Daily Headline – 03/05/13

UK local elections 2013 – Results

The results are in and things went pretty much as expected.

The story is one of UKIP success, with Labour also picking up from the losses of the coalition partners the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Top 3 winners (most gains):

1) Labour
2) UKIP
3) Independents

Top 3 losers (most losses):

1) Conservatives
2) Liberal Democrats
3) British National Party (BNP)

So the good news, the coalition made fairly big losses (though the Lib dems didn’t lose as much as many were expecting), the Greens made some gains overall and the BNP lost all their councillors.

The bad news is of course that UKIP made a lot of gains and look like cementing themselves at the 3rd party of UK politics, even if they are 4th they are truly in the mix now! Also the smaller left parties had absolutely no impact at all.

Final results:

Party Councils Change Councillors Change
Conservative 18 -10 1116 -335
Labour 3 2 538 291
Liberal Democrat 0 0 352 -124
Independent 0 0 165 24
UKIP 0 0 147 139
Green Party 0 0 22 5
Residents Association 0 0 12 2
Mebyon Kernow 0 0 4 1
Liberal 0 0 3 1
Independent Community and Health Concern 0 0 2 0
No Overall Control 13 8 N/A N/A

Daily Headline – 02/05/13

Clegg misses the bloody obvious

The UK’s Deputy PM and leader of the Liberal Democrat party Nick Clegg in relation to the polarisation of UK politics has said:

“(it is) an observable trend every time any country in the developed world goes through difficult times”

He is talking about the rise in popularity of UKIP which, in his opinion, is pulling the Conservatives further to the right, not that much notice of what ‘calamity’ Clegg says should be taken (not that anyone does ever since he abandoned the students over tuition fees and subsequently screwed us over with no real choice in the electoral reform referendum) as he also says that Ed Miliband (the leader of the Labour party) is moving Labour to the left (what a joke!).

So the UK is becoming politically polarised and only Clegg and his Lib Dems will stay in the middle ground. He has completely ignored WHY there are “difficult times” “every time”!

Thanks Nick! You hold the middle ground and we’ll continue to go up and down like a yo-yo as you clueless ponces are eternally bewildered at the constant failings of capitalism.

Daily Headline – 01/05/13

UK local elections 2nd May 2013 – Update

Tomorrow is the UK’s local election day, full listings of which local seats and councils are up for grabs can be found here.

The Conservatives will make losses which is not in doubt, the question is, how big will their losses be and who will be the beneficiaries?

Predictions are that Labour and UKIP will be the main two winners with the Greens potentially being the 3rd highest beneficiary.

TUSC (The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) will be fielding 120 candidates (TUSC was formed in 2010 so didn’t stand any candidates in the last June 2009 local elections).

The Green Party are standing over 900 candidates (in June 2009 they stood 781 candidates).

Generally Labour and the smaller parties (both left and right wing) are expecting to do well while the Lib Dems and Tories are hoping to minimise their losses.

Good luck to the left and happy workers day everyone!

Daily Headline – 26/04/13

UK local elections 2nd May 2013

The predictions are CON 29, LAB 38, LD 16, UKIP 11 and Others 6 according to Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings. However the latest national polls are CON 32%, LAB 40%, LDEM 11%, UKIP 12% and Others 5% according to YouGov.

Currently the local political landscape is a Tory wet dream with them controlling 30 out of 34 councils, 1 being held by the Lib Dems and 3 with no overall control (NOC) at the last elections held on the 4th June 2009.

Whatever happens on Thursday right-wingers will be happy with UKIP on the rise and the Conservatives remaining (at a local level) in first place, albeit with a reduced amount of councils and councillors.

Do not forget that the left is standing in various forms, from Green Socialism to regular Socialism to Communism!
Don’t let the rich dictate the lives of the working class!

Socialist Workers Party (SWP) UK in tatters

By Leon J Williams

UK left-wing political party the SWP is in shambles after mass resignations following the handling of rape allegations.

The alleged rape took place in 2011 by a member of the leadership and although the truth is not known it is the way in which the SWP leadership handled the situation that has caused the crisis.

2012 and 2013 has seen numerous members exit the party including prominent members, some have been expelled and some have resigned due to the poor handling of the situation.

With the exits at senior and grass-root level for the Lib Dems it begs the question, where will all these politically aware people turn to?

For full details and list of some of those who have resigned click here.

Daily Headline – 11/03/13

Party conference goes bad for Nick Clegg

MP candidate Jo Shaw and prominent human-rights lawyer Dinah Rose QC have resigned from the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems).

The pair resigned following yesterdays Lib Dem party conference due to Nick Clegg’s endorsement of the Conservative ‘secret courts’ legislation.

Only 7 Lib Dem MPs supported the ‘justice and security’ safeguard amendments out of 57.

The safeguards to the bill were defeated 226 (in favour) to 297 (against).

Apart from the 7 Lib Dems the amendments were mostly supported by Labour and of course the Green’s Caroline Lucas.

