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Election 2010!

Jesus the Lib Dems actually talk sense...

And we're a trillion in debt? I think this should be used by the other two parties a lot more considering the massive difference you put down Slayed... The fact we're spending more on interest than education says a lot...

I wonder if the scrappage of tutition fees for students taking their first degree would include those already in uni as well... (1st, 2nd, 3rd years depending on length of course)... That would turn the tide for me (and basically every other student who doesn't want to be in horrendous debt when they leave)...

For some reason the uni has automatically registered me up in Stafford without my consent though, which is silly... Even sillier for my flat-mate who has already registered in his local area to vote...
 
Excellent Slayed. Thank you for that. It has certainly broken it down in to a readable document :p You didn't have to do that and must have taken some time. So thank you.

I am also going to agree with Marc in the sense that, I too, am thinking long and hard about where my vote is going and the Lib Dems are certainly striving ahead.

Naturally, there are other things that I personally would take into account. I am certainly more likely to vote for someone who in turn would "vote for me" and giving me equal rights. Out of the 3 parties, the Lib Dems are absolutely miles ahead of the Conservatives and partially ahead Labour in terms of their opinions and voting patterns with regard to equality etc.

Tough decision really, but I am believing more and more that we are likely to see a hung parliament.
 
Thanks for the bullet points, Slayed. Even though I also read the three main manifestos, as well as UKIP (in my area) and the BNP's out of interest, the bullet points summarise it nicely.

It's also good that somebody is taking a keen interest on all points. Recently on Twitter and on here, I've seen some people base their opinions on one single issue - which I consider wrongly judged and very misguided.

I find the Lib Dems too wishy-washy (with the exception of the ecomany) and to get rid of Trident would be a terrible idea. Reduce our stockpile yes, but not scrap it! If places like India and Pakistan can have nukes, then so should we. Theya re also far too Euro-biased. The five permanant members of the UNSC should be the last to get rid of their nukes. Therefore they will not gain my vote.

The Tories are sickly. Although I do honestly believe that Cameron's heart is in the right place, the man oozes slime. I do like the way they will give a free vote on the Hunting Ban though. I couldn't give a toss if a few posh ****s don red jackets and go and hunt a fox, it doesn't affect me in the slightest so let them do what they like! The Tories are the best of the bad bunch.

UKIP are laughable. We need Europe, simple as that. We shouldn't cut them off.

We've had 13 years of Labour and they have had a negative impact on some areas of my life. Brown needs to go. Having said all that, I would consider voting for them for my own job security...but they can't win in my area so it's a wasted vote.

I agree with about half of the BNP's policies but I refuse to be drawn on them because it's all too fashionable to belittle anybody who does.

I'm torn between the Tories and spoling my vote.
 
Ian said:
...but they can't win in my area so it's a wasted vote.

Do you not get two seperate voting cards, one for Local Election and one for General? We did. Im still learning how all this works.

Southend is quite heavily conservative (or so I am led to believe - It is a conservative led council) and ironically, I have no dispute with how Southend is being run etc... However, there is a lot of talk at the moment about how the BNP are gaining a huge amount of popularity...
 
Mark said:
Do you not get two seperate voting cards, one for Local Election and one for General? We did. Im still learning how all this works.
Yeah, one for the General and one for the Local.

Lib Dems have been Eastleigh's local power for the last decade or so and they've done well. They've kept council tax rises to a minimum comapred to the national average, the roads are a in a good state, they've developed Eastleigh Town Centre - shut down the trouble making pubs/clubs and built a cinema and bowling complex. The only thing they've done wrong is give the green light o far too many housing developments and a little town like Eastleigh can't cope with more people/traffic.

I believe the Lib Dems are very good at working locally but as a Central Government, they would **** things up worse than Labour have.
 
The only thing they've done wrong is give the green light o far too many housing developments and a little town like Eastleigh can't cope with more people/traffic.
Granted, I'm an outsider to the situation, but I thought the case for a long time was that an insufficient number of new dwellings were being built in the UK, hence property prices being so astronomical.
 
