The Alternative Vote is Wrong for Britain- The Politicizer

On May 5th the people of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will go to the polls for local elections and be asked whether they support undergoing the largest change to parliamentary elections in the history of the United Kingdom. If the referendum is passed Members of Parliament would no longer be elected under a first-past-the-post system but instead by a form of alternative voting that forces voters to rank all of the candidates on the ballot in order of their preference. If a voter’s first choice is eliminated then their vote is passed along to the next indicated preference still in the running. This continues until one candidate has at least 50% of the total vote. Proponents for this change argue that this will ensure that MPs have the support of the majority of their constituents as well as make the main parties to compete for fringe voters even the safest districts. Currently whichever candidate receives the most votes is elected.

The proposed move to the alternative vote is not the right medicine for the electoral issues in the United Kingdom. In reality, this referendum was the main price paid by the Conservatives to their partners in Government, the Liberal-Democrats, in exchange for their support. Ironically enough alternative voting is actually the black sheep of electoral reform proposals in that the Liberal-Democrats originally preferred a proportional representation system (similar to the one utilized for elections to the European Parliament) and the Lib-Dems are not actively campaigning in favor of the switch to AV. The Labour Party leadership has officially endorsed the AV system. However, over half of the Labour Members have signed onto the No to AV campaign in a show of defiance against what many consider ineffective reform and a political win for Liberal-Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The Conservatives are united against the alternative vote and have been aggressively pushing to keep the first-past-the-post system.

See the full piece here

Don't Count Cameron Out- The Politicizer

It has been a rough few months for British Prime Minister David Cameron. As if keeping the first coalition government in forty years united wasn’t hard enough, Cameron recently lost his Communications Director Andy Coulson amid scandalous allegations that he was involved in cell phone hacking while working at News of the World. Although the student protests of the Fall have subsided and Conservative Party Headquarters is no longer under siege from thousands of tuition fee crusaders, the effects of the deep austerity measures implemented by the government have begun to drag Cameron’s Conservatives down in the opinion polls. A Com Res poll issued on February 9th shows the Conservatives now trail the Labour Party by seven percentage points.

Less than a year ago the Conservatives won a plurality of seats in the House of Commons, besting Labour by over five percentage points. So what happened? Cameron’s “full, comprehensive” offer to the Liberal Democrats to join in an official governing coalition was met with concern from party faithful and the spending cuts promised in the Conservative Manifesto have proven tough for the nation to swallow. Several British commentators are already speculating that this is just the beginning of an even bigger slide in the polls for Cameron and one that will result in the Labour Party reclaiming their majority in the Commons.

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Why In The Loop Is a Must See

So after weeks of prodding I reluctantly placed the 2009 British Comedy "In The Loop" on my netflix queue. Honestly my expectations for this film were almost non-existent, the only thing I was sure of was that I would be sending it back as soon as possible so that I could get the next movie on my list. Yet, the movie still sits in my DVD player, and it arrived in the mail over a week ago. Simply put I was blown away by this high quality, intelligent, and irrevently funny examination of the events leading up to a joint US - British invasion of an unnamed Middle Eastern Country (*hint *hint).

In the Loop follows the series of missteps that lead bumbling British Minister for International Development Simon Foster and his aide Toby to the foreground of the international debate on whether or not to invade Ira....I mean the country in question. Pawns in a much larger game between elements within the US State Department, the film provides a refreshing, if unsettling look, at how the decision to use military force is made.

As someone who has spent time working in the UK political system this movie provides a frightenly accurate picture of how underqualified government ministers often are as well as the realities of what being a constituency MP is all about. In one scene in particular Minister Foster is attending a town meeting and a constituents refusing to stop talking about a wall that is falling over into his property. The contrast between the debate on the war and the debate over what to do about this wall is hysterical. Further it is often largely true! More than once I had to calm constituents down who were enraged about seemingly simple things like tree branches extending into their gardens, people parking on the street near there home, and most memorably the woman who told me that she saw kids planting weeds in her garden. Unlike in the United States British Cabinet Ministers are also full time members of the House of Commons. This duality is expertly portrayed and creates the most inconic scenes of the film.

