Political facts for beginners

I am becoming increasing concerned that young people are not taking an interest in who runs the country. After all it is their country. People of all ages should be involved in the process of electing the politicians who make the decisions that affect their lives. However more and more I get the sense that this generation don’t care. There seems to be a feeling of apathy, perhaps due to current economical failures blamed on the last government. I do fear that the apathy towards politics may be due to lack of education on the matter. Even though no governments are perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I believe that different parties will help different people. Therefore you should be provided with that information impartially, so from an early age you can make a decision on who you want to run the country.

I believe you should at least have the basic facts. I can’t guarantee I am fully impartial, but I’m certainly not being dishonest or misleading. This is just my opinion.

In England there are two main political parties, with differing ideologies, right wing and left wing politics. We currently have a right wing government, the Conservative Party. This party believe in individualism. This means in basic terms that every citizen should provide for themselves without any government assistants. This would mean, no National Health Service, no free education, no state pension, no council housing, and no benefits. They believe that we should all pay in to private insurances and fend for ourselves. Taxation is also a system they would change with everyone paying one flat rate of tax.

 The Conservatives would like to see a political system similar to the United States. In the US (the land of the free) they allow people without insurance to die without treatment, and people without employment to starve on the streets. Unfortunately this ideology can at best be positive for only 10% of the country. This ideology only supports the rich and wealthy. So if you are one of the lucky few that are wealthy and your conscience allows you to not care for those less fortunate as you, please do vote Conservative.

However, there is another choice...

The other major political party in England is the Labour Party. They have left wing socialistic political views. Their ideology is collectivism. This is a system that collects money from all tax payers and provides health care, education, pensions, affordable housing and benefits for the unemployed, families and disabled. The tax that is collected increases in bands meaning the poorest in society pay the least and the wealthiest pay the most. This is the current system we have in place in Britain.

This system surely will be the most positive for most people. Its work for sixty years, probably best not to change back to Victorian system, only my opinion!

The Conservative party in just two years have raised university tuition fees to £9000 per year, put in motion the end of the NHS, and removed benefits millions of families. However on the plus side they have decided to give millionaires an extra £45,000 a year in tax relief, and let off big companies like Vodafone, Top Shop, and Boots with not paying their taxes.

Just something for you to consider next time you vote.

Bad Education

I am a lover of comedy and always searching for new programs to enjoy. The channel BBC 3 has recently provided some excellent viewing choices. Currently I have been watching Bad Education, which is co-written by Jack Whitehall, who also plays the main character. Whitehall who has been finding his feet in the media industry over the past few years, seems now to have found the correct platform to shine on television. After his previous attempts at stand up comedy and presenting, which were fairly successful, he now seems to have a very promising career in acting. Whitehall’s performance in Channel 4’s Fresh Meat was the success needed to promote him to the leading role in Bad Education. In this program he plays a posh student who is moving in to university house share with people from very different backgrounds. It has to be mentioned that Whitehall who in his own life is from a privileged background, seems to be able to poke fun at that posh boy image very successfully.

The shows simple plot is based around a school, a class of students, their teacher and his colleagues. Whitehall’s character is a 23 year old teacher, Alfie Wickers, who is posh public school boy, who is in many ways is a fish out of water in his surroundings. Even though he has a very different background to his under-class students, he seems to have a positive relationship with them. The secondary characters in the show are a headmaster (Matthew Horne) who is outrageously attempting to be the blackest white man in the school. Wickers has a love interest, Rosie Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) who is a teacher he works with, unfortunately for Wickers the interest is not reciprocated. Then there is the deputy head, Isobell Pickwell (Michelle Gomez), a harsh overbearing character who is Wickers’ nemesis. This odd collection of characters really combines well to create funny storylines and humorous punch lines. Of course we must not forget the kids, as quite frankly they do make the show. The main student characters consist of a boy called Joe, who is best friend is probably Mr Wickers. There is a provocative girl, Chantelle Parsons, who constantly flirts with Whitehall’s character. There is a Chinese girl called Jing Chow, who gets the brunt of Wickers slightly racist jokes. The last secondary character of note is the school bully, Frank Grayson, who even Wickers is scared of. These students know Mr Wickers is not the best teacher, however they all know if he was not there they would have do more school work. This is the basis for the unlikely coalition, which allows for abnormal mutual understanding.

 

This is not a subtle comedy, the comedy is in your face, but is a well written show and the characters are evidence of this. Within the plots it discusses disability, race, sexuality, and bullying. I am not suggesting that the show offer helpful advice to solve such problems however it is honest and contemporary. This is a funny show, which fans of the inbetweeners, and fresh meat will enjoy. It is good to see that British comedy can still produce new well thought out comedy!