Sometimes it isn't easy. It can challenge the beliefs you have, and it can make you feel very uncomfortable when you view the world through other peoples eyes. However, it is immensely beneficial for identifying the politics that most strongly define you.

I've been throwing up a bit of rhetoric over the past few weeks and discussing it with different friends to see their opinions. It's all to do with the welfare state and tax, and the extent to which cutting it, or not cutting it is down to political leaning.

As I've found out over the past few weeks, there are arguments for both cutting it and not, from both sides of the argument - with each person bringing a very different perspective that appeared very much at odds with my prejudiced views.

It makes me feel much better that I voted for someone with whom I'd don't agree with 100% of the time, but acts with integrity. I don't think there's anyone in power that I would agree with 100% of the time, therefore the best I can hope for is someone who has a reasoned and sound argument for that course of action.

I've not had much time to look at the budget, and nor do I expect to cover it in this blog - but could you identify parts of the budget that despite appearing to be typical 'Tory' would probably have been implemented the same by 'Labour' - but for different reasons?

Working out in a foreign country, doing pretty intensive work doesn't allow me much time for accessing all those things British.  There are many things which I currently miss out on, so having access to the BBC is a very understandable and important part of spending time back with my own culture.  It's therefore not surprising to add that I regularly check the BBC News site where I can, and we get copies of many papers delivered by people visiting us from the UK.

This past week, things got slightly more interesting as I installed a little program on my machine called zsh - with this program, I can type bbc.radio2 and bbc.radio4 and it will connect and start streaming the radio for me.  Those of you using Windows and Mac (and even Ubuntu) might not see this as massively amazing - but when I'm spending 90% of my time using the commandline configuring servers, then having commandline tools for listening to radio becomes much more aesthetically pleasing.

So, I started using that this week, and there's been an awful lot of coverage of this Nick Griffin Question Time saga.  Facebook was alive with people making anti-BNP jokes, saying things like "Nick Griffin stands for racial purity, but his name represents a hybrid of a lion and a phoenix" .etc .etc. People were engaging in politics, and I didn't see one voice in support of the BNP. However, I did see a few voices in support of Freedom of Speech - and it's essential that the distinction is made between the two.  Unfortunately, that's the reason why politicians are attacking the BBC - it appears as though many politicians can't distinguish.

One of the programmes I did manage to tune into was on McCarthyism in the USA.  I didn't manage to catch enough of the programme to quote from it - but in the snippets I heard I ended up with a pretty good example of where we're at today in the UK.  Unless there is clear freedom of speech, we're in danger of following the same path and ending up with our own little version of McCarthyism.

The argument by the BBC is that Nick Griffin is a freely elected MEP, he's representative of a big enough section of our society to have been elected, and therefore the people he stands for have the right to have him speak on their behalf on what is meant to be a political panel show which debates the views of the entire country.

Reading Peter Hain's comments on the BBC this evening only go further to support my argument, and to lay the blame for the success of the BNP firmly on the shoulders of the politicians - who by being so scared of the BNP's sudden appearance on the scene, have decided to try and heavy handedly deny them their right to free speech, rather than freely attacking the cause of their popularity.

If Mr Hain were to appear on Question Time, espousing Labour's policies and attacking those of the Conservative government, then a rise of 1% in the poll the next day for Labour would be seen as disasterous.  Had Nick Griffin come on Question Time and put forward a cohesive argument in support of his views and had widespread agreement, there would have been a rise of decidedly more than 1%.

I believe the rise in support for Nick Griffin (by the fringes) is probably just an indication of the way in which his appearance was handled.  Those people whose vote relies on the government providing for the country (and America has also voted more selfishly since the recession) rather than looking at the bigger picture are placing their support behind the BNP.  Thank goodness for now that it's just a small number, and hopefully through good policy-making and communication the less extreme parties can win back the trust of those fringe voters.

The solution therefore is not to stifle the BNP, treat them like animals and put them in cages - that will just give reason to their supporters to affirm their belief that 'Us Brits' are not being heard.  What needs to happen is for their position to be accepted, and for all parties to work hard at designing policies which will appease the section of the nation that seem to think the BNP is the only answer.

