Speak Liberal

"No candidate gets to run in my
district without speaking to my
issues" - From an anecdote by Sam Seaborn in the West Wing.

This is a Philosophy I believe in.

In The Republic of Ireland, Right now in 2012, in the deep recesses of the Trioka Bailout program, 5 or so years into a recession, I fail frequently to find politicians or public figures that align with my Political views or beliefs.

I am Tired of the Apathy that we Irish have towards the state of our Political and Civil spheres. I am tired that power is only achievable with A Degree, a High paying Job and the sort of Selfish Personality that seeks Power above the well being of fellow humans.

I may not be a perfect human. I will frequently concede that I can be a  hypocrite. I feel that the nature of my "left" leaning Political beliefs, and my Human Rights, Afford me the ability to be flexible and adaptive in what I believe and support from day to day.

I started the Hash Tag #SpeakLiberal on Twitter specifically to speak to the issues and Political ideologies that I Support, and I hope other Irish People also support.

The Intention of #SpeakLiberal is to get people who believe in any number of Liberal/Progressive issue's to come together and organise towards Political Office without a larger intent to Divide Other political Parties base support, Seek Power, or Seek to make a career in Politics. The Naive aim of #SpeakPolitics is to form a New Political party / Action Group towards Promoting a More Progressive Agenda in Irish Current Affairs.

I would like #SpeakLiberal to Provide the outlet for people's Concerns at the Ballot box. I would like to see the Members and supporters of whatever Political Party forms from this Initiative have Political representatives answerable to the will of the Party, It's agreed issues and Legislative agenda's.  I Would like those elected by #SpeakLiberal to be elected to Local and National Levels to Bring forth Debate, Amendments and Legislation which is developed by the Public/Supporters/Membership towards Enhancing and Protecting the Human Rights and Well being of the People of Ireland.

If it's not to Much to Ask, I would Like to See Accountable Direct Democracy that helps frame National Debate on Issue's that affect the Citizens of the Irish Republic as it Stands.

#SpeakLiberal Is Open to all, it will be shaped and made by those who want to use it. I do not seek to Be A President or Major Voice in this movement. I do not seek to have a veto or final word on what #SpeakLiberal becomes. As Long as a consensus is reached, and the People of Ireland and the World Benefit in Some way from the Actions of #SpeakLiberal, then I will not Impede it's Progress.


In the Near Future, I Hope, With the Support of Others #SpeakLiberal can Hold initial Meetings to declare a political Party and the issue's which should be covered.


Top of the Agenda is Protecting UN Human Rights, The European Charter for Human Rights, and Inequalities in Irish Society.


You Can Contact me at: Hugofitz1888@gmail.com
                                     Twitter: @HugoFitzpatrick



There will Soon be a Dedicated Twitter account and Email for #SpeakLiberal

Gotta be startin' Somethin' Part 2: The First Week

This is the story of everything i got up to on the Hustings with Dylan Haskins Campaign.


As for what exactly the definition of Hustings is, i haven't a fucking clue, but it first appeared in my collective lexicon in the past month after reading it in many a caption about potential TD's Canvassing and flyering and meeting Joe Public.

So how, may i asked did i get involved in the campaign.

Well as the previously blog mentioned i Saw this video the day it was posted. A few hours later after eyeing parts of www.dylanhaskins.ie multiple times i thought, why the fuck not.

I had had growing interest in the up coming election and had dreamed of the possibility of working on someone's campaign. Spurred on by recently watching Seasons 3 and 4 of The West Wing for the first time, i was eager to  do something political.



Thomas Clare (Ind) County Louth.

An Independent candidate, Thomas Clare weeks before the calling of the election had Stopped by my doorstep and talked to me for a few minutes. I was impressed, and for the most part thankful that someone had turned up at all. Seeing as I live in the arsehole of nowhere, and hadn't left the house more than a few occasions in a month. In my more "ON" moments my brain fantasized about what i could offer a political campaign, my youth, my active imagination, my familiarity with social media etc etc

I followed Mr Clare's spartan twitter account and checked out his website, it was also little to be desired. Obviously not much of a Social Media Candidate.



When Dylan's Video arrived i was inspired. His website was also rather impressive. Built for him by Blogger Nialler9 and within hours taken down by the traffic it received.

Ireland's twitter Trends showed Dylan Haskins Trending that night. People were similarly inspired.

