The next general election.

[Ivanhoe]

/////So we get taxed by the back door and pensioners living on a state pension are suffering. The state pension being devalued every year and Brown and his buddies are doing nothing, He as even manage to wreck many private pensions in the bargain////

New Labour have continued Thatcher's tax policy from the 80's.

Basically we are losing the role of the State re- direct taxation from central government to all local communities, and in place of increased tax revenue from central government, local council tax is increasing.

[Hugh]

Time to put this one to bed, politics not really a good subject for the forum.

[Ivanhoe]

////Time to put this one to bed, politics not really a good subject for the forum////

It seems to me that politics just isnt a British subject, until of course it happens to people.  Time to wake up methinks.

 

[Papaumau]

Why should i vote for any politician who once they are elected,into a very well paid job with all the perks,
follow the party line and impose laws  to which i don't agree,
As Jim Royle would say "i cant be a****" anymore.

Charlie said that once they are in he cannot trust them to do what he wants - or words to that effect - and while I agree I am afraid that that is how democracy works.

Politicians get in by promising us this and that in their manifestos and they know that if they do not try hard enough to fulfil those manifesto promises they are at risk of being booted out the next time round.

That is why we should still keep voting so that they KNOW that we will not let them off the hook if they do not do what we want them to do.

It is the disenchanted, lethargic, lazy and uninterested ones that allow the politicians to keep ripping us off because they will not get out and vote.

[avalonmpk]

Put it to Bed! not likely this unstable man has his finger on a nuclear trigger

[Ivanhoe]

////It is the disenchanted, lethargic, lazy and uninterested ones that allow the politicians to keep ripping us off because they will not get out and vote. /////

But if the political parties have nothing in their manifesto's for pensioners, or whomever, why should people vote for them. ?

We have a right wing one party state in this country, because New Labour have stolen Tory policies, so what's the point in voting.

[Papaumau]

That does not mean that we should just give up and turn our vulnerable underbelly's to these people !

If all of the people of Britain simply gave up on politics the politics would be left to the activists and the extremists and then it would be "God help" the rest of us.

What the Britishers need is a spell living in Zimbabwe or some such other dictator-controlled state where true democracy is kept out of the hands of the people. After a while of living there they would start to appreciate what we have got in the free west and they would stop taking democracy for granted.

[Ivanhoe]

//////What the Britishers need is a spell living in Zimbabwe or some such other dictator-controlled state where true democracy is kept out of the hands of the people. After a while of living there they would start to appreciate what we have got in the free west and they would stop taking democracy for granted./////

I agree, but that's not going to happen.

I predict a hung Parliament after the next general election, and the politicians blaming iraq, and the media will go with the flow without challenging.

[Hugh]

Zimbabwe another place we the Brits poke our noses into and left a fine mess.  I spent 70 days of my life going round in circle on HMS Eagle on an oil embargo to get coloured people equal rights. Now a once great country now in a right mess.

[Geezer]

Britains imperialist past will always haunt us. Most countries in Africa are getting along very well with their own self government, however Zimbabwe and a few other spectacular examples are bedevilled by corrupt rulers, war and debt. These countries, it is sad to say, would be better off under British Rule, at least we would do less harm than the likes of Mugabe.

[Papaumau]

//////What the Britishers need is a spell living in Zimbabwe or some such other dictator-controlled state where true democracy is kept out of the hands of the people. After a while of living there they would start to appreciate what we have got in the free west and they would stop taking democracy for granted./////

I agree, but that's not going to happen.

I predict a hung Parliament after the next general election, and the politicians blaming iraq, and the media will go with the flow without challenging.

I think you might be right Ivanhoe, as, as more and more polls show the Tories slipping the greater is the chance that there will be no overall winner in this year's general election.

Because a great many of the voting population are now sick of two-party politics and the big two cannot be separated by the thickness of a Ritzla paper any more I think that many of the electorate will now either stay at home or will vote strategically so that a third force finishes up carrying the balance of power.

At least, I for one, hope that this is the result !

[Ivanhoe]

I hope this is the result as well, but im also looking forward to Cameron being blamed for a bad Tory result, and the Tories searching for a New leader, because Cameron's leadership will be blamed for the Tories being thrown on the political scrapheap.

[Hells Granny]

My father used to say that until political parties were abolished, and each candidate stood as an Independant, no government could be truly democratic.

I couldn't see it at the time (I was young and idealistic! ), but more and more I appreciate what he was getting at.

Cheers, HG

[Ivanhoe]

They have democracy in Europe where no political party can take overall control, it's called proportional representation.

[Papaumau]

Don't kid yourself Ivanhoe....Even with proportional representation and the single transferrable vote -  although it is harder for the big boys to gain overall control and easier for the small parties to get more seats - there is no guarantee that the big parties will not gain controlling power-packs.

Actually...I DO support proportional representation and the single transferrable vote !