Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

Promises, promises and even more promises

I don't know if you are aware that Britain is in the middle of election fever right now.  If you didn't know, I guess that you don't read the newspapers, listen to the radio or watch the television.  And if that's the case, then I really do envy you, because just now I wish the whole event was done and over with.

When the election is over, the promises that they made before the election are very seldom kept anyway, and what I see just now is not a real battle for hearts and minds.  It's all about gaining the upper hand on what are classed as the popular issues.  The usual he says, they say.  And anything you can do we can do better.

My mind is already made up as to who I am going to vote for anyway.  It was made up on the promises they made at the last election, and on the promises they kept and didn't keep.  It also goes on what I see going on in the wider picture of world politics and what's going on in within the European Union, the subject few parties really want to talk about - apart from some of the fringe parties that have sprung up recently.

My mind is made up.  Not on spin and promises, but on performance and what I see with my own eyes of how our countries pensioners, disabled and the less fortunate are treated in this country.  Not the hand out of a one off payment to prove that they are the good guys.  It's about long term and lasting policies as far as I'm concerned, and these groups of people have been treated appallingly over the past years by all the major parties.  Out of site, out of mind.  Do you really think so?

I often think that our politicians should be made to watch the television to see how they really come across, and how the electorate really see them.  Forget the party faithful who they know will vote for them no matter what they do.  Come to that, I know some of the party faithful who have voted for a party all their lives tearing up their party cards recently because of broken promises and an uncaring attitude by the party they supported.

The problem with politicians is, they don't quite realise how fast the news can be beamed across the world.  From the moment they say whatever they say, it can be on television or on the Internet news channels and through many other media mediums.  I sometimes wonder if  they have grasped the technological age that they are living in.

This is what they are telling us do - but are they doing what they are telling us to do?

Our politicians need a course on modern media studies.  They might learn a thing or two instead of listening to their advisors who will probably tell them that the British people have short memories and what they do now will wow the electorate with their new campaign.  Well, they are wrong, the British people are very astute and they do have very long memories.  And besides we've seen it all many times before.

Leadership from a Prime Minister is exactly that with his cabinet, but when they start blaming the electorate for the problems they encounter when things don't go right, then they are in trouble.  Politicians have a habit of saying it's not their fault when things go wrong, but in the electorates mind it is.  They are voted in to govern the country and lead by example, a responsibility they sometimes try to dodge, or pass off to the electorate as their fault when things go wrong.

My suggestion is get real, look at the whole picture of the country and what's going on in it.  What the electorate really see as the problems of today's society and start listening to them instead of making promises and not keeping them, because one thing is for sure, the electorate are looking for good leadership and a prime minister that does not use doublespeak when stating what they will do for the people of this country.  Don't stick to one issue politics, because the electorate see through it like a pane of glass.  It's what they are not told, and what they don't see that worries them.

Let's get everyone involved in this election on 5 May 2005, instead of just the party faithful.  Just now all the British political parties are guilty of appealing to the few and not all of the electorate as they should be.

Written by Andrew Murphy 19 April 2005

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