Who Are You Voting For in May?

[adam&chryss]

Very true, Adam ... ! Trouble is, too many folk are brainwashed into behaving like a lot of when it comes to availing themselves of their electoral right ... rather than break familial habits of a lifetime. It's like, "Oh well, I've always voted for the 'X' Party ... because my DAD did - and HIS father before him - and besides, better the you KNOW, &c ... !" And on it goes ...

I must admit i`ve always voted Labour but I just can`t bring myself too this time. Neither can I vote Conservative. I was impressed with Nick Clegg during the debate and I hope they will win some votes over the other 2 main parties.
Brown wobbled like an old woman and Cameron didnt have his usual smarmy look about him. I think he looked a little worried to be honest though he wasnt helped by being put in the middle of the other two. Brown and Clegg found it easy to address the other two at the same time without having to twist this way and that.
I wonder if they`ll move them about for the next debate.

[Arthur Little]

the libs have no chance
it was easy for clegg, he blamed labour and past tory govs for all the problems, and they couldnt throw anything back at him, even you Arthur are too young to remember the last lib gov , in fact you wasn't even born, so not many people remember them in power, infact its a 100yrs ago 1910-1916 i think

... you don't believe in miracles then, Joe? How about the Power of Prayer?

[Arthur Little]

I was impressed with Nick Clegg during the debate

Yeah, a lot of people seem to have been ... if today's headlines referring to him as 'Mr Popularity' are to be believed!

[KeithD]

I think we all just vote LibDem and see what happens to the country.... couldn't be any worse than the other two

[South-east boy]

Not labour that's for sure-couldn't believe people voted for them the last time and look at what's happened since then!

[Arthur Little]

Never having been one to court popularity when faced with the stark facts, Margaret Thatcher turned out to be one of the strongest political leaders this country has ever had ... and, since we are badly in need of someone else in that mould ... how about Anne Widdecombe?

[Notavirusalso]

Just read this thread for the first time. Some of the posts are predictable, some amusing and some a little worrying at their rather skewed perceptions.
Who-ever is elected has to deal with a massive crisis and it is the fault of our system that they cannot be honest about that with us for if they were we would not vote for them. Having voted both labour and tory I genuinely decide on who I feel will serve the nations interest best, and not necessarily my own. I reject UKIP as having an adenda which is not suited to a modern UK. The BNP should become history asap. We simply don't want that sort of attitude in politics. There is no doubt about the solution to our problems, which must be to cut back on many areas of the public service, whilst raising the overall tax intake. It is too easy to suggest we simply tax the rich. It might make good headlines but the amounts raised are insignificant. The pain will have to be taken by everyone, even though I feel I have not been any part of the problem. I have no debt, not on a mortgage or a credit card. I have savings on which my interest has declined hugely. Add to that the fact that the yield on my pension pot has also declined, and the exchange rate collapse and I feel pretty sore. Nevertheless I accept that I cannot escape further pain. Having been part of the problem, in that they flirted with the city for so long, labour is now in trouble in handling the solution. The only reason I see them postponing dealing with it is to placate Unison, upon whom they rely for much of their funding. It will be Unison members who have to take many of the job losses which will undoubtably occur and they will fight. I guess the BA dispute is merely them practising and firing warning shots at the government. If we get another labour government we may never deal properly with this problem.
Whether a short lived coalition would be able to achieve electoral reform before another election is an open question. If I was confident it would I might well vote LibDem to achieve that for a do feel a root and branch overhaul is needed so that we can remove the tribal elements of British politics. Without that assurance I will be voting tory.
I witness at first hand how some of the public service has become ridiculously overblown, overmanned, overpaid and given un-deserved benefits. There seem to be more people carrying out performance checks, surveys and other tick box activities than doing the front line work. We compete with publically funded organisations who pay their staff 50% more than we do, when there is no need to pay those rates and give great pensions and other benefits. If they were private businesses they would make a loss but those losses are simply picked up by us, the taxpayers. There is a huge opportunity to reduce waste so on this alone I fully support Mr Cameron.

Good to see the Thatcherites back in town, cant wait till the tories get back in and sell of the rest of our public services and then subsides them....sweet, Stop beliveing the hype a vote for another party othe than lab/con is not a wated vote...

[walesrob]

Good to see the Thatcherites back in town, cant wait till the tories get back in and sell of the rest of our public services and then subsides them....sweet, Stop beliveing the hype a vote for another party othe than lab/con is not a wated vote...

