chrisp65

Probably a bit late for this election, but my new personal manifesto… I have a dream. A dream of an independent Wales, physically detached from mainland UK and parked somewhere warm and benign in the Oceania qualifying zone. All of us tall slim tanned ex ballet dancers (but in a totally hetro way, except those that don't want to be hetro which is also totally cool) making an honest living driving 15 year old Jags as taxi’s, brewing our own hooch and hand rolling cigars. Where being a woman with a single mono eyebrow or a man with a bit of a gut isn’t automatically a bad thing. We would be self sufficient from the toll money on a much longer Severn bridge and Dr Who merchandising. The M4 would have four lanes, but each side, not in total. English would still be the first language, so that way we can still make use of cheap east european labour and watch Ashes to Ashes without sub titles. Welsh would be strongly promoted, but only when the English were listening. England would regularly play Ashes matches in their new spiritual home, Cardiff. This new Wales would be improved in many ways (no, not napalm). For a start, we wouldn’t tell Bangor, Merthyr, Cwmbran, Newport or Rhyl the new address. We would all have a full and rounded education in practical subjects and the classics. But we wouldn’t be up ourselves, like Brian Sewel or Switzerland. We would be a fundamentally happy and content people without western levels of spending on pointless shite. A Wales of modest material needs. This would be a nation with good access to wifi and large format flat screen technology. Perhaps most importantly, there would be a liberal attitude towards patching into Premier League football without the fussy formality of subscriptions. The law would be stripped down and simplified. We could see how we get along with a body of law along the lines of ‘don’t be an arse’. If you do something and people agree you’ve been an arse, that’s you sent back to Rhyl. We would retain our European status, so if it all went tits we could come back or get bailed out. slow day

Once the election is over we've just all got to remember we are on here as Villa fans first and foremost and look forward to a long summer of thin pickings in the transfer threads. I'm up and out early in the morning so it's a vote before work. I'm quite lucky in all this fudge and evasion as I'm voting for someone that is a friend and has been for years so I happen to know the twaddle he's spouting now is the same twaddle he's honestly believed since he was a kid. Luckily its similar to the twaddle I believe. So at least I know he cares and isn't repeating party line shit for an easy job. Vote early vote often folks.

Still hung as a crude average across the land however the very latest polls beginning to revert to the traditional appearance of a clear one two three with the Libs being third. You couple that with FPTP and the quirks of boundaries and I'm willing to bet the number of Lib Dems in the next parliament won't be much different to what it was in the last. The cons are beginning to edge out to the magic number of 8 / 9% in the polls. Throw into the mix the fact that people generally vote tory more than they are prepared to admit they vote tory (they're selfish but at least they feel guilty about it, I guess) and the tory's might just squeeze it. The issue of Brown not being God's gift to PR is an interesting one. Part of the current dismay with politicians was people's perceived loss of trust due to presentation and style taking precedence over substance. I don't necessarily need the leader to be slick, I do need to beleive he can empathise with 'us'. I'm not convinced that either a millionaire or a career politician can truly fit that bill. One puzzling thing, I live in a town that is a marginal, currently held by Labour with a majority of 1,800 it has switched between Labour and Tory a few times over the years. The one candidate I've seen or heard nothing of, not even a leaflet through the door, is the Labour condidate. I went to a birthday party in an upstairs function room of the local Labour club on Saturday, even they didn't have posters in the windows. I find that puzzling to say the least. You can only presume that locally they've decided bollix, we had a good run but we can't actually be arsed this time around. Incidentally Guiness was £2.70 a pint. Now there's a moral dilema, should you join a political club just to get discounted booze?

a fair point well made

earlier in the day I was listening to 5live whilst tidying up a kitchen that had had a heavy saturday night. It was the female presenter that is on before the seven day sunday programme (I think it might have been Kate Silverton). Anyway, I was getting really annoyed about the panel of red / blue / yellow spokespersons never actually answering a bloody question. Every question asked was either ignored and answered with the usual pre prepared statement or it was answered with a scare about what the others would do. So, being a bit of a saddo, I decided that regardless of what the next question was I was going to see how long each rep could go without mentioning the other parties. The next question once I'd found a pen was something about upping the pensions by scrapping the nukes. I've managed to note down the answers, but will only transcribe them up to the point they mentioned an opponent: Liberal answer: Of course, it was the conservatives...... Labour answer: I'm proud to have reversed the conservative.... Conservative answer: As ever Labour.... Absolutely pathetic. The trouble is, on May 7th one or two of these parties will take getting more votes than the others as public endorsement of the policies they've refused to actually inform us about.

