Background to “I agree with Nick”: In our first televised election debate, our prime minister at the time, Gordon Brown (the leader of the opposing Labour party), kept on agreeing with the leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg. Thus, “I agree with Nick” became a catchphrase.
Being a senior figure in a political party is equivalent to being an A-List celebrity. EVERYONE wants to take a photo with you /shake your hand/fawn over you, from people campaigning to be the next member of parliament (and need a photo for their campaign material) to those who just want a photo for the lulz*.
As I mentioned before, in the youth and student branch of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Youth, elections are currently taking place to elect the new executive. Members of Liberal Youth are meant to vote for the people they want based on the manifestos shown at this handy site. Now, I made my choices based on the content in these manifestos**, what people were promising vs. what they could actually deliver, etc, but what was a big turnoff for me was people trying to pretend that senior politicians had endorsed them.
More specifically, I’m talking about this (and on a lesser scale, this). Just because you managed to get a photo next to him does not give you the right to say “Nick agrees with me.” Nick Clegg takes photos with many people, and won’t remember most of the people he’s shared photos with (he’s only human, after all).
I don’t care if you were just taking the piss, or if you were just trying to liven your manifesto up with a photo, but I consider it false advertising, unless you can prove that you specifically walked up to him and gave him all your policies as a candidate for a general executive member of Liberal Youth and got his express permission to use his image in that way.
And, considering what a busy man he is (note my failure to try and get a picture of him whilst he was in the same room as me), this scenario occuring is highly unlikely.
If I ever got a photo with someone important in the Lib Dems, I could technically put anything I liked as a slogan, as I would own the rights to that picture. But I wouldn’t. Because I highly doubt the person I took the photo with would agree to support “OMG LET TASERS BECOME LEGAL IN THE UK!!!!1111!!!!”
I understand prospective parliamentary candidates needing a photo with a senior member of the party - to show that they’re united/actually a member of the party – for campaign material, blah blah blah, but I don’t see the point in using them to advertise people in internal elections, when we already know you’re on the right party to be running for that position. And unless it’s for a leadership position within the federal party, isn’t everyone meant to remain neutral about who they would vote for?
When it comes to Liberal Youth elections…
You’re a bloody youth politician. Like it or not, but the ‘grown-ups’ don’t take you seriously right now. Write a decent manifesto, telling your electorate what you can and cannot offer. Don’t rely on celebrity endorsements, and don’t try to insinuate that senior people have agreed with everything you’ve said, because that just makes you look like a fool.
Or, at the very least, will make me decide to vote for someone else.
*I will hunt down Nick Clegg eventually, get a photo and act like his best buddy. Because I’m cool like that.
** Grammar and spelling may have played a part in my decision as well, as stupid as it may sound. If you can’t be bothered to use spellcheck and/or proofread before you send off something for the last time, then it shows me that you can be careless.
Happy Father’s Day, everyone. For those of you without fathers/those who think this ‘holiday’ is a pisstake/those who are just a tiny bit bitter about the whole thing, I’ve devised this handy little drinking game for you. The rules are simple. All you need is a strong drink and a will to turn on the TV.
Drink when:
- Someone says the word “dad.”
- Someone says the word “daddy.”
- Someone says the word “father,” etc. etc. You know the drill.
- Someone shares a dad anecdote.
- A voiceover wishes you a happy father’s day.
- An annoying presenter on TV talks about how awesome their dad is.
- Someone does a shoutout to their dad on live TV.
- There’s a family comedy on TV about a dad: think Three Men and a Baby.
- There’s a programme about “World’s Worst Dads.”
- An advert pops up about last minute gifts for your dad.
- Your friends keep talking about what they got their dads/forgot to get their dads/how great their fathers are.
- The websites you’re on are filled with dad-related stuff from friends.
- The tech blogs you love have articles on “gadgets that will make your dad happy.”
- All those fathers on TV make you feel a little bit wistful.
- You feel a little bit sad about the whole thing.
- You eventually get pissed off with the outside world and turn everything off.
BONUS ROUND (just because): Drink whenever someone with a German or Spanish accent says a dad-related word. Examples include German guys saying “Fazzer!!!111!” or “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
tl;dr version: Drink whenever anything dad-related comes up.
I joined the youth branch of the political party my views corresponded with the most earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats. Currently, there are elections going on in Liberal Youth to elect the new executive and the various committees. No doubt, when you get involved in politics, you expect to see some nastiness. But you don’t expect that nastiness to come from members of the same party. I’m starting to wonder if getting involved was the best idea after all.
