General Election 2015

[Titanic]

Ha ha ha ha. April fooooooool! Nice one mate, you almost caught me.

It does seem unbelievable, doesn't it? Those nasty Tories seem to have the momentum. Tomorrow nights debacle might be fun

 

[melias shoes]

Ha ha ha ha. April fooooooool! Nice one mate, you almost caught me.

I think it's a case of choosing to ignore.

 

[yxee]

well he's got to make up some money from somewhere, the 50% top rate will raise about £1-2bn, same for the mansion tax. £90bn deficit to be reduced, even if he doesnt care to cut it all, where's the taxes going to be raised?

Why should I pay for the extravagances of the previous generation?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I think it's a case of choosing to ignore.

I see Lord Ashcroft has resigned his place in the Lords. I wonder if he will go back to meddling with British politics whilst being a non-dom non-tax payer?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

well he's got to make up some money from somewhere, the 50% top rate will raise about £1-2bn, same for the mansion tax. £90bn deficit to be reduced, even if he doesnt care to cut it all, where's the taxes going to be raised?

By creating proper tax paying jobs and stopping loopholes which certain corps abuse?

 

[Chicken Run]

http://media.skynews.com/media/imag...efault/v1/poll-l0104-yougov-sun-1-762x428.jpg

 

[Guinness Boy]

We have already had Peter Kyle and Graham Cox's "people" round. It's actually going to be a hard choice. Strip away the rosettes and one opened his campaign just down the road from us and has been very active in sorting out the mess that is the local schools. The other is actually exactly what I was after in a candidate, a former copper and active community member in SCCC among others. On the other hand one is funded by Tony Blair while the other champions free and Faith schools which go against everything I believe in,.Can't choose, you can put me down as genuinely floating this time. What's good though is I thought I'd have no one decent to vote for whereas I seem to have a choice of 2 without even having studied the longer list.

Meanwhile I went out last night to a semi regular poker school. The two guys I know best are both ex City traders and one is a family Tory. Both live in Pavillion and had "re-elect" Caroline Lucas" posters in their windows. There was a short, inevitable chat about the election during which both expressed support because of her record as a constituency MP with genuine principles. Bears out what people like [MENTION=5200]Buzzer[/MENTION] have been saying and I reckon she's a shoe in for BP.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

£20 ? I'll gladly donate £20 to REMF if Clegg wins Sheffield Hallam. Do we have a bet ?

Me too. Excellent stuff. Yes we have a bet for £20. Team Clegg.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Christ labour would be horrific. ..Anyone who votes for them needs shooting.
Why can't these leaders just state what they will do and do it...Bunch of posh tarts who can barely answer YES or NO.

I can't vote Green or Lib Dem because deep down they are anti-Trident.

I can't vote UKIP or for Cameron because they are far too anti-Europe.




So that doesn't leave too big a choice....

Labour or Monster Raving Looney basically

 

[Vegas Seagull]

http://media.skynews.com/media/imag...efault/v1/poll-l0104-yougov-sun-1-762x428.jpg

Pathetic, ignorant & immature
Why post an out of date poll?

 

[Flex Your Head]

I reckon she's a shoe in for BP.

Can't see Lucas and a fossil-fuel multi-national getting on too well to be honest.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

By creating proper tax paying jobs and stopping loopholes which certain corps abuse?

So magic then. The Tories commitment to getting £5bn of money from tax evasion and avoidance has already been called flaky so I can't see Labour finding more.

Do Labour really think that the public will believe it credible that they will bring about the massive increases in wages that hasn't happened in this Parliament at the same time as matching the coalitions higher personal allowance. They'll do this how? Asking nicely?

 

[Simster]

All these people talking as if Labour would be a DISASTER need to have a look at themselves.

I'm prepared to accept there might be a better alternative but what evidence is there that Labour would be a disaster? They governed for 13 years last time. I think if they had been a "disaster", they'd have been voted out a little earlier than a third election term FFS.

