Deciding who to vote for

I've just returned from the hustings, at a local church where four of our general election candidates were asked questions by members of the public.  It was quite well attended but only by new voters and the over fifties.  I decided to record as much of what was said, as possible in the vain hope that is might help the people who have yet to decide who to vote for.  I think it might be time to learn shorthand, as I have serious hand cramp, ran out two pens and might have failed to get everything down (although I did try really hard to write the questions and answers verbatim.

As usual, for these things, I was a bit late and missed the introductions.  The candidates were Beverley Acevedo (UKIP), Zoe O'Connell (Liberal Democrat), Peter Edwards (Labour) and John Whittingdale (Conservative).  I believe that there will be a Green, Independent and Sustainable Population Party candidate but they weren't at the hustings and because I missed the beginning I can't tell you whether they were invited.  The Chairman was Mark Ambrose, the vicar of the church.

Question 1: Richard Little

Do you think the proliferation of food banks is a good reflection of society today?

Zoe: No. The only way to fix it is to continue on the path we are on with the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition to cut the deficit.
Peter: It's very sad that people are having to rely on them.  You have to take your hat off to how hard people are working.  There are 1.4m people on zero hours contracts. I have concerns that people are going because they are hungry not because food banks are being advertised, as people are saying.
John:  They are a good thing.  It shows a willingness of people to help and support others.  We are a very generous nation. They are not new. There are more in Germany than in Britain.  There should be no question that people in need should qualify for help but they will always need more.  They are now advertised in job centres.  I would say that it is best to get people into work.  A job is the greatest form of welfare and under the Conservatives unemployment is down 60%.
Bev:  It's irrelevant how many there are in Germany.  It's that they're here. We in this day and age should not need food banks.
Q: Mr Whittingdale, If food banks are necessary why doesn't your government provide them through the welfare state?
John: We do have a benefits system .....[hand cramp]......
Q: Under the Conservatives, why did you vote in the European parliament to refuse to agree a grant to help foodbanks.
John:  The idea of our tax money being sent to Europe to be sent back to us doesn't seem appropriate.
Question 2:  Alfie Chapman (Plume School Student)

In 2010 the government voted to raise tuition fees to £9k. Do you think this has had an effect on social mobility?

Peter: I think it has had a damaging effect and has meant that young people will have a noose of debt around their neck for years to come.  I'm cross that the Lib Dems knew they couldn't keep their election promise.  Labour propose to cut it to £6k.  We need to guarantee an income but we don't want to put people off.  It's a cap on inspiration.
John: The evidence, so far, says it hasn't had a damaging effect.  People are still applying.  My daughter has just done so and I know just how tough it still is to get in (can't help feeling he sounded a bit disappointed).  Those on low income get more help than they did before. Universities were underfunded.  If you go to University your earning potential is higher.  You don't have to pay until you reach that higher level of income and some people never get there.
Bev: We propose to scrap University fees for certain courses and I'm afraid it's not a course I know you are studying but we will not have fees for Science, Maths and Engineering.  Less than 11% have paid anything back so we would have money to do it.
     Q:How much would it cost?
Bev:  I don't have costings just percentages.
Zoe:  [I found her very difficult to hear] .....seeing an increase in people applying to University so it has worked.
Peter:  Do you think Nick Clegg was wrong to sign the pledge? [I wasn't aware that he had - or did they try to make all Lib Dem leaders non-drinkers after what happened with Charles Kennedy?]
Zoe:  Yes I do........ [argument about who attacked who on the issue and who was more 'two faced']  As no party is going to win an overall majority isn't it a bit dangerous for anyone to say we'll do everything we promised when you know you might be in a coalition?
Alfie: OECD found that the UK was the worst for social mobility, so if some progress has been made then much more needs to be done.
Q:  Less students are going to Oxbridge from working class backgrounds than they were in the 60's.
Q:  There are bursaries for the poor and the rich have enough money to pay for their children but for people like me, whose parents earn enough are struggling.  How are you going to help the people in the middle?
John: This is why the Labour government developed the loan system, which we have continued.  It isn't a question of your parents paying for you.  It's you paying it when you earn a decent salary.
Q: What about the living fees?  If you are poor you get a maintenance grant but parents have to top up the living expenses that aren't covered by the minimum maintenance loan.  My parents will have three children at University and I don't know how they'll cope.
John:  I have two children, one about to start and one just coming out the other end. I know how much it costs.  It's a shame that there isn't the maintenance grant that I was lucky enough to get when I went to University but it simply doesn't exist anymore and we can't return to it because there isn't any money.