So I plucked up the Courage, and Sent an email saying i wanted to Join the Campaign.

Here is some if not the main chunk of what i said:

I am interested in volunteering my time and idea's to help in this election campaign. 

I am not a resident of Dublin South East, My Constituency is in Louth, but i know Dylan from Trinity College and have volunteered some time with Exchange Dublin in the Past.

As a young adult currently unemployed and relying on Changes to the Fee structure for 3rd level education or job creation in this country i feel i must do something to be apart of this political campaign.

I have experience with Political discourse, Volunteering and I am a large "Social Media Native", or plugged in Internet addict, however you want to put it. I am also a former Student Nurse and feel Greatly for The representation of College Students and General reform of Our political process and the future of this country.

I briefly spent time in Australia trying to find work, but with no experience on my CV I couldn't find work, and had to come home. Now that i am home, i don't want to leave. I've had low paying job's, but nothing full time. I feel that i do not want to leave this country again. I want to make a difference and voice my opinions. 

I have a course reserved in a College next year, but because i have done 2 years (free fee payed years) of college already i have to foot the bill myself. 3rd Level education reform is very important to me and my future, as well as the future of all young people in this country.

I may not be a Resident or Constituent of Dublin South East, but i believe in Similar issue's and would like to help out where-ever i can.

Thank you for you time.

Following that i received an email from Fionn Kidney, campaign manager extraordinaire. I was invited to coffee to talk and to be informed about how i can help out etc.

Unfortunately i was not available that Tuesday, which was effectively the same day, as this email was sent in the early morning. But i had slight plans for the Cinema with DS that Wednesday so i said i would be around then.


Dylan's Campaign HQ was infact, his apparent. And it was in the Most Central of Central Locations, The Corner of D'Olier Street, Westmoreland Street and O'Connell Bridge. Yes, that white building that is the wedge shape smack dab in the middle of the Wide Street Commissions large Streets that Transect Dublin's City Center.

When Entered the Outer Sanctum for the first time there was a bit of buzz in the room. Optimism. Things had a true air of people starting to get things done. People were looking over the constituency map and sizing up the task. I couldn't be there long as i was meeting DS at the cinema. So my first task was a Stationary run.

Highlighters, a stapler, rubber bands for leaflets and other assorted things. I was told to retain the receipt as Dylan had already pledged to keep track of all his expenses. So showing some initiative i added a Small ledger with tracing paper to the shopping trip and went back to HQ and on to the cinema.

I returned after seeing The Fighter with DS, and told him all i was up to and even mulled over the possibility of  getting in contact with my old Seconday school which is in the relevant constituency. I had had idea's of what to do already, but for the most part i never got around to mentioning any of it.

When i got back that evening my first task was a "cheque run" where i was asked to deposit something before closing. However i was confused over the directions, and first went into the wrong bank, then filled out the form incorrectly in the correct bank. Upon returning i finally got the whole thing sorted out and dashed back to the correct bank, but missed the gate's closing by minutes. Didn't feel to good to have fucked up like that, but it happens. Most of the time i was more nervous about not loosing the cheque, then if i was doing a good job. Thankfully it returned safely to the money box.

The next thing that evening was a worry that there was not enough Cable ties for the posters. So i used Yelp on my Phone to phone a Hardware store on Camden Street to ask them for a price estimate. This was a whole heap of confusion but i was handed money from the petty cash and sent to check the situation out in person.

I phoned home on my way and explained what i was doing to my parents, and asked about any possibility of a spare lap top anywhere that my dad might know about, but to no avail.

Arriving at the hardware store, the price turned out to be insanely more than what we thought we could get them for so i returned with nothing. I had first texted the image of the cable tie comparrisons to Fionn, and then rang him. To expensive and we could get the ties for free from the Poster Printers in Poppintree on the northside, just a question of how. Since i was coming into Dublin that way, i offered to get them the next morning.


On the left our free tie, on the right the expensive super tie.

When I got back the team was short of Volunteers and cars and ladders that evening so i was sent out again, this time to join a Music teacher friend of one of the team who had been roped in on Twitter to help out.

We were off to hit The Ballsbridge and Sandymount area with around 26 posters.

As we slowly figured out the ladder we hit the Street beside Herbert Park First. The wind was strong but we got loads up. Ballsbridge, literally around the Bridge over the Dodder was more difficult. The wind caught our 2nd poster and almost hit a pedestrian, then we both had to run after it as it almost flew into the Cycle path, at rush hour...

