Election UK: Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

The election has come and gone with windbags of pointless speculation (me included) and the great British public has spoken and elected to: not change very much at all, thank you. Poor LibDems, I do feel for them having al that hype and expectation to find out that it's one stop forward and almost one step back. It goes to show that when it comes to political thinking, people are conservative with a small 'c' and don't really go for change very much. The positive to this is that the far-right don't get much traction. The negative to that is anyone looking for rapid social revolution will be disappointed.

So lets pick though the now rotting bones of this election...

-How Danny Kushlick did in Bristol West? Not great. 343 votes or 0.6% - but at least he beat the English Democrats. Tiny yay!

- How the Greens did in vote share in Bristol... Again, not great. Best they did was 2.5% in Bristol South.

- How much we need to be worried by the BNP vote in Bristol? Happily the BNP did not do well. Thy never got about 5% which means in all the Bristol seats they've lost their deposit. Part of the victory here must go to those people campaigning against the far-right across the city - good work people! It's hard to see how the BNP can get a better opportunity - faith the the mainstream parties was at an all time low, scare stories about immigration at an all time high - and yet they still lost their deposit. Still the local election results are not yet and they can expect to do better there compared to the parliamentary elections.

-If the BNP manages to get it's first MP and/or take Barking and Dagenham council? Ha Ha Ha!!! BNP did shit here too! This was their big hope for a breakthrough seat and they only managed a poor third - a looong way off winning. But again, local election results yet to come.

-If the Greens managed to get their first MP in Brighton Pavilion? Can the Greens also make headway in Cambridge? Congratulations to the Greens who won Brighton Pavilion with a solid victory. Note: also standing there was the fab named 'Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality'. In Cambridge the Green's came 4th but kept the deposit.

-How the bonkers proto-Taliban of the Christian Party do? Really badly. Hee hee. 2nd to last in Filton & Bradley Stoke, narrowly beating the Vote Zero None of the Above Party. Rubbish in Bath too with 250 votes (0.5%). Expect the wrath of the Almighty any day for for turning our back on the Taliban The Christian Party.

More news as I get it...

LIVE! Live Blogging Election Day

1.30AM: BNP loose deposit in Filton and Bradley Stoke with a rubbish 2.7% - Wot a fuck up.

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1.23AM: In Northern Ireland the First Minister has lost...and lost to a non-sectarian party. Fucking great! His wife was the anti-gay god-bother who also broke bible rules. BNP also lost deposit in Torbay. Woo! Going to go to bed I think. Night.

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1AM: BNP loose 2 more deposits. Hee hee.

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Witching Hour: Greens confident of talking Brighton Pavillion says Guardian. BNP seem to have lost deposit in Sunderland Central.

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11.41: Bugger - Washington & Sunderland West the vote for fuckwit BNP goes from just over 3% to just over 5% and they keep thier deposit. Shit.

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11.23PM: BNP vote down by 2% in Sunderland!!! Not very good start for the master race.

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11PM: Watching C4's comedy election coverage. After all, this current system is a bit of a democratic joke. Lancaster Unity is reporting ongoing in-fighting technical problems on BNP's website. Also lots of cops at Barking & Dagenham ready for result in tough fought battle there of coalition of anti-racists vs BNP. First results due through soon...

7.40PM: News websites are reporting a high turnout. Passed by my polling station (Bristol West) and it was brisk but not crowded.

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1PM: There are other places also live blogging the election: Lancaster Unity, which is a great sourse of news about the far-right will be starting to live blog from 10pm. They have an interesting story on how the BNP website was down briefly due to in-fighting between the webmaster and the party. The Guardian are also live-blogging today, all day too.

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11.54 AM: I'm going to be live-blogging election day where I can until I get bored and go to bed. So thus far I've voted (for Danny) and will be adding news and comment throughout the day.

To update, click the refresh button on your browser. I'll also twitter where I can.

