Hi guys,
so back in July I went on holiday to Rome, Italy.
As a history student, this was a dream come true! Myself and Hilly went for 7 days and stayed in the heart of Rome in a small hotel called Hotel Floridia.

The trip however was not without its stresses. As we live in Newcastle (UK) we had to get a connecting flight to Italy via Paris CDG. This didn't worry us too much as we had connecting flights in Valencia and we had plenty of time between the landing and departures. However, things didn't go as swimmingly as we hoped. Long story short; our NCL-CDG flight was delayed by half an hour and by the time we landed in Paris we were held up on the plane for around 45 mins (Air France said this was because it was Bastille Day... which we knew was a lie because as history students we know Bastille Day is on July 14th and not the 11th which is when we travelled!), which in turn left us sprinting through CDG to another terminal. We reached the gate with a minute to spare but were turned away as we were 'too late' and the flight had 'already departed'! Great. So we ended up stuck in Paris overnight and boarded the next plane to Rome the following morning.

That didn't stop us from having an amazing time, and we visited all the major landmarks and discovered some little gems in the city. We visited the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum, Vatican City, the statue of Giovani Bruno and more! I will say if you want to visit the Colosseum and the Vatican Museum, you should 100% purchase your tickets before you go! This saves so much time and most hotels will print them off for you too!

We also went to the beach twice and if you are planning to go to Rome I would definitely advise making room for a day at the beach. Most beaches are 30/45 mins on the train and there are plenty to choose from. We went to tourist-y Saint Marinella and also to relaxed Fregene. I would recommend Fregene over Saint Marinella as all of the beaches at Fregene are free (unlike S.Marinella where you have to pay to sit on the nice parts). However, DO NOT GO TO FREGENE ON A SUNDAY. We made this mistake and definitely added stress to the day. Bus services are confusing in Italy and bus stops are hard to come by, especially on a Sunday in a small town. To get from the station to the beach you need to take the bus as it is quite a distance. We managed to get to the beach fine, but it took us 2 hours to catch a bus on the way back and were stuck in Sunday traffic for around 30 mins. Adding to that, the train we were meant to catch had got in an accident at the station before ours... which meant we were waiting for even longer to get a train back to Roma Termini!!! Eventful right?

Anyway, I will upload some photos of my trip for those of you who are interested, and if you guys are thinking of going to Rome, I would definitely recommend. It is a beautiful city with amazing people and so much history.

view from the hotel room

Trevi Fountain:




 Pantheon:

Saint Marinella

Roman Ruins

Gelato!

Colosseum: 








Vatican City:

Fregene

*Honestly this is the hardest blog post I've ever wrote, not only have I tried to keep it non bias, but the amount of research I have done is stupid!!! *

If you're not from the UK, this post will probably not interest you. And if you're from the UK and not interested in politics, then you should be.
I'm not going to bombard you with my political beliefs and values, but if you follow my twitter (@13bethr shameless plug) you probably have a good idea. However, I respect everybody's political views, regardless of whether I agree with them or not, as there is almost always a reason why someone believes something.
I just wanted to give everyone a run down of the election so far and a biography of the main candidates. I hope this will encourage those who are not keen on politics to vote for YOUR future.

In the UK we have a General Election every 5 years. We vote for a local MP (Member of Parliament) to represent our constituency in parliament- there are 650 constituencies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In theory, the party who gets the most MP's elected into the House of Commons becomes the ruling party and their leader becomes Prime Minister (they need to fill half of the seats in the House of Commons in order to become the majority). However, if one party fails to fill a 'majority' of the seats, the parties can join together to create a coalition (such as that in 2010 when Conservative leader David Cameron joined with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg) or the party with the most seats can lead, but not always with great effect, this is known as a hung parliament.
This may all sound a bit confusing, and if you are still unsure on the basics visit the government's website, where there is a handy little video to explain in detail.

