I’ve been spending most of my time recently getting ready for some work experience in online radio broadcasting but I’m also looking for anything else to do with either online social media and television which is in fact my specialism at university but one in which I’m becoming increasingly distant from. So if anyone of you may know of any who may be interested in taking on someone for work experience, then let me know.

I’ve also been watching all of the sport that’s been about such as the World cup, Formula one and Wimbledon. England’s performance in the World Cup was its typical self destruct performance, I would have preferred going out on penalties than witnessing a bunch of over paid footballers run about for 90 minutes as if they’d just been all be kicked in the crotch. Formula one ain’t going as bad both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are doing very well despite the odd problem here and there. The shining star though at the moment is clearly Andy Murray. With all the pressure directed at the England football team he’s probably been the best males tennis player this year and has a really good chance of getting to the final, I’ll not say any more as I don’t want to jinx it.

Anyway the next time I’ll post is when I receive my grades for this years work, let’s hope I at least pass!

After the map I did for the election was well received, Its been suggested that I do one based on the wards within Birmingham. This will be a lot more complicated but I will attempt it when I have some free time, as currently I have a 3500 word essay as well as a 8 minute drama to produce.

You may of noticed that the previous map didn’t fully have the exact environmental policies of the MPs this was mainly due to the fact they were busy and members of the election team weren’t able to interview or acquire solid information on what the MPs thought aboutt he subject. Rest assured however that now the election is over the team will continue to find out this information and will bring it to you as soon as its found out.

It seems there’s been an awful lot of voting problems around the country and it doesn’t rule out Birmingham either. There’s been various reports throughout the city including Ladywood and even the constituency I’m covering for Birmingham Recycled , Perry Barr.

On a positive note, I’ve created a map for Birmingham Recycled, showing each constituency in Birmingham and I shall be updating it as the results come in. The final map will contain environmental policy details, collected by the other members of the election team, that the winning MPs have talked about and will be published as part of a Birmingham Recycled news article.

View Larger Map

or Check here

If you’re unsure where to go and vote in Perry Barr and the surrounding areas, here’s a list of the polling stations in your area.

Perry Barr

St. Paul’s Church Community Centre, 824 Walsall Road, B42 1ES

Calshot Primary School, Calshot Road, B42 2BY

Methodist Church Hall, Thornbridge Avenue, B42 2PW

Dorrington Primary School, Dorrington Road, B42 1QR

Perry Hall Playing Fields, Perry Avenue, B42 2NE

St. John’s Church Hall, Church Road, B42 2LB

Tower Hill Library, Tower Hill, B42 1LG

Birmingham City University, (Room C217 Cox Building), Franchise Street, B42 2SU

Yew Tree Community School, (Nursery Unit), Yew Tree Road, B6 6RX

Deykin Avenue Junior and Infant School, Deykin Avenue, B6 7BU

Oscott

Sundridge Primary School, (entrance Queslett Road or), Sundridge Road, B44 9NY

Kingsland Primary School, (Main Hall,entrance Bandywood Crescent or), Kingsland Road, B44 9NA

Maryvale Catholic Primary School, (Entrance opposite Servite House), Old Oscott Hill, B44 9AG

Great Barr Primary School, Aldridge Road, B44 8NT

Perry Beeches Baptist Church, Beeches Road, B42 2QG

St. Matthew’s Church Centre, Birdbrook Road, B44 8RB

Greenholm Primary School, (access via service road), Greenholm Road, B44 8HS

Hawthorn Junior and Infant School, Hawthorn Road, B44 8QR Hut: corner of Booths Lane, and Queslett Road

Glenmead Primary School, Glenmead Road, B44 8UQ

Public Library, Kingstanding Road, B44 9ST

Handsworth

St. John Wall Catholic School, Oxhill Road, B21 8HH

Hamstead Hall Community Learning Centre, Craythorne Avenue, B20 1HL

Elmwood United Reformed Church, Hamstead Hill, B20 1BU

Grestone Primary School, Grestone Avenue, B20 1ND

Cherry Orchard Primary School, Cherry Orchard Road, B20 2LB

St. James CE Primary School, Sandwell Road, B21 8NH

St. Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, Avenue Road, B21 8ED

Rookery Sports & Art Centre (Rookery School), Mount Pleasant Avenue, off Rookery Road, B21 9PY