Question 3:  Tony Day

In light of the Conservative announcement of Right to Buy, will this not exacerbate the problem for provision of social housing in the Maldon district?

Peter: I have deep concerns that we are still paying the price for selling off the housing stock under the Thatcher government in the eighties.  1400 people are on the waiting list for social housing in Maldon. In the past houses were sold off and not replaced.  They say that they will be under this new scheme but I can't see any way of replacing the housing stock in sufficient numbers, so it will only exacerbate the problem.
Bev: UKIP agrees with Right to Buy however the money should be used to replace all that are sold off.
John: The Right to Buy in the Eighties has cause the biggest jump in home ownership.  There is now no council housing in Maldon - it is all housing association and it is good to allow housing association tenants to have these opportunities.  It should be that it gets put back into social housing. We will make it easier to build those, especially on brownfield sites.  Ultimately, that will be the responsibility of the local council, although there will be planning issues and I'm sure there will be questions later about planning and the local development plan (ha ha) [the laugh was a bit odd and there weren't]
Peter: There's nothing wrong with aspiration to home ownership but why have we only heard of it now?
John: Because it's a Conservative policy not a Coalition policy.
Zoe:  Lib Dems don't believe in Right to Buy.  It will cause problems.......[things I couldn't hear] Money does not get reinvested.
Q: Wouldn't it be a good idea if owners who rent for profit were forced to sell their houses to their tenants?
John:  The answer is no. We don't live in a police state where we can force people to sell their own property.
Q: Are housing associations under the control of the government then? Because I thought they were private companies and you can force them?
Q:  I'm involved in property and selling off council houses has caused the biggest problem ever.  People in need should have access to houses but too many people (including politicians) are making money from it. If a house is worth an £600 rent then the landlord will charge £800 rent and taxpayers are subsidising the landlords to get richer and richer.
Q: This seems a triumph of political dogma over any real benefit. The problem with this is that they can buy the stock at 30% of the value and this will not allow building of new property.  Housing Associations were developed to provide social housing and that has been successful. Many housing associations offer shared ownership already and under this policy it will be ruled out.  I would like to see abolishment of purchase by foreign or corporate investment groups.
Mark Ambrose: (called for a show of hands) the majority were against Right to Buy.

Question 4:  Tony [couldn't hear surname]

Is the economic recovery really real?

