In this country, political conventions happen every year, not every four years (I lie, they have a BIG one annually and then the major parties usually have a Spring conference, too)
Well, over at What Do I Know?, Kathy F was complaining some many posts back about the lack of on topic blogging at the Liberal Democrat conference. Well, no surprise there, they're boring. And when LibDems aren't being boring, they're whining.
I'm not sure about the level Labour party conference blogging, but here's an interesting post about the Conservative Party Conference from Natalie Solent. She says that a lot of people are putting in their tuppence about how the Tory (Conservative) party needs to change, but a lot of these people aren't Tory voters.
Well, I'm not a Tory voter, but that's because I'm not allowed to vote in this country. Here's my dirty little secret: Although I vote Democrat, am a member of the Democrats, I would vote Tory if I could. Guess that shows you how far right American politics are these days- if I'm a quasi-lefty in Tennessee and I show up on the right hand of the political spectrum in this country. ('Course it could show how left leaning UK politics are, but I prefer not to cast the argument that way).
I really can't watch much of the Tory conference being away and all, but it's a hot one. That's because the current leader Michael Howard is resigning later on this year and a whole host of folks are scrambling for his position. I don't really see any Maggie Thatchers or Winston Churchills or even Tony Blairs among them. (Though the young David Cameron fancies himself a bit Blair like).
There's another David going for the leadership position, too. That's David Davis. I think I favor him, just because he grew up in the area where I now live. (Sorry, I haven't really done my research, so there's really no other reason). 'Course he did say the area was a bit of a pit...that can't help the house prices.
The points a bit moot though, I guess, since I can't vote in UK elections. I can however, pressure the Vol-in-Law. I did pressure him in this most recent UK general election, but unfortunately he voted for someone else.
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I would vote for David Cameron if I could vote for the Conservative leader, which I can't since hardly anyone can. Only the MPs, who get to narrow the choice to two, and then the party faithful.
Of course, I would never vote Tory in an election even if I could vote here because I really really like Charles Kennedy. That would be in conflict with the major crush I have on Gordon Brown, though, so it's a good thing I can't vote.
Did you know you can vote here after 5 years?
>>I can however, pressure the Vol-in-Law. I did pressure him in this most recent UK general election, but unfortunately he voted for someone else.<<
I wasn't too impressed by the Conservative candidate in Tooting, and I didn't like the nasty tone of the Conservative election campaign, such as the big "It's Not Racist To Put Limits on Immigration" posters in an area where much of the population are first generation Tamil immigrants. I agree with the statement per se but I didn't think it should be campaigned on like that. Plus they sacked a candidate who advocated tax cuts (!). So I voted for a local independent, a whistleblower who had revealed corruption at St Georges, our local NHS hospital. I think he got around 120 votes, *sigh*. The Vol & me come out as Centrist on the online "what's your politics?" polls, which puts us well on the right in the UK, well on the left in the USA. I occasionally see something I disagree with in the right-wing press here, but it's usually been written by an American journalist (eg Mark Steyn blaming the people of New Orleans for the Katrina disaster) or by an archaeo-Conservative Catholic commentator in the Telegraph saying that women should be barefoot & pregnant in the kitchen. I hate Political Correctness, which I saw aptly described as a form of cultural Marxism. OTOH when the Vol first came here from Tennessee she thought PC was a good idea because she thought it mitigated potential nastiness in her home culture. Applying PC to an already very left-wing culture was a recipe for misery IMO. I'm strongly against discrimination on anything other than merit, so I'm strongly against Affirmative Action, or Positive Action as it's called in the UK (and is supposedly illegal here, but it's sneaked in). I believe in what Martin Luther King said about judging people on the content of their character, not the colour of their skin.
Is it true that it's legal to discriminate on the basis of age here? Someone said that's true until the EU rules kick in, but now there's a line on many applications stating that they won't take anyone over a certain age.
I thought the EU law banning age discrimination had already come in. But it's a recent thing, yup.
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