Precious Few Heroes – A Documentary About Independence

I was passed a link to the follow set of videos on Facebook today. They’re certainly worth a look, giving a lighthearted view at independence and Scottish history.

Misplaced Dunkirk Spirit

With thousands of British holiday makers and business people stranded in France, Spain and other parts of the world due to the Icelandic ash cloud, it is perhaps unsurprising that the media (and politicians) have attempted to invoke the spirit of Dunkirk. Historian Dan Snow even went so far as to attempt to recreate the evacuation with three dingys, intending to set up his own ferry service. A noble, but likely unwise effort on his part.

Much, in fact, like the comparisons to Dunkirk.

While, yes, there are a large number of British people trapped in France, that is where the similarities end.

The Dunkirk Evacuation took place over 10 days in the summer of 1940. In total, it evacuated nearly 350,000 soldiers. Around about half were members of the British Expeditionary Force, while the other half were French troops. In order to rescue these men, 9 allied destroyers were sunk, in the region of 200 of the rescue vessels were destroyed and nearly 500 RAF planes were shot down. 30,00o Allied troops were killed in action, with 34,000 more missing or captured.

During the evacuation, these men must have known that a large enough push by the Axis forces would have resulted in their certain deaths as they were driven into the sea. Indeed, it is likely that the entire Dunkirk force would have been wiped out had it not been for an order from Hitler which held his forces back. The motives for this order remain largely unknown, and historians continue to debate the issue.

Are lives at risk because of the ash cloud? I imagine so. British forces in Afghanistan regularly fly critically injured back men and women back to the UK for treatment, air ambulance services which are critical to many rural areas of UK are largely grounded and over time, there may be issues getting medicines into the country.

However, reports suggest that the majority of those trapped abroad are holidaymakers and businessmen. The world will not collapse if they take an extra week to get home, although I do sympathise that many people are having to spend vast sums of money to get home or for additional accommodation.

Dunkirk it is not. So lets not cheapen the memories and accomplishments of those who fought and died for their country by pretending a modern inconvenience is anything like the ten day long hell those men went though. Lets not invoke the memory of the little ships when people are already making their way back into the country by rail, ferry and soon Royal Navy vessel. Lets not turn the excesses of the developed world into what was seen as a possibly unwinnable war with odds stacked massively against us.

Lets do the sensible thing: Keep calm and carry on.

Judging The Debates

In the frantic aftermath of the first Leader’s Debate, several media outlets played host to ever changing “Instant Polls”. While Lib Dems were quick to embrace these, they cannot be said to be fully representative, with many being based on rapid phone polls or self-selection. General public reaction to the debate and Nick Clegg’s apparent success won’t be fully quantifiable until after the weekend. By that time the news cycle regarding the debate should be complete and comprehensive polls will have been carried out, allowing us to see if Clegg’s popular performance can translate into potential election success.

I am, in no doubt, that Clegg did win overall. Speaking out against Trident and waste is a good, populist move which will play well with the left. On immigration, Clegg did put his foot in it by invoking the memory of Chris Morris by talking about “Good immigration and bad immigration”, which could come back to haunt him in the press. On health and education, he seemed to do well, given how far the NHS and education systems have diverged between Scotland and England in the past decade, it’s hard for a Scot to tell.

Interestingly, opinion amongst those in Scotland who I’ve talked to and read, seems to suggest that Brown was perceived to do much better north of the border. This isn’t terribly surprising. There are reams of sociology studies into the difference of the Scottish social character from the English social character. Current research does suggest that it’s largely a myth, but as yet no-one seems to have actually persuaded the Scottish people that this is the case. There is, of course, the fact that proportionately, Scotland has more Labour voters in it then England and Wales do, which no doubt contributes to those figures.

In Scotland and Wales, the debates didn’t go down terribly well. A large number of twitter users (including myself) took part in a #scotlandspeaks protest against a domestic policy debate excluding the SNP, Plaid and the Greens. It seemed to go down relatively well, despite some accusations of bitterness and parochialism. It even saw some Lib Dems and Tories joining it, which shows that in Scotland and Wales at least people are aware of the disjoint between politics on either side of the border. That disjoint is something which may well be worth watching over the next decade.

How all this will play in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be interesting to see. It is possible the SNP and Plaid will overplay their hand, turning off voters. There are certainly some people suggesting that after last night’s UK-wide party political broadcast, that might be the case. However, viewers (or listeners – the debates are also being broadcast on Radio 4) were constantly reminded during the debates that questions weren’t relevant to entire swathes of the country, which could equally play against the Lib Dems, Labour and the Conservatives.

What we do know just now is that there is still a lot to play for. There are still 18 days to go until polling day, two more debates between the three leaders and number of debates between the want-to-be Ministers. As the American debates have taught us, it’s possible for the mood of a country to change on the basis of something as small as a sweaty lip, and as we’ve seen in the past a potential PM falling flat on their face can trigger a voter shift.