Mark: [Gave some statistics about the wealth gap] The richest man in the UK has £13.7 billion - I'd like to see him try to spend that.
Zoe:  [couldn't hear but thought she said;] Yest it's real?  There are more billionaires in this country.  I have no problem with more money moving here.  The trick is separating them, in the nicest possible way, from their money.
John:  If you go to the High Street in Maldon and talk to the shopkeepers and restaurant owners, as I do, they say, "Yes it is," (some jeering).  Unemployment is down by 60% in this area (everyone was shouting).  The level of debt is still going up but the deficit is halved.  Reducing debt will take more time.  More billionaires is a good thing.  They pay more money into the economy.  If people earn more money they pay more taxes to help those that don't.
Bev: I'm a restaurant owner and I'm sorry Mr Whittingdale, that is rubbish.  In Maldon High Street two ladies dress shops have closed (someone shouted out that they had, in fact, relocated and were doing very nicely, thank you.  She was briefly flustered but continued)  I don't know who you've spoken to but the people I know don't feel the same way.
Peter: I don't feel better off than I did 5 years ago and I don't suppose you do either and that's the problem.  The recovery has benefited the top 5% only.  If we are better off then who is benefiting? (Someone shouted: Tony Blair).  All I would say is that child poverty was down under Tony Blair.
Bev: There is a big divide between those that have lots of money and those that have none.  UKIP have acknowledged that it's going to be especially tough for women.
Tony: Over the last five years I'm better off.  I'm a pensioner and so is my wife.  My pension is protected.  I get a free bus pass, TV licence and excellent pension bonds.  I'm enjoying this.  I feel quite well off but I worry that David Cameron is buying my silver voted.  We are being asked to support him by his fiddling.
Q: What has the government done to stimulate the economy?
[hand cramp]
............We have had 4 million immigrants who have stimulated the economy.
[hand cramp]
John: Professional economists disagree with you.  The economy has grown.
Q: Economists suggest that GDP is peaking now, so whoever is in charge will find that their numbers won't work in 5 years.
John:  Negative growth happens rarely and that's called a recession.  We are out of it now.  All expectations are the the economy will continue to grow. No one is forecasting that we are going to have negative growth.  Of course it's going to get bigger next year.
Peter:  The economy is growing but what is the cause of it.  For example the help to buy mortgages have stimulated house buying but no new houses are being built so it's a short term plan.
Bev: How about the national debt.  It's currently 1.6billion increasing by 2 million a week.  What a terrible legacy to leave our children.
Zoe:   (Can't hear)  We need to keep spending at a level that is reasonable.  If we want to get the deficit down we need to keep spending responsibly.  Spend money we've actually got, not like Labour's plans.
Q:  Osborne has not met the economic targets he set.  I'm better off because I am also a pensioner but my children are worse off.  John is wrong.  We have the worst trade deficit.  Rents of risen by 27% in London and 30% of Council house that were sold by Thatcher are now owned by multinational corporate investment companies.

Question 5. (Didn't hear questioners name)

Islamic state seem determined to eradicate Christianity.  What do you propose to do about it?

John:  It's terribly difficult.  48hours ago I was in Armenia, for the commemoration of the Genocide where thousands of Christians were killed.  There are two things, though. What is happening is Britain with people who have been radicalised is not a matter for party politics.  We are working together with the vast number of Muslims who are against this radicalisation.  The second thing is going to war.  Unless there is a very direct threat to this country I would be reluctant to send in troops.
Bev:  I think the current government is scared to speak out on this issue. They don't want to be called racist.  I couldn't agree more that we can't have this Islamic State coming here and not abide by our laws.  We are British people and we should be proud of being British.  There is a woman in my bank who has been told not to wear a cross because it might offend one person she works with, who is Muslim.  We mustn't kowtow to these people.
Peter:  I think the question was about IS rather than a Christian's right to wear a crucifix. This is a very difficult problem and it's going to take years to resolve.  An insular attitude won't help use.  We have to work internationally with the UN and the aid agencies.  It's a generational problem and it's possible that after election we will become more involved in Syria because things are not getting better there.
Zoe:  Just going ahead and invading isn't a solution and it isn't a solution here.  We tried it in Iraq and it didn't work. Radicalisation is a problem.  People of all faiths are being killed under terrible circumstances.
Q: Can I make a point to the UKIP candidate?  If we go for separation we alienate people further.  Most Muslims are generous, law abiding people.
Bev: Of course they are. It's the people who are dangerous that we need to tackle.
Q: There was a recent interview with a defence person and he was asked if the cuts had made an impact and he said, "Yes because Britain is seen as weaker."  Why has that been allowed to happen?
Zoe:  I think part of it is a perception that Britain is weaker.  We are no longer a world player and we have to accept that we can't go somewhere with a gunboat and say, "Do what we say or else."  I don't think that's always a bad thing.  Having spent 5 years in the Army reserve, I know about these things.
Peter:  I'd like to pick up the point about veterans. [I didn't hear one but then Zoe was very quiet]  We need help for former personnel.
John:  On defence, there have been reductions but we still have the second biggest defence budget in the Western world, after America  [pen ran out]
Bev:  We need to increase our defence budget but we need to stop getting involved in wars that are none of our business.