Saved and strapped up we moved on. But we already knew that those posters were, "pushing it" as all of the competitors had laid claim to the era pretty strongly. Same could be said for Sandymount and the Triangle park there. Sneakily we Shoved one under a Gormly poster and then started pushing it up as high as we could until Gormly's face was up in a tree, and we had the clearer line of sight. A Tough battleground, but at least we weren't ripping it down, or anything nefarious like that.

On to Simonscourt road and we "OWNED" the whole avenue with 6 or 7 Dylan Haskins Posters and then made our way back into town. We got the last two up before Baggot Street Bridge and it was all done for the night.

I popped back into HQ for a couple of minutes and was off home.




Thursday the 4th I started the day walking from Finglas to Poppintree.

But it was 8am, and the printing specialists was not open yet. I had been given a number to call so i texted the person and was told to ask for another persons name when i got there, and that they would be there at 9.10 am or so.

So I walked even further and walked over scrub land to and past Ikea, into a petrol station on the Ballymun slip road to the M50, then through the redevelopment and back up through Ballymun to Poppintree.


I eventually got the ties, and with now slightly sore feet walked to the 19/19a Terminus and was on my way into town. A quick Text to Fionn and i was told i was a "legend". I tweeted and listened to the radio at the same time and missed Dylan speaking on Today fm and Newstalk that morning on my way in, but did catch a Mention of the campaign and Dylan on A piece about twitter and the election on Pat Kenny.

I got off the bus on D'Olier Street, with 400 Cable Ties in hand and was in HQ.

Things were only starting for the day so i stepped into the corridor where all the Posters were and got through close to 100 before the whole Inner-circle of Fionn, Una and Lisa were on their way out to Deal with a photo Call infront of Andrews Lane Theatre to "officially" Show the luanch of the Campaign.

Lisa also handed me the instructions to get the Forms for Candidacy from the local Sheriffs office once that was done.


The Campaign Slogan in Stencil.


In the busy lane way we met up with Street artist Will St Leger and a photographer. Within a few minutes Dylan had arrived from his Busy morning and more Photographers showed up, plus a 98fm journalist and a woman from the Irish Times who was taking a small comment about the event and a digital interview intended as a possible inclusion on the Campaign part of their Online Material.


Dylan, Will St Leger and the media Micro-scrum, plus one of the many car's that disrupted the shoot.


Briefly Fionn sent me away to collect a portable hard drive from his work. I entered the place and received it and while leaving I realised that this was the Fade Street production office. I'd never watched the show, and possibly just passed the part-actors part socialites and other such things with no clue who they were... but really i wasn't interested.

Back in the Laneway the photo's continued and as it wrapped up I went off to the sheriff's office and collected the relevant documents in a large brown envelope. Oh how important it all felt.

I then returned to the laneway, but by then the Inner-circle had moved off and what was left was just the Media guy who i stayed with for a minute as i checked 98fm news to see if the recording had made it there in time, but the woman had gone on her lunch, and the recording didn't pop up till 2 hours later, which i missed.

I met up with Fionn in the Bank of Ireland on College Green, and he checked the forms in the Envelope. I then waited in the Foyer and read twitter as tweets about Dylan were still coming in thick and fast surrounding the campaign, and it's trending high on Monday. After a good 20 minutes I followed Fionn over to the AIB branch on Westmoreland street where Dylan was also sorting out more banking details.

For the 2nd time that day, following the team around it felt like being inside the walk and talks of the West Wing, although, i was more like a bodyguard in the background, as i was barely contributing much, with the exception of clutching the candidacy papers very close.

After i ate my lunch I was asked, that since i don't have a laptop, to go off to an internet café to work on the twitter trends which i had been watching. This took me all the way to Townsend street to a café i knew was 1 euro an hour and i stayed there collating tweets and articles for around 2 hours before i finished up and headed back to Andrews Lane Theatre for Dylans campaign launch/electorate drive/ volunteer meeting.

I was there earlier than the main team or familiar face's so i just hung out. I met a guy from Mayo who had taken a 4 hour train just to see this event and he showed me the rather interesting things he had showed Fionn about An algorithm for Pinging Dylan and opposition candidate websites to see how many friends and followers they had, automatically and then turning the info into charts. I was pretty impressed. The dedication and inspiration that had reached out to this guy was exactly the kind of buzz that had brought people there that evening.

