Off Topic The QPR Not 606 Rolling Election Poll

[sb_73]

Agree the Tories have had a poor campaign to date, Stan. I think Miliband's "We're going to bash the bankers and the energy companies and mansion-dwellers" has had an understandable resonance. In practice, if he gets in, I don't think it will be anything like that easy.

The Tories would never vote down Trident or risk being accused of opportunism by threatening to do so.

I note your confidence that Labour could govern without the SNP. I can't see how, unless the Lib Dems do better than expected and throw their lot in with Labour. Support from the Greens and Plaid Cymru is miniscule. Even then, the Tories, possibly with UKIP and Northern Ireland MP's support, would ensure that Labour would limp so that, in reality, Labour will have to do deals with the SNP to get legislation through. What will the SNP demand in return? It will be self-serving for Scottish Nationalism.

It will be interesting to see how it works if it comes to that. On a vote by vote basis the stuff that the SNP does not support may well get Tory support (personally I think Labour and the Tories have more in common than Labour and the SNP, as I said above the differences are in presentation, scale and implementation, not policy except for EU).

Wouldn't be surprised if we see another election quite soon if the outcome is really messy, but that may not produce anything better. The Tories really have been screwed by Scotland - they (and the other 'No' parties) offered a bribe to keep it part of the union, but that didn't make the SNP go away, quite the reverse. If they had lost, Cameron would have gone, Boris would be in (one Oxford Old Etonian for another), Labour would have lost a bunch of seats.

Now we await Boris and John Major being wheeled out, before the traditional last minute threat of what will happen to the £ and the stock market if Labour get in. I don't think that works, because people resent being bullied by impersonal international markets, even though their lives are of course dominated by them anyway.

 

[KooPeeArr]

-

That was a brilliant read and never before have I seen the existence of mankind critiqued so comprehensively.

The only point I disagree with is your assertion that we're all descendants of a bowl of butterscotch angel delight.

Or in you terms, .-

 

[Madrid_Ranger]

It will be interesting to see how it works if it comes to that. On a vote by vote basis the stuff that the SNP does not support may well get Tory support (personally I think Labour and the Tories have more in common than Labour and the SNP, as I said above the differences are in presentation, scale and implementation, not policy except for EU).

Wouldn't be surprised if we see another election quite soon if the outcome is really messy, but that may not produce anything better. The Tories really have been screwed by Scotland - they (and the other 'No' parties) offered a bribe to keep it part of the union, but that didn't make the SNP go away, quite the reverse. If they had lost, Cameron would have gone, Boris would be in (one Oxford Old Etonian for another), Labour would have lost a bunch of seats.

Now we await Boris and John Major being wheeled out, before the traditional last minute threat of what will happen to the £ and the stock market if Labour get in. I don't think that works, because people resent being bullied by impersonal international markets, even though their lives are of course dominated by them anyway.

Other people may resent having their country´s gold bullion being sold at knock-down prices or the open invitation to abuse the welfare system by indigenous and foreign alike. Talking of media whores I guess Tony Blair is not too popular on here either?

 

[durbar2003]

I loved Maggie, I bought my parents house for 20,000 and sold it 25 years later for 525,000.

 

[QPR Oslo]

Thatcher made me very happy to emigrate. She was the most selfish, self seeking Facist, Britain has ever had close to it's leadership. I have never got close to hating anyone as much. How anyone could ever consider voting for the political bigotist party she represented let alone thirty something percent of the people on those cold wet islands is beyond me, but maybe it is simply that they are cold wet islands.

 

[durbar2003]

So I guess you didn't vote for her then!

 

[QPR Oslo]

r No

So I guess you didn't vote for her then!

10 out of 10. Nor her party or the ones that have supported them.

 

[Madrid_Ranger]

Thatcher made me very happy to emigrate. She was the most selfish, self seeking Facist, Britain has ever had close to it's leadership. I have never got close to hating anyone as much. How anyone could ever consider voting for the political bigotist party she represented let alone thirty something percent of the people on those cold wet islands is beyond me, but maybe it is simply that they are cold wet islands.

Isn´t Norway cold and wet? or is that just Stavangar?

 

[Chaz]

Isn´t Norway cold and wet? or is that just Stavangar?

Stop quizling - sorry, I mean quizzing Oslo...

 

[sb_73]

oh super it's time for Ed Miliband to be grilled by Evan Davis (Denis Healey's great line about being attacked by Geoffrey Howe springs to mind ..'like being savaged by a dead sheep'). Evan is talking over him just as much as he did Dave so far.....if he doesn't show an ancient and irrelevant clip from a Labour Party conference Goldie will be demanding his head on a spike and his licence fee back.

