General Election (1 Viewer)

[Liquid Gold]

I don't think having a degree in politics really makes a difference if I'm honest. The one thing that is massively lacking in politics these days, voters and politicians, is common sense.

I'm not saying it makes my opinion more correct than anybody else's. I'm just trying to point out that saying people voting a different way are stupid or uninformed just because they don't agree with you is bollocks.

 

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[NorthernWisdom]

look at TTIP, that wasn't capitalism, that was greed for greeds sake and at all costs. That's the way we are heading.

That was one of the best arguments for leaving the EU... if I had faith we'd negotiate something better ourselves!

 

[Kingokings204]

I don't think anybody agrees with HS2 do they? The cost and benefit to it makes no sense. Money well better spent somewhere else for certain. I hope they scrap it.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

there is a sensible alternative, stop so much wealth finding it's way to such a small % of people and institutions. I'm not talking about punitive measures against the rich, just a more sensible distribution of wealth to improve public services and wages and standards of living for working people. I mean working families having to use food banks, that can't be right can it?

The greed is out of control, look at TTIP, that wasn't capitalism, that was greed for greeds sake and at all costs. That's the way we are heading.

Completely agree, but where is this sensible solution?

It seems to be a case of pick the thing which is the biggest priority to you, and fuck the rest of it off. There is no level headed all round good choice.

 

[theferret]

I don't think anybody agrees with HS2 do they? The cost and benefit to it makes no sense. Money well better spent somewhere else for certain. I hope they scrap it.

I'm usually in favour of large infrastructure projects, but just don't see a case for HS2. Same for Hinckley Point, it just isn't needed.

 

[Ian1779]

It just needs a change of attitude, both from big corporations and individuals who want to grab the biggest slice of the pie they can and fuck everybody else

This is the crux of the argument. There needs to be a desire to implement such a change, which is non existent in the Conservative Party.

 

[chiefdave]

Borrowing peaked in 2009/10, at a time of economic strife, but the aim was always to bring that down and they are

The Conservatives said they'd eliminate the deficit by 2015.

 

[theferret]

The Conservatives said they'd eliminate the deficit by 2015.

So what? They missed the target by a few years. I'm not sure why you care anyway, you are willing to lend your support to a party that is throwing the whole notion of deficit reduction out of the window. Surely you were glad?

Hardly a crime that the deficit reduction has taken longer than anticipated. Gordon Brown plundering pension funds and selling the nation's gold when the price was at the bottom of the cycle was a crime. Short memories some people.

 

[Kingokings204]

So what? They missed the target by a few years. I'm not sure why you care anyway, you are willing to lend your support to a party that is throwing the whole notion of deficit reduction out of the window. Surely you were glad?

Hardly a crime that the deficit reduction has taken longer than anticipated. Gordon Brown plundering pension funds and selling the nation's gold when the price was at the bottom of the cycle was a crime. Short memories some people.

I see no one on here mentioned Gordon browns selling of the nations gold. One of the worst pieces of business ever. He even said who he was selling to and when he was doing it. But shush it didn't happen.

 

[clint van damme]

So what? They missed the target by a few years. I'm not sure why you care anyway, you are willing to lend your support to a party that is throwing the whole notion of deficit reduction out of the window. Surely you were glad?

Hardly a crime that the deficit reduction has taken longer than anticipated. Gordon Brown plundering pension funds and selling the nation's gold when the price was at the bottom of the cycle was a crime. Short memories some people.

No it's not a crime, but when a government that's supposed to be an economic safe pair of hands misses one of it's targets surely that should set the alarm bells ringing. The conditions they took over in are irrelevant to the argument, they knew what they were inheriting and made the deficit prediction based on that.

 

[clint van damme]

I see no one on here mentioned Gordon browns selling of the nations gold. One of the worst pieces of business ever. He even said who he was selling to and when he was doing it. But shush it didn't happen.

I think you'll find Ferret just mentioned it!!
He didn't have anything else to sell after thatchers closing down sale!

