Spot the Difference - thoughts political

OK, so I haven't blogged politically for some time - this is probably less from being busy as from a state of despair at the current political situation. Here now are some scattered thoughts on events of the last few weeks.

Firstly, some credit to David Cameron for turning things round, which led to us not having a snap election - but less of the crowing about Brown's cowardice please - we all know very well that if the situation had been reversed, he would have done exactly the same. And please, can we cut out the classroom arguments about who stole whose policy. I mean, is there any difference between this lot and that lot any more? And if they sincerely believe these things for the good of the country (rather than a means of catching votes), then there should be a celebration that these things are actually happening, but thats just naive optimism.

Now its time for Gordon Brown to stop with the eye-catching press releases and prove that he can actually govern. Similarly Cameron needs to stop fighting a campaign for an election which ain't happening and provide what this country hasn't had for over a decade - a strong but constructive opposition.

Some sympathy for Menzies Campbell - with the universal rush towards the centre-ground it was always going to be difficult for the Lib-Dems to find somewhere to stand. However, its probably good for the party that he's gone now - whoever they find to replace him needs to have a bit more dynamism in establishing a new direction and new identity for the party, because voters need some other alternatives to the identikit offerings on both sides of the floor.

Now to Europe - and to be controversial, I don't think there should be a referendum on the new treaty. Under our system the democratic means of considering such things is through parliament. Furthermore, on the whole, people are pretty apathetic when it comes to Europe and there is little chance of a referendum debate properly tackling the complexites of the treaty. So, if there was a referendum it would either have such a low turn-out as to be politically meaningless or be twisted into a debate on whether we should be in Europe in the first place - in which case the vote would not represent an answer to the question being asked. Of the the membe states, only the Republic of Ireland is going to have a referendum on this treaty.

North of the border, in Scotland, I think its time for Mr Salmond, like Mr Brown, to stop with the eye-catching press releases and prove that he can actually govern. My feeling is that he is more suited to fighting of a campaign than the collaboration needed to govern in Scotland. I'm interested to see just how he plans to pay for all his spending - where the money is to be taken away from. I also feel that whilst he says they will win the argument for independance by governing well, what he is really looking for is to be able to say we could have governed well without Westminster. He seems, at the moment, like a man spoiling for a fight - whether that be over the budget settlement or trident. And whilst I do not favour the replacement of trident and would support any legal use of the devolved powers to stop it, Mr Salmond writing to the heads of states of other countries when foreign policy is not a devolved area seems to be deliberately trying to stir up a shit-storm with Westminister in ways which won't actually be productive to resolving the issue.

And finally, the review of abortion laws - whilst I welcome the review and feel a change in the law would be a step in the right direction, I think its important to remember that in and of itself it is not enough - firstly only a small percentage of the horrendously high number of abortions carried out in Britain each year would be covered by the proposed changes, but mainly it does nothing to address one of the main issues - which is how to reduce the huge numbers of unwanted teenage pregnancies in this country. Somehow the messages that our youth are being given aren't sinking in. So what do we do about a generation growing up with little understanding of the moral value of relationships, what do we do about the large numbers of teenage girls whose confidence and social skills are so low that the concept of informed consent is meaningless? There is some common ground here for many on both sides of the abortion debate and I can't help feeling this might be a better direction for energies to channelled in.