General Election in the UK- will it change Anything?

[SilverbladeTE]

GGingues
You still believe in "trickle down" after 35 years of the vastly increasing poverty and ruin for most Americans?!
"trickle down" is really the rich pissing on the back of the poor and calling it charity!
Western Democratic Socialism *WORKS* see the Scandinavian countries.
What the USA has become and UK is also well on the road to, is Corporate Fascism and is an enemy of actual Capitalism.
Sigh.


Anyway, hoping SNP wipes the Westminster parties out entirely up here
As said before "New" Labour are in bed with the corporates, as proved by UNUM funding their party conferences.
Only difference between them and the Tories is sugar coating and a slower death sentence.
Time we had an end to the "professional political class", we need ordinary citizens running things, not those who think they are entitled or born to rule, look at the links between Milliband, Cameron, Johnson, and the inbred lines of nobility in the Tories etc

 

[SilverbladeTE]

hehe just saw this

 

[*GG*]

Let's see.

Well this is what this Libertarian publication/writer thinks:

http://reason.com/archives/2015/05/07/uk-election-whoever-wins-freedom-loses#.hl0dqu:bBuD

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Well this is what this Libertarian publication/writer thinks:

http://reason.com/archives/2015/05/07/uk-election-whoever-wins-freedom-loses#.hl0dqu:bBuD

"singing" isn't banned, it's vicious, hateful sectarian chants that are banned, because it's linked to horrible legacy of violence between Rangers/Protestant vs Celtic/Catholics that has cost hundreds of lives over the last century!

On average, until recently (as all violent crime has reduced), there were four homicides every damn time Rangers played Celtic. usually two directly linked to the match, and another two of spouse, children, neighbours or whatever beaten to death by a drunken bigot.

That crap has cost the lives of people I knew.
No damn difference to Nazi or other such vicious crap.

Chants are designed to stir a crowd, and when that purpose is to hate and violence against folk because of their religion or of all damn tings what football team they support (and that's really all such is about, tribalism), to hell with it.

"Freedom ends at the point of my nose."

 

[AndyPandy]

@SilverbladeTE I've been watching a series on the ABC here called "The Super Rich and Us".

It highlights the ever widening gap between rich and poor with a focus on Britain. Pretty much puts paid to the trickle down effect.

Personally, I found some of the attitudes of the super rich on this program highly offensive. Basically touting economic and social Darwinism.

The conclusion put forward in last night's episode is that social upheaval driven by the oppressed and impoverished is inevitable.

Did anyone else see this program?

 

[bertiedog]

Oh well after a very disturbed night in more than one way, it would seem we were all wrong but as far as I am concerned the Lib Dems have got what they deserve and it doesn't look like Farage is going to get in. The vote is delayed because of a huge turnout. So far they have just one seat.

I am very concerned for disabled people and others who need benefits though.

Pam

 

[Countrygirl]

Actually, although my maternal grandfather played full back for Wales in 1908, my surname comes from East Anglian Celtic stock.

I think we may be on the right track. Cameron again would have been a complete disaster. Effective healthcare would have collapsed since it would have become as cost ineffective as in the US and we would only be spending have as much, or less. The only saving grace we have at the moment is that our maternal mortality rates are not quite as bad as in the US, although worse than Poland.

[/QUOTE]

............................................And this is what we have. God help the NHS and all the sick and the vulnerable!

 

[SilverbladeTE]

@SilverbladeTE I've been watching a series on the ABC here called "The Super Rich and Us".

It highlights the ever widening gap between rich and poor with a focus on Britain. Pretty much puts paid to the trickle down effect.

Personally, I found some of the attitudes of the super rich on this program highly offensive. Basically touting economic and social Darwinism.

The conclusion put forward in last night's episode is that social upheaval driven by the oppressed and impoverished is inevitable.

Did anyone else see this program?

I haven't seen it but yes, most rich people get that way because they are crooked, selfish, deceitful, horrible or utterly blind bastards, history proves this time and again.
And surrounding yourself with such people, their attitudes rub off and reinforce each other...

the Corporations and Elite today are like the nobles of the 1700s, their catastrophic selfishness, the petty wars they wage for their own aggrandisement etc ruined Europe and drenched it in blood...so the people rebelled and started killing the arseholes
Britain should have had a rebellion, several arose but were ruthlessly supressed
After 5 more years of Tory misrule, well, the people rise and get rid of 'em, or suffer the consequences

said this ages ago

 

[Marco]

Looks like the NHS can't expect a blank cheque year after year. Time for a fundamental re-think?

 

[SilverbladeTE]

made this in response to the historic change today here

 

[eafw]

I have voted in every general election, for however many decades it is now, and never felt so physically ill at the outcome.

It is worse than the Thatcher years. Labour should have been standing up for the NHS, the welfare state, and shown some principled opposition to "austerity (for the poor but not for the rich)".

They didn't and now we have another five years where things can only get worse.

 

[Sidereal]

I noticed that the wiki page for the leader of Plaid Cymru says her partner had CFS and died of an overdose of antidepressants. Who knows, she might be sympathetic to our cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leanne_Wood

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I have voted in every general election, for however many decades it is now, and never felt so physically ill at the outcome.

It is worse than the Thatcher years. Labour should have been standing up for the NHS, the welfare state, and shown some principled opposition to "austerity (for the poor but not for the rich)".

They didn't and now we have another five years where things can only get worse.

Up until recently I had assumed that Labour were unelectable until purged of the New Labour residue - chiefly in the form of Ed Balls. Maybe the one glint of hope here is that he has lost his seat.

 

[bertiedog]

Up until recently I had assumed that Labour were unelectable until purged of the New Labour residue - chiefly in the form of Ed Balls. Maybe the one glint of hope here is that he has lost his seat.

It does give them a chance to wipe the slate clean so to speak because he was heavily involved with Gordon Brown as was Ed Milliband. I do like Andy Burnham or Harriet Harman or Chuka Armoona (spelling) but we will have to wait and see, undoubtedly the Labour party will come to realise this its no good being too much to the left cos the English and Welsh just won't elect you as history tells us.

Pam

 

[snowathlete]

Will be terrifying to see how they plan to get £12 billion from the welfare budget.

Fixed.

 

[eafw]

Up until recently I had assumed that Labour were unelectable until purged of the New Labour residue - chiefly in the form of Ed Balls.

New Labour being too conservative or not conservative enough ?

its no good being too much to the left cos the English and Welsh just won't elect you as history tells us.

Once upon a time, Nye Bevan ...

It is not in my personal living memory, but my parents and grandparents told me plenty of tales, and along with a few basic history lessons it is clear that a country with a mass of poor, underfed, underpaid, uneducated, unhealthy people is not a civilised or productive place for anyone but the 1%.

The Tories proudly champion the 1%, they refuse to look after the interests of the population as a whole, though some of the more wealthy will be OK as well - for a while. I don't see it as a good thing that Labour are following them as fast as they can manage, scrabbling to pander to corporate interest instead of going back to some principles of the traditional/social reformist "left" to give a better quality of life for as many as possible.

 

[wastwater]

Sounds like there going to spend the money on Trident,so new boats and 12bn benefit's cut,the moneys going on tory boats

 

[JPV]

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Emma Goldman

 

[MeSci]

I don't know where everyone lives but here in Thanet South by the sea it seems to be a huge turnout. My son has come down from London to vote (he works in London and lives up there 4 days of the week and has a house here too) and he said he had to queue for 25 minutes this morning, I had to wait about 10 minutes and his friend this evening had to wait nearly 30 minutes so no question UKIP seem to bring out strong feelings in people.

Its the language they use I cannot stand, it is so divisive and they want even more cuts than the Tories and quicker too. I feel they just blame everything on immigration and I don't see how being a little Englander would work in the global world we now live in. I also get the feeling that they are very weak in the compassion stakes too.

Is everyone convinced that Labour is going to form the next Government then?

Pam

I agree with you about UKIP but would put it more strongly. Having come across the crazy statements made by some of their (former) candidates I am still of the view that they are a bunch of clowns. I have also had the misfortune to be at two meetings where the local UKIP mob repeatedly heckled speakers so that they couldn't get their points across. Maybe they think that Prime Minister's Questions is the way that civilised people behave, when it is in fact a source of shame and embarrassment to many Brits.

I have never been convinced that Labour would win the election either outright or with the need to seek coalition partners. I was just hoping...

 

[JPV]

Time we had an end to the "professional political class", we need ordinary citizens running things, not those who think they are entitled or born to rule, look at the links between Milliband, Cameron, Johnson, and the inbred lines of nobility in the Tories etc

Elections should be abolished. People should be drafted into politics...

Sortition (Wikipedia)

In governance, sortition (also known as allotment) is the selection of officers as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates.

In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing political officials and its use was conventionally regarded at the time as a principal characteristic of democracy.

Sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common law-based legal systems and is sometimes used today in forming citizen groups with political advisory power (citizens' juries orcitizens' assemblies).

The Athenians believed sortition to be more democratic than elections and used complex procedures with purpose-built allotment machines (kleroteria) to avoid the corrupt practices used by oligarchs to buy their way into office. According to the author Mogens Herman Hansen the citizen's court was superior to the assembly because the allotted members swore an oath which ordinary citizens in the assembly did not and therefore the court could annul the decisions of the assembly. Both Aristotle and Herodotus (one of the earliest writers on democracy) emphasize selection by lot as a test of democracy.