Why there's No Excuse for Not Voting

So, once again the time to decide is almost upon us. No, not who you want to win Strictly Dance Fever (although it is hotting up quite nicely I must confess), but which political party we will entrust with the reins of power in the forthcoming General Election. I'll forgive you for thinking, 'Who cares? They're all the same,' but it is this general apathy that helps politicians to get away with bungling their way through their tenures without a large proportion of the population even realising how inept some of them really are. They bore people (particularly young eligible voters) to the point of distraction with confusing, mind-numbing facts, figures and (yawn) statistics. The Labour government was voted in at the last General Election by just 24% of the public, so their policies, by no means, represent the wants and needs of every person in society.

It is extremely important that the younger members of society get to the ballot boxes with pen in hand, as the 18-35ish age group are precisely the people who are not represented in the Houses of Parliament.

How can they be acting on our behalf when they they don't live as we live? The youngest Member of Parliament is Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, MP for Brent East, who weighs in at a veritable spring-chickenlike 30 years old. So it's not surprising if you feel like you can't really identify with them. If the grey-vote provide the majority turnout then it is because they feel that the politicians share their vision of how this country should be. If a party wants to govern this country as though it was still the 1950s and that's just how you wished things still were, then you will go out and tick their box.

But hey, these are the noughties, this country has changed a great deal for the better, and for the worse, but to not vote in the election is to relinquish your right to complain about change not happening quickly enough.

On May 5, both County Council and Parliamentary elections will take place to select councillors and MPs. Tony Blair, who visited Northamptonshire back in February, cited the county as one of the major battlegrounds in the country because it contains some of the most marginal Labour-held seats.

So, who gets your vote?

I know, I'm as confused as most people. I suppose it comes down to policies, as none of the party leaders are particularly good-looking.

Here are some of the proposals regarding topical issues: 

Tax:

• Labour has pledged to not raise income tax and promises tax-cuts for families. They haven't ruled out a rise in national insurance though.
• The Conservatives promise £4bn worth of cuts, while the Lib Dems say that they won't have to cut taxes, but will create a 50% rate for earners of more than £100,000 per year.
• The Green Party will make it a 60% rate for these earners. The rate currently stands at 40%.

Education:

• Labour will cap university top-up fees, which they promised they wouldn't bring in at the last General Election, at £3,000.
• The Conservatives will scrap university fees and instead charge interest on student loans. Lib Dem will cut class sizes to 20 and do away with uni tuition fees.

Health:

• Labour offer more choice over hospitals, with waiting times at an 18-week maximum.
• The Tories say they will crack down on MRSA, while the Lib Dems are offering free prescriptions and eye-tests.
• The Green Party want to increase the NHS funding to around £90bn per year.

The Environment:

• Is climate-change a bigger threat to us than international terrorism? With Labour currently chairing the G8, they will apply more pressure, internationally, on reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.
• The Lib Dems will put a freeze on GM crops and want 20% of energy to come from renewable sources.
• The Greens will replace VAT with eco-taxes, including a carbon tax, to penalise environmentally-unfriendly products like fossil fuels.

Civil Liberties:

• Labour are in favour of bringing in ID cards to help combat international terrorism. Feel a little Orwellian? The Spanish have had ID cards for years but they didn't stop the Madrid bombers from slipping through the net. The Lib Dems will spend the ID card money on 10,000 more police officers.
• The Conservatives want a reform of the asylum system and have certainly been trying to tap into this controversial issue. Are they trying to link asylum-seekers to terrorism? It's up to you to decide. None of the major parties have done anywhere near enough to clarify the difference between migrants and asylum-seekers, perhaps with the exception of Charles Kennedy, Lib Dems, who said that the country was 'richer and more vibrant,' precisely because it was a 'multi-racial, multi-ethnic society.'

Iraq:

• One of the most emotive issues in this General Election. Do we trust Blair who has been proven to have taken our country to war, (the most extreme action that a government can take in your name, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and 87 British soldiers so far, plus thousands of others), under false pretences?
• The Tories backed the war and the Lib Dems strongly opposed it.

There aren't just three choices either.

If you think the Green Party have got their priorities right, then vote for them. No vote is a wasted vote. Each one sends a message to Westminster - every vote counts.