Updating my previous post about what is of interest to me in the coming general election. So far we have:

- How Danny Kushlick did in Bristol West (Vote Danny!)
- How the Greens did in vote share (Bristol is a pretty Green city and I'm often surprised they do do better here...)
- How much we need to be worried by the BNP vote in Bristol (I'd expect a small rise, given the economic crisis, voter apathy and dissatisfaction with the existing political parties, combined with the drum-beat of anti-Muslim and anti-Immigration scare stories in the tabloids.)
- How well the candidates flagged by Ian Bone (and commentators) do.
- What the real outcome of the reported Lib-Dem swing will actually be (voters are often quite loyal to one party).
- If the BNP manages to get it's first MP and/or take Barking and Dagenham council.
- If the Greens managed to get their first MP in Brighton Pavilion.
- Can the Greens also make headway in Cambridge.
- How the bonkers proto-Taliban of the Christian Party do in Wales and in Bath with candidate Stephen Hewett.

And now..

There is also a few nutters in the Filton & Bradley Stoke constituency the hateful Nazi BNP and the bonkers UKIP and Christian Party. Let's see how they do in this newly minted boundary.

Danny Speaks! "Lets Talks Drugs"

Candidate Danny Kushlick has a press release out. Danny is the officially supported candidate of the Anarchist606 2010 Election Scrutiny Committee (i.e. me.):

"Parties must discuss drug legalisation and regulation", says Parliamentary Candidate

Danny Kushlick is standing as an independent prospective parliamentary candidate for Bristol West because the major parties will not engage on one of the most important issues of our time - the failure of the war on drugs. As a representative of the People's Manifesto he will stand on the single issue of the need to legalise and regulate drugs.

In 2002 David Cameron sat on a key Parliamentary Select Committee and backed a call for the UK Government to discuss legalisation and regulation of drugs, but he refuses to discuss this now. In 2003 the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit produced a report showing that supply side enforcement was the major driver of global harms related to heroin and cocaine. It was buried, forgotten and denied.

Danny Kushlick said: Our major party leaders are effectively duping voters into supporting a policy of drug criminalisation that claims to protect when it actually makes things worse the world over, including in my home constituency of Bristol West. Drug prohibition is based on the fantasy of ending the production, supply and use of illicit drugs, when in fact it does precisely the opposite. By gifting the trade to organised criminals and unregulated dealers, all that we have done is create the largest untaxed commodity trade on earth. The UK crime costs alone of operating the policy of prohibition amount to between £15 billion and £20 billion a year. We have thrown away £100 billion over the last ten years and will throw away closer to £200 billion if we continue it for another ten.

As shown by the report published yesterday by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, it is the enforcement of prohibition that has spawned extreme violence worldwide. Successive Conservative and Labour administrations have supported a policy that has failed to protect children, has fuelled property crime and recreated the gang wars that US Alcohol Prohibition did in the 1920s and 30s right here in the UK. Meanwhile both parties have even gone so far as to ridicule the debate.

All the major parties are in full possession of the facts that show that prohibition is the significant cause of what is commonly known as 'the drug problem'. The Conservatives and Labour have succumbed to populist fear mongering and have actively kept the debate out of sight of the UK electorate. Even the Lib Dems and Greens have kept their more anti-prohibitionist positions out of public view, and failed to give the debate the prominence it deserves. I am standing in Bristol West to give a voice to those voters who want to see this issue firmly on the political agenda and to challenge the major parties to take this on as a serious policy issue during the next term of Government.

We cannot forget that the crack and heroin used in Bristol West originates as opium and coca in Afghanistan and Colombia. It is the UK's support for global drug prohibition that is fuelling conflict in Afghanistan, Colombia, Mexico and West Africa and providing cover for unnecessary military intervention by the United States.

