Scotty Mac
New member
- Jul 13, 2003
- 24,405
agreed - the fact that the ruling party can call an election at anytime, namely when they are popular with the electorate, is a major flaw in the system
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Brown Bottles It
- Thread starter Beach Hut
- Start date
agreed - the fact that the ruling party can call an election at anytime, namely when they are popular with the electorate, is a major flaw in the system
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
I was a Labour party member but ripped up my membership card 6 months after the election in 1997 when I realised that once in power , nothing radical was ever going to happen and things would stay the same. Statistics and bureaucracy and political spin and targets and Iraq and Blair browntongueing Bush. No wonder people show a disinterest in politics.
NMH
Banned
Clearly NOT BOTHERED by Tory spin and bullshit.
Forget it tories, you would be better off voting libdem, or raving loony party.
This sort of sorry leadership and cartoon character political behavior can only be doing the Green Party a power of good.
Forget it tories, you would be better off voting libdem, or raving loony party.
This sort of sorry leadership and cartoon character political behavior can only be doing the Green Party a power of good.
ben andrews' girlfriend
Nurse Laura
Whats the point of calling an election at the moment anyway?!
Nemesis
SERIOUSLY!
Cameron needs to remember exactly who is Prime Minister, as that person is the one who calls an election-not the leader of the opposition.
Why should Brown call an election now? He doesn't have to and to say he bottled it shows just how pathetic Cameron is. Did he really expect Brown to say "The tory leader has told me that the country should go to the polls in November because he would like it to-so it will."?
Why should Brown call an election now? He doesn't have to and to say he bottled it shows just how pathetic Cameron is. Did he really expect Brown to say "The tory leader has told me that the country should go to the polls in November because he would like it to-so it will."?
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Yep. It's only the tories thinking that Brown's pooper went. Not the SNP, BBC, Lib Dems, Sky News.
Don't forget that it was Brown's team that were talking it up - not the Tories. Labour were supposedly recruiting an election team, were merely waiting for the polls, blah, blah.
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
Hang on talk about completely changing the facts, BROWN stoked all this up by pissing around saying he may call an election not Cameron, have you been on Mars for the last 2 weeks
Nemesis
SERIOUSLY!
I think it is you who needs to look at the facts-I believe what Brown said was that he refused to rule out an autumn election: repeatedly. That is different to saying he may call an election. Isn't it? I cannot find one quote where Brown said "I may call an election" and to be honest I can't be bothered looking anymore.
Brown is surely well aware of the possibility, in which case I'm sure he'd be quite happy to let Cameron handle the problem.
Freddie Goodwin.
Well-known member
It's strange that people can fall for one week of Tory tub thumping. What exactly has happened in that week? We've seen with the Lib Dems that it's easy to put the World to right when you are only talking about what you would do, much much harder when the talking stops.
I think the Tories are still a long way off but things do turn full circle with the years. Many of us will remember when labour were unelectable, but their time will come. Many youngsters grew up under Thatcher waiting to vote her out, those growing up under labour will probably be looking for change too.
I think Brown should have gone for an early election because i don't believe the Tories are ready. He handed out the bait and they took it, but i bet they are relieved that there's no election yet.
Brown is on a high right now but things go wrong in politics. There's growing unrest in the public sector and growing opposition to how our armed forces are being used. What if things escalate in Iran?
If things go wrong then he may well regret not having an election now.
I think the Tories are still a long way off but things do turn full circle with the years. Many of us will remember when labour were unelectable, but their time will come. Many youngsters grew up under Thatcher waiting to vote her out, those growing up under labour will probably be looking for change too.
I think Brown should have gone for an early election because i don't believe the Tories are ready. He handed out the bait and they took it, but i bet they are relieved that there's no election yet.
Brown is on a high right now but things go wrong in politics. There's growing unrest in the public sector and growing opposition to how our armed forces are being used. What if things escalate in Iran?