Question 6:  Andy Hunt

Do you think the best environment to bring up children is with a father and mother and that the government should encourage that?

[There is some uncomfortable shifting on the panel and a few embarrassed giggles in the audience]

Bev:  Yes, of course but it doesn't always happen that way.  Divorce happens but I do think we should try harder in marriage, especially when children are involved, we need to try to make the marriage work.
Peter:  It is certainly not the only family unit and it is important that government should support all types of families.  Marriage is important but it's not the only way.
John: All the research shows that the best life chances for children come from families with two parents who stay together and are married but you can't legislate to make that happen. If marriages fail then both parents should still have a responsibility for that child. Parents should take responsibility to raise and provide maintenance of the children.
Zoe: [looking uncomfortable] I'll be blunt. NO. I don't believe that at all.  Love trust and openness is the most important. As a transgenger woman in a same sex marriage I can tell you that there is a lot of pressure heaped on people who don't appear to conform. The state should encourage them to be who they are.
Q:  John, what about gay partnerships as you consistently voted against gay marriage.
John: It's difficult. I was conscious that a lot of people were upset by the marriage.  I thought there was no need for it as the legal problems were addressed by legal partnerships.
Zoe: What about churches who wanted to marry people, such as the Quakers?
John: With all due respect to the Quakers but they are very small.
Zoe: So you are saying small faiths don't have the same rights as large faiths? If they wanted to marry people, why shouldn't they?
John: They could have had a ceremony but marriage wasn't needed.
Andy: As a Christian I fear that as a society where we pick and ditch our Judeo Christian principals we see the knock on effects on our society.

Question 7:Bob Sachs

With cuts to community services how would you go about empowering charities such as churches to fill the gap?

Peter: A lot of charities are finding life tougher; grants cut. The environment that they are working in is more hostile.  It comes back to the broad question of money and how we do it. It's about finding a fairer way of cutting the deficit.  We don't want to cut the deficit on the shoulders of the poor.
Bev:  I'm concerned that places like hospices and the air ambulance are charities.  I can't believe that. I think they should be backed by government. Charities should be supported by government.
John: We've been through some very difficult years.  Charities, by definition, are doing things that government doesn't do.  We are a very generous country.  We can do things to help charities through tax relief. The air ambulance this year was paid for by fines from one or two banks who were being silly.  We have done things to help, such as saying that people can have three days off to help with charitable causes.
Zoe: A large proportion of funding for charities comes from local government grants and budgets have been squeezed. Right now, we are coming out of a phase where there is no money and we will be able to give them more money by devolving decisions of how funding is distributed to local councillors.
Q: It's interesting that you've chosen to talk about money. There are assets that the council sit on that aren't being used.
John: Property you mean?  Maldon District Council do make available property rent free to charities. Not all of them, of course, but the Citizen's Advice Bureau.  It's also the case that local authorities do give money.  I have been involved with the Dengie Project Trust and that money comes from the tax payer.  it is a service that is necessary and if the Charity wasn't there the NHS would have to find a way to do it, so it saves tax payer money.

Has it helped us decide who to vote for?  I'm not sure. The Long Suffering Husband wished that he could vote for the chairman but I do know that we will both be voting and not spoiling our ballot papers (which whatever anyone says is just not voting with some effort) because there is a reason that pensioners are the only people that feel better off and that is because they engage with politics and actually vote.

Silver voters

Persecution of the Nazis

There is a serious crime wave at the allotments.  Every time I go, one someone regales me with the latest tragedy, "My shed was broken into, again."

The thieves take strimmers, lawnmowers, tools, kettles, Calor gas heaters ("What am I going to do without my cup of tea?") and seeds.  Most people think the larcenists are from the flats and are trying to make money from their stuff.  They laugh,  "Well, they won't get much for that old thing, it was probably only worth scrap,"  and then they say, more seriously,  "I don't know, it's not right is it?  They're all living on benefits you know.  If only they got off their backsides and got themselves a job they wouldn't have to pilfer my stuff.  I worked all my life, paid my taxes and this is the thanks I get for keeping them in fags."