Fifty years of failed prohibition shows that we cannot stop the residents of Bristol West, or anywhere else, using drugs and this demand will be met by illicit production and supply. The simple solution to the failure of prohibition is to end it; to take over the illicit trade, by legally regulating drugs through doctors, pharmacists and licensed retailers. It is precisely because drugs are dangerous, not because they're safe, that today I call on all the candidates in Bristol West, and the parties they represent, to raise the issue of drug law reform up the political agenda. To join with me in encouraging an open and healthy discussion on alternatives to prohibition, to end the war on drugs and replace it with a system of tax, control and regulation that is effective, just and humane. The people demand a genuine debate on drugs.

ENDS

Notes
Danny Kushlick is a former drugs counsellor in the criminal justice system. He founded the Transform Drug policy Foundation as a result of his experience.
Three weeks ago he was selected by Mark Thomas to stand as prospective parliamentary candidate for the People's Manifesto. The policies in the Manifesto range from the sublime to the hilarious:
http://www.thepeoplesmanifesto.co.uk/

Looking to the Election Results...

I'm not a huge believer that elections make real changes, but it is a huge survey as to where people see themselves politically (to an extent) and I think voting is still a tool to be used to progressive social change; "I'd prefer a labour government to a BNP one!". So what am I interested in come 6th May? I'll tell you...

- How Danny Kushlick did in Bristol West (Vote Danny!)
- How the Greens did in vote share (Bristol is a pretty Green city and I'm often surprised they do do better here...)
- How much we need to be worried by the BNP vote in Bristol (I'd expect a small rise, given the economic crisis, voter apathy and dissatisfaction with the existing political parties, combined with the drum-beat of anti-Muslim and anti-Immigration scare stories in the tabloids.)
- How well the candidates flagged by Ian Bone (and commentators) do.
- What the real outcome of the reported Lib-Dem swing will actually be (voters are often quite loyal to one party).
- If the BNP manages to get it's first MP and/or take Barking and Dagenham council.
- If the Greens managed to get their first MP in Brighton Pavilion.

So I am considering like blogging on the night... Also what is the twitter tag we're going to be using for chatting about Bristol results? #ukelectionbris?

To Vote or Not to Vote?

Anarchists tend to go for the not voting line (though, like herding cats, the ideas about how to engage with voting vary). This is a thoughtful discussion on the issue...

Firstly - my background is in anarchist politics, and I consider myself to be an anarchist. The more I think about it, the more deeply uncomfortable I am with a simple 'don't vote' message, and i think our critique of elections needs to be sharper (e.g 'no matter who you vote for, the government always gets in' - yes, but even as an anarchist, i'd prefer a labour government to a BNP one!). The more I think about it, the more I think that the 'don't vote' message is not the most politically purposeful one. Sure, we legitimize their system a bit by voting, but I legitimize their system by buying some food sometimes and getting a shitty privatized train to work (and please, if anyone is planning to level a 'well quit your job and cycle' thing at me, just don't - some of us need to work, and work useful jobs). Anyway, I feel that a more effective slogan would revolve around the message that whether you vote or not, there are much more direct and empowering forms of polilitical participation that you could also be getting involved in, and that voting is just the bottom rung of a massive ladder of political engagement (and, while some may not see it as one, it IS a rung, as having the ability to vote is better than not being able to).

I like the point, "i'd prefer a labour government to a BNP one!" Indeed, apathy, especially in elections with a low turnout like local and MEP ones does help the BNP, after all they got the 2 MEPs, not from getting more votes, but from less people overall voting.

So as you might guess, I'm voting in this election - and voting Danny K!

Why I am going to Vote Danny!

Hot on the heels of Ian Bone's suggestion that; "unlike most anarchists I think standing in elections can be a useful tactic in the armoury of the revolutionary..." - I agree that it is worth voting as it's a great way to make a bit of mischief and also if you don't vote scum like the BNP get in - who rely on apathy to win.

In Bristol West, a guy Called Danny Kushlick is standing for the People's Manifesto - which has some fun and some serious stuff on it...

1. The introduction of a Tobin tax (Robin Hood tax) on foreign financial transactions.

2. The Daily Mail should be forced to print on the front of every edition the words: "This is a fictionalised account of the news and any resemblance to the truth is entirely coincidental."

