I am not a fan of electoral reform, making the house of lords elected etc - that kind of allows them to be "controlled" because if they do not play ball, the parties will withdraw support at the next elections.

It makes everything ever so slightly more corrupt IMO.

I sent this email to Barroness Sayeeda Warsi yesterday:

Some political/Policy Questions

Salaams,

We (http://www.therevival.co.uk ) are a Muslim website with a pretty young audience - many may not even be eligible to vote or be first time voters, but there is a smattering of older people too. I just have a few questions that I want to put forward and see if I can get some answers. Nothing too tricky - mainly because I personally have no idea what the tories stand for.

Anyway, the questions (just off the top of my head):

1. Who are you and why should people care?
2. While there may not be a Muslim voting block, Muslim Voters are mainly either from relatively poor immigrant families (Labour) or students (Lib Dems). What do you have to offer that matters to them?
3. While I believe that most muslims will report any crimes they witness, or report any potential terrorist related activity, the current governments approach seems to have been driving a wedge within the community, with allegations of forcing people to be mroe than good citizens and to proactively spy on others. What is your issue on such matters?
4. Where do you stand on Afghanistan?
5. Britain went into a deeply unpopular war in Iraq - one that was supported by the Conservative party. What steps would you take to stop such things happening in the future?
6. Many Muslims feel targetted and victimised by "the media" and maybe also by government organisations - where for isntnace Muslim Protesters against the Gaza attrocities were treated as violent criminals being convicted with multi year sentences instead of what would be expected. How do you propose to fix such a divide in the community and what positive action do you promote in order to get people to trust the police, the govenment and the conservative party?
7. What do you offer young Muslims that the other two parties don't?
8. What do you see as the major problems in the UK's communities? How can cohesion be improved and how can pride of place be restored in many of them?
9. Do you a singular community in the UK or a mish mash of different communities? Is there a danger that pushing people towards assimilation will make people lsoe their identities, their pride and result in bad consequences to the whole of the UK?
10. Political reform seems to be a popular mantra these days. Do you think there is a danger that the House of Lords is being reformed into a chamber that is more accountable to the parties than to the people - afterall you cannot threaten a life peer with withdrawing support if they are not supporting the party line.
11. What do the conservatives have to offer to the Muslim community that is different from the other parties?
12. The recently passed digital economy bill seems to be something that will criminalise a large part of the younger segment of society. What will you do in order to restore a balance where the copyright system is there to protect the people and not the other way around?
13. Rupert Murdoch has endorsed the conservative party and many have the suspiction that a part of the deal with the devil is that the conservatives will cut the BBC down to size. How do you plan to restore balance to the system so that we do not get the american system where Fox news (another Murdoch enterprise) can have so much influence without being held in check since there are no real competitors. Will our news media become so embarrasing that we need a comedy show to tell the truth?
14. Why did you join the conservatives? what did you see in the party that really stood out to you. Is this still the case?
15. many teaching unions are wary of a conservative government. How do you plan to work with them?
16. There have been a few legislations by the recent government when it comes to edication that makes many Muslims uneasy - lowering the age of homosexuality to 18, lowering the age of sex education and maybe if they win even the removal of the parental right to take the child out of the class. Where do you stand on such issues of sex education and how do you propose to reform policy?
17, Are there any other questions that you think should be asked?
18. If we do get a response and the questions and answers are put online, it would be good to have a picture to go alongside. If you want to supply one, it would be good.

Salaams

I doubt there will be a response though.