In 2016, a year after David Cameron had been re-elected as Prime Minister, he resigned, after he failed to 'remain' in the EU referendum (Brexit). This left the country without a Prime Minister, and the Conservatives (Tories) without a leader. The race was on. Michael Gove, formerly Secretary of Education and then Secretary of Justice, and Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, were both frontrunners for the job after a successful 'leave' campaign. However, they were not as popular as presumed. Boris forfeited the race and Gove was eliminated, so to speak. This left two candidates in the running, Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May. Both had support from fellow Tories, however in an interview with a national newspaper Leadsom claimed that May was unfit for the role of PM because she is not a mother. This caused Leadsom to step down, as people were outraged by her claim. So then, by default, Theresa May, the former Home Secretary, became the UK's second female Prime Minister.

Flash forward to 18th April 2017, a few days after Easter, Theresa May calls for Parliament to vote for a snap General Election for June of this year. This was a surprise to many people in the UK, as Ms May had said on record that she would not be calling a General Election, until it was due to be held in 2020. Many believe that initially the election was called as Ms May believed that she could gain more seats in Parliament than she currently has, as leader of the opposition (The Labour Party), Jeremy Corbyn appeared weak and unpopular. Parliament voted and agreed that a General Election is to be held on 8th June 2017. The campaign began.

Unlike the USA, campaigning in the UK is less costly and does not require billions of £'s worth of funding. Usually, the candidates travel the countries (the UK is made up of 4 countries) and talk to the voters about their policies. There are small advertisements on public transport etc and party political broadcasts are shown after the news usually. These broadcasts are low budget and attempt to be informative, not entertaining. However, after Ed Milliband's (the former leader of the Labour party) positive reception on social media platforms in the 2015 election, a heavier emphasis has been placed on this by all parties. We do not have nearly as many tv debates as they do in the US, however the one debate we have had was not attended by Primer Minister May, leaving many skeptical at her confidence as a leader.

So, who are the two leading candidates, and what do they stand for?

*disclaimer: of course I cannot include every detail about these politician's lives and political background, I am just trying to provide a non-bias overview!!
*Of course, there is a lot more to say, in a lot more detail, but a simple google search will answer any of the questions about the manifesto's. Alternatively I will try my hardest to reply to any comments on the blog.

Theresa May: 

creds: The Independent

Current Prime Minister Theresa May has served as an MP for the Conservative Party since 1997. She lives at the Prime Minister's official residence in London, 10 Downing Street. As noted before, she was not elected as Prime Minister, but became PM after the resignation of David Cameron. It has become apparent that Ms May is a lot more 'conservative' than David Cameron. She has held a number of posts in the Conservative Party including shadow Transport Secretary, shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities. Described as a 'devout Christian', Ms May voted against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for the LGBT community, voted no in 2002 Adoption Act, which allows Gay couples to adopt, and was not present for many other LGBT bills in parliament including the Gender Recognition Bill and the Equality Act for sexual orientations. However, it must be noted that by 2013 she voted in favour of same sex marriages and the ruling allowing military personnel to same sex marriages outside of the UK. This obviously shows her softening to LGBT rights over the years.
As Home Secretary she cut the Police Force, in order to compete with the financial crisis inherited by the Labour Government. However, this type of budget cut appears to be a severe move for public safety, following the recent terror attacks in the UK. Moreover, in 2014 and 2015 Theresa May voted in favour of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against ISIS, and had continuously voted for the deployment of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2016, 55 per cent of citizens believed that Theresa May was the best candidate for PM, as opposed to only 23 per cent that supported Jeremy Corbyn. Before the snap election was called Theresa May was in a dramatic 21 point lead over Mr Corbyn.
May's slogan throughout the campaign is 'Strong and Stable'.



The Tory Manifesto, in a nutshell, calls for a few main points: 

• In terms of Social Care, pensioner's winter fuel payments will be means tested (as opposed to paid by the government), a policy nicknamed the 'Dementia Tax' was described as a political U turn in social care policy- it is described by Business Insider as:"Under the plans, anyone who receives care in their own home will have to pay for it through the value of their home once they have passed away. This means that the entire value of a person's home, apart from the first £100,000, will be claimable by the state."
• Education: creation of 100 Free Schools, £4 billion increase in schools budget and free school meals for young children to be replaced by free breakfasts. 
• Theresa May vows to lower tax and simplify the system, as well as a 0 percent increase of VAT. 
• Pension reforms from a "triple lock" to a "double lock" meaning a rise in pensions following earnings or inflation. The Tories also vow to being tougher on those who abuse the pension system.
• In regards to Immigration the Tories simply aim to reduce the amount of immigrants entering the country.
• Promise to increase NHS spending by £8 billion.
• Promise to eradicate the deficit within 10 years.
• Maintain the Trident nuclear deterrent and increase military spending by 0.5 per cent.
• Build 1 million new homes by 2020 and new council housing deals.
• Reduce the number of MP's to 600.
• Eliminate homelessness by 2027. 
• Vote to repeal Fox Hunting act. 
• The 'best' deal for Brexit.

