Aerial Review

I wasn't going to write it all out again so I'll just link to it: 

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LIBERAL YOUTH

LIBERAL YOUTH is an embarrassment to the party. 

That's an understatement. 

There are many, many things wrong with LIBERAL YOUTH. So, deftly avoiding any area of substance,  let us go over my most petty complaints. 

1- Upon accessing the website, (don't bother, it's awful), you are met with this paragraph:

"Welcome to the website of LIBERAL YOUTH. We're the youth and student movement for the Liberal Democrat party. We set our own policy, run our own campaigns and speak our own minds."

That is appalling, laughable and unforgivable. It sounds like something my year 8 english class would write, it's just dreadful, juvenile and trite. Who ever wrote that abomination is an idiot. 

2- Stop, for gods sake, using capital letters every time the words 'liberal' and 'youth' are used in conjunction. It looks dreadful, and undermines any potential, and there isn't a lot to begin with, that the site has of supposedly representing a credible political movement. Again, it's juvenile. 

3- Change the name back to Liberal Democrat Youth and Students. Because at very least you didn't insist on capitalising it all the time. The Liberal Democrats may be Britain's most prominent liberal party, however I don't hold the delusion that we have or should have a monopoly of liberalism. You can be liberal, and a youth, without being a Liberal Democrat or indeed a LIBERAL YOUTH. The connection with the party should be clearer.  Also, LIBERAL YOUTH sounds juvenile, (I'm spotting a recurring theme here). At very least Liberal Democrat Youth and Students sounds like it might mean something. 

4- Don't highlight the word Liberal with yellow backing every time the word comes up on the site, it looks ridiculous. 

5- Delete every ounce of text existing on the site. Trust me. It's wanky. 

6- Why is there a calendar on the top right-hand side of every page? It's clutter, and no one wants to use the LIBERAL YOUTH website to check the date, that's just stupid. 

What I like about Kate Bush. Briefly, and this is most likely a topic that will be raised repeatedly.

If you're ever reading these blogs, and if I ever get round to writing them, one recurring theme you might notice is that I reference Kate Bush quite a lot.

That's because I'm a big fan of Kate Bush.

On one level, it's about the music. Kate Bush, in my mind, is unparalleled as far as singer-songwriters go. Her music works on a basic emotive level, she's proven, and I don't know of any other artist that has done this, that it is not about crafting a commercial product, it's about the love of the craft, artistic integrity, and the fact that she's got the ability to pull this off is just another plus really, and makes it all the more impressive. 

Throughout her career, which has now spanned over 30 years, (albeit with long periods of silence), she's never been musically complacent, or pandered to mere commercial interest, her sound is constantly changing, evolving, and the fact that she still manages hits is testament to her skill really. 

Part of this is, for me, concerning music, lyrics really matter, and this is an area in which Kate Bush really, unequivocally excels. You never feel short-changed when listening to her work, the subjects she approachs are varied, and daunting, and she hasn't through the course of her career been one to shy away from controversial topics; incest, suicide, pedophilia, gender politics, mental instability, martial infidelity, drowning and abuse. Other singers always seem to have a limited number of areas that they're prepared to write about, the lyrics seeming mundane, vapid and asinine. And even so, it's never convincing, It never feels as though they mean it. Kate Bush on the other hand, even though her subjects are diverse, alien even, and despite her often adopting a different character, a whole new personality, within the song, it feels as though she means every syllable. She doesn't so much push boundaries musically, she quite simply redraws the map. 

She's entirely unique within the subject matter and unparalleled regarding the execution, having hits with songs based on figures as diverse and divisive as Wilhelm Reich, (Cloudbusting), and G. I. Gurdjieff, (Them Heavy People). 

And then, of course, there is another, altogether more superficial level. One of the things I dislike, loathe even, (and am mildly hypocritical about), is celebrity culture. You know, I'm sure, exactly what I'm talking about. Heat magazine, seeing some random celebrity, on the front page, with rings drawn around her (I'm not being sexist, they're usually female) waist, commenting on how fat and overweight this celebrity looks, who usually by the looks of things, has a below average Body Mass Index to begin with. And that's just the start of the problem. The phrase 'celebrity' now makes me think of Jordan or something, it's no longer a recognition of an entertainer's excellence in a particular field, it's referring to all this Big-Brother tabloid bollocks. Kate Bush, on the other hand, rejected this. She's an artist, a musician, who doesn't indulge in the so-called celebrity lifestyle, who can balance being an extraordinary artist, and at the same time maintain her privacy, and raise a son. She's living proof that it is possible to work, to be a proper celebrity, a national icon, without pandering to The Mirror and Heat magazine, without having to leave her dignity at the door. 

And if all this sounds like poorly-written fanboy bollocks that's because it is. 

And hell, if John Lydon is nice to her, she must be doing something right. (Type Kate Bush John lydon into youtube to see what I mean).

(P.S- As of writing this it's her 50th birthday. Good for her).

The political landscape, as of now.

A wise woman once said,

"I don't like what I see in politics. I don't see politics doing any good for people, really."*

And do you know what? I think she's right, absolutely spot-on. That may have been said nearly 20 years ago, in a different climate, but it's as relevant as ever, and it's not just politics, it's the perception. 

Trust me, tune in to Prime Minister's Questions this wednesday, any wednesday, and what do you see? I'll tell you, its just point-scoring, petty bickering, and point-scoring. No one will watch Prime Minister's Questions and come out of it thinking, "they've got my best interests at heart, I'm proud of my government", well, not me at least. 

Politics is an area that interests me, admittedly, and this is an aspect of it that has been glaringly obvious, and enormously troublesome, to me ever since I started looking. 

The political system, the entire attitude, needs torn down and changed, I'm not talking about a thinly veiled partisan 'change' that we're all to used to, but real change, with the best interests, not of the government, or state, but of people, at the heart of the movement. A real change, rather than the meaningless Obama rhetoric. Not ridiculously ambitious sweeping reform, but a simple change in attitude. 

As it is, Britain is looking more politically apathetic than ever before in our history, and I'll direct your attention back to the quote at the start for why I think this is. If this is.

It's easy to fix, isn't it? Politics, parliament, the politicians, need to be seen as a force for good. And that's not how they're seen as it currently stands, that's not what they are as it currently stands. And it's not just being 'seen' as a force for good that matters, it's actually being one, that counts. 

*That was Kate Bush in 1989.