The British National Party

          A.K.A The BNP; The British Nationals

  The British National Party was founded in 1982 by John Tyndall in a merger between a number of far-right political organisations. Criticised by many as being racist and even fascist, membership of the BNP was restricted to 'indigenous British' people until 2010. 

  BNP economic policy is very protectionist, calling for British ownership of British industry and tariffs restricting foreign imports. It promotes autarky in terms of food production and is anti-globalist, calling for higher corporation tax for multinationals and spending cuts for foreign aid. It does not, however, espouse corporatism, a favoured policy of most nationalist parties.

  BNP social policy is highly conservative, indeed in many cases openly oppressive. Although no longer an officially white supremacist party, the BNP is still highly racist and opposes equal rights for non-white, foreign-born or non-Christian citizens. The party is strongly opposed to both abortion and homosexuality, calling the latter 'unnatural', and opposes both same-sex and interracial marriages. The party supports the institutions of the monarchy, the House of Lords, the nuclear family and traditional gender roles - i.e. women as housewives. The BNP sees Christianity as 'the benchmark for decent civilised society' and is opposed to Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and - most especially - Islam. Its anti-Semitism has grown less pronounced in recent years, and it now supports Israel's existence. BNP criminal justice policy is very harsh, advocating the return of the death penalty and the establishment of a penal colony on South Georgia. The party also wishes to withdraw from the ECHR and scrap the Human Rights Act. They support the criminalisation of drugs.

  The BNP wishes to restrict NHS use to British nationals only and to do the same to education. The party supports strict educational discipline, including the return of corporal punishment and Christian indoctrination in schools, and a centrally controlled National Curriculum. It also wishes to reform the social security system so as to prevent welfare dependency and restrict social housing to British citizens.

  BNP foreign policy is built around serving the UK's interests. They desire a federal union with the Republic of Ireland but to withdraw from the EU. The party instead advocates stronger ties with the Commonwealth in order to maintain the balance of trade payments. The BNP would cut all foreign aid. They want to reintroduce conscription, mandate the keeping of a gun and ammunition for all adult men and maintain the nuclear deterrent, though are non-interventionist in their military policy.

  The BNP do not believe climate change is occurring and oppose all moves towards renewable energy on the grounds of cost. They are, however, not in favour of fracking which they regard as potentially unsafe.

  The party leader is Nick Griffin. Other notable BNP members include ethnically Jewish 2010 election candidate Patricia Richardson. The party won 1.9% of the vote but none of the seats in the House of Commons at the last General Election and has around 4,900 members.

WEBSITE: http://www.bnp.org.uk/

The Green Party of England and Wales

          A.K.A The Green Party; The Greens

  Founded in 1973 as the PEOPLE Party, the first UK political party to have environmental policies, it became the Ecology Party in 1975, the Green Party in 1985 and - after the split with the pro-independence Scottish Greens in 1990 - the Green Party of England of Wales, though commentators outside of Scotland generally refer to it simply as the Green Party. Founded out of rising fears of climate change during the 1970s, it has grown in popularity as the effects of human impact on the Earth's ecology become more obvious.  

  The Greens are less neoliberal than the larger parties, proposing renationalisation of several companies, including Royal Mail and the the railways. They are committed to social justice and the prevention of poverty through progressive taxation and the implementation of a Citizen's Income - a regular, non-means-tested payment to every citizen regardless of employment or otherwise. They oppose public sector cuts in general.

  Green social policy is highly liberal. They strongly support same-sex marriage and gay rights in general and are intent on bringing an end to discrimination. They oppose extensive use of prisons and are in favour of legalising marijuana. The party is fully committed to the HRA.

  Greens support the welfare state and oppose social security cuts and the welfare cap. However, as mentioned above, they desire to replace jobseekers' allowance with a universal Citizens' Income, in line with the original principles of the 1940s welfarist movement. They favour localisation of health and education (along with all other services which can be practically localised). They are also in favour of a phased abolition of university tuition fees.

