I am going to vote for Labour the coming election and I hope I can probably put up a decent argument for why here. They have let the country down on many things thats for sure...but thinking about it - what would happen if the Conservatives got into power? I didnt vote for Labour in the local elections to get my point across, to show how annoyed I was with things...but letting the conservatives get in would be so much more worse...I fear the country is so anti-labour right now it will forget the consequences if they let the Conservatives get a handle. I remember what it was like with Marg-rat Thatcher and the John Major years...believe me it wasnt pretty = unemployment was at an all time high, the governments finances were a total mess, interest rates were hovering at 12% not to mention the disaster that was the poll tax.....Thinking about it all...Labour have done all right by those standards. Less than a year has passed and the economy is now showing signs of recovery...I think thats not too bad considering. This credit disaster was felt world-wide so I cant blame Labour for that, the world had it coming and everyones to blame, us for taking on these risky mortgages, the bankers for not keeping a handle on it, all of us and its easy to blame whichever government is in power - sometimes we learn from experience...I feel labour will learn more from it all, the expenses scandals, the bad press...all of it - It will help them learn more than the tories will. Cameron hasnt got a clue how to run this country - I fear a conservative government would make things so much more worse... Views?
Whichever party respects civil rights and privacy gets my vote. Or at least that's a big factor in what'll be deciding my vote. Even better, AFAIK the next general election will be the first time that my constituency gets a new representative in 20+ years. Although it'll likely remain a massively conservative vote. Edit: I'm not voting labour though, although I agree with your argument about the credit disaster. I just couldn't vote for a government that involved Mandelson or isn't outraged by the proposals that Jacqui Smith made. And I don't think that I'll vote conservative for the same reasons as you've said above. Also, there's the whole ew, conservative thing.
Well, Conservatives are definately not getting a vote from me at the general electrion. Why? Because the idiotic Conservatives that control Nottinghamshire County Council have decided to completely pull funding from the Nottingham tram extensions, meaning that hundreds of small businesses along the proposed route will no longer get the promised financial aid they need during construction (source). The reason they have pulled funding? They don't believe the tram offers value. And they refuse to back the Workplace Parking Levy which would have got people out of their cars and onto public transport. All this from a political party which claims they want to cut congestion on the roads and get the public using more public transport (source). It's this "say one thing do another" mentality that seriously puts me off voting for them.
Both Labour and Conservative are equally bad imo - Labour has screwed up just as much as when Conservative were in power. Labour had to deal with a few bad things - Foot & Mouth, the Millenium Dome - the whole millenium funding dilemna, wasted lots of tax payers money on - imo pointless things, so many schools have shut down in Labours power. The fireman's stirke, the council strike, the war "on terror" Cons have had a bad rep - Coal miners strike, Poll Tax, unemployment. Yes unemployment at the moment has hit a huge high (I have been part of this), and this has been felt world wide (western world) The war in Iraq and Afgan has had a blow to the current government, The G8, G20 confrences etc. More importantly the current MP's making dodgy claims on expences which was all MP's, not too mentioning the fuel shortages a few years back, caused by Labour but they could still be driven around in high consumption cars, John Prescott went to a meeting, ONE meeting and took 3 different cars to this!! Plus the issue with Tony Blairs wife, buying property for a snatch and selling it for a HUGE profit, abusing the system..........but wouldn't we all?? Each party has the same policies, each think they could do it better, but both have equally failed, they are all wolves in sheeps clothing. So as you will probably get from this - I am undecided on who to vote for.
Theres a very good reason for the poor gov't finances, high unemployment and high interest rates during Maggie Thatchers time, she inherited the mess the last Labour Gov't left as well as militant unions with a jobs for the boys philosophy. That said I won't vote labour or conservative, they're both as bad as each other in many respects.
As others have said, what you say about the current Labour government can be said about the past conservative government too. They did some good things, but they also ****ed up, as did all the governments before them, only problem is, people tend to forget about the good and just remember all the crap. It's all about what flavour turd you prefer.
Its a secret ballot, stop being illegal While I'm not sure I would go as far as to vote for them, the conservatives would probably not be terrible. Any party that wants to scrap ID cards wins in my books - Labour can barely hang onto what data it already has, why give them more to throw around ? TBH its what ufk said - conservative or labour, both pretty much as bad as one another. I wouldnt go as far as to do this myself, but if people just kept voting BNP maybe one day labour and conservatives will truly recognise how little faith the population has in them right now. If you really made them stand up and say "hey, if they are voting for the BNP over us, we must really be doing something wrong". The government is there to represent us, but if we want neither representing us but the alternatives are worse, what kind of ****ed up democracy are we living in ?
