Tag Archives: politics

On tomorrow’s election

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Yes! to fairer votes

Tomorrow I’ll be exercising my democratic right to vote in the Scottish Parliament general election 2011 and the UK-wide Alternative Vote referendum.

Still not 100% decided on who I’ll vote for tomorrow—having voted for the Liberal Democrats in every election since I’ve been eligible to vote; voting for David Steel, Simon Hughes, Charles Kennedy, some-bloke-in-Edinburgh-who-wasn’t-that-famous, and Sir Menzies Campbell… and yes, I do know those were for Westminster seats—I do feel a little uneasy about voting for the LibDems because of the Conservative-LibDem alliance in London.

That said, and as Fr Kelvin pointed out in a blog post today, I should be voting on policies not personalities or to ‘punish’ Nick Clegg for a decision with which I disagree.

So I turned to Scottish Vote Compass to see what it could discern about me. And surprisingly it just about got it right:

20110504-scottishvotecompass

Scottish Liberal Democrats
23%
Scottish Greens
22%
Scottish Labour
20%
Scottish National Party
0%
Scottish Conservatives
-12%

    That’s a pretty close result with the top three there: 23%, 22% and 20%, which I guess is why I am in favour of the Alternative Vote system.

    Not in Comic Sans MS you can’t!

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    20110502-comicsansms

    This afternoon yet another pre-Scottish Election leaflet dropped through my letterbox. It was this one (above) from the Scottish National Party entitled Fife Independent with the strap-line “Together we can make Scotland better.”

    As I tweeted at the time:

    SNP newsletter through the door just now. Strapline says “Together we can make Scotland better”. Not in Comic Sans you can’t! #election

    I’m a firm believer that the typeface that you select for a publication helps set the tone of what you have to say.

    As Alex W. White says in The Elements of Graphic Design “choosing a typeface that matches the content is important. Words are symbols of emotions and ideas that manipulate the reader” (Ibid. p. 105). He encourages the reader to “listen to type”.

    The Ban Comic Sans website says much the same thing:

    Like the tone of a spoken voice, the characteristics of a typeface convey meaning. The design of the typeface is, in itself, its voice. Often this voice speaks louder than the text itself. Thus when designing a “Do Not Enter” sign the use of a heavy-stroked, attention-commanding font such as Impact or Arial Black is appropriate. Typesetting such a message in Comic Sans would be ludicrous.

    The history of Comic Sans MS is fascinating (if you like that sort of thing) and in many ways it is a very well-designed font, modelled on the typography used in American comic books. But that is the context in which it makes most sense to use Comic Sans MS: comic books not party political newsletters.

    Because no matter how good your arguments may be, Scottish National Party, I simply cannot take you seriously if you print it in Comic Sans. That is just down-right lazy.

    The LibDems safeguarding your money

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    It’s the European Parliamentary election on Thursday so we’ve been getting the usual steady stream of political party leaflets through the door.

    Liberal Democrats flyer showing man putting card into cashmachine.

    I was just about to throw into the recycling this one from the Scottish Liberal Democrats when the photo of Sir Menzies Campbell MP and Iain Smith MSP standing at a Royal Bank of Scotland Cashline (ATM) machine caught my eye.

    Here it is enlarged:

    Sir Menzies Campbell with man not using cashline machine properly.

    Can you spot what the problem is with this photograph?

    It would appear from this photograph that our local Member of the Scottish Parliament doesn’t know how to use a Cashline machine. He’s trying to poke his bank card into the slot that the money comes out of!

    Look! According to this illustration from the RBS website there’s even a diagram on the machine to show you where to put your card, along with the written instruction “Insert here”:

    ATM
    (Source: RBS MoneySense for Schools)

    I’m presuming that the Liberal Democrats’ policy for introducing international action to safeguard your money doesn’t simply rest on their inability to use the machines that would help them get the money out of the bank again!

    The gas hits the fan

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    Blue gas flame

    This post is related to this post: Mum’s hassles with British Gas.

    I spent this evening writing a carefully worded letter to four people:

    1. Mr Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive of Centrica plc
    2. Mr Phil Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas
    3. Mr Alastair Buchanan, Chief Executive of Ofgem Scotland
    4. Mrs Rosalie J Saunders

    A word of explanation:

    • #1 is the chief executive of Centrica, the company that owns British Gas — the company that’s causing #4 quite a lot of distress
    • #2 is the managing director of British Gas, the company that’s causing #4 a lot of distress, and that is owned by the company that #1 is the chief executive of
    • #3 is the chief executive of Ofgem, the watchdog that tries to make sure that companies such as that run by #2 (which is owned by the company that #1 is chief executive of) don’t screw over kind, law-abiding ladies such as #4
    • #4 is quite distressed because the company that #2 runs (that’s owned by the company that #1 runs) are sending threatening letters demanding that she pay her bills … even though she’s set up a direct debit with them

    Actually, I’ll break out of bullet points to further elaborate on this.

