UK general election- It's time for change.. again?

[Plagiarius]

So electioneering is starting in earnest in the United Kingdom, we're seeing billboards with David Cameron's face popping up, parties are bandying proposals on pertinent issues and attacks on rival parties' offerings, debates are going to be held with the three party leaders by the major broadcasters..

After over a decade of New Labour rule, with little praiseworthy achievements (The negatives seem to wholly outweigh the positives) it seems high time that we had a change of scenery in government. The sad thing is this fact makes it highly likely that the Conservatives will get the nod. They're a party I've never been particularly fond of and some of their latest proposals ring familiarly of targeting the least fortunate of society. As a means to free up funds which could be used in 'job-creation' they want to cut Disability Benefit claimants weekly amount which could potentially raise 700m. Even though Labour have cocked things up a bit, we shouldn't forget what happened during the Thatcher era.

Just wanted some feedback from everyone on their thoughts about the election, party proposals and who would get your vote should the election take place in April.

[Rolfe]

I'm just awful glad I don't live/vote in England.

That's the trouble with first-past-the-post. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Rolfe.

[Undesired Walrus]

After over a decade of New Labour rule, with little praiseworthy achievements (The negatives seem to wholly outweigh the positives)

Shortest NHS waiting times in history
Crime down by 8%,
Surestart
Devolution,
Civil partnerships
Northern Ireland
Paternity leave
The minimum wage
The Climate Change Act
House of Lords Reform
The lowest post-war unemployment during a recession (With 5Billion pumped into Job Center Plus)
The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry

[Undesired Walrus]

I'm just awful glad I don't live/vote in England.

What's wrong with living here?

That's the trouble with first-past-the-post. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Rolfe.

Lucky Labour have promised a referendum on AV if they get re-elected then.

[commandlinegamer]

I've never voted Labour (maybe if they ditched Thatcherism it would help) and am unlikely to do so this time, but a return to Conservative government would IMHO be appalling.

[Architect]

I for one welcome a conservative government. It guarantees Scottish independence in double quick time........

[MikeMangum]

What's wrong with living here?



Lucky Labour have promised a referendum on AV if they get re-elected then.

Kinda like they promised a referendum on...wait, I won't go there.

[Rolfe]

What's wrong with living here?


Very little, I did it for 25 years. Part of the "very little" was the shenanigans required to maintain a position on an electoral roll n Scotland.

Lucky Labour have promised a referendum on AV if they get re-elected then.


Ah, the naivete, I remember it well....

Rolfe.

[Sporanox]

Sorry, this has little to do with the topic, but those parliamentary debate mashups I see on Youtube are so entertaining...I wish our legislature was like that sometimes.

[Undesired Walrus]

Kinda like they promised a referendum on...wait, I won't go there.

Lisbon? They didn't.

[MikeMangum]

Lisbon? They didn't.

Oh, right, because that wasn't a constitution, it was a treaty. Clearly the words are spelled differently, even if functionally they are identical. But then again, I'm not a Brit, so I don't really have a dog in that hunt.

[richardm]

Stuff

Winter Fuel allowance,
Disability Rights Commission,
Dumped Section 28,
Gift Aid reform
Quite a lot more doctors and nurses in the NHS than there used to be.

Quite a lot of useful things really.

Tory plans summarised*:
Cut spending on poor people.
Reintroduce Fox Hunting**.
Keep wogs out.


*Summary may be be subject to bias.

**MikeMangum may be allowed to have a dog in that hunt, provided he can show the appropriate Rabies certificate*** and pay a £6000 bond promising to go home again afterwards.

***for the dog, I mean. However Mike will need to show a valid Health Insurance cover note at Immigration if he doesn't want to face the Death Panels over any gyppy tummy, chav stab wounds or injury resulting from Binge Drinking Culture that he might face while he's here.

[Undesired Walrus]

Winter Fuel allowance,
Disability Rights Commission,
Dumped Section 28,
Gift Aid reform
Quite a lot more doctors and nurses in the NHS than there used to be.

Quite a lot of useful things really.


Plus: Handing over interest rates to the Bank of England.

[Darat]

My current views on the Tories can be summed up by this link: http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php?poster=54511

[funk de fino]

Plus: Handing over interest rates to the Bank of England.

They also dumped the fuel tax escalator. That was a hideous thing for the less well off. (To be fair it took them a wee while to get rid)

Labour have some great achievments but have lost a lot of supporters, mainly due to the wars, the recession, Blair supporting Bush so slavishly and Mr Brown being a Scot.

