#ThatcherDebate

Yesterday I attended, with other members of NUCA, a debate organised by the Debating Society of Tthis House Regrets Thatcherism'. I don't like suspense and so i'll tell you we won by a about 10-20 votes, a victory for Thatcher against the socialist oppressors.

This is what happened, I'll tell it partially through Twitter and what I remember, unlike at Port and Policy this is possible. One of the proposition members was James Manning, ex NUCA member, who was corrupted by socialism or rather joined a party that promotes elitism and the post war consensus that he probably believed in anyway. Jenny said some agreeable words on the topic.

James kicked off the debate, or rather he tried to. He spoke so fast we didn't know what he was saying.

This was true of all but one of the debaters though, who I do congratulate for giving some good passion.

The debaters were not the greatest (bar the one), more practice in public speaking. I know that I'm not perfect but the lack of facts let them down the most in my opinion.

I am also critical of Rob though.

#Shame to the love child of Chris Martin and Tim Montgomerie. However did you notice the new #socialistoppressor. This has come about because I asked a question to the proposition about why they supported socialist elitism and they gave me some ramble on welfare. Seemingly everyone is now using it though.

There was a lot of nonsense from the proposition of course. Someone claimed that the Miners' Strike was balloted and democratic. Others wanted working class people to be forced to live in their mining villages in a new age serfdom. All of course from members of the SWP or from the asylum. There wasn't a really good argument against Thatcher, in the sense of one that was using correct facts and could be spun in a misconstrued way against the great lady, which was a shame.

But what was the most shameful was the proposition essentially inferring the Falkland Islands should have been left to the Argentina and not liberated. Well I'd just like to point out that Argentina at the time had inflation of 130% and a military dictator that killed 30,000 people at least. So 1982 Argentina was a great country unless you wanted to eat or have any freedom. In all fairness the proposition may have different views, but I and the Falkland Islanders after the debate would like to know your stance, just leave a comment at the bottom.

We won. Thatcher won another popular mandate. It's getting to a point where I cannot recall how many times she has had sweeping majorities in votes across the country. But weirdly there were many abstentions.

My Thanks goes to the debating society for organising this, however I would like to be constructively critical of the way it was laid out.

Firstly, why did we have to be totally silent? Ok, it's not Port and Policy but even in Question Time people can clap at comments and react with disgust. I ask why it is not acceptable to react with disgust at proposition essentially saying we should not have retaken the Falkland Islands?

Also, the debaters seemingly knew little about Thatcherism. The propositions absurd tacit claims that Thatcher abolished state education and all welfare spending seems to based on ignorance rather than that of trying to create an argument that she was an evil elitist*. It was up to the floor to present the facts of Thatcher, both the proposition and opposition knew very few, which is a shame.

There was a good opportunity for a good debate but in my opinion it was missed. I invite you to Port and Policy to see what a real debate is like. I still enjoyed myself though. 

*An argument which although is totally false is used by those who oppose Thatcher.

Waste and Cuts

Today the figures for the cost of PM Direct, where Dave speaks to members of the public, was announced at £50,000. This does seem a tad too much for a glorified Town Hall meeting but I think we need should have a scale of the amount of cuts that are needed and pick the fights on what really needs to go.

Dave Direct.

The budget deficit stands this year at £108 billion and the national debt is £1.18 trillion. So let's cut PM Direct and have no public questions at all. That would save us the £50,000 and bring our deficit down to £107,999,950,000. This is obviously a truly massive saving.

It's clear we've got to do better than that. PM direct is similar to that of local government, listening to people directly and so on. So let's abolish it we'd save £27.1 billion. that's a fair size of money but barely a quarter of the budget deficit.

Let's try and get rid of that deficit. I'd then abolish the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh assemblies. They are a bit like local government and together make a saving of £48.2 billion. The deficit would stand at £32.7 billion.

Councils also are closely affiliated with the police. So let's get rid of them and any justice system we have in this country. We'd then save £31 billion. Almost got rid of the budget deficit then.

So let's cut international aid, that's £12.7 billion, most Tories want this to have a cut if not to go completely. That will get rid of our deficit. Hurrah, although I wouldn't in a real life scenario want an end to government departments, I would like the government to make net cuts.

But let's see how far we get the debt down by cutting. Dave said that he wanted some of the international aid budget to be spent on military expenditure so let's get rid of all forms of the MOD and military expenditure. A whopping £40 billion will be saved. But that doesn't make much of a difference to the debt either. Let's get rid of education too, that's almost £100 billion. The state at this point is now just a glorified wheelchair.

