English Democrats - not so democratic?

Having read the policies of the English Democrats on their website - it took a long time, reading all four of them, of a few sentences each - I wrote the following email to them, and wonder if I will get a response? Rest assured any response will be posted here!!




Hello there,

Not sure if I will get an answer, but I'm hopeful that your "no nonsense" approach to politics will be happy to give me one.

Bearing in mind that an "English" person could not exist with a history of all sorts of immigration, such as conquerors, invasions and raiding parties from other countries, please can you tell me how you'd define "English" (if it's being born in England, would I be OK as I'm white, but an Asian person would be considered foreign, although he/she was born here?)

Also, you say you'd ban multiculturalism - is this the end of food, shops, clothes and TV programs that are not produced in England?

Finally, you refer to laws which promote "political correctness". Whilst I argue that political correctness only exists if you subscribe to it (I do not), please can you tell me which legislation precisely you are referring to?

Many thanks,
Intrigued citizen of England,
Lee

Vote for....who?

David Cameron time and again has shown he has no substance, and a Tory vote will take us backwards (if you don't believe that in political terms, think what the word "Conservative" actually means!) and is not the sensible choice if you want a protest vote (protest votes are pointless anyway, votes should be for the party people WANT, not just to oust someone else).

The Tories are merely going for populist votes - they claim to want to call a general election "for the people" - but it's only because they are ahead in the polls and thus believe they can win!!! (Just as Brown won't because he believes he'll lose).

For decades now, it's been tit-for-tat between Labour and Tory, with some good ideas from both, and some very POOR ones. After beginning to see things go wrong in the 1980's, Labour has continued with the poor ideas that Maggie started, and thus, why vote either of them back in??

That's why I'm voting Liberal Democrat, like any party, they can't get everything right, however, we can't go back to the 80's, and clearly we can't stay as we are, so how about getting a REAL change, with REAL new policies in, and allow Britain to work!

If you don't like LibDem, because you disagree with some of their policies (it's rare to agree with EVERYTHING a party states, if you join one, you can help change them), then I'd urge you to vote GREEN, as no other party holds any real hope of wanting Britain to move forward.

See you at the polling stations, voting LibDem!

Expenses - can you really complain?

So, you're angry with some of the MP's expenses (note SOME)?

Would be interested if you read 4 scenario's, then tell me if you're still able to complain that you're not just like the MP's in question (because, of course, they are just like most of us...):

Scenario 1:
Tax swindling - do you hire or use an accountant which 'cooks your books' personally or for your company? Ever paid too little tax, not been found out, and not reported it? Have you even ever WISHED you were under-taxed, because you knew that you wouldn't have reported it?

Scenario 2:
Shopping - You've made an honest mistake and realised something you have in your trolley is unpaid for, you run back to the counter to pay, surely? You have found ten pound at the checkout or on the floor of the shop, and you've gone straight to customer service to hand it in advising someone has lost it, yeah?

Scenario 3:
insurance - you've 'accidentally' spilt coffee down the back of the TV as it's old or not an HD flat screen, and it's high-time you needed a new one. You've 'accidentally' dropped your mobile in the bath, or down the stairs, because it's old, only has 4096 colours on the screen or doesn't play your favourite ringtone. You've had a bump in your car, thankfully the insurance pays and you don't really lose out - but that scratch you got when you backed up by a tree and misjudged the difference - you've added that on to the claim and they do it for essentially nothing because you have claimed that under the accident too. All of these are fine, yes? After all, the insurance companies make SO much money. Plus, it's just one (or two, or three) items over 5 years, so that's not going to increase my premium, along with everyone else's, is it?

Scenario 4:
Work trip - you have business class when you could have economy, or you have the extra cocktails to eat with your smoked salmon and truffle dinner, when you could have salad or a modest cooked meal. - You're entitled to it, so even though saving those pennies could make your job more secure, you've worked bloody hard for it and deserve to get what you can, whilst you can. You spent the maximum amount too, as surely they wouldn't offer me this much if they couldn't afford it, so that must mean they can do without it.


So if you are free of all of those - well done, get in parliament and fix them!!

If not, and there are plenty of other examples out there, then perhaps you've only spent/misused/fraudulently claimed the amount you did, because you have access to limited funds, so if you had access to more funds, i.e. as an MP, you'd not do the same?

Also, you can easily argue one-offs aren't that big an issue (and I'd support the argument if ONLY you were doing it i.e. one person making an insurance claim they shouldn't really has practically no effect, but of course, when 2 million people do a 'one off', multiplication worsens the effect). Question then becomes, if you became an MP, how much would you stop at? Is your £100 bogus claim on the insurance for a new mobile ok, but a new bathroom for your local MP at £10,000 worse? For this to work, there needs to be a set amount at which point it becomes morally wrong (£100 for your mobile? well, of course, £101 should be the limit!!).

Please comment, after thinking - note as well that the poster accepts no validity to idea that HE is an angel - he just wants you to consider how easy it easy it is to criticise ('Fun too!' claims Homer Simpson).