The Thatcher years & Tory voting pensioners.

[Ivanhoe]

While British workers were busy voting for tax cuts through the Thatcher / Major years, the pensioners had the State pensions link with earnings cut, so it could be said that those workers who voted for Thatcher could not have cared less about the elderly,  that is, if these workers knew what Thatcher was doing, and going to do ?

There is one thing for sure though, millions of pensioners also voted for Thatcher, simply because their parents had always voted Tory.

So basically, all the Tory voting pensioners in this country who are stuggling on their low State pension, have no one to blame but themselves.

[Papaumau]

I am sure that many people, especially the older generations, are set in their ways concerning voting actions and there is little that can be done about that.

I too followed my beloved grandfather into Socialism as I felt that it is only the people who are social-minded that can feel and care about the working classes. Having said that I have always examined any form of Socialism that has not fitted within the basic parameters of this cause.

Communism is far too hard-line to the left and Toryism is far too hard-line to the right and the hybrid "Labour" party that was created by Blair, ( The New-Labour party ). also falls into the hard-line-right model.

Sadly the "Old Labour" party, ( the closest thing to my kind of Socialism I could find ), lost it's way and allowed Blair to completely rejig it to suit what the hardened Tory voters of the past wanted in order to make "Labour" re-electable again.

These people, ( who were taken from the ones that are set in their ways - as above ), floated over to vote for Blair's vison of what a modern Labour party should look like.

WE...and the floating voters that I regularly speak of very soon realised that Blair's vison of a New-Labour party and government was badly flawed and many of them - if not all of them - went back to their comfort zone to again vote Tory and we finished up with a coalition government that was made up of both Tory and Lib Dem views on life.

Whether this will work in the long term or not is anybody's guess and we are just going to have to watch closely to see what happens here over the years to come.

[Ivanhoe]

///////Whether this will work in the long term or not is anybody's guess and we are just going to have to watch closely to see what happens here over the years to come. //////

If the coalition lasts that long.

[Papaumau]

I think that there is already war in the cabinet office over Cameron's ideas about how the so-called "deficit" should be dealt with.

I would like to think that the Liberal Democrats in the coalition might be rising up on their hind legs in order to try to protect the weaker Cameron targets.

Of course we might NEVER get to know what is said in that office, as unless it suffers from "leaks" the discussions there will be kept top-secret.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, It's all a bloody mess, and the reality is, that Cameron has no opposition.

[avalonmpk]

I think that there is already war in the cabinet office over Cameron's ideas about how the so-called "deficit" should be dealt with.

I would like to think that the Liberal Democrats in the coalition might be rising up on their hind legs in order to try to protect the weaker Cameron targets.

Are you implying that there is no deficit we who believe in a republic have the following solution: Every able bodied person over the age of 18, be compelled to purchase treasury bonds to the value of 8% of their Income, yes I said income - from all sources and this to bare interest at 0.5% compounded per year. until such times as the total debt is paid off. Redemption at age 65 or on the death of the holder.
[/quote]

[Papaumau]

Avalonmpk....

I put the word "deficit" into inverted commas as this term is being overused and abused by the CONDEM government.

They - or at least the Tory part of it - are trying to blame the last government for all of the situation we are in today when much of that situation was brought about by the world recession triggered by a world banking collapse and not just the "tax-and-spend" polices of New-Labour.

I do not agree that ANYBODY should be "compelled" to do anything to get the country out of this hole as we are taxed quite heavily enough already thankyou.

I see the government trying to hit as many weak targets as they think they can get away with in order to bring down this "deficit" and I think that the strong ones in our society should look after the weaker ones under us VOLUNTARILY.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, We are in this recession due to right wing free market policies since the 80's.   But the rest of your posting is spot on.

The Tories are and always will be gutless cowards, their cutting of the Deficit has nothing to do with the economy, it is all about hitting the less well off, it is called "arrogance".

[Papaumau]

While you are dead right about the "free-market" polices of Thatcher and Major and the rest of the failed Tory leaders, ( six of them at last count ), I think that this new CONDEM government are falling right back into the same privatisation crap even now.

Cameron, along with his Lib Dem poodle-pal, is working hard to reduce all of the public services so that his CBI cohorts can snap up these services and make profits out of them.

Be sure that this is not about "making government smaller", it is about making the private sector bigger at the expense of these services.

All of the poor disillusioned people here that are hoping that the new government are going to make their lives easier are in for a big shock during the proposed five years of this government ! ( That is of course unless the CONDEM unholy alliance collapses in the interim ).

I bet my little bippy that the exact-same people that are defending this bunch of selfish no-users at the moment will be the same people that will call for their heads very soon.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, Yes, I could not agree more.   Im also wondering how many people losing their jobs now, voted for the Tories at the recent G/E ?

[Papaumau]

Good point Ivanhoe, and there will be a lot more before it get's better - if ever !

I noticed yesterday that the unemployment rates in Scotland have risen for the third month on the trot and while unemployment rates in England have actually dropped a bit this is because many of the new jobs there are part-time only.

Are we going to become a part-time nation just so that the Tories can keep the unemployment rates down, I wonder ?

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, Ever since "the free market" was brought in by Thatcher and her cronies, Britain has been a low waged, insecure, part time nation.

[Papaumau]

I agree, and there is no doubt that that situation is getting worse.

I wonder if our detractors here have the courage to admit that we are right or are the baby-boomers going to be blamed again I wonder ?

[Ivanhoe]

Personally I dont give a damn what they think.  If this coalition goes full term, unemployment is going to soar way beyond what it was during the Thatcher years.

[avalonmpk]

Papa & Ivan
Use your brains if we had never had any sort of labour government we would not be in debt to the extent that we are every single person who has ever voted labour is just as responsible for the sate of this country as the bankers live within your means. Stop putting the burden on to as yet unborn generation. We ai'nt paid back what Ramsey McDonald borrowed!!!