  Green foreign policy is highly pacifist - they oppose military interventionism, the UK's membership of NATO and the continuation of the trident nuclear defence system. They are also moderately eurosceptic, as they feel that the EU is too closely tied to corporate interests and support a referendum on the UK's membership, though they are not opposed to the EU's existence in principle. The Green Party believes in international cooperation in order to promote sustainability and diplomatic dispute resolution.

  The Green Party is, unsurprisingly, the most environmentally-focused of the UK's political parties and opposes the continued use of fossil fuels in favour of the introduction of completely renewable energy sources for the UK, though divisions exist as to whether to include nuclear energy in this. The party promotes animal welfare and natural diversity as being integral to human quality of life and in the interests of natural organisms own rights. They oppose both fracking and the HS2 high-speed rail line.

  The party leader is Natalie Bennett and the deputy leader is Will Duckworth. Other notable Greens include former leader and the party's sole MP Caroline Lucas, Green Party peer Baron Timothy Beaumont and leader of the semi-autonomous Wales Green Party Pippa Bartolotti. The party won 0.9% of the vote and 0.2% of the seats in the House of Commons at the last General Election and has around 16,000 members.

WEBSITE: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

The United Kingdom Independence Party

          A.K.A UKIP

  UKIP was founded as cross-party pressure group the Anti-Federalist League in 1991 and become a political party in 1993. It has grown steadily more popular during the 2000s, rising to claim an average of 12% in the polls during recent months. It has numerous Councillors and 9 MEPs, but has never had an elected MP.

  UKIP is, economically, extremely liberal. The party advocates a flat rate of income tax (31%), cuts to corporation tax and the abolition of inheritance tax. They also call for £77 billion of further cuts to public expenditure, though they have been heavily criticised for what the Times has alleged is a £120 billion hole in their spending plans.

  UKIP call themselves libertarian but they are in reality socially highly conservative. The party is highly committed to traditional institutions, opposing same-sex marriage and wanting the return of oaths of allegiance to the Monarch.The party wants to scrap the HRA and withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, thereby removing the authority of the European Court of Human Rights. They do, however, support the decriminalisation of drugs. 

  UKIP's welfare policy is mixed. It calls for a severe cut in the social security bill and a cut in health spending on bureaucracy, but wants to use the money saved to introduce free dental and optical care. They are also in favour of further localisation of the health service.

  UKIP foreign policy is isolationist. While generally pro-American, the party is anti-interventionist and is opposed to overseas aid spending. They are focused on their main goal - the party's original raison d'etre - of withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, which they feel is too expensive and has too much power over UK legislation. They are committed to NATO and, especially, the Commonwealth but are uncertain over the future of Trident. They also present themselves as anti-mass immigration, though they are in favour of managed immigration of skilled workers with EU states on a level playing field with the rest of the world.

  UKIP is highly climate change-sceptic and has advocated banning climate change film An Inconvenient Truth in schools and ending government subsidies of wind farms, which they consider an eyesore. They are pro-fracking but are opposed to HS2, mainly on economic grounds.

  The party leader is Nigel Farage, the deputy leader is Paul Nuttall and the executive chairman is Steve Crowther. Other notable UKIP members include Director of Communications Patrick O'Flynn, now-independent MEP Godfrey Bloom and failed Eastleigh by-election candidate Diane James.The party won 3.1% of the vote but none of the seats in the House of Commons at the last General Election and has around 35,000 members.

WEBSITE: http://www.ukip.org/

The Liberal Democrats

          A.K.A The Lib Dems

  The Liberal Democrats were created by a merger of the Liberal Party - itself founded in 1859 out of an alliance of Whigs, Peelite Tories and Radicals - and the 1981 breakaway Labour group the SDP in 1988. The Liberal Party was the main opposition to the Conservatives up until the 1920s, and introduced such radical reforms as the creation of the original welfare state. The SDP were a less left-wing version of Labour who had become concerned in the late 1970s about the alleged Trotskyite Communist infiltration of the party.  

