hellsguardian316 wrote:Granted my post, (although I still agree with some of the things I said) lacked proof and was mere personal opinion, lets have another stab at it.
The laws currently being implented in the UK aren't always ideal. And in some cases beyond UK control as they are being imposed by the EU such as the "Working Time Directive" which as far as I'm aware, is currently only being applied to the NHS and dicates safer working hours for the staff. The main affect is to prevent Junior Doctors working the same hours as normal doctors which doctors argue is the best way for juniors to learn their skills in a real working environment and this has been the general practice for a good long time. (not relevant, but wanted to show I know what it was by giving an example)
Not quite. The NHS had/has in fact several opt out clauses when we implemented the scheme-- I work at a Uni and we had our hours changed to fit with the directive. PLus of course we in the
UK can, in most jobs there are a few exceptions here and there, work overtime above and beyond our basic hours, I pretty much always do, wouldn't survive without the extra money.
I wold argue that NO law ever has ever been "ideal", nature of the makers there.
I would also argue that the NHS as pretty much the worst example you could have used as I think it makes sense to ensure that the doctor you're seen by is fresh and rested rather than on the end of a 30 hour shift or something. Like airline pilots, lorry drivers and so on there are severla cases where it makes sense to have restrictions upon their working hours.
And... I don;t see anyhting too wrong in the idea of trying to ensure that people have a homelife or some freetime and aren't forced to work 24/7.
It was under the Tories government that we joined the EU and in all that time we have had to pay monies to other countries that EU members and are poorer than ourselves. Now although I do actually believe its a good thing to help our neighbours, the money we are giving might have been better spent improving our own country as a priority.
I would suggest that the EEC membership was the first step, but that's splitting hairs. It's not so much that we give money to our neighbours, its that we give money to a central organisation who then redistribute the cash to various projects and initiatives across Europe.... just like the London Govt. take smoney from across the country and...
Now I'm not for one moment saying that everything they do is great or even desirable, and I think there's even an argument that there are areas that they are interfering with that they shouldn't. But.... I don't have a problem with a decent transport infrastructure being built across europe so that countries can trade with each other. I don't have a problem with them forcing mobile phone companies to lower tariffs when you're abroad and I don't have a problem with them confronting Microsoft et al over some of their business practices.
And surely you must see that it's much easier foe a large organisation such as the
EU to confront, say, Russia, over gas supplies than 27 odd separate nations running around bitching and squabbling and competing with each other.
Our justice system appears to be a joke with large amounts of tax payers money going towards making prisoners more comfy. Even the Prison Officers Association has admitted that prisoners are living comfortable lives and I even remember hearing a story about someone breaking into a prison in Yorkshire and no prison even attempted to escape. Will try to find that story if I can. I have also heard that many prisoner re-offend when released simply because they want to go back inside and not worry about getting work or contributing to society
And how many stories have you heard about people trying to break out of prison ? More than one ? I'm not saying that prisons are perfect, but...
A. Well, they are people, and most of them in prsion aren't EVIL MURDERING PADEDOS111.. they're you know, people who diidn't pay their council tax or a veritable myriad of offences.
B. You really think the families of those in prison want or would vote to see them suffer ? Really ?
Each party seems to be as useless as the other, with the population voting for (as someone described earlier) the lesser of evils or the the party that mostly reflects their ideals, which ultimatly is what the point of being a democracy is all about.
Labour promised to help our education system and failed, with thousands of young teenagers leaving primary school without adequate reading and writing skills, The Conservatives tried to introduce the ID cards as wasted a large sum of money into a project that was flawed from the get go.... The point is, all these parties that we are electing are making promises that they aren't and are unable to keep.
"seems" isn't really an argument. Spend 10 minutes flicking through a social history book and see the differences in society over the last 50 years. Are you saying for example that you think sexual eqaulity and workers rights are a waste of time ? Really ? Pensions are a bad idea ?
I'm sure there are too many children who aren't reaching a good enough level of education... and ? When has this ever not been the case. If you realy think that Labour have failed with regards to education then I'd love to know where you think all the interactive boards that have/are replacing blackboards, all the new computers and all the increased funding and pay for teachers has come from then.
I've no idea what you're talking about with regards to the tories trying to introduce an
ID card.... When, they haven't been in power since 1997. From the style of your posting I'm guessing you don't really have many.. perhaps any.. memories of living under their last run.
Many poeple may have noticed the rise in votes for Lib dem from 10% to 14% and 17% this time round IIRC, proving that the public is slowly pulling away from the two main parties (Labour and Tories) through what I assume is distaste for their inability to get things right.
