GENERAL ELECTION 2010

BUSINESS AS USUAL DESPITE ALTERCATIONS


Well here we are in the first week of the General Election campaign and its just like old times. Gone is the cross party co-operation which was never much in evidence anyway but now the only time its mentioned is when they confront the distinct possibility of a Hung Parliament.

Bring it on I say. A hung parliement destroys the dreams of the megalomaniacs because it weakens the party structure and reduces the need for adversorial shananigins and forces the major parties actually co-operation and discuss and debate the issues. For example if Thatcher had had only a small majority do you think she would have got away with shutting all the coal mines in the 80s and virtually closing down the North of England. I very much doubt it.

Similarly do you think Blair would have been able to lead the UK into two Wars at the behest of the Madman Bush and his cronies. ? I doubt that two. Ironically the current crisis in the finances is now spreading to the employment arena, both public and private and as its going to get mighty tough no matter who wins this election, its pretty certain that no on party will have adequate power to pass laws unless its receives help from the opposition or the minor parties.

I can see why the Tory and Labour Party hate this prospect so much but i have absolutely no sympathy for them. and if the Greens or the LibDems have a little more say in what happens in the next decade, then good show i say, this is more democracy, not less and lets have more of it. And if environmental pressure groups etc have a little more say, then even better.

ONLINE MUSIC, ANOTHER GOOD REASON NOT TO VOTE LABOUR

THE DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL


Today in Parliament they will be discussing the latest piece of nasty repressive legislation. Not content with Government meddling with Biometric Passports, ID Cards etc, they are now sticking their big, and ill-informed noses into our freedoms on the Internet. Their latest piece of meddling is supposedly to stop illegal file sharing and copyright infringement on the Net. This despite the fact that those people who download music actually spend much more on it than anyone else.


People will no longer shell out £12 or £14 for a CD on which there are a couple of tracks worth keeping and prefer to listen first and even then only want the tracks they like, not the whole package of formulaic tosh dished out by the big music Moguls. Nanny Brown and his out of touch bunch of neredowells hasbeens and never will be's has a solution to this. Not for the benefit of artists or songwriters or the consumers of course, just the already rich and powerful music publishers and recording companies.


They are hurriedly forcing new legislation through the house which will force the ISPs who supply internet services, such as BT. Talk Talk, Virgin et al, to keep records of what people download and from where, and those who download free music will find themselves disconnected and facing lengthy and very expensive appearances in Court. There is unlikely to be any system of appeal of course, that would spoil the greedy governments fun, and fun is not what New Labour is about.


Because of the General Election which was announced today there will be little time for any proper debate and the whole farce will be hurried through the house. I smell another Dangerous Dogs Act, ie a badly thought out piece of rubbish which far from improving the situation, will in fact make it much worse and eventually prove unworkable. There are many ways of disguising ones details and locations online and to track file sharers, and other scum down will mean lots of complicated data base stuffing from BT etc. They wont be paid for doing this of course and the end result will be loss of revenue as the ISPs have to disconnect their own customers.


Wifi Hot Spots will probably shrink as these can mask so-called illegal file sharers and the overall trend will be to shrink the Digital market and further damage music. Sometimes i think this Government really does want to wreck our society and economy: i doubt they could make more of a mess if they intended to. This will not particularly damage new artists who are Net Savvy and who tend to promote and sell their songs and tunes via My Space and who cut out the whole EMI, Sony, Warner Music circus entirely. These formerly big players are not falling on hard times, not really because of file sharers but simply because their new products are just repetitive crap and nor worth buying and thus they are forced back upon their oldies and re-issues as people replace worn out vinyl or badly made and scratched CDs and a few young people who have newly discovered some Old Wave artists.

Sadly for the Record Company Giants and the old Dinosaur Rock Bands this trade even if everyone paid for every tune, is simply not big enough to keep them in the way they seem to think they have a right to continue living in till the end of time. Its pretty safe to say therefore that no matter what Boy Browns Banana Bunch do about all this is only going to make matters worse.


Its not as though the Universal audio standard on the net the MP3 is a high quality product. It can be of course but to save space on drives, Ipods etc and facilitate quick downloads on Broadband networks which are often slow and clunky the compression rates are often very poor and certainly not up to the HIFI which discerning musos prefer. Indeed an old friend of mine and professional MUSO who has owned several record labels and managed top line Rock Bands described some of the downloads he had tried (professional legal ones) as simply a waste of time and frankly appalling. I can but agree.


Its hardly surprising that young people are not interested in voting at local or National elections when all they seem to get is meddling, Miss Whiplash type Nannies who seem hell bent on ruining anything which has the nasty smell of freedom or democracy. Unless of course they are busy elsewhere preening themselves in front of the TV Cameras or finding yet another way of fiddling their expenses claims. But... and its a big one, Please don't use this as an excuse to not vote, because if you don't vote the biggest Turd gets elected. You just have to be more choosy and you mustn't be afraid to collar them in the street or on the door step or via phone or email and ask them what appalling legislation they are going to vote for, and if you don't like what they tell you, tell them you will be looking elsewhere for someone who you feel you might not be wasting your time voting for.