why is labour crashing in the polls this week

[Tory Boy]

/nurses striking every year if the tories get in

Nurses have never gone on strike.

The reason the Tories are on the march is because the Labour mob are finally being found out for what they are. i.e.Corrupt.

TB

 

[footychick]

Can't think why anyone would want to vote conservative

 

[Goring Gull]

As i say Labour all the way. I just can't see enough Tory voters bothering.

 

[beorhthelm]

As i say Labour all the way. I just can't see enough Tory voters bothering.

you can keep saying it, doesnt make it happen. care to offer why? in know the polls are wrong, but could they be so wrong to return a labour majority? are the public really not concerned at all with a government bringing us a recession, shortly after a overseeing the exposure of parliaments rampant expenses culture, with an massivly unpopular war still fresh in the memory?

 

[Goring Gull]

The reccession would have happened whoever was in charge of the country. The country is slowly starting to come out of that now why change to another party when let's be honest Brown hasn't really done a great deal wrong more a victim of circumstance and Blair seeing the time as right to jump ship.

 

[BLOCK F]

Same.

Labour voters will turn out in force to elect the first non Tony B.Liar PM since the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq.

Tory voters won't care strongly enough to turn out in anything like the numbers required for a Tory majority.

Lib-Dem voters will piss their votes up the wall, same as they always do.

Well,this Tory voter cares strongly enough to turn out even though Chichester is already a safe Conservative seat!

 

[Don Quixote]

Probably be a conservative majority but not by much.

 

[drew]

you can keep saying it, doesnt make it happen. care to offer why? in know the polls are wrong, but could they be so wrong to return a labour majority? are the public really not concerned at all with a government bringing us a recession, shortly after a overseeing the exposure of parliaments rampant expenses culture, with an massivly unpopular war still fresh in the memory?

Exactly how did labour cause a worldwide recession? You'll be blaming them for swine flu next, then bird flu etc etc. As for expenses, what exactly did Cameron do which was any better. They both knew this was coming months before the news was leaked to the Telegraph but neither did anything to get their own house in order. Try looking at things with a bit of perspective rather than through your blue tinted spectacles.

But NI increases hit low earners too, reducing their income.

Low earners have a choice of whether to buy goods that will be affected by Vat increases (as in the previous example, a TV)

Basic items like (most) food doesn't have VAT on it so it may mean that higher earners still pay more as they are more likely to buy luxury goods anyway, but the shopper gets the choice rather than a blanket charge to everyone.

Labour certainly haven't been the champion for low wage earners, their policy of tax and spend and then tax some more has left a lot of low earners struggling to make ends meet, why should they be forced to lose even more of their income due to greedy Politicians eager to spend even more tax money on public services / sector that they may not want.

You're right, Labour have done nothing for low earnings, apart of course from the minimum wage! Having said that, they could of course do better and it goes without saying that the Tories have never even come close to being the champions of low wage earners.

 

[binky]

Brown hasn't really done a great deal wrong

Breathtaking!

 

[Goring Gull]

Breathtaking!

I'm no worse off under Labour. I fact i'm alot better off now then when Blair came into power.

 

[clippedgull]

I'm glad I am abstaining from voting!

Third election running.

Whoever gets in, the poor get poorer, the rich get richer.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

We are worse off then Greece in many respects and we need someone to come out and tell us the hard facts about how much cuts and where before we can start reversing our increasing debts. Neither party are willing to come out and give us the bad news, but at least Labour have been brave enough to raise NI, whilst the Tories continue to be coy about tax increases, and instead are offering tax breaks, which will not aid anyone in real terms.

Labour release their manifesto tomorrow and the Torys Tuesday with Nick Clegg on question time Thursday. Should be an interesting week.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

The tories initial approach was to focus on the tough times ahead and the need for immediate cuts to protect the UK's credit rating. They have abandoned this for focussing on the minor sideshow of national insurance tax increase reversal and a £3 per week tax incentive for married couples; this will be paid for with apparently painless cuts (ending an IT contract leads to no job loss in the IT industry apparently) and will make no impact on the deficit, but suddenly that doesn't matter any more. They have wheeled out tame CEOs to back this, who will want payback if they win.
In seems that some people polled have swallowed this crap.

 

[NMH]

Loads of major British concerns have been flogged off to foreign buyers, who then show us how to market what we once had and make bank.

Thatcher <~`,

 

[beorhthelm]

Exactly how did labour cause a worldwide recession?

it seems the Labour spin is working on some, truth is, as histroy will testify, that the policies of Brown meant that we felt the effects worse than most. some would even argue that his overly light touch regulation and ineffective remit to the FSA (which he created) overlooked the issues arising. In a bid to be the first City friendly Labour Chancellor he gave them free reign and asked no questions, while borrowing as much as he could himself. wouldnt the tories have done the same is always the reply, and the answer is first they didnt as they werent in power and secondly a school of thougt suggests they might have known a bit better and headed things off a bit earlier. Northern Rock was a massive alarm bell and Brown/Darling did sweet f*** all when the problem there wher the same as those that finally led to the collaspe of Lehman and the others. they could have done *somthing*, but chose business as usual and for that they are culpable for the impact the recession had on this nation.

as for expenses, all the parties were up to their eyeballs in the problem, and it comes down to individuals not any party. however, the responce from Brown wasn't to offer a new model and sweeping reform, it was to pretend it wasnt an issue and try to ignore it. he didnt condemn anything, nor did even try to defend the expenses, some of which are not unreasonable (i have no issue with employment of partners, or second homes in London per se), just stuck his head in the sand. lack of leadership, he just stood back and let the media gorge on the issue. makes you wonder what "bad news" was buried each time it flared up - certainly a nice distraction from the recession.