My brother and a few of my friends have picked up Blackberrys recently. Don't get the fascination but by and large they love em. I'd actually forgotten the other thing I have against HTC phones is the reliance on touchscreens - really really don't get on with them, especially for texting. Just doesn't compare to a proper button, even with haptic feedback and the like. I wouldn't describe myself as a fan of the Blackberry over any other phone really, I haven't got that brand loyalty to a phone that I might get accused of with my car or camera or even my tv. I just find the Bb just does what I bought it for and works everyday and syncs with the computer. I'd be perfectly happy to have something else next time (after all I'm in the lucky position of not paying for the phone or my phone bill), providing I can just pick it up and use it. I'm trying to think of something I don't like about it, but I can't. I suppose it must be a bit like a volvo or vw. Probably over rated, probably over priced but most often just gets on with the job without drawing attention to its self. From my brief couple of weeks with the htc I'd need to see some awesome reviews to bother with one again. Battery life! Just remembered the battery needed charging way too often. I travel and I don't need to take my bb charger with me, needed to charge the htc every single day.

my ears do seem to be getting bigger, it's a middle age thing I think! though in my defence the whole office has the same issue interesting points about later versions having some of these problems fixed, yet we had a 'great' offer on a couple of dozen of these phones fairly recently. I wonder if we had a 'great' deal on some old stock? not my problem now, I've a completely unsexy, non-touch screen, Bb Bold. Not so good for youtube and flickr and facebook, but can actually be used as a phone and e-mail device by a middle aged ludite with no interest in downloading 'apps'

our office just recently switched to HTC Hero, bought a job lot of about 30 of them really disappointing, I managed to get together with 3 or 4 others and canvass to get back to Blackberry (actually just pleaded to have anything instead of hero's even if we had to pay the difference, but the office went bor BB's) a month later and the remaining htc users are all trying to switch to Bb awful touch screen keyboard, slow, if the touch screen touches your ear whilst using it to make a call (a phonecall, so old school they clearly didn't bother with that function working properly) it hangs up. Regardless of what you want to do, every third or fourth instruction the hero presumes what you really wanted was set up a new facebook account. Is the hero just the runt of the htc litter?

the size of the numbers is not something we are used to dealing with, I think if we thought about it for too long there wouldn't be enough Andrex in the country, truly mind numbing numbers whoever gets in, you'd better strap yourself down because this is gonna be one hell of a ride

I'd like to think that in the event of a hung parliament Labour would have the good sense to tell Gordon to take a break, bugger off to Scotland to get his head together for a month and leave any negotiations to people more able to relate to other people. I used to think his lack of pr nouse was endearing but I seriously think he could start an arguement in a phonebox. Doubtlessly clever and good at remembering stats, but hardly a people person. Here's something I didn't know until lunchtime. In the crisis that was 1974 Labour had to hand over £500million to the banks and building societies to keep them lending to the public as the economy had gone into meltdown. £500 million 36 years ago was a decent sum of money.

Given the option on May 7th, how do we think public sector workers would respond to the following question..... hey, civil servant and local government chaps, lots of people in the private sector have taken a paycut. Well, here's your choice, cut the wage bill by cutting staff by 15% OR.... by cutting pay by an average of 15%, go and have a vote on it and get back to me on June 5th with your choice. perhaps not worded in that fashion, I was surprised in my office when that question dished out to 30 staff came back with a unanimous vote for keeping everyone and accepting less money. I was warmed by the lack of people thinking they'd personally be safe and thus voting for redundancies.