  The Liberal Democrats are the junior partner in the current Coalition Government. The party won 23% of the vote and 8.8% of the seats in the House of Commons at the last General Election and has around 44,000 members.


Economics

• The Lib Dems' core economic policies follow the basic neoliberal principles of a free deregulated market, minimised state expenditure across most areas and private ownership of industry
• Lib Dem taxation policies are more progressive than the Conservatives and are on a par with New Labour; they support generally low direct taxation but first proposed the idea of a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million and have been the main drivers behind the increase in the personal allowance threshold to £10,500
• The Lib Dems are committed to a swift reduction of the budget deficit

Social Policy and the Constitution

• Liberal Democrat social policy is more progressive than the other major parties; they have been long-time proponents of LGBT rights and are generally in favour of increased diversity
• The Lib Dems wish to replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber and to reform the voting system for Westminster Parliamentary elections to a more proportional system - with their preference being STV - and to reduce the voting age to 16. There is traditionally support within the party for disestablishment of the Church of England
• The party is committted to the Human Rights Act, though some of their actions in coalition - including the introduction of secret courts - seem to contradict this view

Welfare, Health & Education

• The Lib Dems hold the view that the welfare state should be sufficient to provide a safety net for those who need it but should not be so extensive and to allow long-term dependence; the party grassroots are generally more supportive of social security than the leadership
• Lib Dem education policy is largely in line with the other major parties, including the existence of diverse types of school including academies and free schools, but they are in favour of significant reductions in university tuition fees - though they have received heavy criticism for their failure to keep their pledge to remove them entirely prior to the 2010 general election
• The party supports harsh cuts to the department of health - 50% - and is in favour of the decentralisation of the NHS through the introduction of more NHS Trusts

Crime and Justice Policy

• Party policy remains full criminalisation of most drugs, though some individual Lib Dems have called for a relaxation of drugs laws
• Lib Dems want a less punishment-focused, more rehabilitationary criminal justice system, though in coalition they have supported Conservative efforts in the other direction
• The Lib Dems, in coalition with the Conservatives, have introduced secret courts, in which persons can be tried for serious offences without being even allowed to speak or know the charges against them, as part of their commitment to tackle terrorism

Foreign Policy and Defence

• The Liberal Democrats are in favour of NATO membership but are less concerned with the 'special relationship' with the USA than other major parties
• The coalition has increased foreign aid spending to 0.7% of GDP
• The party is generally anti-interventionist, though there was support for action in Libya
• The Lib Dems do not wish a like-for-like replacement for the Trident nuclear missile system when it reaches the end of its usable life

Europe

• The Lib Dems are fully committed to membership of the EU and are in favour of further European integration, including a possible UK accession to the Eurozone at some point in the future
• The party is committed to an in/out referendum if there is further significant transfer of powers to Brussels, though this is in fact enshrined in law in any case
• The Lib Dems support TTIP, an EU policy which would allow US companies to sue the UK government and to buy out public services such as the NHS

The Environment

• The Lib Dems are committed to increasing focus on renewable resources and replacement of those trees cut down for timber
• They support fracking and the HS2 high-speed rail line

Important Party Figures:

• Nick Clegg MP: Deputy Prime Minister and Party Leader
• Vince Cable MP: Business Secretary
• Danny Alexander MP: Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• Ed Davey MP: Energy Secretary
• Tim Farron MP: President of the party
• Jeremy Browne MP: Right-wing party theorist
• Simon Hughes MP: Minister for Civil Liberties; Former Deputy Party Leader
• Malcom Bruce MP: EDeputy Party Leader
• Baroness Shirley Williams: Former Education Secretary; Co-Founder of the SDP
• Lord Paddy Ashdown: Party election strategist; Former Party Leader

WEBSITE: http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Explaining...the Conservative Party

Background

  The Conservative Party was officially founded in 1834, but traces its roots to 1678 and the formation of the Tory Party - a name the modern party still bears. The Conservatives merged with the Liberal Unionists in 1912, giving the party its rarely-used official name of the Conservative and Unionist Party.