I don't have a shed.  I leave my tools out and the only things that have ever been stolen from my plot are some gooseberries but that could have been birds.  Maybe they take a look at my plot and see the wiggly lines, weeds, gone to seed broccoli and decide that my tools will only produce bad workmanship.  However, I was talking to a lovely, quietly spoken man today, who has a shed, grows things in straight lines, wins prizes and he has never had anything stolen either.  I'm beginning to think that this crime wave is personal.  Someone is persecuting the Nazis.

Allotment Nazis are a very strange breed.  You can spot them instantly from their loud booming, boorish voices.  When they have finished the work they have decided to do they take a walk around the whole site, inspecting, tutting and offering unsolicited advice.  Sometimes they take notes, so that they can tell Jackie or Susan or whoever at the council that and plot 32b has weeds.  They are usually men but often let the little woman trail behind them agreeing with their every word. They particularly enjoy suggesting that a woman with an allotment could do with a man to help her.  The Long Suffering Husband was asked at the weekend by one, if he had just taken over the plot and when he explained that he was just using a power tool for me (he likes a power tool) who had been working it for 15 years the Nazi sucked air in through his teeth and said,  "Oh, she normally does it on her own, does she?"

Although, I'm not usually a fan of persecution I find the idea of these robbers carrying out retribution against the Allotment Nazis makes me smile.  Does that make me a bad person?

My Grandad was a storyteller.

My grandfather liked to tell me stories.  He didn't read them, he created them.  If I asked him a question the answer would be whatever he thought was most interesting, rather than the truth.  Once I asked him why the knitted teddy bear was called Brian.  He sat back in his chair, popped a toffee in his mouth and said,  "Well,  there was this little boy called Brian.  He was a beautiful boy, with cute round rosy cheeks and he lived here with us until one day a witch stole his soul away and turned him into this bear, which stayed with us." My grandmother walked into the room, folded her arms and rested them on top of her enormous bosom (she is the only woman I have ever known who could balance a cup of tea on her breasts) and said, "Don't listen to him, love, he's messing with you. It was your cousin Brian's bear.  You know, Brian in New Zealand?"

When I was in the third year of Junior school I had a teacher that loved a map and family history.  We all had to go and ask our grandparents where they were born and plot it on the map.  My grandad tried to tell me that he was from Scotland.  "It's where the red hair comes from," he said.  He wasn't.  He was a Londoner. Then he told me that our family name used to be McRae and was anglicised when we moved from Scotland but had been too stupid to choose a name that was already around, which is why everyone in the phone book with my surname was related to me.

Later on, a senior school project was to make a family tree.  This was harder for me than for most, with 22 cousins. Undeterred, I went to Grandad.  He told me that his grandmother was called Emma McRae.  When my sister had a similar project as part of a Social Work degree Grandad told her that his grandmother was from a wealthy Scottish family, the McRaes who disowned her when she married his poor grandfather.

When we at my parent's the other weekend we took a nostalgic trip through some old photos and came across the family tree.  My daughter is a bit of a whiz with tracing family history on the internet, so we traced it back as far as we could online.  Unsurprisingly, my Grandad's grandmother wasn't called McRae after all and she wasn't from a wealthy family.  Then, a generation further back we became quite excited when we found Esther McRae, but her parents weren't Scottish, or wealthy.

We traced the family line back to the beginning of the 1800s to Suffolk. Still no Scottish connection! On the 1851 census we found my great, great, great (there might be one more great - I've lost count) grandfather living with his wife and children.  The wife was born in 1822 and my one less great grandfather was born in 1846.  He had three brothers born in 1846, 1842 and 1834.   "Ewww! She was 14!"  We started to make up stories.  Grandad had nothing on us.  Then noticed a 23 year old daughter and her husband.  "No, that's just not possible. A baby at six?  Never!"  He had probably been married twice before but that was a little boring.  We found a record of him marrying  this wife in 1841 but also found a marriage in 1832 to a different woman.  "Maybe he was a bigamist?"  I said.
"She probably died," replied my journalist daughter; for some reason she's attached to the truth. "There is a story here though," she said.

