Last Wednesday, I managed to go to Wimbledon, and sit on Centre Court thanks to an old tennis mad school friend.

Last year, Rob followed the tennis around the world, going to Davis Cup matches, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Which is quite a feat really!

This year he's only at Wimbledon, but what tickets he managed to get. Centre Court, right in the middle behind the court. Lovely.

We got to see Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling play which were all very good to watch (and who all won). We also wandered around the grounds a bit to take in some of the outside courts.

And of course we had the obligatory Pimms and strawberries. :)

Wimbledon is such a great event, I love it - the atmosphere, the tennis, the whole Britishness of it that pervades the entire place.

Next year, I may even get around to getting my own tickets!

So. The election is tomorrow and if you're in the UK I want to take this opportunity to tell you to vote.

I don't care who you vote for (well I'd really like it if you didn't vote Tory, but I'm not going to stop you), the most important thing is that you actually vote.

I think voting is one of the most important democratic processes we have and it's important that everyone has their say. Also if you don't vote, you automatically lose you're complaining priveleges - you have no right to complain if you didn't make your voice heard when you had the chance. Conversely if you vote and the people you voted for don't win you have a free pass to complain as much you like.

So please just turn up at your polling station and make your voice heard.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

I've recently started to get a bit more invested in politics in this country. There's been a few things lately that I've been feeling strongly enough about to get involved: libel reform and Simon Singh's high court battle and most importantly the Digital Economy Bill and the 'wash-up'.

The Digital Economy Bill is a huge massive piece of legislation full of controversial clauses. And many of those clauses have the potential for major unintended consequences, especially for places like libraries, universities and cafes. (Thankfully one of the clauses I was worried about has been removed relating to free use of images found online).

Frustratingly since the General Election has been called we've entered the so called 'wash-up' period where any bills not yet passed through parliament get rushed through - without the necessary debate. And last night that's exactly what happened to a number of Bills. A couple of hours discussion then voted through due to deals being done in back rooms by the party Whips. Bloody frustrating.

And to add insult to injury hardly any MPs bothered to even show up. There are over 600 MPs in the UK. At times there were only 12(!) in the House while bills were getting their tiny amount of discussion. And then less then half of them voted.

And that's what really posses me off. What's the point of having that many MPs if so few bother to turn up and do what they were elected to do? And it should piss more people off. What were ~400 MPs doing that is more important than voting on legislation that affects all their constituents?

Happy New Year!!