The General Election Thread

[i kne albert davy]

I guess that as we are now into the run-in to the election it should not be a surprise that the 'blind' labour followers are out peddling the 'it was a global financial crisis - nothing to do with Labour' bollocks.

Thought that after the way this has been discussed on here not even the desperately blind would keep clinging to this crap.

IMO Labour would be better served by 'manning-up' and explaining what they have learned, particularly Ed Balls, and therefore would do different rather than just hope that people either can have very short memories or can be simply blinded with bollocks. That way they would earn more credibility. He should take the AA recommended approach and firstly admit that he has a problem - that way he can start the journey to recovery - at the moment he is utterly in denial.

In my best 'Spanish waiter' style - in 2010 the economy was utterly fucked and the direction was towards further doom - Fact

In 2015 we are in a polar opposite position and the direction is towards further strength - Fact.

Yeah - lets just hand back command to Ed Balls to run the economy without him explaining what he has learned - why is he suddenly qualified? - when previously he was proven to be incompetent? - that sounds like a strategy?

Not considering myself a blind Labour follower but neither so blind as to believe it wasn't a World financial crisis and while I'm not saying the Labour party did everything right, what they did do was provide the funds to stop the British banking system collapsing then we would have been in the shit big style, 12 month's before it went west over here I was in the states and people were trying to sell houses at almost half what they'd bought them for and when America sneezes the World catches a cold not much any British Government could do about it. Oh and if we're heading towards further strength why has personal debt hit record levels why had we still got a huge Government deficit and why is our trade balance so embarrassing financially this countries got a lot of problems and we aren't much nearer solving them, you'd have to be blind and wearing sunglasses not to see that I'm afraid.

 

[Scottyboi]

Estimates from Daily Politics this week (the interview I mentioned). I think it's very believable considering a large number employed on them are students and the semi-retired.

Presume it's this interview
She was appalling

Labour's Lucy Powell Loses Her Cool During 'Sunday Politics' Interview With Andrew Neil

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/29/lucy-powell-interview_n_6963826.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03 ... 63826.html</a>

She was truly appalling there imo. Not the brightest. Shows the piss poor standard of politicians across all parties, I'm afraid.

It was that interview that made me realize Labour aren't getting my vote. To let someone so incompetent carry out an interview like that was piss poor.

 

[johnny on the spot]

Owen Jones is on the telly but thankfully I can't hear him over Tom Tom club blaring in my headphones.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Presume it's this interview
She was appalling

Labour's Lucy Powell Loses Her Cool During 'Sunday Politics' Interview With Andrew Neil

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/29/lucy-powell-interview_n_6963826.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03 ... 63826.html</a>

She was truly appalling there imo. Not the brightest. Shows the piss poor standard of politicians across all parties, I'm afraid.

It was that interview that made me realize Labour aren't getting my vote. To let someone so incompetent carry out an interview like that was piss poor.

You should never lose control like she did.

As for her 'living in the real world' comments; fuck me. As a Labour MP in Central Manchester she's got a job for life on double the average wage and an eye-watering pension to boot. She could get caught merrily sucking off a goat and easily keep her seat and all that goes with it . How is that living in the real world? Living in the real world is not knowing if you can pay your rent/mortgage from one month to the next.

 

[Scottyboi]

She was truly appalling there imo. Not the brightest. Shows the piss poor standard of politicians across all parties, I'm afraid.

It was that interview that made me realize Labour aren't getting my vote. To let someone so incompetent carry out an interview like that was piss poor.

You should never lose control like she did.

As for her 'living in the real world' comments; fuck me. As a Labour MP in Central Manchester she's got a job for life on double the average wage and an eye-watering pension to boot. She could get caught merrily sucking off a goat and easily keep her seat and all that goes with it . How is that living in the real world? Living in the real world is not knowing if you can pay your rent/mortgage from one month to the next.

She was completely out of her depth, and I can't trust Labour with the economy. Mad how in a few day's I can change how I think.

