LABOUR, LIBERALS AND UKIP IN TURMOIL.

Following the surprise election results of last week, the losers have been tearing themselves apart while the winners, the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists, are simply rising above it all. While Cameron and Sturgeon are appearing in statesmanlike mode, Miliband and Clegg have gone and Farage has gone and returned in the space of a few hours; Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP are all in turmoil.

The departure of Miliband was inevitable after his party failed so miserably. A number of his former colleagues and supporters have come out of hiding and clearly laid the blame for their poor showing fairly and squarely on his shoulders; even his brother has had a dig and left the question of his return to British politics very much open. While he stays in his well paid job in New York, the Labour party is desperately looking for a replacement for young Ed, and has a pretty poor bunch to choose from. So far, the declared runners, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Mary Creagh, hardly inspire excitement. Very curiously, a much stronger runner, Chukka Umunna, announced his candidacy, was declared the bookies' favourite and then withdrew from the race a couple of days later. That Umunna was seen as the front runner must be a comment on the paucity of available talent and one can only wonder what the outcome of the leadership election will now be. For what it's worth, I'd be inclined to look to an older and more experienced hand, such as Alan Johnson, to take the reins for an interim period while one or 2 younger candidates are developed for the future, unless, of course, Miliband major can be enticed back from the USA.

While Labour simply has a paucity of talent and experience, the Liberal Democrats have almost no one left from whom to choose a new leader. The obvious candidate must be Tim Farron but he's not exactly set the world on fire in the past. However, he has only 7 possible opponents, the party having been all but wiped out at Wesminster, and none of them is any sort of 'Big Beast'. Whoever gets the job, it's likely to be a miserable experience for years to come.

While Labour and the Liberal Democrats at least know what the position is, UKIP have made a pigs' breakfast of the whole leadership issue. Having said that he'd resign if he failed to win a seat at Westminster, Nigel Farage did just that, only to have his resignation rejected by the party's national executive; consequently, he's remained as leader but has been subjected to a barrage of criticism and comment from certain party members and supporters. It does seem strange that he didn't argue his corner with the executive and at least push for an election to test the feelings of his party; that the executive, which is only partly elected itself, has denied the membership the opportunity to confirm, or otherwise, it's support for Farage seems wrong. Regardless, UKIP is now in a state of civil war which is doing it no good at all.

Somehow, Natalie Bennett, the hopeless leader of the Green Party, has avoided being sacked and seems likely to remain on our screens for a while yet, as does Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru. Whether they or Farage will be around at the next General Election in 2020, is for the future to decide, but we do know that Cameron has said he won't be and we know that Labour and the Liberals will both have new leaders; the only survivor from this time around may well be Nicola Sturgeon - there's a thought.

ELECTION OUTCOME UNFAIR ?

After one of the most astonishing General Elections in memory, the Conservatives have won an absolute majority and can run the country their way, that is, if the Scots don't mind.

The admittedly unwritten British Constitution relies on the notion that the government of the United Kingdom sits at Westminster; any party with an absolute majority, or able to build a workable coalition, makes the rules. Unfortunately, the Scottish Nationalists don't understand this and, despite having their own government in Edinburgh and very significant devolved powers, they seem to believe that they should also take a leading role in the running of the Westminster parliament, including voting on matters which only affect England and Wales. The rhetoric of the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond also makes clear that they intend to create as much disruption as possible in order to encourage agreement to another independence referendum and, they expect, actual independence for Scotland, sooner rather than later. God help the people.

How the Scottish National Party attained their position of apparent influence is, of course, a consequence of the 'first passed the post' voting system. Having gained only 4.7% of the total votes, they've won 56 seats, or 8.6% of the total. Some consider this to be 'unfair', particularly those whose number of seats won was less than their percentage of the total vote, such as the Liberal Democrats, UKIP and the Greens. Whether or not this is really unfair clearly depends on the viewpoint of the observer and also on what definition one applies to the very vague word 'unfair'. A child will often claim that being refused something they want is 'unfair', while a sports fan may argue that player A has some sort of 'unfair' advantage over player B. In politics, the losers frequently consider it 'unfair' that they didn't win, poor darlings.

The simple facts are that we have the system we have and it's unlikely to be changed in the near future. Neither of the 2 main parties, currently the Conservatives and Labour, are very enthusiastic about changing to proportional representation, the varieties of which are many and confusing, as such systems will tend to work against them. What are existing system does usually produce is majority government and a degree of certainty about the 'direction of travel' for the nation, things which most people, and businesses, prefer over the wishy-washy approach of most coalitions. Long may it continue.

ELECTION HORRORS AHEAD.

Thank God the election will soon be here though what it will bring us is another matter.

