As Gordon Brown takes himself off to the Palace to ask permission of the queen to dissolve Parliament, UNISONActive will continue to argue that dealing with the problems of the recession requires an interventionist approach based on real investment in the economy and policies that tackle the obscene levels of inequality that scar our society.
That probably means that there won’t be support from this quarter for either the Tories or the Liberals. But we will also be questioning Labour policies that fail to support socialist principles and hopefully debating some of the key issues as they arise. In an election that promises to be increasingly presidential with the leaders televised debates, we can promise that we will try to focus on the issues rather than the personalities.
Does it matter if Gordon has the personality of a Rottweiler, that Dave is an over-promoted PR manager and the other one is just the other one? At the end of the day, dear reader, it will be up to you as to where you place your cross on the ballot box...
Most of the press and indeed the broadcast media will take up predictable party positions, with the Torygraph living up to its name, the Independent sitting on the fence and the Morning Star offering an intelligent critique of party propaganda. But, heaven forbid, are we to wake up on the morning of May7th to the headlines of “It was the Sun that won it!!!!” ?
Murdoch’s press has unashamedly pinned their colours to the mast, with both the Times and the Sun backing the right wing rhetoric of the upper class Eton clique that the Tory party has reverted to. How will the Murdoch press try to persuade the average punter that voting for the party of big business and the wealthy can benefit them?
In order to try to understand this, your correspondent will forsake Guardian editorials, the comfort blanket of the Daily Mirror and even the BBC to bring you a daily summary of what you are missing.
It’s going to be a long month.