 

[theferret]

I think you'll find Ferret just mentioned it!!
He didn't have anything else to sell after thatchers closing down sale!

Oh, there was still plenty to sell. Take the effective privatisation of the NHS in the Blair years. Around 100 PFI contracts worth £80 billion. £80 billion for a building programme that cost £11 billion. £4000 for every household in the UK. A cost of £2 billion per year to the NHS. A lot of people got very rich out of that scam. About £100 billion wiped off the value of pensions by Brown, hundreds of thousands denied final salary pension schemes. The last Labour administration did not exactly shower themselves in glory.

 

[martcov]

How are Greece getting on these days? Genuine question, I haven't heard them on the news for a while.

The others are going well, but I saw yesterday that Greece was in a small minus as regards growth. Spain is the leader of the resurgent economies as regards growth this year.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Depends how you define progressive. If we view it simply in terms of income tax, then we have a system that you could argue is very progressive and weighted in favour of low and middle earners - even in comparison to Germany (which is itself quite progressive when compared to other EU nations):

UK income tax
£0 £11,500 0%
£11,500 £45,000 20%
£45,000 £150,000 40%
£150,000 - 45%

Germany
€0 €8,354 0%
€8,355 €13,469 14% − 23.97%
€13,470 €52,881 23.97% − 42%
€52,882 €250,730 42%
€250,731 - 45%

I have lived in an EU country (under a socialist government) where both the tax and welfare systems were decidedly less 'progressive' and where austerity measures cut deeper than anything we experienced in the UK.

You say the Labour manifesto is 'fully costed', but that costing doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny. The fact they are proposing up to one quarter of a trillion pounds in additional borrowing has to raise alarm bells.

You can pick holes in the record of the Tories in government. There is no escaping the fact that they inherited a mess. Since then we have seen sustained growth, falling unemployment and a reducing deficit. They may have missed their targets in a number of areas, but show me a government that hasn't.

Blaming

I don't think having a degree in politics really makes a difference if I'm honest. The one thing that is massively lacking in politics these days, voters and politicians, is common sense.

This is the anti-intellectual age. Polling shows that the less educated people are the more they vote Tory, wonder why.

 

[clint van damme]

Oh, there was still plenty to sell. Take the effective privatisation of the NHS in the Blair years. Around 100 PFI contracts worth £80 billion. £80 billion for a building programme that cost £11 billion. £4000 for every household in the UK. A cost of £2 billion per year to the NHS. A lot of people got very rich out of that scam. About £100 billion wiped off the value of pensions by Brown, hundreds of thousands denied final salary pension schemes. The last Labour administration did not exactly shower themselves in glory.

they didn't shower themselves in any glory, and you've missed the cherry on the cake, the Iraq war. They were red tories, why do you think Rupert backed them?
The tories were going to rid the NHS of PFI when elected, of course they did no such thing and actually extended it,

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

Blaming


This is the anti-intellectual age. Polling shows that the less educated people are the more they vote Tory, wonder why.

I don't know, perhaps because they haven't gone to liberal based university campuses and aren't brainwashed with culture that comes with it?

 

[clint van damme]

I don't know, perhaps because they haven't gone to liberal based university campuses and aren't brainwashed with culture that comes with it?

I haven't got a university education, but good old working class common sense told me not to get into the gutter with murdoch, Dacre and their ilk and swallow their poisonous bullshit.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

I haven't got a university education, but good old working class common sense told me not to get into the gutter with murdoch, Dacre and their ilk and swallow their poisonous bullshit.

Good on you.

I don't like their shit either, but I don't think the liberal perspective is something I can wholeheartedly get into bed with also.

In fact, I'd rather just have a quiet pint in the city arms on my own!

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I don't know, perhaps because they haven't gone to liberal based university campuses and aren't brainwashed with culture that comes with it?

I went to a university where the Conservative society was ten times the Labour one, didn't change my outlook. Still, we can just take our degrees and go elsewhere, not like we need skilled workers in this country, even if we are brainwashed liberals.

