General Election 2010

[Guest alex]

The fixed term works in America because of their electoral system where you vote for a President seperately to people in the House of Representatives and the Senate and you also have mid-term elections. Not sure if it'll work here, especially under these circumstances.

[NJS 4375]

Seems to me Labour will be resurgent within a very short space of time, rertaining all the votes they got this time and adding to it a large bulk of the dissatisfied Lib Dems....and people who objected personally to Brown rather than Labour policy.

 

I agree but some "proper" left wing ideas would help too imo - though I think they may suffer from constant government references to clearing up their shit.

[Park Life 71]

Why do they keep worrying about what the markets think ffs?!! The top 100 are mainly international companies with bigger impacts and interactions abroad.

[Park Life 71]

Lib Dems entering government with the Tories will be "like vegetarians who've got jobs at McDonald's - they'll be chewed up and spat out", Labour MP Stephen Pound tells Sky News.

[Guest alex]

Why do they keep worrying about what the markets think ffs?!! The top 100 are mainly international companies with bigger impacts and interactions abroad.

It's a con, if you pardon the pun.

[Park Life 71]

The upside.

 

No id cards

Tougher on the EU

Vince Cable sounds like he's going to have a go at the banks.

[Phil 6]

The upside.

 

No id cards

Tougher on the EU

Vince Cable sounds like he's going to have a go at the banks.

 

 

Thing that stands out for me is the 10k tax band.

[Happy Face 29]

The upside.

 

No id cards

Tougher on the EU

Vince Cable sounds like he's going to have a go at the banks.

 

 

Thing that stands out for me is the 10k tax band.

 

What's the threshold at the moment?

 

£6k or summat?

[Guest alex]

The upside.

 

No id cards

Tougher on the EU

Vince Cable sounds like he's going to have a go at the banks.

 

 

Thing that stands out for me is the 10k tax band.

 

What's the threshold at the moment?

 

£6k or summat?

Wrong person to ask

[NJS 4375]

The upside.

 

No id cards

Tougher on the EU

Vince Cable sounds like he's going to have a go at the banks.

 

 

Thing that stands out for me is the 10k tax band.

 

 

20% VAT will wipe that out.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

The noises before the election were that the Tories were going to give the North East a hell of a kicking and I fear this will probably happen, it's not like they're going to lose seats because of it. I was pointed in the direction of a disgraceful article that a high up Tory party activist wrote in the Das Daily Mail at the weekend saying that the midlands and south were the intelligent and employed parts of the country and therefore had voted correctly. The north meanwhile were all having too much fun on benefits and therefore wanted to keep a good thing going so voted Labour. It was scathing scary shit, but I haven't been able to find an online version of it.

[Happy Face 29]

Anyone got that photo of Cameron immediately after talking to the cabinet secretary?

 

Basically said "I'm fucked!"

 

[Monkeys Fist 42129]

Anyone got that photo of Cameron immediately after talking to the cabinet secretary?

 

Basically said "I'm fucked!"

 

" What the Dickens does one do now?

Matron!!!"

[Park Life 71]

Osborne looks like he's shitting it...ran like a rat.

[Ketsbaia 0]

The noises before the election were that the Tories were going to give the North East a hell of a kicking and I fear this will probably happen, it's not like they're going to lose seats because of it. I was pointed in the direction of a disgraceful article that a high up Tory party activist wrote in the Das Daily Mail at the weekend saying that the midlands and south were the intelligent and employed parts of the country and therefore had voted correctly. The north meanwhile were all having too much fun on benefits and therefore wanted to keep a good thing going so voted Labour. It was scathing scary shit, but I haven't been able to find an online version of it.

 

I think I read that. Very scary.

 

Nice to see CT crowing like a reality TV addicted housewife, completely missing the point that people aren't upset because their favourites lost but because their very livelihoods are at stake.

[Guest alex]

I think, for that reason, an English Parliament, especially with no regional assembly or whatever would see the NE properly fucked like it was in the 80s.

[Craig 6682]

I think, for that reason, an English Parliament, especially with no regional assembly or whatever would see the NE properly fucked like it was in the 80s.

 

And not surprising that is exactly what they ultra right-wing Tories are now calling for...

[Happy Face 29]

I think, for that reason, an English Parliament, especially with no regional assembly or whatever would see the NE properly fucked like it was in the 80s.

 

Owt North of Watford should fall into the Scottish parliament

[Happy Face 29]

I think, for that reason, an English Parliament, especially with no regional assembly or whatever would see the NE properly fucked like it was in the 80s.

 

And not surprising that is exactly what they ultra right-wing Tories are now calling for...

 

It's marvellous. They run a campaign on reducing waste in public services, smaller government, cutting 10% of MPs....and then they advocate a whole new (and expensive) branch to be created.

[Happy Face 29]

The noises before the election were that the Tories were going to give the North East a hell of a kicking and I fear this will probably happen, it's not like they're going to lose seats because of it. I was pointed in the direction of a disgraceful article that a high up Tory party activist wrote in the Das Daily Mail at the weekend saying that the midlands and south were the intelligent and employed parts of the country and therefore had voted correctly. The north meanwhile were all having too much fun on benefits and therefore wanted to keep a good thing going so voted Labour. It was scathing scary shit, but I haven't been able to find an online version of it.

 

I think I read that. Very scary.

 

 

Tony Blair boasted in his conference speech of 2004 that 'it is New Labour that now wears the One Nation mantle'.