I'm not too good at judging the size of a crowd but it looked like 40 to 60 people and it was impressive.

Here's the independent video that a friend of the campaign made of Dylan's speech. You can see me checking my phone at the front.



After that I hung out for a while, helped packed up and got the late bus back to Louth.

I then finished up my twitter trend watching and went to bed...

Taking Friday off for some rest, mainly on my hurt feat and screaming in agony wallet, as i was funding my way via my birthday money.


As this coverage is taking long than i thought... wait for part's 3 and 4 coming in the next few days.

You MUST be Outraged, or at least tisk a bit!

Ah Flotilla-gate. It's all a big mess isn't it.






So instead of writing a rambling and partially wrong and sometime right analasys of the whole Israel-Palestine conflict i will give a few points and then delve a little deeper.


The Good intentions/idea's/positive's to make note of:

- This all started out by people willing to supply aid to those in need.

- Only one ship was attacked, the others were escorted safely to port.

- The world was watching, and so were Arab world news agencies on the ships.

- Most of the Aid is said to be on it's way to Gaza. Hamas however is reportorially refusing some of it.

- Egypt opened it's border to Gaza yesterday, to help the situation.

- Most of those detained from the ships, actavists, volunteers, media and aid workers have returned to their countries of origin.



The Ugly things to take from this.

- The aid convoy acted against orders to stay in Cyprus. And acted politically and provocatively in order to be heard.

- 9 people are dead.

- Diplomatic ties with Israel are damaged Worldwide.

-Turkey is deeply offended, they were once the only Arab ally of Isreal in the Middle East.

- Gaza is still not receiving all the supplies it needs. Apparently 1/4 of what is needed reaches people.

- The Blockade is still in place.


Things to still worry about:


- The predominantly Irish Ship that is still en route to Gaza.

- The blockade has not been lifted, despite international condemnation.

-Israel- United States talks about the construction of Settlements in the West Bank were called off and are likely to be delayed and further ignored for the near-by future.

- Global hypocracies are still rife in terms of Politics and reaction to such situations. Condemnation, harsh comments, sanctions, call's for restraint, all mean nothing.

- Oil is still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.

- Oil is still destroying the Niger Delta.

-Oil is still destroying the Rain Forrest's in Peru.

- South and North Korea are still on the Verge of war.

- UK Police may soon carry fire arms following today's shooting massacre. Irish Police, will still not Carry arms following Dozens of crime-world shooting and executions over the past decade.

- Firefly is still canceled and hopes of being picked up, after such a long time, and a mediocre movie takings is still unlikely.





What can i really say about all this. Every side in this conflict is wrong in some way.

The Aid workers are good intentioned, but they are also full of several bad eggs and some more extreme people.

Although their act's are noble, they are flauting the will of a nation to protect itself.

They are also supporting the continued existance of a terrorist backed government.

The people of Gaza, and of Palestine in general deserve so much better. After all it is THEIR country.

Israel may now be a country, despite not really being a country that deserves to exist, or is in anyway the good guy. If anything they are the bad guy, but so are the people they are persecuting and inadvertently radicalising.

There is no quick soloution to this. There never is a quick fix. There are far to many hot heads of different points of view involved.

Islamist extremists, Zionist's, Orthodox Jews, Hamas and Fatah, American-Jewish influence, Old-school American Foreign Policy, Iran, Lebenon, The incompetency of the UN, the UN Security Council and the Legacy of fuck ups that follow the once Great British Empire.


I once heard an anecdotal story of a Nutritionist that found that the Diets of those in the Wider Israel/Palestine area have a low Zinc Diet. This man apparently concluded that the Low-Zinc diet lead to increased aggression.

His solution was making everyone eat Marmite.

Now as farcical as that story may be, it sort of describe's most people's reactions to ANY suggestion related to solving problems in the Region.


Now even though the world has relatively ignored the region and the conflict, despite it spilling over into world wide repercussions such as the Uzi Sub-machine Gun, Islamic Fundamentalism (a wider problem not solely related to the P.L.O etc) and security in Airports. (This last one being the fact that before Palestinian's hijacked plans in the 70s and landed them in Jordon, there was almost NO security in Airports. Something that for the most part affects all of us all the time, and generally sucks)

We have all had to listen to this situation, and in some way respond. Most of the time we are generally miss-informed.

