Cllr. Steve Cooke

Remember to go out and vote.

Vote Lib Dem on May 4th

I was delighted to speak to a church hosted meeting on Lib Dem EU policy in Macclesfield last night (though I’m shattered today). There were candidates from UKIP, Labour, Conservatives, Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship” (CPA), Green and myself for the Lib Dems. All seemed personable enough, and the audience and organisers made the event very pleasant despite some tough questions.

Each of us were given five minutes to speak, so of course the Labour candidate took fifteen for her speech – which was a bit unfair on the other candidates and prevented the audience from asking questions. Labour had also been sure to bus in support, which I though was really odd. A hustings isn’t a talent contest – its purpose is to help people make up their mind who to vote for, not make one candidate feel popular with a rent-a-crowd of folks who’ve already made up their minds.

One thing that was clear to me was that the Conservatives will do Britain tremendous damage in Europe – they seem determined to stick two fingers up to ‘Johny Foreigner’ whether it harms Britain or not (and it will). I believe that in times of trouble we should turn to and support our neighbours – not turn from them and seek isolation. Meanwhile the UKIP candidate, an evangelical Christian, used his speech to deliver a sermon about his faith, conveniently neglecting to mention any of UKIP’s crazy policies. It’s one way of approaching politics I suppose. I can’t help thinking that UKIP is a vehicle for his ambitions and ideologies rather than a party he has any real connection with.

In the end, the speakers fell into two (very) broad camps: those who want to turn from our European allies, friends and neighbours; and those who want to work with and within Europe and to lead on progress and reform. I don’t think this election will be fought on policy, which is a shame because I think that’s an area where the Lib Dems are very strong, but rather on who people are willing to trust. Labour have soured the broadly pro-European waters with their expenses row (and incidentally, a documentary on the effect of the row has just been pulled partly because Hazel Blears is in hiding and the film company couldn’t get an interview), leaving ourselves and the Greens , whose protectionist attitudes to trade are alarming and would probably harm the people they seek to protect. Meanwhile voters looking for clean parties to vote for in the anti camp have only the very minor parties to turn to. The Conservatives in Westminster and in the EU have been mired in sleaze and corruption, UKIP have the worst record on improving transparency and reforming expenses in Europe (and two MEPs who’ve faced criminal charges over their finances – one with a jail sentence for it) and the BNP are just plain evil.

With our own Chris Davies having been named European parliamentarian of the year last year because of his tireless fight to clean up parliament and expose expenses abuses , together with his fantastic campaigning record, I think that there’s only one real choice this June and that’s Lib Dem.

We are stronger together and poorer apart.

Spent an enjoyable evening at the Victoria Institute in Caton near Lancaster last night. It was nice to be give the opportunity to speak positively about the European Union and the ludicrous position that somehow we’re weakened by cooperation that gets wheeled out by the Eurosceptics. I met some lovely people and got to hear a very interesting talk from the other speaker at the event on how badly the prison system has failed to rehabilitate the thousands of young men that we lock up. The only change under under successive Conservative and Labour governments is that Labour have locked up many more people: overall crime levels have changed little, but the number in prison has soared to a level that puts most other western countries in the shade. Clearly evidence based custody and crime prevention is far less important that talking tough the other parties.

Chris Moyles is one of those people I normally loathe. However, I’ve been watching Comic Relief and have just seen how much money he, and the others who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, raised to fight malaria by purchasing mosquito nets – millions of them. I had malaria as a child – it’s not nice. I’ve revised my opinion of Chris – he may act like a tosser on the radio, but anyone who’s done what he’s done for charity deserves a huge dose of respect – he has mine (as do the rest of them – even Cheryl Cole).

http://www.rednoseday.com/do_something

As a liberal I simply cannot let the homophobic comments of the Pope pass without comment, not least because they have absolutely incensed me.

“The Pope has told members of his Vatican staff that saving humanity from homosexual or transexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/12/081223_pope_gay_forest_sl.shtml)

His words are reproduced below – they contain a message that homosexuality and the transgendered are to be despised and that the human race must be saved from them or face destruction. He’s called for an ecology of humanity whereby this can be achieved. In a little bit of semantic sophistry the Pope parallels a statement that homosexuality should be destroyed with an implication that people behave as homosexuals rather than that they are homosexuals, which is frankly utter nonsense used to justify his bigotry.

Various people have spoken out that his comments are ‘hurtful’ or that they are ‘irresponsible and unacceptable’, ‘gay bashing’, or ‘discriminatory’ – I’d go a damn site further than that. The Pope’s words are hateful, extremely homophobic, and carry echoes of fascism. If he could just stop being so hung up on sex and get busy trying to end war, famine and poverty I’m sure the world would be a better place.

From the papal address:

“The Church speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected.

“This is not out-of-date metaphysics. It comes from the faith in the Creator and from listening to the language of creation, despising which would mean self-destruction for humans and therefore a destruction of the work itself of God.”

“… Rain forests deserve, yes, our protection but the human being – as a creature which contains a message that is not in contradiction with his freedom but is the condition of his freedom – does not deserve it less.” (Benedict XVI (my emphasis))

Today is the 60^th anniversary of the day the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How ironic then that I am too busy writing my dissertation on that very document to write a proper post about it!

I recommend that my readers spend a little time at the Guardian’s website reading their excellent compendium of articles and historical material: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/the-declaration-at-60