I'd urge anyone who is feeling anti-BNP at the moment to take time to understand this argument.  I may not agree with the opinion of every man whose path I come across, however, I intend to defend his right to say it, and my right to hear it.

Working in India, there are some communities we've come across who will prevent their sons and daughters from seeing or hearing anything 'bad' during their formative years.  They'll read the papers, then burn them to prevent the children's prying eyes.  They don't have access to TV, not access to Internet, and are encouraged to read from a set list of books prescribed for them by their parents.  When they then come out into the real world, how do you think they handle it?

Most can't cope with it and run back to the safe world their parents created, by working in their close community, marrying into it, and distancing themselves as much as possible from the outside world.  Others simply enjoy the freedom, and embrace everything that's made available to them, ignoring morals, safety and self-respect.  Some then realise their mistakes and go back to their communities, tail low - whilst others burn themselves out, or get into a lifetime of destitution.

The way forward is the middle ground - not Gorbachev's "third way" - but a balance of the two.  I'm learning my moral compass the hard way.  I've done things which I'm massively ashamed of, but also things that I'm massively proud of.  There's not a day goes past when I don't feel ill of myself for a mistake, nor pride for an achievement.  Were I not able to make the mistakes I did, I may have not made the mistake at all, or I may have ended up making an even bigger mistake.  However, what I now know to be the truth is that experience and knowledge are the best two weapons against extremism.  If you allow freedom for people to vote for the 'wrong' person, and expect them to vote the 'right' way each time - then you're not giving them true freedom.

I hope that back in the UK, people will wake up to the fact that the country needs to re-engage in politics.  For too long the country has been drifting, by the apathy of her voters.  We need to get involved in politics again, start to clean up the mess in Whitehall, when in an attempt at defense of their jobs, politicians like Peter Hain are attacking civil liberties.  We also need to look at ourselves, and work out why we've created a society where a percentage of the electorate believe extremism is the way forwards.  This is OUR problem.  Fight it.

For my post-election response, see here.

With all the goings-on over the last few days in Iran, the 'twitterverse' and 'blogosphere' have been very active in either actively providing direct footage from the frontlines, or in people providing passive support, from posting messages of support with the tag #iranelection appended, or tinting their avatars green.  Either way, whether its actually had an effect or not, there has been such a strong perception that twitter has played a central role that the US government even asked them to delay maintenance so that the people of Iran would continue to have a communication channel out of the country.

I read an interesting post by Danux reviewing Pete Ashton's post on Digital Literacy.  One of the things that really hit home for me was the fact that although many people are now able to upload and share photos on facebook, video message their friends, and tweet away on twitter - very few people take the time to understand the architecture of their actions.  In a phrase - 'they don't need to bother learning to use the service.'  For the service provider, that's probably quite a succesful little result - but for innovation and development, it's a road to a dead end.

I say this, as there was lots of talk about what would have happened if twitter, a 2 year old start-up based in the Silicon Valley, went down and Iranian people were no longer able to communicate using that channel.  This is an inherent problem with centralised systems, and although they are convenient in some respects, from a technical point of view they have the potential to collapse much more than decentralised systems.  Identi.ca can be used in very much the same way as twitter, just by signing up to an account at http://www.identi.ca/ - but it also released the software that it runs on, so that if you require 'mission critical micro-blogging' (imagine that phrase just a few months back), you can set up your own instance of the software, and still link with the main sites.

The problem with this approach is that only the 'digital literate' people would do it, the majority of people don't want to understand how it all works.  Here's a lovely excerpt from danux:

I want freedom to travel anywhere in the country, to see friends and to socialise. But I don't have the aptitude to build a car. I don't understand the physics, I could never explain to you what a G is, or how its affected by aerodynamics. I could try and make a car, sure. But it would be a bit rubbish. You see, I'm not a professional car making person. This is why if I wish to have the freedom to travel anywhere in the country I buy a car, from someone who has thought about all this for me. Buying things I don't understand, and being content with my ignorance is how the economy is supported.

In conclusion, enjoy twitter, enjoy identi.ca - but don't expect the average user to care about which you use.

