Does the United Kingdom need to be repaired?

[Guiscard]

Blah blah blah. I don't like the religious guy that's a different religion from this other religious guy.

Waaa waa waa no body cares, that stuff is rubbish and just not important to anyone.

Ok time for some real issues here.

I think it's utter pants that they are moving such a glorious institution out of the country. I really don't see any alternative either. Sure you youngsters can switch over to "daddies" but what of the older generation like Heavy Cola, us people that have had the same thing their whole life. I say something has to be done, even though I fear it's too late.

Yes people "House of parlament" brand brown sauce must be produced in the same place it allways has been or this key stone of the economy will allow everything to fall.

P.S. americans don't have it in their country most don't know what brown sauce is.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I ask What the f*ck are you chatting about?

[Titanic]

Guiscard, what major problems do we have? WE have problems, no doubt, but not major problems like hunger, poor economy, starvation, diseases etc..

[Guiscard]

I suppose not on that level no. We have a gradual erosion of civil liberties which worries me somewhat (Introduction of ID cards and national databases, new laws of arrest and holding without accusation) and a government to closely allied to America (which is becoming a problem as they gradually manage to polarise global society) but I guess its what you consider as major. You're right in that we are lucky enough to live without economic problems, hunger and disease and I am very grateful for that.

[what,me worry?]

why killing jews? i know radical muslims have done a lot but jew-killing is a new one to me

as for taking over britain, almost all muslims are just normal people, it is only ever a couple who have tried to do anything.

i think you really need to check your scources luns

Umm......The Arabs were dedicated allies of the third reich. Arabs have been trying to kill off Israel(Jews) for God knows how long.

[Titanic]

Our alliance with USA will somewhat weaken when Brown comes in, hes more nationlist then Blair. Atm, support ID cards, but I see them more as a replacement of a variety of other identity cards then an addition, but Labour seem to be turning to the stance that its an additional identity card, which I am not liking.

[Guiscard]

Umm......The Arabs were dedicated allies of the third reich. Arabs have been trying to kill off Israel(Jews) for God knows how long.

I won't bother to get into the whole Israel / Palestine thing, it should be reasonably obvious to anyone who knows any kind of history or politics, but Arabs as allies of the Third Reich? Sure that makes them racist anti-semites! just like the Japanese, Italians, Austrians, Hungarians, much of eastern Europe...

[edmundomcpot]

Our alliance with USA will somewhat weaken when Brown comes in, hes more nationlist then Blair. Atm, support ID cards, but I see them more as a replacement of a variety of other identity cards then an addition, but Labour seem to be turning to the stance that its an additional identity card, which I am not liking.

Whats the point in it being additional, a card with your iris and finger print on it. The only other documents people are going to need is a passport and a vehicle licence

[Genghis Khant]

I am not against ID cards per se, but I am against them being compulsory and I do think that the scheme is a pointless waste of money considering that our passports are going biometric.

[Telvannia]

im against brown

i think we need some repairs

but we need to fix other places first *cough iraq cough*

[Guiscard]

In regards to ID cards, its not so much the cards that we should be objecting to (they've stated we WON'T need to carry them at all times), although being required to purchase one is a bit annoying.

The problem is the database which will hold pretty much all the critical information on any citizen in one place, from your standard details age, DOB etc.) to your bank details, your DNA, how you vote... basically everything. Once someone works out how to hack that thing (and they will) then basically the world is their oyster. The new unforgable) bio-chip passports that have been brought in to combat terrorism were hacked in 3 days by people working for the Guardian newspaper using a piece of equipment worth about £100 available at PC world.

Furthermore, if you opt out of the database, or for some reason your details are lost, then you don't exist! Can't get a bank account, can't even withdraw money, possibly not even fill up your car with petrol, get served in shops, bars etc. etc. The possibilities are very scary.

Its not just a collection of several forms of ID (Passport, Drivers License etc). into one place. Its a whole lot more scary than that!

im against brown

May I ask why? And what your alternative would be?