I'm keeping my vote secret and I'm holding it back for a few days to give Plaid the appearance of a late surge....

to be fair, you couldn't call them an honest bunch of lads though zoned out of the debate this time, seen it twice already and the answers were on loop......when I say answers, I obviously mean rehearsed mini speach regardless of actual content of question

good reminder, over I go....

I'm guessing Gordon won't be using the cosy personal anecdotal style in this next debate... '...only yesterday I was talking to a lady in Rochdale.....' great comedy value, but let's please not let a private off the record remark about a mad northern granny deflect from which party will do the best for Britain. I happen to think some of you guys are mad t wats, I just wouldn't be dull enough to let that slip out

vaguely connected, got my tickets for the second T20 game England v Pakistan today something to look forward to!

that's a heck of a long list of achievements trouble is SPIN! more police than ever before, yet I don't remember the last time I saw one walk down the street, if I phone 999 the operator now asks which town I'm calling from, if I call the local station at night (town population 46,500) I'm told there is nobody there except the guy that answers the phone to say there is no one home. waiting times for operations? try telling my mum that, 2 years waiting for a back op, yet strangely still ticking all the target boxes as the clock stops everytime you are told you have a consultancy appointment in 6 weeks time, that refers you for a scan, that results in a consultancy, that then requires a specialist assessment and on and on. devolved power to Welsh Assembly? powers such as....er,...no wait I remember, tweek the school curriculum and build a new welsh assembly building other items are a genuine positive move, Surestart being the clear winner for me. If politicos are to believed I think all three main parties have pledged to keep this running. Writing off the debt of poor countries was also a very good and moral thing to do. a mixed bag

using pedal power spaceships

you have to agree the poll tax was utterly fair and equal to all, it's simply undeniable in simple terms, any tax that takes 0.01% off the super rich and 10% off the poorest, well, what's unfair about that? Some people just can't see the wood for the trees. You just presume some things are common sense and general knowledge.

why can't they just play one goal and someone else goes in that's the rotation we use in 5 a side

24 Apr 34 28 29 Con +5 24 Apr 34 26 30 Con +4 24 Apr 35 27 28 Con +7 23 Apr 35 26 31 Con +4 23 Apr 36 30 23 Con +6 23 Apr 34 26 29 Con +5 23 Apr 34 29 29 Con +5 22 Apr 34 29 28 Con +5 21 Apr 33 27 31 Con +2 20 Apr 35 25 27 Con +8 20 Apr 32 23 33 LD +1 20 Apr 32 28 31 Con +1 20 Apr 31 26 34 LD +3 19 Apr 31 26 30 Con +1 19 Apr 32 28 32 Tie 19 Apr 35 26 26 Con +9 19 Apr 33 27 31 Con +2 19 Apr 32 24 32 Tie 19 Apr 32 26 29 Con +3 18 Apr 33 28 30 Con +3 18 Apr 32 28 28 Con +4 18 Apr 32 26 33 LD +1 17 Apr 33 30 29 Con +3 17 Apr 31 28 32 LD +1 17 Apr 31 27 29 Con +2 list runs CON l LAB l LIB (but I just can't get it all to show up) anorakpollblog just a snapshot of the polls over the last week. Whilst no polling is spot on because of the quirks of FPTP and frankly people giving duff answers it does show a trend over the week for the tory lead to be stretching out or becoming consistent over the 'poll of polls'. Still showing a hung parliament, still close enough for a change in any direction. However it's also close enough for one dodgy stunt to lose it for any one particular party. One Elvis joke that goes wrong, one public appearance by John Redwood, who knows. What is interesting is young Gordon announcing he was going to get out and meet more people, I wouldn't have thought that was necessarily his best tactic. Interesting tactic from Clegg today, a day off to spend with the wife and kids (but with plenty of cameras to capture the day off and get some soundbites). I'm sure that will have done him more good than another speech to 10 people in a baked beans factory. I had another doorstep experience today, another party called at the door today, informed me they knew my dad and a couple of my mates (it didn't come over in a sinister way!) and then quickly asked if they could put up a banner in my garden. Nice try but no thanks. Not trusting or interested enough in any of them for that sort of gesture thanks. On being very politely refused there was no attempt to engage in conversation it was turn and jog away consulting a clipboard. just on a little side piece, loved some of the right of centre chat a couple of pages ago, probably summed up as 'loony left spread unfair slurs and stereotypes, I demand a fair debate, if I don't get my way I'm taking my ball off to Belize'. Good to see the selfish right can enjoy a drink just as much as the beautiful left.