  The party spent 57 years of the twentieth century in government, with leaders such as Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher some of the most famous figures in recent British history. From 1945 to 1975, the party espoused the post-war social democratic economic consensus established by the Attlee governments of 1945-551; after 1975, however, the party under Thatcher's leadership swung to the right and the Conservative governments of 1979-1997 saw the dismantling of the post-war consensus and the establishment of the neoliberal economic orthodoxy as the lynchpin of British political discourse.


The Party Today

  The modern Conservative Party has 174,000 members and is led by David Cameron MP. The Conservatives are the largest party in the current Coalition government, with the Liberal Democrats as their junior partner. They won 36.1% of the popular vote in the 2010 General Election and currently hold 302 seats in the House of Commons (46.5%). They also have 19 seats in the European Parliament (26% of the UK total) and 40.3% of Local Government positions.


Policy Record

  The modern Conservative Party dates from 1975; its principal actions from 1979 to 1990 under Margaret Thatcher were the lowering of direct taxes in favour of raised indirect taxes; the privatisation of major national infrastructure and industry including British Steel, British Telecom, British Airways and British Petroleum; the increase in police powers and numbers; and the deregulation of the financial sector. Thatcher was also largely responsible for the introduction of the Single European Act, introducing freedom of movement in goods, services, capital and labour throughout the EEC.

  Under John Major, privatisation continued with that of British Rail. Most other policies remained consistent from the Thatcher era, while Major pursued a controversial policy of integration with Europe, signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Conservative economic incompetence led to the catastrophe of Black Wednesday and sparked a recession, eventually culminating in a Labour landslide victory in 1997. In opposition, the party adopted the minimum wage and opposed strongly the UK joining the Euro. Under Michael Howard, it became increasingly critical of the USA and of the Iraq War.

  Since the return to government under David Cameron, the Conservative Party has followed a programme of vast public spending cuts, coinciding with a sharp rise in borrowing. They have continued the privatisation of earlier Conservative governments with the sell-off of Royal Mail and have ceded control of many schools through the academies and free schools programmes and parts of the NHS through tranfer of some services to private companies. The party has also pursued a slashing of the social security budget through the introduction of Universal Credit, the benefit cap and the so-called 'bedroom tax'. Promised environmental reforms have not materialised, and whilst the introduction of behind-closed-doors trials for some crimes and the reinforcement of security service surveillance powers have strengthened the coercive state, military expenditure and troop numbers have been drastically cut.


Policy Promises

  Economics

• Eliminate the deficit by 2018
• Raise of the tax-free Personal Allowance to £12,500 by 2020
• Raise of the threshold for the 40% income tax band to £50,000
• Further reduce public sector pay

  Social Policy & The Constitution

• Maintain of the SMP system for General Elections
• Replace of the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights
• Prevent non-English MPs from voting on English-only Bills in the House of Commons

  Health, Welfare & Education

• Maintain current NHS budget in real terms
• Lower benefit cap to £23,000
• Ensure patient access to GPs 7 days a week

  Crime and Justice Policy

• Introduce extremism prevention orders to ban radical speakers from communication channels

  Foreign Policy and Defence

• Help deal with Islamic State

  Europe

• Renegotiate the UK's membership of the EU, with particular focus on migration
• Hold a referendum on UK membership of the EU by the end of 2017
• Support the TTIP trade compact between the EU and the USA

  Transport, Energy & Environment

• Complete the HS2 and HS3 high-speed rail links

Important Party Figures

  Cabinet Ministers

• David Cameron       Prime Minister and Leader of the Party
• George Osborne     Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Theresa May            Home Secretary
• Phillip Hammond     Foreign Secretary
• William Hague          Leader of the House of Commons
• Iain Duncan Smith   Work and Pensions Secretary
• Chris Grayling         Justice Secretary
• Michael Fallon         Defence Secretary
• Jeremy Hunt            Health Secretary
• Eric Pickles              Local Government Secretary
• Nicky Morgan          Education Secretary
• Justine Greening    International Development Secretary
• Theresa Villiers       Northern Ireland Secretary
• Stephen Crab           Wales Secretary
• Sajid Javid               Culture Secretary
• Elizabeth Truss        Environment Secretary

