Third British election debate...
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why are there so few parties in the UK!?
I mean.. it's either this or that.. there's hardly any inbetween? Isnt it better if you have let's say about 6 or 7 parties? (not that it's ok in the netherlands, because we have way too much imo) but 3 is just.. not enough I think..
I mean.. it's either this or that.. there's hardly any inbetween? Isnt it better if you have let's say about 6 or 7 parties? (not that it's ok in the netherlands, because we have way too much imo) but 3 is just.. not enough I think..
There are many more parties but they don't get much of a look in the media. The next biggest 2 are probably UKIP (UK Independence Party) and the Green party. We have locally the Justice party and some others I think. BNP is of course the most infamous.
No point voting round here tbh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
I normally go for the one with the strangest / funniest name
but this time
no names to go for
so voted liberal demaprats
may just frighten the smug git idiot swayne but doubt it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
I normally go for the one with the strangest / funniest name
but this time
no names to go forso voted liberal demaprats
may just frighten the smug git idiot swayne but doubt it
A hung parliament but it looks as though LibDem, the on-paper losers, have the most power For it is they who can choose to ally with either Tories or Labour, thus pushing either to a majority and giving them the power. So, they're now kingmakers and will surely bargain with the Tories, resulting in a mainly Tory slash partly Liberal government, but with Cameron as prime minister and the rest of us fucked. I've got such a bad feeling about this. A Tory government: how can Britain have allowed this?
For it is they who can choose to ally with either Tories or Labour, thus pushing either to a majority and giving them the power. So, they're now kingmakers and will surely bargain with the Tories, resulting in a mainly Tory slash partly Liberal government, but with Cameron as prime minister and the rest of us fucked. I've got such a bad feeling about this. A Tory government: how can Britain have allowed this?
Probably people too young to remember the Thatcher years when they sold off half the country.
In much the same way as the current generation, which has grown up knowing nothing but Labour rule, and have, as a result of Labour education policies, spent their formative years being told what to think rather than how to think?
And lets remind ourselves why the Tories had so sell off / privatise everything. It was because the previous Labour government made such a clusterfuck of the economy that the country was bankrupt, and to maintain the provision of essential services, the Tories had to sell off some of the family silver. This has been the story with Labour ever since its formation under Ramsay Macdonald. A Labour government always leaves behind a wrecked economy or a sterling crisis. You just need to read the history books to see that.
OK you might say, but what of the Tories and "Black Wednesday". Ahh yes. Where they spent about £3.4 Billion trying to protect the Pound from speculators. Twice that amount, by the most optimistic government figures, is currently preventably defrauded from the social security budget every year.
Or that other favourite of the left, the clarion call of "Interest rates at 15%" under the Tories. In fact, interest rates only went up to 12%, there was merely a statement that they might be raised to 15%, and interest rates remained at 12% for precisely one afternoon, before falling back the following morning to 10%.
OK you might say, but interest rates are currently at 0.5%. Yes, and why? To hide the fact that Labour are printing money like mad to try and hide the mess they've caused. Wondered why everything is getting so expensive these past few years? Wonder why petrol / diesel is getting so pricey (other than the 75% plus tax rates on fuel) ? It's because we currently have to import so much. and most of it is priced in dollars. With the pound sinking against all other major currencies because of Labour's wrecking of the economy, guess what. Everything becomes more expensive. The government now spends more each year, according to its own figures, in servicing the annual interest bill on government debt than it does on education, transport or defence. Is that right? Is that good? People are getting poorer under Labour in real terms as their salaries remain the same in the current recession, while taxes, and the cost of everything people need to live is getting more and more expensive all the time. Official figures say inflation is running at about 3-4%. If you compared your fuel / shopping bills to a year ago, you'd realise its actually closer to 10% or more.
Re: your earlier point Quasi, in relation to my comment about wars and university education, I agree, the Tories would almost certainly have done the same. What sickens / frightens me, is that had the Tories done this, there would have been riots and widescale civil unrest, union led public sector strikes and probably a vote of no confidence in a Tory government in parliament. And yet, because it was Labour that did it, people essentially let themselves get buttfucked without a single squeal of protest. Why is that do you think? Hitler was a monster, and is rightly hated. Yet Joseph Stalin, who actually killed more people, and had more and bigger concentration camps, is never vilified in the same way. Why is that? Because he was nominally "left wing". Why does that seem to be an excuse for the most egregious behaviour, and for people who should, and do know better, to look the other way?
