General Election 2010 Thread

[hicskis]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

This link is why i say "Vote For None of The Above" - The UK system is a disgrace and it is time that people stand up to that. This is an absurd and ridiculous waste of public money. It is us the taxpayers that are paying for this atrocity.

I suppose the election manefestos will be seeking a rise in taxes to pay for this scandalous outrage. One of these is a Lord for christ sake.

MPs' expenses: Politicians granted legal aid


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...legal-aid.html

[natweststaffmember]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I have just heard David "JFK" Cameron speaking at the launch of his manifesto. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"(it was very very similar).

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I'm having trouble comparing the manifesto's they all seem to blur into one.

When oh when are we going to get a party with the balls to promise something truly radical and stick to it ?

[scottishlass]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Also sorry to ask, who voted SNP, I would just like to see what views of theirs you share, i read them and thought...mhmm

Since you asked it was me, not really into all this political stuff as I don't trust any of them.

Here are a couple of reasons I chose the SNP candidate for this area Banff and Buchan as they are promising to save rural jobs,put more police on the streets and cut the price of petrol, not to cut local services ( of which have been hit hard already with all the cut backs, as I live in a rural location this is all important to me, a car is a nessesity not a luxery here, at one time in this village there was 40 + shops now there are 4, the Bank is only open one morning and one afternoon per week.

I am sure I should read more on the subject and will, I might even change my mind will get back to you

SL xxx

[EXC]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Gordon Brown has finally admitted that as Chancellor, bringing in 'soft touch' banking regulation (for 'soft touch' read 'no touch') was a mistake and that he did it because "In the 1990s, the banks, they all came to us and said, 'Look, we don't want to be regulated, we want to be free of regulation'."

Head in hands.


BBC News - Brown admits he made a mistake over bank regulation

Brown admits he made a mistake over bank regulation


Mr Brown said he had learned from his mistakes

Gordon Brown has admitted he made a mistake in not introducing tougher bank regulation when he was chancellor.
The PM, chancellor from 1997 to 2007, said that in the 1990s the banks had all been calling for less regulation.
"And actually the truth is that globally and nationally we should have been regulating them more," he said in an interview on ITV1's Tonight.
He said he should have put the "whole public interest" before the banks but had "learnt" from the experience.
'Complaints'
Mr Brown said: "In the 1990s, the banks, they all came to us and said, 'Look, we don't want to be regulated, we want to be free of regulation'."


"All the complaints I was getting from people was, 'Look you're regulating them too much'. And actually the truth is that globally and nationally we should have been regulating them more," he added. "So I've learnt from that. So you don't listen to the industry when they say, 'This is good for us'. You've got to talk about the whole public interest." Mr Brown also admitted, as he has done previously, that the decision to scrap the 10 pence rate of tax had been a mistake. He said: "I've learnt a lot from that, I learn all the time."


But the prime minister said it is the situation in Afghanistan that keeps him awake at night.
He told ITV: "I've been very worried about what's happening in Afghanistan because we've got to make very difficult decisions and every time you make a decision about troop deployments with generals, you've got to bear in mind that these are decisions about people's lives."
He also said he hoped he did not intimidate people.
"I hope I'm not intimidating, I hope I am the opposite, I hope I am willing to listen and willing to learn. And then I'll go back and I'll make up my mind and say 'this is what we do now'."
Mr Brown added: "I think I'd like people to know that I was compassionate, because I do feel strongly about children in particular... I'd like to be known as a children's champion."
But he also acknowledged that he is "not so good" at the PR side of politics.

[ThunderBird]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

As Chancellor of the Exchequer* when these decisions were made - then this error of judgement by Gordon Brown was a "spectacular mistake".


*The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters.

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Mr Brown added: "I think I'd like people to know that I was compassionate, because I do feel strongly about children in particular... I'd like to be known as a children's champion."

Great so when he's out of a job in a few weeks time, he can apply to be on Rainbow along with the other misfits.

Hmmmmmmm ok so who's going to be Jeffrey, Zippy, George or Bungle ?

[Guest]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Is the Labour Party paying for this, or is the mug taxpayer picking up the tab once again for this contrived, stage-managed tosh?

Gordon Brown made many mistakes during this time as Chancellor and since as Prime Minister, why just pick on this one? What about the sale of our gold for example, just before gold tripled in value, or his mistakes over immigration that has led to the rise in popularity of the BNP, or the massive tax credits fiasco, the £10,000 corporation tax threshold, then there was failing to spot the housing bubble after so much boasting about ending boom and bust, the 50% tax rate, cutting vat for just one year, the mistakes over ID cards, inflating the enormous debt bubble, destroying pension schemes with his stealth tax on dividend payments, his tripartite financial regulation, the massive PFI off-balance-sheet debts, increasing the tax burden through fiscal drag, creating the biggest trade deficit in over a decade, pricing hundreds of thousands of people out of owning their own home, his mistake over the 10p tax rate – when incidentally, back in April 2008 he told the toadying BBC he was "listening" and "learning" as prime minister. Good to know he is still learning then. Does he imagine holding the highest political office in the country is some kind of training position?

