That Sppech: Natalie Bennett and the LBC

Yesterday Natalie Bennett of the Green Party gave a speech on LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation). This is a radio station which has cut through UKIP’s arguments as well as Nick Clegg’s. The LBC has never really held back and so it shouldn’t.

I watched Natalie Bennett on the Sunday Politics show several weeks ago and I was not impressed by her responses. Even as a Green supporter I didn’t find her responses polished or concise. Answers like I give my boss at work when I am trying to avoid a telling off. They were almost a run around. Natalie Bennett doesn’t seem to have the personality or the eloquence that is seen in most party leaders.

Nigel Farage is seen as an anti-politics leader who provides fresh and honest answers to questions he is asked. He is perhaps more polished than Natalie Bennett but still he harbours points and sometimes trips over his own tongue. He also chairs a party which is full of scandal and double standards. Yet people still support him in their droves. 

Ultimately right wing Nigel Farage has not yet said a word in which I agree whereas Natalie Bennett has. She is not polished and I am not wholly confident in her as a leader of the Green Party however maybe she is the yin to Nigel Farage’s yang. She provides the approach to politics which is not refined and pre-written but the spur of the moment and honest. The Green Party has only been catapulted into the limelight in the last six months and it is a learning process for the party. 

I believe the Green Party will not secure more than a few seats in May but maybe this is the start of a journey where in the foreseeable future we will see this left wing party start to really make waves. If UKIP can with their messages of hate then surely the Green Party can with their messages of equality and virtue.

Russell Brand - voice of a nation?

Russell Brand rarely leaves my twitter and Facebook feeds these days. I do follow his posts so I realise this might be something to do with it but The Guardian and Huffington Post create many articles about the man with the crazy hair. Some feel he is evil, doing this just for the marketing value and some feel he is the the voice of the nation. 

 I have always had a soft spot for Russell Brand. At the time when he was on MTV causing havoc I lived in a house that didn't have TV. I knew nothing of this time of his life but only the time he emerged with his autobiography "My Booky Wook" which I sort of read (by sort of I read about half of it). I liked his voice, his vocabulary and his style. He wasn't a teenage crush but I certainly found the idea of him appealing. 

 Only in the past two years since his marriage split from Katy Perry has he emerged as almost a prophet. He wants to see equality in the world with corporations and their capitalist ways fail. Quite left wing in ideologies I don't believe he is wrong to want what he does, but is he going about it the right way? Firstly he doesn't believe that voting makes a difference. I can see why this point of view is largely shared. General opinion states that currently the question is do you want the Conservative Conservative, Convservative Labour or Conservative Liberal Democrats? No party at this moment in time, besides the Green Party, have left wing attitudes at heart. Unfortunately with the Green Party they are not popular enough with many having misconceptions that they only have policies for the environment. Therefore the only choice being provided is UKIP who just seizes every opportunity they can to market themselves using some ill of the world that only them and their supporters seem to think is a bad thing. 

 I digress, I think that voting is important. If no one votes, democracy falls down and the politicians will not have their actions kept in check. All of a sudden we will have an American style healthcare and have to remortgage every time we want to send our children to school, if we even have a property to remortgage because of course by this point landlords and banks will have inflated our house prices to a point only a few of us could ever dream to buy. On this day the people who didn't vote will wonder what happened. 

 I don't disagree that currently our system appears flawed however actively engaging in with the government is the only way we can stop it from slipping from our fingers altogether. I don't believe Russell Brand is wholly wrong. He is providing a left wing voice challenging the right wing voice of Nigel Farage. He brings attention to issues that need addressing albeit sometimes in a way that doesn't have its desired results for example the banker who missed out on his lunch. But we do need people like Russell Brand engaging in issues which need support but I do wish he wouldn't tell people not to vote. 

Voting engagement has been slowly creeping down for years and we certainly don't need it having any more encouragement. I would go as far as saying that whoever you want to vote for, just vote because then the voice of the people will be heard. Votes do not lie and ultimately this country needs to be run by the people for the good of the people.