It's as if people somehow seem blind to Labours vast faults, simply because they talk a good fight about looking after the poor. I say talk because they've never actually delivered on that talk. In fact, if you think about it, it is manifestly in Labour's interest to keep their supporters poor, and poorly educated. If they didn't, and those people genuinely got a chance to improve their lives, they wouldn't vote Labour any more.
On the current possible Tory / Liberal coalition - I'll be optimistic, and say this might work out well. The Liberals might reign in some of the harsher proposed Tory policies, in the same way as the Tories might restrain some of the Liberal's dafter ideas, like ceding more power to unelected Eurocrats. On current figures, a Lib/Tory coalition would also have 59.1% of the total popular vote, as compared to 52.1% which a Lib/Labour coalition would have. I know what I think is more democractic.
Oh well, just have to wait and see I guess ...
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I think perhaps because he was on our side during the war more than he was left wing.
I guess we will have to wait and see what happens with a tory government.
52.1% of people voted for an alternative vote system if you look at it that way
cause both lab and libs had it in their manifesto
2 much selective nonsense imo
labour did some good stuff as well as the bad
eg tax credits waiting lists minimum wage
they got fucked by a Global recession like the rest of the world did
tories wanted to follow a different route which would have fuked us without the quantitative easing
don't like labour but credit where credit is due
cause both lab and libs had it in their manifesto
2 much selective nonsense imo
labour did some good stuff as well as the bad
eg tax credits waiting lists minimum wage
they got fucked by a Global recession like the rest of the world did
tories wanted to follow a different route which would have fuked us without the quantitative easing
don't like labour but credit where credit is due
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1. Ahh yes, waiting lists. Those were shortened by creating waiting lists for waiting lists. Or, alternatively, the other trick was to give you an initial appointment so that you could book a main appointment.
2. Tax credits - good idea, but why are they paid to people who earn salaries where, frankly, they can manage without this.
3. Minimum wage - agreed. Good thing. Anything to reduce the perversity of the current system where people are actually better off lounging about the house on benefits and watching daytime TV than working in a paid job.
4. Global recession - nope - two countries hardest hit, and last out of recession, were UK and USA. Both had housing bubbles which popped when the supply of cheap (i.e. low interest rate) money ran out. The Labour government only practised one side of the Keynesian economic theory - the spend part. They forgot about the "put money aside during the good times" part.
5. Different path for the Tories? Coulda woulda shoulda. In the current climate, with Bankers not contrite and still picking up huge bonuses, who is to say that the Tories idea of letting a couple of mortgage banks and brokerage houses go to the wall would not have been a better option? Guarantees were already in place long before this to protect mortgage holders and depositors, so they wouldn't have lost out even if the bank went bust.
6. PR in labour's manifesto? http://www2.labour.org.uk/uploads/TheLabourPartyManifesto-2010.pdf - Sure, right down near the end. A single sentence. No further detail. <sarcasm> Yep, they're sure dedicated to PR. </sarcasm> Funny how PR wasn't anywhere on their list of priorities these last 3 general elections where they got thumping majorities.
In fact, if you look at Labour's manifesto, it is full of things they were promising to do back in 1997, like abolish the heredity principle in the House of Lords. So what, precisely, have they been fucking doing these last 13 years?
This is the single biggest indictment of Labour - they've had 3 general election victories, with 3 huge majorities each time, and could have rammed through legislation to really deal with poverty, illiteracy, etc etc if they'd wanted to. But they didn't. And now, when they're on the brink of being tossed out of power, they suddenly want people to believe they'll start paying attention to the voters again?
Give me a break!
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Thats normal in a democraty. In germany its normal and not the exception, that no party has 50% or more
I don't remember _any_ party living up to its electioneering promises. I think the big corporations have too much influence on government once they get in power. What other reason can we be in this shit after every election? Could it be that politics is a career and that people behind the scenes are really pulling the strings?
dead on, it's exactly the same in canada, both for federal and provincial elections (at least in quebec)
people have no faith in the system and most of those who vote end up voting for someone they don't really believe in, just so someone they hate MORE doesn't win the election...
that system's broken imo...
but meh it's better than com*cough*FAIL*cough*munism
News Just In
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