Election Update

[inulro]

We've had another leaflet - from Respect. I didn't think they'd have a candidate here, as I understand they're not standing for that many seats overall. Still nothing from the Lib Dems though.

The unrelenting negativeness of this campaign is really starting to get to me. It's - depressing. I'm not inspired to vote, I'm inspired to emigrate (I mean, even if I wasn't already).

The number of "person in the street" interviews where voters bang on about getting rid of immigrants has been not a little disturbing. Until this week, I thought the focus on immigration was something the Tories & the media cooked up. Obviously, the media are playing select sound bites, but it's still worrying.

It's amusing that Polly Toynbee has only just figured out that most middle class labour voters don't care about social justice at home. Maybe it takes being a foreigner to see it, but the obsession with "choice" in public service proves that Middle England doesn't care about equality - it seems that people can only measure their services being good if other people's aren't.

With apologies for not presenting a good argument or even being coherent - I'm completely exhausted and it's only Wednesday.

Comments

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I hates the whole "choice" issue when Blair was gung-ho for it years back. The very implication is one of inequality, never mind the fact that if I'm in hospital to have a leg amputated I just want the bloody thing offed by a competant surgeon, I don't have the time or the skill set to make an informed choice as to what method or even which bloody leg.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That's part of the problem - "choice" is making people who don't have the requisite skill sets to make an informed choice about education or health think that they do.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

I sometimes find it amazing that Polly Toynbee manages to dress herself. She is not my favourite columnist by a long shot. I like the Guardian and most of its journalists, but she just gets on my nerves.

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

When things are rough, immigrants get blamed. It's unfortunate, but that's the way that things work. So long as people just limit themselves to grousing, I wouldn't let it get you down too much.


(My own views on imigration are complex, and I won't go into them here, lest it cause even more distraction. :)

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Things, however, are *not* rough - overall, the economy here is better than it has been for decades. That's why it's kind of bewildering.

[the_axel]

Yep.
This is one of the factors that led me to stay here instead of returning to the UK.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

We got one from UKIP this morning (what a horrid logo they have, it makes them look like a pound shop) saying in big letters that they would end EU restrictions on vitamin supplements. Evidently this is a big issue for people. *boggles*.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

The pound shop thing - so it's not just me.

I think you must have got a different UKIP leaflet than us - ours just says in big letters about stopping immigration & pulling out of Europe. Barely distinguishable from what I've heard about the BNP manifesto.

I guess people in your area are meant to care about stuff like vitamins, whereas we're meant to all be Little England peasants or something.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Oh, it had the anti-Europe stuff too, and then a bit about being against GM crops and pro deregulation of vitamins (considering that my mother-in-law never seems to have the slightest trouble importing all kinds of 'supplements' from Australia, I wasn't aware there were any regulations on the sale of vitamins) at the bottom of the list in the same font size and everything.

I've been amused to see all the 'Are you thinking what we're thinking' posters being papered over. I don't know whether parties always change posters for the last week of the campaign, or whether the negative impact was just too much for the Tories or what.