What do I do when I get gloomy with the world?

When I started this blog I wanted it to be more than just policy because any one can write the right words and they can tell you what you want to hear, or more appropriately read, but I think choosing a person to be Prime Minister is about much more than that. It’s about knowing the person as best as you can, knowing what they will stand for, what their values are because knowing them lets you know how they’ll react in times of emergency.

I don’t know what each day holds, whether it’s the discovery of a lifesaving drug, a terrorist attack or a day of meetings, but what I do know is that voting for a candidate is more than just policy. I once asked a colleague how she decided to vote for a candidate and she told me that she looked at their policies and ideas, but then she would just look at the candidate themselves and ask herself whether she trusted them. I asked her what made her trust a candidate and she didn’t know, she just knew when she did and didn’t trust a candidate. My thoughts and opinions may change to meet the demands placed on government, but my core values won’t.

So when I get gloomy with the world I usually think about a number of things which help bring me round and back to my optimistic self. The first thing I usually think about is a time when I walked along a busy footpath and saw a man lying on the floor with a paramedic over the top of him trying to resuscitate him and bring him back to life. This to most people seems absurd that such misery would bring me around, but it’s not the fact that he died on a pavement that brings me around, it’s the fact that every day is a gift and we shouldn’t waste even one day because we never know when our own time will be up. The second thing that brings me round was something I witnessed when I was younger. Near my home we had a bridge and one day I was in the garden with my parents when my parents noticed a male stood on the wrong side of the bridge just down from our home. The male was clearly trying to commit suicide, albeit I didn’t know this at the time. Next to him were a number of Police officers and they spoke with him.

The Police officers were stood with him for a long time and eventually he came to the right side of the bridge. This again seems gloomy in itself, but the thing that brings me around from this is knowing that each and every one of us can make a real difference to people’s lives, we just need to embrace the fact that we can and do something about it.

The world can be a dark and pessimistic place, but we really can change it. Yes we will have good days and we will also have bad days, but as long as we keep having good days and making a positive difference then surely we should keep doing what we are doing.

On Twitter? Why not post me your questions : @ThePMCandidate

Email : realchangerealpeople@ymail.com

The Candidate

MP's Free to Vote

In most modern day political parties, there members of the party appointed by the party leader who are responsible for keeping Members of Parliament in check and ensuring that they vote with the party, rather than against the party. These people are called Party Whips.

Whilst I understand the need to present a unified image to constituents by showing them the party and their repesentatives are voting in a set way, I also believe Party Whips shepherding MP's isn't democracy at work.

True democracy will only work when an MP has the right to vote for whatever makes the greatest positive contribution to their constituency, not what their party wants. I believe the role of Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition is to set a national agenda and affect national issues. They should be responsible for overseeing the introduction of national legislation which they believe will improve our country.

Once they have set the agenda it should be up to locally represented officials such as councillors and MP's to get a feel for the proposed changes and how they would affect their constituency and vote accordingly.

The outcome of this style of voting is that changes which will have a positive effect will be made law and those which don't won't.

Whilst I object to party whips I believe there are circumstances in which the MP can differ from their constituency and where the opinion of the public may not be the best informed opinion based simply on the lack of information available to the public. An example of this would be taking the country to war. It is inconceivable that the public will have all of the information and intelligence available to make a decision on whether our country should go to war or not and in these circumstances I would look to present the information and intelligence to MP's and I would look for them to make a decision based on the best interests of our country as a whole rather than on the basis of each constituency. Certain functions of government rarely recieve unanimous support, and war is sometimes a necessary evil, but if left to constituents war would be one of the few evils that would recieve unanimous support for the case against it. History has shown us that if we fail to use a small amount of force where appropriate then it can lend itself to a much greater loss of life.

A prime example of this occured during 1936 when Hitlers forces invaded the Rhineland. At the time Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain adopted a policy of appeasement during which Britain and its allies objected verbally but offered no physical deterrent. If substanstive intervention had been pursued from this point it could have prevented one of the bloodiest wars ever witnessed by the world. Instead the policy of appeasement was followed resulting in World War Two and the deaths of between 50 million to 70 million people. In effect the population of the UK was wiped out.

On Twitter? Why not post me your questions : @ThePMCandidate

Email : realchangerealpeople@ymail.com

The Candidate