Then we come to the military. Brown lied to the Chilcot inquiry when he stated that defence spending had increased every year. This was not true. Gordon Brown lied to and misled the British people, Parliament and the Iraq Inquiry. Despite what his PR minder has advised him to say, he does not care for soldiers, or their lives, or what the often brutal ending of those lives means for the families left behind.

[PocketTheDifference]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Im glad you posted becuase i was going to...the part that tickled me was, I quote

""All the complaints I was getting from people was, 'Look you're regulating them too much'. And actually the truth is that globally and nationally we should have been regulating them more," he added."

To me that just screems that his cabinet or whoever, is giving him BAD advice!! And he took it like a gulable ....PM

[Jester]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Well, if you want the Banks to have even more power to screw over the little people like us then go ahead and vote Conservative - because the banks are the ones who stand most to gain from a Tory Government. Many Tory MP's have been found to have links to the Banks and indeed many of the Tory backers just happen to be rich fat-cat bankers.

Someone mentioned Margaret Thatcher's "successes" in the 80's.

DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH

The Tories (under MT) systematically raped this country of all of it's manufacturing capability. They privatised the Railways (what an inspired decision that was), the Water Companies (who now make huge huge profits for doing f*** all), the electricity and Gas companies (hence why we now have the highest utility bills in Europe) and just about anything else that moved.

The death of manufacturing under the Tories is why we now have to import foreign skilled workers, because we no longer have skilled workers who came through the system from apprenticeships.

Someone mentioned the miners. Well, coming from a village that only existsed because of the mines, I am well placed to see the decimation and misery caused by thge Tories in the 80's. 90% of the population of the village suddenly became unemployed because of the greed of the Tories - many never to ever work again. The Tory solution, to replace such vast industry with 'Call Centres' and 'Elecronics Firms'. All paying a pittance in salary and something we are stil paying for in Wales to this day. The vast majority of the Welsh population live an abject poverty because of the poor wages paid here.

A word on the so-called 'cheap' coal that came from Poland and South Africa. The only reason it was cheaper was because of the failure to invest in the Collieries we had here. Welsh coal was, and still is, the best quality coal in the world. We won two World Wars on the back of it and industrialised the whole world. I always said that once those countries realised what they were sitting on then they would make hay in much the same way as Arabs did with the oil, by putting up the prices. Now we have the situation where companies are seriously considering sinking new mines to tap into the coal reserves we have because it is cheaper than bringing it in from abroad. If the UK Collieries were so unprofitable, then how come Tower Colliery has thrived since the miners brought it off British Coal with their redundancy money way back in the 80's ?

The USA did not close it's coal mines in favour of foreign imports and they still reap the benefits of that with cheap (compared to ours) energy.

Labour's record since being in power is no great shakes, but they did not create the great mess this country is in on their own. The reason we all struggle to pay our energy, utility bills and have to travel on overcrowded trains that we have paid almost as much as a transatlantic airline ticket for, is down to Tory policies when they were in power in the 80's.

Anyone taken in by David Cameron's smug lies are the type people who are easily parted from their money by confidence tricksters. Because that is all I see when I listen to David Cameron - a con-man - all talk and no substance.

Personally, I find the interesting comments coming from the Lib-Dems. Never thought of voting for them before, but could be persuaded this time. I actually like what Vince Cable has been saying and, in the event of a hung parliament, would think that he could be a plausible candidate for Chancellor. At least he has stated that he wants to bring the Banks to task for example.

Just as a footnote, despite being extremely patriotically Welsh (and Welsh-speaking), I would NEVER vote for Plaid Cymru. Whilst I do like much of what they say they would like to achieve for Wales, I still have bad memories of working for a Local Authority that was under PC control back in the late-80's/early 90's. I saw first hand what a money grabbing bunch of liars they are (seems to be a common political trait) and the underhand way they went about their business. I could never vote for them for that very reason (still tickles me when I was approached by a PC canvasser in Cardiff one day many moons ago who, when I started talking to him in Welsh, had to admit that he couldn't speak the language !!).

Sorry for the long winded rant, but anyone bigging up the Tories (as I have seen on this thread) will instantly get my back up. It is not without reason that very few Tories are ever elected in Wales. I still recall a banner on a bridge (when the Tories were in power yet had next to no Welsh seats), that said simply 'Wales is ruled by a government it did not elect' !!

I want to know why the common man gets fired for screwing up in his job, yet Margaret Thatcher got a peerage for screwing up in hers !!

[Guest]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Baroness Margaret Thatcher has not been Prime Minister since 1990 and the Conservatives have not been in power since 1997 - you do know how long ago that is, don't you?

