The UK Independence Party, for example, is supposedly a libertarian party which also believes in withdrawing from the EU. The Liberal Democrats, apparently, are a partially libertarian party that believes in social justice and support EU membership with mild reform.

The Conservatives believe in many things being a broad-[cough] church but mostly it is the free market and (currently, in any case) liberal attitudes to how people live their private lives. And the Labour party traditionally believes that the solution to everything that needs a solution is to take state control.

But these descriptions — which may be debated, I admit — do not tell the full story. For example, the local Liberal Democrats here in Lancing and Shoreham-by-Sea appear to err when it comes to telling the truth (Beach Green, Adur and Worthing Council Services) and appear not to have any opinions on anything else (at least not cogent opinions that they feel able to debate in meetings).

The UK Independence Party locally fielded a candidate at the 2005 elections whose performance at a hustings would have marked him as a BNP candidate if it wasn’t for the ‘UKIP’ sign in front of him.

And the Labour party… well, they actually have a man who stands by his convictions locally and means what he says even if, inevitably, I don’t agree with him most of the time.

So the local parties and members do not reflect the nation-wide parties and what they claim to stand for. Rather than being about politics, actually, local party membership appears to be tribal and party-preference down to the party their friends and family belong to. It is, if you like, as if everyone whose Dad supported Manchester United supports Manchester United despite preferring everything about Manchester City.

I like to think I have thought deeply about my political convictions not only in the last three years as a Councillor, but also before-hand when I chose to join the Conservative Party in 1996.

But since 1996 I have changed my convictions quite strongly. In 1996 you would have spoken to a bigoted and not-entirely, but mostly, unpleasant (politically) Gavin. It is curious to me now that I had such strong opinions that I believed I could defend with argument. And it is mostly by argument and debate (with myself and with others) that I believe my opinions have softened and become, as a friend said earlier of me, “wetter”.

But some things do not change. Take, for example, Scotland’s preferential treatment by the British Parliament. Today four stories were pointed out to me:

• More clarity over free elderly-care in Scotland
• Free prescriptions in Scotland
• Scottish crime scenes clean-up funding
• British government rejects EU subsidies for England

In all these cases English taxpayers have either lost out or not gained to the same extent as Scottish taxpayers.

For some reason, when I mention this topic, I always have to make a disclaimer as I get attacked by an offended Scot. To be clear, I don’t blame the Scots as a group or, with the exception of Gordon Brown, as individuals. Scotland benefits from devolution not because the Scots have done something wrong, rather because the English do not have devolution and no-one actually sees fit to offer them a referendum on the subject.

Now nationally David Cameron has not endeared himself to supporters of an English Parliament but he has at least indicated that the Barnett Formula would go. The Liberal Democrats, with many seats in southern England, are currently taking a great risk by continuing to ignore the problem in favour of the status quo plus English Regional Assemblies. The UK Independence Party solution is interesting but I doubt practicable.

And Labour’s opinions are not really in doubt: the Labour Party do not support an English Parliament because they would be unlikely to run it and, more importantly, it can be supported as a solution using logic.

My Political Views
I am a centrist social libertarian
Right: 0.44, Libertarian: 5.6

Political Spectrum Quiz

I think this test is actually a little more accurate than the one I completed in June 2006. James Hellyer, where are you?

It was a nice way to start (link works in the UK only), as was his apology, unnecessary as it was — seriously, if you doubt that statement, listen via YouTube (Warning: Daily Mail readers may find this offensive):
Part 1:

Part 2:

If you do want your opinion to be counted, though, why not join YouGov and get paid a small amount for contributing to the opinion poll results: sign up with YouGov

The other day I was filling the kettle and accidentally overfilled it. So in an effort not to waste electricity I emptied the kettle down to the level where it contained enough water for the two cups I was making. My girlfriend asked whether I had done the right thing: Had I wasted more energy in wasting cleaned water than I had saved in not causing the kettle to stay on longer?

The question is a reasonable one. And it is a similar question to many others we all must ask as we go about our daily lives. So if human-caused climate change is such a big issue, why isn’t the results of research into these things being made available?

One final comment: I would like to apologise; my stats tell me that a small number of you have visited here almost every day since my last post — thank you and sorry for the delay in resuming service. Oh, and if you saw the Netherlands, Italy game last night, lucky you. Wasn’t it great?!

So here’s an extraordinarily brief bit on each of the things I’ve missed:

On May 1st there are local elections here in Adur. If you’re in Buckingham Ward, vote for Debbie Kennard. If you’re elsewhere in Adur or if you’re in Worthing, vote Conservative. And if you’re in another District, Borough, Unitary, Parish, County etc. then check out your local candidate and assuming they’re not insane (hey, I don’t know that their selection processes are perfect) vote for the Conservative one.

Ken Livingstone has five children… Who cares? And even if you do care, don’t read his responses because they’re far too clever. No, instead, ignore the story and vote Johnson anyway.

