jemjabella

Thoughts on UK Election Results

David Cameron is now prime minister. I'm annoyed, confused, bemused and anxious all in one go.

I made it no secret that I voted for my local Liberal Democrat candidate. Not only did I feel she had the most to offer my constituency but I also support the Lib Dem party on the whole. I voted the same way in the last election, too. I'm not stupid, I was under no illusions about the likelihood of Nick Clegg getting into power on his own. Nonetheless, it was more than a little frustrating for the Liberal Democrats to get a similar percentage of the votes to the Labour party and yet a fraction of the seats. Definitely not keen on our First Past the Post system.

Anyway, so... Cameron. I've blogged about Cameron before. He's made several statements about unmarried families, broken homes etc. In his eyes, unless you're married you're not contributing to society. I don't like this viewpoint, not least because I'm not married myself. It's ridiculous stereotyping, and I know for a fact that I have and will provide for Isabel better than some married couples I know provide for their children.

All of our local Conservative MPs have voted against equal rights for gays. In fact — and this is why I'm bemused — I find it quite ironic that I've seen several people online quite loudly supporting the Conservatives and yet joining pro-Gay facebook groups. Hello, can't have your cake and eat it. I don't know how anyone can find it acceptable to support a homophobic party, personally.

I wasn't keen on the Lib Dems forming a Lib/Con coalition. Firstly, because I don't see how 2 parties with very different policies can work together. Secondly, because I have a feeling that the next 5 years are going to be hard going, and I didn't want the LDs' chances of actually getting in and forming their own government at some point to go out of the window as a result.

I'm willing to hold off judgement on Cameron's suitability for the job until he's been doing it a while, but given that I disagree with most of their manifesto, and dislike most of their MPs, I don't see how anything positive will come out of this election for me.

The Politics of Parenting

Gina Ford — so-called "parenting guru" — has lashed out at UK Lib Dem party leader Nick Clegg after he hit out at her parenting manual. Ford, an unqualified former maternity nurse questioned Clegg's maturity (ironic, given her lawsuit against mumsnet after mums shared a few views of their own) because of his comparison of The Contented Little Baby Book to "a sort of Ikea assembly instruction manual".

My favourite part of her retort is her misguided idea that because the book has sold 1 million copies, that there are 2 million British parents following her advice. I don't know what planet Ford is on, but this is as barmy as me suggesting that every one of my thousands of visitors over the years are loyal readers. In actual fact, my following is smaller by yards, and I imagine much of the sales of Ford's book are by well-meaning and probably child-free friends and relatives who read the blurb and think it sounds amazing.

Back here on planet Earth we know that her advice to breastfeeding mothers is potentially detrimental to supply (babies suckle at the boob to encourage production of milk; her suggestion to top baby's up with formula interferes with that) and her enthusiasm for cry it out/controlled crying techniques chills me to the bone. Her book and its followers are symptomatic of several generations of parents who think raising a child involves shoving a bottle in a baby's gob and posting in front of the TV so as not to be an inconvenience to mummy and daddy.

As for Clegg... far from losing voters, I have a feeling this revelation of his choice of parenting method is likely to connect him to a lot of mums up and down the country.

Move News and Chippy Fire

Oh hai! I'm still alive :) ISP cocked up our connection move so an order that should have taken 24 hours or less to complete - giving us Internet the day after moving day - is now taking 7-10 days. We're on day 4 now, so it shouldn't be too long before I'm back on your screens. Of course, this ruined my new years resolution that I didn't actually tell you about... to blog every day. Poo :(

Settled in to the new flat nicely. Cats and Piggies seem to like their new space and we managed to move from A to B without any breakages or major disasters. Have my own little 'office' in the corner of the flat now, with pics to come.

In slightly more interesting news, the local chip shop exploded last night. Karl and I were woken up at 2:10am-ish by a huge bang that shook the house. My first thoughts were either a) someone had driven in to the front of the house (the flat is on the top-floor of a converted house) or that b) Fudge, who recently discovered he can get on top of the bookcase, had knocked the whole lot (including some 200 books) over. I shot out of bed and did a spot-check of the flat, but everything was fine. Popped my head out of the back window, also fine.

Went to get back in to bed and as I did, sirens and blue flashing lights shot past the bedroom window. Looked out to see huge flames and an epic smoke plume billowing up behind the café on the corner. Turns out there had been a gas explosion. By the time the fire brigade got to the chippy there was almost nothing left. Walking past it on the way to work this morning, it was in a sorry, soggy state. Thankfully nobody was hurt, though.

Anyway... if I missed anything important during my downtime, shoot me an e-mail. Might be a while before I can sort through them and reply though.

Tony Blair Was Wrong

Wow.. Tony Blair just admitted he was wrong about the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

"I have to accept that we haven't found them, and may never find them."

Holy shit, he admitted it. I didn't see that coming!

In The Paper

Because of strikes at the place Karl works at, I wrote in a letter (supposedly for the letters page) on Monday telling the strikers that I think they're being selfish, and not putting the children first — which is what teaching is about. Anyway, i've been looking out ever since Monday, waiting for my letter to appear.. and Karl just rang me telling me it was printed, but not on the letters page.

I made the front page. :o

See the article