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For anyone still making up their mind in Brighton Pavilion

So- today is the day. This blog is for anyone who has still not made up their mind on who to vote for in Brighton Pavilion. I'm firstly working from an assumption that you're not going to vote Conservative and the Lib Dems have no chance of gaining power here, as they're too far behind.

This leaves a realistic choice between Labour and the Green party.

Now the Green party have a fantastic manifesto. They say all the right things and you really can't argue with their policies.

What you can argue with is their maths. Their manifesto contains selective costings and a lot of it is pie in the sky. Go and check it out for yourself if you're unsure.

Caroline Lucas, the Green leader and local candidate, is not based in Brighton. She is an MEP and spends a lot of her time in Brussels. In the many local debates she has been shown up for not talking about what is happening locally.

What the Greens HAVE done locally since electing several councillors is stand in the way of local people. They objected to a development of the Marina that would have secured several hundred much needed social housing developments, not to mention created several hundred jobs for local people.

Their manifesto includes tax increases on alcohol, cigarettes, betting and transport. Think about that. Who is going to suffer the most from these rises? The people who need it the most.

The Greens have ridden Nick Clegg's coat-tails for the past few weeks, but all I ask before you vote is that you make sure you are clear on the facts. Go read the manifesto and make your own mind up. The Greens' strongest selling point, their proposed living wage, is now being proposed by Labour, though without the tax hikes that will offset the benefits.

If you are thinking of voting Green, the ultimate truth is that the best case scenario is that they will gain one seat locally (though the Greens would have to overturn a Labour majority of nearly 6000 and they face a mountainous struggle to do this, regardless of what the opinion polls that they commissioned say) and thus will be taking one away from Labour nationally - thereby letting the Conservatives in nationally.

A GREEN VOTE IS A BLUE VOTE. The Greens will tell you that voting Labour will let the Conservatives in - before you listen to them, check out the facts - a 6000 majority is very hard to turn around.

Nancy Platts is the only local candidate campaigning for local people. She is the most genuine and accessible of the candidates and with a history in the community sector her heart and values are in the right place.

If your heart is in the right place, do the right thing and vote Labour today.

NB: Comments removed from this blog only because I will be at work and won't have time to respond today

A public apology to Charlotte Vere

You see, if there's one reason why I could never be a politician, it's because I'm crap at arguing in person due to my poor memory and inability to remember important facts and figures. If there's a second reason, it's because I can bring myself to say things like  "I was wrong" and "I'm sorry". That's what I am going to do now.

I want to issue a public apology to Charlotte Vere, the Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Earlier in my blog I accused her of being bitter and aggressive toward the Green Party. Indeed, from first reading her tweets this is how I perceived the situation.

What I have since realised is just quite how annoying the Greens actually are. Their persistent re-positioning, their perfect-world mentality and their general sanctimonious tone stinks of desperation and is just too much for me to bear. I really can't blame Charlotte for rising to them.

Of course I haven't even mentioned their policies. The problem is not just that I can't disagree with any of them, but that they are apparently funded by an pot of infinite cash (see possibly the only Conservative blog post I'll ever agree with).

Lastly, the irony that the "Green" party have posted more fliers through my letterbox than any other party - often the same content laid out differently. Someone tell me that this isn't a complete waste of time, money and natural resources.

So here it is - Charlotte, I'm genuinely sorry for my earlier comments. Now I have this in context I can understand where you were coming from, and I have found new respect for you in the way you have publicly challenged the Greens on their policies.

Though I shall still be voting for Labour's Nancy Platts, any affection I had for the Green Party is slowly being ground away by their own representatives.

A plea to those swayed by the latest Tory poster campaign

This poster makes me physically sick. Why? Because of the amount of people who will buy into the cheapness of a message that is conveyed so dishonestly.

I'm sick of hearing people talk about "...my taxes being spent on people who don't want to work" and "...people who sit at home claiming benefits when there's nothing wrong with them". Please, let me educate those of you who have been fortunate enough to never be in this position.

Firstly, you lose your job. You find yourself signing on and you receive approximately £60 per week with which to support yourself and possibly your family. That's approximately £8.50 per day. For this £8.50 per day, you have to feed and clothe yourself and your family, as well as pay all the household bills. You also have to search for work and get yourself to and from interviews. Now I don't know about elsewhere in the country, but in Brighton bus travel alone will cost you £3.60 per day.