Our national debt will then stand at £1,040,000,000,000. Still loads. So let's get right to the bone. What about cutting all welfare and the NHS, tough times and all that. This comes to the massive total of  £357 billion. £683 billion pounds is left.

The State has very little to do now, so what's the point of it. Let's abolish it completely. If we can get round the logistical problem of privatising tax collectors and the like. We can save a total of £720 billion. There is now no spending, only income to pay the debt.

If we did that we'd still have to pay £468 billion. That's how big our problem is. If we abolished all spending for 1 year we'd still not pay off our debt.

If we abolish the state we would still be left with a huge amount of debt.

Obviously I'm not here to tell you we should abolish the state. That's just silly. But we need to be looking around for big areas where we can cut. £50,000 is nothing. I am a great believer in look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. But clearly this will not work in the mess we are in. We need to really get a hold of the economic problems. 

Ed Balls

Happy Ed Balls Day. Today Marks 2 years since Ed Balls tweeted his own name. He is very full of himself.

I'm not going to criticise Ed Ball's economic polices today. This is partially because he hasn't really got anything but mostly because even with those few he has it would take several years. So let's recount some of the funnier things on Ed Balls day. 

But by far the best thing I have seen is this. 

Blocked

I found out that I have been blocked by Virginia and Mike Bucknor, the two Independents councillors in Wisbech's Waterlees ward. Virginia is also standing as County Councillor for the area against the cool Conservative Cllr Sam Hoy. I don't know why, I'm not nasty to them and have never tweeted at them.

I follow them because I'm just interested to see what the opposition are doing. But they couldn't have blocked me for that because their accounts are public. I can see what they say.

It must be something to do with my previous Blog Posts criticising them during the campaign (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/countyelections.html and http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/independents-false-claims.html). It's not like I'm lying about them. Nor am I waging a hate campaign against them. I'm a student who gets on with more important things, like drinking and playing games on my computer, but has an occasional interest in politics.

I don't think this is a normal thing to do to those who oppose you politics but not you personally. I follow Dean Reeves, the Labour candidate in the upcoming elections, and we are very pleasant to each other. I've worked with him on the Town Team and although I don't like his politics, and I have criticised that, we are friendly and I follow him on Twitter.

It seems that both the Bucknors are acting in a very bitter way. They don't like what I say so refuse to like me or allow me to follow what they are saying. Not a very decent way to act, especially as both Virginia and Mike are Cllrs who should know better.  This goes completely against what Virginia says she stands for, her Twitter says that she is an 'advocate for non partisan politics'. I think she is being hypocritical.

There is some hearsay that Virginia is being nasty to the electors too. One woman has complained that she had Virginia knock on her door to canvass support but after saying she would vote for Sam was completely disrespectful, to both the woman and Sam. Virginia said that "wow you are the first person to say anything nice about her", when she was told the woman supported Sam because she is hard working. Then Virginia said "I find that hard to believe" then laughed and walked off afterwards.

This is not acceptable really. Elections can do strange things to people but a candidate shouldn't be rude to a future constituent nor lie about an opponent.

Just to correct Virginia, Sam has a lot of support because she is genuinely a nice person and good councillor. Sam has done so much saving the Town Park toilets, getting a multi million pound investment in local drainage and resurfaced Mount Pleasant and Osborne Road. Lazy is not a word that can be associated with Sam. Virginia should not be telling people lies about her, but promoting herself instead. People much prefer positive politics.

Sam is working hard for Wisbech North and has done so much, Vote for her again.

Maybe Virginia's campaign is in disarray and she is panicking? It would explain why she has reduced herself to dirty underhand tactics that only she is using. It may be that Virginia has got a bit of a nasty streak, I hope not. Whenever I speak to her apart from a recent incident (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/out-and-about-in-waterlees.html) she has been decent. Campaigns can bring out the worst in people, clearly it has done here. But 'by their deeds shall ye know them', and it's likely that under any stress she can be very aggressive. Is that the sort of person the people of Wisbech North want as a councillor? I think not.

Virginia and Mike, please unblock me on twitter, apologise and don't be so nasty. I am only 19, there's nothing to be scared of.