There are precidents for defending all side's. Now it is a cluster fuck of Wrong that we can't excuse.

People are dead. These people put themselves in harms way, and attacked military force's in International waters to defend themselves and to protect their intent to bring supplies to a besieged community of 1.4 million people in Gaza.

Military forces, pursued, harassed and boarded ships in military waters in order to prevent them supplying aid to Gaza. When assaulted on one ship, and susstaining injuries and casualties the Military members did all they thought they could do in the circumstance, they opened fire.

They injured many and subsequentially killed 9 people.


This reminds me of the Gideon Masacre in Battlestar Galactica. Those not familiar with the show will have to bear with me. During a bit of a political crises in the Fleet a state of Marshal Law was called for. In order to maintain the running of Galactica certain supplies were needed from the other ships in the fleet. As a from of protest several ships refused to supply anything. In response Raiding parties of armed troops were sent out.

On the 6th sortey a group boarded the Gideon. They were met with a rioting crowd that was uncooperative and throwing coffee and debris at the troops (who are just ship security gaurds and marine like in use normally). Faced with a riot, which they were not geared or trained for the troops were stuck. Subsequentially in the meelee something collapsed that sounded like gunfire. Panicked the troops opened fire. 4 People died.

This messy story isn't referenced to many time's in BSG, but it was pretty shocking stuff. And great writing.


It is incidents like this that cause international outrage. It is only incidents that make people act.


Now how the world acts, i can not predict, or even suggest what would be the best thing to do.

It is all frankly a mess.

It is not like fiction, or even fantasy-science fiction. Ie This is Not Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, the Israeli's are not the Trade Federation, Gaza is NOT Naboo, and the aid workers are NOT Jedi.

There will not be some over-arching conspiracy to bring down the galactic republic. No Israel is acting alone and it is the bully and aggressor here. They can't expect Hamas to stop Rocket attacks, ever.

This blockade will not yield. Israel can't win, and it will eventually have to listen to international Condemnation.


The real challenge is getting people to listen and act without giving up. This situation is likely to be ignored soon. As was the 2004 Tsunami, as is Iraq and Afghanistan, as is the world Drug trade and so has the Haitian Earthquake.

All it will hopefully take is enough people to keep acting, to keep doing good things, for evil to not prevail.

In the grander scheme of things Governments, beliefs, policies and so on mean nothing when people are malnourished, drinking dirty water and oppressed by both a foreign country and their elected Terrorist affiliated government.











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All Hale our new Tory-lite overlords... and other rant's.

Well okay, not MY overlords, but you get the idea.


I couldn't avoid the election. I've been at home, well i've been at home in some sense or another since last May. But for the most part i've been stuck with election coverage for 2 months or so. So i almost have been living and breathing it. For the most part on my own. So despite not wanting to, it's a big wealth of knowledge that i have amassed recently that i can't avoid.

I'm actually an election nerd! DEAR GOD HELP ME!

This is NOT a good thing!

I understood the numbers. I knew most of the political views, i even knew key regions and a few key seats.

I recognised every Political commentator. I knew most of the important Mp's on all side's. Well in England anyway.... Since that's what this election really was about.

Think i'm kidding? It was! It's a fucking joke to say it's a United Kingdom election. Most of this is about Britain.

And now with the Con-Lib Dem government, most of the seat's in power, are IN England.

I do pitty the rest of the dominions for having to suffer that insult. But now that both MP's, Cabinet members and Journo's are laughing with each other in relief that a Government has been formed, it must all be over now right?

I can get back to watching day time tv. I can get rid of this mass of boring complicated information in my head? Nope not really, not so fast. Just because there's a government it doesn't stop the fact that i now know all this shit, and can form an opinion! Wo is me!

I long for the day's i could recite the Order and significance of which System Lords were killed off on Stargate SG-1. That's the kind of politics i can back. But no, i now know a lot about Britain. My neighbouring country.

A country, by birth i'm not really supposed to like if some people are to be believed.

But i can't help it. Anglo-Celtic(UK) Culture far outweigh's the influence of Hibernian(Irish) culture on me.

It's the only tv i watch. I rarely catch whats going on at home. And this distresses me slightly.

I laugh at Joe Duffy, IT'S A DISGRACE JOE!, is pretty much all i seem to think of Irish media. We bitch and complain, but we do nothing about it.

