Cameron's not perfect...
by any means, but the fact that our new London Mayor has maanged to save £millions by simply stripping out all the traditional labour cronyism and free-trips-to-beijing, etc, shows just how badly (New)Labour have fucked things up.

Interestingly, however you cut it, the Labour manifesto basically says "the good of the state outweighs the rights of the individual, so we will supress your rights in the name of looking after your interests". Pretty it up with corrupt spin doctors and peers-for-hire (by the way, why is none of the media screaming "Sleaze!" at this financially and morally corrupt government, when they were baying for blood when an ugly fella paid to have sex with a fit bird (David Mellor) - like they wouldn't have done the same thing in his place...?

Frankly, the only reason I haven't prayed for Brown to take a bullet is the risk that it might end up with Prescott as PM....

Gah.

And no, the Lib Dems aren't an option - 1p on income tax and "we don't have any policies that work, but we disagree with the other two" doesn't cut it - and at a local government level, they *always* side with Labour, so why bother?

The reason we end up with a two-party system is that if one takes the right-of-centre, the other takes left-of-centre, where else is there for a thrid opponent? You'd either have to sit Far right (UKIP/BNP), or Far left (Socialist Workers Party/Communists, etc).
(Chad, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 10:34, 1 reply)

Why go for right or left?
Why not just have a mix of whatever you think best? An actual, you know, solution to our problems rather than the restrictive party politics of "Well, we're x wing. So lets raise taxes"

Hey, how about a party called Ex-Wing? The uber-anoraks could make jokes about them being the "Incom"ing govermnent...
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 11:34, closed)

why go for right or left?
well, it's easy...because steroetypes are usually based in some semblence of fact when it comes to politics...

Labour policy will always be to tax the middle classes and ream those on higher income because they are, deep down, marxist in their outlook - state over individual, etc.

Tory policy will always be to prtoect the rigths of the individual to the death, as well as looking after the soveriegnty, etc. This is because most Tory party members are middle and upper class and, thus, feel that if you have earned a large income, it is not exactly fair that you have to pay for some pikey to live in a council house with 8 kids with different fathers, no job, no desire to get a job and a total disrespect for the society that is providing their income.

Oddly, a lot of actual "working class" people (i.e those who actually work, as opposed to claiming the dole) are Tory in their outlook because they want to keep what they earned and are angry that someone can get a better standard of living than them by being a parasite.

"Left" or "Right" are just arbitrary phrases, which could just as easily be "Light" or "Dark", "Heads" or "Tails", etc. The fact is that on any issue, you will either be for it or against it - Europe, immigration, income tax, crime, etc, all have a bi-polar argument that aligns us to a two party system - if a vote is "yes" or "no", with one party arguing for each, then the only middle ground is "I don' know" (or "maybe?") - which is exactly where the Lib Dems are and why they are unelectable...

Sorry for the lecture, but any party outside the big two would only ever be seen as a bit of a distraction - let's face it, the Lib Dems are the "big" players in the pool containing the Monster Raving Loony Party, etc - they aren't seen as viable.

I would personally make it compulsory to vote, make it a fully-paid bank holiday, but also add a "I believe in none of the above" box to the ballot, with a majority vote for that option leading to a coalition government formed of a reprasentative proprtion from each party (i.e if Conservatives have 45% of the house, they have 45% of the government seats, etc). At least that way, we'd have a fair and reprasentative election result...
(Chad, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 12:58, closed)

@chad
Utter rubbish.

There are not only 2 answers to every [political] question.

1) If we assume that income tax is a given, do you vote party A to set it at 10%, Party B at 20%, Party C at 30%, Party D at a flat rate of £10k?

2) If you're pro death penalty but anti fox-hunting, who do you vote for? (I'm not saying the Lib Dems are the party in this case :-)

Try reading the LibDem manifesto at some point - with an open mind - and see how many points you agree with.

Oh, also, in many counties, it's a straight fight between TUE, 27 JAN 2009 & Tory party - so I don't see how they can always side with Labour.

Perhaps the credit crunch will make people realise that Labour can't run an economy & neither can the Tories - perhaps it's time to give someone else a shot...
(Terry, Tue 27 Jan 2009, 17:00, closed)