Why is this man the president?

[badass]

So what else is someone that refuses to vote for any Labour, Tory or Lib dem politician supposed to do when they cant vote for the monster raving loony party?

Easy - if they think they have any of the answers they should stand themselves as an independent.

OTOH if they just want to whine and moan about how poorly represented they are but know full well they have nothing at all to contribute themselves, they should just STFU, stay in, and watch Trisha instead. Voting isn't compulsory in this country (if it was, we'd probably have a MRLP majority).

Riiiiiiiight.
So, the only choices we in this country we have according to you are vote for a party we hate or stand up as an independant.
Anything else and we are not allowed to complain about what the gov't are doing to this country.

Secondly, WHAT PLANET ARE YOU ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
You do know that every candidate has to put up several thousand pounds to stand for election, only refundable if they get a decent percentage of the vote. Oh and of course there's the huge effort of canvassing, arranging and paying for the Campaign etc.
How utterly, utterly ridiculous.

Pay a fortune, or vote for someone you dont want to see in power or be censored. That sounds like what Labour are trying to achieve TBH. Dod you vote for them last election per chance?

[badass]

Very much agreed. I've mentioned this before but my mum works for the NHS. They bought her a nice shiney new PC, then left it boxed for nearly 3 years before setting it up for her! No-one else was allowed to touch it but the technicians, so she couldn't even get it done herself. Nice one Tony.




Edit: by "new PC" I mean it was brand new and she didn't have one previously, or one to use until 3 years after purchase.

My mum does too. I hear lots about wastage in the NHS and this completely target obsessed government's incompetance costing money and lives.

[JPreston]

....
Secondly, WHAT PLANET ARE YOU ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
You do know that every candidate has to put up several thousand pounds to stand for election, only refundable if they get a decent percentage of the vote. Oh and of course there's the huge effort of canvassing, arranging and paying for the Campaign etc.
How utterly, utterly ridiculous.
...

Yes I do know that, thanks.

Sorry if it's all too much effort for you as well. Perhaps you should start the 'CBA Party' for people who CBA forming a political opinion of their own but would rather complain endlessly about what everyone is doing/proposing, although on second thoughts maybe not as I imagine most people who think your way actually CBA getting up and voting anyway.

You keep your deposit if you poll 5% of the votes cast. That's not a "decent percentage" () but rather is a very, very low bar set to discourage thousands of cranks and loners from standing for every elected office.

If you truly cannot find a single candidate who broadly represents your beliefs and interests out of the many who actually stand in your constituency, NOR could you convince even 5% of those people who actually can be bothered to vote that you have anything to offer public office then maybe you should ask yourself "what planet you are on"?

[badass]

Yes I do know that, thanks.

Sorry if it's all too much effort for you as well. Perhaps you should start the 'CBA Party' for people who CBA forming a political opinion of their own but would rather complain endlessly about what everyone is doing/proposing, although on second thoughts maybe not as I imagine most people who think your way actually CBA getting up and voting anyway.

You keep your deposit if you poll 5% of the votes cast. That's not a "decent percentage" () but rather is a very, very low bar set to discourage thousands of cranks and loners from standing for every elected office.

If you truly cannot find a single candidate who broadly represents your beliefs and interests out of the many who actually stand in your constituency, NOR could you convince even 5% of those people who actually can be bothered to vote that you have anything to offer public office then maybe you should ask yourself "what planet you are on"?

OMG you are actually serious.
You have just confirmed you believe that those that don't vote and dont put up thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours of work have no right to complain about what the government are doing.
God help us all if you ever get in any position of power.

[JPreston]

Can you actually read?

You do realise there are normally candidates belonging to parties other than Labour on a typical ballot?

Then do you understand why your post above is total garbage?

All I have said is that it's risible to write 'none of the above' on a ballot paper because a) none of the candidates (or anyone else) gives a flying monkeys if you do and b) all it shows is that you are unable to form an opinion on any issue at all. Go ahead and complain all you want about the govt, or the opposition, or UKIP separately but if you don't have the courage of your convictions to stand with any of the candidates on the bulk of the issues (or stand yourself) then your uniform whining just becomes irrelevant white noise. Cynicism isn't big or clever, you know, and even less so when you can't even choose a particular direction for it.

To be honest I'm not surprised that you say no politician speaks for you, because you don't make any sense at all. Maybe when you can articulate an opinion on current issues you'll take more of an interest in politics, until then let's agree that neither of us want you to pollute any ballot with your vote in case by some stochastical quirk it should affect the outcome in any meaningful way.

[b0redom]

I've always voted Labour but think I'm voting Lib Dem next time, I agree with practically all their policies and simply cannot countenance the govt's National Identity Register plans. But if necessary I'd still vote Labour, to keep the Tories out - sadly without PR that's the situation in lots of constituencies.

I broadly agree here, the current problem in government is that there is no competition in politics today.

I agree with things like free education, a decent NHS etc, but the only people who are now proposing them are the Lib Dems - and they have no chance of being the majority party, so can promise whatever they like.

TBH all of the recent opposition candidates for the past few years have seemed completely vacuous to me.

