… and where had the blog gone? The blog that covered the general election, all the leaders debates then took a summer break – but now we are back.

Ben Clatworthy’s blog may have been gone since May but school AS exams and much more meant that blogging had to take a break and then the summer has been so manic even Ben hasn’t had time to post, but all is back up and running now and Ben will be writing a summer edition of the blog to bring you up to date with everything from Tall Ships Races, to Spain, France, Denmark, Noway and soon Switzerland. It’s been quite a summer!

Until then why not follow Ben on Twitter, or Facebook;

The blog is back!

As David Cameron takes up residence in Number 10 we look at how the Clifton Mock Election gave pupils the chance to experience an election. Ben Clatworthy reviews the Mock Election

Clifton have historically organized a mock election at the time of a national General Election and 2010 was to be no different. The newly established Politics Department took charge of the event and with the support of the Percival Library staff.

It became clear early on that the mock election wouldn’t differ dramatically from the UK picture of uncertainty. It was clear it would be a four-horse race from the off.

Nine candidates stood for election, representing all the major parties including UKIP, Greens, Respect, The Monster Raving Loony Party and even the Communist Party. One ‘Independent’ candidate put himself to the public too.

After a week of campaigning, posters and lots of talk William Rushworth of the Conservative Party came out

Ben Clatworthy and Will Rushworth, the election winner.

on top; 20 votes ahead of UKIP candidate Charles Markham. Labour finished in a close third place.

The Mock Election offered Clifton pupils a real chance to engage and experience real life democracy and for some the idea of going to a polling station seemed so foreign that even if they gained nothing from the event they will now know how to vote when they are 18.

A Hustings session was also held, allowing the 9 candidates to try and win over voters as they set out their ideologies to a 100 strong crowd, last Wednesday.

The 1997 Mock Election was convincingly won by Old Cliftonian, Nick Yarker, who in this years National Poll was the standing Conservative candidate for Bristol West, the constituency that the College is situated.

Pupils can now take Politics at AS and A-Level as a new subject at Clifton and the modest class of 10 is expected to rise in numbers when the next year of students take up AS studies in September. The subject is taught by former Head of History, Peter Lidington whose brother was re-elected as Conservative MP for Aylesbury. He is expected to take up a Ministerial role in the coming days.

Old Cliftonian Richard Hooper teaches the other half of the course and as a politics fanatic seems the perfect second half for Peter.

The result of our election may not have changed the course of day to day life but for the pupils of Clifton it has very much given them an insight into the working of the UK political system.

Words by Ben Clatworthy

The waiting is over; here is the confirmed list of David Cameron’s new cabinet.

Prime Minister – David Cameron
Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg
Chancellor of the Exchequer – George Osborne
Home Secretary, Minister for Women & Equality – Theresa May
Foreign Secretary – William Hague
Attorney General – Dominic Grieve
Business – Vince Cable
Cabinet Office – Francis Maude
Children, Schools & Families – Michael Gove
Chief Secretary to the Treasury – David Laws
Chief Whip – Patrick McLoughlin
Communities & Local Government – Eric Pickles
Culture, Olympics, Media & Sport – Jeremy Hunt
Defence – Liam Fox
Energy & Climate Change – Chris Huhne
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs – Caroline Spelman
Health – Andrew Lansley
Higher Education – David Willetts
International Development – Andrew Mitchell
Justice, Lord Chancellor – Ken Clarke
Leader of the House of Commons – George Young
Leader of the House of Lords – Tom Strathclyde
Minister without Portfolio – Sayeeda Warsi
Northern Ireland – Owen Paterson
Policy – Oliver Letwin
Scotland – Danny Alexander
Transport – Phillip Hammond
Wales – Cheryl Gillan
Work & Pensions – Iain Duncan-Smith

BREAKING: It is now possible to confirm that David Cameron is the UK Prime Minister following the resignation of Gordon Brown just over an hour ago. Both have visited the queen since then. Gordon Brown thanked his wife and children as he left 10 Downing Street for the last time.