I can't feel much democratic fervour for this little island. It's dark, it's wet, it's expensive, we're all grumpy, and everything just HAS to be complained about.

What i see in Britain is a far larger country, and i care more about the state of it's existence on many levels than i do about my HOME.

When i heard the news of protesters storming the gate's of the Daíl last night i was a bit bemused. So many other protests had gone without incident. We as a people bitch and moan, but we don't really act anymore.

After all, our land owners, and leaders are now our own. How can we rebel against our "own" people? Madness.

I see a general failure of the Irish people to hold The Irish in contempt. To see ourselves of capable of any wrong doing. This country is FAR from perfect. If anything i can't seem to think of any example of the Irish State doing anything GOOD for itself or for the people.

Okay so things weren't hunky dory, when we were British subjects, but they're no better now that we're Irish.

I see myself as not being Republican, or Nationalist, but i do feel that we have a warped sense of what it is to be Irish. The time's have changed. Should we not hold the bad people among us as bad people?

Should we not call for change by democratic and social means?

If Joe Duffy's audience can somehow eradicate an entire class of drugs and type of store with their opinion, it begs the question how we can't legislate for other things here?

Why is Alcoholism so bad? Why is obesity a growing problem? Why are certain price's so high? Why are clampers such pricks? How is the government surviving scandal after scandal without an election?

Want to know why the Anti-Head shop law passed so easily? Because no tax was collected on the activities, and no corporations were involved.

An un-regulated and dangerous enterprise involving small independent stores, is a threat to The State's ability to gather taxes, to the Legal addictions such as Smoking and Alcohol, to the Health and Science industries who are slower than Backyard Chemists in creating and understanding such Drugs, and even a threat to established hierarchies of money surrounding well established Illegal Drug trade.

MONEY.

Citizens looking to escape the doom and gloom of life, were seeking "High's" to get away from it all. These unproven and so called Legal high's are VERY DANGEROUS. But they are cheap, they are damn effective and there is a demand for them. But the state can't stop them, they can't tax them. The Health Service's and experts can't understand them fast enough to cope with unknown side effects. And the criminals in all level's of society can't compete.

I doubt all of the Head Shop Arson attacks were concerned Joe Duffy listeners.

Considering how Deep Cocaine and Heroin is in Irish society i doubt it's suppliers liked the idea of these drugs.

Drinks and Cigerrete's companies are suffering as well. They are a vice of many. A knew one was a threat to Tradition, and a threat to sanctioned business.

Enterprise and Industry is meant to be protected in A free democracy. But this Enterprise just had to go....

It got people killed.

Oh wait, cars, alcohol, food, cigarette, life in general, they do that?

They were unregulated and unchecked.

So are Cocaine and Heroin, but somehow no wide sweeping law tries to stop these threats?



This Country is awash with Hypocrisy and complaint, and yet there is little voice for reason or an answer to what change we really need.


How we're going to survive is a bleak and scary mystery in my eyes.

If i could, i'd vote Lib-Dem.

Now i will not profess to knowing anything, about politics. Half the time i can't even spell the word.


But i agree with a lot the things that the Liberal Democrat's in the Britain talk about. And following tonights debate on Itv 1 i feel that Nick Clegg (Leader of the Lib-Dem's) came out on top.


I didn't see all of the debate, i saw about 50 minutes out of 90, but i agreed with a lot of his points.

There appears to be a lot of the same old crap sprouting from the two main political parties in mainland Britain. 2 parties that have been in power for large blocks of time for the past 25 years or more and for the most part dominate the British political landscape and it's policies, laws, legislature and foreign policy.



In the 1980s, the "old" Conservative's reigned supreme under the Thatcher-ite era. An era often portayed in the media, and my imagination, as being full of greed, right wing idea's and questionable action's (Sinking of the Belgrano in the Falklands war?). But in bed with Reagan (the American president at the time), and bad move's on behind the falling Iron curtain the cold war ended. And to some extent the west's capitalist's way's seemed to be winning.

Under John Major and America Under Bush, Russia slowly fell apart and the 1st Iraq war happened.

By 1997 Tony Blair, a young fresh faced "New Labour" PM came in. Offering a change, as most politicians do. What exactly i can't remember. It was the era of Brit-pop and so on, time's were good.

Sure Dianna Died, but there was a peace process in Northern Ireland and Britain had a shinny new future.

