Intolerant Intolerance

I have a friend called Michael.

Michael. Not his usual look, mind you.

He’s a great buddy and definitely one of my BFFs. Friendly, down-to-earth and a great laugh to be around, he was one of the few people that helped me endure the bullshit that occurred at the secondary school I went to. He now lives in Edinburgh in an amazing little flat (which I’m stupidly envious of) and I go through whenever I can, where we catch a coffee, catch up with one anothers’ lives and have a good bitch about everything that irks us. A day spent in his company is always a hilarious and therapeutic one and I’m glad to have him as a buddy.

Proof

He’s also gay.

That last sentence means jack shit to me: everybody’s different and your sexuality is an integral part of your personality, so you should be allowed to be attracted to whichever gender of person you like. I actually welcome the fact that he’s gay: it makes him stand out as an individual even more and his camp nature only serves to make him a wittier and more endearing person. I like girls and he likes guys: that’s fine and that’s the end of it, as far as I’m concerned.

Not so, according to the Scottish Christian Party and the birdbrained views they give across in their party election broadcast. Here it is in all its terrible glory.

Fantastic, isn’t it? I know that election broadcasts are traditionally terrible, but I’ve never seen one this bad. Did they honestly look at the final product and decide it was worthy of broadcasting on national television? What’s with the choppy footage of a photocopier printing leaflets? Why can’t you hear a word of what anybody’s saying? And what is that music about? It’s like something the Westboro Baptist Church would churn out.

I digress. In case you can’t penetrate the horrific production values and actually make out what anybody’s saying, what it basically boils down to is ‘we Christians are being persecuted for not liking homosexuals’. They say that the nation must turn into a tolerant society so that they can freely speak about their condemnation of gay people without the threat of persecution or punishment.

Right...

What a load of horseshit. How the hell would we be making a more tolerant Scotland by electing a party that would in turn decry and denounce an entire group of people purely for the way they think and feel? Their manifesto says that they ‘will expose the threat to freedom of speech’. How, by channelling the ‘persecution’ they receive onto gay people instead? They don’t seem to realise just how hypocritical they’re being when they say that “we don’t live in a tolerant society” while snivelling about their disapproval of homosexuals. I bet they’d be up in arms if similar broadcasts from other religious parties started doing the rounds.

When this popped up on my television, I was shocked, appalled and frankly offended: how can people harbour such intolerant views of others, looking down on them and lecturing them on how the way they choose to live their lives is sinful? Since when does being gay ‘infringe upon the rights of others’? If you happen to be gay, watch out: you’re apparently just as bad as criminals and murderers.

The Scottish Christian party is a hypocritical, intolerant, insulting and disrespectful organisation that doesn’t deserve any of the votes it may get. Their election broadcast is not so much a campaign promo as another opportunity to preach their archaic and idiotic views and ram them down our throats. They chose to follow the ways of Christianity and base their lives on such a decision: why can’t others do the same for any aspect of their lives? Why should we have to put up with being exposed to this shit? The Episcopal Church welcomes gay people into their community, so why are these people so against it? As the old biddy in the video says, Christianty is not a disease: what is are the abrasive and toxic views the people in this party are intent on infecting others with. What they’re doing is spreading hate disguised as political views. These people are just as bad as other hateful parties such as the BNP.

I wonder what Michael, one of the most personable, friendly and conscientious people I know, would think of such views. I’d much rather spend time with him and risk going to hell than spend the rest of eternity in heaven with these bigoted, ignorant, intolerant fools.

I know who definitely won’t be getting my vote this Thursday.

ConDemned

I’m still stunned after yesterday’s events.

The last few days of Britain’s political climate has been rather shaky and unstable: a lack of a majority of votes for any party lead to a hung parliament, meaning that no party had a majority of seats and thus would have found great difficulty in passing legislation. The country has effectively endured the last few days without a government.

So it was somewhat of a sigh of relief when Gordon Brown appeared outside 10 Downing Street and stated that he would take action to install a stable government that was best for the country’s citizens and as such would be willing to discuss a coalition government with the two other main parties. While it was sad to hear about his intention to resign before September of this year, his staunch attitude, that he must do what is right for the people of the UK at all costs, was admirable. The possibility of a Lib-Lab government seemed like a fair compromise, so the future of the country seemed a bit more certain and so I was contented.

The very next day, however,  Gordon Brown suddenly and unexpectedly resigned as Prime Minister, placing Tory leader David Cameron in the highest position of power in the country.

What happened? In the space of 24 hours, the state of the nation went from one of hopeful optimism to the harsh reality that the Conservatives were now in power for at least the next five years. Many people, myself and a large number of friends and colleagues included, didn’t want this to happen.

Despite the atrocious way in which he was treated by the press, Gordon Brown’s term in office should be applauded. In the space of nearly three years, he was confronted by numerous disasters, such as torrential flooding, an outbreak of foot and mouth and a terrorist bombing of Glasgow Airport, yet he always soldiered on and ultimately got himself, his party and his country through these troubling events.

His biggest achievement as prime minister, however, is his handling of the horrendous state of affairs regarding the global ‘credit crunch’. An expert in financial dealings as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Blair, he took the lead in dealing with the economic crisis, nationalising Northern Rock and virtually doing the same for the Royal Bank of Scotland, reducing the V.A.T. rate to encourage consumer spending and liaising heavily with the U.S.A. and European Union to combat the economic downturn. The man always was always staunch in his belief that he only did whatever he genuinely believed was best for the country, stating at 2008’s Labour Party Conference that he “didn’t come into politics to be a celebrity”.

