Sunday 11 April 2010

Media sensorship will kill off good ideas.

Whilst complaints about the electoral system being unfair may be commonly associated to the Liberal Democrats and their age old plans for more proportional representation, the effects of our voting system don't just go as far as who ends up sitting in parliament. The news networks are pretty much required to give parties coverage according to their seats in parliament, instead of their actual support. I'm not suggesting this is the correct alternative, but the rules need changing because minorities are squeezed out of any significant representation in the "first past the post system" they are also prevented from getting a look in on TV. Since it is the media that shape people's opinions, with broadcasts such as the news and the upcoming debates between the leaders of the three biggest parties, the three party system is likely to remain.

Sadly it would seem that many take the term "minority" to mean bad. Such rash dismissals of anything other than the status quo are shameful malapropisms, but these are not the fault of the average couch potato- they have instead routinely and deliberately been forced upon the common individual by the media with the overuse of language such as "extreme" in a subtle to and orderly strategy to frighten the viewers into conforming with the presenters own views. The media routinely neglect variety in the desire to dumb down their content and foster their much loved simplifications of the world we live in.

Since there is little or no coverage of parties such as The Greens, UKIP, Respect, and The BNP, the general public is left in the dark as to their policies, leaving their chances of picking up support less likely. It also means that people fail to understand these parties. Most would agree that the BNP are an extreme right wing party with some racist or discriminatory policies, but since they are scarcely exposed on the TV many clueless voters looking to protest will stick their cross in a box such as this.

On the other hand, more moderate smaller parties such as The UK Independence Party, The Green Party, and Respect (who have one MP) are not given the coverage they deserve. In the european parliamentary elections in May 2009, UKIP received the second largest number of votes, and the Greens and BNP both polled highly- 10% and 8% respectively, both gaining 2 MEPs. This was largely thought to be because people realized that their vote would count, even if it were for a party that would be traditionally withheld from representation through unfair vote counting systems (like the one we have for the Westminster parliament).

When taken on issues alone, the powers that be are mainly not first place. In fact data from polling websites shows that the Green Party is by far the most popular on policies alone. A website which takes visitors through a series of categories (the economy, the NHS, crime, immigration, the environment, and so on) and presents them with a set of six policies (without revealing party names), shows that people do not suppor the old political norms when it comes to policies on anything like the level they are represented in parliament. When you look at the data we have on of the most disgusting perversions of democracy you can get. With close to 100,000 responses, this website (voteforpolicies.com) found that over 28% people would be best matched to supporting the Green Party, with the Conservatives and Labour party far behind on around 17%.

It's not as though there as been a sea change in public opinion though. It's just that our political system is designed to maintain the status quo and censor alternative ideas. The Labour Party and Conservative party normally hold over 80% of seats in parliament, but now we can see that only 33% of those who vote actually suppor there policies over the over parties. What's more, only half of the electorate vote, and even less are allowed to vote- for example, there no votes at sixteen even though you can marry e.t.c. What we are left with is a parliament where 80% of the elected members have the ideas of just 10% of the people. They might as well rigg the ballot.

Conservatives plan "National Citzens Service"

Finally the Conservative party have explained how they will pay for keeping up a high standard of public services whilst cutting the budget! The solution is a cunning and exploitative scheme to force young people to ancillary/low paid jobs for no pay at all- all under the nice sounding "voluntary" banner.

The plan is essential to put all 16 year olds on a 2 month summer camp, the kind of thing that brings up images of the Nazi youth in my mind; and send them off to work for things like looking after old people.

This plan is both flawed and evil. If 16 year olds were forced to work (which is of course slavery), probably because the old Tories think that all young people are yobs who need a bit of social enlightenment then; firstly these people couldn't be working in an alternative (paid) job of there choice; secondly they could be doing something more enlightening the looking after old people- like socialising with each other instead of watching TV / playing computer games / listening to music all day; and lastly (allthough there is more to be said) the people being cared for by these slaves would be saving money and getting richer whilst they should be paying for their care.

We have got to a point in this society where people expect something for nothing. Young people are saddled with rising debt / costs, as they are increasingly heavily marketed too, forcing each individual to buy more and more things to keep up there image and compete with there peers. On the other hand, as you move higher up the age groups people typically become richer, and often have savings to draw upon. Why then should we force impoverished young people to work for them without pay?

Some people will read this and react in anger, claiming that young people are loaded and that they always spend lavishly. This is a shocking misconseption. In reality the average 16 year old has a £800 disposable each year- which is around 35 times less than the typical working adult. Admittedly they may not have to account for utility bills or mortgage payment (although in many cases they will only inherit these debts when there parents die).

It's time we ended the inequality gap by fairer policies on government investment and taxation. The tories need to wake up and stop treating youngsters like puppets just becuase they can't vote to stop it.