Eastleigh By Election

It is time for me to wade in, once again, to the political arena and clear the muddy waters  of doubt so that you may all see the wood from the trees. I think that is a bit of a mixed metaphor. Rather than dig myself deeper in the mire by trying to make another I will just continue with the main thrust of my diatribe.

On Thursday an election was held in the old railway town of Eastleigh to select an MP at Westminster. The Liberal Democrat candidate held the seat for the party albeit with a reduced majority from the 2010 General election. 

The seat seems to be something of a mixed blessing for successful candidates. A previous incumbent died in the post. He was found at his Parliamentary address in ladies underwear having partaken of an illegal drug that was used to increase the sensation of orgasm. The last candidate had to resign once it came to light that he had asked/made his wife accept speeding fines illegally on his behalf (still an ongoing case).

The result was something of a surprise. Halfway through a parliament and the party in power tends to lose all by elections as people are most dissatisfied with their performance. Only to regain the seat in the next general election, once people really have to consider who they want to run the country. 

The second surprise of the day was that the UKIP candidate knocked the much fancied Conservative version into a solid third place with the Labour party bringing up the rear. Well, to be honest Labour does not do well in the south of the UK unless in an inner city area. 

I was torn between the good people of Eastleigh giving those rotten Tories an electoral "bloody nose" and the fact that I dislike the premise of the UKIP party. I have written a short and disjointed blog on the topic of UKIP. 

Let me just re iterate it. They are a one issue party which has some rather iffy, if not actually down right deluded ideas, about how the UK is in actual fact still "Great" Britain and we still rule  the waves etc and just who do these Johnny foreigners think they are anyway. They would like to cast us adrift from the EU because they don't like it. They are not to be in any way confused with the right wing eejits inhabiting groups like the BNP. Their agenda is merely to cut the political strings with Europe. They make great pains to support ethnicity and diversity. But they are deluded.

However they are making noise on immigration and this is a subject that troubles me. I am ambivalent to the immigration question at best. The worry for me is why do other people care about stopping it so passionately? I can't help feeling that there is this inherent racist underbelly of the nation, a xenophobic undercurrent that is not based on any kind of reality except for pure prejudice. My only contact with immigrants is through my work (where we have had doctors from India and Pakistan for years) and that I have been served take away food in two places in the UK by people with rather charming eastern European accents

In the wake of the Eastleigh defeat most of the parties have (except UKIP who reckon they are on the right track) have made noises about engaging with the population. This is an issue where I would rather they took a righteous stance and explained to the nation the error of their ways than going for popularity. As Tony Benn once described it is better to be a sign post politician, pointing the way, than be a weather vane flip flapping in the currents and eddies of popular opinion.

A senior Conservative politician accused the party of being out of touch (No shit Sherlock)! I have complained before that today's politicians are too young and have never seen anything of real life because they have followed the political career ever since university. When I was young I used to complain they were too old and senile so we need a middle path

But finally we come to the economy. Since the UK lost the AAA rating the government so jealously guarded it has been mooted again about how to try and lose our budgetary borrowing deficit. 

The call is still for austerity. So why has the UK's got bigger? The conservatives promised to cure it in the life of one parliament (5 years), obviously that is not going to happen. For the first 2 and a half years the deficit has gone in the wrong direction.

I will lay down my stance again for those of you not aware. Whilst I am forced to admit that there needs to be some amount of fiscal control by the government I will also say that it is not enough to just follow austerity. 

The reasoning is that being an austere nation just leads to stagnation and deflation. It  does little by itself to clear government debt. This is because austerity is by nature deflationary. As the government shrinks it's spending so does the country's GDP. Therefore less tax comes in and the government claims less tax so it needs to borrow more. This is what has happened to the UK. By not trying to stimulate growth the economy has flat lined for the last 3 years. This is no ordinary depression it is not like an eighties recession where the government held it's breath  for a few months and the economy took care of itself and we were into growth. 

This time round we are on  rock bottom and with out stimulus the economy will not grow. And it is growth that will help lead us out of this pickle. More growth = more tax = less deficit. You have to speculate to accumulate.

The best way forward is to invest in our infra structure so that business and the nation can get on quicker. By infra structure I mean roads, rail, 4G etc. Business opportunities will benefit from better mobile Internet for a start. People work and pay tax when they are building roads and railways, schools and hospitals.

Well that is my piece for now but rest assured, when those lily livered politicians bungle again  I will rant again