I’m not a great defender of the Blair government, as you will know if you have been reading this thread long enough. It’s only fair, though, to point out that they did a lot to improve the lives of ordinary working people and their families, such as introducing the National Minimum Wage, doubling the educational funding for schoolchildren, introducing Sure Start centres for younger children, introducing child tax credit, free nursery education, and a lot more. Yes, of course they could and should have done more, but they did an awful lot, much of which has been reversed since 2010. Specifically on free school meals, the numbers entitled to them have increased during the pandemic because the number of people claiming various benefits like Universal Credit has increased. I accept that the government’s measures to support people who can’t work because of the pandemic has kept millions of families afloat, but at this time, it’s a logical thing to extend free school meals for those entitled to them over holiday periods while parents are under so much pressure.
It really isn’t a simple as that. And those that are really least able to pay is utter horse **** I’m my opinion. I am however, adding to another item for my life admonition - to find one point me and you agree on. I just dont think it will be politics
I hope that you wrote that just to annoy me and wind me up as I could live with that but to suggest you rather like him and might mean it is beyond comprehension. Please enlighten us. What endears the mendacious*, cheating, bastard to you? * I could have written any of lying, untruthful, dishonest, deceitful, false, dissembling, insincere, disingenuous, hypocritical, fraudulent, double-dealing, two-faced, Janus-faced, two-timing but thought mendacious summed him up perfectly. Johnson and his Cabinet have made lying and corruption so commonplace in politics that nobody bats an eyelid when he tells lies now or bungs major contracts to hid dodgy chums.
Thanks for taking the time to mention this. As you may be aware, i dont follow politics that much, and it is useful to know. I wonder how many children went hungry on foreign soil, due to going to war with a country that had nothing to do with the claimed reasons? But, to your point, there is of course more work to do, but maybe it is me trying to live in a collaborative world (that will never happen) I would love to see much more collaboration with all parties trying to fix our problems. I feel assured that Labour have tried to do this on the Rashford initiative, which is great, and maybe the more it happens, the more effective it will become. Maybe it could be less about point scoring and more about changing the way politics is managed int he UK.
But this just isn’t true - you bat an eyelid. In fact most of the socialist worker movement on this board get their coal mining knickers in a twist when he does, or doesn’t do anything And i dont like or dislike him, but I can understand what trying to lead a nation is like during the worst pandemic in 100 years must be like, and during this time i think people supporting one another could be more useful than your bitching is.
Not sure you get me Jabbo - they were my words - it was you saying they were not as hungry. One hungry child is one hungry child.
First past the post has to go if you want consensus politics, do we agree on that? This worth a look if you aren't already aware https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/
Both the Conservatives and Labour voted against a proportional representation electoral system because they wanted to maintain absolute power to pursue their own ideoligical interests.
So, does greed extends into pretty much all of politics, no matter that party? I wish someone had said something about this sooner.
I think the answer comes from who finacially backs each party, the Conservatives are backed by some of the richest people in the country. Two of the last 3 PMs attended the same elitist Bullingdon club that only the mega rich can be a part of. That's not really being representative of the country.
As did the electorate in 2011 when the Alternative Vote referendum was held https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternative_Vote_referendum These descriptions of voting systems are interesting, to me at least, others may not give a flyer. https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/
Government & Society are not seperate. So many people say they aren't interested in politics these days and yet it runs our lives, tells us what we can and can't do, gives us opportunities and takes them away. It sets an environment. It responds to society as well so each influence each other There is an argument that totalitaian states have to allow some small freedoms at some point to maintain control and yet these small freedoms start its inevitable downfall as they inevitably have to grow I used the word 'ordinary' because I believe the phrase 'working class' isn't clear anymore. We have the non-working class and we have the expanded middle class. I believe that 'working class' is a state of mind and values and that mine haven't fundamentally changed from when I lived in a Council House and my Dad worked at the local factory to when I was working in IT and bought a house, to now when I work for a lot less money. I think telling working people they are middle class is a way of messing with their heads and their values. This is not me being anti middle class, they're just different