Another aspect of this movie I personally identified with was the role that interns and recent college graduates play in the realm of government. At one point a British govt. employee remarks that "its all kids in Washington" after she meets her American counterpart (who is a good ten years younger than her). The phenomenon she refers to however is not strictly limited to the US. During my time interning in the House of Commons I found that the vast majority of the people I interacted with were under the age of thirty, with the notable exception of most Member's Personal Assistants who were often older. A few poorly timed comments and being in the wrong place at the wrong time by Foster's aide shows just how quickly interns can leave their mark on an office (and not in a good way).

All in all I highly recommend "In The Loop" to any viewer who has ever interned, has an interest in politics, or those just willing to spend an hour and a half laughing.

David Cameron, The Post Political Prime Minister?

As the dust finally settled following Britain's 2010 General Election Conservative Party leader David Cameron was invited by the Queen to become Prime Minister and form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. In the spirit of full disclosure this was not the move I was hoping for on the part of the Conservative Party. I was a fan of a Conservative minority government in which Cameron's message to the Lib Dems and to Labour was "try to stop us from governing." However, I can't help but be impressed with how effective Cameron has been at creating a government that better reflects the voters wishes and insulates the Conservative Party partially from blame. To elaborate on the latter point I found it interesting that the areas of compromise (many of which Lib Dems will head as ministers) were already included in the Conservative Manifesto.

From a political point of view the coalition may turn off Labour voters who tactically voted Lib Dem in order to keep the Tories out of government. Further I believe the coalition puts Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems in a terrible spot in terms of campaigning. First they will not be able to profess a new politics and instead will be inevitably wedded to the role of third party. No longer can they claim to blow the wheels off of the two party system as was there rallying cry in 2010. A cycle in which the Liberal Democrats lost nine seats and there share of the popular vote dropped two percent.

While the Lib Dems will have to create a new electoral narrative when the next election is called, the Conservatives have a huge opportunity to build upon one they have already established. Assuming the economy improves David Cameron and the Conservatives will have the chance to argue that "Conservative-Lite" has saved the UK just wait until you see a full fledged Conservative Government can do. Lastly, the Conservatives are the only party in British politics with the money on hand to run an effective campaign anytime soon. Both the Lib Dems and the Labour Party are cash poor and this provides further incentive for the Lib Dems to make the coalition work and possibly make concessions they otherwise would not.

Post UK Update

So I haven't updated this in quite some time and I am sure the masses have been waiting singularly for the return of this site. I am officially back from the UK, finished interning in Parliament, fought a British General Election Campaign, lost a British General Election Campaign, lived with my boss, got a new internship for the summer in Boston, and just started work last week.

In February I discontinued my blogging efforts temporarily because the Member of Parliament I was working for was a little paranoid about the idea of me blasting out potenitally sensitive information across the internet. As a concession though I was allowed to give his internet outreach a much needed update. In order to bring new media up to date in Eastbourne the campaign overhauled my MP's(Nigel Waterson) facebook, started managing press hits, as well as a number of tools tied in with the Conservative Party's voter identification software called Merlin. Despite coming up 3,500 votes short working the 2010 General Election was an incredible experience and one that has made me reevaluate some of the camapaigning techniques I have previously advocated. There truly is something electric about working a marginal seat in any country. Watching Nigel and his local team (supplemented of course with a bevy of past and present interns from London) pound the pavement to get out the vote and combat the most negative campaign I have ever seen on the part of his Liberal Democrat opponent Stephen Lloyd was truly inspiring. Combining the best and worst aspects of politics this race was (to paraphrase Cory Bookers 2004 Mayoral bid) a "Street Fight."

