Demonstration against Israeli attack in York

With just a few hours notice around 150 demonstrators attended a protest in York over the Israeli attack on the peace flotilla, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 peace activists, quite likely many more.

Israel attacks unarmed humanitarian flotilla in international waters

I could not believe the news when I woke up this morning.  Earlier this morning Israeli troops boarded the international aid flotilla to Gaza.  So far it is reported 16 peace activists are dead.  Even for Israeli this is a new low.

This action is in direct violation of international law.  An unarmed ship attacked in international waters.

Many of the activists were Turkish, and the Turkish government have strongly condemned the attack, saying they:

"strongly condemn[ed] these inhumane practices of Israel"

I would hope other governments will now not sit on the fence and strongly condemn the actions of Israel.  If this was any other country there would be international outrage at a unarmed ship being attacked with its passengers being killed in international waters.

David Laws is arguing over semantics

David Laws was entitled to a private life, and his relationship with another man did not need to be made public.  Unfortunately David made an ill judged decision, and he alone is reponsible for the repurcussions.

In his statement on the BBC News website he says:

At no point did I consider myself to be in breach of the rules which in 2009 defined partner as "one of a couple … who although not married to each-other or civil partners are living together and treat each-other as spouses."

Although we were living together we did not treat each other as spouses - for example we do not share bank accounts and indeed have separate social lives.

This is simply playing with the semantics of the term partner.  Many who have come to his defence in the media this morning talk about his great intellect.  Surely a man of such intellect should have realised that what he was doing was at the very least bending the rules.

According to a recent article in the Times he is worth an estimated £1.3 million.  If David had wanted to keep his relationship private, he should have made the decision not to claim expenses to give to his partner for rent. 

Interim Libservative plans for House of Lords are an undemocratic stitch up

I failed to spot the following Guardian article when published last week. It is certainly a worrying move:

Coalition deal 'to bring 172 peers'

The coalition agreement between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats could result in the parties appointing more than 100 new peers, despite being committed to a largely or fully-elected upper house, it is reported.

The agreement, published last Wednesday, states that a committee will be set up to come forward with draft motions by December to create a reformed upper house elected by proportional representation.

In the interim, the document states that "Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber reflective of the share of the vote secured by the political parties in the last general election".

With Labour currently represented by 211 peers, on a strict mathematical calculation, this would imply an increase from 186 to 263 in Tory numbers in the House of Lords and a boost in Lib Dem places from 72 to 167 - a total of 172 new peers.

This is a blatant attempt to ensure the government can push all of their legislation through without facing opposition. The Libservatives claim to be introducing us to the "new politics" when in fact this is the worst kind of example of the grubby old politics.

By awarding Tories and Lib Dems many more peerages it will not reflect the will of the UK electorate. For a start there are 208 crossbenchers and 26 Lords Spiritual there is a chance many of these peers could be classed as being on the right of the political spectrum, particularly when it comes to issues on equalities.

If they really believe in political reform they should make reform of the House of Lords a priority and bring us an elected second chamber as soon as possible, rather than rushing to cram the Lords with political allies.

Lost:The Unanswered Questions

This video sums up many of the questions I had after watching the series finale.  This being said, it was still one of the best series of the noughties.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Libservatives announce badger slaughter

Listening to Farming Today this morning I was saddened  to hear that the new government has decided to go ahead with a 'cull' of badgers to reduce TB in cattle.

This move is all about appeasing the National Union of Farmers and little to do with scientific evidence.  Hilary Benn was rightly not convinced by the arguments, and it is a shame our new government have decided to ignore the facts.

Find out more about the Save the Badger campaign at

Take Back Parliament Demo - York

Around 150 people attended the Take Back Parliament demo in York today, one of many events taking place across the country, call for a fairer voting system.  Among the speakers at the demo were, Hugh Bayley MP (Labour), Cllr Dave Taylor (Green), Cllr Christian Vassie (Lib Dem) and Dr Simon Parker from University of York Politics Department.  The Conservatives were conspicuous by their absence.

More photos are available on the Facebook group.

I am still personally not sure if STV is the best voting system.  Having such a voting system would mean having much larger constituencies, like we have with the European Parliament, to allow MPs from several parties to represent the same area.

What is clear is that the current system is ludicrously unfair and needs changing.  I currently feel that a system of AV Plus may be the best solution.  This will allow us to maintain a constituency MP and top up parliament with a second vote based on PR.

