Tag Archives: politics

Mar 28 2013
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Wednesday's Got Issues

Wednesday’s Got Issues : Come on America, keep up

Over the last few days I’ve seen a lot of chatter about DOMA, and the fact that the US government is debating whether to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law in 1996 by Bill Clinton. Recently the UK government legalised gay marriage, and there are some states who have already allowed people to express their love as equal citizens, but from what I understand the repeal of the act would mean that gays would be allowed to marry nationwide, overruling any statewide laws (Please correct me if I’m wrong).

My new favourite website, BuzzFeed, has been posting articles depicting both sides of the argument, but one in particular caught my attention. Pictures of young people who oppose gay marriage holding signs explaining their reasoning. Unsurprisingly most of them mention God, a few of them are having trouble with spelling and some of them seem brainwashed and lack an understanding of the issue. The surprising part is the very fact that they are young and educated, two factors that generally indicate an open and accepting mind. I have met very few young homophobes, maybe it’s because I don’t tend to associate with the kind of people who hate my friends.

But it just seemed jarring that there are people in younger generations who are yet to move on from the restrictive outlook of the past. I’m guessing that the main reason for this is America’s refusal to separate religion and the state, their people are repeatedly told that the laws of their country must reflect those written thousands of years ago by a supposed deity, whether they worship said deity or not. To me, it seems like fairly immature way of living, the kind of attitude that I last encountered at school when trying to work out how to fit in with the cool kids. Thankfully I got over that, hopefully one day the USA will too.

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Apr 03 2012
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Monday Pick Me Up

Monday Pick Me Up: Dogs Can Be Republican Too

Although I’m not entirely sure how the owners trained their dog to reject any Obama offerings, it’s pretty funny to watch the little mutt express his political views. Maybe there should be a follow up video so that we can see whether he endorses Romney or Santorum. Who knew that carrots could convey such a strong political message?

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Mar 29 2012
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Wednesday's Got Issues

Wednesday’s Got Issues: Politicians act like, well, politicians

Warm, meaty, expensive goodness

Today the main topic of conversation seems to be Cornish pasties and petrol, as the government announced plans to increase VAT on hot convenience food, and told everyone to panic buy petrol in case of a strike. Not only are Cameron’s cronies insisting that the already struggling working class must pay for their comfort food, but we must also keep containers filled with flammable liquid at hand at all times. As usual it seems that a government does not have the best interests of the populace at heart.

Watching 10 O’Clock Live this evening, the pasty tax seemed to be characterised as an attempt to curb people’s waistlines and ease the pressure on the (now fucked) NHS. But making people pay an extra 20p for a Gregg’s pie doesn’t seem to be the most effective way to encourage people to lose weight. I would suggest more community exercise programmes, better diet education in schools, or make healthy food cheaper – the amount of times as a student that I chose 8p Tesco Value noodles over a £2 salad is really quite embarrassing.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Francis Maude is facing criticism over his advice to keep a jerry can (a large container with a capacity of 20l) full of petrol in our garages, to prepare for an upcoming strike, though the date has yet to be decided. This led to huge queues outside most petrol garages today, as people took the government’s advice and started to panic. This created chaos among the petrol suppliers, who struggled to keep up with demand, and may face further issues in the future.

Basically, it seems to boil down to politicians acting before thinking. Which should hardly come as a surprise to us, seeing as we are currently being ruled by an unequal coalition government full of such conflicting ideals that, in the only laws that they have managed to pass, they are the only ones in the country who support it. I give you the astronomic hike in tuition fees as an example of both how little thought there is for younger generations, or indeed pre-election promises, within 10 Downing Street.

I would quite like it if they could do something that the majority of people actually agreed with for once. I won’t hold my breath.

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Feb 10 2012
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Thursday Me Time

Thursday Me Time: Steve Coogan doesn’t care either

Firstly I must apologise for the practically incoherent blog post yesterday, that’s what I get for forgetting about it until 2.30am. BUT, in other news, tonight’s Question Time perfectly proved my point. The fact that football gossip is reported in the same sentence as the massacre in Syria actually happened, when an audience member forced the panel to segue from a heated discussion about how best to react to such a humanitarian crisis, into a discussion of John Terry’s suspension. The main distraction was Ann Leslie’s bizarre performance, in which she drunkenly slurred her way through repeated assertions that, as a foregin correspondent, she was the only person who could possibly discuss anything due to her being friendly with everyone in the entire world, except nurses it would seem. Yet my personal highlight was Steve Coogan, whose failure to become Alan Partirdge disappointed many a Twitterer, who refused to be drawn into the discussion, stating that he had no opinion whatsoever on football. How refreshing, yet damning, that on a panel with both Tory and Labour politicians, a member of the House of Lords (I LOVE Shirley Williams), a hasbeen journalist and David Dimbleby (the man is category in himself), it was left to a comedian to point out the obvious. Coogan received a round of applause for his comments, and not only from me, and the discussion thankfully moved onto the hotly contested and universally panned NHS bill. An issue that is as difficult to explain as it is to condone. So I’m not going to do either, instead I’m going to find an interesting story for tomorrow’s post, and it definitely will not involve football.

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