Now just think about that for a minute. What do YOUR monthly bills come in at? How much is your weekly shop? How much do you spend on travel each week? I'm willing to wager that the three combined come in at well over £60 per week alone.

So you struggle to pay your bills, you receive a number of final demands, you may well get credit blacklisted. Of course if you're lucky and you have some savings put aside, it may take a couple of months to get to this stage, but I would suggest this is not a common scenario for many of the people that you like to label "bums".

You go to interviews. You don't get the job. This happens regularly and your confidence suffers. Your mental health suffers as a result. Some people are stronger than others. Some may look for a crutch at this point and may find it in drugs or alcohol, others unknowingly start destroying relationships around them.

Before you judge, try to imagine what it must be like to have hit that low.

You go to seek advice. The Job Centre don't want to know, they just want to get people into jobs, so the hardest to help are left to the bottom of the pile. The support agencies employed on government contracts have targets to reach and again you fall to the bottom of the pile. Right now your debts are getting larger and larger and you may well start claiming housing benefit just to keep a roof over your head.

Alcoholism or drug dependence then starts eating into your money. Even those lucky enough to avoid such crutches are not spared, for depression is on the horizon. We've all been unfortunate enough to watch daytime television - being forced to sit through it daily is enough to send anyone on a downward spiral. Joking aside though, if you've ever been out of work for any period of time you'll know how it can affect your confidence. So you start looking for jobs that perhaps aren't what you would like to do. You don't get them. Why? Because you don't have the necessary skills/qualifications (don't get me started on NVQs) and experience. Alternatively one agency or another puts your forward for a position that you don't particularly want, and this comes through no matter how much you may try to hide it.

Again - just think about that for a moment. If the bottom fell out of the market that you work in and you were forced to start from the bottom just to get back into work - how would YOU feel?

Now imagine that you took that job simply because you needed the money. How motivated would you be? How productive would you be? How much of an impact would that have on your family, friends, colleagues and anyone else you came in to contact with? Again, think before you judge.

Back to the unemployed. So, you finally access to support to retrain or gain experience before applying for work (there are many good schemes run locally at present, I've no idea how widely available they are) and you put together an action plan with an advisor. I should point out that due to funding restrictions, the advisor cannot see you as often as you need, due to their high client caseload. You're referred to other agencies for training courses. You wait. And you wait. And you wait some more. You finally manage to enrol on the course that you want, that will give you the skills you need to go into the sector that you want to work in. Great! Even better - it's free because you're unemployed!

But hold on a minute.

You've been offered some part-time work. One of your interviews came good, but it clashes with your course dates.

Never mind. You manage to rearrange the dates to fit. Hang on though, the course is no longer free, because you are no longer unemployed. You're now either not eligible, or you have to pay a fee that you can't afford. Remember, throughout all this period of unemployment you've been getting in more and more debt.

So what do you do? The course that will allow you to get back into the type of work you want to do, or the part-time job for a few weeks because you desperately need the money? I'm glad that I have never had to personally make this decision, but I have seen many clients in a similar position. It's no wonder that unemployment can cause many mental health conditions - I won't lecture you on the effects of depression, but I suggest that you look it up yourself, or better still talk to the individuals going through it right now, because only then can you realise how being unemployed affects your confidence and motivation, no matter how much you want to be in work.

So yes, the benefits system does need some tweaking, but is withdrawing support for "those that don't want to work" the appropriate mechanism for correcting the situation? No, it's not. Yes, there are those that abuse the system. But these people will find a way around any system. Can you really support a welfare state that withdraws all benefits, most likely causing mental health problems for those most in need? Which will, in the long-run, prove a much bigger drain on national resources anyway?

This latest Tory campaign is callous, cold, uncaring and dishonest in the way it presents the scenario.

In my day job I am employed to broker work placements for unemployed people. Those same people who complain about "their taxes" being spent on supporting these people are unwilling to help them in the simplest of ways. You would think that these people, so upset that "their taxes" are being spent on benefits, would want to do all they could to support people back in to work. I mean, they're even getting a free pair of hands - that's free labour! But no. They don't want to offer any help to the local community. The irony here is that one simple short-term, part-time placement would offer so much more to the local community than "their taxes". It would immediately make the client more employable and is therefore potentially one less claimant. And of course, the client is now finding that they can't even find UNPAID work! A real confidence-booster if ever there was one...

