This morning, there is a nervousness to my excitement as the citizens of the United Kingdom go to the polls. Butterflies are flying laps around my stomach, my throat has already had a lump or 2 in it when I saw or heard those opening words on news bulletins. What is so different this time?

Is it because my loyalties are mixed? After all this is an election where I am really impacted by a UK Government and also a mature Government in Wales with legislative experience, and whilst at the UK level I want to see a shift to the right, local I want Wales to continue to be grow in stature and want to see a stronger position for Plaid.

Could it be that the campaigns have left me worried that votes will be bought, rather than visions created to win over voters?

Has our TV based campaign – not the internet campaign so expected by many – really turned the tide, or is the Lib Dem surge already a busted flush. Only time will tell.

But one things is certain in my mind: it is high time we are rid of the Labour Government who have failed so miserably to deliver over 13 years in office. And not only is it time for change, but change for the better. Then maybe the butterflies will go back to bed.

Image by Francis Bourgouin via Flickr

Recent reports of vote “stealing”, through false registrations and postal vote grabbing are worrying, but possibly of greater concern are semi-institutionalised attempts at vote influencing.

In recent months it appears that the National Union of Students have encouraged Universities to release records of students living in halls, to local authorities to allow for bulk registration. In some universities it has even lead to individuals from overseas being registered to vote, yet with no right to be so.

Equally concerning is the influence such an exercise can have on local democracy. For example: in west Wales there are allegations that this has happened in a constituency where only the Lib-Dems and Plaid Cymru have a chance of winning, (Lib-Dem majority last time was 219). To register voters with no affiliations to Wales will have an unfair impact on Plaid Cymru and with (broad brush statement) the current appeal of a “young” Nick Clegg to students, an unfair benefit to the Lib Dem vote.

Of course, with many of these students graduating shortly, they will of course be influencing decisions about local representation, in a constituency that will not be their residence in a few weeks time.

It is high time that the Electoral Commission took elections and voter registrations more seriously.

When Alun Cairns let slip his bad taste “joke” about “Wops” last year  on a Radio Wales he was pilloried, forced to give up his committee position in the National Assembly of Wales and almost had to withdraw as a prospective candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan.

When another politician made a serious comment today, not at all in jest, but deriding a specific individual as a bigot, all he had to do was pop back for anther cuppa, make a probably false apology and exercise his smile when you lie gene on leaving the house of the offended. The last bit was of course for the benefit of the assembled media.

Funny old world!

8 days to go then he should be gone.

Image by hettie gm via Flickr

That’s it, the election’s over for me, my vote has been cast.

Marvellous things these postal votes and so easy to arrange.

All I had to do was go online, fill in a form which included an option to send the postal vote forms to any address I wanted to and a few days later, the forms arrived. So easy!

And of course it is so easy to defraud. Any address can be used as the mailing address for the forms, there was no check that I was who I said I was when I registered and there is obviously no limit to the number of times I could have done this, if I’d wanted to secure (or s iit steal?) another person’s votes.

Maybe this is taking the concept of Open Government a bit too far.

With all the main party manifestos out in print, but probably not going to add to much excitement to anyone’s life I sat back and thought about what would capture my votes in the election. So here is my manifesto, like many others it probably won’t stand up to too much scrutiny.

1. Destroy Speed Cameras. Our highways are awash with speed cameras, average speed cameras and other money making ideas. They serve no purpose but to raise money whilst disrupting the traffic flow of perfectly safe vehicles, designed and tested to drive much faster than the limit allows.

2. Remove Waste from the Public Sector. I’m not talking about billions that are bandied about by the big parties. but we need to remove small levels of waste: 5 meter cycle lanes, central heating systems left on at weekends, street lights on in daylight. there’s no doubt that if we can encourage small savings, then bigger savings will also become possible.

3. Create some sustainable development. We should stop throwing money at business development in the way we currently do and try to create a more sustainable form of wealth creation. For example: I’d love to see an amalgam of training, regeneration, business development and work creation from a series of projects that utilise public money in  a joined up fashion and cross a variety of boundaries.

4. Create a Future for Wales. The debate about more powers is boring; let’s focus on creating a vision of what will be for Wales. How will we attain self determination, how will we manage UK Instittions based in Wales, how will we pay for it all? Let’s create clarity, develop a sense of purpose and then lets us focus, argue ad fight for that vision to be delivered.

