Britain forwards not backwards - but forwards to where?

When Tony Blair called the British parliamentary election for May 5, I occasionally wondered how I would vote if I were to be a citizen of the UK. Must be quite an experience, I thought. So it was a pleasant surprise for me that last Monday, a voter card in my name arrived in the morning post at Frances Gardner House. Upon further inquiry on Westlaw, it was revealed that under the Representation of the People Act 2000 (Section 1), citizens of Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland residing in the UK are also eligible to vote. Since I was previously unaware of this, someone had evidently put my name on the electoral roll for Holborn and St.Pancras, the central London constituency around this Hall of Residence.

Notwithstanding the fact that Labour is defending an 11,000-vote majority in Holborn and St Pancras which means it is a rather safe seat for Messrs.Blair & Co., I would certainly like to visit the polling station and put my vote in the box come the 5th of May. It would be quite memorable to cast my first-ever general election vote to help elect a Parliament other than that of my homeland, anomalous as it may sound. Frankly if the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are willing to risk death and serious injury in order to make their voices heard, there is pretty much no excuse not to take that walk/drive down to the nearest polling station in peaceful states such as Malaysia and the UK.

Which brings me to the other question - 'whom (not who) do I want to lead this country?' The three main parties are Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat. If you believe The Daily Telegraph, Conservative stands a pretty good chance of at least breaking Mr.Blair's hegemony and achieving a "hung Parliament." If you believe practically everyone else, the Blair-Brown machine is going to steamroll its way to another 5 year-term with a comfortable majority to spare.

Essentially, the situation is that while many people are irked by the Blair Government on Iraq, spiralling crime and antisocial behaviour, MRSA-infected hospitals and a seemingly uncontrolled influx of immigration, we are not exactly convinced that the Tories or Lib Dems would do a better job.

Opposition Leader Michael Howard's tough line on crime and immigration won his party a brief surge in the opinion polls about a fortnight ago. That has since stalled as the Tories began to run out of ideas to fuel the envisioned turn in the tide. Furthermore, Labour pulled out its own big guns in the form of the highly publicised Blair-Brown rapprochement and also focused on Tory plans to cut spending on public services ("Warning: The Tories will cut 35 billion pounds from public services" billboards began appearing at strategic locations).

The Lib Dems have a somewhat different agenda. Opposed from the beginning to the war in Iraq, they would like to take Britain into the eurozone and work for greater European integration, which means effectively handing over more power to Brussels.

Personally, I would like to see the main parties direct closer attention to how they are going to address the issue of rising crime and hooliganism on British streets. All three parties have claimed they want to increase the number of policemen, but is the problem strictly one of quantity? Will having more policemen change anything if they are increasingly burdened by administrative regulations, cumbersome law enforcement procedures and a ridiculous obsession with political correctness? The Met Police proposed recently to change the italicised font of its slogan, "Working together for a safer London", at considerable cost so that those with visual impairments will not be discriminated against in perceiving their slogan. Well, being visually impaired myself, I am sure I would derive more comfort from knowing the Met Police are directing their budget towards deterring the yobs that once attacked my hostel room, rather than changing their signboards so that I can see their slogan better, inspiring as it is.

Mr.Howard and Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Chancellor, want to improve the quality of Britain's public services. But at the same time they propose cuts in funding for such services, which makes sense since they are the Conservative party after all and are supposed to want a lean public sector and all that monetarist hoo-ha. They protest that the 35 bil figure is a Labour misrepresentation. Well, that may be but the fact remains that they are going to take money out of the public sector. And I don't think you can improve an overburdened set of services by taking funding out of it. True, you can improve efficiency but with regard to human nature and bureaucratic inertia that is much easier said than done. Best attempted without the accompanying complication of reduced funding.

Besides Mr.Howard has a disturbingly authoritarian streak as a leader. When the courts ruled against him in ex parte Fire Brigades Union (he was Home Secretary in the John Major government) he simply bulldozed legislation through Parliament at the next opportunity to get his version of pension schemes on the statute books. Recently, when Conservative MP Howard Flight suggested flaws in the leadership's economic proposals, he was swiftly stripped of his candidacy and cast into the political wilderness. Not a very good record on taking criticism as a leader, Mr. Howard.

Not that I am some wooly, utopian, Guardian-reading liberal who opposes all things "authoritarian". I think Mr.Blair's policy on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and ID cards perfectly justifiable. After all, I've carried an ID card for almost 10 years now and far from it being some sinister device by which my government tracks all my private info, my ID card has proved really useful in situations such as opening bank accounts, joining societies and even minor road accidents. I think the liberals have really gone too far with their criticism on this one. Besides, I would back the government's steps to control the terror threat, such as house arrest, electronic tagging and so on. First David Blunkett and now Charles Clarke, besides the police chiefs, have warned of the significant terror threat to the UK and London in particular as justifying such measures. A Government cannot wait for a terror attack to happen before taking steps to protect its people. The liberals have got to understand that. As for the suspected militants, well, if you associate yourself with dangerous organisations you can hardly blame others for treating you a tad suspiciously.

Clearly I do not agree with most of the Lib Dems' rallying points, namely their stubborn opposition to ID cards, their stand on Iraq and their Europhilic tendencies. On balance, I don't think Mr.Howard and the Tories would be able to deliver on their promises of reduced tax, smaller state sector and yet free and improved public services such as healthcare. Something will have to give. Thus although I absolutely detest the worsening yob culture, supercasinos, dirty hospitals and the craze about political correctness; although I think of myself as conservative with a small 'c'; if I were to vote on May 5 I would hold my nose and vote Labour.

Activity Wind-down

Just to inform that activity on this site is likely to decrease in the next month or so, as my first-year final exams fall between May 4-12 (less than one month from now) and I need to allocate resources for that in the time being.

For those who are interested, I've had a fine month before this ... had a nice little birthday celebration with some London friends on March 25 to begin with. Thank you very much to all who called, SMSed, visited or otherwise wished me a happy birthday ... indeed I had one =)

Just returned from a trip to Ireland by bus and ferry ... a sorta journey off the beaten track. The trip was absolutely fantastic. Just describing the journey alone would probably take up this whole post (and bore you to tears) so suffice to say I toured the interesting bits of Dublin (Guinness Storehouse, Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin Castle, 1916 Uprising sites, Trinity College, etc. etc.). Also went out into the countryside at Glendalough and County Wicklow on a day tour, which was really amazing in terms of the scenery.

Also finished off a 3000-word mini dissertation that will count for 25% of my exam marks for Public Law in May ... quite a nice topic on the recent House of Lords ruling on the Belmarsh detainees, though it left me very tired out and sleepy after 3 days of slogging.

So you see, when you consider all the other very interesting stuff I'd like to mention but am too sleepy to at the moment, I've had a pretty eventful month before this ... now to settle down for the last month of the LLB Intermediate year and try to salvage some presentable grades. Need to reassure the sponsors that they aren't wasting precious foreign exchange on me, you see. =)

I like to think a bit before I blog so coming up with an entry usually takes a long time (with the exception of this one). I'm not likely to have that kind of time between now and the end of exams. So, further updates likely after May 12. In the meantime do add me to your MSN if you haven't done so already, at kingulnar2000@hotmail.com. Bulky emails should be sent to wilson.batupahat@gmail.com, otherwise you risk them bouncing back on you cos my other mailboxes have nowhere near as much storage space as that GMail one.

Hope my exam goes well, okay? See ya and have a great month ahead, wherever you are.