My daughter went back to University and I resisted the temptation to tell the story of Charles, Sarah and Mary and their sordid three way love affair, that broke Sarah's heart.  I imagined that if I visited the graveyard of the town churches I would stumble upon the grave, beautifully marked and preserved, with the answers to the story engraved for posterity.  Obviously, I found moss covered gravestones with illegible writing and areas of unmarked graves in both town churches.  I will probably, instead, have to visit the registry office and spend a day in a dusty basement looking at a computer screen to get anywhere near the true story.

I think Grandad may have had the right idea, though.  Why go to all this trouble when you can make up a much more interesting story? I have already decided that of the two towns I visited my relatives almost certainly hailed from the one with the interesting history, pretty cottages and wonderful sign rather than the large soulless town nearby and no piece of paper or entry on a computer is going to change my mind on that.

The pretty village.  My ancestors could have lived here.

Or maybe they lived in a pretend castle?

This board would have been filled with their exploits

They would have definitely drank here

Unmarked graves

Moss covered/faded graves

The Writing Group

I have come to the conclusion that writers are funny people.  Not funny, as in, tellers of a good joke but funny, as in, weird.

I should have realised this. I like to write, which I suppose makes me a writer and I'm a bit weird.  OK, so I'm a lot weird.  A lot weird?  A writer, who are you kidding?  To be a writer, much of your time is spent inside your own head.  You think about imaginary people. You wonder how you could fit the words polyglot and verdant into your story, just because you like them.  You have notebooks in your handbag and you write down things people say in coffee shops, concerts, at bus stops and in the pub. You don't need to actually talk to people because the story you make up about them is much more interesting.

A little while ago, I took an on-line fiction writing course.  Part of the course encouraged you to share your work and have others comment on it.  A few people decided to form a group to email each other our work. I thought that would be useful.  Critical readers could help me find the times I've used a semi colon when it should have been a colon, or where I've changed tense in the middle of a story, or where I've used the word amazing ten times in a paragraph.  People who could tell me if my story is exciting enough to carry on with, or whether I should consign it permanently to the tired (I meant to type tried but tired is just as appropriate!) and failed pile.

The idea of these impartial readers appealed to me.  Family and friends can only read so much besides which I am currently writing a short story about a woman who kills her husband by pushing him into a canal in Amsterdam and I don't want them to get worried about the LSH.

I tried my best to be a member of this group.  I read and reviewed the others' work and I sent some of my own in but I forgot that writers are weird.  I forgot that writers are the best procrastinators on the planet.

First of all there were emails about the name of the group.  I ignored all the emails.  I didn't care about names.  No one ever gets my name right anyway.  They decided on Four Corners, for reasons I can't remember, or more likely, wasn't very interested in, in the first place.

Then there were a series of emails working out a complicated admin system, with a coordinator, spreadsheet and a system of how many pieces could be reviewed at once.  They decided that we would take it in turns to be the coordinator.

Then there were about a million emails about whether people minded  whether someone told the organisers of the on-line course that we had started a group.  I didn't reply.  It didn't bother me either way, so long as I didn't have to talk to anyone.

Then the person who had spoken to the course organisers emailed to say that she had suffered a senior moment when being interviewed and got the name wrong.  She called the group, "Four Winds."  I replied.  Not that I cared about the name but I thought it was quite appropriate for a group of people who were full of hot air. I didn't say that.  I'm not that rude but I did say that I thought it was a funny name and that I was capable of producing four types of wind all on my own.  No one laughed.  They thought the name issue was very serious.

When they had settled the name issue, there were emails about sending biographies, photos and someone was going to make a logo for the group. I didn't reply. I just wanted someone to review my writing. I didn't want friends.  I'm not very good at friends (you might have guessed).

Then in one day, I received 22 emails with the subject line, "Suggestions for reducing emails."  I had to laugh.  I replied.  I toned it down.  I didn't say, "Oh for fucks sake, stop sending emails and just fucking write!" but that was the gist.  Oh dear. I'd offended everyone.  I told you I wasn't good at friendship.

