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The Southeast Asian Times
NEWS FOR NORTHERN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA |
By Raymond Groves London, May 1: Highlights of the present UK General election campaign are three televised debates between main political parties leaders seeking election on 6th May; (1) Gordon Brown; the present Prime Minister; successor of Tony Blair as leader of the Labour party; (2) David Cameron for the Conservative party – in the past, Margaret Thatcher’s party, and; (3) Nick Clegg of the Liberal Party. Perhaps trying to persuade the electorate, in the wake of the recent scandal over MPs fiddling expense accounts, to vote for a parliament with lost integrity, the media hype this election as “historic”. They are also subtly brainwashing us as to what we should regard as the most important issues. Since Tony Blair’s departure to more remunerative activities – his reward for his support to the USA/Zionist oil expedition to Iraq - the press have been demeaning Gordon Brown, an able economist, and this has continued through the campaign so far. At the same time, David Cameron; favourite of the right-wing press; can ‘do nothing wrong’. Until very recently, Nick Clegg; the Liberals’ new charismatic orator; barely received a mention. Influenced by published pre-election public opinion polls, the more ovine of the British electorate; or those with flat, millstone-ground noses; compliantly follows dictates of the press and subtle guidance from television sets - to David Cameron’s advantage. However, the first TV debate was a first-ever platform for Nick Clegg to introduce his policies to the public; and the press quickly recognised that the electorate was impressed by him; so overnight they suddenly pounced on him as a threat to David Cameron. For example, following that first debate, the Daily Mail devoted many square feet of print to denigrate Nick Clegg – in attempting to turn its imagined, gullible, public opinion back to ‘beloved Conservatism’. So far the Iraq war has hardly received a mention during debate - perhaps governed by some kind of collaborative moratorium. The only British MP with the courage and gall to stick his neck out on that issue has been press-castigated George Galloway. But the reason he was mentioned at all was from his colourful portrayal of Gordon Brown as (something like) “the other cheek of Tony Blair’s buttock” – so the press mainly used his comment to further stigmatize Galloway as ‘a coarse fellow to be otherwise ignored’. The media have banner-ed a “gaff” by Gordon Brown, when he was caught out privately describing a member of the public as a “bigoted woman”. Yet at the same time, an incident where a conservative candidate was dismissed for passing nasty remarks about homosexuals, received only cursory TV mention; and the press, uncertain about the wisdom of promoting their homophobia at this time, have carefully suppressed the event. The press complain that Nick Clegg in particular is not fully explaining his policies towards restoring the economy – yet in the first TV-debate, it was Nick Clegg who was most positive about that. My only objection to Nick Clegg so far is over his popular promise to double tax on cigarettes – so he can ensure that a universally stigmatized minority of nicotine addicts are single handedly volunteered into bailing Britain out of its economic doldrums – in addition to them already paying for the whole of the National Health Service because by some they are held entirely responsible for the phenomenon of death. Locally, I am floating between voting Labour or Liberal. We have an excellent constituency Labour MP; a man of integrity who does his job well, and who, through the illegality of the Iraq war, resigned his cabinet position. However, he unfortunately is of one "cheek" of the Galloway “buttock”. The only time in my life I did not vote Liberal was when I was deceived into voting for Tony Blair; a terrible mistake. The Liberals are disadvantaged by gerrymandering, constituency-boundary fixing. To establish MPs they require a disproportionately high vote. From that, the press often project that “a vote for the Liberals is a wasted vote” – but these days there is much support another rule - that “anything the press tells you exactly contradicts the truth”. I believe a "hung parliament" would enliven British politics, but of course the press do not. An 'enlivenment' they might prefer would be a House of Commons boxing contest between National Front leader Nick Griffin and George Galloway; leader of the Respect party – both experienced pugilists. I would place my bet on George Galloway – he surprised and ‘knocked out’ the USA senate. At least here, we do not yet have violent, red-shirted fascists, or right-wing reactionaries with private armies murdering journalists. The Southeast Asian Times |