Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A political puzzle

"So who are you going to vote for in the general election next month?" asks boyfriend T, while we're having dinner one evening recently.

"Oh I don't know," I answer, "I'm usually pretty cynical about politics. When I look at the big picture I reckon that they're all as bad as each other, and the expenses scandal only emphasised that point."

"In that case," replies boyfriend T, which a mischievous tone in his voice, "why don't you vote for the leader that you'd most like to go to bed with?"

It's interesting to note that with the rise of TV and media in general, politicians are much better looking than they used to be. In the UK, the trend probably started with Margaret Thatcher in the late 1970's, and then when he got elected in 1997 Tony Blair was definitely much better looking and charismatic than the alternatives.

"How about him?" suggests boyfriend T later, pointing to Nick Clegg on the TV, "he's doable!"

"I guess if you're serious about who to take to bed, it would have to be him," I concede, "because Gordon Brown looks too tired and old, and although Cameron is quite a pretty guy he's far too straight looking!"

"But I just can't vote for Clegg," I continue, "Because he'd raise my taxes even more :-(. Even worse, their policy is to force banks to publish the names of all their employees who earn more than £200k :-((."

"Well in that case you'll have to go to bed with Cameron," replies boyfriend T, as though the matter has been decided, "because I don't think I could be boyfriends with a guy who wants to get into bed with Brown!"

Since I was old enough to vote, I've voted for all the major parties, so I'm a genuine floating voter. From the 1997 election onwards I've been voting for Labour, because I found Blair quite convincing, and overall I was reasonably happy with his performance. But now it's clear that none of the tax revenues from the good years were saved, so as to try and balance the budget over the business cycle, voting for Brown who was the chancellor during those years seems like a mistake.

Anyway, if any readers have any thoughts on who I should get into bed with then please let me know.

14 comments:

Phunk Factor said...

Nathan J. Owens...or was it Owens. J. Nathan?! Ummm...dunno!! Vote for him nehow! ;)

Hahaha...kidd'in!

Misiu said...

haha! Im not voting, but i would go for Clegg (not in bed) :P

Paul said...

Cameron tries to come across as gay-friendly; but there are still plenty of homophobic dinosaurs lurking in his party. You can't trust the Tories.

Anonymous said...

To be honest never seen a politician that I would fuck. I will Keep my votes for Britain's got Talent or X factor.Much more likeable ,trust worthy and sexy
Eddie

Hedgie said...

You are a gay man and you are seriously thinking of voting for the Conservatives ?!?!?!

You make a very good point about Brown. But don't you think Labour's approach to the recession is better than the Tories, who just want a rerun of 1980 (but this time without North Sea oil or our manufacturing base)?

My advice is to vote tactically depending on your local constituency situation. My vote doesn't particularly count for much, as my local MP has a majority of about 10,000!

MY BIG ITCH said...

Typical

Sir Wobin said...

Try the rational approach: www.voteforpolicies.org.uk

That site anonymises the policies from several parties and records your policy preferences. At the end it tells you which parties policies you preferred.

I was shocked at my results. I fancy myself a centre-leftie but according to my policy preferences on that site, the conservatives were far to left for me! I was aghast.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't believe the Conservatives are a homophobic party still, there's probably as much homophobia in the Conservative party are there inevitably is in the Labour Party and the Lib Dems. I think it’s a bit of an old fashioned view to take.

Sebastian Fox said...

Q: How do you annoy Heather Mills?

A: Nick Clegg.

Anonymous said...

The Tories have always been "homophobic " or at least not "pro-gay" in their policies. My view is that they're agaist social reform which means that if a matter is only important to a minority then they believe it's not in the public interest to push it. Trying to push through basic human rights for gays under the old Tory government would have been unthinkable. It took politicians who were willing to stand up for the little people and recognise that right and wrong has nothing to do with how many people are affected.

The current Tory party pays lip service to equality but it seems pretty clear that when challenged the same old answers come out. Traditional family (the majority) is good. Gay is bad.

I personally believe that if the Conservatives get back in we'll see our hard won rights eroded. If they get in (which I believe they will!) I'll be happy to be proven wrong. At the very least, though, I would expect equality issues to be put so far on the backburner that they might as well not exist.

close encounters said...

a straight male friend said that he would choose Nick Clegg if he had to sleep with one of them !

votematch is a more sophisticated way to find out which party is most closely aligned to your political views ...

as for the tories being homophobic, i don't think that will be true of the average tory MP after may 6th - some estimates suggest that they will have up to 15 gay MPs in the next parliament ...

finally, i agree with one point made by Hedgie - vote tactically in your constituency in order to get the overall result you want ...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the Tories and their racist, homophobic mates in the European parliament. No more homophobic than Labout and Liberal eh?

BTW, Cameron is pretty eh? Now we know what sort of guys you go for haha. How wrong could I have been all this time. Very, apparently.

Anonymous said...

mmm would definitely bed Cameron ;-) he's got a 'daddy' type of appeal to him...

Antony said...

Hey,

I think I'd have to sleep with Clegg as well - he has nice eyes lol and that has dictated my voting ha ha.

hugs,

A x