Meanwhile, under the coalition, the number of people in this country who are now dependent on food banks has risen alarmingly to 913,000. I think that's totally unacceptable. Clearly, cuts have been made, but this low hanging fruit has been at the expense of those who needed it most. And personally, I am not in the slightest bit convinced we needed this level of austerity in the first place.

Anyway, Labour have pledged to slash this dependency on food banks but still I'd like to see more detail as to how this will be achieved before I consider voting for them because their front bench don't fill me with confidence.

 

[Hampster Gull]

All these people talking as if Labour would be a DISASTER need to have a look at themselves.

I'm prepared to accept there might be a better alternative but what evidence is there that Labour would be a disaster? They governed for 13 years last time. I think if they had been a "disaster", they'd have been voted out a little earlier than a third election term FFS.

They may or may not be a disaster. But the last two times their terms ended, 1979 and 2010, they left the country in an absolute mess. Remember we were borrowing money from the IMF to keep going in the 70's whilst rubbish lay on the streets uncollected and union barons ran the show. We were a disgrace. The last time they were in power we suffered more through their incompetence during the financial crisis than other big nations. Wages still havent recovered. Perhaps third time lucky, perhaps not.

 

[Simster]

They may or may not be a disaster. But the lasttimes their terms ended, 1979 and 2010, they left the country in an absolute mess. Remember we were borrowing money from the IMF to keep going in the 70's whilst rubbish lay on the streets uncollected. The last time we suffered more through their incompetence during the financial crisis than other big nations. Perhaps third time lucky, perhaps not.

We were not left "in an absolute mess" at all. We had a highish level of borrowing, that's all. This "mess" is an absolute myth. And if we been left with the high levels of borrowing without any infrastructural improvements, then that would be a worry. But that's not the case at all. Schools were well funded and hospitals had better funding (but Labour had pretended and still do pretend that the problem with appalling NHS management doesn't exist).

Put it this way - take a look around you. There is infrastructure everywhere. Our level of public borrowing is a drop in the ocean compared to the value of the infrastructure all around you. It's like owning a £1m house with a hefty £300k mortgage. There's nothing wrong with that mortgage as long as you can service the debt. And that's the sort of position Labour left us in. It was not "an absolute mess", and certainly no more of a mess than leaving 915,000 people (that's an awful lot of people) dependent on food banks.

 

[Bold Seagull]

They may or may not be a disaster. But the last two times their terms ended, 1979 and 2010, they left the country in an absolute mess. Remember we were borrowing money from the IMF to keep going in the 70's whilst rubbish lay on the streets uncollected and union barons ran the show. We were a disgrace. The last time they were in power we suffered more through their incompetence during the financial crisis than other big nations. Wages still havent recovered. Perhaps third time lucky, perhaps not.

So hang on, interesting points there. They were responsible for leaving the mess in 2010, and yet you go onto say that we suffered more than other big nations during the financial crisis. So I am to deduce Labour were in fact to blame for the entire global financial crisis, or just Britain's recovery thereafter!? Many commentators suggest Britain actually led the way in its structured bailout plans whose model much of the developed world followed.

2008 would have happened whether Labour or Conservatives were in power. There is no way the Tories would have added any more regulatory powers than Labour did. You also conveniently omit the numerous financial crisis we experienced '79 to '97, the last of which devastated the country more than this one with interest rates souring past 15% and record levels of repossessions and negative equity.

Let us not pretend one has greatly out performed the other. Both have run the country for significant periods of the last 40 years, both have made big mistakes, and neither can actually claim to be more of a guardian of the economy than the other in real terms.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

My experience of working Scotland from 1991 onwards is totally different to yours, the spread and depth of virulent Anti-English feeling in the last 25 years has been remarkable.

If you are English Aberdeen has become a very unpleasant place to work which is one of the reasons I was happy to stop my Offshore frolics.

Happy to see our Celtic Cousins b*gger off myself. They think will be the new Norway. I rather disagree.