 

[the blue panther]

Very unimpressive performances from Cameron in Downing Street today and, worryingly for the tories, I think their attack on Labour on tax - costing everyone 3k a year - also misfired. Add Grant Shapps exceptionally poor performance on Newsnight tonight & I think it was about as good a first day for every other party as they could possibly have expected.
Do any residents tories think otherwise?

 

[Scottyboi]

Very unimpressive performances from Cameron in Downing Street today and, worryingly for the tories, I think their attack on Labour on tax - costing everyone 3k a year - also misfired. Add Grant Shapps exceptionally poor performance on Newsnight tonight & I think it was about as good a first day for every other party as they could possibly have expected.
Do any residents tories think otherwise?

Tories are there own worst enemy, it's like they concentrate on demonizing the other party's instead of promoting theirs.

 

[Lucky13]

Do as I say not as I do , the Socialists love a hypocrite.

 

[mcfc1632]

I guess that as we are now into the run-in to the election it should not be a surprise that the 'blind' labour followers are out peddling the 'it was a global financial crisis - nothing to do with Labour' bollocks.

Thought that after the way this has been discussed on here not even the desperately blind would keep clinging to this crap.

IMO Labour would be better served by 'manning-up' and explaining what they have learned, particularly Ed Balls, and therefore would do different rather than just hope that people either can have very short memories or can be simply blinded with bollocks. That way they would earn more credibility. He should take the AA recommended approach and firstly admit that he has a problem - that way he can start the journey to recovery - at the moment he is utterly in denial.

In my best 'Spanish waiter' style - in 2010 the economy was utterly fucked and the direction was towards further doom - Fact

In 2015 we are in a polar opposite position and the direction is towards further strength - Fact.

Yeah - lets just hand back command to Ed Balls to run the economy without him explaining what he has learned - why is he suddenly qualified? - when previously he was proven to be incompetent? - that sounds like a strategy?

Not considering myself a blind Labour follower but neither so blind as to believe it wasn't a World financial crisis and while I'm not saying the Labour party did everything right, what they did do was provide the funds to stop the British banking system collapsing then we would have been in the shit big style, 12 month's before it went west over here I was in the states and people were trying to sell houses at almost half what they'd bought them for and when America sneezes the World catches a cold not much any British Government could do about it. Oh and if we're heading towards further strength why has personal debt hit record levels why had we still got a huge Government deficit and why is our trade balance so embarrassing financially this countries got a lot of problems and we aren't much nearer solving them, you'd have to be blind and wearing sunglasses not to see that I'm afraid.

Not really enough energy to go over old ground. Yes there was a worldwide crisis, but if you have not clued up to the level that Brown/Balls, as individuals through their policies, exacerbated the problem for the UK then, IMO, you may have not have been listening to the facts over the years. Or, perhaps more likely, been taken in by the fatuous distraction comments of Ed Balls. Brown and Balls created a problem so deep that it cannot be so readily cured. Balls is like some Paul Daniels character - always trying to distract from what really is going/went on. Scary thing is - he is getting away with it because people listen to (and are taken in by) sound bytes - it is easier than probing/thinking.

After the feckless incompetence of Labours' management of the economy, blaming those that followed is, IMO, like blaming the doctor who has to give you extreme treatment for a serious condition that you contracted through someone else's deliberate actions - you should be blaming the person or institution that was the cause

 

[DelToro]

I guess that as we are now into the run-in to the election it should not be a surprise that the 'blind' labour followers are out peddling the 'it was a global financial crisis - nothing to do with Labour' bollocks.

Thought that after the way this has been discussed on here not even the desperately blind would keep clinging to this crap.

IMO Labour would be better served by 'manning-up' and explaining what they have learned, particularly Ed Balls, and therefore would do different rather than just hope that people either can have very short memories or can be simply blinded with bollocks. That way they would earn more credibility. He should take the AA recommended approach and firstly admit that he has a problem - that way he can start the journey to recovery - at the moment he is utterly in denial.

In my best 'Spanish waiter' style - in 2010 the economy was utterly fucked and the direction was towards further doom - Fact

In 2015 we are in a polar opposite position and the direction is towards further strength - Fact.