  Others

• Michael Gove           Chief Whip
• Grant Schapps         Co-Chairman of the party
• Andrew Feldman      Co-Chairman of the party
• Boris Johnson          Mayor of London

WEBSITE: http://www.conservatives.com/

Explaining...the Labour Party

Background

  The Labour Party was founded as the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900 out of the trade union movement and other socialist groups. It became officially the Labour Party in 1906 – before this point, it had been a loose affiliation of organisations.

  The party overtook the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the 1920s, winning its first election in 1924 under Ramsay MacDonald. The Attlee governments of 1945-51 are often seen as the high point of Labour’s success; during this period, the NHS was founded, the welfare state hugely expanded and numerous education reforms implemented, beginning the ‘Post-War Consensus’ which would last until the 1970s.

The Party Today

  The modern Labour Party has 190,000 members and is led by Ed Miliband MP. Labour, as the largest non-government party, forms the Official Opposition. They won 29% of the popular vote in the 2010 General Election and currently hold 257 seats in the House of Commons (39.5%). They also have 20 seats in the European Parliament (27.4% of the UK total) and 34.8%% of Local Government positions.

Policy Record

  The modern Labour Party can be dated to 1994 and the ascension of Tony Blair to the party leadership. Blair sharply accelerated the party’s 10-year drift towards the right, abandoning many traditionally socialist positions such as the nationalisation of key industries and infrastructure and adopting the neoliberal economic policy of the Conservative Party, as well as their more authoritarian stance of law & order.

  New Labour’s period in office saw the creation of harsh anti-terror legislation in the wake of the September 11^th attacks on the USA and a continued expansion of police powers. The party maintained the privatised and largely deregulated state of the economy, contributing to the huge negative impact of the global 2008 financial crash on the UK. The Labour Party expanded the welfare state, in the form largely of in-work benefits to top up low incomes, and engaged in closer co-operation with the European Union, signing the Lisbon Treaty and making (unrealised) preparations for EMU. The introduction of a national minimum wage and the passing of the Human Rights Act are two of the more traditionally left-wing results of the New Labour years, along with extensive devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Greater London. The Blair government was also responsible for the UK’s participation in the unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for beginning the decentralisation of the health and education systems through extensive PFI deals and the academies programme.

  In opposition, under the leadership of Ed Miliband and with Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor, Labour have largely maintained the New Labour line on most policy areas. They have not moved for renationalisation – nor for significant new regulation, the planned energy price fix and the separation of the banks’ retail and investment arms notwithstanding. They generally support government ‘austerity’ measures, querying only the precise targets – and success – of these cuts. Labour remains pro-EU but has been persuaded by the rise of UKIP to move to the right on immigration. They have also lessened their support for interventionism, opposing UK action in Syria in 2013 – though they have since supported the government in its air strikes against the Islamic State.

Policy Promises

  Economics

• Raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour
• Reform zero-hours contracts, including preventing employers from mandating employees are always available
• Reintroduce the lower 10% income tax rate for low earners
• Reintroduce the 50% income tax rate for the highest earners
• Create a Trade Investment Bank for small businesses
• Impose a ‘mansion tax: £3,000 a year tax on properties worth between £2 and £3 million
• Reduced corporation tax for small businesses

  Social Policy & The Constitution

• Maintain the SMP system for General Elections
• Build 200,000 houses a year by 2020
• Give families 25 hours of free childcare a week for 3- and 4-year-olds
• Scrap the ‘bedroom tax’
• Restrict the rise in Child Support Allowance to 1% a year
• Introduce the means testing of Winter Fuel Allowance

