- Labour: Communists.
- Conservative: Retards and owners of that bastard Gove.
- Liberal Democrats: Spineless retards who are completely powerless.
- Green party: Doped up hippies. Good for the environment but not much else.
- BNP: Racist and just completely out of touch with everything.
- UKIP: They seem like they have some good intentions.
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| To those who say "but this isn't a political blog", I reply 'bugger off'. |
Other parties don't really have a chance so in the interest of keeping this short I'll only go into these 6 main parties. This article goes over my thoughts on the parties' main policies and how well I think they'd perform in office (either European or Nationally). You can skip to the conclusion for final thoughts.
So first up I went to each party's website and looked around for a manifesto. Each party had 5 minutes of me browsing before I would give up. (all links open in new tab).
Here are UKIP's Here and Here
Green party: Here if you can get it working and here for the London one
Tory: Here but it's in lots of bits and here is their economic plan
Lib-dem: Here
BNP: Here but page wasn't available at time of writing although here is their site
Labour: They didn't seem to have one (seriously) but their site is here
As you can see we've run into trouble already before even reading anything. Labour don't seem to have a manifesto; the Green party have done theirs on some site that I think requires an account to read. The Conservatives don't have one big document for easy browsing; BNP might not be at fault for having their PDF version not available but it's still annoying. It was only UKIP and the Liberal Democrats that actually had an available and up-to-date manifesto. How are we meant to vote if we can't even find out what you're trying to do?!
As a result of this search, I am discounting Labour entirely. I did find a 2010 manifesto online but I can't base anything on something 4 years out of date. They might have been the best party, but because I couldn't find out how good they were easily (and it does have to be easy if everyone is to partake in voting).
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| They could have been the best party ever, but if we can't find that out then that's everyone's loss. |
Equality and diversity: They are definitely siding with the poor on this one. With a 10:1 wage gap cap and promoting a mandatory living wage instead of minimum wage.Stopping the advertising of pay-day loans on public transport and doing various things to get societies to be more accepting of each other (ie. young/old people, migrant/non-migrant workers etc...). I agree with all of this except for the 10:1 wage gap cap.
Economy and Jobs: In a nutshell giving smaller businesses more omph and making sure everyone has access to local services (within walking distance). They'll try to stop tuition fees for university and also make decent apprenticeships available (bonus points!) And upgrade our infrastructure. They'll also put a stop to the crazy amount of betting and loan shops. I completely agree with all of this. Better infrastructure and more educated people draw in business who make money and uphold all of the small shops that are close by. Well done is all I can say.
Environment: Weekly bin collections, more recycling plants, energy infrastructure upgrades. More green spaces, better animal care. It's all pretty standard stuff, but most importantly it's stuff that will actually improve the country (or London in this case). I don't agree with the animal laws much as they seem a bit tacked on for the sake of it. But everything else seems pretty solid and realistic.
Travel: This is very London based, basically it's more and cheaper public transport, stopping HS2 and airports and generally getting rid of cars. While this might work in London (especially as everything will be in walking distance if their 'Economy and Jobs' ideas come to fruition, I can't say anything on the implications for the country as a whole. Note that less airport space seems to be a reversal of the infrastructure upgrades named elsewhere.
Health: Pretty much 'grow your own food, keep the NHS a public service' A lot of hippy love in this one but it's not bad by any means.
Housing: Make it affordable and good quality. That's it. Simple.
Crime: Use cheap people for office work, get actual officers solving crimes. Make the police more at one with the community and legalise Cannabis (also decriminalising all drugs). This is an approach that has been proven to lessen drug related health problems and cut off a large income source from criminal gangs. This section is a pretty strong one for the Green party.
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| Very good, better than I thought they'd be. Now could I have an updated manifesto please? |
Starting comments: Immigrants cause crime and it's Labour who started it.