Yeah - lets just hand back command to Ed Balls to run the economy without him explaining what he has learned - why is he suddenly qualified? - when previously he was proven to be incompetent? - that sounds like a strategy?

Not considering myself a blind Labour follower but neither so blind as to believe it wasn't a World financial crisis and while I'm not saying the Labour party did everything right, what they did do was provide the funds to stop the British banking system collapsing then we would have been in the shit big style, 12 month's before it went west over here I was in the states and people were trying to sell houses at almost half what they'd bought them for and when America sneezes the World catches a cold not much any British Government could do about it. Oh and if we're heading towards further strength why has personal debt hit record levels why had we still got a huge Government deficit and why is our trade balance so embarrassing financially this countries got a lot of problems and we aren't much nearer solving them, you'd have to be blind and wearing sunglasses not to see that I'm afraid.

Not really enough energy to go over old ground. Yes there was a worldwide crisis, but if you have not clued up to the level that Brown/Balls, as individuals through their policies, exacerbated the problem for the UK then, IMO, you may have not have been listening to the facts over the years. Or, perhaps more likely, been taken in by the fatuous distraction comments of Ed Balls. Brown and Balls created a problem so deep that it cannot be so readily cured. Balls is like some Paul Daniels character - always trying to distract from what really is going/went on. Scary thing is - he is getting away with it because people listen to (and are taken in by) sound bytes - it is easier than probing/thinking.

After the feckless incompetence of Labours' management of the economy, blaming those that followed is, IMO, like blaming the doctor who has to give you extreme treatment for a serious condition that you contracted through someone else's deliberate actions - you should be blaming the person or institution that was the cause

The global capital markets?

Do you have a phone number for them and I will be happy to make a citizen's arrest.

 

[cibaman]

Very unimpressive performances from Cameron in Downing Street today and, worryingly for the tories, I think their attack on Labour on tax - costing everyone 3k a year - also misfired. Add Grant Shapps exceptionally poor performance on Newsnight tonight & I think it was about as good a first day for every other party as they could possibly have expected.
Do any residents tories think otherwise?

Cameron was poor during the last election campaign and I dont think that he'll be much better this time round.

I wouldnt say that it was that great a day for the other parties. John McDonnell's interview in the New Statesmen, stating that 30-40 left wing Labour MPs will block any attempts by Labour to impose cuts, will be used as stick to beat Labour in the next few days.

 

[mcfc1632]

Not considering myself a blind Labour follower but neither so blind as to believe it wasn't a World financial crisis and while I'm not saying the Labour party did everything right, what they did do was provide the funds to stop the British banking system collapsing then we would have been in the shit big style, 12 month's before it went west over here I was in the states and people were trying to sell houses at almost half what they'd bought them for and when America sneezes the World catches a cold not much any British Government could do about it. Oh and if we're heading towards further strength why has personal debt hit record levels why had we still got a huge Government deficit and why is our trade balance so embarrassing financially this countries got a lot of problems and we aren't much nearer solving them, you'd have to be blind and wearing sunglasses not to see that I'm afraid.

Not really enough energy to go over old ground. Yes there was a worldwide crisis, but if you have not clued up to the level that Brown/Balls, as individuals through their policies, exacerbated the problem for the UK then, IMO, you may have not have been listening to the facts over the years. Or, perhaps more likely, been taken in by the fatuous distraction comments of Ed Balls. Brown and Balls created a problem so deep that it cannot be so readily cured. Balls is like some Paul Daniels character - always trying to distract from what really is going/went on. Scary thing is - he is getting away with it because people listen to (and are taken in by) sound bytes - it is easier than probing/thinking.

After the feckless incompetence of Labours' management of the economy, blaming those that followed is, IMO, like blaming the doctor who has to give you extreme treatment for a serious condition that you contracted through someone else's deliberate actions - you should be blaming the person or institution that was the cause

The global capital markets?

Do you have a phone number for them and I will be happy to make a citizen's arrest.

