I grew up in the south of Scotland in a pretty deprived area, certainly not as bad as parts of Glasgow in terms of unemployment but an area that had few job opportunities, and that remains the case today.
Northern Irish politics is part of where I'm from. Mainly Unionist / Loyalist but also some Nationalist / Republican. The boats that take Rangers and Celtic fans across from Belfast were often filled with die hard political activists - whether it be one side or the other.
When I was young, I travelled to Belfast wearing my green Hibernian strip, thinking nothing of it. I was called a "fenian" and a "taig", now at that age I had no idea what that meant but later my father explained it was a bad idea to wear blue or green when taking the ferry.
This incident lasted with me a long time. When I studied at University I became friendly with people from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (as well as locals from Aberdeen).
What happened was I started to get bitter. Bitter about the sectarian singing I heard from Rangers fans in particular. Bitter too about Celtic fans singing songs during a Remembrance service.
This is why I despise the old firm - they are "political" football clubs. How many Republican Rangers fans do you know? How many Loyalist Celtic fans do you know?
Their football team and upbringing dictates their politics and to be honest I was drawn into that spectre for a while too.
I started sympathising with the IRA. Not the Real IRA or Continuity IRA but the "struggle" of the provisional movement during the troubles.
It got to the point where I saw Unionists as the enemies: all of them, which was wrong. Don't get me wrong, I don't sympathise for the few who have spat at me when attending a game at Ibrox but generally speaking I've had no personal attacks.
So I moved back to moderate politics. I am Labour. Now a friend of mine (Celtic fan) will say that automatically makes me a "unionist, loyalist traitor".
No it doesn't: I agree with the Labour party's policies and I think we need a change of government in 2015.
So I have calmed down and kicked the extremism which blighted my life for 2 or 3 years and I wish others do the same.
God Bless,
A
We are around 6 months away from the UK election and none of us seem to know what the outcome will be.
Labour have dropped recently in the polls due to the media's onslaught of Ed Miliband, The Conservatives remain steady in the 30's, UKIP have reached as high as 18% and the Liberal Democrats are struggling to match the Green Party.
Going into this election there are 2 UKIP MP's; Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless only one of whom I think will hold onto his seat.
It's a strange situation in the UK. In Scotland, the SNP are flying high. In parts of England, UKIP are breaking records, in Wales, Labour and the Tories are almost neck and neck and in Northern Ireland Sinn Fein and the DUP seem to be embarking on some sort of civil war over talks regarding flags etc.
The only "stable" part of the UK seems to be Wales! Scotland is arguably heading left, England right and Wales sticking to the two traditional parties.
I think 2015 will be extremely interesting.
Unfortunately I think David Cameron will remain Prime Minister due to his renegotiation promise on the European Union.
During the Scottish referendum campaign, many Scottish republicans came out in favour of independence. I can understand where they are coming from in a way but replacing The Queen with a President doesn't make much sense to me.
Who on earth could the UK put forward to be a President?
There are some questions over Royal finances and secrecies that I'm unhappy about but the same would be the case with a President in charge - it may end up hereditary!
Alex Salmond made sure that an independent Scotland would keep the Monarchy as to not sway towards to far left republicans from Northern Ireland.
The UK isn't perfect but I like the idea of electing a Prime Minister (but not David Cameron) and think for Britain to scrap the monarchy would be the end of a historic albeit sometimes brutal tradition.
We in the UK don't have a lot in common with our past, maybe the Monarchy is something we should keep for traditions sake.
I was a fan of Gordon Brown and in many ways still am. I thought he was a Prime Minister of substance, but as well all know now, substance isn't what matters in British politics any more.
He certainly made mistakes but nothing like what our current Prime Minister has done.
The ITV / BBC debates looked to be out of Gordon's comfort zone as Nick Clegg performed best.
I wish Gordon Brown all the best. The awful media onslaught he faced back in 2010 in the run up to the election was sickening. I seem to remember one paper (possibly the Daily Mail) with the headline "Blame Brown".
Why should anyone care if he smiles? Why should anybody care if he isn't confident on camera? I voted Labour because of their policies in 2010 - policies which I believe would have helped this recovery more than the Coalition's economic reforms.