So in summary- when you work, as I do, with the longest-suffering individuals that DO want to work, and you see the barriers that they come up against - you start to understand that even those that you perceive to be "sitting at home on benefits" have issues that run much deeper than simply finding a job.

Finally, has anyone told Mr Cameron that there aren't actually that many jobs out there at the moment anyway?

Further thoughts on why I'm supporting Labour

In my eagerness to get out of the house, I finished the previous post in a bit of a rush and didn't really clarify my reasons for supporting Labour in great detail.

Ultimately, it comes down to needing to find a party to trust in the upcoming election. Yeah yeah... I can hear you sniggering and asking why I would put my trust in a party that has failed on so many of it's pre-election promises. Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, I can't say I whole-heartedly trust any political party, but let's face it - it's crunch time and it's time to pick sides.

I just can't trust David Cameron. He comes across like so many of the heartless, high-powered, self-obsessed executives I've worked for and his party show continued disrespect to the lesser-privileged individuals in society. Their communication is unclear, unsubstantiated and shows a lack of understanding of how engage with the working class. At best, their policies to provide help to those who need it are unrealistic. At worst, they are patronising. Their sums don't add up, and crucially their plan to repay the public spending deficit does not seem to be backed up with any explanation of how this will be funded. When you look at their other pledges, such as the promise to get people off welfare and back in to work, I can't help but think that this hole will be filled by substantial cuts to services for those most in need.

Labour have introduced many initiatives and services that have improved life significantly for those most in need, and indeed the Conservatives opposed many of the projects. The one that stands out, of course, is their opposition to the minimum wage.

Most worrying is Cameron's continued insistence of the magnificence of Margaret Thatcher's leadership.

So Gordon Brown may not be the most inspirational leader. He may not have been elected by the public. But what he and his government have done is stabilise an economy badly hit by and INTERNATIONAL recession - not a recession caused by the current government as David Cameron would like you to believe. To change government and move in the direction that the Tories are proposing would risk significantly damaging the recovery, and put the most vulnerable in an even tighter situation.

But crucially, the pledge that finally swayed my vote can be found in Gordon Brown's election pledge speech:

I know that in this time of cynicism and lack of trust in politics, there are some people who will say that politicians will promise the earth but never deliver, that a pledge isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

And I understand that, but these are not general pledges without dates, without tests, without scrutiny. these are our pledges to every single citizen, tied to timetables, regular reporting and proof of performance.

So I want to build-in accountability mechanisms to the pledges we are making, so that you can hold me to account, and we can test our progress against our promises in the year to come.

I believe the business of government should be more business-like – that the British people are the boss and like any employer they deserve to know about the performance of their team.

And so I am proposing the following.

Firstly, Sir Tim Berners Lee, the man most associated with the invention of the internet, is the government’s advisor on data openness and transparency all across the internet.

In the months to come he will be ensuring that there is the maximum possible information available to the public at all times.

This rapid extension of transparency will show in real time how government are delivering against our pledges.

Now understand, as I mentioned previously, Labour are very much in the last chance saloon with me. If Labour can make good on this promise, I believe this will sway many of the doubters.

It has taken me months to arrive at this decision. I have deliberated over every little detail, many of which I would have to admit that I don't understand. However, I realise that I now need to put my faith somewhere, and the only party that seem to be able to back up what they say with real facts and figures are the Labour party.

Untangling the Brighton Pavilion parliamentary web

When I sat down to write this blog an hour ago, I was going to ask the Brighton Pavilion candidates to help sway me, as I was completely undecided which way to vote. Now before I continue, please be clear on something - despite my constant Tory-bashing, I am equally suspicious of all politicians. For me, it's always a case of picking the best of a bad bunch. Personally I think the whole system needs an overhaul and fresh set of faces, but let's put that to one side and get realistic for a minute - that's not going to happen any time soon.

So I sat down with all the fliers that have dropped through my letterbox lately and worked my way through all the facts, figures, spin and hyperbole. In doing so I found that my decision is actually quite an easy one. Let me take you through how I got there.