I'll probably pick up a copy tomorrow. Rarely by a 'paper anymore, but if I do it's the Indie. Not necessarily my views throughout, but that's a good thing. I find individual contributions can have different opinions whereas with so many papers there is a wiff of towing a party line.

the revelations from previous governments can be fascinating (anorak alert!), I'm currently reading 'Downing Street Diary' by Bernard Donoughue. Briefly, he was part of Wilson's inner circle in 1974 / 1975 and suggests strongly in the book that Labour had soft peddaled that election campaign because they knew what a train wreck the economy was. Somehow the conservatives managed to pedal even softer and Labour won. I'll condense the first 93 pages down: don't really want to win this, the place is a mess..... it's looking closer than we thought..... we've won!!! bugger, now what? ...and now the press are printing stories about us doing dodgy land deals, avoiding tax and cosying up to those that make big donations to the party. could be an interesting reflection on the current bunch

sad really.. but I think it reflects more on the people that post this sort of thing though tbh ..not saying people have to be hypocrites and mourn her but they could at least have the dignity to say nothing Difficult call. I've lived through quite a few PMs and experienced many reactions to them from family, friends and work colleagues. Reactions have ranged from the apathetic feelings towards Major to the "I really can't stand that man" feelings towards Blair. I've never, and hope I won't again, heard such hatred towards a PM, expressed by such as cross-section of people, as that shown to Margret Thatcher. It wasn't meant to goad or upset anyone (believe it or not), I was simply trying in a flippant and evidently tasteless way to encapsulate my wife's views. She didn't post it up, I did. But I do believe it is a view held by a significant number of people around me. Not the majority, not millions, but a large number. This may be because I live in a relatively poor town that used to have a thriving dock reliant on coal and manufacturing export. It also had a significant chemical industries sector, a massive timber yard, flour mill, two hospitals etc etc.. By the end of the Thatcher era all these were closed, shrunk, disappearing and the redundant workers told they were worthless spongers. And she took the milk off my brother. I'm not saying she was personally responsible for the structural changes that had to be made, I'm just saying she didn't have to enjoy it. It will be interesting to see if there are still people 30 years from now that utterly hate Gordon Brown or Tony Blair and would let it influence their voting in a year 2040 election. I personally would certainly find it nigh on impossible to consider voting Labour until they clearly said that following George Bush into Iraq without a plan was a bit of a **** up and they'd do it differently next time. I'm not sure people will have a 30 year hate for any of the current breed of politico.

got home from work to find out that earlier today we had received a house call from the tories oh dear, they obviously didn't realise that my part time local government working aggressively left wing missus was home alone - but at least they now know where to go to party when Thatcher finally dies. the debate looks to have been a pretty close affair, which is probably the best result Labour could have dreamed of for the last 12 months. Interesting that the tory threat of meltdown if there is a hung parliament doesn't appear to have caught the public imagination. Libs must be dead chuffed with appearing to be in with a shout of having some power. If they can get to be kingmakers and tie down a decent deal on changing the way our first past the post system is set up then they really could be about to change the left right red blue landscape. Doubtless every paper tomorrow will be claiming their boy won it (whichever one of the three they support). Having previously helped out with local Labour campaigning in the 80's (in a very small and insignificant way) I still couldn't bring myself to vote Labour at present and probably not for a good long time into the future. Probably still Plaid for me (which will be a wasted vote here but hey ho, moral high ground and all that). Plaid's poster boy on Question Time at the moment, this could change me to a spoilt ballot!