If things go wrong then he may well regret not having an election now.
Thing is...how can he prove what he'll do if it's all soundbites and no actual signs of policy impact.
Really he'd just be getting judged on the Blair legacy...which is far from preferable in their eyes I guess.
As well as that, all these opinion polls in conference time are stupid. Each party had a chance to put their platform out without the oppositon having an immediate right to reply, the result,(lib dems aside because they are a bunch of jokers at the mo), both widely increase their poll numbers.
The papers(across all spectrums) are way off the mark with all this, IMO, they are simply over stating things. The polls are little different than they were pre conference time, it's just they've made a big thing of huge brief fluctuations.
Really he'd just be getting judged on the Blair legacy...which is far from preferable in their eyes I guess.
As well as that, all these opinion polls in conference time are stupid. Each party had a chance to put their platform out without the oppositon having an immediate right to reply, the result,(lib dems aside because they are a bunch of jokers at the mo), both widely increase their poll numbers.
The papers(across all spectrums) are way off the mark with all this, IMO, they are simply over stating things. The polls are little different than they were pre conference time, it's just they've made a big thing of huge brief fluctuations.
The Large One
Who's Next?
What? You're making it up. He said no such thing. This is the first time he has directly talked about the election.
Cameron wanted an election. Brown wouldn't give him one - as it were. Now he's accusing him of being 'indecisive'. You end up thinking 'you what'? Brown only made one statement on this, and it was the decision that he said he's not going to the country. You can't get much more decisive than that. All the rest of it was media-led bullshit, gullibly swallowed up by far too many.
The real apparent reason is obviously the polls didn't look too good for Brown, but then, so what? It's two years into a term of office and it rarely does for any government then.
When the dust settles, what you'll find actually has happened is that Cameron has been suckered into revealing what scant hard policies his party actually had. He could have kept quiet, and issued his party's politics once the election had been called. But he couldn't resist it. It was a game of brinksmanship - Brown played the media off against the Tories, and in the end, Cameron blinked.
That, to me, is very FAR from a sign of weakness within the PM's thinking.
Cameron may believe he has won the battle - especially given the headlines - but Brown has won the war. How? He is still PM, at least for another two years, and there is nothing Cameron can do about it. But that's politics for you.
Very true, some polls gave the SDP/Alliance 50% during 1981/2 pre Falklands etc.
And I seem to recall around 02/03(IDS Era), the Lib Dems were on the mid 30's a fair way ahead of the Tories.
Mellor 3 Ward 4
Well-known member
What complete and utter drivel.
Brown wanted an early election, and has now decided that as he might just lose it he'll not bother.
IMO it should not be up to the PM when an election is called, just set a date for every 4 years. (or even 5 but my preference would be 4)
Therefore unless there is a vote of no confidence we all know where we stand.
I don't thint the Tories wanted an election either, but they called Brown's bluff, and it worked. He is now seen as weak, and damaged - add this to the 'double hospital opening' shambles and the awful fiddling of the Iraq toop figures and he's had a preety crap 10 days or so.
dougdeep
New member
Anyway I said it will go full term so Yaboo!
Is the correct answer. I'm not convinced that he ever was going to call an election anyway. He doesn't strike me as the kind of man that would risk what he sees as a possible 'place in history' for a gamble which could make him a footnote in history.
Cameron has definitely come out on top though - he probably knew that Brown would never call an election and he's exploited it.
To me this whole sorry episode sum up politics today - it's all about point scoring, it has very little to do with anything of any substance.
Dandyman
In London village.
Would you care to quantify a hell of a lot? She was only ever supported by a minority, mainly composed of the greedy and the brainless.
Mellor 3 Ward 4
Well-known member
Not quite sure what you mean there. I seem to remember her winning more than one General Election - how can that be the minority?
She took an Country that was on its knees and being run by a few Union leaders and turned it around. Painful for some yes, but have you seen the Labour Party even try to reverse the majority of what she did?