The JSPrice Perception

Nicola Sturgeon outside Downing Street (Image: Zimbio) This is the last chance I'm going to address my thoughts on this tightly fought general election before May 7 as on election night, I land back in the UK after what I intend to have a super five days in Spain. Fear not, I will vote by post and I have decided who I'm going to vote for so I won't dither, unlike millions that still have no idea who they want to represent them in the next five years. Summarising this election campaign is difficult. These past few weeks have seen polls remain static so while all parties have knocked every door, spoke to constituents, spent every penny on printing leaflets, it's clear that they're all working as hard as each other. The two TV debates were fascinating and the interrogations of David Cameron and Ed Miliband by Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burley four weeks ago gave us the real indication as to who can take the heat and who can't. I'm also looking forward to th...

Katie Hopkins (with some bad editing!) I like to consider myself being an open-minded person and therefore find a decent attribute in everyone. We all have a 'good' side and a 'bad' side to our nature, it's up to us which one we publicly portray and then other people decide how to perceive us in certain situations. We all have a voice and the beauty of the human mind is that we choose whether to agree with others tendencies or not. However, I must also accept that there are some people who chooses to be one personality to the public and be someone different in private. There's nothing wrong with that but these sort of people put my head in a spin even though their public persona is under constant negative scrutiny on a daily basis. Cue Katie Hopkins. For those who don't know her, she originated in business leadership having appeared as a contestant in BBC's The Apprentice in 2007. Hopkins proudly proclaims to be the first person to say 'No...

As we edge closer to the general election, I find myself even more engaged in politics. I watch more speeches, keep an eye on the poll-of-polls religiously, and bore people with my views. Most recently, I attended one of Ed Miliband's Question Time sessions as he's touring the country answering questions which matter to the British public. I was impressed by how he answered nearly every question fired at him, ranging from the Barnett formula to fracking. From asylum seekers rights to vote, to extremism in Nigeria. From supporting small businesses, to pledging better rights for those short of hearing. But what was missing, and it's a trend with other political parties, is how to completely change the education system. The Conservative-led government seem to believe that adding free schools supported by taxpayers and millionaire donors is the way forward. David Cameron supports their success as exam results from these schools are better than that from state schools. Of cour...

Ben Netanyahu and Barack Obama (Image: Bet.com) Having Iranian blood would naturally give me the urge to keep actively updated with the country's affairs. It is fair to say that Iran has seen a lot in the last few decades. The revolution in 1979, the war with Iraq in 1983, the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. These three developments in particular shaped the Middle East dramatically and along the way, the Iranian community around the world has united stronger because of these perceived setbacks, and I have nothing but respect of that. So it comes to no surprise that this community had to stick together in the last decade. Since the 1980s, the government in Tehran grew distant from the western world. Some statements that have been exchanged increased tensions which has nerved those living in Iran. In the late 2000s, there was even talk of an invasion on Iranian soil when George W. Bush approached the end of his tenure as US President. When Barack Obama took the helm, he ...

British prison (Image: BBC) What does it take for someone to be put in prison? It is the done punishment for somebody who has committed wrongdoing, whether it is moral or physical. You can go behind bars for a wide spectrum of things including perverting the court of justice, tax dodging and robbery. Of course you can go down for murder or rape, among the worst possible crimes but I wonder if the line is drawn between going to prison and not is a little too close to over-the-top. When I was a child in the 90s, a prison sentence was the ultimate punishment if you committed notoriously bad crimes. Now it seems that if you're about to commit something awful, or the wrongdoing you did was petty, the court cannot wait to put you behind bars. According to The Howard League of Penal Reform, 85,567 are in a jail in England and Wales. More people are in prison than those who live in places like Cotswold, Durham and Lincoln. There were two news stories this past week that caught ...

Ed Miliband campaigning at a High Street (Image: Daily Mail) Economics is a funny subject. As money is becoming increasingly important to many of us, every minute of the day we make decisions which have financial consequences. We think to ourselves "If I spent this amount on that item, I'd have this much to spend until my next pay day". That is how I tend to operate anyway. So bearing that in mind, you have to spare a thought or two for business owners. Particularly owners of larger businesses, they feel obliged to make professional viewpoints and financial decisions by media speculation and how the economy is generally heading. At the moment, the economy is doing okay. As a whole, Britain is in a healthy state in the sense that it is doubtful that we'd see ourselves in a recession for a considerable time yet. Unless something disastrous happens, of course - which businesses are starting to dread. With the UK general election around the corner, we have Ed Mi...

10 Downing Street (Image: Spectator) It is hard to believe that we are less than 100 days until the general election. It's tougher to think that it was nearly five years ago when David Cameron occupied 10 Downing Street. In this instance, time has absolutely flown by and yet sandwiched between these two days, so much has gone on - it is impossible to consider where to start reflecting.  You can start with November 2010 when the student riots after the government's decision to increase University tuition fees to £6-9,000 per year. You can then go on and mention the riots that damaged businesses across the UK after thousands raged against austerity in August 2011. You can then argue that there was a state of equilibrium in 2012 when the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London was embraced by the world. But things got a little paranoid soon afterwards when the Eurozone entered crisis point while statistically the British economy was starting to pick up. Then UK saved face ...