It's about time I did another fairly reflective blog post on how I feel at this particular moment in time.

I've been back from India for about a month, and have busied myself doing lots of little odd-jobs all over the place. I've helped out at a haulage company, at a construction company, done some D.I.Y., and waited down in London for the delivery of a washing machine and tumble-dryer. I've also spent a few days in Scotland, a few in Cornwall, went fishing in Cardiff, and met up with some old friends in Nottingham. I've said my goodbyes to a few guys up at University in Manchester, where I'd lived for the two years before I headed out to India. All in all I've managed to fit quite a bit in.

As regards my India experience thus far, I think it's given me a subtly different perspective on life; I'd regard my car crash as having a more immediate impact. I guess it's like trying to make excuses for something you can't see. Very few people refuse to wear 'Nike' because their clothes are made in sweatshops - yet the majority of people accept that it happens - whilst also explicitly criticising the practise. I guess moving out and seeing what I've done so far in India is a real life experience of that multi-faceted view of society. We all accept that there are problems with the current system, and are outwardly vocal with our criticism - yet when it comes to action, few of us are likely to put our necks on the line and take responsibility. It's reflected in continued poverty across the world whilst the iPhone 3GS gets released, and that the MP's expenses SAGA stays on the front pages whilst voter turnout steadily declines.

One of the things that I was ultimately conscious of before I went out to India was that it would be rude of me to try and impose my culture onto the Indian people (not just because it's not exactly original). It's been one of the most pleasant, yet stressful experiences to spend two months having to adapt to a foreign culture. I guess the majority of travellers pass through, observing, but in order to be able to gain the respect and trust of these people, we have to engage with them according to their customs and beliefs. This has been difficult - not in that their beliefs are difficult to understand - but that there are plenty of things in British Culture which are inappropriate to India. I bet there are many occasions when I've managed to mess up without knowing it - but I'm slowly getting the hang of 'engaging brain before speaking.'

Since being back, I've also been back to my old school in Solihull. Having spoken to the headmistress to thank them for their donations towards Medical Boxes for some orphan homes that our charity have provided, she was very keen on trying to build up links between the charity I'm working for and my old school. It'd be fantastic to have a longitudinal project that the school can follow year on year - especially as we're just at the start of the whole process, and we're bound to see some rather fantastic consequences of our presence. It's great how many Indians that I have met want us to use them to help their own people. It's what it's all about after all. We're a catalyst for the change, not the change itself.

Taking the message of being the catalyst, my ex-headmistress asked me to come and talk at the school to try and encourage the children to get more active with the charity. Whilst I was out in India I was priveleged to meet groups who came out from Nottingham, and live their whole life to help other people. At home they didn't have a break as I'm doing now - they lived in the 'worst estates' so that they could start to open the channels of communication with the people living there to help them out of their problems. That is the spirit that I want my old school to focus on. These guys are the real heroes and I'm sure after doing work such as this, that coming out to India will be a much smaller step to take, than straight from their middle class upbringing. Whilst I'm back over the summer, I want to find local charities in Birmingham that do soup kitchens in the evenings and need extra volunteers. I want to work with secular and religious groups. When I was growing up, it wasn't that these opportunities weren't available, but I wasn't made aware of them. If I can help make a younger generation aware - then I'll be the catalyst.

If you do already run some kind of soup kitchen or charitable event in and around Birmingham, please get in touch by commenting below.  One of the biggest criticisms I got before going out to India was 'Why aren't you doing charity work at home?" - put to me by Michael Wood.  Well this has been playing on my conscience, so I'm trying to do something about it now.

I'm pretty annoyed at the mindset of our country, and how it's moved on to such an extent that so many people were prepared to vote BNP.  However, much of the problem in my mind isn't with the  BNP itself, but the values behind it.

As with all news, it's much easier for the media to comment on it if it has a name.  Twitter is a micro-blogging service that has gotten much press over the last few months. Twitter's success is a result of the media latching onto the 'Twitter' brand to use it as a description for something much bigger.  Hence 'Twitter' grows, and other microblogging services suffer.  In the same way, the ugency with which all the political parties have shown to try and disengage the BNP from a political debate has not weakened the BNP, but given supporters of multiple fascist movements to stand behind a single party.  In a funny way, the UKIP may play an interesting role in splitting the right vote, where certain people would have previously chosen between Tory and BNP.