I also agree sitting and whining about 'rip-off Britain' and how rubbish the government is pointless. If you hate it so much - do something about it or go live somewhere else....

[dannyboy83]

Could be worse, it's looking more and more like the SNP are gonna win up here in Scotland and mess things up.

[Mossy]

Lets put it simpley here from someone who doesnt really follow political views this is how I see it.

1) Liberal Dem's - Good policys but never seem to be able to actually materialise

2) Conservatives - as the first part of the name suggests (CONS) like to pull the wool over your eyes although J Major was funny in spitting Image.

3) Labour - better than the cons policys are better but like most full of false promises

I don't advertise I know anything about this, I don't but if you ask me they are all as bad as each other, I voted once and that was because I could (18) Voted Labour cause Red my favourite colour

[Rave]

I have an equally long list of things the govt have done wrong in ten years. But, just to pick some small holes in your list (cos that's what the internet is for): inflation is at 3% because of a Q2 2006 jump in oil prices....this will fall out of the year-on-year comparative so we will hear about a lower headline rate (but still higher prices) shortly.

We will, will we? We might, but I wouldn't say that it's a given by any means. CPI was actually 3.1% last month BTW- and RPI was 4.8%. RPI is a truer reflection of 'real life' inflation as it includes housing costs (including mortgage payments). As I understand it, it's no longer used as the MPC's target because increasing interest rates automatically increases the RPI, which would cause a slight positive feedback effect if it were the target.

Both the CPI and RPI baskets are, IMO, unrealistically skewed towards consumer goods (electronics etc.), which have decreased in price as technology improves and the pound strengthens against other countries. If the pound were to weaken it'd put a serious upward spike into the figures. The cost of some of the items in the basket went up by as much as 10% in March compared to a year ago.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=19
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport...fect_over.html

House price slump; maybe, maybe not (please nobody look in a mirror and say "Rave, Rave, Rave"....).

<shrugs> The house price bubble is simply the effect of cheap credit and lax lending practises- and investor sentiment after the pensions debacle/ tech stock bust of the early 2000s. With the benefit of hindsight it was eminently predictable. And, whaddyaknow, we have the benefit of hindsight right back to the early 90s, so it really isn't hard to figure out what comes next.

edit: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...tdE&refer=home

I don't believe I've ever started a thread about house prices- and I'm pretty sure I've kept my counsel in all the 'I've just bought a house' threads too. I just think it's important to provide a counterpoint to all the "You can't lose with Bricks and Mortar! Safe as houses! Property only ever goes up!" merchants in the 'I want to buy a house' threads. Nobody ever fell into negative equity/ got reposessed/ went bankrupt because they didn't buy a house.....

Oh yeah - I forgot about privatisation of the railways, water companies, gas and electircity boards etc as other examples of how the tories pulled our pants down and we still can't sit comfortably to this day as a result.

Yes, and NL have had 10 years to sort out the problems. Not only have they not sorted them out, they have in pretty much every case compounded them. After endless bailouts they finally lost patience with Railtrack and effectively renationalised them- but then they continued to hand out franchises to companies that allow them to charge more money for a poorer service, they did nothing about the absurd train leasing system, they've done little to encourage greater integration of public transport systems etc. etc.

They could easily have put in place a national water grid that would allow competition between providers a la gas and electricity, but instead the toothless regulator ofwat allows the regional monopolies to charge whatever they like, and more or less do whatever they like- I'm lucky enough to get my water from Thames Water, with their love of pouring untreated sewage into the Thames and banning hosepipes while they pour 40% of their water back into the ground.

Simply, while it may have been an excuse at the 2001 election to say that a particular problem was inherited from the Tories, it isn't any more. They have had more than enough time to sort the problems out, particularly given the massive increases in government spending since then. We now have a higher taxation rate as a percentage of GDP than Germany; we have nothing like their public infrastructure to show for it.

Plus the high unemployment we had then....today, we have practically full employment and basically every documented worker can choose between a few jobs that pay at least &#163;5.35 p/h. Better than nothing...

Again, so you say. In practice, it often isn't better than nothing- I should know, I've been there. When I was unemployed I would have been worse off working for &#163;5.35 p/h than I was sat on my arse at home claiming dole and housing benefit. As a result, I stayed unemployed until I could find a job that would actually make it worth my while working- at least &#163;7.50 p/h in other words. Round here, you cannot easily walk into a job that pays &#163;7.50. I probably could have got another junior office job, and in the end I became a trainee bus driver, but neither of those options would have been open to someone with no GCSEs and no driving licence. I daresay that in my case the situation is a bit skewed because I live in London with its silly housing costs, but it's still absurd to have a situation where working would make you worse off.

[GeorgeTuk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwisQkmpqmQ&NR=1

Remind you of anyone?

Drifting away from the political mire this thread has sunken into...I think he has done alright there. I mean come on its only a bit of fun, surely everyone is allowed that!

Does it affect his ability to be President? No.

[badass]

Can you actually read?

You do realise there are normally candidates belonging to parties other than Labour on a typical ballot?

Then do you understand why your post above is total garbage?