3. There should be a referendum before going to war.

4. MPs should have to wear tabards displaying the names and logos of the companies with which they have a financial relationship, like a racing driver.

Now given that the local rag, the Evening Pest, is owned by the Daily Mail, I can't see them giving him much coverage. But they are the past and I am voting for the future. Given that the Daily Mail is a hot-bed of anti-science, drugs & immigration hysteria - I can't see them giving him much coverage.

So it is going to be down to us. Bug given that social media gives us a scope that we've not had before; witness the toppling of the carefully orchestrated Christmas No1. by Rage Against the Machine, and you can see that winning is possible. This is not a protest vote; this a real vote. But also given the media/government hysteria on drugs of late, it is time for a bit of rationality into the debate. So yes, I'm voting Danny.

I've got nothing against the LibDem MP, hell, I even voted for him 2005 to send a message to Labour over the war. But if we elect another LibDem MP, then it's all a bit meh. If we elected Danny - that would cause some ructions for the powers that be: that would not be the end of it - far from it - but it is a step in the right direction of getting of real, grassroots democracy going.

But it is also important because Danny is the policy director of Transform - who campaign for sane drug laws. The media-friendly 'ban it all' approach we're been taking for the last 50 years or so costs us over £1.2 billion per year and yet drugs are cheaper and more freely available than ever before. I want to see policy change to something that works. People are going to use drugs, whatever, so lets deal with that and move on... I live in St.Pauls and see the fallout of the failed policy regime day-in and day-out. Enough.

So, c'mon fellow Bristolains - lets Vote for Danny! If the Daily Mail hate him, you know he's worth your support!



PS.

You can hear him on the GoatLab radio show playing tunes and talking about his work on drug law reform. http://www.thegoatlab.com/2009/12/goatlab-radio-drugs-special/

There is a facebook group started: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111518488868657

Drugs: Does spending £1.2 billion a year help? Who knows? Who cares?

Here's a classic from Transform's blog:

The Government spends £1.2 billion a year on measures aimed at tackling problem drug use, yet does not know what overall effect this spending is having.

Get that? The government spends £1.2 billion a year and they have no idea the effect it is having. This means that it might not be very effective. It means that it might be really effective. But it also means that it might have the opposite effect - that the government spends £1.2 billion a year to make the UK's drug problems worse.

What kind of a way is that to run a policy?

I noted before that the director of Transform, Danny Kushlick, is standing in the Bristol West seat - his election would be an amazing victory for a common sense approach to drugs.

You've got my vote, Danny!

Drugs! Danger! Evil! Think of the Kids! Eeek!

The media has once again failed us on the issue of drugs. This seeing account gives an image that goes beyond the bounds of reality...

In November last year, the Sun published a story under the headline: "Legal drug teen ripped his scrotum off". Quoting a police report, the paper said an unnamed teenager from Durham needed hospital treatment after mephedrone made him him "rip off his own scrotum". An internal police report had said: "One individual states that after using it for 18 hours his hallucinations led him to believe that centipedes were crawling over him and biting him, and this led him to receive hospital treatment after he ripped his own scrotum off." However, it carried on: "This information was taken from an internet blog and as such it should be treated with the credence such information deserves." The officer said he took the story from a website that sells mephedrone, and that his warning was not printed. The owner of the website that hosted this blog, mephedrone.com, says the posting was a joke.

How could the media fail us so? The banning of a drug does not mean that we are safer as a results. The war of drugs has failed and yet the media pushes the same failed ideas and policies over and over. Still there was one bright spot in this article:

The media's coverage has angered some who work in the drugs policy field. "The misreporting of mephedrone deaths is a crass example of the potentially lethal alliance between press and politicians that by default ends in a ban that often creates far greater harms than those caused by use," said Danny Kushlick, of the drugs charity Transform, which opposes prohibition.

Danny is standing in the election for Bristol West - where I live! He's a great bloke - smart, funny and he genuinely cares. He's got my vote and I'll be blogging more about him as time goes on...