Universities Should Be More Selective

Summer is over, leaves are falling, somehow the Lib-Dem’s are in power and apparently it’s now acceptable to be a pain to the nation in Britain. Every week over the past two months someone, somewhere in our country is encouraging a strike against their organization and moreover they have been services that are adamant to everyday people.

We all remember the postal strikes with images of managers delivering mail in black cabs and personally seeing the workers sitting outside the Farringdon sorting office in protest causing disruption and emotional distress not only to businesses that drive the UK economy but to target Christmas, which is one of the only times of celebration that is embraced in this country, is ruthless.

Put it this way, I think we feel sympathy for workers who are bullied by their overpaid bosses and this has been the trend as cost cutting has been the key to survival in a recession, however when you protest at time where the nation needs your service the most such as Royal Mail during Christmas or British Airways during Easter, then you lose the sympathy of your people. This was evident specifically during the British Airways saga with more workers returning to work the longer the strike went on. As a result, how many companies have switched their delivery contracts away from Royal Mail to other private companies or people hesitating to book a flight with British Airways not risking their holiday being ruined due to the volatility of their work force, but isn’t it all a bit of whining?

More recently we experienced yet another train strike, which might as well be an annual calendar event or a bank holiday, not over people being fired or with a decrease in salaries but a small reshuffle of staff and in the day of the Oyster Card, who needs more than one person at the station ticket office anymore? And a similar problem echoed across to the fire department where leaders promised that no-one would lose their jobs or have a salary cut but a reshuffle in shifts caused outrageous strikes and even a threat to strike on the night where their department would be the busiest of all on Guy Fawk’s night! How unsympathetic could they be to risk London falling under ablaze merely so they could keep their secondary moonlighting jobs and just like that, things return to normal as if we forget their moaning like spoilt children throwing toys out a pram.

Loonies

Yesterday we had the rather comical protests of the “intellectual” students parading against university fees increasing in 2012. I say comical because it was going so well until one fool decided that to resolve this sensible exchange, he needs to smash a window in and just like that their argument is struck off for being complete fools. Who could take them seriously now? Yes the nation will feel that a three fold hike is a bit much but why sabotage your momentum by acting like a Parisian? What’s next burning cars, buildings then people? Please, don’t waste our time by pretending that students today are the future of tomorrow but then proving to the nation that maybe you are just a group of fake pretentious ignorants just seeking a bit of attention from the media like the train, fire and airline strikers – perhaps this fee increase may be a good thing so the quality of teaching augments so students will no longer feel it is acceptable to vandalize a government building.

“A revolution is needed” a socialist said to me recently protesting outside my university and I agreed, but it is just not the British way. We may admire their passion across the channel in Paris but we are more rational over here and by Christmas, when the tacky lights brighten Oxford Street all this will be forgotten. After all, don’t complain our government is careless with their money when they are too busy patching up windows you smashed in.

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Nevertheless, there is an aura of requirement in that the nation feels that this “problem” needs to be fixed. I say “problem” because the public are yet to be educated with the reality of the situation but rather we only know that too much money is being spent. So Mr Osbourne may have the nation’s backing – partly, a sense of he is doing the job that needs to be done but nobody would want to do.

The Conservatives have attacked the benefit frauds from the off and every tax payer would agree with this movement as some of the situations the press releases are hilarious of a man playing rugby for his Sunday league whilst claiming incapacity benefits or an immigrant woman living in a five bedroom mansion on housing benefit whilst she collects rent from her husband’s other property. This list is endless but as soon as you mention anything to do with cutting benefits, despite it going to fraud, the labour party are bright-eyed to show that they fight for the common man.

When cameron confessed that there needed to be cuts, the press was immediately bombarded by heads of different departments such as the RAF claiming a calamity if their budget would be cut or Headmasters warning of education breakdowns if their budget were to be cut. All this to deter the government and to win the nations support for their cause so their blow isn’t too hard.