#PortandPolicy

It's that time again, Port and Policy. Last night was a classic port and policy. People were on fire because of a steady flow of port. If I had to pick a favourite moment it would be Alex Potts' drinking many drinks at once, attempting to drink from 3 glasses at once doesn't work well.  The best debater of the night in my opinion, which is heavily clouded, was Nadim Muslim who said we should 'deport Jordan Brown'.

So let's tell the story through twitter.

The Port ran out very quickly, by the end of the 1st short debate on Scotland. Nadim was most upset.

We need more Port Jenny.

The Port had an effect on our chum, Alex Potts.

Sarvie thus tried to aid Alex with the recent developments in his life.

 Joesph was not pleased by the drinking chaos.

Another big story of the night was that of Archie, one of our resident left wingers. Archie is quite a man for the ladies, as Lucy demonstrates.

So where was he?

But as well as the notables there were new people who we didn't know. This is always good, more Tories, more members and more fun. But how do we get to know them, well Beth recounted one way.

A sort of new face from Trent got involved very much though.

But probably the best episode of events was everyone attacking Jamie Trott(sky) for pretending to be a Conservative.

Much debate focussed on Ties after Jamie said that Jack's tie was from Saville Row. Barlow thus asked Jamie about his Tie.

He then replied.

To follow up, I to got involved on the Tie front.

After that I went off on one about left wing politics culminating in shouting 'You Socialist Oppressor!' at him. I was not the only one though.

Best reaction to the night comes from our great VP Luke Robert Black.

Thanks goes to our excellent committee who organised the event. By far the best one in a while.

Rain or Shine

'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.'- Prof. George H. Palmer on the Postman of Cyrus the Great's Royal Road

This phrase was very appropriate today with rain, sun and hail, with freezing temperatures quickly turning to about 15 degrees. So Nottinghamshire CF, led by our beloved quasi American Luc Chignell, decided that today was the best day to do some campaigning for Wollaton West. Sadly the Cllr for the ward Steve Parton had died and there will soon be a by-election. We thus did some leafleting to help the Party in the ward.

Lots of Rain

As we arrived on the first street there was torrential rain. We did 3 houses and then ran to a pub for cover.

Luc eating a sticky toffee pudding in the pub

But after our pub break we went out and did loads of houses across the ward. We managed to beat another wave of rain and did all the places we wanted to do, right up to the border of Broxtowe. The weather was bad, but we are committed to the cause, like Cyrus the Great.

Straddling the 49th Parallel between Wollaton and Broxtowe

#Podcast

The Big Picture Podcast is now up. It features a massive row on Margaret Thatcher and a divisive debate over Michael Gove, one of the best Secretary of States.

You can listen to it here. It is worth your time http://urn1350.net/podcast/28

Nottingham Labour

Recently it was the Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey Ward Nottingham City Council By-election.

The Ballott Paper. I would have voted Tory.

The election actually took place over the Uni Holidays. I did order a postal ballot but I didn't get it in time so was unable to vote. Oh well. However Labour decided to send me some of their literature, oh what fun.

Most of this is of no interest to me. I'll never vote Labour in a proper local, PC or general election etc. so their policies don't rub with me. However look at the header 'Positive Politics from Nottingham Labour'. Really is this the case?

Nottingham Labour Council, who really hates the government, has put up these entirely positive and well spent propaganda, reminiscent of those in North Korea. Well dressed Windsor people versus everyday Nottingham folk. There is an attempt to stand these two ill represented and stereotyped people face to face. Not very positive. The Council is complaining about how they have to cut more than Windsor. Well if you weren't such a reckless spending council, for example wasting money on political posters, you wouldn't need to cut so much. This is negative politics at its worst; Labour should really change their slogan.

#thebigpicture

Well it’s back to the normal routine and now once again I’m on the air debating this week’s issues on the political radio show, the Big Picture, on URN. I am putting this up a few minutes before we start, at 6pm. Please listen in.

Tonight is hosted by friend, but sadly Liberal Democrat, Seb Bench.

Up for debate tonight is the death of Baroness Thatcher and her legacy, Michael Gove and the sad terrorist attacks in Boston.

You can send it texts to our show on the URN homepage and are able to listen to us on there too. Make sure you quote #ThingsElliottSays. Here is the link http://urn1350.net/ 

Breaking News: Dave to Leave ECHR

Thanks goes to Harry Cole and the Guardian, weirdly enough, for breaking this news. Let's hope this is true.

Update

Never trust the Guardian. They misinterpreted it badly.

However it is nice to see that the Guardian want him gone too.

Update 2

Let's hope Mrs May gets the Bastard this time.