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GENERAL ELECTION 2015
Are the Party Leaders Underperforming?
Rupanjana Dutta
The upcoming general elections has been identified as the most unpredictable for a century with a great possibility of a result like the hung parliament- without either side winning a majority or two main parties winning similar numbers of seats. Constitutional experts claim the weeks following the election could prove much more important than those preceding it. However both David Cameron and Ed Miliband are praying that the minor party surge is only a matter of time, and the voters will soon turn to their natural selves, voting for one of the big two could be proved wrong. In his column in The Sunday Telegraph, the Prime Minister wrote that Labour does not understand the importance of business. He writes, “Conservatives understand successful enterprise keeps our public services going...We're on the side of hard working people who want a job, who want to put food on the table, who want to get on, own a home and get decent public services....Labour's Britain is one of higher unemployment, more children growing up in households without a role model who works, and more of the misery we saw during the Great Recesssion.” Speaking about enterprises and businesses, on Monday 9 February, 1000 leading City figures, business chiefs and entrepreneurs gathered in London's Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane for the party's fund raising event before the elections. Guests apparently paid upto £15,000 for a table, as the party needs at least £26mn to fight the poll. A report by FT earlier (on Thursday 5th February) stated that Tories rely more on City and hedge fund donors. Before the last election, donations between 2005 and 2010 amounted to £96.7mn. It is believed, total donations in May 2010- Jan 2015 would amount to £76.1mn, out of which the City and Hedge funders have contributed no less than 52% of the top 15 donations. Of course not without expectation of a return favour, maybe that of an approving policy or law. The party's close relationship with the Citygoers, perhaps also undermines the needs of Britain's SMEs, amongst which many are of Asian origin. Statistics suggest, there are an estimated 5.2 million businesses in the UK which employ 25.2 million people, and have a combined turnover of more than £3,500 billion. Small firms account for 99.3 per cent of all private sector
businesses in the UK, 47.8 per cent of private sector employment and 33.2 per cent of private sector turnover. The Times on Saturday 7 February in its comment “Why the Tories are not Ahead” had a very substantive point. It wrote, the Labour party is indeed having a bad time, based on its policies on high street chains Boots, NHS, tuition fees. But the question that arises from here is if Labour is as bad as it appears, then why are the Conservatives not well ahead? The most important reason is of course a difficult economy, the painful recovery and cuts while Mr Cameron's order to give staff a pay rise in businesses and £30bn saved through low borrowing costs that are perhaps going to be used as pre election give aways. Politically speaking, Mr Cameron who began by saying he would govern as a liberal Conservative, has not had the numbers in the Commons to complete modernisation of his party, and has had to be part of Coalition, quite unwillingly. On the other hand voters' faith in the Conservatives' immigration policy has been cut in half in the past 4.5 years. According to a report, in June 2010, 46% of Britons thought the Tories had the best approach to immigration, but in January, according to YouGov, only 23% think that the Tories have got that right, while 15% actually believe that Labour's stance is superior. However Labour have started their efforts to establish that the party is aggressively pro-business. Ed Miliband has also pledged to extend paternity leave from two weeks to four weeks- perhaps better late than ever? If the Labour party wins the largest number of seats, without a clear majority it will need to strike alliance with other
smaller parties. If Labour party does not manage a formal Coalition, Mr Cameron will have to form a minority government. One possibility could be something similar to the 1974 election, when Labour formed a minority government in February, only to return to polls in October and win a majority of 3 seats. On Tuesday, as we went to press, the latest poll on Westminster voting intentions showed that the Scottish National Party is on course to double its vote in May’s general election despite its lead over Scottish Labour narrowing. The TNS poll has given the SNP a 10-point lead over Scottish Labour, putting nearly half of the 41 Westminster seats won by Scottish Labour in 2010 at risk. However, amidst all recent speculations, it has been reported that former Labour PM Tony Blair has decided to end his rift with Ed Miliband and pledged to offer whatever support the Labour leader wants. In an interview with the Economist, Blair had earlier suggested he had reservations about Miliband’s strategy, saying the election looked like becoming a battle between traditional leftwing and rightwing parties, with the right most likely to win. He later clarified that he had not meant that Miliband was on course to lose. However, with his former spin doctor Alastair Campbell now heavily involved in preparing Miliband for TV debates, Blair obviously cannot be absent from the campaign without leading to further damaging speculations. Despite a bruising couple of weeks, Labour appears to be holding on to a narrow lead over the Tories. The latest survey by Opinium for the Observer puts Labour on 34%, two points ahead of the Tories. Now let us see what the future actually has in store.
