⓪∕⑤   Sorry about this if you like the liberals but zero from me. Poor Nick Clegg, what an idiot, all he had to do, five years ago, was not join with the Conservatives and force them to run the government alone, with a hung parliament that would have collapsed within a few months or a year then Nick, you could have walked into number ten as you would have had everyone clamoring for you and by sticking to your promises you would have had the students with you (and their parents) instead of becoming Cameron’s dog’s body. How foolish you were.  I know you thought it was vital to ‘form a government’ but it wasn’t – sticking to your promises was more important and I can see that the Liberal Democrats are going to be whitewashed. I’m not going to talk about their manifesto even though it is quite good because they let down everyone who voted for them and will be punished for it. Clegg allowed the thought of power to get a hold of him and the fudging over the past five year has demonised him and his party in my eyes. They had the ability to be our saviors, the third way, the party that rocks the people but they threw away a golden opportunity – you were misguided Nick and let us down, so no stars from me on principle.

②∕⑤  So onto the Greens.  After my outrage at the Liberals I had to go for a walk with my brother and our dog, come back and have a sandwich and a Dr Pepper before I was calm enough to plough on and take a look at the Green Party manifesto. By now I had five hours of reading under my belt and was a little dazed by now but the green party had a nicely laid out web site and a ‘straight to the point attitude’ which are all good things in my eyes so it re-engaged me once more.

Their manifesto if not short and sweet was in fact clean and straight to the point. What are you going to do about the NHS I wondered – answer, stop the creeping of privatisation, ahh simple I like it. The economy is there; tax the top 15%, especially bankers and put a Robin Hood tax on global companies who use shady means such as you know who (Amazon, cough, Starbuck) sorry that cough is back. All which all seemed good and constructive to me. They would maintain our place in Europe, taxing the richest people and companies, get rid of oil and gas and coal plant in favour of green alternatives such as wind and hydra so creating cheap, affordable energy for all, run by the county instead of big, profit seeking companies that kill off our pensioners any time there a bit of cold weather. They also set out the creation of over a million jobs due to the new tech that would be need, all seemed straight forward solid ideas. What got my full attention was the statement about exams and the education in our country at the moment”stifling creativity by creating exam factories” a fair point, eloquently put. A point that the conservatives haven’t grasped at all, I smiled as I read this realising my views had been changed in looking at them seriously.  I think a lot of us had always looked at them as a bit odd, with their eco community approach to live but instead of seeing white guys with dreadlocks doing nothing but smoking weed and girls with huge hair and flowery dresses I actually saw a party of well rounded people who actually have some sensible ideas. I particularly liked their stand on getting rid of tuition fees entirely, along with returning trains back in to the public ownership. The issue with the greens manifesto was the lack of sums, lack of communication on military and world issues;  a county need a military especially with Russia in its bullish mood( stay tuned for a little ensemble on that soon)

The Greens have got their heart in the right place but don’t seem to have really put their to set out a working plan, in fact there was no real plan, no sums, no really tangible way of making these things happen, no jump start for the economy – so much as I enjoyed reading it, overall it was really just five pages of wishes, not a thought through enough to burst the UK back in to on to the world stage.

So overall, although I liked it, it just gets a two from me; I really wish they could have backed it all up with a bit of substance.

A quick look at their leader, Natalie Bennett, not a great accent I have to say. I do feel a little uncomfortable at hearing an Aussie accent, not sure why, maybe why. It’s not  xenophobic, but the idea of someone who wasn’t born here, and audibly not British, seeking to lead us kind of nags at me more then I thought it would, if I am being honest. It maybe the combination of her being a fundamentalist, extremist adds to my uneasiness. The fact that she is a feminist may be another point which crossed my mind. I have no issue with feminists but if one was running the country how far would she go with this or perhaps I am being narcissistic!, whatever my misgivings, the overall picture didn’t stack up so it ends up two out of five stars.