Off Topic The General Election

However, not one of the political parties is suited to running the country. Whichever party gets in there will be a lot of people shat on from some direction.

We need strong leadership yet we have no strong candidates. We need a party who is willing to make the changes needed - the NHS is completely ****ed and is nothing to do with money (or lack of it), Education is going down the swanny, kids are unruly, disrespectful and lacking any form of manners and then backed by their parents, we have a wonderful welfare system but people are taking the major piss out of it, we have a media and fame culture and a "I want it now" attitude. The housing situation is beyond a joke and take a look at the state of the roads, truly shocking as they are repaired with poor quality materials - look to France and whenever I travel there no roadworks!

 

I would say for the first time in a couple of decades we have a clear choice between parties and a real difference in the pledges/manifesto's. I feel like this country has been strangled so much that it's at breaking point. Public Services need real investment and so does the economy or things will just continue to get worse, living standards will plummet further and things like food banks and mass homelessness will get worse. Austerity is good up to a point....we are well beyond that point.
The NHS has been criminally underfunded for years and in a few more we might not even have an NHS. Money is needed now more than ever (training nurses & doctors and investing in equipment and IT). A hard Brexit (including walking away with no deals) will cripple this country.

You do make some other interesting points, I would argue that some of it is down to poor upbringing from parents and an erosion of principles and basic manners in the country as a whole.

 

To a point, but it should be more than left or right. There's 360 degrees in a simple circle, yet we get to pick left or right, then a bunch of tw@ts make us go forwards or backwards.

Whole system's completely unfit for purpose.

 

Corbyn out claiming less wars in these Muslim regions = less terror threat here. Holy sh!t that's dumb and misinformed, yet he leads an entire political party?!

There's around 3,000 "gods". An Atheist doesn't believe in 3,000. A Christian derides atheism, yet in truth an atheist only believes in one less God - Christianity doesn't believe in 2,999 Gods. The issue is the extremists in Islam don't believe in 2,999 Gods either, but if anyone does happen to believe in one of those 2,999 other Gods, they should die. And they'll throw atheists in the same melting pot. This disappeared from being a reasonably logical war based on geo-political intent a long time ago. Presumably when Corbyn last picked up a paper.

This is a war on way of life. It's either affirmative action, or closer control. For me, control is needed. Not a fan of more warfare, it will lead to more trouble short term. But control - people need to be controlled. All this civil liberty horse-sh!t is what really makes me angry. On the one hand you've got this sprinkling of liberalist fckwits saying we shouldn't be monitored, people should be entirely free, but it's like being a kindergarten and leaving the cutlery out. At some point, and continuously, kids are going to get hurt with knives. It keeps happening, yet the liberalists want the knives and forks left out because to take them away would be somehow impactful on our "civil liberty". Fck that. People are irresponsible, stupid, dangerous. And I tell you what - I'd PAY for a goddam ID card if it meant reducing the likelihood of my children getting blown up. These same people are scared because they're all up to something. It's pretty simple - keep it legal and nobody has a problem. I cannot fathom what's wrong with that?

 

I don't have any issue with having an ID card, but I'm not sure how it would work. Would we need to carry it at all times and what happens if you leave it at home? Sounds easy to say that you just have to get used to carrying it with you at all times, but in practice people will sometimes forget. **** it, it wouldn't be the first time I had got to the till at a shop and realised I had forgotten my wallet, even knowing the only reason I went out was to buy something. What happens when it is stolen? Do you immediately arrest someone for not having it with them? Also, how stringent would checks be? Would we be regularly stopped in the street everytime we went out and asked to identify ourselves? While there is no issue with that in terms of having anything to hide, it would definitely be something that started to slow life down and become something inconvenient when you were already running late for something. I appreciate that inconvenience is a small price to pay compared to saving lives, but if it becomes an inconvenience several times a day then it would be a valid question to ask how much of our way of life we had given up. It would also require a huge amount of money to employ more people to administer the system, produce the cards and employ enough security and police to be regularly checking everyone. If it isn't checked to that scale then would it actually do any good and save any lives?

I think to be effective it would also need to be issued free of charge. There would need to be no impediment to law abiding people getting one. Where does that money come from and what else is sacrificed to fund it? I suspect it would end up being something that would only impact law abiding people and have very little effect on law breakers.

 

I've never really got into this ID card debate. What is the argument for bringing it in? How would it save lives?

 

I don't think it would. I think the idea is that people without identity cards would raise suspicion and might lead to the discovery of other crimes being committed or illegal residency status. To actually work though it would require a very high scale and regular process of being stopped and asked to produce your details.

 

Labour did seem to be doing well with their policies.

But Jezza being Jezza, he couldn't help himself.
Only time will tell.

Labour lost my vote today.

 

I heard them on the news last night saying he was going to make this speech today and I knew it would be like scoring an own goal. Whether he's got a valid point or not, his opponents would just twist it into some unpatriotic story or say he wouldn't have the nerve or leadership to take on foreign powers. He would have been far wiser to just keep his gob shut. The sooner he is gone the better.

 

The man has no political skill at all.

 

I don't care whether he has political skill or not; he's got no fcking grasp on reality. Labour have one vote left - the archaic, "well that's what me mam and me dad voted, so I've gorra dee the same, like".

Sad thing is we're fcked. We have one vote - Tory. There's no other vote, and we all know it. That's how far it's gone. When David Cameron can be the previous steward of the safest ship, you know somethings utterly wrong with the world we live in. I looked at my alternatives - Labour's a joke, Lib Dems are bleating on about civil liberties in a world that needs control, my other options were Green (whut?) and something called Justice & Peace, who hadn't updated their website since labour were last in power (i sh!t you not).

 

I'm not happy with any of the choices either. My natural position is somewhere between Lib Dem and Labour and neither fill me with confidence. What worries me most at the minute is that regardless of party or political standpoint, the last thing that any of these parties deserve is a landslide majority. None of them can be trusted with one and I think that is what we will get.

 

Jez is more ****ed than Freddy Kruegers Mam. He's the trade unions puppet.

When he finally get's kicked out I just hope a credible leader steps forward.

I'm desperate to vote labour like normal but whilst they are doing an impression of Sunderland I just cannot.

 

The best candidate that would have pleased the voting members and the more 'progressive' supporters has unfortunately left his seat and become the mayor of Manchester. I'm not sure who these members will vote for because they twice thought Corbyn was the best candidate.

 

Agreed. Every turd gets flushed eventually mate.

 

Aye, but the problem may be that someone else ****s in the bowl afterwards. Labour isn't exactly swimming in top candidates. I liked Douglas Alexander but he was beaten by Mhairi Black in 2015 and isn't standing this time round. David Miliband away saving the world in International Rescue. Chuka Umunna I like but he showed little appetite to step up last time round. Hilary Benn, Liz Kendal, Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint, Tom Watson? Not entirely convinced. Even if they are good leaders, you've got the far left of the party calling the shots in the leaderships elections. Will have to wait and see I guess.

 

Dave M will boss it eventually.

 

The Labour Party is now two parties with neither one wanting to be the one to break away and lose the unions money. The sooner they split the better. Neither will win on their own for a long time, but it is probably the left's best solution in the long term.

 

I will always vote conservative. I value what I earn too much to ever vote for Labour.

 

Having voted at every GE since 1979, this is the first time I haven't voted Labour.

Duly posted, so no chance of changing my mind.