mjmooney Posted January 19, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 19, 2014 Why not go into politics and change it, if you don't like it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Well, I think I think in my own tiny little disorganised way I have. Not with the intention of being an MP. A single independent MP isn't going to change anything. But on a local level I've got myself onto a couple of little groups that do make a small difference. The Food Bank is an obvious example, the allotment stuff is interesting (it was being closed and heading towards being sold off for housing). Equally, even the local football club is now under our ownership and has been turned around with official youth teams getting kids off the street. The first team raises money for charity and we have a number of fund raisers for local causes. We've also all created a bit of local buzz with local businesses all cross promoting and supporting each other. Generally, I've become a tiny cog in a local wheel that can actually point at real local improvements made. Interestingly, by being non-political we've used and abused the talents and contacts of all four local political parties as and when we've needed them. Horribly, I don't doubt for a second that £90 haircut Cameron would label that 'big society'. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Just to add to the above, we've also used various local churches to help with setting things up, most obviously the foodbank, but also a new community garden on a new housing estate and a community centre where there wasn't one. But obviously all good things by all organised religions are taboo here, so we'll park that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 so if there was an election tomorrow who do you think would win?The wrong people; always the wrong people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Well, I think I think in my own tiny little disorganised way I have....How you have done it is irrelevant but what you go on to describe would say that you (and the others in the various organizations of which you are a part) have entered and taken part in politics.Much better, probably, than stiffing the local purse for twenty odd grand a year in exes to pursue an agenda that probably wouldn't even be your own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I'm making a real difference by moaning about the state of politics to a group of strangers on the internet, thank you very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Hopefully everyone finds the idea of putting an X next to blue, red or yellow repulsive. We get a hung Parliament between UKIP and the Greens who cancel each other out. The only bill that makes law in the following 5 years bans the sale of whale meat to Romanians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drat01 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Hopefully everyone finds the idea of putting an X next to blue, red or yellow repulsive. We get a hung Parliament between UKIP and the Greens who cancel each other out. The only bill that makes law in the following 5 years bans the sale of whale meat to Romanians. Oh no not the Whale meat again ....... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Hopefully everyone finds the idea of putting an X next to blue, red or yellow repulsive. I'm torn on that issue TBH. I WILL vote though, probably green, though it'll make no difference in this safe Tory seat. People risked and lost their lives to give us the right to vote, the right to democracy. One could easily argue that what we have now isn't really democracy, and I think that's a valid argument. But stil, I just feel it's right for me to make the effort to go to the polling booth and make an 'informed' judgement on who should be elected. I can also see the validity of someone taking the effort to go to the polling booth and spoiling their paper - it shows dissatisfaction with the whole process. I agree with Bicks though - it'll probably be a Hung Parliament with Labour having slightly more seats than the Tories. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 How can anyone doubt the invisible sky fairy? Wouldn't that be the gay pilot of a stealth aircraft? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 How can anyone doubt the invisible sky fairy? Wouldn't that be the gay pilot of a stealth aircraft? That's the kind of humour usually found in Bongo Bongo land. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25803006 Look beyond the populist rhetoric of the policy announcement, and there may be a decent policy here. The devil will be in the detail but I won't hold me breath. Why? Because Milliband is an absolute chicken shit. If he believes in social justice why isn't he standing up to this vile lot? Why are his policy announcements like this one, caked in populist bullshit? Far far too weak I'm afraid. He'd be the same if he was PM. Edited January 20, 2014 by Kingfisher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25803006 Look beyond the populist rhetoric of the policy announcement, and there may be a decent policy here. The devil will be in the detail but I won't hold me breath. Why? Because Milliband is an absolute chicken shit. If he believes in social justice why isn't he standing up to this vile lot? Why are his policy announcements like this one, caked in populist bullshit? Far far too weak I'm afraid. He'd be the same if he was PM. I think that might be included in a definition of 'race to the bottom'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Far far too weak I'm afraid. He'd be the same if he was PM. You've finally said something I agree with, although doubtless for different reasons. Prime Minister Miliband would be an absolute train wreck, or rather the UK would be, after he'd finished with it. I'd imagine most Labour MPs curse the Unions for imposing him on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Osborne wants to increase the minimum wage. Miliband wants to punish claimants who refuse training. Seems like both parties are trying to court the floating vote because the canvassing is showing these as hot topics for the minority who actually decide elections. Both are trying to steal the other's clothing. They both obviously think it is going to be a close run thing. It seems likely that neither party can do much and while they wait for the BOE to inflate away the debt (and everyone's wages and savings), the only option left is to amuse the electorate by rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked, whoever they happen to be this week or next. Meanwhile the Lib-Dems are tearing themselves apart because the women wanted someone prosecuted for various shades of groping (since reduced to a demand for an apology) and the accused and his mates think the sisterhood's campaign to seek prosecution was vicious and disproportionate. Welcome to the nonsense which is coalition politics. