Calrissian.com : Politics : Profile

	Profile : Philip Calrissian		Index
			Personal summary Political Background Things that drive me crazy
	Age: 33, as at July 2006

Philip Calrissian - A personal summary

Well, I suppose it would be far more useful (and objective) if someone else wrote this page, but since it is just me at this moment in time, here is the story so far....

Born 13'th July 1973 in the ancient market town of Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. Lived in Stevenage until age 11, at which time I then moved to Penzance (Cornwall). Stayed in Penzance for just over a year, which remains the best place I ever lived (I'm a coastal person by heart). Ended up returning to Stevenage in 1987 - much to my utter dismay. Did the standard GCSE education, didn't do particularly great - I hated my school life. Forced education was never my thing. Then proceeded to do 2 years of 'sixth form', ended up just taking the one A-level, Economics - which I did amazingly well in.

So there I am, it is June 1991 and the UK is in Deep recession, everything is an utter mess. Attended 2 night school classes which were kinda okay, but the work situation was a total nightmare, my home town of Stevenage was turning into a ghost town, the main shopping centre seemed at best only haft occupied - and those were mostly charity shops.

The 'psychology thing'

Anyway, I eventually pursued one of my favourite interest - 'people', and engaged in a long period of personal research in various aspects of Psychology and Counselling -both of which remain one of my primary areas of expertise. I took a standard science degree in Psychology from 1997-2001, this was based at the University of Hertfordshire. During my University time I worked in retail - I was the self-proclaimed 'chief cashier' of my local Waitrose. Retail was (to my surprise) a useful personal experience, I got to meet the general public by the thousand each week, who turned out to be polite and respectful (97.6%) of the time.

University finished in summer 2001, and I eventually left my job at Waitrose in Early 2002. During 2002 I began in-depth research into hosting and running my own website. By mid-summer of the same year my first site www.calrissian.com was up and running. Spring 2003 and I decided to begin a new political wing to my website, which will (probably) some time later become a website unto itself.

The Future : Who knows ? I once had an aim to run as an independent candidate, as leader of my own self-formed political party. However, as at summer 2006, more important things consume my time.

Political background

Who did I use to vote for ?

*This is something I rarely see mentioned about current MP's. Many MP's will come from quite different political backgrounds that many might not realise.

The first time I got the opportunity to vote was in 1992. It was the Neil Kinnock vs John Major election battle. There was really only one 'safe' option and I went for the soft conservative Major. Needless to say, it was somewhat annoying how little Major accomplished during his one term as Prime Minister. In May 1997 - Major vs Blair. Despite the fact that Major was a big let down, I could not bring myself to vote for Saint Blair. Even at this early stage in Blair's political life I could not stand the attitude of either Blair or his media puppeteer Mandelson - they were too damn annoying.

2001, Blair has had one full term, and he has really annoyed me ! His constant attitude of 'Political Spin' means there is no way in hell I could vote for him. Sure the Economy has been relatively okay, but that was not down to him. So who did I vote for this in this election you ask ? Blair vs. 'the boy' Hague. Hmm, what a choice. The conservatives at this time were still in a total mess over all matters related to Europe, and Labour was seemingly going to win with an even bigger landslide victory than before. Frankly, I was so disgusted with the state of both main parties I chose not to vote for either. Not having a single decent candidate to vote for, was very depressing.

I sometimes say to those who know me, think of me as a 'dictatorial liberal'. I am neither right wing or left ring on the political scale. Neither do I lie anywhere in the middle. I guess you'd have to make a new scale entirely just for me. I am a very liberal minded person, people should not be dictated to by government in their everyday lives. People who are socially not fit for society should be kept locked away -period. Life is too short to have idiots on the streets harassing, stealing, hurting, and threatening others. A policy that goes well beyond 'zero tolerance' is required, yes I said beyond 'zero'.

The things that drive me crazy...

-The lousy state of English Law, in particular the whole 'reasonable force' concept. Someone breaks into your home, you 'deal with' the intruder, and then the state prosecutor tries to send you to jail for protecting your home/family !
I can't stand any form of injustice.

-The current overloaded, incompetently miss-managed rail transportation system. An entirely new additional UK transit/metro system is desperately required.

- Housing: current housing standards still take too little consideration of issues like noise reduction, energy conservation, or personal security.

- Taxation : There are countless minor taxes which cost an absolute fortune to collect, madness ! Government should only tax people in a very limited way, the most efficient way remains income tax and sales tax. Why have 10 taxes - each with 10 groups of paper pushers, when you should simply have a higher level of income/value added tax ?

- Liberty : The government has no right to dictate to the population what they can and can not do with their lives - as long as such behaviour does not negatively infringe someone else. UK Drug laws remain farcical, around 10% of the UK population use cannabis each week, yet it remains a criminal offence to use this particular drug. Are we really saying that 10% of the population should be locked up for smoking in the privacy of their own homes ?

- Energy Production : Nuclear power is actually more costly than every single other form of power generation, not cheaper as was originally claimed. The ONLY thing we do know is that renewable power is the only reliable long term means of power. Within this century many of the current fossil fuels will be exhausted, and we had better have decent tidal/solar/wind generators - on a grand scale. Present governments continue to ignore this inevitable energy crises.

-Pensions Crisis : There are just 20-25 years until the 'demographic time bomb' occurs. With people living longer, and so few babies being born, there is a looming disaster - yet not a single government official wishes to even address the issue , never mind preparing for it.