nazi party. Socialising of nationalising massive chunks of the country, for example, anything which falls under the banner of “telecoms”.
Also, in the sections in which things are explained in full, it becomes very clear what the BNP are all about, they’re not for the British (given their definition of British) people, they’re simply against everyone else. All of their policies stem from “mass immigration”. I’ll concede that we do not have enough housing to support the numbers of people that we’re getting, what we need is control, not an absolute ban.
An interesting quote from their section on the relation of race and crime:
“According to official figures, over 77 percent of adult black males between the ages
of 18 and 35 are on the police’s DNA database.”
First and foremost, the DNA Database does not care if you were convicted or not. If you’ve been arrested and had a sample taken you’re on it. This is compounded by the fact that the police force has the tendency to be biased with who is arrested. Being black makes you more likely to be arrested because you’re black; there’s a sizeable portion of the police force that is racist.
Quoting the DNA database as a way of legitimising one’s claims only legitimises the problems that the police force has with racism.
The Liberal Democrats
“No more landfill, a lot more recycling and a lot less waste”
Landfill can be good, if we only put biodegradable material in it, as was common 50 - 60 years ago. Landfilling cars and such is clearly a bad idea. Who wants to dig up an old dishwasher?
Moving everything to recycling can be difficult and expensive, recycling most of a car is easy enough, but what about a laptop, or an LCD TV? They often involve very energy-hungry processes, which we’re currently supplying with fossil fuels.
a good idea, in principle, but the devil’s in the details.
“No to nuclear and dirty coal”
No to nuclear is what I have a problem with here. Nuclear power is the only clean way to produce large amounts of power. If we were to build nuclear power plants to replace their fossil fuel counterparts, we could keep going until we had a much better renewable system in place. Solar and wind are unreliable at the moment, and we need to buy ourselves time in the form of nuclear power plants.
“Give people a say in policing and the NHS”
We will create directly elected health boards and police authorities so these services deliver what you need.
A say in policing and the NHS… This means voting in police chiefs and doctors. Hopefully they’ll only get to stand for election to these posts will have shown that they are fully qualified. Wouldn’t want homoeopathic doctors, or racist police chiefs now, would you?
If they implement this, they’ll need incredibly stringent controls on who gets to stand/.
“Give you the right to sack MPs who have broken the rules”
Two words: Shit yea.
“Cut red tape for putting on live music”
I fully agree with this, I love live music, and I want to see it in as many places as possible. Especially acoustic music. =^.^=
“Introduce a Freedom Bill to restore and protect our civil liberties”
Just look at this:
Liberal Democrats have put together all the freedoms that have been undermined by Labour and the Tories in the last twenty years to restore them in a single Act of Parliament. We will scrap ID cards; get innocent people off the DNA database; regulate CCTV; allow people to protest at Parliament; stop councils from spying on people; and stop unfair extradition to the US. See http://freedom.libdems.org.uk/
Thoughts
Despite their some of their policies seeming slightly under informed, they’re generally in the right direction for me.
There’s not a hint of racism, and they even cater for the LGBT community. I can see why some of their policies may not sit well with people, their policies on nuclear power plants and such, but otherwise, they’re the best party going.
Closing Remarks
The Liberal Democrats are all about freedom and well being for our country. The British National Party are all about limiting the possible well being of our country by destroying our current culture.
If you feel I’ve made a factual error, then please let me know, using the comment system.