Where does it say in the Tory manifesto they would privatise the rest of our public services?

DavidHouse does make a valid point about the economy needing sorting out. We really need to stop fooling ourselves and face the inevitable.

All this Thatcher this, Thatcher that, talk makes me laugh, always convenient to blame the guy from 20 years ago. Labour have had 13 years, now they want more time to fix the problems they've created - oh silly me, it was the Americans, ah yes, of course, it was Thatcher wot done it, and you must not vote Tory as they will ruin everything. Ah don't worry, the National Insurance rise will fix everything, but we wont increase your tax allowance, even though prices have gone up, especially petrol, now £1.25 where I live. Its ok, trust Labour. FOOLS!

Woah look, unemployment at its highest since 1995.

Tell you what, vote Brown back in, and enjoy the show.

[jimeve]

My mortgage is ready for a review, think I will get a fixed rate, say 5 years just in case the torys get in. they will put rates up. 15% looks familiar (thatcher)

[IainBusby]

My mortgage is ready for a review, think I will get a fixed rate, say 5 years just in case the torys get in. they will put rates up. 15% looks familiar (thatcher)

Interest rates at 15%.... Oh yes, it really did happen. It was tory chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992 if I remember correctly. Now just remind me who it was that was special advisor to Norman Lamont at the time he hiked interest rates up to 15% oh yes I just remembered, it was David Cameron.

[walesrob]

My mortgage is ready for a review, think I will get a fixed rate, say 5 years just in case the torys get in. they will put rates up. 15% looks familiar (thatcher)

Thats one of the most defeatist post I've ever read on this forum.

Can you tell me some lottery numbers then, as you seem to know for sure that if the Tories win, interest rates will automatically rise to 15%. You do know Thatcher left in 1990? So I can't see how this is relevant to what might happen in the future. The same can be applied to Labour, they learned from their mistakes back in the 70's and didn't (dare) repeat it in 1997.

[walesrob]

Interest rates at 15%.... Oh yes, it really did happen. It was tory chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992 if I remember correctly. Now just remind me who it was that was special advisor to Norman Lamont at the time he hiked interest rates up to 15% oh yes I just remembered, it was David Cameron.

And the sheeple, er, people voted them back in the same year. Weird.

[keithAngel]

I enjoyed the Thatcher years , you knew where you where, up st creek without a paddle , Its a bit like the telly and the remote flicking through to find the least worse nah dont think I will bother

[joebloggs]

Woah look, unemployment at its highest since 1995.
.

i think you will find unemployment under thatcher was higher at well over 3M in 85, and she had been MP for 5yrs already so she cant blame the previous gov (unemployment was less than 1.5m when she became MP)

[walesrob]

i think you will find unemployment under thatcher was higher at well over 3M in 85, and she had been MP for 5yrs already so she cant blame the previous gov (unemployment was less than 1.5m when she became MP)

You see Joe, you've proved whats wrong with British politics, its stuck. In a loop.

[joebloggs]

You see Joe, you've proved whats wrong with British politics, its stuck. In a loop.

your younger than me rob, but without giving my age away , under thatcher you left school and went on the dole

yes things never change, it will probably make no difference if labour or tories get in

dont you member the news at 10, when they had a tally of all the job losses ,,, 10,000s a week,,

[jimeve]

Thats one of the most defeatist post I've ever read on this forum.

Can you tell me some lottery numbers then, as you seem to know for sure that if the Tories win, interest rates will automatically rise to 15%. You do know Thatcher left in 1990? So I can't see how this is relevant to what might happen in the future. The same can be applied to Labour, they learned from their mistakes back in the 70's and didn't (dare) repeat it in 1997.

I call it common sense, not talking about 90s but 80s.
lowest rate for a longtime. What was the unemployment figure under thatcher, 5 million or more; what were interest rates, around 15 %

[Notavirusalso]

Nice to see that now Clegg is "popular" he's being attacked by the corporate backed media...like they havent got their own agenda

[adam&chryss]

Was watching TV earlier with the SNP on. Made me wonder why Scotland and Wales arnt independent of England?
Can anyone enlighten me?
Someone told me that we pay for the Scots prescription and tuition fees. Is that true and if so do we do the same for the Welsh?

[IainBusby]

Was watching TV earlier with the SNP on. Made me wonder why Scotland and Wales arnt independent of England?
Can anyone enlighten me?
Someone told me that we pay for the Scots prescription and tuition fees. Is that true and if so do we do the same for the Welsh?