  Health, Welfare & Education

• Spend £2.5 billion on recruitment: 20,000 nurses, 8,000 doctors, 5,000 care workers and 3,000 midwives
• Guarantee that patients will be able to see their GP within 48 hours
• Consolidate NHS, social care and mental health systems
• Give all NHS staff training in mental health issues
• Mandate qualified teachers
• Undo the reorganisation of the NHS under the Health and Social Care Act

  Crime and Justice Policy

•  

  Foreign Policy and Defence

•  

  Europe

• Support TTIP (the EU-USA free trade agreement)

  Transport, Energy & Environment

• Freeze energy prices until 2017
• Create a million jobs in the ‘green sector’

Important Party Figures

  Shadow Ministers

• Ed Miliband              Leader of the Opposition (and of the party)
• Harriet Harman        Deputy Leader and Culture Secretary
• Ed Balls                    Shadow Chancellor
• Yvette Cooper          Shadow Home Secretary
• Douglas Alexander  Shadow Foreign Secretary
• Iain Duncan Smith   Work and Pensions Secretary
• Sadiq Khan               Shadow Justice Secretary
• Vernon Coaker         Shadow Defence Secretary
• Andy Burnham         Shadow Health Secretary
• Chuka Umunna        Shadow Business Secretary
• Rachel Reeves         Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary
• Hilary Benn               Shadow Local Government Secretary
• Caroline Flint            Shadow Energy Secretary
• Tristram Hunt           Shadow Education Secretary
• Mary Creagh             Shadow Transport Secretary and Shadow International                                                    Development Secretary
• Ivan Lewis                 Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary
• Margaret Curran       Shadow Scotland Secretary
• Owen Smith              Shadow Wales Secretary
• Maria Eagle               Environment Secretary
• Angela Eagle            Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
• Rosie Winterton        Shadow Chief Whip

  Others

• Carwyn Jones           First Minister of Wales

WEBSITE: http://www.labour.org.uk/

No Such Thing as Society?

  When Margaret Thatcher uttered those now-infamous words in an interview with Woman's Own journalist Douglas Keay, she did not mean quite what many assumed she did. The gist of the wider context of that statement was that society was not some giant, conglomerate entity in and of itself - rather, it was made up of individuals and families living together and that the actions of individuals dictated how 'society' functioned.

  But unfortunately the late Mrs. Thatcher seems to have been blessed, if not with the gifts of diplomacy, tact or indeed economic understanding, then with a supernatural prescience. Society at the time of the statement - 1987 - was still relatively intact, though hard-pressed by the introduction of neoliberal economic doctrine. Today, however, this is no longer the case.

  The post-Thatcherite consensus - in place in the UK arguably since 1983, and certainly since 1995 - is the general acceptance between the major political parties that a free market economic model - with private control of industry, low taxation, limited state spending, reduced welfare provision and deregulation of the economy - is fundamentally a good thing. 

  The four largest political parties in terms both of membership and votes at the last general election (Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP) all basically follow the same economic policy. There are small differences, placing the parties on a continuum - UKIP are the most neoliberal, Labour the least - but all four are basically in agreement on the core tenets of economic policy.

  The consensus among the main parties means - short of a seismic shift in UK politics - neoliberalism is set to remain the guiding economic ideology in the UK for some time to come, but the social impact of this model is extreme and highly damaging. The idea of neoliberalism is that a deregulated economy with minimal state interference will allow competition to flourish, driving the market forces to create masses of wealth. This wealth will be concentrated at first in the hands of large corporations and the individuals who run them but, over time, expenditure by these big beasts will cause that money to 'trickle down' into the rest of the economy and everyone else benefits too.

  All sounds very reasonable, doesn't it? The problem is, it doesn't work. 