I have never voted for them but would prefer them to the Tories any day. It makes my blood boil when I see the Tories saying the military has not been supported as when i went to war it was a Tory govt and we had the same shortages.

[Undesired Walrus]

Labour have some great achievments but have lost a lot of supporters,

Often myself included.

mainly due to the wars,

Yep. Huge mistake, and the White Elephant in the room. Iraq essentially obliterated Labour's support among the students of the country.

the recession,

Perhaps unjustly. If you look at the unemployment statistics today, in 2009, compared with 1992 (a lesser recession), unemployment is far, far lower. In the South East and Scotland it is 50% lower than in 1992, in Wales 40%, and in the Midlands 40% lower. This is in part due to how aggressive Labour has been about keeping unemployment down, pumping money into Job Center +.

Blair supporting Bush so slavishly

Yep.

and Mr Brown being a Scot.

Nope. Nobody except the Clarksons of the world give a ****.

[funk de fino]

Perhaps unjustly. If you look at the unemployment statistics today, in 2009, compared with 1992 (a lesser recession), unemployment is far, far lower. In the South East and Scotland it is 50% lower than in 1992, in Wales 40%, and in the Midlands 40% lower. This is in part due to how aggressive Labour has been about keeping unemployment down, pumping money into Job Center +.

I agree it is unjust. I think under Tories we would be in a hideous mess right now. Unfortunately the great unwashed do not seem to see it that way.

Nope. Nobody except the Clarksons of the world give a ****.

It's mainly anecdotal but I see this attitude on other UK boards with people moaning because we have a prime minister who was not voted into parliament in an english constituency and also because he is Scot and they have a chip on their shoulder about being lorded over by one. Not a huge amount, but enough to make a difference. The white van men type. I could drag some of the posts here, but I really cant be arsed and would rather not give the idiots the satisfaction.

[Rolfe]

I heard a woman with a transatlantic sort of accent and a location in the North of England laying into Blair for being a Scot, on Radio Scotland this morning (the 9am phone-in). She also said something about "not the English, by the way" towards the end. I wasn't really listening, but she sounded like someone we could all do without.

I'm not sure if Blair quite fulfils the criteria for being a Plastic Mac, but it's the closest I can think of. It's not right though, because he never, ever claims to be Scottish.

Rolfe.

[geni]

Perhaps unjustly. If you look at the unemployment statistics today, in 2009, compared with 1992 (a lesser recession), unemployment is far, far lower. In the South East and Scotland it is 50% lower than in 1992, in Wales 40%, and in the Midlands 40% lower. This is in part due to how aggressive Labour has been about keeping unemployment down, pumping money into Job Center +.

On the other hand we've seen more in the way of people becoming underemployed and taking lower paying jobs.

[Undesired Walrus]

Not saying you're wrong at all, but could I see the stats for that? Then again, even if true, there's the old argument about 'some work' over 'no work'. Add the minimum wage into the mix and you have more favourable circumstances than the Tories.

[geni]

Not saying you're wrong at all, but could I see the stats for that?

1 million mentioned here:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6999991.ece


Then again, even if true, there's the old argument about 'some work' over 'no work'. Add the minimum wage into the mix and you have more favourable circumstances than the Tories.

Not really. Firstly the some work argument has generaly been made in cases where there was a lower level of underemployment. Secondly the pay falls are at a fair bit above mininium wage levels.


See also:


Average hours worked per week in the UK has fallen from around 32 hours per week to 31.5 hours per week. This decline in average working hours is shown by the blue line in this week's chart. Working around half an hour less per week on average does not sound like much, but it really adds up.

Suppose that rather than the average worker working fewer hours, that instead employers had sacked staff to achieve the same overall reduction in total hours worked. How many workers would this equate to? The red line in our chart answers this question. It represents the difference between actual employment and those workers that could have been laid off so that average hours worked remained constant. This can be thought of as a measure of "over employment". The data are quite noisy, but they suggest that over 400,000 people in the UK are currently surplus to pre-credit crunch requirements. Had these workers been laid off so that average hours worked had remained around 32 per week, and if all of these workers had registered as unemployed, then the ILO's measure of the UK's unemployment rate would not stand today at 7.8 per cent but instead at 9.3 per cent.

http://www.ftadviser.com/FinancialAdviser/Advisers/Industry/IFAFirms/Comment/article/20100128/cfb69fc4-0683-11df-9b61-00144f2af8e8/Make-the-most-of-it-while-you-can.jsp