Election

Not long now.

I live in Newcastle and work, mostly, in Sunderland. The North East is a Labour stronghold. The idea that someone here could vote anything other than Labour especially when that is how the family has voted for decades, for some people, is unthinkable.

There are others, of a working-class background, who never favoured the unions or the power of Labour and voted Conservative.

Newcastle is a changed city. There are many people living here from outside the area. The Lib Dems have control of Newcastle City Council.

This election is all about those people who will vote Labour and those who will vote for another party (in the hope that everyone else will too) to keep Labour out.

Some people won’t vote at all.

Personally I see this election as the first chance in decades to show the established parties that we, the voters, are fed up being lied to and being taken for granted. Sure there are hard times ahead. Sure there will have to be cuts. Who is most likely to get us through the mess ahead as quickly as possible, most effectively and with the least pain possible?

I hope that there is a change to our election system so that PR is introduced for Westminster elections. The idea that PR causes chaos is based upon myth and legend. In Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Irish Republic, along with every other country in Europe, PR delivers strong Government and politics that involves the greater number of people. There will be a representative at Parliament that I might have voted for.

If there had been a different Government /Parliament structure at Westminster would we have gone to War? Germany’s economy and France’s economy is strong (stronger than UK) yet PR is how elected representatives are appointed. Italy’s system is a complex system of Lists (NOT PR).

I have a personal gripe with Labour. The Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission have lied about legal aid, have misled about legal aid reform and have disadvantaged poor people by offering to them a second or even third rate system on the basis that the system that they will fund is good enough for them. The concept of legal aid grew out of the belief that poor people should have access to the same legal expertise as those who can afford it. The current system of reform has created a legal advice giving system that is of lower quality for poor people.