'Down to earth politics' Rich people own the country, Britain is not a democracy (true) we will make is a democracy (possibly good). There should be more police, money should be spent on services and not the EU and immigrants who will also be stopped from entering the country. This approach on policing is a bit sound bitey and doesn't sound too well thought out They also oppose the use of greenfield sites which is something I believe in but then you find out this means infrastructure upgrades and wind farms will be opposed because of this and it's benefit is more questionable.
UKIP in local government: This is really just a lot of 'we'll clear up litter and stuff' talk, along with a skip-load of overused sayings that are all too prevalent in the manifesto as a whole. They don't really have any solid plans in this section which is disappointing, they spend the page talking about how everyone is worse than they are, but not why.
6 Priorities: Local referendums. This is not a good idea as if your policies are good enough you shouldn't need them. Stop the development of housing. This isn't a good idea, although another point is 'regenerate empty buildings for housing demand'. So they seem confused over this. They will also provide incentives (they don't say what they are though) to get jobs and housing and stuff. Also mentioned is the spending of the £78million a day that would normally be EU and foreign aid money on services and debt repayment. This seems like a solid idea although the EU might give us some benefits that we don't know about. But this is part of a larger problem of no one knowing what the hell the EU actually does. Their largest point is on getting police to crack down on yobbos and graffiti and annoying neighbours. Because the police don't have anything better to do obviously.
The rest: Is basically a repeat of what has been said above. They don't give any detail on their plans and don't set themselves any goals. In fact UKIP have been very disappointing and as such worrying. They have spent a lot of time recently advertising themselves and raising awareness. But when you actually read their policies they have no substance and are full of cliché that older voters will love (old people hate graffiti and old people and everything in-fact). Where's the country improving stuff UKIP?
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| Worse than they make themselves out to be. A bit short sighted overall. |
Economic Plan: Their last point on education is a lie, they've introduced this dodgy writing style to primary schools whereby letters don't look like letters. They've raised tuition fees from £3000 to £9000, made it so interest starts building on a student loan as soon as you start learning (so that's 3-5 years of interest you also have to pay back). They are however capping welfare and immigration as well as improving infrastructure for small businesses which is good.
Protecting our children: This is another weak point, they are censoring the internet. They are taking responsibility from parents and instead just censoring whatever they like. They have no idea what they are doing on this front and are simply using the 'think of the children' argument to get their point agreed with.
Let Britain Decide: They lie in this one too, saying that the Lib-Dems won't give a referendum on Britain's EU membership yet the Lib-Dem manifesto explicitly says that while they agree with EU membership they will still have a referendum on it.
The rest: They will introduce a tax cut for businesses and one for pensions. They also bash Labour a lot, as well as UKIP and the Lib-Dems. However they don't actually make any points in the argument and just say 'Labour and the Lib-Dems won't give you a say, UKIP can't give you a say'. I think they should come up with some more policies instead of being dicks to everyone.
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| Lots of lying and bitching about other parties that actually thought of something. |
BNP are next on the list. I'll get this out of the way to begin with; their website is nothing but propaganda. I'll do my best to filter it out in this post but know that what they say they'll do will indeed be done (good or bad?).
Crime and Justice: Bring back corporal punishment and the death penalty for murderers and paedophiles. The rest of it is a compilation of 'opposition-bashing' and the call for less regulation in the police force. It is very heavy fisted as a method of crime prevention although I do agree that prisons should be made less comfy.
Democracy: quote "The BNP – Britain’s most democratic party." Their ideas on this are that the Human Rights Act should be abolished as well as making free speech a thing and giving power back to the public. While this makes sense in some ways, the way it is written gives off the impression that the actual idea is to make Britain more hostile to anyone not in Britain.
Economics: They turn the £8.4bn foreign aid budget into a £9bn one. They will stop certain imports from other countries which is what China currently do.
After this I stopped reading. Seriously, their policies are non-existent, they are militant in their aims and (granted like other parties) don't give solid figures or goals on anything they say. They are not a party, they are mindlessly going after a supreme British race without realising that that won't work.