I did say that people listen to their comments rather than think/probe - proved I guess

 

[DelToro]

Not really enough energy to go over old ground. Yes there was a worldwide crisis, but if you have not clued up to the level that Brown/Balls, as individuals through their policies, exacerbated the problem for the UK then, IMO, you may have not have been listening to the facts over the years. Or, perhaps more likely, been taken in by the fatuous distraction comments of Ed Balls. Brown and Balls created a problem so deep that it cannot be so readily cured. Balls is like some Paul Daniels character - always trying to distract from what really is going/went on. Scary thing is - he is getting away with it because people listen to (and are taken in by) sound bytes - it is easier than probing/thinking.

After the feckless incompetence of Labours' management of the economy, blaming those that followed is, IMO, like blaming the doctor who has to give you extreme treatment for a serious condition that you contracted through someone else's deliberate actions - you should be blaming the person or institution that was the cause

The global capital markets?

Do you have a phone number for them and I will be happy to make a citizen's arrest.

I did say that people listen to their comments rather than think/probe - proved I guess

How so?

 

[mcfc1632]

By the fact that you seem to believe that it was only the 'global capital markets' and that the UK's position was not made much worse by Brown and Balls.

You must not have listened to the ample evidence - or choose to listen to Balls's bullocks - anyway your choice. As I say it is easier

 

[DelToro]

By the fact that you seem to believe that it was only the 'global capital markets' and that the UK's position was not made much worse by Brown and Balls.

You must not have listened to the ample evidence - or choose to listen to Balls's bullocks - anyway your choice. As I say it is easier

Which ample evidence?

There was an international financial crash.

Was that the fault of the Labour government?

The Labour government must bear responsibility for not regulating the markets tightly enough. Unfortunately they did not repeal the deregulation of the Tory Government in 1987.

 

[mcfc1632]

By the fact that you seem to believe that it was only the 'global capital markets' and that the UK's position was not made much worse by Brown and Balls.

You must not have listened to the ample evidence - or choose to listen to Balls's bullocks - anyway your choice. As I say it is easier

Which ample evidence?

There was an international financial crash.

Was that the fault of the Labour government?

The Labour government must bear responsibility for not regulating the markets tightly enough. Unfortunately they did not repeal the deregulation of the Tory Government in 1987.

There has been plenty of evidence put forward - including comments on this forum, but in the main it is just shouted down by some posters on here that simply want to drown out 'dissenting voices'. This is why I struggle to call up the energy to debate on here - few people do debate, just state what they do not know as if they were facts. They seem to work on a basis of the more they post it the more it will be accepted - even if they do not actually know any facts.

I am not suggesting you are one of these BTW.

I am fortunate to be someone that does know some facts - and I am not some dyed in the wool Tory. I come from a comprehensively Labour voting background.

Whilst not wanting to get into a 'to-ing and fro-ing' of posts some facts that I do know are:

* Brown adopted use of PFI to extreme levels and 'enforced' its use to 'disguise' debt - he mandated its use across government even when there were clearly cheaper funding options available

* Business cases for large PFI schemes were 'developed' in such a manner that they brought forward a recommendation on the option that Brown wanted - i.e. PFI. Sometime there had to be a lot of massaging (sorry refinement) to get the right answer that meant that Treasury could approve.

* The Terms & Conditions for large PFI contracts were 'developed' to ensure that the interests of the private companies and their bankers were utterly protected - even to the point where if contracts had to be terminated through contractor incompetence - then the government generally still had to pay them compensation!!!

* The FSA became incapable of being tough on financial institutions. Generally whenever they tried all the organisation, say a bank, had to do was make a phone call and fret about loss of influence from London to Frankfurt - then the FSA was instructed to 'soften'

And many more such examples - and these are facts.

Yes there was a global financial crisis and poor regulation was a significant factor. At such times you do not behave in the reckless way Brown and Balls did. There is a saying - "when in a hole - stop digging' - they ignored that totally and just splurged. The details of some of these PFI contracts have on going consequences - which will hamstring us for a generation(or two) - no matter who gets in..

