The Amazing Politics of Pugilist
Pugilist represents centre-left, non-labour affiliated politics. Why? Well because Rob and I write Pugilist it represents our politics; and because Rob isn’t interested in politics, I suppose it just represents my politics. So lets start again.
The Amazing Politics of Joel
Should a magazine have a political view? Well, papers do, but we should be neutral, right? Well, no, most of you think politics is boring and will have turned the page as soon as you saw the title, and won’t even be reading these words, so the worst thing to do would be to sit on the fence and be reasonable. Being biased and opinionated is much more fun.
Lets consider a poll of study room voters: Left – 2, Right –1, Don’t know/care – lots. This poll was taken in The Goose a few weeks ago and demonstrates the real problem with politics – no body gives damn. (If you’re wondering who voted it was me and Steve and Liz). But whose fault is this? It’s not mine. It’s the politician’s fault and, although loads of people say that about all kinds of junk, this time it’s true. And its because politics and voting will only be worth while when there’s a real choice at the moment we have:
- Labour – massive majority, lots of “spin”. What’s the point of voting, they’re going to win anyway.
- Conservative – useless bunch of has been old boys who want to make more money for their white upper middle class mates.
- Lib Dem – nice bunch of people, but who knows what they want to do with the country.
It is because Politicians lie and cheat and make a hash of their lives that we don’t bother voting. It’s also because there is no real choice or distinction. Labour have used lots of Conservative policies, Conservative have silly policies which involve less taxes and better public services (which is impossible lads, lets face it) and Lib Dem’s are just here for a laugh borrowing policies from everyone and making up some funny ones of their own.
Ian Duncan-Smith (or IDS, Conservative leader, the quiet bald one) was out jogging when he saw a young girl with a box.
“What have you got there?” he asked
“Kittens” the girl replied
“What kind of Kittens”
“Oh, they’re conservatives of course”
Very pleased that he was finally reaching the youth of Britain IDS jogged on.
Next week IDS was out jogging again, with a friend Oliver Letwin (shadow home secretary, as if you didn’t know). He saw the little girl with the box again and, wanting to impress Olly with his grasp of youth culture, he went over to her.
“What have you got there” he asked
“Kittens” the girl replied
“What kind of Kittens?”
“Oh, they’re Liberal kittens”
“What! Last week they were Conservatives!” IDS exclaimed
“Yes, but they’ve got their eyes open now”
So why am I pro Leftwing? Well firstly I want to point out I’m not a Labour supporter, but I do think they have their heart in the right place. They may be corrupt and incompetent, but their basic principles are there to look out for the little guy. It’s all about redistribution of wealth. The rich pay higher taxes so that the poor can have free health care. On the other hand the Conservatives want low taxes. That would mean less or no free public services. That’s great if you can afford to go private, but if you can’t your really stuck. The Conservatives are out to look after their own.
Hopefully you are now furious at my bias and lack of vision and will flood my mailbox with hate mail. At least that would mean I’ve done my job.
Joel
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