Eventually, it was my turn to be coordinator and that is where I have failed and had to leave the group.  I didn't send out enough emails.  I didn't use the spreadsheet.  The group were very disappointed in me and so I have left.  I'm not too worried because everyone was being too nice.  All these lovely friends were now just telling each other how brilliant they were.

Now, there are no emails to read and so I will just have to get back to killing my husband, fictionally speaking of course.  The Long Suffering Husband is safe......for now.

SATs Resists

It's the Easter holidays. I was going to take a proper break from school stuff. I wasn't going to get angry about any school related election items.

I tried really hard. 

I didn't need to get angry. My Twitter feed did it for me and I was cheered up by hearing the Education Secretary say, "resitted," on the radio. There was no need to tell the world about the day my son turned from a 'mediocre failure' to a success because someone remarked one of his GCSEs. People more angry and more eloquent than me were doing a better job.

But.....

Then I looked at the other side of Twitter. The side I don't follow.

People were talking about children who didn't get a particular mark on one test, as being pointless members of society. 

It was this tweet, in particular that made me want to bang my head on the desk.

No, I think schools will be able to spend less time teaching these children because they will have to spend even more time drilling them to be above average on one test. I will have to look at more disappointed faces of children who are dragged out of a lesson they love and can do for more of the stuff that they just don't get. It's heartbreaking.

Just Imagine

I love politics. It's people watching at its best, especially coming up to a general election and I thoroughly enjoyed the leaders debate on TV last night. It was also fascinating to watch how social media responded.

Fifteen to One and all the contestants forgot to bank

Nigel Farrage divided the nation. He is political marmite: people either love or hate him. Natalie Bennett paused too much and was too Australian (or New Zealand, if you were following my feeds), Leanne Wood had nice hair and an accent to die for: everyone on my Twitter feed wanted to go to live in the valleys, just so they could say, "I live in the Valleys," with her accent. Nick Clegg was desperate. David Cameron was quiet. Ed Miliband did something strange with his eyes and Nicola Sturgeon, representing a party that most of us can't vote for, was the overall winner.

The sad thing is that this popularity contest hasn't made ordinary voters feel any more empowered. Several people on my social media said that they weren't watching it or that they had turned off because they were fed up with their vote not counting.

I live in the 27th safest Conservative seat in the country, which is the 3rd safest seat in the whole Anglia region. Despite the fact that our MP was only one of seven MPs to vote against the equal pay bill earlier this year, many feel powerless to get rid of him. The country voted against electoral reform, firmly saying,"No!" to AV. 

However, I've been looking at some numbers and it is possible.  In the last General Election the electorate (those registered to vote) for this constituency numbered 69 539. Of those only 69.64%  turned out. If everyone had voted then there would have been an extra 21 112 votes. Our MP's majority was 19,407. 

Then there are the people who didn't register. It is estimated that about 17% of the eligible population don't register to vote. That could mean another 14 243 voters.

There could be 35 354 voters in our constituency who think their vote won't count, nearly twice our MP's majority.

It could make a difference.

www.voteforpolicies.org.uk

It probably won't but it could.

Tall and Thin

The Long Suffering Husband and I are on a mission to visit as many Cities as we can, so we've spent the last few days in Amsterdam.  

I saw a mouse in a windmill in old hamster jam

"Did you like it?" you want to know and the only answer I can honestly give you is that it's interesting. Amsterdam is a really weird place for old square people. The young and hip seem quite at home here.

I have travelled the world through books but haven't read much set in Amsterdam. I was expecting somewhere colourful, like Bruges, with canals, green spaces and window boxes everywhere but there was an overwhelming sense of grey. The weather didn't help as it was colder, windier and wetter that most of the winter in England.  No one was daunted by this, bravely sitting outside to eat and drink, or queueing for hours outside every museum. 