Because they're an entirely untested proposition. The Liberals haven't had a majority government since the 1930s, and haven't had any national control since the Lib-Lab pact days of the 1970s. The LibDems as a party have no experience of being in control of a government since they were formed in the late 80s. Still, with anti-Labour feeling running high, and the Tories offering no real policies other than bad-mouthing Labour, this might (extremely slim chance) be the election where LibDem get a chance at government. I think probably the best chance they'll get is if we have a hung parliament, and LibDems join forces with Labour to make up the majority. This is a real quandary of a general election. While I don't blame Labour for the current economic crisis (as others have said, it's a global problem and no one particular government was to blame), they have made other mistakes along the way - Brown not saving any reserves during the long period of unrivalled growth in the UK's history is just one example. The problem is that the Tories seem to offer no alternatives to Labour, only criticism. I've stopped watching Cameron on the news because I end up going shouty crackers at the TV when he appears - stop just criticising Labour, offer me an alternative solution. Still, I live in Wales, so I have a fourth option to the main three parties
I've noticed that about Conservative broadcasts. It's all "Labour are ****, look at what they've done wrong!" So? Tell us how you're going to be better.
Well to be entirely fair most Labour broadcasts are all, "Tory's are ****, look at what they did wrong when they were in power."
You say this like its a bad thing. I am voting lib dems, anyone who complains about labour/tory being the same and STILL votes for either is a god damn hypocrite
Labour are a shower of money grabbing gits. The tories are no better. I'd rather have old labour, not this tory wanabe party. they totaly sucked corprate ck with PFI (a tory idea, labour noticed the kickbacks they'd get by stealing a tory idea and sold out. You'd expect that sort of money grabbing pocket lining rubbish from the tories, getting it from labour is a kick in the nuts. I'm left wing, so that only leaves the greens and libs. Pissing a vote away. So I'm voting Tory. not 'cos I belive in them, not 'cos I trust them, not cos I like them. I expect a tory to be a money grabbing, tax fiddling, cnt and nothing more. Just what what we'd get from labour... Only this time I know what I'm getting. Tories: Do exatly what they say in the tin (money grabbing, corprate cck sucking, fiddlling, lying gits)
The performance of the Convervatives and Labour hardly seems to have benefitted any from their experience. To a certain extent Brown, like Obama, was handed a poisoned challice. Blair started off well but then made a few disasterous decisions like continuing with privatisation of transport and post, PFI initiatives in social and health care and utterly brown-nosing the US President in his megalomaniac pursuits of two unnecessary, disasterous, wastefully expensive wars. When the going got tough Blair bailed --if anything, that shows his true skill as a politician: knowing when to get out. Bush, by that time, was just coasting on the waves of his usual rethoric until his end of office. Brown was left to pick up the tab on various failed initiatives, two expensive, lingering wars and a market crash, peppered with a few expense scandals and weathering the childish tantrum of a population that can't come to grips with the fact that the good times are over and now they are paying the price for their irresponsible spending and complacency over two unjustified and expensive wars. Frankly, I think Brown has done rather well under the circumstances. The Sun has turned back to supporting the Tories, which, in my opinion, is enough reason not to support them. Frankly, we might as well give the Lib Dems a crack. What have we got left to lose? People get the government they deserve.
I'll be voting for Lib Dems, and I don't see it as a wasted vote. Voting for a party who's policies you don't agree with just because you see the others as a lost cause isn't the idea of democracy, and if everyone held that view then nothing would ever change.
Correction: the civil service lost that data that is just employee incompetence. Sounds pedantic but that is a nice bit of generalisation and logical fallacy you've got yourself there. A thought: We are living in a country which is doing a hell of alot better than it was 30 years ago maybe we are expecting endless improvements when at some point you have expect deminishing or negative returns. Therefore maybe our government hasn't done that badly and we are expecting alot more from them than they can give. Secondly are the tories and labour the same the tories wouldn't have enacted stimulus packages ( that is not an assumption it was a statement made by the tories in 2008 in parliament.) What would have happened without a stimulus well our economy would have seen what happened in 1929-31 again whereby demand keeps dropping. However I would vote my labour mp out of my constituency (hazel) because of her activities and because labour are a weak, divided party and this country wants change, nay needs change. But you do offer a good arguement for Proportional representation. Of course it is not a wasted vote in my constituency voting liberal offers us a chance to chuck hazel. Plus alot of people who would vote liberal think that so don't vote, hence well "I would vote liberal but it is a wasted vote" that is like voting tory because labour everone else is voting tory. Absolute power corrupts aboslutely, before you know it you'll be doing bad by your decisions. The liberals havent been a majority government since 1911-1918 and las participated in a coalition government yes the 1970s. Who in the current government has experience of running the country before they came into power in 1997? Maybe one person who used to be a junior minister. Ok and who in the tory cabinet has been in government before ken clarke thats it. So experience is not an arguement against voting liberal.
Not a lot, there's barely any difference between them - it's a bit like asking if you want your **** fried or boiled I don't think anyone really wants Cameron to be PM, they're just sick of Labour and fancy a change. What's more, most of the reasons people give for not liking Brown are stupid - it usually comes down to him being a wonky-faced Scot who's a bit of a social retard. I'll be protest voting for the Lib Dems (and did last time as well), but I don't want them in power either (it's a fairly safe gamble )