 

This general election result exposes the hollowness of that claim. In reality, after 13 years of Labour rule, Britain is more badly divided than ever before.

It is clear after yesterday that a dangerous split runs through the heart of country. In place of unity, we are now two nations.

Vast swathes of Wales, the North of England and almost the whole of Scotland are rocksolid Labour territory, political fiefdoms where the Tory brand is regarded with a tribal hatred.

 

It is a remarkable fact that, as late as the 1950s, the Conservatives held the majority of seats in Scotland. But that sense of national balance has now disappeared from the electoral map. Today, there is a single Tory seat in Scotland, while there is not one in the northeastern region.

In direct contrast, most of England, particularly in the South and the Midlands, has turned blue.

 

There is just a sprinkling of red dots in London, Birmingham and a few other conurbations.

 

You could drive southwards the whole way from Lincolnshire to the Isle of Wight without leaving Conservative terrain.

 

This yawning division reflects the chasm that has developed between the two parts of our economy. The South and Midlands of England are the areas that generate the wealth on which our nation depends.

The majority of voters in these regions work in the private sector. Employment is high and welfare dependency low.

 

Little wonder then that these citizens, living in the real commercial world, should vote so decisively against a Labour government that has so badly mismanaged the economy, squandered their taxes and threatened their living standards.

The contrast with Labour's tribal lands could hardly be greater. Reliance on the state, be it through welfare benefits or public-sector jobs, is the central characteristic of the northern, Scottish, Welsh and inner-city constituencies that have remained firmly red.

Throughout these areas, Labour is effectively using the wealth created in Middle England to subsidise a vast system of political patronage in its heartlands.

Parts of the North and Scotland now resemble the sclerotic regimes of the old Soviet bloc, so great is the dominance of the state. In the Labour stronghold of the North East, 66.4 per cent of the economy is dependent on the government, compared with just 33 per cent in the South East, while the public sector dominates the workforce.

 

In this area, no fewer than 13,400 people are employed in the Department of Work and Pensions alone. It is the same story in Scotland, where a third of all workers are employed by the state, with the Ministry of the Defence and the NHS the two biggest employers.

 

And where public-sector work is scarce, the debilitating embrace of the social security system has helped to keep claimants within the Labour tribe, as has mass immigration which has strengthened Labour's hold in many inner-city seats, especially in London.

It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of immigrants vote Labour, a central reason why the party has actually made gains in the East End.

Labour's creation of a huge political clientele even explains why a seat such as Rochdale stayed with Brown.

 

It might have been expected that, after his notorious abuse of pensioner Gillian Duffy, there would have been a local reaction against the party.

 

But the influence of Labour's patronage remained too strong in the constituency-where the private sector has all but collapsed. In the Falinge area, dubbed the 'sick-note capital of Britain', the majority of the population is on sickness benefits.

Moreover, almost a fifth of Rochdale's population now comes from migrant communities-In nine of the town's schools, 70 per cent of the pupils speak English as a foreign language.

Meanwhile, the welfare system has been remorselessly expanded under Gordon Brown to the point where more than five million Britons of working age are living on benefits rather than taking jobs.

It is telling that 189 of the top 200 benefits- claiming parliamentary seats are Labour.

 

Similarly, immigration has been allowed to let rip at the rate of more than 500,000 new arrivals every year, while more than a million employees have been added to the state payroll since Labour came to power in 1997.

Brown's whole election campaign was shamelessly geared towards protecting Labour's state-supported client base.

 

In place of any positive message about the future of Britain, there was a remorseless emphasis on the threat that the Conservatives supposedly represented against public-sector jobs and welfare handouts.

'Labour investment versus Tory cuts' was his slogan - completely ignoring the desperate state of the public finances.

 

In Labour's mindset, the state became synonymous with the economy. The worry is that the most enterprising parts of the country are being bled dry to support Labour's client state. But the truth is that the tribal divide is inflicting enormous damage on the fabric of our whole nation.

The hard-working voters of Middle Britain are right to feel outraged at the way they have been exploited while those who cling to the state, supporting Labour through fear and self-interest, lose the incentive to stand on their own two feet.

The first job of the new government must be to start the rebuilding of Britain as one nation, by encouraging enterprise everywhere and ridding the country of the scourge of state patronage.

 

To continue as we are will lead to catastrophe and the murderous anarchy that we have seen in Greece.

 

No link provided on purpose.

[Holden McGroin 6543]

Also, regarding the "hope you crash" comment. That was foolish and in the heat of the moment.

I should have added "in 6 months" to ensure the Dave effect has taken hold in the hospitals, emergency services etc.

 

 

:(

 

I think CT is just a WUM who actually starts believing what he spouts. Like a liar who constantly lies.

[Guest alex]

Corny like but topical:

Cameron's only been PM for 5 minutes and he's already made one Scottish family homeless and unemployed.

[NJS 4375]

To continue as we are will lead to catastrophe and the murderous anarchy that we have seen in Greece.

 

Hopefully with the author swinging from a lampost.

 

 

supporting Labour through fear and self-interest

 

Fucking staggering.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

It's a staggering article like, I couldn't actually believe what I was reading. Basically blaming the North for everything. We're doomed.

[Monkeys Fist 42129]

It's a staggering article like, I couldn't actually believe what I was reading. Basically blaming the North for everything. We're doomed.

Who wrote it?

Substitute "Darkies" for Northeners and it gives the true nature of it.