Thoughts going into the General Election

It can't have escaped your attention ladies and gentle readers that we're on the verge of another General Election here in the UK. After five or so years of the Conservative and Liberal Democrats coalition running the country its time for us all to cast our votes and decide who we want for the next five years. I'll be honest, I'm rather disillusioned going into this election and thought I put my thoughts on the parties vying for my vote down on the blog;

Conservatives

I don't trust them, they are weak have no empathy and appear to not understand the country they represent. I grew up in the 80's and my earliest political memories are my parents struggling to make ends meet during Thatchers reign. The country is in a mess, David Cameron is a puppet leader and is incapable of original thought, reads endless spin that is put in front of him by marketing people. More importantly they have no plan and appear to be in denial about the state of the country.


Greens

I've ummed and arred about voting Green for the past three years, for every policy they come up with I like they come up with another that's bat shit crazy.


Labour

For the last few years in Gordon Browns premiership they were awful and they've under performed in opposition against a weak coalition. I don't trust this generation of Labour MP's and bar about 30% I think they are as inept as the Tories. Also living in a safe Labour area I think my MP has under performed and Aberavon has suffered, it feels like it could be time to change my vote.


Liberal Democrats

They are now untrustable, they have failed to moderate the Tories and have become enablers. Everything they've come out with the last few weeks seems to be ignoring the last five years and I seriously think they could lose a lot of seats.


Plaid Cymru

I have no interest in Wales going it alone and don't even consider Plaid a Welsh party, rather a North Welsh party.


UK Independence Party

A bunch of Tory extremists who have few if any policies I'm interested in, say nothing to me and have failed to represent the UK at MEP level.


So there you have it, my thoughts in brief and I'm rather undecided about where to cast my vote.

The Big Finish Catch Up: March 2015

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started getting the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

Its back into the 8th Doctor range with the 8th Doctor and Lucie with Immortal Beloved. Of note is an appearance by Ian McNeice who would go onto play Winston Churchill on the TV series, apart from this I'm struggling to think of anything to say - its all very forgettable. I think this story suffers from the single episode format. It feels like theres a central idea to this story but apart from a rather good set piece at the start and some half glimpses we don't see a lot of what is a very interesting setting. On top of that the pacing is a bit off the story moves along nicely and then stops. I'm left feeling rather indifferent, theres a lot to lure the listener in and very little to fault however I'm left with a feeling of ambivalence.

Next up in the range for the 8th Doctor and Lucie is Phobos. Rather like the previous story this is also a single parter with a lot on going on and its paced and played brilliantly. On the cast front we have TV stalwart Timothy West and former Liver bird Nerys Hughes (also of note played Todd in highly acclaimed Peter Davison era story Kinda). Various members of the guest have their own story lines going on and as a result the characters feel very rich, we'll probably never hear of these characters again yet I feel more for them than some recurring characters. Set on Phobos the moon of Mars the story is set in and around an artificial dome taken over by squatters and has become an extreme sports haven, also homing a share of various hippies and people wanting to disappear. This is a story I strongly recommend, there are various set pieces through out the story, lovely character scenes and possibly the best set up gag at the end I've heard in ages.

Over to the main range as we go further into 2006 with the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem in The Kingmaker. I have to be honest when I was taking the wrapping off I caught a glimpse of the robot on the cover and thought it was the one in the background in 'The Celestial Toymaker' fortunately he's nowhere to be found in this story. I'd like to paint the scene when I listen to these audios I lay down and let the story wash over me with my imagination providing visuals. All the way through this I found myself getting up to press rewind so I could re listen to a joke, a cracking piece of dialogue or double check a plot point - this rarely happens I was completely drawn in and hooked. Arthur Smith has one of my favourite voices so it was lovely to hear him as well as Jon Culshaw of the late 90's Radio 1 afternoon show doing some acting as well as a Tom Baker impression. This is the third story I've heard by Nev Fountain and he's become a favourite, I must gloat I worked out the cliff hanger in part three but nothing else. 'Omega' and 'The Revolution' are also puzzle stories its a brilliant aspect of all of his stories. Not only do I recommend this story I find myself placing it a firm favourite not only in this range but Doctor Who's entire cannon, it may battle a certain long standing story as one of my favourites. 

That's it for March but a bit of admin regarding the next entries in this section, I've noticed that 'The Kingmaker' was release number 81. Anyone looking forward to 'The Reaping' and 'The Gathering' I've already heard them (due to them being on offer) certainly 'Gathering' was done before I started doing these blogs 'Reaping' may be in an earlier entry although I'm pretty sure I reached it just before I started. Theres one or two other ones I've heard out of order but I'll mention them when we get to them.