Bloody hell he showed an ancient clip of Thatcher. Some strange questions. I think Davis wanted to ask whether Ed is a socialist, which would have been a good question. As with Cameron, he gave Ed the chance at the end to finish on his election slogans. Can't remember them.

Farage next week. Perhaps he'll get a clip of Oswald Mosley.

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Does anybody have an idea as to exactly how much one has to earn and/or own in Britain today to be considered rich? How much do I have to have before somebody else says I have too much, makes an assumption about me regarding how I must have come by it, and sets about relieving me of it through taxation and any other means at their disposal?

Because we have 'poor' people in this country why do some consider it immoral to be rich?

 

[rangercol]

Good post. Before Thatcher, Britain had become a basket case economically. The unions that had been a force for good for workers in previous decades began to use their powers for destructive purposes. Many had been infiltrated by confessed communists that wanted to bring industry to its knees (Bill Sir's quote about the Steel Industry) before recreating it in Soviet style. Wilson, Heath, Callaghan had all failed to tackle the problem. Strikes were the first item of BBC TV news - British Leyland for example nosed-dived because of poor industrial relations. Everyone - workers and management - got poorer. Thatcher came in with determination and people got back to work. The living standards for working people and their families rose exponentially. New Labour gained greatly from this legacy, which Blair acknowledged.

There was a downside to Thatcher. People in declining industries got left behind and not enough was done to help them reinvent themselves. Thatcher herself was undone by excess power at the end of her era, just as the unions had been in the '70s.

In the 1970's, the common description of Britain was "the sick man of Europe". I remember well that Brits were paupers in terms of spending power when they travelled on the Continent compared to the French and the Germans. As at today, Britain has the most dynamic economy in Europe, albeit with debt and deficit problems that are common in all Western economies.. My worry is that the anachronistic and nationalistic SNP will wield its influence over a minority Labour Government to turn back the clock. I'd be more than content with a continuation of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition so long as it's clear that financial benefits must filter down to all levels of society and there's a livable level of minimum wage (and to take Quality Passing Rules's point, the genuinely disabled and the genuine work seekers are properly supported).

That's a superb post.

Before Thatcher, Britain was the laughing stock of Europe. She made mistakes for sure, but she put the Great back into Britain and no matter whether you liked her or loathed her, she always stood by her beliefs. There's not many politicians that one can say that about today.

 

[sb_73]

Does anybody have an idea as to exactly how much one has to earn and/or own in Britain today to be considered rich? How much do I have to have before somebody else says I have too much, makes an assumption about me regarding how I must have come by it, and sets about relieving me of it through taxation and any other means at their disposal?

Because we have 'poor' people in this country why do some consider it immoral to be rich?

Watch Panorama, on now, as to why the morality of some of the 'rich' is questioned.

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Watch Panorama, on now, as to why the morality of some of the 'rich' is questioned.

You'll have to give me a précis, Stanners, I'm not near a telly this evening.

 

[rangercol]

The class war on here is getting very tiresome!

 

[sb_73]

You'll have to give me a précis, Stanners, I'm not near a telly this evening.

Flawed programme, but shocking description of the conditions in which some housing benefits recipients are housed. Their benefits are paid directly to landlords, some of whom are raking in millions.

Panorama used to be a real programme, 30 or 40 years ago, but it's a bit **** now. This was just filming the truly disgusting conditions, no debate or discussion of how things got like this. Believe me, only the truly desparate and damaged would put up wiht it. And we pay for it.

 

[sb_73]

The class war on here is getting very tiresome!

...and yet you keep on coming back for more.

 

[durbar2003]

My Sister has 4 kids, lives in a 3 bedroom council house and hasnt had a job in 30 years. She has a colour TV, Iphone, Ipad , a car and goes to Teneriffe twice a year. She's one of the British poor!!!

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Flawed programme, but shocking description of the conditions in which some housing benefits recipients are housed. Their benefits are paid directly to landlords, some of whom are raking in millions.

Panorama used to be a real programme, 30 or 40 years ago, but it's a bit **** now. This was just filming the truly disgusting conditions, no debate or discussion of how things got like this. Believe me, only the truly desparate and damaged would put up wiht it. And we pay for it.

Thanks, but not sure how any of that is relevant to my question...?

 

[peter1954qpr]

Thatcher made me very happy to emigrate. She was the most selfish, self seeking Facist, Britain has ever had close to it's leadership. I have never got close to hating anyone as much. How anyone could ever consider voting for the political bigotist party she represented let alone thirty something percent of the people on those cold wet islands is beyond me, but maybe it is simply that they are cold wet islands.

What utter garbage