The Real Reason's We Need an October Election

We need a General Election in October, not because of the change in Prime Minister but because of the change in the UK.

In Britain we do not elect the Prime Minister, we elect individual Members of Parliament to represent us and the leader of the party with the most MPs simply becomes Prime Minister by default. There have been plenty of times when the Prime Minister has been in place without an electoral mandate, most recently Gordon Brown and before that John Major from 1990 until the election of 1992.

So, in normal times, a simple change of Prime Minister does not really warrant an election unless there is some constitutional change leading to the people of Britain actually directly electing the Prime Minister.

However these are not normal times.

The country is now split, not by left and right, but by in and out. This split crosses traditional party divides.

The manifestos, visions and ideals that were presented to the electorate in 2015 are now null and void. Now we face a future outside the European Union and this impacts on the lives of all of us.

The British people now need to be able to choose what that future should be. The political parties need to set out how they will negotiate the exit from the EU and what their vision of life outside the EU will be like.

The new Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition must go to the country and explain what they will do to secure the future of the UK, explain how life outside the UK impacts on education, health, social care, employment etc. and what they will do to secure the future of those most in need of help from society. These leaders must go to the people with their vision of a United Kingdom which thrives, their vision of how they will bring British society together.

They must also present their plans for ensuring that leaving the EU doesn’t mean leaving Europe. It is one thing leaving the bureaucracy of the EU system but Britain did not vote to leave wider European cooperation across defence, security, scientific research etc.

The British people must now be given the chance to choose which vision they believe is best for this new future.

On a secondary level we need a General Election so that the electorate can reaffirm or reject their current representative in Parliament. MPs are paid to represent the wishes of the people in their constituency, yet the referendum saw many instances of the MP’s views being completely at odds with the majority of their constituents.

It is only fair that those who wish to continue receiving public money to represent the people of their constituency should ask those people for their support in the post referendum world.

Those are the real reasons we need an October election and it is the duty of those who want to represent us to take their visions of this new Britain to the people and ask us to choose the path to that future. 

Unemployment, A Personal Perspective

When I was made redundant at the end of November last year I optimistically thought getting a new would not be too much of an issue.

After all I am relatively well qualified, plentiful in terms of experience and a person with a lot to offer many different firms. Unfortunately the reality has been somewhat different and so I thought it worth sharing my thoughts on the experience so far.

The whole experience is mentally challenging. Many times I have myself slipping deeper into frustration and a sense of worthlessness, thankfully I can, usually, recognise the signs of when this is happening and manage to readjust my thinking but I imagine there are many people out there, in the same boat, who do not realise what is happening and that their mental health is becoming seriously challenged.

One reason is the apparent invisibility that you take on as an unemployed person. Endless applications seem to be swallowed by a black hole where you receive absolutely no acknowledgement of your application or any response, even to tell you that you do not have the job. The rare occasion that rejections are actually received they are so impersonal, automated messages that leave with no idea of why you have been rejected. Without this knowledge it is difficult to know what to do in the future to try and at least secure yourself an interview.

The more you fail to generate any sort of responses the more you feel invisible, frustrated and, at times, even stupid.

Added to this obviously is the pre-election fever by Government politicians keen to tell us that the economy is growing and more jobs are being created, well if that is the case where is mine! Or, if you are in a darker mood, why can’t I find one of those new jobs, why does nobody want to employ me?

Added to this is the technological age’s job searching methods that prove to be frustrating and exasperating. There are so many jobs websites nowadays and there is a need to check many of them just to try and ensure that you miss nothing yet at the same time many of these sites overlap so you find yourself looking at the same job a number of times because all sites are carrying it. The when you do try to apply you are redirected a number of times only to find that you don’t have all the criteria they are after anyway!

The worst of the sites is, undoubtedly, the Governments own Universal Jobmatch. Although it has been in the news for allegedly offering sex jobs it is also a haven for multi-level marketing jobs which disguise themselves with an imaginative variety of different job titles to lure you in. The site also fails in helping you match work to your skills, currently it is recommending, for me, a Head Chef role and a Veterinary role, despite being qualified in neither!

Obviously none of this is good for the soul and the longer it goes the more soul destroying it becomes.

Yet despite that it must be treated as a learning experience and I encourage anyone sinking in the same boat right now to put your lifejacket on and not get dragged down by the feelings of isolation, worthlessness and rejection.

To fellow job hunters – good luck and keep positive. To everyone else “I can do that, give us a job”

@TonyButcher