Local Elections are Going Ahead!
- Local Elections are to go ahead in England this May.
- Councils are being given an extra £30m to make polling stations and counts COVID-secure
- Voters will be asked to bring their own pens or pencils and wearing a face mask will be compulsory.
- Hand sanitiser, divider screens and social distancing markers will be used at polling stations.
- Proxy voting will also be extended so those who need to self-isolate can get an emergency proxy to vote in their place.
- As usual it will also be possible to vote via post, although the government has not made this mandatory due to fears of increased risk of fraud.
- Elections include England’s county councils, metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, district councils, the London Assembly, a number of directly elected mayors and also police and crime commissioners in England and Wales.
- UK Government has justified holding elections and pointed at other countries who have done so in a COVID-secure way such as Ireland, France, the US and others. And also by election time the most vulnerable groups should have received a first dose.
My view
I am very happy that elections are going ahead as if all goes to plan May should be a lot more secure of a time to hold such elections during the pandemic and also the proof of other countries holding elections with little consequence – due to precautions in place – is good enough justification. And also the fact that democracy is very important. The most vulnerable groups should also be vaccinated by the time the elections begin.
I am a big fan of elections so I might sound biased, but I do genuinely believe going ahead with the elections in a responsible and secured way is the right path. There is little excuse now to not have democracy delayed again, most other Western nations have continued to hold elections.
I am though quite disapointed at the government’s decision not to give serious consideration to making postal voting at least mandatory in certain areas where the coronavirus is at its highest, I personally would have been fine if postal voting was made mandatory across England, but I would have settled for mandatory postal voting on a case-by-case basis.
But the UK Government outright ruling out mandatory postal voting due to “fraud” isn’t really good enough and reminds me of a certain someone in the US. Anyways, if postal voting was so at risk you’d think it would not be allowed at all, or the government would provide some kind of solid evidence that having mandatory postal votes – in some form – would really be that big of a risk factor for fraud. Oh well.
Joe Biden ends Support ot Saudi-coalition in Yemen
- US President Joe Biden has announced the end of support for Saudi forces in the Yemen Civil War.
- The Yemen Civil War is mainly between the forces of the Saudi-backed government and the Houthi movement that is backed by Iran. Before Donald Trump left office the Houthi movement was declared a terrorist group.
- The Civil War has led to a devastating humanitarian crisis in the country which many have also blamed on Western powers support for the Saudi coalition or even just sending weapons to Saudi Arabia itself without directly supporting the coalition.
- Biden has said he is aiming for a diplomatic end to the war in Yemen.
My view
I hope this is a pathway towards the ending of the horrific war in Yemen and the beginning of the end of unjustified Western interference in foreign matters such as these, which usually just end up making things far worse, and drawing out wars into deadly and tragic stalemates. The war should be ended in as peaceful a manner as possible and sanctions within the country should also be ended to further enable recovery for civilians caught up in the crisis.
Although this is really just a small step, it’s also pretty big at the same time. Although it’s unlikely to end unjustified forceful interventions and interference by the West, namely the US. It is at least a small step in the right direction. But there is much more that needs to be done. We only have to look at the state of the Middle East in the modern age to see that Western intervention has done very little for its people and has massively destabilized the region. What happened in Iraq was wrong, what happened in Libya was wrong, and the same mistake should be avoided in Syria as well, and anywhere else.
It isn’t about supporting human rights abusers or dictators, it’s about realizing proportionate and disproportionate actions. What’s the point of military action if it only makes things worse for decades to come? what is the point if it leads to the creation of terrorists groups? what is the point if it leads to endless humanitarian crisis? None of this helps anyone that’s suffering, merely their suffering is being made worse.
You can be against a country if you disagree with its system, you can be against a leader for abusing human rights, you can be against a leader who is corrupt, you can be against dictators. But that doesn’t mean you have the right to intervene and make civilian life even worse. You’re not doing a good thing. Two wrongs don’t make a right. And most the time when another power intervenes it’s never to do with bettering civilian life, it’s to do with what benefits that nation which is intervening, it is to do with making money for the war machine, it is always for some other selfish benefit rather than simply helping the lives of whose country it actually is, the innocent citizens who never asked for any of it.
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