But become a celebrity he did, falling prey to the unfair and unjust scrutiny and accusations of rags such as The Sun and being featured in entertainment magazines where he didn’t belong. Who cares about a man’s popularity and personal life as long as he’s a good politician?

The public was subsequently seduced by Cameron of the opposing Tory party, leading to the situation that ultimately led to Brown’s departure and an unshakable air of sadness, gloom and doom falling over the nation. Although most of the problems he faced were inherited, he always did what was best for the country: Cameron and Clegg seem like they’re only doing what’s best for themselves and their parties (Clegg’s position as ‘Deputy Prime Minister’ sounds like something out of a bad cowboy movie).

I have a number of questions I want answered by the newly installed ‘ConDem’ government: Why was their no agreement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and why were the details of the discussions kept so secret? Who is Nick Clegg to decide which party governs the country, and why after so much campaigning against Conservative policies are they ready and willing to change them so readily? Hopefully these answers will come to light under this new coalition government,as many people I know are outraged that their vote for the Lib Dems was essentially counted as one for the Tories, a situation that they voted against in the first place.

Yesterday, the final day of Gordon Brown’s leadership of the country, was truly a sad one: the man wasn’t the given the chance to implement his plans for further economic prosperity and his departure marks the end of an era.

I, along with my fellow Labour and Lib Dem voters, finish with a message to Conservative supporters: Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The Tories have ruined the country before, they’ve got the potential to do it again.

Vote Now

I’ve had a hard time deciding on which party to vote for in today’s general election.

Despite being of an age where I’ve only been able to vote once before , I’ve more or less been a staunch Labour supporter all my life, even  from when I was young lad. I more or less agreed with every aspect of the manifestos they’ve offered over the years and I didn’t fall for all the spin and sensationalism proffered by such reliable and trustworthy sources of information such as The Sun (which incidentally displayed one of the worst front pages I’ve ever seen in my life).

Seriously, look at it. It’s bloody awful.

So when the date  for the next general election was set, it looked like a dead certain that Labour would be getting my vote again.

But then the Digital Economy Bill (now Act) was passed.

Focusing on several aspects of digital media, it discussed issues such as the operation of Channel 4 and the functions of Ofcom, which is fair enough, but there was a storm of controversy over one point in particular: infringement in copyright on online content and the punishment internet users can face should they breach it. Endorsed by Labour, it decreed that anyone caught pirating any form of media online could face criminal charges and face having their access to the internet suspended while they are investigated.  A paltry 16 politicians turned up to debate the bill, which was passed in just under two hours, thereby violating the civil liberties millions of internet users via a practice which has been proven to fail numerous times in the past. The Act showed just how ignorant, draconian and out of touch with modern reality the people that run the country really are.

This shocking display of naivety from the Labour Party was enough to make me question my support for it, but who would I vote for instead? There’s no way I’d vote for the Tories: I’m not rich or English, so why should I? The Green Party attracted me with its promise of definitive action to counter climate change (as did their rather nifty stop-motion animated party election broadcast), but their anti-science stance, believing that there is no place for genetically modified foods in modern society, repelled me. I don’t believe that Scotland should be made independent so I wasn’t voting for the Scottish National Party, I’m not left enough to vote for the Communists and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that  the fascists in the British National Party would ever get my vote: their astoundingly hateful combination of offensive policies, fear tactics, bullying and outrageous lies only serve to make them unthinkable as the leaders of the country in this day and age.

Are these the kind of people you’d entrust the running of a nation to?

UKIP are just as bad: the only difference between it and the BNP is one letter. You should also never vote for a party that can’t spell ‘independence’, especially when it constitutes an important part of its name.

After discounting all these parties, there seemed to be hope in the form of the Liberal Democrats. The majority of their policies matched the way I felt about a number of issues: they pledged to implement tax breaks for the videogame industry – an entertainment sector that I have a passionate love for – as soon as possible and to repeal the Digital Economy Bill if they came to power. At this, I was certain that my vote would go towards aiding the Lib Dems int their quest to gain seats in parliament…

Until I discovered via Twitter that they want to implement the Euro as the country’s currency. I’ve always been fond of our native currency and wouldn’t like to see it go, especially with the current economic climate and the state it’s in, with some countries in the Euro-zone are currently experiencing or on the verge of economic collapse. This revelation was enough to make me question my conviction in voting for the party.

So for the last few days, I’ve been unable to make my mind up about who to vote for. I’ve investigated policies, taken numerous quizzes to tell me which party my views are most aligned with and hummed and hawed as I changed my mind time and time again constantly waivering, never deciding on one.

In fact, I was still undecided even as I walked into my local polling station, presented my voting card to the official and scanned each party’s emblem. My eyes darted between the names of the two candidates I’d vote for. My pencil hovered hover over one, the graphite touching the box I wanted to cross before being removed and placed on the name of the other. I simply couldn’t make up my mind.

But I knew I had to, so I crossed one, folded my form in half and placed it in the ballot box. Even with the deed done, however, I’m still not sure I made the right choice. Even then, I’d probably still question my decision if I’d voted for the other party.

I suppose the only thing I can do now is wait and see if my vote was worth it. At least now I have the right to complain if things don’t go the way I’d like them to.

Addendum: Bob Bailey, the BNP MP featured in the above video, has subsequently been dismissed from the party.