  Or rather, stage one works sublimely well. A deregulated economy does indeed allow large corporations to generate huge amounts of wealth, and the CEOs and major shareholders of these companies do very well as a result. But the 'trickle-down' effect simply does not happen. Last year, the top 1% of earners in the UK took in 10% of total income, whilst the bottom 50% received only 18%. A recent report by Oxfam revealed that the five richest families in the UK own more wealth than the poorest 20% of the population. Clearly, the money is being generated at the top and staying there.

  And this causes a polarised society. Politicians on the economic right often accuse those on the left of promoting class warfare when they talk of the redistribution of wealth and the equalisation of society. But it is the neoliberal economic system imposed by the right, and accepted by the traitorous so-called Labour Party, which creates the classes in the first place. Inequality in the UK today is higher than it was before the First World War. In light of that, of course those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy are angry with those at the top. Why shouldn't they be?

  Not only does neoliberalism affirm and enhance class distinctions, it also splits society along racial lines. It is the failure of the neoliberal economic system which caused the financial crash of 2008. In the aftermath of that crash, right-wing parties with strong anti-immigration and openly racist rhetoric have been going from strength to strength all over Europe. Why? Because, when money is scarce, people want to ensure that the pool of people competing for resources does not grow any larger. It is difficult to blame the average UKIP voter for being concerned, even scared, of immigration when money is so tight and immigrants represent more competition. Thus, the right creates social problems with its economics and then exacerbates them by offering false solutions.

  Then there's the obvious - poorer people means more crime. By increasing inequality, neoliberalism creates an underclass - a group characterised by chronic unemployment, low standards of living and high crime rates. When you have nothing, or next to nothing, you will be more inclined to steal in order to get more - or alternatively, to blow what you do have on drink and drugs to escape the ordeal of life. Neoliberal economics are largely responsible for much of today's crime and increased drug and alcohol dependency. They also must bear some of the blame for rising suicide rates, particularly among the high-risk category of middle-aged men who find themselves unable to support their families due to inability to find decent work.

  In short, neoliberalism promotes greed, disincentivises altruism and co-operation, polarises society along class and ethnic lines and contributes to the creation of an underclass which is then demonised by the press and systematically purged by government policies. Margaret Thatcher was not passing judgement when she made her famous statement, she was making a prediction. A prediction her government, and every government since, has helped to fulfill.

  About time we did something about it. 

Crazy Diamonds

  Three days ago, the internet exploded with testimonials and tributes to the late, great paragon of rock music virtue - which, of course, means vice by anyone else's standards - that was Kurt Cobain. 

  This man, who took his own life at the age of just twenty-seven, was an inspiration to many of contemporary rock's greatest stars. Bands of the size and stature of Muse, Blink-182, Nickelback (come on guys, their early stuff was post-grunge, don't be like that) and, of course, the Foo Fighters draw huge inspiration from the Aberdeen-born singer-songwriter. The King of Grunge will be remembered forever as a legend of the rock world, and rightly so.

  As I write this, I am listening to the album Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Whilst this record didn't claim the sales figures of Dark Side of the Moon or spawn a feature film like The Wall, I personally think it represents the pinnacle of the band's musical achievement - and so do Richard Wright and David Gilmour, so that's all right. 

  The reason I mention this is because this album draws heavily on the theme of loss, specifically the loss of the band's original lead singer Syd Barrett whose drug addictions had accelerated a mental decline which left him unable to make the music which had driven him so much in his early years. Barrett died in 2006, aged 60, 38 years after leaving the band. Death, when it came, was probably more of a release than anything else.

  Two stars of rock music, born twenty years apart, who lead such similar lives in their early years, but whose fates were so ultimately different. To use Cobain's own words, one burned out, the other faded away.

  The loss of both men was tragic, but in a different way. The brief, fiery career of Kurt Cobain was cut short untimely by his struggles with depression and heroin addiction, depriving the world of surely many more outpourings of musical genius to come. Barrett, meanwhile, destroyed his own, already unstable mind so completely with LSD and a lethal cocktail of other drugs that his career simply melted away - the masterwork of the Floyd's early material giving way to weak efforts to replicate his early success, and then to nothing as he locked himself away from the world. 