Even ones for the strangely-orange xenophobe Robert Kilroy-Silk's Veritas party

Er, actually, that might be a wasted vote. But the important thing is that on May 5, you get out and vote. It is worth keeping in mind, the men and women of Iraq, who braved the reality of suicide-bombers, and stood in queues for hours to make their voices heard in a democracy that we imposed on them. For us not to go to the polls would be criminal. The world has changed a great deal in the last four years.

Time to get off our arses.

The Operatives - 'Wait No More'

Innovative and wildy-original new young band hailing from Kingsthorpe announce details of debut album Wait No More and live show. If anyone's going to put Northampton on the musical map, it's these sketchy fruits - they're a bit special.

The Operatives have been making ripples on the music scene in Northampton for a few months now, but up until recently had remained something of an enigma. There was the odd magazine article about them and every now and again a song would surface on one band/music website or another, offering a real tempting-taster for anyone who was lucky enough to stumble across them, but they weren't playing all the usual pubs and venues on the live-circuit, so this elusiveness only added to the mystique. This, apparently, is all about to change. They are ready to make a belly-splash landing with the release of their debut album Wait No More and have just announced details of their first(ish) live gig at the refurbished Rockinghorse (back room of The Racehorse) on Abington Square in early February.

The Operatives are the twisted brainchild of Matt White and Ali Hart, two abundantly talented multi-instrumentalists from the 'orpe - I'll resist emphasising the 'mentalists part... Shit, I just did. They are both in their early 20s and have been been writing and playing together in various bands for over 6 years before settling into their current guise. Their prolific writing style has seen them pen over 200 songs, 14 of which make the final cut of the album. The live-incarnation of The Operatives features Jason Ducker on bass, Max Read on keyboards and David Storey on drums.

At the tail-end of last year, The Operatives were nominated in 2 categories at the BBC Weekender Awards for Best New Act and Best Song (for Giro Day); they were inventively described as being unpigeonholeable - hey it's a new genre.

Album tracks Vuman, Giro Day and Vultures have all been aired on BBC Radio Northampton's Weekender show in recent months and can be listened to again online at www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire.

You can also check them out on the highly-respected www.garageband.com, where rising musicians get feedback and exposure for their material. Songs posted on the site are given a star-rating out of 5 by empowered, independent musicians/music lovers, and Giro Day gained an impressive 4-stars from a notoriously-tough, anonymous reviewing-rabble. The band can also be found online at www.myspace.com/operatives where you can listen to, and comment on songs, or make a friend request to be on their buddy list.

Working under the wing of BandTherapy Management, The Operatives have recently finished recording their eagerly-awaited debut 14-track long-player called Wait No More and it's bursting with joy.

It was produced and engineered at The Lodge Recording Studio by Max Read and the band themselves, and is an outrageously, infectious trip through Matt and Ali's warped musical minds - with the blackest of humour skipping happily throughout its 45-minute duration. At times sounding unhinged, the vocal-harmonising ranges from bright and brash falsetto to the darkest, most satisfying of growls. There are sweet-mangled melodies, killer chainsaw-riffs and pulsating drums that drive the songs precariously along a cliff-edge, occasionally veering off, only to land on a lower ledge (platform-game style) with a trail snaking back to the top again.

And higher.

There are laugh-out-loud lyrical exchanges between Matt and Ali that are always the right side of novelty and their versatility and technical skills seem effortless; the tempo-changes deliciously unexpected.

The songwriting is incredibly accomplished, beautifully contorted and peppered with the most addictive of ingredients.

At this moment in time, The Operatives are the most exciting band in town and are surely destined for bigger things...

It's time to put the vibrant Northampton scene on the melodious map and no other band are more obvious pioneers.

• The Operatives have also announced that they will be playing their 'debut' gig on the opening night of BandTherapy's brand new live-music extravaganza, Operation Thursday on February 2, at the newly-renovated Rockinghorse. The line-up also includes, The Retro Spankees, The Phil Collins 3 and Faye Gibson. Doors open at 8pm. Admission £4. It will at last give music fans the chance to check out BandTherapy's Robert John Godfrey and Max Reads' interior-decorating skills, but more importantly, the brand new, state-of-the-art PA and lighting facilities. The Rockinghorse has been transformed into one of Northampton's premier music venues that will be to the benefit of all who play there in the future.

• http://www.myspace.com/operatives

Up in Smoke?