Yes, very different to my experience, I have only been in Aberdeen getting a boat out to the islands and was treated very well. I work mainly in Dunfmline, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Livingstone. I can say amongst the 100's of people I work with, I have never had even mild humour aimed at my English heritage, I include Taxi Drivers, staff in shops, restaurants, pubs, cinemas, veldromes, I go to as many local football games as possible and stand on the terraaces (wearing my Albion hat) and I travel around a lot on local buses/trains.

Perhaps I have completely fluked it, my experience is people are interested in Brighton are very passionate about their country and have a knowledge of lower league football that puts my Scottish football knowledge to shame.

In fact when I say parts of East Glasgow are not good, this is again not my experience but a good friends who lived in Byers Road but moved to Edinburgh as he was sick of having discussions about nationality. My experience going out to Barrowlands, the peoples palace and the Chris Hoy velodrome are all good. Perhaps I am now jinxing my next trip up to the Hyrdo in May, I mean I never feel safe at night on Sauchiehall street but then I don't on West street either.

Perhaps its a more earthy class thing and we are hanging around in different places with different people, I'm now nervous I am being oblivious to it...

 

[drew]

Why should I pay for the extravagances of the previous generation?

Same reason that a few years ago I was still contributing to the cost of the second world war even though I wasn't born over 17 years after it ended. Social responsibility.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

So hang on, interesting points there. They were responsible for leaving the mess in 2010, and yet you go onto say that we suffered more than other big nations during the financial crisis. So I am to deduce Labour were in fact to blame for the entire global financial crisis, or just Britain's recovery thereafter!? Many commentators suggest Britain actually led the way in its structured bailout plans whose model much of the developed world followed.

2008 would have happened whether Labour or Conservatives were in power. There is no way the Tories would have added any more regulatory powers than Labour did. You also conveniently omit the numerous financial crisis we experienced '79 to '97, the last of which devastated the country more than this one with interest rates souring past 15% and record levels of repossessions and negative equity.

Let us not pretend one has greatly out performed the other. Both have run the country for significant periods of the last 40 years, both have made big mistakes, and neither can actually claim to be more of a guardian of the economy than the other in real terms.

Agree with that - especially the bit about the Tories adding more regulatory powers, but - and it's a massive but - Ed Balls repeatedly stated that the way the coalition acted (he stated the cuts were too quick and too deep) would lead to a triple dip recession and millions more unemployed and higher interest rates.

He was very, very wrong, and although I can't stand the bloke, Osborne got it right.

Sure, lots of these jobs are part time (although I understand ZHCs only make up about 2% of total jobs) and I'm afraid that with Balls as Chancellor, I don't trust Labour to run the economy.

 

[Hampster Gull]

So hang on, interesting points there. They were responsible for leaving the mess in 2010, and yet you go onto say that we suffered more than other big nations during the financial crisis. So I am to deduce Labour were in fact to blame for the entire global financial crisis, or just Britain's recovery thereafter!? Many commentators suggest Britain actually led the way in its structured bailout plans whose model much of the developed world followed.

2008 would have happened whether Labour or Conservatives were in power. There is no way the Tories would have added any more regulatory powers than Labour did. You also conveniently omit the numerous financial crisis we experienced '79 to '97, the last of which devastated the country more than this one with interest rates souring past 15% and record levels of repossessions and negative equity.

Let us not pretend one has greatly out performed the other. Both have run the country for significant periods of the last 40 years, both have made big mistakes, and neither can actually claim to be more of a guardian of the economy than the other in real terms.

From what i wrote you shouldnt deduce Labour was to blame for the whole crisis no. They had a material part to blame with lax regulation (Brown was competing with NY to be the most lax). But i would blame their greed or incompetence for the whole thing. I cannot coment if it would have been different if the tories had been in power, it may or may not have been. But spending beyond our means running up huge deficits, which is their forte, is a problem if not structurally addressed (as proved with us having to borrow from the IMF just to pay the bills inthe 1970s under Labour).