Queue for Anne Frank House

The Diary of Anne Frank was my main reason for wanting to visit this city.  This was the first book I stayed awake all night to read and one that I've never forgotten. Since that night I've wanted to see the actual place they were hiding. We'd heard about the queues.  We thought we were prepared.  The guidebooks suggested buying one of the few online tickets, which allow you to queue-jump but there were none available for the time we were there.  Every guidebook, blog and tourist office advises you to get there early.  They don't say how early.  We were there at 8.50 (it opens at 9) and we waited for just over 3 hours. It was freezing in that line but a couple of small shops were doing a roaring trade in woolly hats and gloves. Otto Frank has insisted the annexe remains unfurnished to represent the emptiness of world now that it is missing the Jews slaughtered by the Nazis. "What a fantastic idea," I thought, as I read about it in the guidebook that they'd given us in the queue.  Once inside, we shuffled round in a long line, filling the space and without furniture it was difficult to gauge the size of the living accommodation. I heard someone say, "There's quite a lot of room, it wasn't so bad after all."  I left with a feeling of quiet melancholy and a determination to read the book again with an adult head.

The other book I've read that's set in Amsterdam is the Minaturist by Jessie Burton.  This is a book inspired by a visit to the Rijksmuseum, where the author saw Petronella Ortman's dolls house. 

There is inspiration on every floor of this museum.

The Minaturist also sent us scuttling to the Oude Kerk, which is the setting for the opening of the book (actually the ending)  I wanted to see the miserichords and the inside graves, where people were buried 4 deep.  As we left the church, I looked up to see a large dark skinned woman in a bikini, pressing her breasts against the glass door in the direction of the LSH.  My mum had said that we had to visit the Red Light District, "to look, at least." We chuckled about this several times on our visit but the LSH was struggling just to look.  The same couldn't be said for the little boy I came across with his nose pressed up against one of the windows.  The odd thing about this area of Amsterdam is how you just stumble upon it and how parents can be completely oblivious to what their children are looking at.

Looking down, as you leave the Oude Kerk

Amsterdam's liberal attitude to sex and drugs appeals to many tourists, especially the British, who can't quite believe that you can talk about and do these thing openly.  I admire the country's attempt to separate alcohol from soft drugs but I don't think they've thought that people can get drunk before they go into a coffeehuis.  The big signs in every square saying, "Beware of street traders.  White Heroin is being sold as Cocaine.  3 tourists died last year and some are currently in hospital," made me think that the liberal attitude isn't working.

The Minaturist also made me want to explore the canals and look at the canal houses.  These houses are tall and thin, just like the residents.  Everywhere you look there are tall slim people on sit up and beg bikes, which only make them look taller. Did these people grow to fit their houses?  On the top, by the roof of the houses resides a hook.  This hook became a topic of conversation for the LSH and I.  I thought that the houses had been warehouses and the hooks were there to get goods up to the top floors from the canal deliveries but then we noticed that they were on houses not next to a canal and to modern houses.  The LSH suggested they were for the window cleaners to attach themselves to, where they could sway around in the wind to polish the glass.I wondered if they were hooks to hang your enemies from.  I googled for the answer (Amsterdam has amazing fast and free Wifi everywhere) and  the LSH asked people, particularly women in cafes and restaurants (he likes to ask) but no one seemed to know.  Finally, I found the answer on a tiny blog (which I can't cite because I've forgotten).  These houses are so tall and narrow with steep tight staircases and the hooks are so that a sofa, bed or piano can be hoisted up and delivered through one of the large windows.

Hooks

Hook on a modern house not near a canal

The canals don't look very clean and many of the houseboats aren't connected to a sewage system so they probably aren't.  Beside the canals there are strange green metal objects: men's urinals.  From the canal you can see the men pee.  It's probably to stop drunk and doped up men falling into the canal, while trying to relieve themselves into it.  

Urinal

DutchAmsterdam.nl states that 15000 bikes end up in the canal each year.  I'm not surprised.  Most of the canal has no barriers and if it's as windy as it was during our visit then bikes could easily go the way of the LSH's hat.  I wonder how many people end up in there as well?  Luckily, the tall, thin Amsterdammers can probably reach up and get out but I do worry about the stoned, short, fat British.

A door for visiting British guests