I'm certainly not a supported of Nationalists.  Just as our relationship with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has strengthened Britain over the last few hundred years, so has our cooperation with Europe.  We are now living in a global village.  It took me 6 hours last week to drive to Glasgow - it takes me less time to get to Paris.  We are living in a more connected world where we need to respect and share with other people in our community.  The BNP and parties talk of us losing our National Identity.  How is it that I can still tell a Geordie from a Scouser, a Cockney from a Brummie?  We all still have our identities.  Our identities are being strengthened by cooperating in the global village.

The Nationalists would have you believe that we have been 'selling out' to foreign countries all that is great and good about Britain.  However, if we are to honestly look back at our history there are many things with which we ought to feel mightedly ashamed.  We have killed thousands if not millions of innocent peoples in the expansion of our Empire - however, we have also helped countries develop due to our presence and technology.  We have done good, and we have done bad.

I believe that we owe it to ourselves, as well as to Europe and the rest of the world to cooperate and live in a world where each individual's contribution is cherished.  Where we can respect the views of many peoples.  I believe in the freedom of speech - which is the freedom that allows the fascists and communists to share their views - but with that comes a resposibility of respect.

One of the things that helped this country was its christian values.  Though there are many atheists living in Britain today, their 'moral fibre' has 'evolved' from what is essentially a christian country.  Our legal system and entire government has evolved from these values.  However, what few people bother pointing out is that Islam shares these exact same values.

"Nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, We are Christians" (Quran 5:82).

Why do we constantly hear about 'jihad' in the news as a negative thing.  My understanding of 'jihad' is that it is about making sure one is able to practice one's faith, and defend the freedom of worship.  Considering the similarities between our faiths, it may be sensible to regard it as a positive thing.  We are all wanting freedom to express what we believe, whichever religion we may decide to follow.

A great thing about freedom of speech is being able to learn of each other.  If that was banned, or Islam was banned in the UK, I would not be able to learn that in fact we have similarities worth shouting about.  We need to appreciate that, rather than try and hide it.

One of the problems is the stigma surrounding 'Politics and Religion.'  They are two things that people don't want to discuss.  However, reality TV and the Apprentice not only have a devout following, but commentary programs afterwards to delve deeper into the important themes identified in the program. Why can a relatiy singer like Susan Boyle get worldwide fame, yet many people wouldn't recognise Nick Clegg?  How many people voted for Diversity last week in Britain's Got Talent also voted for the BNP?

We need to be bringing politics and religion into the discussion, not trying to alienate it.  The easiest way for me to describe what's happening in Europe now is via the classic graph of normal distribution.

If one were to take this as a normal distribution of politics across the UK, the darker areas are the % votes of the most popular parties, whereas the outlying regions are the ones that are less popular.  Like my little post on the long tail, either half of this graph shows a 'long tail.'  That shows that the people at the end of each spectrum are those who differ the most from the majority.  In the case of politics, the same graph also shows the inverse level of interest.  In that there are more and more people moving to the middle area of 'disinterest' which allows those who are more passionate about it (often those with more extreme views) to take control.

What we have seen over the past 30 years is a massive decline in voting, and this is letting the few people at the end of the normal distribution make decisions for the rest of us. 44,173,690 people whose views are decided by 15,136,932.

If the same percentages were applied to a Proportional Representation in the UK Parliament, the BNP would have 37 seats!

We need to take control and start making decisions for ourselves.  We have a fantastic means of communication now with the freedom we enjoy on the Internet, so why are we not taking complete advantage of this and still relying on mass media for our political news.  We now have an opportunity to really get engaged with politics, the civil service needs reducing in beaureacracy during this down-turn - and we need to set out a vision for how we rebuild our reputation as a forward thinking, inclusive society.

N.B I'd love to get some 'politics' tagged posts on a political planet so that I can follow others thoughts too.  As it is I've only read Pete's post on the recent goings on.  If there are more you'd recommend, please add them in the comments. (and pingback if you like this one).