Good luck Gordon.
I often wonder what left-wing political choices voters in England face come election time? In Scotland, there is the SSP, Scottish Green party and SOLIDARITY. Whether or not the SNP and Scottish Labour are left-wing is arguable.
In Wales, there are the three main parties and nationalist Plaid Cymru whose leader is openly republican.
Northern Ireland is more complicated. Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the parties of the left and the DUP and UUP are the Unionist parties of the right but not as far-right as the TUV.
"Republican Sinn Fein" do not stand in Northern Ireland and continue to oppose the peace process.
The only real left-wing party in England I can think of is George Galloway's RESPECT who stand in few constituencies. However, the anti-austerity marches in England show there is an appetite for progressivism and an alternative to cuts to public services.
On the other hand, there seems to be plenty of right-wing (sometimes far right or centre right) parties to choose from although again, many don't stand and when they do they lose their deposit.
The BNP, National Front, Britain First, UKIP, The Conservatives all lean towards the right. Thankfully it looks like the BNP are now defunct but we as people, left and right must stand up to the bullies of Britain First. They stand for everything British soldiers have fought for over the decades. Openly invading Masjids and intimidating Muslims has to be stopped now.
Many Scottish nationalists pointed out the gap between voting intentions in England and Scotland as a result to leave the UK but this is completely untrue - UKIP won a Scottish seat in the European Elections.
I hope Labour can shift slightly towards the left and win back those working class voters who are unfortunately turning to the likes of UKIP.
The push for legalization of drugs (weed in particular) is a popular concept on the left. I guess it has something to do with the liberal idea that "it's not your business what I do". Well, to a certain extent it is.
Psychiatric units are seeing an increasing number of patients being admitted with psychotic symptoms, often thanks to teenage use of the drug.
Peter Hitchens wrote this book about the UK's lax drug laws which I highly recommend even if you are not a great fan of him.
Not only do I have first hand experience of the drug, I have seen what it does to other people. When I left my hometown to attend University 200 miles away I studied for 3 years, keeping in touch with old friends from school via social networking.
When I returned home it was like they were completely different people (well, most of them anyway). I guess weed affects people in different ways but 4 or 5 good friends seemed like zombies and had absolutely no sense of humour at all.
There are many reasons why people take drugs: anxiety, peer pressure, boredom or even just enjoyment! I do not dismiss addiction the way Hitchens does but I do think people often take drugs knowing fine well that they will get off with it. I know for sure when I tried it at a young age, the Police finding out was of no concern to me whatsoever.
Cautions are useless, we need stricter penalties, which up until now haven't been tested.
On the 18th of September 2014 Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom. Over two months on, the SNP's support seems only to continue to rise as Scottish Labour face what nationalists are calling a "leadership crisis". I wouldn't go as far as that.
When Johann Lamont resigned she took several cheap shots at the Labour leadership in London which did the party no favours whatsoever.
Johann to me wasn't leadership material anyway. Alex Salmond as First Minister was excellent at FMQ's on a weekly basis and I think the only leader that challenged him was Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. It takes someone with a strong constitution to take on Mr. Salmond and Lamont didn't have that.
Another reason for Scottish Labour's decline is the fact that she seemed to embrace fiscal conservatism; even Ruth Davidson welcomed some of these proposals! They are based on the false premise that Scotland receives more benefits than England which simply isn't true.
The last time I checked, SNP membership was well over 65,000 and it seems clear that the referendum this year has not settled the national question. Pro-independence supporters are continuing to flock to pro-indy party's such as the SSP and Scottish Greens but there is a problem here.
After the referendum there was (and still is) a lot of talk of a "Yes Alliance". Surely this is unreasonable. The SSP lost seats in the Scottish Parliament and I don't know of any seats where they could mount a reasonable challenge to the SNP. If the SNP did stand aside, Labour would surely win the seat!
Scottish Labour isn't dead by any means, but it has been in decline since Iain Gray. What we need is a strong leader who will challenge the Scottish Government for the mistakes they have made since taking power, not a leader who is going to threaten to cut "free" services for the elderly.
I'm sure by May 2015 Labour will lose a few seats to the SNP in Scotland at the UK election but it won't be a catastrophic defeat.