[Titanic]

Browns the only decent high ranked Labour MP who should be PM when Blair steps down. Alistar Darling(or w/e his surname is) could become higher ranked in the future, as hes a pretty good politician.

[edmundomcpot]

When i turn 18 im voting the monster raving loony party

[Guiscard]

When i turn 18 im voting the monster raving loony party

Then you're throwing away your vote. if you're gonna protest at least vote Green and promote some issues.

[Spuzzell]

I can't see Brown ever winning an election, so he'll only be in power as long as His Tonyness lets him have a go.

There are problems in the UK, but most of them are trivial. We could do with some way of controlling immigration, if only so we know how many people actually live here now

The NHS is a mess, the civil service needs to be cleaned up, we need to at least double our defence spending and we do need to define our own international policy rather than being prepared to back America even when it's painfully obvious they're both wrong and dangerous.

Basically, one party has been in power too long, that's the main problem. It's time for the Tories again....

EDIT: Oh, and whoever it was worrying about Muslim Extremists taking over England/The Moon/whatever it was, don't be silly. Extremists don't want to take anything over, they just want to blow stuff up in order to gain attention. If we handed parliament over to 700 extremist clerics right now, they'd yell happily for 2 minutes and then start suicide bombing each other.

[Guiscard]

I can't see Brown ever winning an election, so he'll only be in power as long as His Tonyness lets him have a go.

Basically, one party has been in power too long, that's the main problem. It's time for the Tories again....

The general opinion seems to be that he has a very good chance of winning an election. Its more what Cameron can put together to beat him than that he won't win. Parties should be in power a long time. If we have quick 4 year governments then nobody can carry through any kind of long term policy. Has your life actually been that bad since '97? People don't seem to be able to remember the Tories... they've done a lot of bad stuff in the past, and a lot of it gets blamed on Labour (NHS, rail service, close relationship with America). Brown has kept a firm hand on our economy and, at the end of the day, its the economy that has the highest effect on your wuality of life, not foreign policy or polish plummers. Go on, vote in Cameron and see if he fixes everything. I garuntee you we'll get 4 or 8 years of reactionist badly made decisions with no continuity. The Tories voted for Iraq too remember? People are far to eager to think change will automatically bring some kind of Utopia.

On a further point why the hell do we need to double defence spending in this day and age? We have high technology, we come under the protectionate umbrella of the US, we have no risk of actual invasion and foreign troops stepping foot on our soil...

[Spuzzell]

The general opinion is that Brown is a Scottish socialist who doesn't even have the wholehearted support of other Scottish socialists.

He can't win a general election, for exactly the same reason Kinnock couldn't. He's not from England and he's not (small c) conservative. Those two things basically alienate 60% of the electorate.

The reason why change is important is that after 2 terms in office you have entire civil service departments who have never worked under anything but the current administration. This means the potential pool of ideas and solutions and ways to implement policy is extremely limited, as no-one really has any institutional memory of ways to do things differently.

I'm speaking from very personal experience here

The other reason why it's time for a change is that this government is reaching the end of it's shelf-life. Iraq, the home office, cash for honours.. whatever you think of these, the current government is having to spend huge amounts of time on damage control rather than running the country. A new administration comes in clean.

Then you look at the available talent pool of the current government. After almost 3 terms, everyone who is an asset has been used. Some have been broken, some have quit with idealogical differences, some have been destroyed by the media, some are just tired. Anyone new brought into a ministerial post now is by definition second or even third rate. A new administration brings a fresh pool of talent to the fore, without the baggage the best current ministers have to deal with.

On a personal note, since you asked, a lot of things Labour have done have adversely affected me. I have to help my parents pay university tuition fees for my 4 siblings, I had to help pay hundreds of thousands in death duties when my grandfather died, and I pay a LOT more tax on both my income and my savings than I would if we'd had a Tory government for the same period. Train tickets are appallingly expensive, my council tax is an absolute joke for the services I receive, etc etc..

I don't resent any of this, I'm a very fortunate person and I'm happy to contribute more than (in my opinion) my fair share to the country, but it's time for a different way now.

