Politics

I've been meaning to collate my thoughts for a while on this matter and in many ways I feel a little guilty that its not more important to me, many countries still do not have this freedom - especially for women. That is the right to vote safely without fear of what a wrong vote could mean for them.

I can meander down to the polling station at my leisure really and come out without a care in the world, there will be no violence or fear about it. That said its come to the point where I am so disillusioned with UK politicians that it almost seems futile for me to even bother going to vote for the next leaders of our country. I don't like any of them, neither the leaders or the parties. Not one of them can give a straight answer they are so wrapped up in their own little lives that they fail to see where this country is truly going wrong. The little fiasco with a minister not wanting to travel standard class on the trains for instance, why should the rest of country have to suffer in over crowded cattle class while they are using taxpayers money to travel in comfort then dare to complain about it.

So far my voting policy has been pick my favourite colour on the day...

Sorry I digress, here are some of my thoughts on what I think would help and issues that are important to me in the unlikely event that any minister reads it.

*There should be no more of these second home issues, they should be put up in a purpose built high rise with serviceable apartments that any other civil servant would be happy to live in and they will be close to where they work in London, cutting down on travel expenses. On that note travel expenses to and from London are the [i]only[/i] expenses that can be claimed. None of this 'for my washing machine' 'for the cleaning' 'for a duck house'

*No more breed specific legislation when it comes to dogs. The banning of the pitbulls ect was merely a knee jerk reaction to some dog attacks and since then they have acquired a bad reputation as dangerous dogs. If any rational person had looked at the FACTS and FIGURES of dog attacks then really Labradors and westies should be on the list, statistically 'nice' breeds and little dogs bite more people than pitbulls and Dobermans and other big so called dangerous breeds. But since the tabloids only ever sensationalise the horrific dog attacks no one is any the wiser.

Why do the dogs attack? Because they have not been trained or socialised properly by the OWNER! There are no bad dogs, just shitty owners who do not understand the breed or how to care for the dogs. They are left in the yard to go slowly mad then let into the house with a young child and left unsupervised then people are surprised that bad things happen. This brings me to my next point -

*Dog licensing - If every dog had to have a license and microchip which was say £75 and if the breeder had to pay a fee for bringing the puppy into the world in the first place (which would go to an animal re homing centre in case that dog ever needed to go to one) it would stop a great deal of people just picking up a puppy off a guy in the pub and puppy farms would not exist because all the adult dogs being licenses means its a significant investment + all the paperwork so people know where their dog has come from and a new owner would be able to trace their puppy back a couple of generations. This would also stop inbreeding in pedigree dogs. Admittedly its a fairly big system to bring in and the government would probably mess it up somehow but something has to be done about people buying disposable dogs either as weapons, status symbols or just because their ultra bestest favourite model has one.

*University; Student Loans: The company that runs the student loans is craptacular! I've had experience of this myself and aside from harassing me with letters and phone calls right after my dad passed away because i was being a good citizen and no claiming job seekers while i was out of work and had therefore dropped off their radar. The website is a nightmare to navigate and some people I know still haven't got their loans five months after they had started studying. There is nothing right with the system.

*University; Courses: Without ranting about my course too much if it had been run the way it was supposed to we would not have learned any skill that would be applicable in industry because the only people who are teaching are those that have failed at getting a job in industry. Especially when it comes to art. How establishments can run Fine Art courses and take £3000 odd a year off students and give them next to no job prospects when the finish is beyond me and its the same for so many other degree's they are so bogged down with academic conventions and being able to 'mark' the work that it looses anything that would help the students get a job.

*Immigrants, while I don't have a problem with people immigrating into this country I think far too much money is spent on integrating them into this country.
-They should be able to speak good English, I'm sick to death of seeing UK information for residents in 58 different languages, not to mention the cost of translators ect when people need something. On that note the children should learn English as a first priority so schools don't have a problem. I wouldn't expect to move to Spain and force the school to change everything so my kids can understand what the frick is going on.

-Points system like Australia or Canada if they cant contribute something they cant stay.

-Criminals, this applies to asylum seekers too. 3 strikes for stuff like burglary and they are sent home, any violent crime and they are sent home immediately if they have been here less than 5 years or something. If its a jail term offence we don't want them here. None of this namby pamby human rights crap that they will be killed, they should have thought about that before they came to this country and committed a crime. What about the rights of the victims, why should they have to suffer?

*Prisons - Should be like this: except its England so somewhere cold and miserable. Prisoners should not have anything above basics like food, water, bed and sanitation. Which is more than many 3rd world people have. None of this play station, TV, internet crap. They forgo such freedoms when they got themselves into jail.