Given Nicola Sturgeon's pre-election wish to form any coalition which would keep the Tories out, I find the SNP's ecstatic reaction to the election result a tad hypocritical.
I don't like Diane Abbott... She's a hypocrite.. One week demanding the resignation of an MP for a joke (which was misconstrued as racists), next week being racist herself. People like her is the reason we have such a ****ed up world.
i'd vote to leave. we're too full and overstretched already - thanks for the help in filling demand - but time to take back control of our own affairs.
I'm distraught but I guess I'm alone in that respect! I'm not overly annoyed at the Tories, they did exactly as they always do (even if their campaign of fear was built on lies you can't argue with it's ruthless efficiency); but I'm outraged at the Labour parties betrayal and ineffectiveness. Their manifesto was austerity lite, as was their record over the last Parliament. For me now they are as low as the Tories; I'm not sure I could even bring myself to vote for them tactically again.
The Labour Party needs to be more ruthless. Ed was never going to be Prime Minister, and if you look at the way Tories get rid of leaders when they become a liability you can see how it should be done. Mrs T won 3 elections but that didn't help her once the country went off her. How long did Ian Duncan Smith last as leader? As soon as they realised he wasn't up to it he was gone. I've been a member of the Labour Party most of my life, and I will give my vote to Yvette Cooper to replace Eddie, for whom I didn't vote last time. His flat denial that Labour borrowed too much made me squirm, as did that stupid piece of stone carving at the last minute. But then there is no party quite like Labour for shooting itself in the foot.
I thought this was a pretty good article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cd949318-f552-11e4-8c83-00144feab7de.html#axzz3ZZ8c053j
I hope it doesn't mean we're going to hear "I-told-you so" from Milord Mandy and Blair himself, who has never admitted lying over Iraq. I don't want New Labour back. Blair also allowed Gordon Brown to run amok in the treasury, selling our gold reserves, negotiating terrible PFI deals for which hospitals will be paying the price for many years and running up debts, which he continued to do as PM against the advice of of his Chancellor Alistair Darling. No, New Labour is finished. RIP.
I stayed clear of this thead as I could'nt be assed with arguing about it. The Nobel Ecconomics prize winner in the USA said that the Tories portrayal of the 'Labour economic mess' was a botched lie that the Bristish electorate fell for hook, line and sinker. So another few years of Cameron for you guys. The happy point was Farage not winning his seat, and resigning. On another side track, the voting systm in the UK is very undemocratic. To achieve their 1 seat, UKIP needed nearly 100 times more votes than Labour or the Tories, and the Greens 1million voters will be equally unrepresented with a single seat. Is'nt it time we had proportional representation in the UK, as the main two parties are going to have a lot more say in parliament than they deserve on the numbers who voted for them (as are the SNP, who under PR, would have 45 seats, not 54). Woe woe woe! It ain't fair.
Labour's real tragedy was the death of John Smith. He got the blame for Labour's 1992 defeat because he was honest enough to say that taxes This actually makes Labour's performance as an opposition even more lamentable, and I'm sorry to say that. Still,David Cameron has suddenly become a "One-Nation Tory" and he's going to make Great Britain even greater, so that's all right. When do we start? And How?
The inherent good sense of Middle England came to the fore in the end. I have spoken to quite a few candidates and MPs during the campaign - the three main issues on the doorstep were immigration, trusting Labour/Miliband with the economy again, and the SNP threat England is a Conservative country, it never ever elects left wing Govts and even in 2005 it voted for Howard over Blair by 150,000 votes. Neil Kinnock truly got his Labour Party back this week.
Nobody challenged Sturgeon throughout the campaign when she spoke about "ending austerity" as though you could flick a switch. What she really meant was increasing taxes and increasing borrowing and national debt. Very principled.
It is very easy to be against austerity. And tax rises. And cuts in expenditure on public services. In fact Mr Cameron has promised the Good Life for everyone. Nice one! The electorate demands the impossible from politicians then gets outraged when they tell porkies and make impossible promises. We all want a properly funded NHS, but any party which proposed tax rises to pay for it, well we know what would happen to them. So Nobody wants to die but everyone wants to go to Heaven.
We'll find out in the coming years if this was a good election to win. A lot of Tories did not want to win the 1992 election because of the impending economic problems, and we'll find out if the Prime Ministers promises were realistic. Of course the Labour Party will need to up its performance in opposition.
Hopefully, I won't get taxed too much, and the benefits class gets less! That'll be peachy result for me