However, this was all inevitable. Call it pruning, efficiency savings or a step back. Whatever spin you want to believe that brings you to see that this is positive. We will hopefully look back and laugh at the situation thinking how silly we were to be in such a state.

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Well firstly, what exactly is a hung parliament?  Well for a party to form a government, they need an absolute majority.  What this means is that they have won more seats in parliament than all the other parties combined.  However, if this doesn’t happen than quite simply, all the other smaller parties can band together and outvote the minority government and this can make things like passing laws very tough.  This scenario is known as a “hung parliament”.  If this were to happen, the current prime minister (Gordon Brown) can go ahead and form a coalition government with a smaller party so that laws can be passed smoothly and easily.

In the past couple of weeks, we have heard a lot of political scare-mongering from plenty of UK papers about how a hung parliament would be detrimental to the UK as a whole.  Personally, I couldn’t disagree more.  Papers like The Sun have been saying that a hung parliament is an ineffective and weak government.  However, this couldn’t be more further from the truth.  There are other countries that have done perfectly well with a coalition government such as Germany and New Zealand, not to mention the Scottish Parliament and Welsh National assembly.  Let’s not forget that during the Second World War, we had a coalition government as well.  Some papers have grumbled that parties such as the Liberal Democrats are not a credible party that should never be in power.  Quite frankly, this is nonsense.  According to a recent YouGov poll, if the Lib Dems had a fair slice of the democratic cake, nearly half of voters would have voted for them.  It is quite clear based on this that people are crying out for electoral reform and lets hope that results tonight will show this.  A lot of people are concerned that a hung parliament might affect our economic recovery and again, this is simply fear-mongering.   According to a recent study by the House of Commons, 7 out of 10 of the largest fiscal consolidations ever carried out were done under coalition governments since 1970.  It is fairly obvious that a coalition government can certainly do it.

For me, I believe that a positive attitude towards our politics is vital.  Far too many people have lost faith in politicians and are no longer interested in UK politics.  With the highly likely event of a Hung Parliament, it would get more people interested in politics, it would bring a more representative government, and certainly bring electoral reform to UK politics.

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“Psephologists” I hear you say? Well even Microsoft Word doesn’t recognise it, so I don’t blame you for that look on your face. Then again, the spell-checker on Word is set to American, what do they know!?  Here is where my Classical Studies comes in. I rarely get to do this so please bear with me for a few lines, and then we will get back to the topic at large… (clears throat) Psephos (ψῆφος) is the ancient Greek word for ‘a pebble’.  Pebbles were used when casting a vote in the ballots in ancient times. Hence psephology is the scientific study of elections (If only you could see the grin on my face right now).

These psephologists look at any piece of statistical data, process it, and draw a hard-hitting conclusion which, to be honest, anyone could have told you. The most recent and amusing example is the one of young people registering to vote. After the second Prime Ministerial debate on Sky News (and BBC, but still called the Sky News debate… I digress) it seemed that many more young people were registering to vote. The psephologists rushed in and diagnosed:

“It is clear to see that the influx in young people registering has a direct correlation with the live debates. The debates have roused the political spirits within young people in the UK and the results are clear to see in the fact that they have flocked to register.” – Anonymous psephologist.

Let me present you with a scenario. You are a college student given a task on a Friday. It’s not particularly taxing and will require minimal effort, maybe five or ten minutes work. The teacher has requested it back anytime before next Friday morning, or anytime before then, however no later.

After consulting several polls based on the above question, a poll of polls has been constructed and the results show that the majority of people interviewed, conceded that they would leave the assignment till the last minute and do it hurriedly then. If we transfer this mentality to the registration arena, it is obvious that young people leave things, like registering, to the last minute, as they do with everything in life.

It is in our nature to be nonchalant about everything until the deadline is within touching distance. It has nothing to do with the fact that ‘the youth’ watched the debate on Thursday and were passionately inspired to register. The deadline for registering merely coincidentally fell 4 days after the debate. As youngsters rushed to their local polling stations to register, the psephologists pulled out their calculators and deduced that politics had become cool again. Apparently Adam Boulton was the new David Dimbleby… I think not.

