DD306 - Living Political Lives: How much busier can things get.......

Things are not going to plan.....

• Changes at work have led to multiple foreign visits over the last month, and this will continue into May.
• I am 50 in May and so we are going on holiday the two weeks before the EMA is due - looks like I will be studying on holiday which will not go down well with the Mrs.
• I am a member of the Labour Party, so trying ti help leaflet and canvass for the County elections on 4th May. 
• AND NOW a General Election on 8th June.........

This is quite possible the definition of the perfect storm.

Why is Mrs May(hem) calling the election when she stated on multiple occasions that she wouldn't, there are many theories,

1.  Well ahead in the polls and a chance to put Labour to the sword.
2.  Several (maybe 20) Tory MPs about to be prosecuted for electoral fraud from 2015.
3.  Just had a brain fart when on a walking holiday

but whatever the reason...... please Britain, and when I say Britain I mean England and Wales, look into the party manifestos and compare them with what is being done.... and don't fuck it up this time.

Mrs May(hem) appears to be getting an easy ride from the right wing media and is being allowed to clam she is for social justice....... seriously where would you start with this,

• Loss of housing benefit for the young.... where are they supposed to live.
• Bedroom tax.... 'cos the poor shouldn't have a guest room.
• Reduction of carers allowance.... they are saving the country millions on care costs and deserve more support.
• Reduction of disability allowance...... 'cos the most vulnerable on society are easy to shit on.
• School budgets rising below costs increased by this government such as NI
• NHS funding stagnant and a creeping privatisation of services to companies trying to make profit from care service.
• Tax beaks for the super rich and big business....
• A general demonisation of the poor, disabled and vulnerable in society - these people did not cause the financial crash.........

The people that caused the financial crash are.....

• Those that fast tracked Cameron to power, and once he could no longer protect the non-doms and tax avoiders he was of no further use..... and his desire to be a constituency MP and fight for his constituents, the people of Whitney, lasted possibly weeks.As did Osborne.
• Mrs & Mr May(hem) both city brokers are obviously on the side of the JAMs - my arse - another Tory appointment to protect the super rich at the expense of the general public

For heaven's sake people, look past the right wing and Linton Crosby inspired attacks on Corbyn.

They won the last election on lies, a photo of a bacon butty and xenophobic fear of the SNP, don't let them do it again.

Corbyn is not FAR LEFT. In Scandinavia, where fairness, equality and opportunity for all is common, he would be seen as middle of the road. What is wrong with expecting the richest to pay more tax to help these least fortunate in society. The richest and the big business take the most from society and rely on societies institutions and frameworks which are paid for by all tax payers, even though most don;t benefit directly from them.

I don't need a trading standards, port authority, a comprehensive transport network, customs, the judiciary and UK financial institutions on a day to day basis, but I pay for it, and at a higher rate than the businesses that rely on them for their massive profits.

Teresa May (as Cameron before her) talks about getting the best deal, but the best deal for whom.  Society is fragmented, there is no one best deal...... could the deal she is talking about the best deal for the super rich Tory donors - it must be - they are paying all of this money to the Tory party for something - what do you think it is.......

WAKE UP ENGLAND...... look past the sound bites and right wing press headlines, the Tory's are taking you all for a fool.

If you do nothing else please, please, please do this. 

Read Rawls........... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance

Rawls suggests that you imagine yourself in an original position behind a veil of ignorance. Behind this veil, you know nothing of yourself and your natural abilities, or your position in society. You know nothing of your sex, race, nationality, or individual tastes.

Behind this veil of ignorance you are then asked to vote in the County elections on May 4th and the General Election on June 8th, you don't know if you are.....

• On a zero hours, minimum wage, contract trying to provide for your kids and wife.
• A full time carer for your spouse who has a severe condition.
• A hard working 'JAM', in mortgage poverty due to untenable house prices.
• An unemployed graduate with crippling student debt forced you live back home with parents.
• Somebody with psychiatric problems discharged from a care unit due to cuts and without any support plan.
• Somebody with a good job who is worrying about their elderly parents care, their children's education and housing, and their own pension provision and retirement date.
• A German surgical consultant wondering if BREXIT will mean exit for their career in the UK - their are no shortage of jobs back in the EU.
• One of the 4% to 5% of super rich who are banking (quite literally) on Tory councillors and government to slash funded services but privatise what's left to G4S as lots of Tory's have invested in them.

Given you don't  know who you are from the above suggestions...... who would you vote for...

There is only one main party committed to a better fairer Britain, the other will look after their donors, grandees and friends through the old boys network.

This is not a forgone conclusion. In the last election more registered voters didn't vote, than voted for the Tories

So...... people of Britain, you have a choice, please have along, hard, think about things......

.............and don't fuck it up this time.

I understand that not everyone will agree with this, if you don't agree please leave a comment and then we can have a discussion......

DD306 - Living Political Lives - where did that week go.....

Spent a week in Nepal and with one thing and another, time difference, jet-lag, work, sight seeing, I managed to do not a bit of study.

Better crack on today then

DD306 - Living Political Lives : TMA06 Tutorial

Last TMA tutorial today which was disappointingly attended.

I don't understand why more folk don't go, I got some good ideas for the TMA and the discussions were, on the whole, informative.

So, just the tutorial for the EMA to go and that will be my face to face interaction with the Open University finished.

So, the plan is to churn the TMA out in the week after Easter, and try and get the EMA written in rough form before I go on holiday in May. Don't expect, or want, to do anything on holiday, so will have 36 hrs when I get back to re-read, polish and submit.

DD306 - Living Political Lives - TMA05 Marked and Returned

TMA 05 came back this morning and I'm pretty pleased with the result, pretty high Grade 2, not too far off of a Grade 1.

However, it now means that unless they slip the grade boundaries, a distinction in this module is pretty unlikely unless I somehow manage to get a point better then the best mark I've had in this course and I don't see that happening on the last TMA as I will be concentrating on the EMA from now on. The better news is that missing a grade 2 on the TMAs is pretty much impossible unless I really make a mess of the last TMA, so its all about getting over 70% on the EMA.

Interesting comments from my new tutor. They are the first tutor to actually correct grammar and wording of my essays, to make them read correctly or better. This shows how hard it is to proof read your own work, as some of the corrections I should have seen myself. 

Also, they pretty much savaged some of my referencing, which has never happened before - but at least they gave clues as to what was required.

So, one TMA and one EMA to go.

DD306 - Living Political Lives : Still no TMA05 mark back

What is says above.

Very disheartening, very demotivating, very disappointing.

We pay a lot of money to the OU for access to their website, books, seven 2 hour tutorials and to have our assignments marked. While I accept they can't mark them all immediately, mine was submitted pretty early. Hopefully, they will spend much of the weekend marking and I will get this one back shortly.