2015 Sikh Election Manifesto Announced
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 14th February 2015
Gurdeep Bains
On January the 31st the Sikh Federation UK launched the Sikh Manifesto for the 2015 election campaign. The ten point proposition included requests and demands that the organisation feels are of central importance to the Sikh community in the UK. Along with this they are targeting fifty keys seats that they feel could be swayed by the Sikh vote, mainly in London and the West Midlands. The Sikh federation are a non governmental organisation as well as the first Sikh political party in the country. Their main goal is to increase political participation in the community and give it a stronger voice in legislature. A copy of the manifesto has been sent to all major parties and an event was held at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall. A second event is due to take place on the 13th of February at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick in the West Midlands. Many of the points in the manifesto seem simple to achieve. The request for continued investment into faith schools is in line with the current governments plans. The Labour Party is unlikely to reverse this policy if they are elected. Faith schools from a wide range of religious communities are increasing in the UK and the are already plans in place to add to the three current Sikh Schools in England. Point eight asks for space to be allocated in Central London to a memorial for the Sikh soldiers who fought in the First World War. There is strong evidence that this
could be achieved by donations from the community itself. A similar campaign was launched on Kickstarter in 2014 and successfully raised over £22,000 for a monument to be built in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Another request is for the government to take stronger action against perpetrators of grooming and forced conversion.
Grooming is already a criminal offence in the UK and recent high profile cases in the media mean that there has already been a move in this direction. So far it seems to have been a point of concern for the wider community as a whole. The subject of forced conversion is a little more complicated. It has not been defined in law what the term actually means and any legislation would take years of legal framing and consultation before it could be enshrined into law. The fourth point is a requested to change the 2021 census to drop the term Asian. Currently the word is used to describe the ethnic group that Sikhs belong to along with Hindus and Muslim citi-
zens. The writers of the manifesto feel that introducing the word 'Sikh' would be a better choice and would help the media and wider community drop the more general word 'Asian'. However the last census already includes Sikhs in the section for religions. At last count the UK population was 423,000, around 0.8% of the overall population. The most contentious points are in regard to the Sikh community and its relationship with the Indian government. The references to the events of 1984 as genocide are likely to be an issue for the Indian authorities and it is unclear whether the UK government would risk causing diplomatic and trade relations to be adversely affected. There is a request for the events to be officially recognised as genocide along with two official inquiries. One by the UN into the actions of the Indian authorities, as well as a UK enquiry into the possible involvement of the British government at the time. The last request may be the most difficult to achieve. The Sikh federation claim that the UK has moral and historic responsibility to the Sikhs. It goes on to state that “the upshot may well be a need for Sikh independence and re-establishing a Sikh Homeland.” the possible diplomatic fallout that would occur between Britain and India means that this request is unlikely to be met. It is possible that none of the main UK parties would be unwilling to even bring this up, due to the potential adverse effect on relations.
Hemel Hampstead gets its first Asian PPC
Hemel Hempstead Liberal Democrats have selected business consultant and human rights campaigner Rabi Martins to challenge Mike Penning in the forthcoming General Election. Rabi is a member of high standing within the National Party who has served on the Party's Federal Policy Committee and the International Relations Committee. He is also a former advisor to the the fomer central Party Chief Executive Lord Chris Fox. A retired Business
Mangement Consultant, he specialised in supporting start-up and young enterprises having previously worked for a multi-national company and been a director of a an SME. Speaking after his selection Rabi said, "I feel honoured to have been selected as the Liberal Democrats Candidate for Hemel H e m p s t e a d Constituency. The combination of the town and the surrounding villages give this constituency an unique character whose potential is not being fully utilised for the ben-
efit of all the residents. Given its location and excellent transport links Hemel Hempstead ought to have been attracting the top national and international companies. But from what I can see it lags behind neighbouring towns. I intend to find out why that is and do all I can to to help the constituency become a destination of choice of choice for high tech high value companies. I am also keen to get some clarity about the future of the local hospital services from the West Herts Hospital Trust.”
Rabi Martins with DPM Nick Clegg MP