Deliberate, or Coincidence?

Whilst listening to the radio this morning & hearing a discussion about the current MP's expenses scandal, here in the UK. A thought suddenly struck me. Have these revelations been carefully planned, time wise?
What do i mean?
Well, here in the UK we are due to hold elections next week, June 4th to be precise. These elections are primarily for the election of members to the European Parliament. There are also some Local Council elections as well. But, the European elections are getting nearly all of the publicity.
Now, it is pretty well known that the newspaper that has been publishing the revelations about MP's expenses, The Daily Telegraph, has right of centre political leanings. And, it will also not be news to many of us, that the vast majority of people who's political views lean to the right are, normally, not very well disposed to the UK's membership of the European Community.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course. But, i believe this holds true in this case.

One of the main outcomes of these expenses revelations, has been a drifting away of public support from the three main political parties, Labour, the Conservatives & the Liberal Democrats. Who hold the vast majority of seats at Westminster.
The political parties who appear to be benefitting from this drift of support, are the smaller fringe parties. None of whom, i believe, have any seats at Westminster & are therefore not caught up in any of the current scandal.
With the notable exception of the Green Party, the other fringe parties are mostly all anti-Europe. Especially the parties who stand to gain the most out of all the fallout at the European elections. Notably the UK Independence Party & the British National Party.

Can you see where i'm going with this yet? I suspect you're ahead of me. But, i'll explain anyway.

It is widely thought that at the European elections, on Thursday, the fringe parties will get a bigger than usual share of the vote & therefore more than the normally expected number of seats in the European Parliament. This is because voters will either not vote at all, or they will use their vote as a protest against the three main parties. Something i will quite probably do myself. But, not only for that reason i hasten to add.
The main consequence of this will be far more Euro-sceptic members, from the UK, in the European Parliament.
Another possible consequence, will be hardening of anti-European policy from the main political parties, especially from the Conservatives. As they try to appeal to those disgruntled voters who deserted them for the anti-European parties at the Euro elections.

So, the question is.
Did the Daily Telegraph plan the timing of this so that the scandal was out in the open before the Euro elections? Thereby ensuring that a far bigger than normal anti-European vote was cast by the electorate.
This is an outcome that the Daily Telegraph would normally be quite happy with.
They could quite easily have held back the stories about MP's expenses until after the elections. The Daily Telegraph had already purchased the story from their source & it was therefore not likely to be published by anyone else. And the official announcements on MP's espenses were not due to be published until July.

So, was it a deliberate ploy?

I'll let you decide...

Blogs vs Vlogs.

It seems strange to me to be starting a blog, after over two years of making vlogs, over at YouTube. In some ways it feels like i'm going backwards, instead of forwards..
I've always been keen on & interested in new technology. So, to be only getting into blogging now, as opposed to several years ago like the majority of the inhabitants of cyberspace, is a little weird.

As i've said in numerous vlogs, i've always viewed vlogging as a better way of getting across what i have wanted to say. This is partly because i feel i can talk far better than i can write & people have told me i can talk for England in the past! It's also partly because i am also very conscious of the fact that text can be misunderstood so easily. I've lost count of the amount of times that an innocent remark, made in text, has been completely taken out of context & has provoked an angry reply. I'm sure we've all seen this on our time online.
I also find that when talking, i can let my mind wander more easily than when writing. I wonder if anyone else finds this. I suppose if i could type a lot faster this would not be so much of a problem. And i haven't even mentioned the spelling & punctuation!

One of the good things about writing though, is the ability to review what you've written & edit it where needed.
I have always tried to steer clear of editing my vlogs. Once again for more than one reason. One being my feeling that unedited vlogs are more natural & show you the real person, as opposed to how that person maybe wants to be viewed.
There is also the fact that i'm just plain lazy & don't really want to bother with all the editing. In fact i've just recorded a vlog than ran to over 15 minutes in length. I even lost my train of thought during the vlog & had to stop & then start again. Which is quite unusual for me. But, i still didn't edit the vlog. Apart from overlapping the two parts together. I'm not sure whether to post the video yet. But, i suspect that i will in the end. That's what normally happens. I make a vlog, more or less for myself & end up posting it anyway.

Another thing i've often thought & i could be very wrong with this. Is that i view writing to be more anonymous. Maybe it's the fact that you can't see the person who's "talking" to you, i don't know.
It could be anyone writing this couldn't it? But, with a vlog. You can see the person who is speaking. You can see the expression on their face & the look in their eyes. Something that doesn't always come across with the written word. Unless you're a very good writer that is.

So, although i feel that this is in someways a backward step for me. It does present a new challenge. Maybe that's why i've avoided, if that's the right word, blogging for as long as i have? I find vlogging relatively easy & writing a lot harder & far more time consuming. But, maybe practice will make perfect? Or, at least show an improvement.

We all have to start somewhere.

Well, here i am, on yet another website. As if i haven't got enough sites to juggle with & waste my time on!
Whether this will lead to anything, is open to debate.
I've often thought of starting a blog. But, i have always found it a lot easier to speak my thoughts, rather than write them down. Hence the number of vlogs that i post on my YouTube account.
But, there are often occasions when i feel like talking about a particular topic, often some news story. But, don't really feel it's worthy of a YouTube video, for whatever reason. Hopefully, that's where this blog will come in handy.
I envisage this being used for blogs about primarily British topics. But, that will probably change, as i have a wide range of interests. I'm hopeful though, that it might also appeal to people from overseas as well. That's if anyone can be bothered to read this in the first place.
As for how often i will post blogs. I really have no idea at all. But, isn't that the point of something like this? You just do what you want to do.
So, let's see what the future holds shall we?