Fast forward to the next century and in their grumpy way the Brits weren't too happy with the waste and ridiculous state of their nation but they kept going. The Millennium Dome sat idle for years, a folly of false promises of large scale change. The real change in London was the Emergence of The financial Center's around the Bank of London and at Canary Wharf/ Isle of Dogs. (Former docklands left desolate thanks to Containerisation and the breaking of selfish unions under Thatcher)

Following 9/11 Tony Blair reinforced a special friendship with the American's, now under the Disputed and widely lampooned George W. Bush. Britain Followed America into Iraq in 2003, seeking rumoured Weapon's of Mass Destruction. British troops died in Basra and trained the local Authorities while the American's played Cowboys and Haji's elsewhere. In 2005 as plan's slowly formed for eventual British withdrawal from Iraq, they joined the fight in Afghanistan. (Swiftly invaded in 2001 to oust the Fundamentalist government that housed suspected terrorist leaders.)


Eventually after about 10 years Tony Blair stepped down, shortly into his 3rd Consecutive term, letting Gordon Brown, former Chancellor of the Exchequer (guy looking after the money and regulation and taxes etc).

Brown briefly had his honneymoon period then became a media pariah. Anger has followed him in the media  for at least 3 to 4 years. He didn't call an election a few years ago after the poll's dipped out of his favour, so he waited till the 5 year term was up, to see if he could be elected properly.

Several attempted "coups" and so on followed him in recent years. Even accusations of being a bully. And as the Finacial Crisis, the credit crunch, thar be hard time's, that recent hic-up in your pockets, set in he wasn't directly to blame. It wasn't in his hands any more.



Now the election. After YEARS, and probably far longer than i have meekly referenced. The British public have been guided and influenced by the same political ideologies. "Thatcher-ism" and "Blair-ite" thinking have led Bratain to where it is now. Of course this is both a good, bad, and neutral thing. But in many aspects the landscape of British polotics and representation need's changing.


With an unpopular war, a National Health Service, ageing Population, Increasing Unemployment, Economic Downturn/Depression/Recession (depending on the economist's you read, and the media fear-mongering you believe), MP's Expense's Scandal's, Public disillusionment with politics etc etc.


The Lib-Dem's are offering something Truely different for a change. But they can't do it alone. Unfortunatly despite wonderful Liberal idea's that i agree with, such as scrapping Britain's Nuclear weapons, cutting expense's and "waste" (without calling it waste) and so on and so forth. The Lib-Dem's sing a different tune, play on things from a different angle and are given less of a spotlight.

They have less of a spotlight because the British Electoral landscape is frankly so fucked up i have yet to even understand it. Apparently a large number of constituencies are so "certain" that they almost never change hands between parties. Only so called "marginal" area's are where political battle's of policies and personalities actually happen. And these can be few and far between.

What's worse is their form of Voting. I haven't the foggiest how it works, but it's not the same as here in Ireland where we effectively give everyone a vote and run through their successive round's of vote's until they have enough to be elected.

In Britain however, the person with the most, goes through, first, and that's about it. This pretty much shuts out big race's in lots of area's making any competition unappealing and pointless.

This also means that a party like the Lib-Dem's is far smaller than it's bigger rival's. With less chance's to branch out into other constituencies, their policies and ideal's rarely spread to all area's or aspects of the vast populous of mainland Britain, and for the most part England.

What makes this all more complicated is that Wale's, Scotland and Northern Ireland also elect some people into the "British" Parliament in Westminster.

Considering these partial Nations also have their own Assemblies and Parliaments, in various complicated form's. Northern Ireland's is currently sort of not actually sitting in a full capacity, but it still run's the place. The Scottish one run's a lot Scotland's affairs, and it's Westminster Representative's, Including Gordon Brown, apparently do something? Same with Wale's, i think? Oh and of Course, The Isle of Man, Isle of White, Channel Islands and other United Kingdom territories in Western Europe.

The Lib-Dem's, are on the scale of things Small. But they may be the key to deciding the shape of the Government formed in this coming election. And most likely stand to gain the most historically from this. If it's a very close race another election could be coming very soon. And slowly and surely i at least hope they gain more influence.

I may not have listed the policies, i may not even know them. But i feel that the Lib-Dem's are sort of better for Britain and wider world, than more Labour or even the "new" Conservatives.

I'd vote for them, if i could, and if they were even running a candidate in any hypothetical constituency i might live in....





Also, i apologise for this polico-centric rant. With few facts.