As the youth branch of the Lib Dems, Liberal Youth’s membership database is significantly smaller than that of the main party (less and less young people getting interested in politics, etc). Liberal Youth only accounts for those aged up to 26 (and some people who really ought to be members aren’t tagged as being members, but that’s a story for another day). The small amount of members mean that cliques easily develop.
Like in real politics, certain members will always vote for the person they’re friends with, regardless of what they can offer to the party or what they’re actually promising to do – see Labour’s leadership elections. But I don’t see ‘proper’ politicians smearing other candidates about internal jobs (because that’s just unprofessional, and just gives ammunition to the other parties come election time). So why do we see it so much in youth politics?
Long before I joined Liberal Youth, there were some issues that led to most of the executive of the day resigning, and by-elections having to be held. I’m starting to see things heading the same way again, and the elections aren’t even over yet.
At present, my Facebook feed is filled with squabbling amongst the people running for various positions. People are threatening to leave the party if (insert member name here) gets elected instead of (insert another member name that they’re friends with here), and some are still arguing about what happened last time.
HERE’S A NEWSFLASH. Liberal Youth elections count for practically nothing in the real world. No one outside of the party cares who the current chair or vice chair of whatever is. But it reflects badly on the party if you can’t seem to act like a civilised human being during these elections. The Lib Dems are known for being the ‘third party’ in UK politics, coalitions aside. If none of you can grow up and act rationally, then you can’t expect anyone else to take us seriously.
I joined the Lib Dems because of their policies on equality and fairness. Not because I wanted to stand idly by whilst the person who had the most connections within the party got the top job. Nor did I join to watch slanging matches between people who really ought to know better.
Let people who are voting in the Liberal Youth elections make up their own minds about who to vote for, no matter how stupid – Lulu‘s voting based on the people with the coolest names, but that’s her prerogative. Endorsing another candidate is fine if you’re doing it personally, but please don’t use your existing role within the party as leverage for the candidate you support.
If the youth branches of political parties are meant to be the politicians of the future, then I’m extremely scared. Because, honestly? I wouldn’t vote for any of you based on the way you’re acting now. In ten years, you could be helping to run the country. And that’s a seriously worrying prospect when you can’t treat members of your own party with respect.
…Isn’t democracy grand?
One of my friends did a post about me on her blog* (which I did not ask for, just so you know), and has been pestering me to return the favour. She never said it had to be flattering, and I’m better with insults than I am at compliments, so here it is – with some help from some other friends of mine.
One of Louise’s defining qualities is that she doesn’t understand jokes, most of the time. Louise… takes things, for lack of a better word, very literally. This occasionally causes frustration amongst other friends of mine, as the people I tend to socialise with are extremely sarcastic. Louise takes whatever we say seriously (think of her as a lesser, female version of Christopher in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time**), and responds as if we were idiots. This leads to facepalming, long, drawn-out explanations, and finally, some rage directed her way. Most of the time, she still does not understand even after we have explained whatever it was we were discussing. She also makes out like it’s your fault that what you said didn’t make sense to her, not that she doesn’t understand.
She’s also ‘the slutty one’ amongst us. As another friend remarked, “she goes for anything with two legs. Or rather, at least two legs.” I once had to pull her out of a sex shop after she had decided to go in there with a guy we’d only met hours before, and she tends to hit on men immediately after we meet them, regardless of whether she likes them or not. Awkward.
My relationship with Louise is different to that of other friends, in that I have a habit of forgetting that she exists. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I’m just not very good with names. Sure, I can list the names and email addresses of the people I talked to online 10 years ago, and can probably tell you what your friend’s friend’s pet dog is called, but I just have a problem with remembering people I’m likely to meet in real life. So, when I’m given the task of inviting everyone out, I tend to leave her name out of things. It’s only when everyone turns up for whatever it is we’re doing that day and someone goes, “Where’s Louise?” that I stop and think, “Shit” and ring her, tell her to turn up and quickly apologise.
…Let’s get onto the nice things now!
Er, she’s a great cook, “has a noice indie thrifty style”, and “is caring. In a weird way.” Oh, and she apparently has a nice bedroom. She’s also one of the more sane people I know, and that’s saying something.
Louise, we love you really. Sort of. As another friend remarks, “she’s ditzy, but intelligent. Underneath it all. You have to dig a while though.”
Please don’t try to kill us.
*All my friends seem to be blogging lately. Grr. Considering I don’t use RSS, they’re a bitch to follow (but it’s in my best interests to follow what they say). Meh.
**”Lesser version” because she definitely does not have autism. Although that would explain a lot.
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