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| They will ruin the country. |
Jobs: This is a good start, they want to make world wide trade a bigger thing and support smaller businesses by cutting red-tape. Their idea as a whole is to make as much trade happen as possible so that the country has money to improve itself with. A solid idea. They seem to be one of the only party that understands that the 'one market' agreement with Europe can be a good thing if fully utilised.
Crime and Justice: The first idea they have is to make sure that Britons are given British rights when abroad, ie fair trial if arrested. They also have some vague stuff about the internet in there but I'm getting the impression that the Lib-Dems are definitely a global thinking party. There is nothing on crime in the UK though which is odd. I can only assume that this being a European election manifesto they left it out, as to not give it any time would be a very bad thing.
Environment: They focus a lot on new legislation but do touch on getting more renewable energy plants built in the UK. As a whole I think that half their stuff will be annoying shit and the other half, ambitious and good ideas that won't work. But at least they tried.
The financial system: Bonuses should be based on success and not anything else. Short term business loans should be easier to get. Tax evasion will be lessened so that large companies don't have an edge over small ones. They will not be joining the euro and want a more interlaced banking system between the UK and the EU. I like these policies.
Consumer rights: They'll put warnings on cigarette packets and again make things in Europe easier like data roaming. They'll also spread knowledge on internet safety. Which is excellent as I've been moaning for ages at how it's a better understanding of the internet that people need and NOT more censorship. However in the same paragraph they say 'tackle harmful content' this is too broad a term to be a good thing, seeing as the Lib-Dems are (sort of half) in power at the moment and the current censorship might be their idea. This is not a good policy as it seems like an extension of the current terrible internet laws.
Agriculture: There is a lot about water management and a bit about sustainable fishing. I like the water management rules, the fishing regulations I need more information on but on the face of it it seems solid.
The EU: Most of the Lib Dems' manifesto is "make it closer to Europe" or "join up with Europe" Whether this be because of this being a European manifesto or whether it is actually their policy I don't know. However I'm not convinced that being completely part of Europe would be a good thing, especially as a large part of this section is about military forces. While Europe can be useful, a lot of the Lib-Dem's policy seems to be 'make the UK Europe's bitch' which obviously is the wrong way to go about it.
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| Lots of good (if generic) policies but a few crappy ones, their chance in the coalition hasn't been well utilised either. |
- The green party were very surprising, it appears that they have some very solid policies and ideas, if they sang about all of them instead of just the environmental ones they would do well, as people would see that they are actually a very good party. Unfortunately I could only find their manifesto for London 2012 so all of this should be taken with a pinch of salt as things might have changed.
- UKIP were also surprising but for different reasons, i.e. They fell short on expectations. I now see them as possibly dangerous in the long term to vote for. Their ideas have no substance and their only aim seems to be 'get rid of the foreigners' instead of 'improving the country' which is what is should be. You could say it is a manifesto geared towards older voters who moan about everything they can. I wouldn't vote for them but at the same time they're not the absolute worst thing that could happen to the country.
- The BNP were not surprising at all. Their policies are evil and misleading DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM.
- The Lib-Dems were a tricky one to place. On one hand they have good things to say on Europe but on the other they say practically nothing on the UK. They caved in against student fees to the Conservatives which I hate them for. I think they're a party that won't actually do anything that they say they will, lacking the grass-roots policies that other parties have. You can vote for them, but they probably won't win and I reckon that nothing much will change if they do.
- The Conservatives didn't climb the hill I set them. They don't have a manifesto and they don't have many policies. They haven't proved themselves in their current stint of leadership. Don't bother voting for them, they won't make anything better in my opinion.
So who would I vote for?
This is a real surprise for me. It's the Green Party, they have some good ideas and they are not as I first thought the 'doped up hippies' I said they were at the start. So well done Green party, now all you need to do is give me access to your 2014 UK manifesto.
This is a real surprise for me. It's the Green Party, they have some good ideas and they are not as I first thought the 'doped up hippies' I said they were at the start. So well done Green party, now all you need to do is give me access to your 2014 UK manifesto.
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