    Since August, when Mum moved in, she’s had numerous unpleasant and threatening letters from British Gas. Some are addressed to her personally, some simply to “The Occupier” (even though they know that she owns that flat)

    Some letters have the correct address and postcode, others don’t. And there have been no fewer than four customer reference numbers!!

    It’s as though British Gas’s left hand doesn’t know what its left hand is doing. I’m utterly disgusted by the lack of customer service. And so I’ve written to these people in the hope that it will lead to a resolution of her situation.

    I’ve also advised Mum to telephone EnergyWatch and get them involved too.

    Update

    In the end, everything was eventually sorted out and Mum stopped getting worrying letters. The accounts were sorted out and British Gas apologised.

    Thanks to the diligence of whichever British Gas customer services employee finally took my Mum seriously and looked into the details of her case and actioned them… that action alone helped restore my faith in British Gas. That is the power of good customer service; that is good marketing.

    Mingus eyes

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    Menzies Campbell

    I’ve always voted Liberal Democrat — at election time I’ve always been places where the Lib Dems had the best candidates and the best policies (as far as I could see): David Steel, Simon Hughes, Charles Kennedy.

    I’m also a big Richard Thompson fan. By which I mean that I’m a big fan of Richard Thompson — not a fan of “Big” Richard Thompson.

    So when I heard that Sir Menzies “Ming” Campbell, CBE QC (who is also Chancellor of the University of St Andrews) stepped down from the leadership of the Lib Dems I’ve had this song going around my head:

    What a fool I was. What a thin disguise.
    Brando mumble, Mingus eyes

    Was a time she fell, but then she got wise
    Brando mumble, Mingus eyes

    I never had the squint of James Dean, or the Stanislavsky tears
    Or the rebel hunch that kills, or the smile that slowly disappears

    What a fool I was. What a thin disguise.
    Brando mumble, Mingus eyes
    Brando mumble, Mingus eyes

    (Richard Thompson, “Mingus eyes” from Mirror Blue, 1994)

    What can it possibly all mean? Is there a message in there?

    Do the Lib Dems need to elect a new leader who has the squint of James Dean, or the Stanislavsky tears? Would they even be allowed to use their killing rebel hunch in the House of Commons? What will it take to make their smile slowly disappear?

    I for one am keen to find out …

    Lars Ulrich (Metallica) on democracy

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    This is a refreshing view of Lars Ulrich of Metallica speaking openly and honestly about democracy: Lars Ulrich from Metallica on democracy.

    The video was filmed by a group called Why Democracy? who asked the Danish drummer ten questions on his views about God, democracy, and systems of government.

    The ten questions asked were:

    1. Who would you vote as President of the World?
    2. Can terrorism destroy democracy?
    3. Who rules the world?
    4. Why bother to vote?
    5. Are women more democratic than men?
    6. Is God democratic?
    7. What would make you start a revolution?
    8. Can democracy solve climate change?
    9. Is democracy good for everyone?
    10. Are dictators ever good?

    Just in case you’re worried, his answer to the last question was no.

    Webcameron

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    David Cameron standing in front of the Reichstag in Berlin

    While I’m not a supporter of the UK Conservative Party I am very impressed with their leader David Cameron’s blog: webcameron.org.

    Not only is it a great pun on ‘webcam‘, it is, as far as I am concerned, the most accessible and personal website of any of the major political parties in the UK.

    This is a perfect example of the power of the Web to connect with people.

    Videos

    The site contains regular video blog updates from David Cameron as he is out and about. Recent video blog postings have included:

    • Meeting Angela Merkel in Berlin
    • Launching National Citizen’s Service
    • The unveiling of the Mandela statue
    • Making sure we succeed in Afghanistan

    You get a good insight into what the leader of a major political party does, and what he believes, what for him are the important issues. I’d love for the other political leaders to do something similar.

    Forums

    As well as the broadcast media, visitors have the option to register on the forums and discuss issues that are important to them. It would appear that David Cameron himself replies to some of these questions; and given all the furore over recent television shenanigans about fixed phone-ins, I guess these replies really must be from him.

    Critique

    The site is very well put together, it has a clean modern design and very easy to navigate.

    I only really have two criticisms about the site:

    1. No link to The Conservative Party website
      I can’t find a link to The Conservative Party website anywhere on the webcameron.org site. Anywhere. At all. That’s not a good advert!

    2. Click here?
      On the First visit page there are a couple of badly placed links. One says “To register as a new user, click here.” Links are often the first thing people spot, so you need to give them keywords, give them actions, give them what they want. That sentence would have been much better as: “Register as a new user.

    I’m not sure, however, that I’ve got enough webspace to list my criticisms of The Conservative Party! I remember the 80s!

    Other political parties are available

    Full list on Wikipedia