General Election Tomorrow

[garinda]

Come back 'on your bike' Tebbit et al.

At least that generation of Tories said what they really thought, or at least what Maggie allowed them to think, unlike this wet shower of caring/sharing Eton toffs.

[andrewb]

Yes, reverse snobbery, great stuff.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Cyfr

Yes, reverse snobbery, great stuff.

Yes it is.

[garinda]

The biggest threat to the Tories is the new satirical programme Headcases.

Man of the people, Dave, soon reverting to type away from the cameras. Cameron and his snivelling little fag, Osborne, portrayed as two people who will say anything in order to appeal to the electorate.

V. funny.

[garinda]

Besides thinking Greg Pope will continue to be the best M.P. for Hyndburn, I've just remembered a few other reasons why I'm more likely to vote for him than anyone else.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.

2. Low mortgage rates.

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.

4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.

5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.

7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.

8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.

9. Employment is at its highest level ever.

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.

11. 85,000 more nurses.

12. 32,000 more doctors.

13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.

15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.

16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.

17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.

18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.

19. Restored city-wide government to London.

20. Record number of students in higher education.

21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.

22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.

25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.

27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.

28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.

29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.

30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.

31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.

32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.

33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.

34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.

35. Banned fox hunting.

36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.

37. Free TV licences for over-75s.

38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.

39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.

40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.

41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.

42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.

43. Free eye test for over 60s.

44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.

45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.

46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.

47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.

48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.

49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.

50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

[shakermaker]

good post Garinda.
Seriously though, that's one thing that really gets on my wick with Labour. Most of those statistics (especially crime - good grief they're flawed to high hell) were achieved through shifting the goalposts on what the criteria is.
But hey, who am I to argue with numbers?!

[garinda]

On second thoughts this public poll isn't such a bad idea.

I'd much rather be locked in a polling booth with the people who've voted Labour, than any of the other sorry groupings.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

good post Garinda.
Seriously though, that's one thing that really gets on my wick with Labour. Most of those statistics (especially crime - good grief they're flawed to high hell) were achieved through shifting the goalposts on what the criteria is.
But hey, who am I to argue with numbers?!

Agreed, but couldn't be bothered to edit the ones that I really think have made a positive difference to the country.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics they may be, but they still make a hell of a lot better reading than a top fifty list after the Conservatives were last in power.

[blazey]

It's worse to see that people claim to follow no political party whatsoever but will happily back a party just to annoy a certain group of people.

The new generations seem to be more welcoming to the Tories with open arms than any other age group, but there are many who, like many on here, are still opting for Labour and labeling themselves as socialists.

I don't know why anyone would vote liberal democrat, merely because they seem like incompetent politicians more than anything, not really leader material...

Seen as it is the current government that once said they wouldn't introduce top up fee's for university and then went and did it anyway at a cost of £3000 a year to me, which has risen further for next year to £3145, and then intend on taking the cap off so I shall expect further rise to figures of around £5000 a year, Labour isn't going to be getting my vote. I'd rather take my chances with the Conservatives, who at least in theory should back university students. Labour appear to be robbing everyone they can just to pay for their steady salary increases.

Whilst the Conservatives introduced the idea, and rightly so as it is fair to pay towards your future, I think it is unfair to have to pay even more when the education system, at least at this level, is not failing financially nor in its achievements.

Obviously there are going to be positive and negative elements regarding other areas for each party, and I haven't considered the ones that do not directly effect me because I would probably have to spend too much time doing so, and nobody really votes for the good of all mankind, the world isn't like that unfortunately. So basically I'm saying don't contradict my reasons with things about council tax, benefit systems, housing etc, because obviously that isn't going to change my view!

[garinda]

Originally Posted by blazey

It's worse to see that people claim to follow no political party whatsoever but will happily back a party just to annoy a certain group of people.

Who?

Certainly not me.

I've always posted that I'm not a member of any political party, nor have I ever been, unlike some other people on this forum.

I've always voted for whoever I thought was the best person/party for an elected position, and that hasn't always been Labour.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by blazey

Seen as it is the current government that once said they wouldn't introduce top up fee's for university and then went and did it anyway at a cost of £3000 a year to me, which has risen further for next year to £3145, and then intend on taking the cap off so I shall expect further rise to figures of around £5000 a year, Labour isn't going to be getting my vote. I'd rather take my chances with the Conservatives, who at least in theory should back university students.

If it wasn't for the education reforms introduced by consecutive Labour governments in the last century, you'd have left school at twelve, nevermind had the opporunity to attend university.

[jaysay]

Politics is a personal choice, I would think that a huge magority on here do not fully support one particular party, myself, I've been a member of the Tory Party since I was a teenager, so I'm always going to vote Tory, and I'm sure people like Graham Jones are exactly like me, Graham will always vote Labour. The thing that makes politics interesting is the floating voter, and that is democrasy, the right of people to choose and that works for me

[Margaret Pilkington]

Jaysay, that is where folk go wrong......following a party mindlessly despite the failings......and yes, I DO know that ALL paties have some failings.
I struggle to deal with duplicity........the fact that we can be as poor as church mice while the MP's live high on the hog at our expense(taxpayers, I mean)......and we are supposed to live clean lives while the MP's can slide around in all kinds of sleaze....and I do not single out any party as being worse than another. I also dspise the fact that the government want to meddle in our private lives. I despair of the whole caboodle.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Rindy, I am not going to pick holes in your list, but how many of these things have been achieved through the manipulation of figures and the moving of goalposts?

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Rindy, I am not going to pick holes in your list, but how many of these things have been achieved through the manipulation of figures and the moving of goalposts?

I acknowledged that when Shakermaker remarked on the same thing.

By the way it isn't my list, it was copied from the Labour website.

Any list of my own wouldn't have any such anomalies, to be able to have holes picked in it.

There's a hell of a lot wrong with this government, some of the things I posted yesterday being the on going war, the increase in tax for the lowest paid, and the refusal to be more transparent in their financial affairs, being three, but on the whole I think Labour have addressed a great many inequalities that eighteen years of having a Tory government never did.