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Considering my slavish devotion to Ben Goldacre (um, or what he writes anyway), you'd think I'd know by now that a very good motto for life is DO YOUR RESEARCH. This is especially true if one is going to do a degree in a science. ...ah.
So it is with great shame that I report that I did not do my research properly when I started go YAY GREEN PARTY because um. While, as far as Northern Ireland is concerned, they don't divide along "religious" lines, and are pro-choice and pro-civil partnerships (two things very important to me when deciding to vote for anyone in anything ever), they sort of have a really messed up science policy, as linked to on Goldacre's twitter yesterday.
Can't vote for 'em. Morally, can't. Sarah and I have already had a discussion about their animal experiments policy, which people must still think is a case of going out and kidnapping people's beloved pets. Look, I abhor animal cruelty as much as the next person, but lab animals are bred for purpose and are extremely important to research. There are regulations on these things for that very reason. There are alternatives, yes, and maybe someday science will be able, and can afford, to leave out animals altogether. Right now, it can't.
A ban on all embryo research? Big red buzzer there. People seem to think that this is a matter of experimenting on dead babies, whereas approximately five minutes of reading on the topic would reveal quite otherwise. I don't mind if individuals are morally opposed to it and don't wish to have anything to do with it. I DO mind if a political party is going to speak for me and say "well that's wrong". That's without even mentioning the possible breakthroughs that lie in that area and could change so many lives for the better, with proper research.
Alternative medicine policy, um... against the strict regulation of them? I apologise for this in the middle of a serious rant, but: away tae fuck. Any party that doesn't want to regulate potentially dangerous medicine - and all medicine is potentially dangerous, that's the "conventional" stuff HAS GUIDELINES AND PEOPLE DO PROPER TESTS ON IT JESUS FUCK - is not getting anything out of me.
And so on and so forth and I think you get the jist.
Bollocks. Silly person. So out of seven candidates for tomorrow, we have: bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot, Greens, and... Alliance. Who say that abortion is a matter of choice and "permit their members to vote either way", hurrah!, and are in favour of gay marriage, and have a very clear anti-discrimination that covers far more than "religious" stuff. Plus they're the only party I can think of in the entire country to have a non-white MLA. A non-white woman, at that. Which in a country where most people vote DUP is frankly miraculous; that's how far behind WE are.
So there, that's that: Alliance.
Rant over. I hope YOU are voting tomorrow, person who is eligible to vote. :)
So it is with great shame that I report that I did not do my research properly when I started go YAY GREEN PARTY because um. While, as far as Northern Ireland is concerned, they don't divide along "religious" lines, and are pro-choice and pro-civil partnerships (two things very important to me when deciding to vote for anyone in anything ever), they sort of have a really messed up science policy, as linked to on Goldacre's twitter yesterday.
Can't vote for 'em. Morally, can't. Sarah and I have already had a discussion about their animal experiments policy, which people must still think is a case of going out and kidnapping people's beloved pets. Look, I abhor animal cruelty as much as the next person, but lab animals are bred for purpose and are extremely important to research. There are regulations on these things for that very reason. There are alternatives, yes, and maybe someday science will be able, and can afford, to leave out animals altogether. Right now, it can't.
A ban on all embryo research? Big red buzzer there. People seem to think that this is a matter of experimenting on dead babies, whereas approximately five minutes of reading on the topic would reveal quite otherwise. I don't mind if individuals are morally opposed to it and don't wish to have anything to do with it. I DO mind if a political party is going to speak for me and say "well that's wrong". That's without even mentioning the possible breakthroughs that lie in that area and could change so many lives for the better, with proper research.
Alternative medicine policy, um... against the strict regulation of them? I apologise for this in the middle of a serious rant, but: away tae fuck. Any party that doesn't want to regulate potentially dangerous medicine - and all medicine is potentially dangerous, that's the "conventional" stuff HAS GUIDELINES AND PEOPLE DO PROPER TESTS ON IT JESUS FUCK - is not getting anything out of me.
And so on and so forth and I think you get the jist.
Bollocks. Silly person. So out of seven candidates for tomorrow, we have: bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot, Greens, and... Alliance. Who say that abortion is a matter of choice and "permit their members to vote either way", hurrah!, and are in favour of gay marriage, and have a very clear anti-discrimination that covers far more than "religious" stuff. Plus they're the only party I can think of in the entire country to have a non-white MLA. A non-white woman, at that. Which in a country where most people vote DUP is frankly miraculous; that's how far behind WE are.
So there, that's that: Alliance.
Rant over. I hope YOU are voting tomorrow, person who is eligible to vote. :)