David Cameron welcomed in a new government as he takes up residence in his new house.

Harriet Harman has been confirmed as the acting-leader of the Labour party by Gordon Brown in a speech at Labour Party HQ.

A meeting between the Conservaties and the Liberal Democrats is expected in the next hour.

Britain turns CONSERVATIVE on MAY 11 2010.

Thanks to everyone who read my live blog as the election night unfolded, it was great to have so many of you getting in contact and emailing in your views on the action. Sadly, the word ‘action’ might be considered an overstatement as to date its quite unclear where we stand.
However this blog won’t do for Politics quite what it did for the election during the other 364 days of the year, but I am sure many of you would be interested in reading a whole blog devoted to the workings of the country and of course the inner-workings of UK Politics.

It’s a favorite of mine and despite being freshly launched this blog will no doubt become quite a read in the near future.

‘A new dawn has broken, has it not?’ – The words of Tony Blair as the New Labour era was ushered in thirteen years ago. So it is with these words that I launch my own personal political blog, The Hanson Account, just days after the remnants of that New Labour experiment were so comprehensively rejected by the British public.
James Hanson is a 17 year old politics student from Bristol, James has decided that the only way to get my view heard is by entering the flooded market that is the political blogosphere. He can only hope that this particular account of UK political events is in some small way perceptive to somebody out there! James will try not to make it purely a soap box for his personal views and pet causes.

THE HANSON ACCOUNT

Ben Clatworthy recommends the Hanson Account as a must read for anyone interested in Politics.

Hello! And welcome to live coverage of the 2010 General Election with Ben Clatworthy.

23:49 Question posted to the Blog by Mark Aldrich: Why are there so many inconsistencies with polling stations closing doors? - Well it looks as if they just didn't expect this high a turnout. It is a very mad omen for democracy in such a high profile country. Queues were massive everywhere. It just seems the returning officers don't know the rules back to back and were not instructed accordingly.

22:27 William Hanson writes: Paxman: "But you would consider getting into bed with Peter Mandleson? - directed at Lib Dem's Ed Davey.'

The Campaign trail turns nasty as Gordon Brown calls a pensioner “Bigoted” just one day before the final Leaders Debate from Birmingham.

Gordon Brown hasn’t had an easy time during the Election Campaign often stuck in 3rd when it comes to the polls and finding himself increasingly under pressure in the Leaders Debates. Today things got worse as he called Pensioner,  Gillian Duffy a ‘bigoted’ woman following a lively debate.

When asked what she had said he said, “urgg everything. She’s just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour. I mean it’s just ridiculous. I don’t know why Sue brought her up towards me.”

Brown is currently in Gillian Duffy’s house making a personal apology.

The incident occurred as Gordon got into his car forgetting to take off his Sky News lapel microphone. As his car drove off his words were recorded live.

Gillian was later played the tapes back by the Sky News team and she was clearly devastated, “I’m very upset. He’s an educated person. Why has he come out with words like that?

“He’s supposed to be leading the country and he’s calling an ordinary woman who’s come up and asked questions that most people would ask him… It’s going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this national debt, and he’s calling me a bigot.”

It is unlikely that any apology will make the ‘life long’ Labour supporter vote Brown on May 6.

The incident came just one day before the final Leaders Debate that is due to take place tomorrow on the BBC.

However things still haven’t calmed down after the Sky News debate last week when over 700 complains

All smiles last week

were made to Ofcom over the way chairman Adam Boulton handled the debate. 653 complaints were made over Boulton appartently ‘heckling’ Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

A further 34 complaints were registered about BSkyB’s overall election coverage for issues including alleged inaccurate polling statistics on Sky News and pro-Tory bias in a post-debate show.

Boulton broke the rules when he asked his own question to Nick Clegg over the fiasco that left him featured on the front pages of many national newspapers.

