The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 3

[danielf]

My guess is that all candidates will say similar things. Just not while wearing a microphone

[Ignitionnet]

Him sticking his head in his hands, caught on camera, when it was played back to him will make a wonderful election commercial for one of the other parties.

---------- Post added at 13:03 ---------- Previous post was at 13:03 ----------

Originally Posted by danielf

My guess is that all candidates will say similar things. Just not while wearing a microphone

Exactly, we know they're 2-faced, we don't really want to have it shoved in our faces though

[punky]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

That has got to be the funniest thing I have ever seen. Even the most die-hard Tory would have to see the funny side in that.

If they were thirteen. Are you thirteen?

Gordon Brown is a trail of destruction for the Labour party's election campaign, always turn up in the nick of time to wreck the day! They should have sent him on Holiday for the month

[Osem]

Yes 'bigot' is one of those pejorative terms some people like to bandy about isn't it, especially when it's levelled at those who have the temerity to disagree! Publicly New Labour say they recognise people's concerns and are going to control immigration but privately they still think those who're worried about the effects of the record levels of migration we've seen are just bigots. I think we've seen both Brown's faces today - the mask has slipped!

May we have just witnessed Brown's very own 'Ratner' moment?*



* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2010949.stm

---------- Post added at 13:17 ---------- Previous post was at 13:15 ----------

Originally Posted by Damien

Gordon Brown is a trail of destruction for the Labour party's election campaign, always turn up in the nick of time to wreck the day! They should have sent him on Holiday for the month

I heard that Mandelson had something booked but the Icelandic volcano spoiled his plans...

---------- Post added at 13:22 ---------- Previous post was at 13:17 ----------

Originally Posted by punky

If they were thirteen. Are you thirteen?

Appears she started complaining about Eastern European Immigrants which is what prompted the remark.

[Osem]

I've just heard Joan Ruddock, I believe, squirming whilst trying to dig Brown out of the hole he's just dug for his party and excusing their abject failure on immigration. Once again she made the claim that the last Tory government was responsible for removing exit controls when in fact they removed controls for EU citizens in 1994 and New Labour did likewise for all non-eu citizens in 1998. More cynical spin or just some rather convenient ignorance of some very basic but important facts?? I know what I think.....

Election day will be just like any other day to me, and to be honest, every person in this country should treat it the same.
83% of the population do not trust politicians, does that not say something?
The politicians in this country are the cause of our problems, therefore they cannot be the solution.
If on the other hand there was the opportunity to tick a box that said " None of the above " I may take a detour from the shop to vote.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Damien

What are everyone's views on the possible effect of Greece's financial crisis on this election?

It's probably negative for the Liberal Democrats who are not regarded as strong on the economics and are pro Euro. The stronger the issues of the econmany and Europe are in the election then the weaker the Liberal Democrats will do in my view (despite the fact there were calling the global recession earlier than any of the others).

It's harder to work out who would benefit between the Conservatives and Labour. First of all the British economy never descending into the crisis Greece has and, although Labour are at fault for not saving money in order to deal with the level of debt incurred fighting the recession, they were successful in bringing the country out of recession. Their policies worked. Maybe the public will be scared by the current situation, Osborne is unproven as Chancellor, and choose Labour.

However maybe they will decide that drastic cuts need to made to the budget in order to cut our debt and make sure we don't go down the same path as Greece?

It will harm the Lib Dems by showing weakness in increased European economic integration.

It will harm Labour as their method for mitigating the recession has been fairly ineffective (we were one of the last economies to return to growth) and its' only real impact has been to save the banks and highlight the massive structural deficit Labour have accumulated.

It will harm the Tories as attempts to avoid what has happened to Greece will just get painted as the 'nasty Tories' and people will point to Greeks protesting over their government having ignored debt for so long having to take drastic action and the Greeks standing up for their rights, etc.

If a closer look is taken the economy has been in fantasy land for most of the century. We've relied tremendously on generation of increased GDP through non-productive activities (bankers basically gambling, public sector enlargement, people speculating on property and debt-fuelled spending) meanwhile the government has spent increasing amounts of money on the pretty risky gamble that these revenue streams would remain constant.

We're in the situation now where the bankers bubble has burst and banking needs a rethink to avoid another bailout, people are jittery over private debt and are repaying it rather than taking it out and spending, property is wobbly and easy access to credit to invest isn't there and therefore the government can't afford to continue pumping money into the public sector to prop up the employment rate.

The stimulus wasn't anywhere near what it should have been as the money just wasn't there to implement large infrastructure projects and bring forward projects in order to maintain jobs and actually produce something with it due to Labour's structural deficit being so large after the extremely wobbly foundations they built their entire economic plan on came tumbling down.

The fact is although GDP is still rising we are in a frightfully weak position still. The recovery has been jobless and with large cuts in the public sector absolutely needed and a lack of action to stimulate the private sector into hiring and producing to take up the slack I'm not sure how it'll pan out as without private sector hiring in a big way the welfare bill will go up.

To be perfectly honest in this economic mess the major losers are us, there are no winners, it'll be extremely painful whatever, just a matter of when and how much.