It is my humble opinion that the media get far too excited about any plausible correlation between anything related to the elections. Gone are the days of the ‘Breaking News’ ticker on the bottom of news channels talking about terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Now we must endure annoying Twitter-like updates of Gillian Duffy’s whereabouts and feelings.

The media make a meal of anything and it seems that the simplest explanation can never be the correct one. There appears to be an obsession with graphs and polls, which if manipulated properly can serve any purpose required, as the tabloids have proved.

The media have lost themselves further credibility with their insistence on turning to Facebook, in particular, to get the opinion of the masses. The Sky News website integrated a Facebook status thread during the debate last Thursday, where anyone who changed their Facebook status whilst watching the debate would see it appear on the thread. Although some users offered some intelligent insight, most comments chose to abuse the respective leaders. This was entertaining, however hardly served to enhance the political process.

I would love to end with wise words about voting or politics or even the media, but I think it would be insensitive to not have a moment of silence for the political career of Gordon Brown…

Thank you.

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This question is quite separate to the question as to whether our faith does effect us when we come to mark our ballot papers. That is almost certainly true and natural and the Politicians know it, but should we look to our religion, solely, to guide us once we enter the privacy of our polling booth? After voting in the election on Thursday I was speaking to a friend and at hearing that I voted for the Conservative Party he proceeded to throw the book at me…God’s book. Apparently I had done something wrong, not only in the his eyes, the eyes of the Anti-Conservative movement and the Unionists and anybody else you can think of other than the super-rich sipping on chilled drinks on their yachts in the middle of the Carribean…but in God’s eyes too. I had committed a sin and would have to answer to God on the Day of Reckoning. Taken aback I was. His argument was that as a Muslim, it was my duty to vote in line with the teachings of my faith; for justice, for equality and against oppression and greed, so not Tory, in his opinion. But let us take out the variables for just a moment; your particular Political sympathies, your faith and its teaching as to what is right.

Should the fear of God and his wrath compel us to vote in a certain way. I argue that it should not, and that faith should not enter the political spectrum when we go to vote. As I look at UK Politics over the last few years or indeed the last few decades I struggle to find any compatibility with any self respecting faith and dignified values. Are some factions worse than the others? Of course they are…BNP, my eyes are on you, but looking at the Political class as a whole, justifying your vote for one particular Party with the support of your religion to me seems to be a tough case to make convincingly. In this Political system whilst some are worse than others, it is generally agreed that they are all bad. All the main Parties have been lying to the public without any shame for the last month, so lending our votes in support of them and their aspirations is not entirely moral or correct when examined under the lens of God’s teaching of honesty and respect, are they?

Now of course there is the argument of voting for the ‘lesser evil’, compromising on our beliefs to vote for the best of a bad bunch. I can see the logic behind this, it’s a tactical voting of sorts, not too dissimilar from the type Gordon Brown was so desperate for us to indulge in, yet to me it withers away pathetically once more if we want to vindicate ourselves with the backing of God. In religion there is no space for compromise, what is written is written and what is commanded of us is certain. For example, voting Lib Dem over Tory (If of course you think that is a more ‘moral’ thing to do which is a completely different debate all together!) with a view to pleasing God to me is tantamount to punching someone once as opposed to punching them twice, it is wrong to do it all.

So I left my faith at the polling stations doorstep, proceeded to enter, claim my ballot and right to vote, and did so on the basis of getting the Labour government out of power because quite frankly these last few years and wars have been a joke. Did I please God by voting to evict a Government that has no doubt committed great sin during its reign? Or did I throw myself closer to the fires of hell by voting for a Government that may be about to do the very same. Catch 22 they call it.

Is the answer not voting at all? Hung Parliament they say? Then hang them all!

Farhat Raza

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