Electoral reform protest in Trafalgar Square and Smith Square

Today, as Nick Clegg and his party talked behind closed doors about the possibility of a Tory/Lib Dem coalition (ConDem, thank you Phil), around 1000 protesters led by Billy Bragg and electoral reform coalition Take Back Parliament, marched from Trafalgar Square to Smith Square where the talks were taking place to, as one protester put it: "remind Nick Clegg that electoral reform is a key issue and that he should not sell out to any of the other parties."

The chants of: "Fair votes now!" and: "Make votes count!" rang out across central London as angry citizens called for change to the current "first past the post" system.

After speechs from Bragg (and a song) and head of the Electoral Reform Society Andrew Burns, and a skit featuring the slaying of the Rupert Murdoch News Corpse dragon in Trafalgar Square, the demonstartion moved past the Houses of Parliament to Smith Square, outside the building where Clegg and other senior Lib Dems are holed up working out how to make a "ConDem" coalition work. On the way a minor scuffle nearly broke out between Bragg and a group of anti-capitalists who tried to hi-jack the protest, marching in the middle of the road holding a big banner saying "Capitalism isn't working." It all calmed down very quickly however, and Bragg later jokingly asked their leader: "Did you get dressed in the dark this morning?"

When we made it to Smith Square (complete with police escort), there were already a legion of journalists and cameramen hanging around outside. When Nick Clegg eventually came out to speak to everyone, they had to be pushed back. Some of the crowd started chanting: "Move the press," until they were reminded by the organisers that if the press weren't there, there wouldn't be a great amount of coverage. This prompted some to start chanting: "Just Move Sky," which may have been a response to Kay Burley's earlier comments: http://tinyurl.com/34d6jzh

Clegg thanked the crowd, and spoke about how: "Reforming politics is one of the reasons I went into politics." adding, "It is in the interests of everyone in Great Britain for us to use this opportunity to usher in a new politics after the discredited politics of the past." He then urged them to continue their campaign for a new and better politics.

Overall it was a reasonable success. The point of the protest was made known, got plenty of exposure and it got a response from Nick Clegg. And on a personal note I met Billy Bragg, a hero of mine. Hopefully Nick Clegg will take on board the message of this protest and not sell himself out to either party.


A short video of the protesters on my crappy phone camera. The chant is: "No more wasted votes."

Vote For Policy

Some of you will already be aware of voteforpolicies.org.uk. For those who aren't, go to the website and find out for yourself, lazy buggers...

But seriously, as the name suggests the site was set up to encourage people (quite admirably) to not just blindly vote for a party, and instead take the time to look at the parties policies and vote according to those you think are best. The centre piece of the website is a survey in which you chose at least four policy areas from a list of twelve, and then each of the 6 biggest party's (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP, BNP) policies on the issue are brought up unlabelled. You are then asked to chose the set of policies you think are the most sensible, and at the end it tells who you liked in each area, and which party you are most suited to.

It's a great tool for those who haven't decided which way to vote, or for those who want to test their allegiances. But it does throw up other interesting points. For example, a couple of the areas (namely education) are so difficult to chose from, for the sole reason that every party is rather wishy washy, none of them actually seems to have a real idea about what to do (or maybe that's just me...) .

Also, a fun game to play is spot the BNP. It's very easy. Just look for the phrase "decent white British people." You can also play this game with UKIP (both parties policies are unsurprising similar).

My personal results were 83% Green, 17% Labour. I expected as much (although I wouldn't have been surprised to see Lib Dem in there), and it seems that most of the 83,000 or so people who have done the survey already agree, since the current winning party is Green, followed by Lib Dem and Labour. Unfortunately, I doubt the election will turn out like this.

The main premise of this survey is something I strongly agree with. Living in Surrey, I'm sick and tired of everyone moaning about our MP, Council etc, yet the Conservative MP for Reigate, Crispin Blunt, has a 10,000 majority, while the council is overwhelmingly Tory. People will blindly vote Tory in this area, and it is bewildering how many people just won't vote because of it.

So, if anyone reading this doesn't know who they're going to vote for, or think they know who they should vote for, just take a few minutes to do the survey. You might be surprised...

These here election things...

About this time every year we have some sort of election for some form of council or parliament. This year it's the turn of European Parliament and County Council (for certain areas such as mine, Surrey).

Last year was my first time voting. It may seem a it odd but i was actually quite excited about the process, although it was obvious who was going to win in my ward (don't think any party other than tory has ever won). Then I looked up my options for voting. Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, UKIP. Oh joy.

The thing that really got me, however, was that the only party who even bothered (in my area at least) to give me any info on policies and the such were UKIP, or "The fluffy version of the BNP" as I call them. No thanks.

I know for a fact that in the next ward over, the Green candidate (Johnathan Essex) was out on doorsteps talking to people. Now why could any of the candidates in my area do this? Is it because they were resigned to the fact that the tories were going to run away with it? If so, that doesn't say much for their faith in democracy.

In the end I voted in shere despair for Labour, mainly because I see myself as a bit Left wing and the Liberals around this area tend to lean more toward Conservative policy. But I really didn't know who I was voting for or why I should be doing it, which surely makes a mockery of the whole system of voting.

This year, UKIP were the first people to put their little newspaper thing through my door (though they do this regularly, again, why don't others do this?), but I've also had a leaflet from the Greens. I've read this, and I have to say i agree with much of what they stand for, but I'm still waiting for the other candidates for County elections, Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem to give me something (I should point out that the BNP are also standing my ward, but I immediately ignore them on account of them being racists and pseudo-fascists).

Europe-wise, there is a wealth of choice. The main three, The Greens, Socialist Labour, Libertas, BNP & UKIP and all the other spin off xenophobic parties, plus a couple of odd ones, namely "The Jury Team" (huh?), and "The Roman Party. AVE!" But I have yet to find out what the candidates for the South East are offering me.

So if any of the party candidates for the Redhill District of Surrey or the South East region for Europe that I haven't heard from and aren't racist/ xenophobic are reading this (ambitious for my first blog...), pleas tell me what your policies and ideas!

Thanks, and good night.