That's a big assumption. Do you not thin it likely for example that it's merely more people think they agree with tehir polices over things like income tax, nuclear weapons and so on ? To be blunt you very rarely see people
protest vote by voting for another mainstream party, that tends to be done by voting for an extremist faction or spoiling ones ballot paper.
I would say that the growing number of people who don't vote or show any ploitical interest at all is perhaps due to the perceived inability to get things done.
They can't seem to get the NHS right either, promising to fix the NHS and all they do is pump cash after cash into the NHS because the task of actually addressing the MAIN issue's are exetremely complex, cash helps, but simply won't fix it outright as the core is whats broken on many levels.
...and ? I don't think it is broken on "so many levels". Like what ? I agree it is complex but i dont see how you can say the NHS isn't better now than it was in 1997 after the best part of 2 decades of mistreatment.
I would say though that you're onto soemthing with the idea that, especially in these modern and fast moving times things are often complex and there is no magic wand to wave to fix things. This is the point I made to you earlier when you were saying that Govts. should just " like, you know, do what's best and fix things." I@m pleased you agree.
To expand further when I said that laws should be made that protected the UK as a whole and not just bow down the the majority I agree that was a fairly horrific description so will clarify. When typing I was thinking of such laws that allowed Buglars to sue you for damages when they injure themselves in your own home, or the fact that companies appear to have more rights than the consumer, able to use their fortune against you as many people cannot afford to go to court.
Firstly :
There's no specific law that allows burg;ars to sue etc etc. What there is is a law that allows any citizen, it's not some crazy piece of legislation to only help criminals. And that does suck
when it is misused or misapplied by a court or a judge.
I'm not quite sure what you're talking about with companies having more rights than people ? A Mclibel reference perhaps ? That strikes me more as a moan against capitalism than anything else.
Many of you will know that when the bank owes you money it can be like trying to get blood from a stone and by the time you actually manage to get an answer, months have gone by. Recently in the news they discussed about forgotten bank accounts and the many difficulties they had retrieving their own money from their bank, yet, if you owe the bank money you get hounded by letters and threatened with court action and they have the power to do so.
Sure is lucky that the Govt. and the
EU is reigning in the power of the banks then.
ARe you saying that banks sholdn't be able to take people to court if they are owed money ? Really ?
Don't get me started on the health and safety laws, I can't even grab a box from off my shelf at work without booking out a ladder and having another member of staff watch me. Persoanlly, if I slipped off my four-legged chair and injured myself then its MY own damn fault for being stupid.
The point being though it's this legislation that requires them to provide you with a ladder rather than forcing you to use a chair or similar.
And provide safety gear for dangerous jobs.
I still don't understand how a party such as BNP has managed to gain as much support as it has. One of them for example has even been found to have a number plate that can be read as Nazi, however it appears the members are staying within the law somehow. How anyone can support a party with their ideals in this day an age is beyond me. I'm very pro UK and want to support my own country, but not to the extent that they want to go to.
I'm with you here, but I think supporting ones own country requires a bit more thought than supporting a football team/similar, especially in this global enterprise age. For example I know of several people who boycott coca cola for various reasons. Now it's true by not buying that product they are, ultimately, not giving money to the "evil" USA corporation. Of course most of the coke/other products we buy ( or don't in their case) in
ths country are made in the
UK by British workers, so they are, technically, threatening their jobs. With live in an age of multinational companies and cross continental investment, it's not that easy to just support your own country.
Take the recent complaints about the number of
EU nationals working in the country. There were--prior to the crunch-- about 1 milllion working here. Taking away British jobs from etc etc. Whilst we had 1.5 million british nationals working abroad in
EU countries. So.....
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to expand on what i had said earlier
Would I be right in saying that when UK and USA went to Iraq, Tony Blair asked the Queen for permission to go to war even though he didn't have to? Or is that hearsay?
Technically. The Queen ( or king) is still the head of the country and in tehory EVERY law passed by the Govt. is actually passed by the monarch. It;s just the way the system works the monarch auto approves everything the govt. does. That's why at the opening of parliament the monarch reads out a list of what their Govt. intends to do within the next parliament.
The
PM holds no military rank as such-- he's a civilian-- and the armed forces are of course, technically, under the control of the monarch, so again, whenever the Govt. wants to do anything with the army they do have to get the monarchs permission. Now in most cases this is waved through as a formality of course but the monarch can, and indeed does, expect the Pm to be able to justify his/her actions and could withhold consent. That is exceptionally unlikely to happen as we are then looking at a civil war scenario.
best example I was given of this was : it's like making a cup of tea at yur parents house when you live their. YOu know that 99% of he time it will be fine and there's no need to ask. But it's polite to ask, just in case.
And don't use up all the milk.
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