Have we been here before?

Meet our new minister for equalities

As well as becoming Home Secretary Teresa May has also been awarded the position of Minister for Women and Equality.  Presumably she was given this post as only one of two women in the cabinet, the other being Cheryl Gillan as Welsh secretary.  Every other member of the cabinet is a white male.

A quick look on the public whip site shows that Teresa May is no fan of gay rights, having either voted against or being absent when most gay rights legislation of the last government was tabled.

She voted against:

• Crime and Disorder Bill — Reduce age of consent for homosexual acts to 16 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill — Reduction in age at which certain sexual acts are lawful 
• Local Government Bill [Lords] - Prohibition on promotion of homosexuality: bullying 
• Adoption and Children Bill (Programme) — Consideration and Third Reading 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — Applications for adoption 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [3rd Allotted Day] — Clause 131 — General interpretation, etc. 
• Adoption and Children Bill — Suitability Of Adopters

I do not have the confidence in her to be a true champion of equality.  This is one post where the Libservatives could have gained a little more credibility by appointing a Lib Dem with a much better voting record than Ms May.

Here come the Libservatives

Will anyone trust the Lib Dems again?

So it's finally happened. After days of playing the Tories off against Labour, the Lib Dems have finally gone into coalition with the Tories.

During the election the Lib Dems continually brushed off suggestions that they would go into coalition. With such statements as:

My message to Mr Brown and Mr Cameron is simple: the Liberal Democrats are up for real change. We are not up for sale. - Nick Clegg, The Times - Jan 5th 2010

The Liberal Democrats would refuse to enter a coalition government with Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung parliament, it is being reported. - Sky News, Feb 15th 2010

I would have thought that most voters who voted Lib Dem will be horrified at the thought of a Lib Dem/Tory coalition. This move is likely to serisoully deplete their vote at the next election. I would also not be surprised if some of those on the left of the Lib Dems quit the party as they simply cannot stomach their party being in government with the Tories.

This is a sad day for those of us in favour of progressive politics.  Only 36.1% of those who voted, voted Conservative, yet they are now our government.  They have become our government by the decisions made by a party with only 23% of the vote and 57 seats in Parliament.

So, the campaign to get Cameron out of No.10 starts now.  Hopefully there will be an election within the next year, and we will have a chance to remove the Libservatives from power.

Why I have cancelled my membership of the Green Party

Today I have cancelled my membership of the Green Party. Many of you may be surprised by this announcement, especially after the success of electing our first Green MP.

Despite our success in Brighton, I do not feel confident about our future growth as a party. Our share of the vote actually fell in the election from 1.1% to 1.0%. This is lower than UKIP (on 3.1%) and BNP (on 1.9%). Out of the 300+ seats we stood in we only managed to save our deposit in 6 constituencies.

We did not fare any better in the local elections. Although we gained a few seats we ended up with a net loss of 4 seats.

Proportional representation may help the Green vote, but I don't hold out much hope of seeing it arrive in the near future. Even with PR, there is no saying that it will help increase our number of elected representatives. The last Euro Elections, carried out under PR resulted in no extra seats.

I do hope I am wrong in my predictions and wish the Green Party ever success in the future. However, after spending 8 years on the political sidelines first with the Socialist Alliance, then Respect and finally the Green Party, I feel the time has come to move on.

I will especially miss my involvement in Green Left. I greatly admire the activists in Green Left and if not for GL I may have moved on earlier.

We should not be complacent about the BNP failures

I like many was ecstatic to see Nick Griffin fail in his attempt to become the first BNP MP, in the seating of Barking.  And I though Margaret Hodge's acceptance speech was excellent:



It was also wonderful to see every BNP councillor in Barking lose their seat.  In total the BNP lost 22 council seats across the country.

We should however not be complacenet.  The BNP has increased their vote share nationally from 0.7% to 1.9%.  This is a massive increase in overall vote.  It is clear our job is not done and we must continue to work convincing the electorate that the BNP do not have any answer but hatred and bigotry.

Reasons to be cheerful

The Green Party achieved a great victory last night by electing Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party as the first Green MP.  Considering how flawed our current first past the post electoral system is, this is a great achievement.

It is unfortunate that we did not do as well in other constituencies.  Although we did get respectable results in some other constituencies such as Norwich South, Lewisham Deptford and Cambridge.  I can't help but think that we would have had better outcomes if the electorate hadn't been sold on the idea of tactical voting, and the belief that the Lib Dems were a serious threat to the 2 main parties, when in reality they came away with less seats than 2005.

