IS THE TERM “ELECTION FEVER” A DECEIVER?

“I’m feeling blue about maybe voting red – is that yellow of me? Maybe some are purple with rage that the Greens may even get more votes and take some of the stage?  Then again I might change my mind and to another hue be kind….must read all about it first and then when I know why and who I’m choosing I can really unwind….” anonymous.

Firstly lets get things straight.  We at The Saturn Herald are rather hoping that there will be much more information about policies which are going to be a great help to voters making their decisions, and less about hyperbole, dress codes, whether someone resembles a Wallace and Gromit character,  or  exactly where they take their gravy train to put on the next panto performance.

Is the majority of the thinking public already decided on where they will place at least one of their crosses on election day 7th May?  As predicted -and only rightly so  in the circumstances, we are being treated to more than our usual amount of political news – The Camerons visiting  a  Sikh centre together and more recently David Cameron with Sajid Javid – Secretary of State of Culture, Media and Sport visited Virgin Media in Birmingham.  It seems Nick Clegg and David Cameron are slowly but surely finding their feet independently of each other which hints that a Coalition government between them may not be on the agenda for the next political future term.

Dave Cameron (apparently he likes to be called the abbreviated version of David) – accused of running a boring campaign, has made references to countries in turmoil to sustain his “roll your sleeves up and get the job done” no-nonsense manner and said, “If you want risk, if you want the excitement of risk, vote for the other guy.  He’s the risk.”  He has used the “soap box” technique which John Major was well known for which made people warm to the Conservatives in 1992.  “Pirating” another campaign technique (that of Tony Blair’s “education, education, education”) Cameron declared on ITV that the election was all about “the economy, the economy, the economy”. Some Tories apparently find this a bit repetitive.

Miliband who has a fanclub run by dewy – eyed girls (Milifandom) – putting flower crowns on his head in a Twitter frenzy, is concentrating on housing which is very much an issue especially in London.  He wants to cut stamp duty for first time buyers saying ” we are determined to restore the dream of home ownership”.  The London Evening Standard has given him a lead of 12 points in the capital making Miliband hazard “it’s going to be the tightest election for a generation”. Chuka Umunna is helping to give the Labour claim clout and so are his other stars in the Labour party, some of them old hands from the Blair regime such as Harriet Harman.

Theresa May has claimed – worried that a Labour-SNP deal might occur, this would cause “the biggest constitutional crisis” and Miliband has retorted, “the Tories are going to throw a lot of things at me between now and May 7”.  Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP is very much hoping that if Labour wins  there will be much encouragement to “strike a deal with them” with Miliband apparently reluctant to commit himself to this.  Ms Sturgeon has said “Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, its possible for other parties to change the direction of a government wihout bringing a government down”.

Boris Johnson obviously needs a Cameron victory to keep his own aims of running the country in the future to stay buoyant.  It appears the two maintain a friendly and jokey relationship – once labelled as “two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk” by Tory MP Nadine Dorries in 2012.  At the present time Cameron holds the reins and Boris has to prove himself over and over again.

Meanwhile Nick Clegg is doing his own campaigning after having the advantage in the Coalition government of a more leisurely back seat in proceedings and also unfortunately for him having to put up with digs at his suitability for the job – none other than what many leading politicians have to humour. To make the election campaign more exciting it would be good to be fed with more of Clegg’s policies and hopefully speeches which are not written by some of his party who can only either raise a limp titter or a yawn.

Watch this space for further information.

Penny Nair Price