  Which is a better way to go? I can't help but feel Cobain's exit was by far the better. The spectre of a fate like Barrett's ahead of him - failure, decline, seclusion and ultimately a withering away - it is not hard to see how the grunge pioneer reached the conclusion he did. And, perhaps as a direct result, Cobain's name lives on, world-famous, while Barrett's - sadly - remains known only to a decreasing few.

  I'm not entirely certain whether this post has a point. I'm not convinced it really needs to. But if there is a moral to the story, as it were, then it's this: we should remember Cobain and Barrett equally, as men whose lives were taken from them before their time, and whose careers as exceptional musicians were curtailed long before they could fulfill their potential. Remember both their names - for they were two of the best of us. And they both deserve it.

  But most of all, remember this: Shine on, all you crazy diamonds. 

People (Without) Power

Victorious candidates by party

  It occurred to me the other day that many of my friends are astoundingly apolitical - that is, they have no real appreciation of what the political establishment is up to and, whilst they have opinions which could be described as political views, they tend not to associate problems in their own lives with the failure of the governments whose policies are ultimately responsible. Why, I wondered, is this?

Interesting map showing second-place
candidates by party

  I suspect the answer is, at least in its fundamentals, quite simple: politics is seen as boring. Politicians are grey men in greyer suits, who shuffle around on dull stages delivering bland speeches on uninteresting topics to audiences of sycophants and equally incomprehensible media types. They are not, in short, the kind of people that the public associate with the ideals and principles which motivate them. Idealism requires passion, and few of today's crop of political masters displays anything close to that.

  This basic disconnect between politicians and the rest of society, particularly the younger generation, is growing ever more pronounced. Membership of the 'big three' parties has plummeted since the high point of over 4 million in the early '50s to a low of around 400,000 today. More and more people are being turned off by the empty promises and hollow platitudes of the political class, and voter apathy is setting in, big time.

  This is a BAD THING.

  On the face of it, voter apathy looks like a bad thing for politicians - it means, after all, that they aren't connecting with the public. Time to pull their collective socks well and truly up, then? Well, no. When you think about it, voter apathy is actually hugely beneficial for the politicians. At the last general election, for example, turnout was only 65.1% of the electorate. This means that 34.9% of the adult population of the UK did not take part in the election, and therefore that the politicians could safely ignore over a third of the country. 

  If this was a freak occurrence, then such a move would be risky, but it is not - over the last five general elections, the average turnout has been just 67%, meaning that a third of the population consistently skip polling day, and therefore can have their opinions discounted by the political class. It is this kind of apathy which allowed the Labour government to be re-elected in 2005 with only 35% of the electorate's support, essentially eliminating the government's democratic mandate at a stroke. But that didn't matter - they had an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and so could force their legislation through when nearly two thirds of the population didn't want it in the first place.

  Turnouts for local and European elections are even more shocking - 42.3% for local, 33.52% for European. And they're both averages - the most recent results are even lower. This means that local councils and the EU Parliament, often criticised for being undemocratic, really are just that.

  It's been a little statistic-heavy today, and for that I apologise. But this stuff's important - the lessening interest in what's going on around us is allowing politicians to ignore large sections of society and - since it's been shown that the younger, poorer and more ethnically diverse the cross-section, the less likely they are to vote - it's the people who are being most disadvantaged by the current political paradigm who matter least to the politicians who seem hell-bent on ruining our lives. 

  So, the moral of the story is, vote. Get yourself down to the ballot box at every opportunity and make a difference, even if it's only a small one. Sure, you have only one vote - but if that entire third of the electorate were to turn up at the polls in 2015, that's a hell of a lot of ones. And if you can't bring yourself to put a cross in any of the available boxes, so equally repugnant are the choices before you - and believe me, I sympathise - do something about it. Campaign, march, set up a political party, stand for election, write a cynical blog on the internet - anything to shift the political consensus in the direction you want.

  That's democracy, after all.