Elections 6th May...

[di]

I think it is just because almost everyone is completely against the capitalist-ness of the Tories pigletwillie
Hardline working class for the most part and they dont see any connection between themselves and the Conservatives.

When I was younger I always assumed The Labour Party were there for the Working Class....after several years in power I'm seriously having my doubts and I certainly don't see any connection between myself and any Labour MP

[pigletwillie]

I agree Di, it appears to me they want to drag everybody down to the lowest common denomenator.

[weekendwellies]

Yes when I was younger things were cut and dried.
Labour was pretty much Socialist and Conservative was pretty much Capitalist.
Now they overlap to such an extent that if you lean more heavily to one side or the other you need to look at the minority parties.

[bobleponge]

How many of us read all the promises and make a balanced decision?

I think this point is a large part of the problem.
How many of read the promises, make a balanced decision and then are disappointed when the promises are broken?

[Madasafish]

I am afraid some of the above is - in my opinion - a little hopeful and naive.

Politicians find usually - if they tell the truth and it's bad news- the other parties deny it and we voters don't vote for the truthful party.

It's all very well blaming politicians but when voters continue to vote for politicians who cheat and lie continuously, can you blame the politicians if they continue to do so?

In some areas you can pin a rosette on a monkey and it will be elected.
In Hartlepool , the monkey promised free bananas: it won..


BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Monkey mascot elected mayor

[pigletwillie]

I remember that, but then they did hang a French warships shipwrecked monkey as a spy.

As a protest vote it was brilliant and indeed made monkeys out of the main players who I am sure, went bananas.

BOOM BOOM

[bobleponge]

We blame politicians as they are the ones who are elected on promises.
I seem to recall only recently someone being elected and promising to close down a rather unpleasant institution in a foreign land within a year. 18 months ish further on, said place is still open, and his popularity rating is dropping. Are the two related??

I disagree totally that people wont vote for the truthful party. The majority of people who are politically active in the UK have their allegiences nailed to the mast before they are old enough to vote, and vote for the same party throughout their lives.
The "swinging" voter (no comment) is the one of interest to the parties, and I'm sure they would be very insulted to hear that they wouldnt vote for honesty.
The mud slinging politics are yet another reason why people have become disinterested. As has been said already on this thread, we want to hear what "they" will do, not what the others wont/cant.

[Madasafish]

Boblesponge.

Last time the Conservatives told the truth on debt and the need for austerity, the polls showed their lead start to drop. And it kept dropping until they changed to cutting taxes.

People do not want to see services cut and they don'y like to pay taxes.

Both of those are natural human reactions. Together they are contradictory.

Tell civil servants they will see their numbers cut and have wage freezes and they have far too generous pensions - and they will not vote for you. Human nature. Turkeys and Christams voting are not known :-)

(The Government spends over 50% of our total wealth at present - ).

[bobleponge]

Polls schmolls.
Results is what counts. I seem to remember droll headlines in the papers that if Gordon Brown had a daughter she would be called Prudence, such was his overuse of the word when it came to the nations finances. Calling for austerity and being truthful doesnt mean you wont be voted in. If memory serves me right, the Labour government have been in power for quite a long time now??

I agree people dont want to pay tax or see services cut, but most people agree that to have one they must do the other. Most people are intelligent enough to understand that. I refute totally however that people wont vote for someone they find honest and open. Martin Bell stood as a one man band, he was known as being someone who was just that, and he won a handsome victory.

[pigletwillie]

Apparently good fiscal practice is to cut spending and raise taxes when things are going well, as we are not so bothered, and cut taxes and raise spending when it goes toots up to keep some stimulus in the economy.

I fear we have just had 12 years of raised spending and raised taxes and are heading for 12 years of cutting spending and raising taxes to pay for it.

[SarzWix]

I think we have to remember the culpability of the bankers for a lot of the problems that we have now, and also that it was the last Conservative gov't that gave them the freedom to achieve such an almighty cock-up...

[pigletwillie]

and we in the main, better off.

[binley100]

Oooh bankers and their bonus's .........that is something that really pi$$e$ me off.

[taff]

anyone my age will remember the thatcher years, and that'll put them off conservative more than anything else.

[SarzWix]

Are we?! I have no prospect whatsoever of being able to buy a house, and an awful lot of my friends and slightly younger relatives are in the same boat. Others have put off having children until they're in the age group that it is a risk, so that both wages went towards getting on the housing ladder. When my mum and dad were my age, a bloke working hard at his job pulled in a big enough wage to pay the mortgage.

BBC News - Did the over-45s ruin life for the rest of us?


Also, this gov't may have built up a load of debt, but they don't have a load of public-owned companies to sell off and make a handy bit of cash with