Monday, 11 July 2016

Lib Dems a victim of their own policy!

So let me get this right. The Liberal Democrats pledged to introduce fixed-term parliaments in their 2010 manifesto and they negotiated this as part of the coalition agreement. Labour had this as a 2010 manifesto pledge too. The main reason for this was to prevent governments from using snap elections for their own political advantage. 
However fast forward to 2016 and the Lib Dems aren't happy that Theresa May will be our new Prime Minister, because there hasn't been a General election.

Let me add some context. During the past 100 years we have had 24 Prime Ministers (assuming Theresa May meets the Queen tomorrow), half of these Prime Ministers assumed office without a General Election, including a Liberal (although that was a century ago).

Image: Getty,PA. Source: UK Government, Full Fact

The Prime Minister is the Leader of the majority Party, or of a Coalition, who is elected by his/her Party. Prime Ministers are not elected by popular vote. In any British political party. As long as that Leader commands the confidence of the House, the Queen will invite him/her to form a government. We don't have a Presidential system in this country. But don't let that stop Tim Farron and co.

As I stated at the start, the main reason for the Lib Dem's policy was to prevent governments from using snap elections for political advantage, yet the same party is now calling for a snap General Election for.......(that's right, you guessed it) their own political advantage! ‪#‎HypocrisyClaxon‬

Friday, 24 June 2016

The Morning After THAT Vote, We Need A Cup Of Tea.....

Just take a deep breath and pause....

I was genuinely surprised and delighted that people had voted to leave the European Union. Although I wanted us to leave, I thought that the 'Remain' campaign might just win the referendum.

So what has happened since...?

Well, the doom & gloom brigade are out in full force this morning. Apparently this is "a disaster", "a scam", "the end of the UK", and we should "abandon a sinking ship". Well hold on a minute....it was this kind of nonsense that put people off of voting in the first place.

The referendum was in the Conservative Party manifesto, the Party then won a majority in the House of Commons at last year's General Election. David Cameron delivered on his promise to re-negotiate terms with other EU nations before asking the people of Britain to make a choice in yesterday's referendum.

But it is interesting to see many of those that voted to 'remain' are now throwing their toys out of the pram, so to speak. Tony Blair stated this morning that he warned the country of the consequences if we voted to leave the EU. This from the same person that warned us about the dangers from Saddam Hussein's "Weapons of Mass Destruction"; remember the 45 minute warning?

Apparently worker's rights are now under threat and equality issues are under threat when we leave the EU...Really!!!!
It's wasn't the EU that created equal pay laws in this country, and it wasn't that long ago that a Conservative led government legislated for and voted for 'Same sex marriage'. For crying out loud, as a nation we are capable of continuing to protect people's rights, and guess what......? If you don't agree with the government you have an opportunity to vote them out after 5 years; you can't do that with the EU.

The stock markets have wobbled, but let's remember at the time I type this (10:30am 24/06/16) the FTSE 100 is still higher than it was 10 days ago.

It seems to me that there are a lot of sour grapes about at the moment. There is even a petition asking for a second referendum, because some people can't accept the outcome of the first one! But at the end of the day democracy has won, and it has still won even if you don't agree with the result. Let's not talk our nation down, this is a symptom of the left. Instead let's grab this opportunity and make the change for the better. 

So what next....?


Let's just wait for the dust to settle, we've voted to leave the European Union and NOT Europe. There are now long and complex negotiations that need to take place, so take a breath, have a cup of tea and relax. We are not 45 minutes away from destruction, despite Mr Blair's warnings.