As it stands it looks like our fears have been realised and Clegg is in discussions with Cameron to support a Tory minority government.  The discussions may end up being fruitless, but part of me feels that Clegg will be willing to sell out for a taste of power.

I greatly respect Caroline Lucas for refusing to enter any coalition or pact and to judge legislation on a case by case basis.

All we can hope for is that something good comes out of a hung parliament and we end up with a fairer voting system.

Election night

It's finally arrived, election night is here.  I shall be up to the early hours watching the TV coverage, occasionally switching over to Channel 4's Alternative Election Night for a bit of light relief.

The 3 key Green targets are expected to be announced between 2 and 4am.  I will post some of the key Green results up here along with some of the surprises of the night.

I will also be regularly tweeting at mr_andy_c

Use your vote tomorrow

Not all of us are lucky enough to have a Green candidate standing in our constituency tomorrow, but I stress that it is still important that you go out and vote.

You often hear the old adage 'the 3 main parties are the same'.  I disagree, they are not the same.  As much as I disagree with some of the policies of the past Labour government, they have also made improvements over the past 13 years, as I have explained in my earlier post http://thelifeofmrandyc.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-im-voting-labour-in-york-outer.html

If you don't vote tomorrow, you may well regret it on Friday morning when you wake up to a Tory government.  A government which will bring back fox hunting, scrap the human rights act, finish off Thatcher's hatchet job on the unions and bring in brutal cuts to the public sector to fund their tax breaks for the rich.

Tories are a risk to the Northern Ireland peace process

I am not going to go into length on this post, as I do not claim to be an expert on Northern Ireland politics, I do however have grave concerns about the possible risks to the peace process if the Tories take power.

Cameron cannot be seen as a neutral honest broker in any future negotiations after forming an alliance with the Ulster Unionist Party.  This move has the prospect to jeopordise the peace process for the sake of a few extra seats in parliament.

An article in The Times earlier this year stated:

The party is also prepared to intervene if Sinn Féin becomes the largest party after next year’s elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It would consider downgrading the post of the Province’s First Minister, which normally goes to the largest party, to prevent a walkout by Unionists

It is clear a Cameron government would have a reckless attitude to Northern Ireland politics, showing clear favouritism to unionist policies.

Labour have done a lot to improve relations in Northern Ireland over the past 13 years.  We cannot risk turning back the clock to the biaised policies of the Thatcher government.

Tories plan to repeal some of the worthwhile legislation Labour has brought in over past 13 years

An article in The Sunday Times claims:

The centrepiece of the Tories’ Queen’s speech, to be held within the next month if the party forms a government, would be a “great repeal bill”.

We already know they have plans to repeal the hunting bill.  Their website also states:

Replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights

One of the most important pieces of legislation of recent times will be torn up, so that the Tories can pick and choose which human rights are worth defending.

There is a lot of Labour legislation I haven't agreed with over the past 13 years, but they have done good as well, and it looks like we will lose a lot of the good legislation if the Tories get in.

Scrapping Trident should be more than about saving money

The Liberal Democrats seem to be gaining quite a lot of support by their proposal to scrap Trident, but if you look into their policies further, you will find that they still wish to keep our nuclear 'deterrent', and the main reason for scrapping Trident is about saving money.

Their policy reads:

Liberal Democrats do not believe that the UK can afford the billions of pounds the Government wants to spend on a like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system. Full-scale Trident is a cold war system that we no longer need nor can afford. We believe that less expensive alternatives should be considered.

While it is correct that Trident is a waste of money, which we cannot afford at the moment, this should not be the motivator for scrapping Trident.

The Green Party policy is very clear, saying:

Not replace Trident.We cannot conceive of any circumstances in which we would use these expensive and immoral weapons; we would decommission the existing system and not renew it.

As a child I remember seeing the following 'Protect and Survive' public information film, and it scared the hell out of me.  Since then I have been vehemently against the ownership of nuclear weapons and do not believe there is any justification in keeping them.



No country should have the right to own such weapons of mass destruction.  To use the is illegal under international law, as the kill indiscrimately.

We are also hypocrites to keep our own weapons and demand that other countries should not hold them.

If we want to be brokers for peace in the world we should ditch our nuclear programme now and lead by example.