From Puff the Magic Dragon to Puff Daddy, it seems that smoking, despite the clear health risks, is as popular today as it's ever been. Whether your tabs are just something to draw shapes in the air with when you're shakin' your stuff on the dancefloor or a device to add extra emphasis to your gesticulations and dramatic pauses, it seems that smoking is here to stay. But should we have to inhale other people's second-hand Richmond Superkings' smog whenever we go out for a drink or some grub? According to Liberal Democrat Lord Avebury, around 4,800 people die each year as a result of passive smoking.

The goverment's recent White Paper on Public Health plans to make most enclosed public areas, including offices and factories, smoke-free zones. The Department of Health received an unprecedented one thousand submissions from individuals regarding the paper. It will only be private members' clubs (where votes will decide) and pubs (which do not serve prepared food) that will not have to adhere to the new laws. This means up to 90% of bars will become smoke-free within the next few years. The restrictions will come into force in NHS and goverment buildings by 2006, with public places following suit in 2007, and licensed premises the year after that.

Whether the government will eventually be willing to follow their Irish counterparts by enforcing an outright nationwide ban on smoking in all pubs, restaurants and workplaces, as the British Medical Association would like, remains to be seen. As the law currently stands in Ireland, pub and restaurant owners face fines of up to £2,000 if punters are caught puffing on the premises.

It seems that due to the pragmatic nature of the Irish, the ban has been declared a success, even leading to a fall in the sale of cigarettes.

But can it work here?
JD Wetherspoon has announced plans to ban smoking in all of its 650 pubs by May 2006; two years before government laws come into action. The company, which pioneered no-smoking areas, has said that 60 of its pubs will become smoke-free zones in May of this year, amid worries that smoky pubs are deterring customers.

Smoking in public places isn't just a concern for us Brits. Bans have been introduced in a wide range of different countries across the world, from Australia to Tanzania.

In Oz, sparking up a fag after surfing on Manly Beach, one of the most picturesque stretches of coastline down under, will result in a hefty fine.

Sound harsh? Then try lighting up in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where they have introduced a total ban on tobacco sales. The penalties imposed on hotels, bars and restaurants is the loss of their business licenses and heavy fines. Could Bhutan become the world's first smoke-free nation?

In Cuba, the home of the cigar, their chuffing dictator Fidel Castro can't even blaze-up in a restaurant in his own capital without having to cough up some pesos for the fine he'd be subsequently slapped with. You're Havana laugh, (apologies).

So smokers are being marginalised the world over: some say demonised. Pro-smoking campaigners have suggested that businesses should be allowed to choose their own policy to suit customers and staff, for what is a perfectly legal habit that brings in millions of pounds to the treasury each year. Are smokers being treated like snoutcasts? Fag lepers? Should they ring bells to warn of their coming? Well, maybe not quite yet.

It seems things aren't as cut and dried as they first appear with regards to people's tolerance of smoking bans. Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine recently reported that a pub landlord had lifted a smoking ban at The Junction Inn in Groombridge, Kent after sales plummeted by 'thousands of pints' during the 6 months of fume-free fun. Although food sales improved during the ban, they met only half of the loss in beer sales, which, over a 3-month period was equivalent to 100 barrels. The landlord said that said that the village regulars had felt alienated by the ban and had voted with their feet, but were now coming back and pushing sales up drastically.

So it can be difficult to gauge public opinion on this divisive issue. Ultimately, there is no way that non-smokers should be forced to breathe in other people's smoke against their wishes. No-smoking areas are not satisfactory - smoke is a feral beast, seemingly oblivious or ignorant to No Smoking signs, rendering them almost pointless.

Smoking is without doubt a killer. However, on the flip-side, the pro-smoking lobby isn't just made up of hardliners who think that Nicorette patches are for people who are too scared to smoke proper tabs. A great proportion of them would love to kick the habit, but you know, smokes just go so well with beer.

So we need a climate of tolerance and choice do we not? If you don't want to breathe in smoke, you shouldn't have to. If you do, then you should be able to.

Why not smoking pubs and non-smoking pubs? Then we can make our own choice of where we work, eat or drink. Not all non-smokers object to the evil vapour. Not all smokers insist on sucking the twisted mist constantly. In a democracy, where minorities are supposed to be represented, we should all have the choice...

Er, anyone got a light?

Do we need Trident?