5. Take some Front Line cuts. There’s no reason for making any front line sacrosanct, no reason why some elements of the front line could not be pared back. So let’s cut out the institutionalized defence of front line cuts and accept that maybe, just maybe, some of the front line actually aren’t necessary after all.

6. Free Dental Care. I don’t know how it happened, but where did dental care go to? Surely that could be a valualbe add on to our NHS.

7. Make Education Relevant. It’s hugely frustrating as an employer to meet young people looking for work who do not have the basic IT skills needed in the work place. Our education system focuses on creating lots of A Stars and A’s, but does not deliver well trained individuals who can pick up the tools of work easily.

8. Essential Skills lessons. As part of ur national curriculum we should ensure that all school leavers have the essential skills of life: that they can swim, can drive, know how to wire a plug and of course can understand the value of compound interest. These life skills are essential and this list is not exhaustive.

9. Legalise Drugs. We’ve legalised tobacco and alcohol, and as a result anyone wishing to poison themselves with these drugs can get quality controlled products, at a price which delivers revenue to the Government. Crime associated with tobacco is minimal. Illegal drugs remain available, are generally of uncontrolled quality and come at a price that drives more crime. We need proper drug outlets to as a way to address the crime fuelled by drugs.

10. Ban Immigration. Well not exactly ban immigration, just control the number of foreign players playing in Welsh Rugby. It is unacceptable, for example, that the Ospreys can have a back-row line up of overseas players,  that stops our national captain from getting into the team. This is not conducive to building a successful national team and should be better by controlled by the WRU.

Image via Wikipedia

Watching the footie on the tele tonight I was struck by 2 strange ways of supporters showing their support to their team.

First: when a Man United player was sent off the crowd applauded as he left the field. How can they possibly support someone who created such pressure for his team? And it was United supporters showing support, not the opposition showing relief or having a laugh.

A little later, when ManU were winning on the night, yet losing overall, the crowd offered no sign of support, no encouragement and certainly no “extra man” to lift the team. The ground was almost silent. In times of adversity the support evaporated.

Strange behaviour indeed. Never seen anything like it at a rugby match.

Image by National Library NZ on The Commons via Flickr

A while ago I was seriously thinking of coming out and getting involved. Like many others I really thought I had something to offer and could make some valuable contribution politically. I was also confident that I couldn’t possibly make a bigger hash of it than some of those already there.
But I didn’t. I toyed with it, I discussed it at home and filled in the forms, even had some clarity on what might happen if I applied.
But boy oh boy am I glad I didn’t come off the pot and try to stand in this election, in any capacity.
The reason is simple: I’m not sufficiently thick skinned.
I may have views, opinions, and even some narrow perspectives, but I’ve realised that I bruise more easily than I used to and the tactics being used in many political arguments now are personal ones. Ones that can bruise, because the truth is that sticks and stones hurt like hell and words can do so, just as well.
So I admire all those who are now out there exposing themselves to personal attack, exposing their every move and gesture to criticism, and wondering if “Head Office” will hear about what they’ve said. I really could not put up with that especially as the media are using all the weapons available to them to create what can only be described as “interesting interviews.”
It’s also one of the great ironies of our political system that you need to be in a party to stand a chance of being elected. But when you get elected, don’t you want to be able to talk about what you believe in as opposed to defending a sometimes unsustainable party line?
So I wish them well. Even the ones whose views I abhor.

Image via Wikipedia

Britain has made tanks since, well inventing the monsters in the First World War. We’ve made some of the best, exported them widely and employed many hundreds if not thousands of people in doing so. As a result the tank has not only been a crucial weapon for our military, but a truly economic weapon as well as all good decent procurement should be. Our Armed Forces now need a new tank, not big ones like the world famous Challenger or Chieftain, but a replacement for the Scimitar that is such an important part of the inventory in Afghanistan. The Armed Forces decided that their preferred option is the British Aerospace CV90, but for some unexplained reason the Government has decided that the replacements will be made by General Dynamics (a Canadian company) and will be built in Austria and Spain. My military history is not the best in the world, but I can’t recall any Austrian or Spanish tanks performing with distinction on battlefields over the years in the way that British tanks have. Nor can I recall how the research and development of armour in those countries has benefitted anyone, let alone Britain. The Government has evidently failed the country again: not only are we buying abroad when we could easily buy at home, we are also going to lose jobs at a time when we can ill afford to do so. And of course, when we decide to build tanks ourselves again in the future, we won’t have the skills to do so. This Government needs to be replaced.