This has some what become a little worry for me or the last few years. Going back a few decades it was seen the upper classes, like bank managers and buisness men were Tory who didn't care about the country on a whole, but only about self profit, so along came the labor party who introduced the NHS, at much pain ending in bribing the doctors. But something semi good came of it all and countless amount of lives have been saved because of the NHS. But ever since Blair and his 'new labor' the more i feel that it was in fact a Tory in red, and things haven't gone that well ever since. So when the election comes up who would you actually back, because the Tory's broken the back of the country by removing its industry and focused on corporate banking which would disappear in a recession... Labour haven't really put anyone up worth knowing about. may aswell vote for the monster raving mad party, because at the moment the UK is sliding down hill and there is no brakes to save us. Why is it are main money making skills are selling insurance and banking, the uk cant make much for its self anymore, i am on about physical items like are now gone steel industry.
Common thread in post-industrial nations. We're dealing with a lot of the same issues here, how do we find ourselves in an increasningly globalized world. We're (finally IMO) coming to the realization that there is nothing special about Americans and that there are people in China and India and Bangladesh who are just as smart as we are and willing to work harder for way less money. The "profit is king" brand of capitalism that hasd been practiced here for the last two centuries (longer in the UK) demands that if someone in North Elbonia is willing to make things for 3 cents an hour we must ship the job to them so we can make more profit. Problem is, pretty soon there are no more jobs left here. Like you said, we don't make much anymore and there aren't very many jobs for the really brght people, leaving the rest of us working at McDonalds.
I think branding the current economic state of the country onto the Conservative party would be jumping the gun a bit, the Labour government in the last 5 years has really not done that many beneficial things for this country, yes there are some, but so so so many wrongs, and clearly absoloutely no plans have been laid out to properly cope with the credit crunch and all that palava, which cannot be outright blamed on Tory actions from 20 to 30 years ago - it's a world problem, perhaps excerbated by our countries capitalistic nature, but without capitalism we would be nowhere, someone always loses out mate, but at the end of the day when you go entirely socialist, hard work is much less rewarded. Consumer confidence is at an all time low due to Gordon Brown looking so bloody worried himself 100% of the time, it does make one wonder what exactly our Government is trying to achieve in it's current state, I completely agree with that. I think David Cameron is perhaps a touch too soft, but compared to all the rest of the cards on the table - I personally see no other option, except not voting, and that's not a solution in my opinion unless nobody at all votes. I think to solve this quickly, some sort of extremist party would have to come into power, but the long term ramifications would be absurdly bad. Patience old chap...patience...
But it was Thatcher that backed private buiness and created britains biggest export, 'banking'. So we can blaim them. Yes the unions became too powerfully for there own good, but the miners striked because they felt under paided, but they still grafted there arses off! As far as i am aware the only thing the Tory's have done is recapture a lump of rock in the southern atlantic ocean back from those argies! Those penguins are ours! Were not an empire, honest! Maybe i have alot of hate for the Tory party, but there is good reason for it. The fact that Labour hasn't really done anything other than get alot of are lads blown up overseas for what? THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM aka 'T.W.A.T'. Why dose are government seem to care more about other countries by giving them aid, when Britain needs the aid money. Are train network is a joke, public highway well thats a joke when compared to europe also considering we part with a fair chunk of are money on road tax. Education has just gone down hill, i bet most 8 year olds could a modern GCSE paper, the current education system is creating fine McSlaves. Have you also noticed how alcohol has suddenly dropped in price, super markets doing massive offers. 'Get the people pissed, they wont even see whats happening to the country nor would they care!'
Learn to spell or at least take the time to read what you've just written, maybe then people will take you seriously. The people on the Falkland islands wanted to remain part of Great Britain and if they had not been recaptured nobody would have taken Britain seriously again, it would have been an invitation for any crackpot dictator to have a shot because, after all, they wont fight back. Britain is a very small nation and yet we have (or maybe had.. ) a lot more weight internationally that some much larger countries, there is no doubt to me that that would be gone if Thatcher hadn't gone to war. Blair WAS a tory in red, new labour is old tory, and yet we kept re-electing him and now that there's someone at the top who just might have some real labour credentials we're going to go back to the torys. We will get what we deserve and its going to be grim. Moriquendi
if you care more about grammer and spelling then this thread isn't for you. Yes i agree at times i type too quickly and make mistakes, but english language isn't spot on after all i am an engineer not a dam grammer nazi. Please excuse me for that little rant.
engineer or not, you should still be capable of spelling 'our' correctly. i thoroughly agree with the state of todays education.
Even engineers need to be able to communicate with other people, after all if you can't communicate you can't work with other people and thats what engineering is all about these days. Some of your posts are so badly written that it's neigh on impossible to work out what you're saying, to give an example; Could what a modern GCSE paper? I didn't actually say anything about your grammar because I know that mine is far from perfect but missing out whole words is just plain lazy. Moriquendi
aint that the truth in all honesty the whole thing plays right into the nationals hands also, if the torries get there is a very good chance that it'll be bye bye union. People in Wales and Scotland don't want another tory government (i suspect that anyone out of the south east is in the same boat) and the SNP and plaid cymru will use it to push and manipulate people in to voting for independence. That would imo be bad for all involved England may make most of the money but we have the Nukes....
Engineers need very accurate communication skills, able to convey extremely complex concepts in a concise and effective manor. That is, unless, you're an engineering technician - which isn't an engineer. And that's all I have to say about that... Back on topic, we (anyone) needs a goverment that's: A) Streamlined, effective and efficient services. The government needs to provide good services in health and education for the majority before it worries about the minority. B) Have the balls to implement real change when needed. C) Do what's best for it's people, not for it's p.c. visions. Enough of social engineering. Though quite who this is, I'm not sure. It's certainly not labour. And that's all I have to say about that...
It seems like in the last 2 elections the liberal democrats have put forth well thought-out, progessive policys and yet most people don't consider them a major power. I vote them anyway
Same here, they consistently seem to have the best policies IMHO, but nobody seems to vote for them I'm sorely tempted to vote Tory this time though just get Labour out... not that i feel that they're a great deal better, but at this point you couldn't get any worse...
Well duh! Our lord and saviour Tony's father was a Tory, so rebellious young Tony tossed the Tories and joined Labour where - like many rebellious children - he went and followed in his father's footsteps anyway, while telling himself he wasn't. Being a child of the Conservative government, I'm sorry to admit that I was duped by the New Labour guff, believing we were on the brink of a bright future. I remember commenting on the morning of May 2nd how much fresher the air smelled. Come my first election in 2001, I knew that Labour had done things wrong, but voted for them anyway, giving them the benefit of the doubt. I have been ashamed of this action ever since. In 2005 I voted Liberal Democrat, and as things stand I will do again. I sometimes wonder where we would be if John Smith had survived.
Read Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain for how we got from the post-war industrial society with a very marked class system and little mobility to our current shopping society with far greater uniformity, high mobility, far richer citizens. Rich nations cannot have an industrial base - the citizens don't want to do manual work and at the wages needed to encourage them, it's more economical to buy from the Third World. It's roughly as simple as that.
Bring back the Liberals, they deserve another shot after such a long time. Also, bring back Charles Kennedy, sure he liked the booze - but who doesn't?
im going to vote liberal dems, I really dont know what they stand for or what their policies are but in all honesty - I cant imagine things getting any worse?