For weeks now we've been subjected to the lies, prevarication and disingenuous drivel of a vast horde of political figures, and others, all telling us what they think we want to hear and none of them telling us the truth. Questions put by interviewers have been ignored, avoided or answered in such a way that an impression is given without actually making any hard and fast commitments; even Miliband's recent statements about the SNP and possible deals with them still leave more than enough 'wriggle room' for Labour to do whatever they like in the event of a hung Parliament.

The opinion polls have remained stubbornly stuck, with no party seemingly making any significant progress in convincing the people that they are the ones to vote for. We have the likelihood, at the moment, of Labour probably having most seats and entering into an effective agreement, formal or not, with the SNP, a party which is desperate for the UK to be broken up. The SNP, for their part, have made it very clear that they will not support any Conservative led administration under any circumstances, confirming their position as a party of the extreme left. Likewise, Plaid Cymru have made a similar statement, though both the Liberal Democrats and UKIP have left open the question of whom they might be prepared to support.

In the end, what we are left with is the real prospect of a minority Labour government propped up by a mish-mash of extreme left wing parties including the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. With the mantra of all 4 relying hugely on 'an end to austerity' we will find ourselves plunged into another financial abyss, with government borrowing rising again to unsustainable levels. Of course, there will also be vast increases in taxation, especially for anyone who has anything; I can see further assaults on the so-called 'well off', more raids on pension funds, huge increases in council tax and so on. Eventually, the bulk of the population will be much worse off.

What to do about it all. Sadly, voting for my preferred option, UKIP may well lead to my constituency electing a typically oily Liberal Democrat, though the best candidate I've seen by far is actually the Labour chap. Nationally, votes for UKIP may well help Labour to pick up Tory seats and make the horror of a Labour-SNP axis a reality. I doubt that I will make a final decision until election day.

MILIBAND + STURGEON IS TERRIFYING.

So 'Red Ed' Miliband won last night's debate between himself, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood, Natalie Bennett and Nigel Farage - Whoopee !

This wholly pointless exercise pitted Miliband against 2 left wing non-entities in Wood and Bennett, a woman who wants to break up our country in Sturgeon, and a man whose party has policies which are diametrically opposed to all of the other participants in the debate. It's hardly surprising that Miliband 'won', though it seems to have been a bit of a narrow victory over Sturgeon, with Farage not that far behind.

The one thing that this debate made clear is that Sturgeon, Wood and Bennett are all to the far left of British politics; any future UK government that involved them in any way would be a government of the extreme left, and disastrous for the nation. Miliband has said that he will not sanction a coalition with these leftie loonies, but that's simply an election promise and will almost certainly be ditched if it suits him after May 7th. There is now a real danger that the United Kingdom will find itself in hock to the Scottish Nationalists, a party which is determined to separate Scotland from the rest of the country.

Having Miliband as Prime Minister would be bad enough; having him as PM but with Nicola Sturgeon, who won't even be a member of the Westminster parliament, gripping his balls very firmly, would be terrifying. Rather shockingly, this suggests that the only way to save our country from disaster is probably to repeat the coalition of the last 5 years between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats; while Farage's UKIP may well end up 3rd in the polls, they're unlikely to get more than 3 or 4 seats at most and, so, are very unlikely to be relevant when it comes to forming a coalition.

Conservative + Liberal Democrats has to be a better option than Labour + SNP + PC + Greens.

ELECTION BLUES - PROMISES, LIES AND DECEIT

With the General Election campaign now in full swing, we are getting all the usual promises, lies and deceit from all of the main parties.

Labour, the party which was largely responsible, in this country, for the banking deregulation which led to the financial disaster of 2008, now says that it will manage the economy far better than those nasty Tories and will create a 'fairer society'. Of course, what they really mean is that they'll introduce even more laws to force people to do things their way, will dramatically increase taxes and reduce benefits for anyone who actually still has anything, and will borrow to the hilt. The result would be an even bigger mess than they created before and , no doubt, would be worsened still further by an almost certain pact of some type with the ultra left wing Scottish and Welsh nationalists, plus the egregious Greens.

The Liberals, a party which is likely to lose a good many of its current 60 or so seats, has, as usual, tried to be 'all things to all men' while also being simply another left of centre shambles. In my own constituency, the hopeful Liberal is standing on a platform of bringing greatly enhanced NHS services to the area, something which he knows full-well can never happen but of which potential voters have no understanding; it is a straightforward deception designed to con people into voting in a particular way. This is actually what the Liberals tend to do everywhere and yet they still seem to get away with it.

As for the Conservatives, their campaign seems to be all about 'steady as she goes' while promising to pump yet more money into the failed NHS. Thus far, they have made no real progress in the campaign and have, instead, slipped on one or two banana skins. Their problem is that their leader is an uninspiring rich boy, as are so many of their other leading lights, and they seem to be as out of touch with reality as it's possible to be. They make wild promises about the economy, the NHS, education, immigration and so on, as of course do all of the other parties, but they have no coherent strategy. They claim to be a right of centre party but are, in fact, wallowing around in the centre trying to sound tough while doing as little as possible.

