Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, we're facing down a General Election this year, which is most likely to end the current run of Labour Administration.

Yet bizarrely, despite having made a real pigs ear of things recently, their main rivals, the Conservatives, look to be facing a Hung Parliament result.

WTF man? Seriously. Despite being a Labour Voter, and very much doubting given the problems faced which have knackered Labour that any particular Party could have done and better, I am genuinely worried that we won't see a clear change of direction.

On one hand, I suppose this is quite a good thing as we have spent the last few decades swinging twixt Labour and Conservative, so a hung parliament mght just be the airing the country needs to find a fresh direction, hopefully right up the centre.

And yet, what does it say about peoples faith in the official opposition that even handed this golden opportunity to take the reins, they still can't convince enough of the population they are any more competent than the current bunch of nicompoops?

What do you think Dakka? Not looking for Party Political Broadcasts here, just your own personal opinion.

The modern, caring Conservatives aren't very different to New Labour, in the same way that New Labour wasn't very different to the Conservatives.

And I think that is what's worrying me. No real difference between the two, so what is the point in actually voting this time? Plus as the expenses scandal showed, they are all as bent as each other.

Ho hum. Here's hoping that at least the Lib Dems can make a big impression. That ought to shake things up.

Well, to be honest, I think Cameron is trying to be realistic and not grandstand too much. The big issues are an open goal and speak for themselves. The last time he made serious sustained attacks on Labour, Brown's approval rating crept up a little - some people put it down to sympathy. How bad is that? Our PM is so pathetic he's getting the sympathy vote!

It's because Cameron think he's got it on a plate, so he's not even bothering to campaign really. He may well be in for a nasty surprise at this rate though....

Cameron? Don't vote for Cameron to be king! Avatar sucked!

Does this mean that the LibDems could be a real power bloc by forming a coalition with one side or the other?

Just checked on Wikipedia, and Holy Crap, Cameron is the MP for what I still consider my local constituency, the always staunchly Tory Witney. I'm rooting for Howling Laud Hope to win the seat for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party though.

The election has turned into little more than a popularity contest. Back when Brown took over from Blair i was genuinely shocked how ignorant the vast majority of the country were, they believed that it was wrong for him to be PM because they had not voted for him. They failed to understand you vote in a party based upon there policies not a figurehead based upon their haircut.

In a move to sway apathetical voters polititians have become more style over substance and are affraid of rocking the boat. It seems to me that no one want's to say what the country needs to hear because it will make them unpopular. The bottom line is that we have and still are spending beyond our means, we either need to raise taxes or cut public spending. Both of which will be unpopular policies just before an election.

Despite being an unpopular man Brown has done a fairly steady job of leading the country through the reccesion, with clever ideas such as the car scrapage scheme. I can't see how the Conservatives would have done any better.

I will vote when the election comes around, as I feel that if you don't then you have no right to complain when the countries administration does something you don't like, however who i will be voting for is still undecided. I will probably vote based upon what the party will do for me as oposed to any grand moral gesture.

raising taxes is always unpopular, we always want something for nothing, but its an inevitability. The civil service needs to be cut down as well as the aboloition of most of these government quangos and think tanks that decide, where I can drive, what I can drive and that fruit and veg are good for you.

A lot of public spending will need to be questioned and i can see more PFI coming round.


As for Brown steadying the ship, when he was chancellor he was involved with deregulating the financial markets, depowering the Bank of England and is partly responsible for the mess the housing market is in (under labour, Stamp Duty has become a major source of income for the government). Which have not helped our ability to ride out a world wide recession.

Mr. Burning wrote: The civil service needs to be cut down

I disagree with this, whilst red tape can be frustrating, I would prefer that people are employed, paying taxes and contributing to the system rather than joining the dole queue and becoming a drain on it.

If the government were serious about reducing our national debt they should consider re-nationalising key services and utilities so that they can stop bailing out companies who are trying to run them with the minimum expenditure so that they can maximise their personal profit. In my opinion it is not feasable or sustainable to run public services for profit as the balance of interest will always be in favour of profit as opposed to improving the service.

All a hung parliament will do is return labour to power and grind out several more years of stagnation, decline and all round patheticness that the UK has become steeped in.

Kick ass and don't bother to take names. Grind Labor into the dust for a generation as they did to the conservatives. Then when the debt is paid off, unemployment low and the economy improved you can vote back in labor to stuff it all up again. It is the cycle Australia has lived under for the last 40 years.

I'll be voting ISLAM4UK!


no...wait...?

MeanGreenStompa wrote:I'll be voting ISLAM4UK!


no...wait...?

Ahh so your the other one then...

squilverine wrote:

Mr. Burning wrote: The civil service needs to be cut down

I disagree with this, whilst red tape can be frustrating, I would prefer that people are employed, paying taxes and contributing to the system rather than joining the dole queue and becoming a drain on it.

If the government were serious about reducing our national debt they should consider re-nationalising key services and utilities so that they can stop bailing out companies who are trying to run them with the minimum expenditure so that they can maximise their personal profit. In my opinion it is not feasable or sustainable to run public services for profit as the balance of interest will always be in favour of profit as opposed to improving the service.

Government jobs churn money through the system and are probably better than mass unemployment from a Keynesian perspective.

It is unsustainable as a long-term strategy, though, because all money spent by the government has to come out of the private sector.

In other words, the country needs a healthy, profitable private sector to generate the jobs and incomes that the government needs to tax. The purpose of Keynesian spending is to prime the pump for the private sector.

However, the key point is that the UK’s private sector has spent 30 years not replacing lost jobs in industries such as cars, coal, steel and shipbuilding. I don’t know whose fault that is. Too much concentration on financial services? Too much red tape, tax, or simply bad management by private sector organizations?

Certain industries arguably work better as public corporations than private companies. Big chunks of core infrastructure such as transport, water and power, for example, are natural monopolies and need regulation.