The tories initial approach was to focus on the tough times ahead and the need for immediate cuts to protect the UK's credit rating. They have abandoned this for focussing on the minor sideshow of national insurance tax increase reversal and a £3 per week tax incentive for married couples; this will be paid for with apparently painless cuts (ending an IT contract leads to no job loss in the IT industry apparently)

im not sure NI is really a sideshow, its a very real amount to many. see the pay rise thread, many are not getting a payrise these days but next year are facing a 1% decrease in take home pay, and the business cost is massive taken across the whole economy. The marriage couple incentive is a waste of time, it will only play out in the hard core tory vote (who will turn out anyway) and piss off a increasingly large non-married population. bit of an own goal really. but what this IT cut, i thought it was suppose to be funded from some (ineffective) bank levy?

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Has anyone seen the election poster UKIP are meant to be putting out this week?

Iain Dale's Diary: EXCLUSIVE: Is This the Most Effective Poster Yet?

 

[drew]

it seems the Labour spin is working on some, truth is, as histroy will testify, that the policies of Brown meant that we felt the effects worse than most. some would even argue that his overly light touch regulation and ineffective remit to the FSA (which he created) overlooked the issues arising. In a bid to be the first City friendly Labour Chancellor he gave them free reign and asked no questions, while borrowing as much as he could himself. wouldnt the tories have done the same is always the reply, and the answer is first they didnt as they werent in power and secondly a school of thougt suggests they might have known a bit better and headed things off a bit earlier. Northern Rock was a massive alarm bell and Brown/Darling did sweet f*** all when the problem there wher the same as those that finally led to the collaspe of Lehman and the others. they could have done *somthing*, but chose business as usual and for that they are culpable for the impact the recession had on this nation.

as for expenses, all the parties were up to their eyeballs in the problem, and it comes down to individuals not any party. however, the responce from Brown wasn't to offer a new model and sweeping reform, it was to pretend it wasnt an issue and try to ignore it. he didnt even try to defend the expenses, some of which are not unreasonable (i have no issue with employment of partners, or second homes in London per se), just stuck his head in the sand.

You do come up with plenty of garbage don't you. Deregulation in the City started with the Tories. What ever measures Labour introduced post 1997, the Tories wanted to go further. Also, wasn't deregulation in the Uk done to keep our financial centre competitive with the USA were they were already being de-regulated from the 1980s. The deregulation in the UK was started by the Tories when mutuals were allowed to go public. You gloss over what the Tories would have done with a rather childish response.

You also use the phrase ' a school of thought'. What the f*** does that mean. There is a school of thought that we did better during the recession than most. Unemployment wasn't as severe as some predicted. The OECD predicts we will grow faster than most G7 countries. I suspect you will suggest this is down to the Tories. Sorry, forgot, they aren't in power are they!

As for expenses, Cameron did what he always does and that is seeking soundbites and tomorrows headlines. As opposition leader he announce certain requirements on his shadow cabinet and MPs but he wasn't in a position to pass laws about it. Brown quite rightly said that they would wait for the Thomas Legg report and then act on it's recommendation. What would be the point of pre-empting the report.

And I would finally take issue with your comment that it is individuals and not parties at fault. Why do you blame Brown then? Both party leaders could have brought their parties in to line a lot earlier but chose not to do so.

 

[beorhthelm]

What ever measures Labour introduced post 1997, the Tories wanted to go further.

always in opposition. no matter what labour *did* theres always a "but the torys will have done xyz". and you say im childish? I dont know what the tories would have done, they were not in power so its what ifs and crystal balls. the emphasis on balls.

You also use the phrase ' a school of thought'. What the f*** does that mean. There is a school of thought that we did better during the recession than most. Unemployment wasn't as severe as some predicted. The OECD predicts we will grow faster than most G7 countries. I suspect you will suggest this is down to the Tories. Sorry, forgot, they aren't in power are they!

seems you know perfectly well what i means. different opinions. unemployment wanst as severe because Darling acted upon the independent advice rather than doing the bunny in the headlights act Brown did before he jumped on the rolling train (Darling comes out of the past 2 years far better than Brown). the OECD might predict we do well, we will see how history portrays it. Im going by what *did* happen in the past 5 years, track record rather than conjecture. If Darling leaves a better economy than he received for the next government, as Clarke did for Brown, history will tell us. Gordon "an end to boom and bust" Brown certainly didnt.

And I would finally take issue with your comment that it is individuals and not parties at fault. Why do you blame Brown then? Both party leaders could have brought their parties in to line a lot earlier but chose not to do so.

none the party leaders (liberals included) can be absolved, they didnt see any problem all the time there wasnt one. but once it was apparent there was more going on than could be considered reasonable (duck houses, renovating mansions, fraudulent mortgage claims, tax evasion), one party chose to address the problem, while one chose to ignore it.
anyway, my point isnt who was responsible on this issue, its how it appears to the wider electorate, it blow up on Labours watch and it will effect voting. it was in responce to Goring Gull suggesting Labour is romping to victory and the tory vote wont turn out, there is plenty of reason from them to do so and for alot of the labour vote to stay at home.

 

[nwgull]

I'm glad I am abstaining from voting!

Third election running.

Whoever gets in, the poor get poorer, the rich get richer.

If you're not going to bother exercising your democratic right then you lose any right to complain in my mind. You may not like any of your local condidates but you must at least be able to make some sort of differentiation between them and vote for who you consider to be the least worst option.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

If you're not going to bother exercising your democratic right then you lose any right to complain in my mind. You may not like any of your local condidates but you must at least be able to make some sort of differentiation between them and vote for who you consider to be the least worst option.

Exactly. Its just a case of looking the current MP up on theyworkforyou and hansard to see what they've voted for and against, and whether they talk any sense in Parliament. And then seeing what the rest are about. Its not hard.