Polling Station in England

Well, it’s nearly the moment of truth. Tomorrow, Thursday, the polls will open at 7am and we will be able to vote to decide on the future government of the country.

I admit, I’m in the minority and do not want the Tories to get into power. I don’t trust them to look after the interests of ordinary people. I don’t feel that David Cameron is genuinely interested in us. I think he’s ‘Blair Lite’, just not as convincing as Tony Blair at getting people to like and trust him. I certainly don’t think that George Osbourne would make a good Chancellor of the Exchequer. Considering that the Tories have kept Osbourne under wraps for most of the election campaign, it seems they don’t think he’s an electoral asset – I agree with them.

Will Labour win? I don’t think so even though I hope I’m wrong. Gordon Brown has had such a bad press throughout the campaign and for a year or more before it. He’s not Blair – he’s hopeless at chatting to people he doesn’t know, he can’t smile without reason – when he tries, it doesn’t look natural. He’s just not a populist. It should be remembered, though, that his policies for getting the country out of this current recession were successfully adopted in countries around the world. We saw the real, passionate Gordon Brown in his speech at Citizens UK yesterday – see the video below. It’s just a pity that he didn’t do more of this.

Will there be a hung Parliament with no overall majority for any one party? This might be the best result for the country – who knows? Certainly the Liberal Democrats are higher in the opinion polls than they have ever been in a general election campaign. If there is a hung Parliament, the Lib Dems maybe the ones who decide who becomes the next government.

Nick Clegg, LibDem Leader

In just nine days, here in Britain we will be going to the polls to vote for a new government.

As General Elections go, this one has been fairly boring apart from the introduction of leaders’ debates. Because we’re a parliamentary democracy and we vote for individual Members of Parliament to represent our district not the Prime Minister, debates between leaders of the main parties has always been resisted.

In the run-up to this election, though, we’ve had two televised leaders’ debates featuring Prime Minister George Brown for Labour, David Cameron for the Conservatives and Nick Clegg for the LibDems. Undoubtedly, the dark horse Nick Clegg won the first debate but the winner of the second was much harder to call. All I can say is that none of the three did badly.

We have the final leaders’ debate this coming Thursday and I would be surprised if the three men are not much more aggressive than in the last two. The opinion polls show there is all to play for and that Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats could hold the balance of power if there is a hung Parliament, ie neither Labour nor Conservative have enough Members of Parliament to form a majority government but need an agreement of support with the LibDems and the smaller parties.

Judging by Twitter, other social networks and opinion polls, it seems that a hung Parliament is the preferred option for many people. Of course, the two major parties phophesize doom and gloom if this is the result but they would, wouldn’t they?

Well, in a little over a week we will know the result. Will it be more of George Brown or will we get Conservative David Cameron as Prime Minister? If the Conservatives win, it will be interesting to see if they manage to pull together a consistent set of policies – something they have failed to do so far, in my opinion.

If it is a hung Parliament and LibDem Nick Clegg has to make the choice of which of the two major parties he will support, can he really get LibDems to support a Conservative government? Considering they are on the liberal end of the political spectrum, it seems unlikely.

We certainly live in interesting times.

Picture above: Copyright © Nick Clegg, Creative Commons Licence

Nick Griffin, the leader of the far right British Nationalist Party (BNP) which won two seats in the European elections last Sunday, intended to hold a press conference outside Parliament in London to talk about the victory.

Protesters heard about it and quickly gathered around him. He and his colleagues fled from them as they chanted “Nazi scum.” They also pelted him with eggs, one of which definitely hit him. He had to take refuge in his car which quickly drove away.

Last weekend Europe was celebrating the D Day invasions of World War II which eventually freed European countries from the curse of Fascism and Hitler. How can people in this country vote for these far right so-called politicians? Could their victory of two seats in the European Parliament ever have happened at a more inappropriate time?