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Far far too weak I'm afraid. He'd be the same if he was PM. You've finally said something I agree with, although doubtless for different reasons. Prime Minister Miliband would be an absolute train wreck, or rather the UK would be, after he'd finished with it. I'd imagine most Labour MPs curse the Unions for imposing him on them.Bollocks (IMO). The current government are a train wreck, Milliband would be far better because his heart is socialist. His problem is he hasn't got a big enough set to stand up to the right wing media so he goes along playing their game by their rules. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 The current government are a train wreck, Milliband would be far better because his heart is socialist. His problem is he hasn't got a big enough set to stand up to the right wing media so he goes along playing their game by their rules. So if he was more overtly Socialist (i.e. more than he is currently being, which is rather a lot imo) then everything would be okay because...what? He'd never get elected? I don't think the current government is any good at all, but I do think that either Cameron or - god forbid - Clegg as PM is infinitely preferable to that ludicrous little rocket polisher Ed and his team of proven numpties - who all lacked a big enough set to have Gordon Brown committed when it mattered. What is obvious is that there are no good options in 2015, just a choice between those likely to do the least damage. Miliband's expressions of admiration for Francois Hollande (currently using Socialism to bludgeon the French economy into a bloody pulp) should be warning enough where he'd take the UK, should the electorate be retarded enough to give him and his pals the keys again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) , should the electorate be retarded enough to give him and his pals the keys again. An electorate that was retarded enough to give us Cameron and Osborne? if it comes to its senses slightly then yes I'd say there is every likelihood we will end up with a Labour government come 2015. One thing for sure is we don't need anymore right wing nut jobs in power come 2015. I am certain given the way they have destroyed public services, stamped on the poor whilst demonizing them at the same time, given the rich a pull up another couple of rungs of the ladder and the general incompetent, embarrassing and at times evil way they have governed this country we will not see the Tories in power come May 2015. Edited January 21, 2014 by markavfc40 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 The current government are a train wreck, Milliband would be far better because his heart is socialist. His problem is he hasn't got a big enough set to stand up to the right wing media so he goes along playing their game by their rules. So if he was more overtly Socialist (i.e. more than he is currently being, which is rather a lot imo) then everything would be okay because...what? He'd never get elected? I don't think the current government is any good at all, but I do think that either Cameron or - god forbid - Clegg as PM is infinitely preferable to that ludicrous little rocket polisher Ed and his team of proven numpties - who all lacked a big enough set to have Gordon Brown committed when it mattered. What is obvious is that there are no good options in 2015, just a choice between those likely to do the least damage. Miliband's expressions of admiration for Francois Hollande (currently using Socialism to bludgeon the French economy into a bloody pulp) should be warning enough where he'd take the UK, should the electorate be retarded enough to give him and his pals the keys again. If we take the proportion of a country's GDP which the government takes as tax, as a measure of socialism, which I think is fair, France (44.6%) emerges as being a far more socialist country than the UK (39%) and the election of Hollande (2012) has not changed that significantly. And by that measure Germany (40.6%) is a more socialist country than the UK too. I am not sure that a case can be made that socialism has damaged France economically because their GDP is larger than the UK, and the socialism hasn't done Germany much harm either. If socialism can't be shown to have damaged France and Germany then I think that you have to conclude that the aim of the Tories to match the American tax-take (26.9%), is almost certainly ideological. The prurient obsession with the Hollande scandal has been used by the media to conflate his character weakness with France's historical preference for socialism and to promote the right-wing ideology of the Tories/Republicans. There are no current examples of countries being bludgeoned into a pulp by socialism, only examples of countries where huge debts have been accrued to finance property bubbles (Spain, Ireland, Korea) and which were privatised. Socialism had nothing to do with it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colhint Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 So reading the above posts 1.6% tax increase changes you from a good socialist to a right wing nut job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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