All I have said is that it's risible to write 'none of the above' on a ballot paper because a) none of the candidates (or anyone else) gives a flying monkeys if you do and b) all it shows is that you are unable to form an opinion on any issue at all. Go ahead and complain all you want about the govt, or the opposition, or UKIP separately but if you don't have the courage of your convictions to stand with any of the candidates on the bulk of the issues (or stand yourself) then your uniform whining just becomes irrelevant white noise. Cynicism isn't big or clever, you know, and even less so when you can't even choose a particular direction for it.

To be honest I'm not surprised that you say no politician speaks for you, because you don't make any sense at all. Maybe when you can articulate an opinion on current issues you'll take more of an interest in politics, until then let's agree that neither of us want you to pollute any ballot with your vote in case by some stochastical quirk it should affect the outcome in any meaningful way.

You are clearly on the wind up or being completely foolish.
Either way, intelligent discussion in this particular area is wasted with you.

[JPreston]

Could be worse, it's looking more and more like the SNP are gonna win up here in Scotland and mess things up.

Funny situation that, naturally us on the mainland want the wall to go back up to save our £12bn in subsidies but of course Labour wants the votes...

I think it's funny how (apparently) otherwise sensible Scotch people argue that devolution would benefit Scotland - as if you would have any more control over your oil and gas than the people of the Niger River delta do

[JPreston]

.....

(I knew this was inevitable, as though the thread wasn't OT enough now you'll give me your regular economic review and maybe I'll tell you how to drive a bus )

...
Yes, and NL have had 10 years to sort out the problems...

Do you seriously expect Labour to have re-nationalised the water companies, railways, and all the other non-competitive commodities that we previously collectively owned until the Tories sold them off? Where in the world has such a programme been undertaken? Hugo Chavez threatened to nationalise some oil fields but IIRC didn't, Robert Mugabe has nationalised lots of things (I don't think that has worked out so well though) but that's about it. FWIW the only political party idealistic/naive enough to include nationalisation of the water companies in their manifesto is the BNP - draw your conclusion whether that indicates it's a feasible proposal or not

...They could easily have put in place a national water grid ....

SOLD - not the govt's infrastructure any more....

...I'm lucky enough to get my water from Thames Water, with their love of pouring untreated sewage into the Thames and banning hosepipes while they pour 40% of their water back into the ground...

I agree with your sentiment but OTOH who'd be first to complain if Thames Water dug up the whole of London to replace their 100 year old porcelain pipes?

......When I was unemployed I would have been worse off working for £5.35 p/h than I was sat on my arse at home claiming dole and housing benefit. As a result, I stayed unemployed until I could find a job that would actually make it worth my while working....

Yes I was going to say something to the effect that the only people who are unemployed are those who can't be arsed to get a job but realised that would make me sound like Norman Tebbit - generally, that is a Very Bad Thing. Undoubtedly something needs to be done about people like you, you goddamn freeloader ( ) but that doesn't change the fact that we essentially have full employment and a mandatory minimum wage.

Under the Tories you would have had jack-all benefits and had to have taken a job sweeping chimneys for £2 ph and then maybe you'd have a right to complain - as it is you've directly benefited from one of Labour's few left-wing policies and had no problem working the system for your own benefit so shouldn't really grumble about it now. "Damn you Tony Blair! You pay me more to sit on my arse than I can earn in the free labour-market, even though you've stacked that in my favour too by introducing a minimum wage! Now I'll be unemployed for life, because you have the nerve to support me to a higher level than I could provide for myself and will never require me to work a day in my life*!"






* To reassure readers of the Torygraph or Daily Heil before they become apoplectic, Rave would in fact eventually have been required to work.

[JPreston]

You are clearly on the wind up or being completely foolish.
Either way, intelligent discussion in this particular area is wasted with you.

OK you've convinced me.

Politishuns all suck they are all the same lolz stupid Tony bLIAR they don't affect me anyway. ITS BORING!!!1!1!

[dannyboy83]

Funny situation that, naturally us on the mainland want the wall to go back up to save our £12bn in subsidies but of course Labour wants the votes...

I think it's funny how (apparently) otherwise sensible Scotch people argue that devolution would benefit Scotland - as if you would have any more control over your oil and gas than the people of the Niger River delta do

I quite agree and the thought of Alex Salmond as First Minister, and possibly "President of an independent Scotland" is quite scary. The problem is that there is a lot of resentment of Tony Blair and Jack McConnell, which could let the SNP in.

[mcmiller]

You are clearly on the wind up or being completely foolish.
Either way, intelligent discussion in this particular area is wasted with you.

aint that the truth he clearly has no idea how local and government politics work, any of the partys policys, what changes labour have made, he obviously has no hands on experience of what happens he just shouts and screams about how awful the tories are typical labour behaviour and most of the facts he uses are pulled from a newspaper please get off your soap box and try having an intelligent debate.

Edit: are you going to try and insult me by writing crap like this as well as it seems thats what you do when someone doesnt agree with you

Politishuns all suck they are all the same lolz stupid Tony bLIAR they don't affect me anyway. ITS BORING!!!1!1!

i am curious how old you after you wrote that garbage