creds: The New Statesman

Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party. He has been an MP for Islington North since 1983. He is renowned within the Labour Party and parliament, as being one of the most leftist politicians in the party. However, he is not a 'party' man and has defied his party on a number of occasions, including the decision to enter Iraq war and the increase of tuition fees. He was arrested in 1984 for campaigning outside the South African Embassy against apartheid. Controversially, he supported peace in Northern Ireland which has been interpreted by some as being an IRA sympathiser. Corbyn rejects the idea of selective teaching (Grammar and Comprehensive schools).
In 2016 controversy arose around Corbyn, an event known as 'traingate'. He posted a video of himself sitting on the floor on an 'overcrowded' Virgin East Coast train in attempts to show the effects of privatisation of the railways. However, Virgin released footage of Corbyn walking past a number of empty seats on the train, claiming that the video was staged.
He has been seen as a political outsider in the Labour Party, and when leadership elections were being held, he was described as having a 'bleak' chance of winning by the Daily Mirror. But despite the media's expectations, Corbyn won the bid for Labour leader. In 2016 two thirds of Corbyn's shadow cabinet resigned and a vote of no confidence against the leader showed 172 votes to 40, after a Brexit struggle. However after a second leadership election Corbyn proved popular once again with Labour voters and he remained leader of the Labour Party with 61 per cent of the votes. When the snap election was called, Corbyn welcomed the decision. In recent months, Corbyn has become overwhelmingly popular with young people and grime artists have come out in drones to support Corbyn's bid for government.



The Labour Manifesto: 

• Rise in taxes for the wealthy and corporations, and higher powers for HMRC to punish people avoiding tax.
• No aim to reduce immigration numbers and instead calls to create fair rules to manage migration. 
• Accept the result of Brexit, aims to retain single market benefits and maintain rights for EU citizens in UK and vice versa.
• Public ownership of railways and free WiFi on rail networks.
• Partial public ownership of energy companies and ban fracking.
• University tuition fees abolished.
• £30 billion of funding for the NHS. Pay cap scrapped. 
• Creation of a National Care Service, Carers allowance increased to that of Job seekers. 
• Outlaw of 0 hour contracts to workers, four new public holidays, paternity leave doubled and pay increased.
• Minimum wage in line with living wage.
• "Triple lock" guarantee, free bus pass and winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
• 1 million new homes including 100,000 council housing. 
• Scrap bedroom tax and promise to end benefit freeze (not in manifesto).
• Support renewal of Trident
• 10,000 more police officers. 

The Green Party is a left wing political party. Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley are joint leaders, and Caroline was the first Green MP elected in 2010. Their policies are a mixture of left wing politics and environmentalism. The Green Party "Guarantee" link.






The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is one of the more controversial parties in the UK. It is lead by Paul Nuttall, however it's most well known figure is Nigel Farrage. UKIP is a eurosceptic, right wing political organisation. It currently has no MP's in the House of Commons, and has lost popularity after losing Nigel Farrage. It has a racist reputation, however the members of the party strongly deny that they have a racist rhetoric. UKIP's manifesto link.





Plaid Cymru is the Party of Wales. It is lead by Leanne Wood and advocates Welsh Independence. The party has varied success, and currently holds 3 of the 40 available Welsh seats in Westminster.
It is described as a Social Democratic party. The link to Plaid Cymru's manifesto. 






So there you go! A quick crash course in the who's who of the 2017 General Election. I urge you to consider each parties promises, and also to check out your local MP's promises, as those are the things that will directly impact your local area. It is important you vote for you and not just who your parents/friends/family vote for. Only you can decide your future, every vote counts so please please please use it.
Happy voting everyone.