Social Networking
Working in the community sector in Brighton and Hove, part of my job involves seeking out opportunities to work in collaboration with local businesses and people. This means I spend a certain amount of time on the popular social networking site Twitter. Now the thing about Twitter is that some people get it, and some don't. Some people understand the impact of the way they present themselves on Twitter, and some don't. The three main candidates for Brighton Pavilion can all be found on Twitter, and I have been watching them all closely for some time now.

Now I have to admit that Labour candidate Nancy Platts does have a slight advantage here, in that I have been lucky enough to spend some time talking to her face-to-face. Nancy contacted me through Twitter to discuss my work. I found her to be interesting and engaging, and refreshingly genuine. She explained the local political landscape to me without spin and she is both honest and humble. Take a look at her tweets - polite, engaging, factual and relevant.

Those same words can be used for the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who also come across very well. Of course I wouldn't expect less from a forward-thinking party such as the Greens. Ben Duncan, Green Party candidate for Kemptown, also comes across very well.

However, let's take a look at the feed for Charlotte Vere, the local Conservative candidate. Aggressive, irrelevant, bitter, defensive, isolating, and quite frankly - dull. But then, if she spent a little more time promoting her party's policies and less time whining at her followers she might actually risk connecting with people. That's not really the Tory way, is it? Well, not unless there's money involved.

I can only presume that Liberal Democrat Bernie Millam has given up the chase, as until I googled the candidate details I had no idea who their representative was.

Local Campaigning
I pulled together everything that has come through my door. Now clearly as leader of the Greens, Caroline Lucas is throwing everything she can into this campaign, include a whole lot of paper through my letterbox. Isn't that somewhat ironic, from the Green party?

Now initially I found myself being swayed towards the Green vote. After all, their fliers clearly state that unless we vote Green, the Conservatives will be voted in.

I have to say this is a particularly good piece of spin from the Greens, with a graph to "clearly illustrate" the level of support for the Green Party in Brighton Pavilion. The small print reveals that the figures are based on an opinion poll of 533 adults interviewed by telephone in December 2009. I note there is no clarification on where the phone numbers were sourced from, or that these are adults based in Brighton.

Now I really don't question the integrity of these figures, but they fail to tell the whole story. In 2005 the Green Party came third in the general election. They were 6,000 votes behind Labour, and nearly 900 behind the Tories. As far as I can see, this means that voting Green is actually a damn risky strategy that could in fact ENSURE that the Tories gain control, not prevent them from doing so.

Charlotte Vere sent me a very boring letter which I wish I hadn't put straight in to the recycling.

And as for the Lib Dems... well, they're a bit quiet around these parts...

National Policy
I like Caroline Lucas. She seems genuine. The Green Party, on the face of it, seem to have the answers. They could very well be the fresh face of British politics that we so badly need right now. The only problem is that they fail to back it up.

I WANT to vote Green, I really do. So I checked out the policies page on their website. It makes great reading, it really does. However, I have to say that it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's all very well having a destination, but you also need to show us the route to get there.

I give the Greens great credit for campaigning positively, as sadly the same cannot be said of the Lib Dems. I'm sick of hearing constant critisism from Nick Clegg, when his tired old party don't show any sign of imagination or ability to provide solutions to the country's problems.

I've said enough in the past about my reasons for not voting Conservative, so I don't feel any need to expand any further right now.

Now, Labour. I've decided to support Nancy Platts in the forthcoming election, but I have to say that they're in the last chance saloon with me. I can't stomach the thought of a Conservative government and voting Green seems far too risky, but that doesn't mean that I'm anywhere near happy with the current government. Gordon Brown must surely realise that if they win the election a lot of things have to change, and quickly. However, locally I feel that Nancy has the ability to make a difference. I was very impressed with her understanding of social issues and as far as I can see she is the only candidate who is permanently resident in the area.

THAT is why, for now at least, I am supporting Labour.

Bandwagon ahoy!

Disrespectful exploitation by the opposition leader

I'm not going to comment too much on this one. There's a great article on the Times website which says more than I possibly could. Personally my favourite part is the part that the Tories would struggle to comprehend:

"There has never been a time when our society has been richer, lived longer, been more tolerant, guaranteed women greater opportunities, cared better for the sick and disabled or done more to provide education for all."