Nemesis Inferno said:
I wonder if the scrappage of tutition fees for students taking their first degree would include those already in uni as well... (1st, 2nd, 3rd years depending on length of course)... That would turn the tide for me
Lib Dems: "We have a financially responsible plan to phase fees out over six years" - so it would happen gradually, BUT fees for *final* year students would be scrapped immediately.

Nemesis Inferno said:
For some reason the uni has automatically registered me up in Stafford without my consent though, which is silly... Even sillier for my flat-mate who has already registered in his local area to vote...
I believe as a student you automatically get registered both at Uni and at Home, so you can choose which to vote in.

Ian said:
To get rid of Trident would be a terrible idea.
That's a show-stopper for you isn't it! It's one of the key places where the Lib Dems diverge significantly from the other two (the other being nuclear power).

I think there are alternatives that provide similar functionalty for less cost - do we *really* need submarine-launched nuclear missiles? It's £100b for 3 submarines!

Ian said:
We need Europe, simple as that. We shouldn't cut them off.
Glad you said that, the rabid anti-Europe argument winds me up!

Ian said:
I agree with about half of the BNP's policies but I refuse to be drawn on them because it's all too fashionable to belittle anybody who does.
My nearest pub has just put a BNP poster up. I defend entirely their right to do so, and my own right to never drink in there again (wasn't a regular anyway!).

Think I'll have a read of their manifesto though, just to be fair and democratic.

Mark said:
Do you not get two seperate voting cards, one for Local Election and one for General?
Yeah, in England there's a simultaneous local election too. Obviously only your General Election vote affects Parliament.
 
Gazza said:
The only thing they've done wrong is give the green light o far too many housing developments and a little town like Eastleigh can't cope with more people/traffic.
Granted, I'm an outsider to the situation, but I thought the case for a long time was that an insufficient number of new dwellings were being built in the UK, hence property prices being so astronomical.
The reason there is a shortage of housing is because the Thatcher Government stopped building social housing in the 80's and no subsequent goverment has since bothered to reinstate mass-social housing building.

To add to that, there are far too many immigrants in the UK taking up birth-right citizen's limited space and resources. No, I'm not anti-immigration but there has to be sensible limits and a just reason for it. Despite what some people may think, Britain is a great country and I'm proud to be British (more so English!) so I can understand why people want to come here but British citizens should get first dibs on any housing.

And thirdly, there are a load of private landlords. The law changed in 1997 (haha, what a surprise!) to allow landlords more rights. The number of people with at least one house for rental is 800,000. I can't find any figures for how many private houses are actually rented though, but we're probably looking at at least 1,000,000.

If any goverment is going to have a tossy immigration policy such as Labour have had for 13 years, then they should at least make sure the British-born people come first and have adequate infrastructure.

Immigration is an important issue for me, hence my passing interest in the BNP and leaning towards the Tories who are tradionally good at controlling it.

I wish our country was as strict as Oz!
 
A lot of people made a lot of money out of Thatcher selling off the council houses, people bought their house for £30,000 and sold them for £1,000,000 in the city of London. She should never have sold of the council houses even she admitted to this mistake a long with selling off everything else.

Labour have tried to build more affordable housing, but its been for key workers and this has not worked and as a result many new build places did not sell for what they should have.

I dont think we need to be in Europe like we are, Sweden are doing ok and they are doing ok. I always felt in order to make us in Europe fully work we needed to join 100% and yes that meant losing the £. We chose not to and this does effect companies such as the one I work for as they end up effected by the rate of exchange. I do not really care about Europe tbh and that will not effect my vote but we do need to limit the people coming in as it is a well known fact France and other countries do not put up with it so why should we?

I just want to know how the Libs say I will be upto £700 better off a year, I just worked it out I should be £4000 a year so why am I not going to be?

About the weapons, we have had them for how long? and we have used them how many times?

Anyway good point raised by Ian and Slayed, still not sure who to vote for lol.
 
Thing is I always find with the nations defense money shouldn't be an issue, should spend what is necessary, Labour and the Tories before them have mis-managed and cut the Armed Forces drastically. The Iraq and Afghan war has highlighted the lack of equipment troops have.
 