"We don't need dangerous and costly Trident and cruise missiles," he stated back in 1983. The following year he called them,"...unacceptable, expensive, economically wasteful and militarily unsound."

Who did, you might be asking yourself?

Well surprisingly, these were the words of Tony Blair twenty three years before his decision to rush plans through parliament to update Britain's Trident missile-carrying nuclear submarines at an initial cost of £20 billion before he finally leaves office. The fleet will take an estimated seventeen years to develop and build and its shelf-life will run only until 2050. The final cost to the tax-payer looks set to run to over £70 billion. This is a programme that is fully supported by Prime Minister in-waiting Gordon Brown. The 160 warheads will have the combined power of 1,280 Hiroshimas - just one warhead that killed over 80,000 people in a single Japanese city in 1945. More than 90 Labour MPs voted against the proposed upgrade and the vote only succeeded with the support of the Conservative Party.

In 1968 the Non-Proliferation Treaty was opened for signature with the object of preventing the the spread of nuclear weapons technology, and to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy; its ongoing goal being complete nuclear disarmament. The Treaty entered into force in 1970 and 188 parties have now joined, including five nuclear powers - United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. The Treaty is legally binding on all states that are parties to it. Pakistan, India and Israel (all nuclear powers) have neither signed nor ratified the Treaty while North Korea withdrew in 2003.

Prime Minister Blair has said that Trident is the country's "ultimate insurance" against the return of a threat from a major nuclear power or against the new threat from rogue states such as Iran or North Korea who might support nuclear terrorism. He went on to say that Trident would only be used in self-defence.

So are the government behaving illegally? Well this is a matter that is still up for debate. Critics argue that the agreement between the UK and the US is a contravention of NPT rules as the transfer of nuclear weapons between states is not permitted. The goverment claims that only technology is being transferred and therefore the NPT is not being broken. It is illegal under the NPT to use a weapon which cannot discriminate between civilians and militants. Does this mean Trident breaches humanitarian law?

It seems that the only way to make a decision on which side of the debate to stand depends on a moral and ethical judgement as to whether you think that the money is being spent wisely in a post-Cold War world where the threats facing the UK as a nation have transformed dramatically.

Protestors involved with Faslane 365 calling themselves No Nukes Northants know exactly which side of the divide they fall. Evoking the spirit of the Women For Life On Earth, who, in September 1981, marched from Cardiff to RAF Greenham Common Airbase in Berkshire to challenge, through debate, the decision to site 96 cruise missiles there. On arrival, their request for a debate was ignored and they set up the Women's Peace Camp and so began a most audacious and lengthy protest that lasted for 19 years.

On October 1, 2006, Faslane 365 began what is to be a one year continuous blockade of the Faslane Naval Base. The blockade will run until September 30 this year and Faslane 365 are asking a wide range of local, national and even international people from all sections of civil society to assemble at the base with a commitment to staying for at least two days to make their concept for a peaceful future visible, and to aid the idea to demonstrate/block the base all year round. Faslane 365 staunchly promote non-violent protest and absolute respect for the opponent and everyone invovled. They undergo preparation and training to make sure they meet these ends.

On April 2, a number of No Nukes Northants protestors from across the county joined the '365 protestors and held their first in a number of peaceful demonstrations at Faslane Naval Base, situated on the Gare Loch; extending northwards from the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The NNN protestors ranged in age from 14-50 and took the marathon journey to the base to convene with other protestors (including Northampton Action For Peace) armed with banners, scripts and musical instruments.

First day festivities from the Northants party included a performance of their play, 'Anti-Nuclear Monologues' which was written especially for the occasion. It follows the personal history of four of the protestors from the Aldermaston marches in the 1950s via Greenham Common to the present-day remonstrations. They also read poems about peace, held a Ceilidh (Gaelic gathering) and sang peace songs while sporting a rather fetching array of slogan-splashed pants. As in Y-fronts.

According to NNN's Chris Lowe:

"I think one of the major problems with this government is that they think they can do as they please without the consent of the people of this country. Now is the time to say no, this is not what we want. We don't want to send out a message of war against other nations, we want to send a message of peace, this is how we can best assure a safe and stable future for everyone."

For further reading:

Trident On Trial by Angie Zelter, or visit:

www.myspace.com/nonukesnorthants
http://www.faslane365.org/
http://www.actionforpeace.org.uk/