Although very different from working in Nigel's Westminister Parliamentary office I found the campaign trail to be a place of great opportunity for someone like myself. More specifically a willingness to work hard and quick thinking were valued over age and how long you had known the Boss. Although the first weeks were stressful as Nigel's Researcher Joel and I established the basic practices of the campaign and divided our duties. We did not overcome the administrative challenges we were faced with until about halfway through the campaign. However, with two weeks to go the campaign hit its stride and began playing offense instead of responding to the lies and smear tactics utilized by the Eastbourne Liberal Democrats. One major issues we were confronted with was getting campaign posters up and keeping them up. Within a day of putting posters up they were quickly torn down by our opponents (a practice Nigel forbade anyone in the campaign from taking part in). This issues got so bad that a former Lib Dem Councillor (local official)was arrested for harrasing our volunteers, attempting to bribe our volunteers, and destroying dozens of Conservative Party signs.

Polling day in the UK is just as hectic here in the States. The major difference I found was the emphasis on the ground game. The size of the modern American Congressional District makes door knocking extremely difficult and usually not terribly effective. Being a tenth of the size makes a Parliamentary Constituency not only walkable, but allows for micro targeting. Based upon returns from our representatives at each of the polling places Conservative Party Software generates "knock up lists" that give specific addresses for us to get out the pledged Conservative Vote. Despite losing Nigel earned 21,223, an INCREASE of 190 votes from 2005. With this in mind I would have to attribute Lloyd's increase of nearly 5000 votes to winning the youth vote as well as tactical voting on the part of Labour Party supports (with a 50% drop in support from 2005).

One of the most surreal experiences of the campaign was being present at the election night count, a process by which all of the votes are manually counted. Further building the tension, packets of 1000 votes are clothespinned together and placed on tables. The way the tables were arranged gave the impression that Nigel had not only won, but possibly increased his majority. However when the votes were tabulated it was clear we had been defeated. Each of the candidates stands on stage alongside their opponents and gives final remarks.

Just one day later I packed my Flat in Maida Vale off of the Warwick Avenue Tube Stop and headed to Heathrow for the long flight home. Volcanic ash extended my trip by a few hours but in the end I made it back to Boston. After a week in DC for CUA's graduation I was back in MA and ready to start my summer job as an Administrative Intern with Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Finals, Resignations, and an Impending Hop Across the Pond

So truth be told I starting this blogging project as I knew I would be going overseas to study and participate in an internship in London. I will taking classes through the University of Leeds and working for MP Nigel Waterson (http://www.nigelwaterson.com) in the House of Commons. Waterson represents Eastbourne, Willingdon, and East Dean and also serves as Shadow Minister for Pensions and Older People. Right off the bat the term Shadow Minister is much cooler than Ranking Member, the typical designation for minority committee leads, and I think we in the former colonies should put some consideration into this. Also "Older People" instead of Senior Citizens is incredibly British and I like it nonetheless.

In preparation for this I have decided to step down from the positions I hold on campus because I would not be able to properly execute the duties of these offices from overseas. Resigning from College Republicans was bittersweet. Although I am incredibly excited to go abroad this is something I have put alot of time into and something that is near and dear to my heart. CR's was the first thing I got involved in upon arriving at CUA, and truth be told the first thing that made me realize I made the right choice of schools. I know they will continue to do a great job and I can't wait to get back and help them take back PA from Paul Kanjorski and Arlen Specter. We worked PA-11 two years ago for Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazelton, PA and came up just three points short. I'd like to graduate knowing we sent him to Congress.

Last night I stepped down as Student Life Chair for CUA's Student Government. I have held this post since the General Assembly was founded in the Spring of 2008. Although I wish I had more time this year to continue to work towards the betterment of the student experience I am pleased to know that they are in excellent hands and are all capable of doing great things. Tonight I will be stepping down from the General Assembly as a Delegate for the class of 2011. I have truly appreciated the confidence my class has placed in me and I promise to remain involved while away.

The backdrop for all this resignation drama is finals week at The Catholic University of America and me feverishly packing my stuff to fly home on the 19th (I should get on finding a flight about now).........Ok flight taken care of. I guess the reason I am blogging this out right now is that this is all happening very quickly. I am so excited to go to the United Kingdom but still I can't help but realize I am gonna miss this stuff that I have been doing for the last two and a half years. Some people may not get it but these campaign trips, late night meetings, running around frantically to set events up, dueling with the administrations, have been some of the highlights of my collegiate career.