Ofcom is said to be ‘rejecting’ complains as procedure was not violated.

The Scottish National Party suffered a blow today when a court ruled that the BBC could proceed with the leaders’ debate tomorrow. They had taken legal action over the BBC as apartently not inviting them was a break of the Government’s rules of the BBC.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh to decided that the corporation had not breached its rules on impartiality by excluding the SNP.

The debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will go ahead. It will be broadcast live from Birmingham tomorrow night.

BEN CLATWORTHY WILL ONCE AGAIN BE TWITTERING LIVE THROUGHOUT THE ELECTION DEBATE ON HIS TWITTER PAGE; PLUS, JOIN IN BY REPLYING WITH @benclatworthy ANYTIME.

READ BEN’S TWITTER UPDATES HERE THROUGHOUT THE DEBATE

Words by Ben Clatworthy

After the second live TV debate there isn’t long left for the hardy Politicians to show us what they’re made of. With just under two weeks until the nation goes to the polls we want to find out who you think will win the General Election?

Gordon Brown thinks he is the only one for the job, whilst, David Cameron may want a fairer government and Nick Clegg a reformation of UK Politics; but who will the country back on May 6?

The second television debate from the Arnolfini in Bristol left many voters still undecided and sitting on the fence. The YouGov poll may have left Cameron ahead after the debate, but here we want to know how you will vote as things stand?

Thank you – the results could prove quite interesting!

The YouGov rapid response poll gives the win of the Second UK Leaders Debate win to David Cameron and the Conservative party. The second debate was hosted by Sky News from the Arnolfini in Bristol.

David Cameron: 36%

Nick Clegg: 32%

Gordon Brown: 29%

We will have a full blog to follow from Ben Clatworthy.

Last Thursday UK Political history was made in Manchester; this week all eyes turn to Bristol in the South West of England as it hosts the Second UK Leaders Debate. Ben Clatworthy looks at what’s to come on Thursday.

For the party leaders last Thursday was quite possibly the most tense ninety minutes of their political lives to date; now they have to do it all again, but this time the talk won’t be Home Affairs but Foreign Policy and Trident.

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats party was widely accepted as last weeks ‘winner’ as he rose above Cameron and Brown wowing the British party with his ideologies and talk of ‘cleaning up politics’. This week might prove tougher for the man of the moment as he tells the British people of his want to join the Euro and unleashes some potentially unpopular policies on the EU. Do we still have our rose tinted specs on?

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party was under great expectations from the people last week and many think he didn’t perform quite as well as he should have. Eton debating teams and statesman like behavior were all words used to brand Cameron pre-debate. Post debate people seemed to have an air of disappointment. This week those expectations are on Clegg so just maybe Cameron will shine. He’s got egg on his face at the moment anyway; quite literally.

Sky News Leaders Debate Studio - Brstol

Gordon Brown on the other hand had little expectation and one couldn’t help but think Labour supporters were just pleased he got through it – this week he will need to do better if he isn’t going to survive. Agreeing with Nick just won’t do Brown – we want to hear what you have to say.

It’s going to be though one in Bristol – will Clegg reign supreme for the second week running or will Cameron steal the limelight this week.

In Bristol rumors that the Arnolfini would be the home of the debate have been confirmed today as a no-go zone has been set up around the building in preparation for the big night.

Here at Clifton College all the talk is of ‘egg’ and ‘the debate’ and the thought of Bristol playing host to the three party leaders.

So that’s what going on in the world of the General Election for the time being. We’ll see whats changed this time tomorrow!

BEN CLATWORTHY WILL BE TWITTERING LIVE THROUGHOUT THE ELECTION DEBATE ON HIS TWITTER PAGE; PLUS, JOIN IN BY REPLYING WITH @benclatworthy ANYTIME.

READ BEN’S TWITTER UPDATES HERE THROUGHOUT THE DEBATE

Words by Ben Clatworthy