There is a formula called the Barnett formula which is used to work out how much funding the Scottish parliament gets from the UK treasury (the same UK treasury into which Scottish taxpayers also pay) each year and the Scottish parliament decides how it will spend this money. The Scottish parliament decided that from the funding it was given, that it could afford to offer free prescriptions, free tuition fees and other free services which we in England have to pay for.

[Pete/London]

Nick Clegg was being interviewed by Andrew Marr this morning and had no responsible answers to this country becoming overwhelmed by immigration.His idea of granting area work permit visas is a joke as the applicant can bring his family, who they hope will only mean i extra person, and they can live anywhere they like, and then they hope they all return home after the visa expires.Failing that they will probably grant another amnesty.
I have not forgotten the thieving who have milked the expense system dry at our expense and will not vote for any sitting MP. I will probably vote Ukip on the thinking that the other parties have made such a cock up of our finances and border controls, giving the thieving banks my money to pay themselves huge bonuses and wages , could they do any worse.
Stop all welfare benefits, open up soup kitchens and give out food parcels, no more cash handouts for anything,that will cut down the queues at the borders.
Bring back financial controls on money being taken out of the country.

"not well thought out but just fed up with the present system"

[joebloggs]

abuse of the immigration system in the uk and europe is wide spread.

those on student visa's can work upto 20hrs aweek, they can bring THEIR DEPENDENT RELATIVES, who can work without any restrictions , then when the student visa route has dried up, they switch or the other applies for teir 2 and it carries on..

fake colleges and unis above the local chip shop who have 100s of students on their books.

there must be many 10,000s who are hiding waiting for an amnesty or trying not to get caught and claim ILR under the 14yr illegal stay rule. and if there is one amnesty more will come waiting for another..

illegal immigrants in the UK or Europe who have kids and then try and claim a right to stay mentioning article 8 of the human rights act

illegal immigrants marrying Europeans in the UK and using EU rules so their past immigration status or crimes don't matter

nearly every player in a Pakistani cricket team flew to Ireland for a game, and they all had fiancé waiting for them

i could go and but i'll not


with his wife and solicitor , and whos paying for his solicitor

[IainBusby]

Nick Clegg was being interviewed by Andrew Marr this morning and had no responsible answers to this country becoming overwhelmed by immigration.His idea of granting area work permit visas is a joke as the applicant can bring his family, who they hope will only mean i extra person, and they can live anywhere they like, and then they hope they all return home after the visa expires.Failing that they will probably grant another amnesty.
I have not forgotten the thieving who have milked the expense system dry at our expense and will not vote for any sitting MP. I will probably vote Ukip on the thinking that the other parties have made such a cock up of our finances and border controls, giving the thieving banks my money to pay themselves huge bonuses and wages , could they do any worse.
Stop all welfare benefits, open up soup kitchens and give out food parcels, no more cash handouts for anything,that will cut down the queues at the borders.
Bring back financial controls on money being taken out of the country.

"not well thought out but just fed up with the present system"

None of the main parties have an answer to the two real immigration problems as the real problems don't relate to legal immigration from outside the EU which is the only kind of immigration they seem to discuss. The first real immigration problem is the immigration problem eminating from the EU and the other problem is that of illegal immigration where their hands are tied mainly by foreign governments taking so long to issue travel documents for the illegals who are rounded up by the UKBA.

I do think however that the fines given to employers who employ illegals should be set at a point where it's likely to bankrupt them if they do employ them and get caught. Most of the illegals know that there is a thriving black economy in the UK and all they have to do is get here, find a job and keep a low profile.

If the fines for employers were high enough to deter them from taking on illegals, I think that gradually as the word trickled down that even if you get to the UK, the chances of earning a living are very low, that this would have some effect on the levels of illegals trying to come here in the first place.

I also think that the government should as a priority, try to do deals or get agreements with the foreign governments who fail to issue travel documents within a reasonable period of time.

Iain.

[adam&chryss]

There is a formula called the Barnett formula which is used to work out how much funding the Scottish parliament gets from the UK treasury (the same UK treasury into which Scottish taxpayers also pay) each year and the Scottish parliament decides how it will spend this money. The Scottish parliament decided that from the funding it was given, that it could afford to offer free prescriptions, free tuition fees and other free services which we in England have to pay for.

Thanks Iain