you do realise
that if I'm organising a party *now* a week before the election, that I don't know the result? And that therefore the liklihood is we will party whatever the news. Unless Labour crawl in, in which case I think we might just give up on life because supporting Gordon Brown with his fallacious understanding of the economy, and abysmal track record and his party with their own special brand of hate, incompetent grasp on both education and the NHS and simpleminded approach to Europe is the sign of a country that really really loves being kicked
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 9:53, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Please, it's Friday - no bollocks today. I won't if you don't.

( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Fri 30 Apr 2010, 9:55, Reply)

fair enough
but it's not me who starts it. /has reverted to the playground.

Althegeordie makes me
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 9:56, Reply)

Yeh, he told us all about that.
He's making that ginger from /talk too.
( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Fri 30 Apr 2010, 10:07, Reply)

Can you please explain to me
how getting the waiting lists down from years to a just a few months is a bad record on the NHS?

And can you also explain how the "free schools" policy will actually work to the benefit of all children rather than just private business who will make money out of them?

Also, end of my post"looks set to win the highest percentage of the vote"
(Bazongaloid, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 9:57, Reply)

as I've said before, for the money spent there has not been a similar leap in improvement in the NHS. I reckon Michael Gove has a firm grip on schools policy, since you haven't thought through the implications of setting up own schools. I.e. basically a voucher system which enables you to take your money with you, which encourages existing schools to raise their game. I rather reckon you have something against the free market.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 10:00, Reply)

A truly free market
will destroy itself in pursuit of short term profit. That is why we had a world wide recession, a lack of sufficient regulation on the markets.

The Tories first deregulated the markets in the early 90s. What restrictions were brought in by Labour (not enough I'll grant you, but at least some) were opposed by the Tories. So without these restrictions we would be in an even worse state than we are currently in.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 10:11, Reply)

Whilst it's always right to question whether spending has delivered results,
you have to keep in mind (with apologies for the over simplification) that very few organisations would show 100% improvement if you increased their budget by 100%. A lot of investment has gone into the infrastructure of the NHS which had been neglected by both Conservative and Labour Governments and that money whilst being utterly necessary does not have anything like a pro-rata effect on anything measurable such as waiting lists.

It's also worth remembering that there has been a massive turnaround on the issue of investment in public services. Prior to the 1997 election Labour were having to promise to keep their spending down to the levels of the Conservative goverment (I think for the first two years) to counter "wild tax & spend" allegations. Now the Conservatives are having to promise to match the level of government spending. This government has raised the levels of expectation, and made the issue of investment in public services a much more central issue. The Conservatives now adopting the same strategy (having opposed it in the early years of the Labour government) must be an endorsement of its success, surely.
(Cave Duck, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 11:38, Reply)