I was fortunate that these policies provided good business outcomes for people like me - but they fucked the economy - 5 years of Balls in a repeat act!! Scary.

And I say this as a man from a Labour background - I desperately want Labour to put forward a credible economic plan - but they do not have seemed to have learned and likely just to set us back again.

 

[cibaman]

By the fact that you seem to believe that it was only the 'global capital markets' and that the UK's position was not made much worse by Brown and Balls.

You must not have listened to the ample evidence - or choose to listen to Balls's bullocks - anyway your choice. As I say it is easier

Which ample evidence?

There was an international financial crash.

Was that the fault of the Labour government?

The Labour government must bear responsibility for not regulating the markets tightly enough. Unfortunately they did not repeal the deregulation of the Tory Government in 1987.

Labour's responsibility was in running a budget deficit in the good years. Brown's conceit that they had ended boom and bust.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Do as I say not as I do , the Socialists love a hypocrite.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceOg-LLU2Is[/video]

Coming soon Sauron throws his support behind the Tories.

 

[Kazzydeyna]

Do as I say not as I do , the Socialists love a hypocrite.

Bloody hell.. Is that correct?

I've never liked this fella anyway (he was alright in the office but he was no Ricky gervais or Gareth Keenan).

If he did that, it's despicable.

 

[DelToro]

By the fact that you seem to believe that it was only the 'global capital markets' and that the UK's position was not made much worse by Brown and Balls.

You must not have listened to the ample evidence - or choose to listen to Balls's bullocks - anyway your choice. As I say it is easier

Which ample evidence?

There was an international financial crash.

Was that the fault of the Labour government?

The Labour government must bear responsibility for not regulating the markets tightly enough. Unfortunately they did not repeal the deregulation of the Tory Government in 1987.

There has been plenty of evidence put forward - including comments on this forum, but in the main it is just shouted down by some posters on here that simply want to drown out 'dissenting voices'. This is why I struggle to call up the energy to debate on here - few people do debate, just state what they do not know as if they were facts. They seem to work on a basis of the more they post it the more it will be accepted - even if they do not actually know any facts.

I am not suggesting you are one of these BTW.

I am fortunate to be someone that does know some facts - and I am not some dyed in the wool Tory. I come from a comprehensively Labour voting background.

Whilst not wanting to get into a 'to-ing and fro-ing' of posts some facts that I do know are:

* Brown adopted use of PFI to extreme levels and 'enforced' its use to 'disguise' debt - he mandated its use across government even when there were clearly cheaper funding options available

* Business cases for large PFI schemes were 'developed' in such a manner that they brought forward a recommendation on the option that Brown wanted - i.e. PFI. Sometime there had to be a lot of massaging (sorry refinement) to get the right answer that meant that Treasury could approve.

* The Terms & Conditions for large PFI contracts were 'developed' to ensure that the interests of the private companies and their bankers were utterly protected - even to the point where if contracts had to be terminated through contractor incompetence - then the government generally still had to pay them compensation!!!

* The FSA became incapable of being tough on financial institutions. Generally whenever they tried all the organisation, say a bank, had to do was make a phone call and fret about loss of influence from London to Frankfurt - then the FSA was instructed to 'soften'

And many more such examples - and these are facts.

Yes there was a global financial crisis and poor regulation was a significant factor. At such times you do not behave in the reckless way Brown and Balls did. There is a saying - "when in a hole - stop digging' - they ignored that totally and just splurged. The details of some of these PFI contracts have on going consequences - which will hamstring us for a generation(or two) - no matter who gets in..

I was fortunate that these policies provided good business outcomes for people like me - but they fucked the economy - 5 years of Balls in a repeat act!! Scary.

And I say this as a man from a Labour background - I desperately want Labour to put forward a credible economic plan - but they do not have seemed to have learned and likely just to set us back again.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I accept you have access to information etc and I will not argue with what you have identified and the conclusions you have drawn from it. PFI was never the panacea that politicians of several parties claimed that it was.

In the great scheme of things I think it is dwarfed by bigger events, bigger philosophies and the impact of unfettered (or very loosely fettered) global money markets.