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The Labour Party believes that unemployment is a problem.
The Conservative Party believes that unemployment is a solution, and uses it to lower wages and increase business profitability.
Hope that helps.
Gerald,
The difficulty I have with that simplistic view is that the only place in which the current government has reduced unemployment is Poland.
And the only policy they seem to have for reducing unemployment in this country is to change the definition.
AP
No 25 Large on Labour this time then APR
I’ve had a punt on more than 70 Liberal seats at ~4/1
Hardly terrific value but seems reasonable given the ‘Cable’ factor and the utter disillusion prevalent with the other two
At least it’ll keep me awake during this interminable election campaign
Four weeks, jeez
Drone,
I don’t think this is anything like so predictable as 1997, although I wouldn’t mind a lump on the Tory in my local constituency, Swindon North.
He has to overturn a 2,500 majority from last time, the incumbent Labour MP has thrown in the towel, and his replacement is a Unite sponsored import from outside the constituency.
This bloke is a district councillor, a county councillor (in Surrey) and works at Heathrow. He got off to a great start by telling the local rag that he was a British Airways chief executive, but as his name isn’t Willie Walsh and it seemed unlikely that a Unite rep was running the airline, this attracted a deal of online comment!
Then he announced that if elected, he planned to continue as a county councillor in Surrey, before being forced into a u-turn by the local Labour hierarachy.
All in all, he’s proved about as popular so far as the annual arrival of the train load of Bristol City supporters. So the 5/1 on for his Tory opponent looks as if it should be more like 50/1 on.
AP
My MP is Vincent Cable … so the Cable factor will work for me..
Very nice bloke when you meet him too
Otherwise, this is a strange election. Brown is a poor leader by anyones (except the North korean style lotyalists weve seen on here) standards, but he is backed up by a shrewd operator in Mandleson, a chancellor who is strongly respected (I think this is a huge factor myself) and liked (measure of Browns judgement that he tried to dump him). A reasonable cabinet, barring the idiot Harman who is unquestionably the thickest leading politician in living memory
Cameron doesnt quite convince does he? the eton thing is neither here nor there (Douglas Hurd was eton too) but its all just a little bit too smooth and a little too PR driven. Hes not as sharp as some of his team (Hague for instance) and although likeable enough, just falls a bit flat. A tory kinnock maybe?
Agree that Cameron doesn’t really convince; a middleweight rather than a heavyweight though I’m prepared to ‘give him a chance’ as I was Blair (who didn’t convince me either) in ’97 following the final withering of a Tory government long gone to seed, like this current Labour lot
I side with neither of the main parties but of the possible post-election Conservative cabinet I’ve a bit of time for Michael Gove, Dominic Grieve and – it goes without saying – Ken Clarke; all of whom do appear to have a brain, think before they speak, articulate their views well and appear well-versed in the subjects they’ve been chosen – or chosen – to specialise in
Yep, give them a go. I expect little from our politicians so won’t be disappointed at what will in all likelihood be a disappointing set of ‘new faces’…
meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Hope the Greens and Liberals do well. Be nice and democratically healthy if either or both get a voice in a hung parliament through a coalition or whatever
No idea what the Spreads are but a sell of turnout would seem a safe ploy. Sad, but who really cannot be disaffected by the rotten State to a lesser or greater degree
I don’t want to preach, marb, but I find it reassuring that the police are watching out for people acting suspiciously near to schools. A few weeks ago I got pulled over by the police late at night because I had my fog lights on. They said they could have fined me but didn’t. I was really upset and angry at the time, but have since been told by other drivers that these lights do dazzle people and cause problems when driving.As for the election, I can’t believe that I feel so indifferent to it all. I could never vote Tory, so it will probably be a Liberal vote this time.
Is it just me – I’ve noticed that Nick Clegg sounds and acts like David Cameron; or is it the other way round ?
As for the election itself. The Murdoch led press, Tory proganda machine and fickleness of our southern cousins ( yes !
) will ensure that the Tories take power in May.No matter, I remain steadfastly opposed to anything connected with Cameron’s spin or his ghastly party.
I will NEVER, EVER, vote Conservative.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Same here; I will never ever believe that they actually ‘care’ about people, no matter how much they try to persuade me otherwise.
For me it is utterly depressing that apparently 400 seats in the ‘new’ parliament can be predicted ahead of the vote and /or will not change.
The system is far from perfect but there is a palpable sense of total ‘who cares?/whats the point?’ apathy about the election but wouldn’t a good place to start be making sure that any of the remaining expense fiddlers ( those that haven’t stood down to collect their ill gotten pensions)do not get re-elected? Especially those who have so far offered the truly shameful defence of : ‘What I did was within the rules’.I still believe it is possible to have a parliament made up of honest and ethical people.
What we need is the information of what our sitting MPs have claimed during their last term actually on the ballot paper so that we can judge if they are corrupt.
We also need an unbiased analysis/audit of whether this government have been successful or not or if they have failed how and why-the cold hard facts must be out there but all we get is slanging matches or bias…..We need facts to make a decision on rather than how much we may or may not like their wives or the other nauseating trivia the mainstream media seem to concentrate on.
Moehat, just out of interest why where you ‘upset and angry’, at the time, about being pulled over by the police for the mis-use of fog lights?
Did they not fully explain their reasons for doing so?
Four weeks, jeez
Thread is so titled, just in case there’s another one later in the year.
Why cant Britain never elect Liberal Democrats?
Surely the rest have bombed out why not give the small guy in the corner a chance to show what he has got
It’s very easy to say and do the right thing when in permanent opposition; power corrupts, I’m sad to say. But, yes, the Liberals have always been the voice of reason; the good guys.
Moehat – years ago I was pulled over late at night on my way home from the stables by the police for apparently having my fog lights on when I shouldn’t (in thick fog!)"Oh yes madam and we’d like a word with the 2 gentlemen in the back seat" Ha Ha – you should’ve seen his face when he shoved his head in my window – and there were my 2 rottweilers sitting up in the back – not 2 black men in hoodies as he obviously thought!! LOL.
Sorry Pompete; I didn’t answer your question. I was driving home in the early hours of the morning on an isolated stretch of road, and couldn’t understand why I suddenly had a police car after me. Didn’t at first think that they were after me and thought they would overtake me and drive off to a crime being committed somewhere. When I pulled over I was shaking because something like that had never happened to me before. I knew I wasn’t breaking the speed limit
or using a mobile phone
. I see people doing both every day and they never seem to get stopped. When they said they could fine me £60 I couldn’t believe it. It was only afterwards when I spoke to people who do a lot more driving than I do that I realised how dangerous it is to drive with fog lights on and how they dazzle people. After a couple of days I understood how and why it had happened, and was grateful that the police had handled the situation as sensibly as they did. As I said, I see such awful driving so often and nothing seems to happen to these people. What I tried to point out to marb was that, sometimes we get angry about such things but in retrospect we are at fault. They also breathalised me and I hardly ever drink, either!
) will ensure that the Tories take power in May.
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