I've had a read of the BNP's policies (at least they have some, even if they don't have a manifesto).

Here's a representative sample. None of these are costed in any way by the party.


Immigration
This is their big topic.

• "At least twenty percent of the currently resident population were either born overseas or are descendants of foreign-born parents." [So? My sister was born abroad, so what?]

• An immediate halt to all immigration.

• Deport all the two million plus who are here illegally. [It's not clear how they define "illegal".]

• Deport all those who commit crimes and whose original nationality was not British. [Actually the Lib Dems advocate this too, with caveats.]

• Reject all asylum seekers who passed safe countries on their way to Britain. [So all accept the Irish or the French then. What do you mean, we don't have any Irish or French asylum seekers?]

• "The current open-door policy and unrestricted, uncontrolled immigration is leading to higher crime rates." [It's not an "open door", and the other parties are going to control it - it's Labour that have screwed it up recently.]


Economy
• Exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets, and the reduction of foreign imports. [I don't think it needs pointing out how idiotic a policy this is - I loves my British bananas...and forget about that cheap European wine.]

• Ensure that our manufactured goods are, wherever possible, produced in British factories, employing British workers.

• Restore our economy and land to British ownership. ["Can we have our land back please? Pleeeeease?"]

• Ending the £9 billion foreign aid budget. [That's not very Christian, for a party that advocates the "old" Christian ways.]

• Ending the £4.5 billion a year wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [A sensible policy at last?]

• Ending the billions pumped into the EU swindle. [Of course, we won't need Europe any more if we ONLY have British! Sorted!]


Defense
• Withdrawing from the illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• The prosecution for war crimes of all Westminster officials who deliberately tricked this nation into those conflicts.

• Retain a genuinely independent nuclear deterrent and produce all our weaponry in Britain. [This looked sensible until the "weaponry" bit. Gotta have British!]

• Only commit British forces when British national interests are at stake.


Crime
• Re-introduce corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals. [Stoning? Chopping-off hands? A spanking?]

• Restore capital punishment for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers in cases where their guilt is proven beyond dispute. [Sweet - we all know The Law is of course infallible.]


Education
I'm sure all the students will love these:-

• "Exams have been dumbed down and while more students are obtaining meaningless bits of paper, employers are complaining that graduates cannot spell."

• The restoration of discipline – including corporal punishment – uniforms, traditional teaching methods and stricter exams (e.g. ‘0′ levels).

• The reintroduction of competitive sports and daily Christian assemblies.

• The teaching of old-fashioned literacy skills (as opposed to clearly failed “modern” teaching methods). [Their comments, not mine!]

• The abolition of fees and the restoration of full grants to university students studying proper subjects (as opposed to fake “social sciences”). [Their comments again.]

• The ending of the scandalous and racist neglect that has left working class white boys at the bottom of the table for academic achievement. [Oh THAT'S the problem - white-boy racism! D'oh!]


If this is genuinely the Britain that you want to live in, one which actually used to exist a century ago, then you'll find me at the (now open) airport - but please don't bother.
 
Slayed that made me LOL big time.

They want to put us back in the 60's, how the hell do they ever think that would work.

I am shocked they did not say blow up the channel tunnel :)
 
If they got in I would be applying for a green card and getting a job in the states right away...
 
Doh, double post BUT...

This is an article which is particularly aimed at the LGBT crowd but is also relevant to anyone who would take this sort of thing into account when thinking about voting.

http://mygayvote.co.uk/
 
^Wow, just...wow. Thanks for the link, Mark. It's definitely confirmed that the Conservatives WON'T be getting my vote...
 
Don't rely totally on those statistics, as they are only statistics, if you get me, but it can at least form PART of an informed decision...
 
Hahahaha, the Lib Dem pie chart looks like Pacman.
 
The best ever egg throwing incident was Prescott.

Not only did Prescott fight back, the egg thrower had an amazing mullet.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTiI1e-wVc[/youtube]
 
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