Cultural Election Differences

I was recently conversing with a friend from the Republic of China regarding the election. He was both astonished and unconvinced that rallies and large protests no longer form part of the election make-up in the UK.

To prove the points he was making, he sent me a video of an election rally by the DPP, a liberal Taiwanese political party. I don’t know what the subject matter is, but the speaker shows clear passion and the crowd is massive

I believe it’s been many years since similar events played a big part in elections in the UK. The closest examples I can think of in recent years are Blair’s victory celebrations in ’97, Major’s Soapbox speeches in ’92 and the bi-yearly conferences held by the political parties. Even the cars with loud-speakers strapped to their roofs which were a mainstay of campaigning in the 70s and 80s are a thing of the past now.

Maybe we’re taking a page from the wrong place by adopting American practises? Perhaps we should be looking to Europe and Asia instead.

At the very least, we could look at backing press conferences with dramatic music.

Manifesto Review: Labour (England & Wales)

Due to other commitments, I was unable to take time to read the Labour manifesto (the actual one, not the cartoon version) on it’s day of launch (although I did have time to look at the cover). By the time I got sat down with the document in question, I’d already read comments in the papers and online about the manifesto, which led me to expect much more meat in the manifesto then I found there.

I was expecting policy to leap out at me, things that Labour candidates on the doorstep could point swing voters to as something which would aim to visibly change things for the better and make a snappy soundbite, similar to Tony Blair’s Tough on Crime message in 1997. Instead we have pages of promises of investment and admendments to older Labour policies, such as shaking up the hospital system again.

A few policies take my interest however:

• No Stamp Duty for first time buyers on all house purchases below £250,000 for two years, paid for by a five per cent rise on homes worth more then £1 million. – I find it hard to fault this policy, given that the house prices in Scotland are considerably lower then elsewhere and this could really help get people into the housing market up here.
• Legally binding guarantees for patients including the right to cancer test results within one week of referral, and a maximum of 18 weeks’ wait for treatment or the offer of going private. - This goal can’t really be faulted given that cancer is one of the biggest killers in the UK, however the legally binding aspect of it could increase difficulties for already over-streched NHS resources.
• A new national care service to ensure free care in the home for those with the greatest care needs and a cap on the costs of residential care so that everyone’s homes and savings are protected from care charges after two years in a care home. – This could have been a much larger part of Labour’s manifesto, but seems to have been scaled down, probably due to questions over funding it.
• Achieve around 40 per cent low-carbon electricity by 2020 and create 400,000 new green jobs by 2013. - This policy (like much of the green policy in the Labour manifesto) is largely due to targets set in international treaty, which DEFRA is already on target to meet.
• Referenda, held on the same day, for moving to the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons and to a democratic and accountable Second Chamber. - Gordon Brown has already come under fire for his damascene conversion to constitutional reform. It will be extremely interesting to see if it appeals to voters, after all, the Lib Dems have had limited success with their similar policies in the past.
• Legislation to ensure Parliaments sit for a fixed term and an All Party Commission to chart a course ti a Written Constitution. - Fixed term Parliament and a written constitution are much needed in Britain. They are unlikely to have great appeal to the British public however, with vocal support for a constitutional generally coming from academics and those who are extremely familiar with politics in the UK.

A few things I was genuinely surprised to see:

• Control immigration through our Australian-style points-based system, ensuring that as growth returns we see rising levels of employment and wages, not rising immigration, and requiring newcomers to earn citizenship and the entitlements it brings. – I am extremely dubious about any political party rushing into immigration policy or taking an election stand on it, not least when they trumpet “British Values” as a reason to exclude people from the UK. This policy could only to extend immigrants from countries outside the EU and possibly the Commonwealth.
• A golden decade of sport with the 2012 Olympics as a great national and world-wide celebration. - True, the UK is hosting the 2012 Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Rugby World Cup, but this policy has very little other then new facilities in London and increased sports in schools in England and Wales to back it up.
• Reform the UN, International Financial Institutions, the G8 and G20 and NATO to adapt to the new global challenges. - Britain is one of nearly 200 states participating in the UN. As COP-15 demonstrated, Britain isn’t even a particularly big player in the modern world, with India, China and the collective EU providing much stronger voices. The idea that Britain could drive pretty far reaching reform of these bodies within the next five years, having done little to them since 1997, is utterly absurd.

Overall, the Labour Manifesto for England and Wales is a document which seems lacking in style and substance. Compared to previous Labour manifestos, it seems that having been in government for 13 years, Labour are struggling to find policies to engage with the public on. If swing voters do pick up a copy of the Labour manifesto, I think they’ll have to look hard to find something to convince them to vote Labour.

5 out of 10.