General Election 2015

[DulwichFox]

I am personally Sick to the High Teeth of the ramblings of all of the Party Leaders..

I am an Old School Labour supporter having been a card carrying member of The Dulwich Labour Party back in the 80's.

Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair put paid to that with his endorsement to the invasion of Iraq.

Also Gordon Brown who almost single handedly brought about the collapse of the World Economy.

I could never vote Tory. My Grandfather a former South Wales Coal Miner from the age of 13 would turn in his grave

despite being dead for 45 years.

Despite the good work of our local Lib. Dem. candidate James Barber, I could not vote for them in

a General Election.

And despite being concerned about the environment I do not go to the extremes of the Green Party.

I'm not in total agreement with any of the Minority Parties and feel would be a wasted vote just to

get any one single point across.

I feel unable to vote..

DulwichFox

[Otta]

You and a lot of other people Foxy. I will vote, but I'll do so with a heavy heart.

I do think that "Gordon Brown who almost single handedly brought about the collapse of the World Economy" is a bit of an exaggeration though.

[JohnL]

Strange man Gordon - did he cause the crash or save the world from a depression ?

I didn't even know he had children until he left Downing St.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/01/gordon-brown-legacy-tony-blair-global-economy-uk

[Blah Blah]

Gordon's flaw was his ego. He wanted to be Prime Minister really. He definitely was responsible for the ultra light regulation of the city in the UK and there were aspects of trading that were illegal in the USA but perfectly legal here. But he and the Labour party were never solely responsible for the global banking crash. ALL countries were guilty of poor regulation, and no-one worries about anything during the good times. The economy was starting to recover when the last election took place as well. Something that Labour have failed to get accross. And the Tories follow the mantra that if they tell a lie often enough, people will accept it as the truth. It may have worked on the economy but Cameron is fooling no-one on welfare, food banks and housing I think.

[henryb]

Interesting site to help decide. Personally I think the election should more like this to reduce the tribalism.

https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

[Earl Aelfheah]

Blah Blah Wrote:

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> Gordon's flaw was his ego. He wanted to be Prime

> Minister really. He definitely was responsible for

> the ultra light regulation of the city in the UK

> and there were aspects of trading that were

> illegal in the USA but perfectly legal here. But

> he and the Labour party were never solely

> responsible for the global banking crash. ALL

> countries were guilty of poor regulation, and

> no-one worries about anything during the good

> times. The economy was starting to recover when

> the last election took place as well. Something

> that Labour have failed to get accross. And the

> Tories follow the mantra that if they tell a lie

> often enough, people will accept it as the truth.

> It may have worked on the economy but Cameron is

> fooling no-one on welfare, food banks and housing

> I think.

Exactly. It amazes me how many have bought the Tory line that the recession was caused by 'Labour spending too much'. even though the Tories said they would match Labour's spending pledges. The real issue was lax banking regulation, but again, the Tories were calling for less 'red tape' and less regulation in opposition, not more.

There is also a good argument that by talking down the economy relentlessly when they were elected, the Tories actually did a lot to halt what was at the time a recovering economy.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Also, bear in mind that whilst the Tories claim that Labour would be a disaster for the economy, they're the ones selling off state assets at knock down prices, offering uncosted tax breaks and looking to lead us out of Europe.

[Blah Blah]

That's really interesting henry.

It's funny because listening to all the parties and their policies I have found myself in most agreement with the Green Party (whom I have never voted for) and lo and behold the survey says I have most in common with the greens, but only by 50%. Labour and the LibDems make up the rest. Just relieved to see no UKIP or Conservatives :D

[Blah Blah]

I completely agree rah rah. There's a lot of hypocrasy in the Conservative message.

[Loz]

I did a similar exercise on a different site and Lab, Tory and LibDem policies all corresponded to my views within a very small band of about 5%. Rather confirmed my view that all three are much of a muchness.

With Gordon Brown, it is laughable to blame him for the 2008 financial crisis, but you can level the charge that he spent too much during the good years, so when the storm hit we were left rather exposed financially.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Loz Wrote:

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> With Gordon Brown, it is laughable to blame him

> for the 2008 financial crisis, but you can level

> the charge that he spent too much during the good

> years, so when the storm hit we were left rather

> exposed financially.

True, but the Tories had said that they would match Labour's spending plans - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6975536.stm

[JohnL]

The 5000 small business spreadsheet seems to have metadata on it that

proves it was composed at Conservative HQ.

Not that we wouldn't have guessed.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Loz Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I did a similar exercise on a different site and

> Lab, Tory and LibDem policies all corresponded to

> my views within a very small band of about 5%.

> Rather confirmed my view that all three are much

> of a muchness.

Yep, I just took the 'vote for policies' questionnaire and got a dead three way tie (Lab, Greens, LibDems).

[Earl Aelfheah]

There are some choice quotes here on Banking regulation from the Tories in 2007. https://tompride.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/lest-we-forget-in-2007-cameron-endorsed-even-less-regulation-of-banks-than-labour/

[Earl Aelfheah]

On 'Labour's Profligacy' - http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/mediamacro-myth-2-labour-profligacy.html

[henryb]

I am not sure more regulation would helped that much. Ultimately it was an international credit boom and associated asset bubble that crashed. The demand and supply for the new credit products was vast. It would have been hard for any individual government to put the brakes on that not to mention politically/diplomatically difficult in the climate the time.

Economic cycles are inevitable. I guess the mistakes Labour made was thinking that the 2001/7 boom was going different to all the others, very publicly claiming responsibility for it and not reducing the debt down to manageable levels during the good times.

If a captain of a ship tries to take credit for the good weather it is unsurprising they get lynched when a storm comes.

[JohnL]

The Tory press in full flow

Red Ed is going to do a land grab apparently

[miga]

.

[MrBen]

Seems to me that pretty much nobody on this forum will admit to voting for anyone other than Labour or Lib Dems (with a token Green here and there). Anyone brave enough to own up to voting Tory or UKIP this time round?

[aquarius moon]

If someone is lucky enough to receive my vote, it's because I believe in them and want them to win.

I wouldn't be ashamed to admit it whoever it is. I'd want everyone to know, regardless if they agree or not. We are allowed to have different opinions.

So if I was voting for the p***k that's there at the moment , I would own up......but I'm not.

[Louisa]

I still think the 'shy tory' vote will play a big part in the outcome of this election. With things so close, a handful of marginals could make the difference between the Tories or Labour forming a minority government. The big question mark surely remains UKIP in England and the SNP in Scotland. The number of votes and or seats taken by either will make that crucial difference to the big two.

Louisa.

[aquarius moon]

And as MrB says, not many people will admit to voting UKIP so I think they are going to do a lot better than expected.

[Louisa]

Absolutely am, I guess another big question is do the 'shy tory' votes come from UKIP voters and vice versa. Estimates suggest 40% of UKIP supporters traditionally vote tory, will a general election bring those people back into the fold and in what numbers?

Louisa.

[Blah Blah]

Panorama this week was interesting (and worth a look on iplayer). It predicts a minority labour government with UKIP getting just 1 (or was it 2) seats. And the SNP will replace the Libdems as the third largest party. It talked about shy tories too.

Interesting growth figures and oh that list of small businesses that wasn't quite what it seems. Not a good couple of days for Cameron.

[maxxi]

Blah Blah Wrote:

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It talked about shy tories

> too.

Are you sure that wasn't a mispronunciation?