 

[Grendel]

Interesting in these troubled times that the FTSE 100 reached a record high the other day.

 

[Kingokings204]

Interesting in these troubled times that the FTSE 100 reached a record high the other day.

Brexit hasn't happened yet and the conservatives are evil.

Seriously though it is good news and adds millions and billions to companies hopefully with the view to invest and see the U.K. As a positive future.

 

[RegTheDonk]

I think you'll find Ferret just mentioned it!!
He didn't have anything else to sell after thatchers closing down sale!

lol...he forgot the post office though, definately missed the boat there. I'm surprised SISU didn't flag that up, must have been the most under valued sale since the Ricoh lease went to WASPs?

Seriously though, I'm pro re-nationalising some things, profits going back into the system will help the burden on the public finances. Trouble is, how will Jez and his crew pay for it? I know it's cost effective to wait for franchises to elapse, but its going to cost a fortune otherwise.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

lol...he forgot the post office though, definately missed the boat there. I'm surprised SISU didn't flag that up, must have been the most under valued sale since the Ricoh lease went to WASPs?

Seriously though, I'm pro re-nationalising some things, profits going back into the system will help the burden on the public finances. Trouble is, how will Jez and his crew pay for it? I know it's cost effective to wait for franchises to elapse, but its going to cost a fortune otherwise.

Pie in the sky stuff, austerity is where it's at.

 

[Sick Boy]

That was one of the best arguments for leaving the EU... if I had faith we'd negotiate something better ourselves!

Any trade deal between the UK and the USA would be TTIP on steroids. Maybe one day the penny will finally drop.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Any trade deal between the UK and the USA would be TTIP on steroids. Maybe one day the penny will finally drop.

The Home Secretary today told police officers their pay rises will be capped at 1%, while being warned that forces are at risk of not providing full services. For all the talk about Jezza being a security threat, he isn't pledging to underfund our police forces.

 

[Sick Boy]

Just got another Theresa May leaflet through the door, don't think it mentions the Conservatives once. The proposition of a Labour government is conveyed like a cigarette pack warning.

 

[Grendel]

Just got another Theresa May leaflet through the door, don't think it mentions the Conservatives once. The proposition of a Labour government is conveyed like a cigarette pack warning.

Id take my chances on 60 woodbines a day over a Corbyn administration.

 

[Sick Boy]

Id take my chances on 60 woodbines a day over a Corbyn administration.

As I've said, I'm not a huge fan of JC but something in the country needs a radical change. That certainly isn't going to happen under May and any other Tory government.

 

[wingy]

No it's not a crime, but when a government that's supposed to be an economic safe pair of hands misses one of it's targets surely that should set the alarm bells ringing. The conditions they took over in are irrelevant to the argument, they knew what they were inheriting and made the deficit prediction based on that.

They were never going to meet it and knew it.
How did the markets react to that.
Did the floor cave in?
No, because they knew it wasn't achievable.
Just rhetoric to support the safe pair of hands mantra.
Living standards barely better than in 2007 -8.

 

[SIR ERNIE]

Just got another Theresa May leaflet through the door, don't think it mentions the Conservatives once. The proposition of a Labour government is conveyed like a cigarette pack warning.

Sounds about right to me, reckon plenty would agree with that.

 

[Monners]

God I hate the Tories!

 

[wingy]

Sounds about right to me, reckon plenty would agree with that.

Well they've been incessantly told so from the establishment from day one of his democratic election to the post.
And his supposed acolytes........ well!
Nothing but treacherous.

 

[ccfchoi87]

Could we get a poll to see who Sky blues talk would vote for like the EU thread?

 

[Liquid Gold]

Could we get a poll to see who Sky blues talk would vote for like the EU thread?

I already asked and got nothing. It's like North Korea in SBT land.

 

[clint van damme]

Could we get a poll to see who Sky blues talk would vote for like the EU thread?

good guys - Labour
Wrong uns - tories

Hope that helps:emoji_smile: