Some good news, some bad news (not necessarily in that order)

[andrewducker]

The Observer poll paints a mixed portrait of Britain after eight years of left-of-centre government. While a majority now supports tough immigration laws and the detention of terror suspects without trial, and one in five considers it acceptable to use information obtained under torture from terrorist suspects, views on tax are surprisingly liberal, with 59 per cent supporting using tax to narrow the gap between rich and poor. A majority also supports the expansion of public services, even at the expense of some increase in taxes.

More here

Comments

[wordofblake.livejournal.com]

The important thing is to remember to go out and vote against Labour :)

[andrewducker]

The important thing is to vote against the Conservatives, who are still significantly worse than Labour.

Second most important thing is to vote Labour out :->

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

If I had a vote - and I don't, being 16 and all - I would certainly vote for unproven incompetence as opposed to proven incompetence or thinly-veiled incompetence.

I really don't get what the deal is with immigration. A good friend of my grandmothers recently retired, but she was a relatively high-up immigration judge (Guess who got her statute books :D :D), and I can honestly say that from the case notes that I've read, and the law that I've read, the government are screwing a great many number of people quite heavily in the posterior. White lists on countries that are certainly not safe, harsh policies, and general incompetence means that most of the process revolves around being in limbo and wasting taxpayers' money. I've read things which I probably shouldn't say, but the majority of asylum claims appear to be genuine, and still refused; or, hopefully, given liberty to remain, but not asylum (so that the extended family comes over, only spouse + children, which is quite nasty, but meh).


At any rate, I think it would be an idea to vote for no-vote....

[oldbaldchris.livejournal.com]

Sorry Andy but what planet are you living on mate? , the idea that anyone could be worse than that slimy , lying , hypocritical , gutless , thieving , criminal , warmongering pillock Blair who has his head so far up Bushes ass the only thing he can see is the shit Bush is shoveling , is impossible.
Gordon is right - he must go , first and foremost.
Thanks , I feel better for that rant :)

[andrewducker]

If it was purely a vote on the PM then I'd almost be with you.

[andrewducker]

I thought you'd be amused by this, I just received on a mailing list:

Here in Merrie Olde Englande, we're
a month away from Vote For Scum
Day. And we're faced with a choice
worse than the Americans were
last year.

No-one with two brain cells to rub
together has any trust left in Tony
Blair. The economy's overheated,
there's been no attempt to recover
the public services from the mess
the Tories left them in, and he's
got George Bush's hand up his arse.
That's a list that goes on, but I've
only been awake an hour and a half.

(For those who don't follow Brit
politics: the Blair govt. is the Labour
Party. "Tory" is the term for the
Conservative Party)

However, the party of opposition is
the Tories, as run by Michael
Howard, who as Home Secretary
in the last Tory govt was a criminal
prick denounced as a moral mutant
by his own colleagues. His grinning,
glass-eyed presence is nothing short
of Satanic. His campaign so far has
been nothing short of loathesome,
playing to the lowest instincts in
the worst of us. If he gets into power
Britain is going to make America
look like classical Greece.

The third party are the Liberal
Democrats, currently fronted by
Charlie Kennedy, an amiable Scots
bloke who likes a drink. He used to
be deputy to Paddy Ashdown,
under whom LibDem iterated their
only coherent soundbite of a policy.
"A penny in the pound for education."
1% tax rise that would pay for
schools. Great idea, simply put. So
simply put, in fact, that everyone
heard nothing but "tax rise" and
told them to fuck off. Paddy
Ashdown was great. Ex-SAS. The
only political leader in living memory
who could kill you with his thumbs.
Prime Minister's Question Time
would have been must-watch TV.
Prime Minister Ashdown plunking
his machine gun down on the box
and saying, "the Prime Minister
would like you all on your knees now."

Charlie Kennedy's wife just had their
first baby. They've called the poor
little sod Donald. Charlie Kennedy's
going to be listening to crowd
renditions of "Donald Where's Your
Troosers" for the next month.

He comes off as a nice guy. No
gravitas at all. He was great as the
friendly, funny deputy to stern,
grizzled, Paddy Ashdown. With no-one
to play off, he kind of looks like a
kid shuffling around in daddy's shoes
nowl.

And then there's the Green Party.
Whose political statement of today
was "we're not going to get into
power." Which might be refreshing
in its realism, but doesn't quite stir
the masses to action. It's a shame,
because their basic planks -- cut
the Labour plan for new roads dead
and re-route that committed budget
into the national health service --
are easy to grasp and ring with
some plausibility. Which isn't the
same thing as BEING plausible, but
this is politics.

On a local level, I vote Green --
Southend's in a nightmarish state,
local services are collapsing, the
crack scene has ballooned over the
last three years, and the whole
place reeks of death. One of the
local Tory members of parliament,
David Amess, is vulnerable -- he
stands on a familyvalues lawnorder
platform, but his son has recently
been imprisoned for slashing someone
to bits with a broken bottle.

The problem with unseating Tories
in this area is that it's Old People's
Home Central. Throw a stick in any
direction and you'll hit five wrinkly
ranches. And they all get mobilised
at elections. Most of them still
think Churchill's in power. They all
vote Tory. We pray for good hard
winters to thin the fuckers out.

So there are the choices: the
scum, the thing worse than scum,
Donald Where's Your Troosers and
a bunch of hippies who appear
afraid to be in charge of anything.

See, Bush/Kerry was SIMPLE...

[wordofblake.livejournal.com]

to clarify my position:

Labour are in power currently, they have proven themselves slimy lying weasels

the Conservatives were in power before that, they proved themselves lying slimy weasels.

Labour got into power in 1997 largely on the back of people's hatred of the Tory party.

Voting to keep someone out doesnt work, you just get a different lying weasel, so place your vote for the people you'd be happy to see walk into 10 Downing Street. That way when the winner stands up on television and talks about a mandate from the masses there might be a shred of truth in it.

[andrewducker]

Oh, absolutely. I plan to vote for people I want to be in. Which happens, in this case, to be neither Labour or the Conservatives.