Without these safeguards to the Justice and Security bill anyone can be tortured and abused and then tried in a secret court, without justice or liberty.

Every day/week/month/year that the coalition of Lib Dems and Conservatives remain in power civil liberties and equality in the UK get eroded away. Be it with the privatisation on the National Health Service (NHS), unregulated finance sector, welfare cuts, cost of living increases, attacks on democracy or anything else.

The Lib Dems, the Conservatives and even Labour offer nothing for the majority of the UK. The electorate needs to wake up and make the change, the power is in the hands of the people, we need to make it happen.

Aside from the arguments of electoral reform leading to real people power there are many progressive parties in the UK, here are some of them (though of course some of them could be argued as not being progressive):

Green Party of England & Wales

RESPECT

Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition

Socialist Alliance

Scottish Greens

Daily Headline – 23/02/13

Capitalism in decay; UK loses AAA credit rating

The UK has lost its triple A credit rating after it was downgraded by Moody’s.

The list of countries with a AAA credit rating is ever shrinking as the global capitalist economy continues to struggle.

All of Scandinavia continues to rate as AAA with the 3 main credit rating agencies (S&P, Moody’s & Fitch), here’s a sample of how some other counties are faring:

Standards & Poor’s

AAA – Australia, Canada, some of Europe
AA+ – UK, US, Austria, France
AA – New Zealand, Belgium
AA- – China, Japan, Czech Rep
A+ – South Korea, Israel
BBB – Brazil, Russia

United Kingdom

In the UK Shadow chancellor Ed Balls (Labour Party) said the decision was a “humiliating blow to a prime minister and chancellor who said keeping our AAA rating was the test of their economic and political credibility”

While Labour’s contribution to the economic situation we find ourselves in the UK should not be forgotten (selling of gold reserves at a very low point, keeping essential services in private hands and introducing private finance initiatives in the National Health Service etc) the Conservatives (tory) and their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) are making a bad situation worse.

The British public must wake up and and ditch the main 3 parties who have continually ruled and screwed over the country, we need change and we need it now!

UK; Liberal Democrat collapse splits voters 50/50 left to right

By Leon J Williams

Based on an Eastleigh by-election opinion poll the Lib Dems will lose 16% with Labour gaining 9% and UKIP gaining 9%.

Although we make no mistake in that Labour is of course not ‘left’ that is still part of their image with the UK public.

The full breakdown of the opinion poll is as follows:

CON 34% (-5), LAB 19% (+9%), LDEM 31% (-16), UKIP 13% (+9%)

Of course Eastleigh is/was a firm Lib Dem seat which they now look set to lose and Labour’s national outlook would bring them into power at the next general election.

So although we can dismiss some of this information a Lib Dem voter collapse does look likely in the national picture which will mostly benefit labour but if 50% does go to the right, will the beneficiaries be UKIP or Conservative?

Why Labour?

The electorate, after the Nick Clegg/Lib Dem hopes and betrayal fiasco will largely return to who they voted for before (Labour). This is due to a few reasons such as ‘better the devil you know’, voter apathy and voter tradition.

As I have mentioned before there is really only one genuine ‘left’ party in the UK, the Green Party of England & Wales.
Although their national polls are estimated to increase, we’re only talking about 1%.

Large swathes of the UK electorate have no confidence that genuine change can occur via the ballot which was reinforced with the Lib Dem situation and only really serves to benefit the status quo with Labour and Conservative eternally vying for power.

Daily Headline – 02/02/13

UK; Gay marriage & too much government interfering

In the UK gay and lesbian couples cannot get married. Since 2005 they have been able to enter into a ‘civil partnership’ which includes all the same rights as marriage but with a separate name (showing distinction between the two).

As a matter of official party policy most of the main parties in the UK support gay marriage (Lib Dems, Conservative (Tory), Labour and Green support while UKIP doesn’t).

Despite the official line there are many MP’s in government from the Conservative party (Tory party) who oppose same-sex marriage and as they are the main party in power there could be a revolt over the issue.

The real issue is why does the government (any government) insist on interfering with peoples lives? Why can’t we do what we want to do? If two men or two women want to spend their lives together why is that any concern for the state?

Exactly the same can be said for abortion. If someone has an abortion, it doesn’t effect me, it’s the woman’s choice not the governments!

This kind of petty behaviour where governments dictate to us what we can and can’t do is ridiculous and it’s time it stopped!

British government denying the poor education

By Leon J Williams

The knock on effect of increased tuition fees (up to £9,000/€11,000) by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition is (as expected) a fall in applications from UK candidates.

The price hike has meant that the poorest members of society have been priced out of education which has been reflected in the 6.3% fall in applications up to 17th December compared to the same period last year.
Earlier figures from November 2011-November 2012 were down a whopping 8.4%, all signs that the government (predominantly white, male millionaires) are deliberately and consciously targeting the poor, they want the poor to get poorer and the rich to get richer.

For more on this click here.