Car trouble has forced me to use public transport. Sort out the prices will you (whoever you may be) please?

A trip to London, and a savvy companion caused me to invest in an Oyster card. Say what you like about civil liberties (only applicable if they become compulsory in my humble opinion), but they’re fantastic. They just need to work on the rest of the public transport infrastructure and you may find people giving up on their cars (not likely given the infrequency of services to and from some locations).

Embyro Bill

Discussions about the so-called embryo bill set some dangerous precedents. Religions have no reason so claim the right to direct people’s ethics and MPs voting on religious grounds scares the bejesus out of me. If I don’t agree with the Catholic Church’s take on ethics (you know, the one where condoms are evil even if they protect African women from their promiscuous husband’s HIV) I am presumably forced to vote along religious lines. In some future where Islamic votes reach a critical point, will people start to find that Islam in the UK is politicised? Is this not the very thing we are fighting in Afghanistan and which Turkey’s constitution protects against?

MPs who wish to violate the whip because of religious reasons should be sacked from their party before the vote’s even taken place. Religious zealots who would put the country on the path to politicised religion in the House of Commons should not be welcome in mainstream parties.

That said, the gradual emergence of primaries in British politics may be the thing we look back upon as the reaon Britain didn’t fall into the politicised religion trap.

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite.
– Paul Dirac

Poetry, as I said recently, has only just made sense to me and, of course, science always has been deeply important to me so I thought it appropriate that I share it with you.

I felt I had to say that, though, before I mocked the system that issues vouchers. To the best of my recollection I have never bought anything from Tesco that contains gluten; not on someone else’s behalf and certainly not for myself.

So it should come as little surprise that I received an ‘Extra Points’ voucher with my latest ClubCard statement for the Free From range. But I did find it amusing that right above that voucher, is another. For Weetabix.

You’re worried about Tesco’s data gathering? I’m not worried on that form!

So just a quick note: I am going into town later to do some shopping. I am literally a two minute walk from the railway station and, for all my differences of opinion with left-wing environmentalists, I do care about the ability of this planet to support humanity. I therefore decided to get the train in.

But then I was reminded that I have to go over to Ditchling tonight — I may have time to come back but I may not. Once again the lack of a genuinely available public transport system has caused me to burn unnecessary carbon. It is the responsibility of all of us to do what we can to protect the environment, but some of “all” of us have more capabilities to do that. Central government needs to make strong, clear policy announcements on public transport, and especially the railways, in the South East generally, and in the countryside specifically.

There are clearly not enough tracks between Brighton and London (fast trains must go sufficiently after a so-called slow-train that it does not catch the other train up — how pointless is that?) and there are absolutely no tracks (or buses in most cases) between rural towns and villages in Sussex.

Last year I started to like apples. Earlier (maybe two years ago) I started to like cabbage and this Christmas, for the first time ever, I liked brussel sprouts.

And it’s not just food, last week I slept much less than normal (and didn’t feel tired). Come Thursday I decided I must just not be noticing the tiredness and so went to bed early. The result? I woke up at 4am on Friday morning feeling fully refreshed!

It’s also extended to politics and religion. On this site in the past I have been strongly against religion. I continue to be frightened by people who will do things in the name of God that I hope normal people would not do in the absence of His influence. But I can also feel sympathy for those people who do believe. I can feel what Dawkins has described — a feeling that God exists — which can be explained by biological means.

So, like all things, religion is not black and white. There are fundamentalist nutters at one extreme, a violent version of Richard Dawkins at the other and myself sitting nearer Richard Dawkins than Bin Laden, closer to the Dalai Lama than the Archbishop of Canterbury and closer to a vicar than a priest.

Why am I telling you this? Well, at almost regular intervals (perhaps the seven-year thing), I have come to see another aspect of life as grey rather than black, or as grey rather than white.

It’s a shame, with these newly discovered shades of grey, that we no longer have the diversity of political parties we once had. SDP, Liberals, Whigs, Radicals, Tories and Independents have now been replaced, to all intents and purposes by the Conservatives and Labour. And neither of these parties, for all their minor differences, reflects the opinion of more than (at a guess) 5% of the population. The so-called centre-ground, is actually the swing vote — a part of the population which has a particular opinion but has not bothered to make a firm decision about whether people should be taxed a lot or a little, and whether people should work hard or have a ‘right’ to the dole.

There’s another problem with the party system. I know Libertarians who would never vote UKIP or Tory even though they ought to be their natural home; and I know socialists who could never vote for Labour or the Liberal Democrats because of other policies.

In France, as I was discussing with a colleague the other day, the president must be elected, eventually, by more than 50% of the population through run-offs resulting in just two candidates. But why couldn’t this work when electing a parliament too? It would guarantee a working majority for a particular party (which I believe is important) while not disenfranchising the 66%-ish who do not vote for the eventual winner in most English elections (assuming the FPTP system we currently have provides a reasonable impression of the intentions of the electorate; which is doesn’t).