Nobody gets cheap coal by investing in collieries, but we do get expensive coal by allowing unions to hold the country to ransom over miners pay, in particular when those miners were among the highest paid manual workers in the country.

You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts and the facts are that Labour inherited a thriving, growing economy with a £19billion surplus. The Conservatives, under Kenneth Clarke had secured our economy and set the fiscal policies. Labour have destroyed all of that and left our country bankrupt.

The country went from a £19billion surplus in 1997 to £23billion debt in 2004, £36billion debt in 2005, £46 billion debt in 2007, £90billion dept in 2008 and £167billion debt in 2010. Our gross national debt is £1.4trillion. It costs the British taxpayer £60billion a year just to service the interest on this debt. Had Gordon Brown stayed with the policies he inherited, which incidentally he did for the first four years, right up until he sold our gold for a third of its value, things may have been different. If the Conservative policies were so bad, why stick with them for four years?

Come to think if it, Labour have had thirteen years to fix all these things you say are the fault of the Conservatives, so why haven't they?

As for your rich and poor comments, the Government's own report confirms that the divide between rich and poor is greater after thirteen years of Labour rule than at any time since the Second World War Again, they have had thirteen years, yet have still failed to address this.

Blaming a Government from two decades ago for problems you see today is plainly ridiculous.

Finally, as for Vince "20:20 hindsight vision" Cable, that is risible. This is a man who made his name with a plagiarised joke about Gordon Brown and has done little since. Anyone can "predict" a disaster eighteen months after it happens and as for bringing the banks to task, what about everyone else who gets a fat bonus for doing nothing? The UK Border Agency for example, or the civilians within the MOD, or what about footballers? They get paid more than ten times in a week, what a private soldier fighting in Afghanistan earns in a year. Picking on the banks is populist drivel, as is blaming Baroness Thatcher and the previous Conservative administration for what Labour has done to the country.

They do it every time, see post #18.

[Jester]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Miners were the highest paid manual workers for a reason - it was DANGEROUS job.

Mining communities were particularly close for the very reason that the man they lived next door to, went to the pub with, even went on holiday with, and worked with, was the person who might be saving their life on the next shift.

What I do recall of the so-called 'wonderful' Tory Government Years was that when they left power we had more than 3 million unemployed, high interest rates and inflation wildly out of control. Whilst the gap between rich and poor widening in the intervening Labour years is indeed an indictment of the way that has been allowed to spiral out of control, I would still maintain that the privatisation of the utility companies, railways, telecomms etc etc are largely to blame for that. Most of the people heading those organisations now earn a ridiculously inflated sum of money that their predecessors (pre-privatisation) earned only a tiny fraction of. That's where the gap has increased. But we are not the only country where that has happened.

Anyway, if you read my previous post, I was not defending the Labour Government, merely pointing out that they are as bad as the previous 13 years of Tory officialdom. I don't want either of them in power.

It's a matter of perpsective from where you live / which part of society you come from. But the Tory party would never get my vote no matter what they said as they are only in it for the affluent in this society.

Labour was originally set up to protect the interests of the working man and they are far from the same party now.

As for your comments on Vince Cable, are you seriously suggesting George Osborne is any better ? For all his supposed education, his maths are appalling !!


And yes, I do know how long ago it was that the Tories were in power. It will be forever etched in my mind going to School each morning passing the lines of pickets outside the local mine. As it will be forever etched in my mind the hardship they went through. Whilst I didn't agree with what Scargill did, he was absolutely spot on with what was going to happen.

Feelings still run very high here in South Wales in regard to what the Tories did when they were in power and Wales will not help put another Tory government in power. In fact, were the Tories to get in power again then it would, in my view, merely strengthen the argument of the Nationalists for Wales to have it's own parliament and eventual separation from the UK.

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Can someone please explain to me why it is when we are supposed to be a UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN that in England we pay £7 odd for a prescription, in Scotland they pay around £4 and in Wales and N Ireland they pay zilch.

Thats hardly fair is it.

and I bet my bottom dollar there's other examples of injustice between the nations too, am I right in thinking in England there's University Fees and in Scotland its free ?

[PocketTheDifference]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Unfortunatly gotta agree with Jester, Being from Wales and a welsh speaker also, but from the Norther end, and if you lived in wales you woudl really see the differance to what it is living in England as i do so now. - Also in agreement with some of points raised against the tories and Margret Thatcher unfortunatley.

I don't need preeching to about her though - I've done my research. And although some things have made me want to vote tories I don't think i Will be - Plaid Cymru I fi boyo!

[PocketTheDifference]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Getting awefully tempet by the lib dems more and more i read on - i.e

"
Implement Calman Commission recommendations to give more power to the Scottish Parliament and turn Welsh Assembly into true parliament, with greater powers to pass laws
Review funding of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments and "address status" of England within UK "