For someone whose first General Election experience was in 1974, this is all too familiar and depressing. Only during the reign of Margaret Thatcher did we have a government which ever did more than pay lip service to its principals and, even then, it was not all plain sailing. Almost every government over the years has failed while claiming huge success; the population are beset with more and more ludicrous laws, less justice and vast increases in taxation to feed the ever hungry State. Our education system is shot to pieces, our NHS so long passed its 'sell by' date that it belongs in a museum. Immigration is completely out of control and our society is more divided than ever before in our history; our industrial base has all but been destroyed and vast numbers of people rely on the State for hand outs of ever increasing range and complexity.

This is the legacy of decades of government by people whose principal interest is themselves. Our politicians rarely have any interest in anything but getting elected and climbing the greasy pole; election promises have no meaning to them and voters are an irrelevance except at election time, when the same old promises, deceits and lies are trotted out, and most of the population dutifully goes out and votes the way they did last time and the time before that and the way that their parents did. Politicians know this and know that only a small number of seats usually change hands at an election. Therefore, they know that, whatever they say or do, their jobs are safe.

It's time to shake them up a bit by voting for one of the smaller parties. I say Vote UKIP, the only one of the smaller parties which doesn't want to bankrupt us or break up the Union, but does want to save us from the European nightmare. They may not be 'whiter than white' on everything but they are the only real alternative to what's gone before.

STILL OPEN ALL HOURS NEEDS TO CLOSE.

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant television series called "Open All Hours". It starred the great Ronnie Barker, ably supported by David Jason and numerous other fine performers.

Sadly, Ronnie Barker is no longer with us but the BBC, in its infinite wisdom and using licence payers' hard earned money. has decided to resurrect the programme under the title "Still Open All Hours". David Jason is still present, taking the place of Arkwright, the shopkeeper previously played by Barker, but who has now died. Jason's character, Granville, is supported by his son, Leroy, and a mixed bag of others, some of whom were in the originals and some of whom are newcomers. Mostly, the oldies now seem too old and largely irrelevant while the newcomers simply appear to be have little to offer.

The 2 programmes to date, a special broadcast at Christmas 2013 and the first of a new series shown on Boxing Day, have been pretty awful. Shockingly poor scripts, rehashed story-lines, and a lot of very uncomfortable looking actors. This is a truly disappointing offering, populated by disjointed, episodic, telegraphed and mostly puerile 'jokes'; the Boxing Day programme contained at least 2 throwbacks to the original series, with Granville up a ladder and him wearing a money belt - neither being remotely funny nor anything as well scripted or acted as the Ronnie Barker originals.

The original was an example of great television comedy, brilliantly written and performed. This revisiting of an old favourite simply doesn't work on any level and why David Jason agreed to do it has to be one of the mysteries of the age, along with why the BBC has paid good money for it. I certainly won't be wasting any more of my time watching it.

ARSE-HOLES

Many years ago, I read a book called "Farnham's Freehold'. It was a science fiction work by one of the great, though unknown of outside of SF circles, SF authors Robert Heinlein.

In this book, the author's 'heroes' suffer a variety of adventures including one in which they visit a world where the pinnacle of research is achieved by reading, digesting and analysing the works of others; the 'researcher' then decides which of the perused works, or which combination of their conclusions, gives the most logical and sensible answers to the problem being investigated. One fundamental factor is that the 'researcher' never gets their own hands dirty; they simply review the work of others.

That this is a horribly flawed approach to research is obvious to most. Sadly, it is not obvious to many of today's generation, particularly those who profess an interest in family history research. For many of this benighted generation 'research' means little more than trawling the internet, finding anything that vaguely fits in with what they would like to believe, and then asking questions of any contacts they can make. The result is a mish-mash of so-called 'family trees' that are a mixture of truth, half-truth, possibility and pure fantasy. These people call themselves researchers but are, in fact, simple plagiarists and fools, looking for simple answers to complex problems. The idea of conducting genuine research is far beyond them.

I've recently had the misfortune to be contacted by one such 'researcher' who has sent a succession of illiterate and vague questions, having found my on-line family tree. The tree is free and available for anyone to view, but this 'researcher' needs me to explain it all, and my position in it, to him. He's never said 'please' or 'thank you' for the responses I've given him already and simply asks for 'more', Oliver Twist style but without the necessity.

While researching one's family background is a wonderful pastime and can be extremely rewarding, it has to be done with proper understanding and genuine effort. Simply picking names from the internet is not enough, it's not even research; it's a bit of nonsense.


What is wrong with so many people that they are unable to understand this, not just as it relates to family history but as it relates to real life ?