The only potential winner so far is ignorance, ignorance of just what a mess Labour's economic policies caused as evidenced by anyone who would trust them with the economy for a further 5 years. Their only real positive action has been saving the banking system in the country from falling into disarray.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

Election day will be just like any other day to me, and to be honest, every person in this country should treat it the same.
83% of the population do not trust politicians, does that not say something?
The politicians in this country are the cause of our problems, therefore they cannot be the solution.
If on the other hand there was the opportunity to tick a box that said " None of the above " I may take a detour from the shop to vote.

You could just write that on your ballot paper...

---------- Post added at 14:44 ---------- Previous post was at 14:37 ----------

Originally Posted by Damien

What are everyone's views on the possible effect of Greece's financial crisis on this election?

It's probably negative for the Liberal Democrats who are not regarded as strong on the economics and are pro Euro. The stronger the issues of the econmany and Europe are in the election then the weaker the Liberal Democrats will do in my view (despite the fact there were calling the global recession earlier than any of the others).

It's harder to work out who would benefit between the Conservatives and Labour. First of all the British economy never descending into the crisis Greece has and, although Labour are at fault for not saving money in order to deal with the level of debt incurred fighting the recession, they were successful in bringing the country out of recession. Their policies worked. Maybe the public will be scared by the current situation, Osborne is unproven as Chancellor, and choose Labour.

However maybe they will decide that drastic cuts need to made to the budget in order to cut our debt and make sure we don't go down the same path as Greece?

In terms of the election I think it'll hurt the Lib Dems most, New Labour only slightly less and the Tories least of all. It remains to be seen what sort of European 'unity' will emerge from this growing crisis but I suspect there are going to be a lot of arguments and dithering before anything's done. Merkel has already delayed the decision on the Greek bail-out until after some important elections at home and I predict more delays and hiccups will follow if the crisis spreads.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport..._greek_ba.html

Newsflash:

Gordon Brown's on his way to Rochdale to apologise to that nasty 'bigot' in person.... I wonder why he'd do that

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

Election day will be just like any other day to me, and to be honest, every person in this country should treat it the same.
83% of the population do not trust politicians, does that not say something?
The politicians in this country are the cause of our problems, therefore they cannot be the solution.
If on the other hand there was the opportunity to tick a box that said " None of the above " I may take a detour from the shop to vote.

I personally don't think people's cynicism should be indulged.

You say politicians are the cause of our problems which is clearly untrue. They can fail to tackle a problem or indeed cause some problems but that is to be expected. They are human and we all make mistakes, difference is ours are not amplified nationwide and then picked up by an entire population who claim it was an obvious mistake and they would have fixed it.

Part of the problem seems to be that everyone thinks governing a country is easy and anyone could do it. It might help if there were slightly more respect.

So if we get rid of politicians then who else should run the country? Or was that just a populist parroted line without much thought about it?

---------- Post added at 14:50 ---------- Previous post was at 14:48 ----------

Originally Posted by Osem

In terms of the election I think it'll hurt the Lib Dems most, New Labour only slightly less and the Tories least of all. It remains to be seen what sort of European 'unity' will emerge from this growing crisis but I suspect there are going to be a lot of arguments and dithering before anything's done. Merkel has already delayed the decision on the Greek bail-out until after some important elections at home and I predict more delays and hiccups will follow if the crisis spreads.

I agree. Anything that brings Europe and the Economy to the fore will damage the Liberal Democrats. I don't think it's entirely fair as I don't think this is an admission of the failure of the EU principle but it might spell trouble for the Euro.

[ashgray]

If dear old gordy thinks that little old lady is a bigot,he should come knocking on my door and i'll really show him what a bigot is.
and i don't give a castlemaine xxxx what anybody thinks about me either.

Originally Posted by ashgray

If dear old gordy thinks that little old lady is a bigot,he should come knocking on my door and i'll really show him what a bigot is.
and i don't give a castlemaine xxxx what anybody thinks about me either.

Your boasting about being a bigot

[Angua]

Originally Posted by Damien

I personally don't think people's cynicism should be indulged.

You say politicians are the cause of our problems which is clearly untrue. They can fail to tackle a problem or indeed cause some problems but that is to be expected. They are human and we all make mistakes, difference is ours are not amplified nationwide and then picked up by an entire population who claim it was an obvious mistake and they would have fixed it.

Part of the problem seems to be that everyone thinks governing a country is easy and anyone could do it. Therefore they treat all politicians as dumb vermin.

So if we get rid of politicians then who else should run the country? Or was that just a populist parroted line without much thought about it?

Some of the distrust of politicians (leaving aside the expenses for once) could well be down to the party system. Where individuals get subsumed by political dogma and ambition excludes changing sides. Mostly seen when a determined journalist tries to pin them down & the MP sticks to the party line with a sour face. Possibly also why maverick independents like Martin Bell have been elected and bucked the party system.

[ashgray]

Originally Posted by Damien

Your boasting about being a bigot

yes, and i don't give a Mod Edit:what you or anyone else says.
i'd sooner be a bigot than a lying two faced ******* like gordon brown and his girlfriend mandy.

and before you ask or say,i am not a bnp supporter either.

Swearing is against the T&Cs and this was a blatant attempt to get around the swear filter.Your meaning was quite clear,please don't do it again.