The Good Shepherd Hall, R/O St Andrews Church, Slack Lane, B20 9RE

Handsworth Wood Girls’ School, Church Lane, B20 2HL

St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Butlers Road, B20 2NY

Additionally a rare story I missed during the run up to the election can be found here

The person leading the debate, who I believe was called Raj Rattu of Neighbourhood Consultancy Ltd, started off getting the audience into the mood by asking them why people should vote, there was some early signs that people were not entirely happy with the way the country was run, especially on the subject of the war in Afganistan and Iraq.

I was hoping to record everything on my new HTC hero and then immediately upload it but due to the battery (which I recharged only a day earlier..) which was running out, I had to use my backup which was a digital voice recorder, I also took notes as well just in case.

I was surprised to find that an additional candidate was added to the hustings debate, John Tyrell of the Socialist Labour party. The rules were established including the two minute time limit on replies which would be broken now and then throughout the next hour. After watching the leaders debate last week I knew that a strong opening statement can really reinforce peoples opinions of you or even make their opinions worse. Out of the five candidates only two of them would actually mention the environment, Karen Hamilton who straight off stated she got into politics because of littering and John Tyrell who raised my eyebrows a number of times throughout the night especially when during his open statement he talked about burning our own coal rather than importing it, but I’m sure I must of misheard him. The Conservatives, Labour and UKIP didn’t mention the environment at all which surprised me, especially in the case of labour.

The first issue that was raised was the war of course, but after that came the questions on the Environment, I was going to put my hand up to ask a question but I shortly found out I needn’t have to as the questions already acknowledged by the leader of the debate included basically what I wanted to say. For me the Conservative nominee, William Norton dropped the ball here, he basically made a lot of jokes about how he’s changed his flower gardens into compost heaps, instead of tackling the policies and the problems head on, he needn’t of said anything at all and he would of come off better in my eyes.

Both Khalid Mahmood and Karen Hamilton put a lot of thought into their environmental stances, including having a waste minimisation review and possibly taxing fast food companies due to the waste they are responsible for. I’ll go into a lot more detail though when I write my article for Birmingham Recycled.

I had to leave the debate early due to my lift wanting to leave, but I had the chance to speak to Waseem Zaffar who I’d tweeted to during the Hustings who mentioned there is a further hustings next week on Tuesday at Birmingham City University organised by the student union, So I shall be attending that and will hopefully be able to get some proper face to face interviews with them.

For the Liberal Democrats click here, For Labour click here and for the Conservatives click here.

View This Poll

I found this out  after  labour party member Waseem Zaffar tweeted it. I asked him where the venue would be but he said due to security reasons he couldn’t disclose it but those on the list of attendee’s will be notified tomorrow. The reason for revealing it in the West Midlands  and Birmingham is to highlight its commitment to the city and also its support for developing high-tech manufacturing and the high-speed rail service from Birmingham to London.

I shall be interested in what else he has to say about environmental issues and sustainability.

If David Cameron succeeds in winning support he’ll be the youngest Prime Minister in the history of the United Kingdom or so I’ve heard. All the leaders got off to a flying start, especially Cameron who actually turned up at a hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Which I’m sure would have caught my fellow election correspondents at Birmingham Recycled off guard. Overall it looks like this election is going to be a lot more difficult to predict than before and what with the three televised debates, I’m sure it’s going to be just as entertaining than what we saw in the US presidential elections.

In my area, I’ve not heard much apart from the response by Karen Hamilton which was very welcomed. I still only have four possible candidates for Perry Barr but I shall be keeping a close eye out for any future developments.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions on people I should follow then feel free to let me know. Anyway this was just a quick blog to let you know of the major developments in the election race, namely the start of it.