Statement of the obvious?

[Alan Stubbs]

You're wrong

 

Lifelong socialist and proud of it

 

Bri

 

 

Bri, socialism is a fine and noble if flawed ideology, but please don't confuse it with the Labour Party.

[five bellies]

Extreme polerization of political veiws is as damaging to the country as the grey gloop we have now, a bout of seventies

governance is the last thing we need now,whatever side of the fence you sit, although a pull away from the center in the labour party might reinvigerate the party somewhat. I think Niether side has the compleate set of skills needed to turn this country around, a coalition may well be the awnser If your going to have grey you may as well have the best grey on offer.

 

address unemployment,education,health service, the knock on will be a reduction in crime the use of this countries Best raw Material its poeple, and the proper well earned care of our elderly.

 

a fundermental very simple set of my old Labour values pushed along by a bit of conservative ruthlessnes.

 

It may just work.

[Alan Stubbs]

Extreme polerization of political veiws is as damaging to the country as the grey gloop we have now, a bout of seventies

governance is the last thing we need now,whatever side of the fence you sit, although a pull away from the center in the labour party might reinvigerate the party somewhat. I think Niether side has the compleate set of skills needed to turn this country around, a coalition may well be the awnser If your going to have grey you may as well have the best grey on offer.

 

address unemployment,education,health service, the knock on will be a reduction in crime the use of this countries Best raw Material its poeple, and the proper well earned care of our elderly.

 

a fundermental very simple set of my old Labour values pushed along by a bit of conservative ruthlessnes.

 

It may just work.

 

I agree about extreme polarisation of views and the damage it causes in the long term. All the work done in one parliament takes the whole of the next term to undo before actually addressing true needs.

 

Some old Labour views which truly valued the workforce are to be revered IMO...however, they lost their way in the 60's and 70's and have never tried to recover them. Ruthlessness wasn't just a Conservative trait... I recall tax rates of over 90% on high earners under a Labour government... a real disincentive to remain in this country if ever there was.

Allowing the unions the power they had back then was also a real deterrent to inward investment.

 

Sadly, I was completely jaundiced against them when Wilson had people like Shirley WIlliams, Barbara Castle, Tony Benn and John Stonehouse in his cabinet, and the destruction of quality education under Williams in particular is still with us today.

 

Against that, Thatcher had the likes of Cecil Parkinson and Michael Portillo who were just as ineffective - even if the damage they caused was quicker to be remedied.

[Vagabond]

The major parties have morphed into various shades of the same colour.

 

Yes , you have a point - is Cameron just Blair with a blue tie on?

 

There are uncomfortable parallels with the political climate in the Germany of the 1920s

They had a centre-of-the-road mish-mash called "liberal democrats"

 

 

Read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic

 

When the central parties are indistinguishable from each other, then extremists will flourish, BNP, religious fundamentalists of all types, communists in trade unions, etc etc.

 

...add the deepening depression, and Brown sowing the seeds of rampant inflation by printing more money....... and its gotta be unbacked paper money, because Prudence Brown sold our gold reserves

 

I remember as a lad seeing German postage stamps with a face value of ten million marks...and more recently, rampant inflation in Zimbabwe.

 

Perhaps we need a Thatcherite Tory party, and a Labour party formed of the likes of Dennis Skinner, ie "Toffs" against "Peasants" - then we will all know where we stand Darling Alistair has already taken the first steps towards it in his budget.

[gozzer]

If Darlings budget had been a ruthless, austere one, then Cameron would have been pushing the opposite as a solution to the problem. That's just the nature of the beast.

 

We have very few politicians now, politics is like everything else, a business.

 

There was a time when we could have ridden the storm with a bit of belt tightening, and worked our way out, not any more.

Was it Napoleon who called us a "nation of shopkeepers"? Well he would have to say a nation of "service providers" now. The lack of investment in manufacturing going back over 40yrs, coupled with the rise of the Eastern countries, has seen to that.

We can't be advised to "Buy British" any more, the answer would be "Buy British what"?

We can't use the weak pound to export ourselves out of it.

What do we produce enough of to export?

We don't even control most of the basic utilities any more.

 

During the mid/late 70s I worked for a company that had a prominent Tory MP as the MD. I was on the works committee, (not as a union member, never have been), and he sat in on some of the meetings we had with management. The veiled threats we were given at the time, led me to believe that the monetarist polices, that were the nails in the coffin of British industry, were being planned well before Thatcher lifted the hammer to drive them home.

At the time my wife and I were expecting our first baby, and I swore that if the Tories got in, I would emigrate.

To my shame I didn't. A mixture of a love of my country, (the geographical country, not the populous), and not wanting to leave elderly parents, made the decision for me.

Even then, as an ordinary bloke, it seemed to me that to rely on money, making money, in a global economy, would eventually lead to a situation like we have today. The situation is worse than I envisaged however, mainly because I didn't see the greater increase in the UK population we've had.

 

IMO, Britain has had it's day, and will eventually find it's natural level in the world. Only a nostalgic sense of 'Pride' prevents some from seeing it.

 

John.

[kleinboet]

The problem is that those parties that have taken note of what the people want (UKIP etc) don't have a "package" that is they are pushing their party on a one promise ticket. Yes, they will stop innigration etc, but don't have any idea what to do to get this country out of recession and back to the position in the world it was 20/30 years ago!

[Vagabond]

a nation of "service providers" now. Even then, as an ordinary bloke, it seemed to me that to rely on money, making money, in a global economy, would eventually lead to a situation like we have today.

 

Yes, we can't go on taking in each other's washing.

 

There seems a lack of perception amongst those in charge about the difference between wealth CREATION and wealth circulation.

 

If we need to "spend our way out of recession" then the money would best be spent on infrastructure and on education in practical science and technology. We are becoming a nation incapable of changing a tap washer.

[Guest Rabbit]

There has to be a huge change in how MP's actually behave in their elected roles. The current endless disclosures of sleaze and greed needs to be addressed, certainly examples need to be made and prison sentences handed down to the more serious violators of public trust.

 

Because that is where the problem lies the lack of public trust in our politicians whoever is the next administration, and it will seem to be have to be the Conservatives, Cameron will have to lead by example.

 

I actually believe he can, whether he will remains to be seen.

 

Cameron is of course making political gain from Brown's dilemma, but it is a harsh lesson Brown and Co: have learned that to deal with the financial crooks that is the City , and at time same time scupper this nations manufacturing output was unforgivable,

 

Not at all socialist by deed, and yet that is where the Labour votes still lie, the long gone Industrial towns and cities where old beliefs still linger that somehow the Labour Party will help the working man,

 

What working man?

[barry luxton]

The problem is that those parties that have taken note of what the people want (UKIP etc) don't have a "package" that is they are pushing their party on a one promise ticket. Yes, they will stop innigration etc, but don't have any idea what to do to get this country out of recession and back to the position in the world it was 20/30 years ago!

 

The economy was bouyant just before this lot took control, the rest is history. Saw a clip of the ukip leader speaking in the eu on the demise of the gold reserves, all brown could do was to sit there and squirm, good it was. Didn't this lot oversee the demise of concord. Much the same when dennis healy cancelled the tsr2 project, trying to think if that was just before they went to the imf due to record public spending at that time. What goes around comes around. Vote labour, you know it makes sence.

[gozzer]

Vote labour, you know it makes sence.

 

I would Barry, if there was such a party in this country.

I feel they'd do better than this hybrid Government we have now.

 

John.