And defence spending benefits the country in lots of ways. We might, for example, be able to let our aircraft carriers use both their engines as the Navy could afford to buy fuel. We might be able to buy a new rifle for our army that doesn't fall to bits. We might even be able to afford body armour for our frontline troops. Or possibly we could pay the guys running around in the mud and the bullets a fair wage.

We could afford to research new military technology again, an area in which we used to excel and which brought in billions from other nations. We could have a space program. Or we could just finally afford to buy the marines some boots which don't break apart after 2 weeks.

This Labour administration has had its day, Gordon Brown is unelectable and the Tories will be the next government of this country. Is my basic point

[Titanic]

The country needs change, but the Tories are not a good change imo. Labour are still a better party and have better politicians and ideas then the tories. Also, tories wont be bringing in that many new people. A lot of the shadow cabinet were in power pre-97, and almost all of them have been there for at least around 5/6 years. David Davis, Boris Johnson, William Hague etc.. all veterans of the tory party. Cameron is on of the few new faces, and he is hardly any good imo, he speaks shit, make no actions, and does fck all.

[heavycola]

The country needs change, but the Tories are not a good change imo. Labour are still a better party and have better politicians and ideas then the tories. Also, tories wont be bringing in that many new people. A lot of the shadow cabinet were in power pre-97, and almost all of them have been there for at least around 5/6 years. David Davis, Boris Johnson, William Hague etc.. all veterans of the tory party. Cameron is on of the few new faces, and he is hardly any good imo, he speaks shit, make no actions, and does fck all.

Labour are shot. Finished. Out of ideas. What is their legacy going to be... more money for schools/NHS with precious little to shoe for it, some half-arsed consitutional reforms they gave up on and Iraq. Oh, and cash for honours.

This is what happens. No party can stay in power for too long, they get flabby and lazy. Look at the tories after Thatcher - pathetic. Things need to change.

[Mirak]

On a lighter note...is it only me or does Gordon Brown always look as though he has a boiled sweet in the side of his mouth when he talks?

[Stopper]

The general opinion is that Brown is a Scottish socialist who doesn't even have the wholehearted support of other Scottish socialists.

He can't win a general election, for exactly the same reason Kinnock couldn't. He's not from England and he's not (small c) conservative. Those two things basically alienate 60% of the electorate.

That's not a problem. Labour only got in with 25% of the electorate last time, so as long as they don't alienate 76% of the electorate, they'll be fine...

Also, I have to say, though I'm not surprised that papers such as the Telegraph still carry on knocking Brown after 10 years - after all, the only reason for the existence of the Telegraph seems to be to knock Labour governments - I find this perception of Brown being a "socialist", and being called "Stalinist" even, absolutely bizarre.

With not a single nationalisation, (but still the occasional privatisation), with income tax & national insurance rates barely being raised at all in 10 years, giving independence to the Bank of England within 4 days of becoming chancellor, he's the perfect free-marketeer. I mean, if Brown did show the slightest hint of red, I'd be more pleased than anyone, but he hasn't and never will. So where on Earth does this idea of him being even vaguely left-of-centre come from??

[happysadfun]

your a moron luns101 the right wing press count on naive people like you to spread fear,they have you wraped around there little finger.im shocked how stupid some people can be,i realy hope your just young and dont realy get whats going on in the world.just like the silly disillusioned folk in the pictures,your as bad as them

I would question who the moron is. (See bold.)

[Guiscard]

Labour are shot. Finished. Out of ideas. What is their legacy going to be... more money for schools/NHS with precious little to shoe for it, some half-arsed consitutional reforms they gave up on and Iraq. Oh, and cash for honours.

That's not Labour's legacy that's Blair's. I fail to see why a new administration has to necessarily entail a change in the party of government. A new PM will bring in a new agenda and new ideas, shake up the cabinet etc... Precisely because Blair has left such a debatable legacy Brown will have to distance himself through his policy and agenda. He's a proven, sensible politician who I would trust with the next four years of this country. Cameron, on the other hand, has never been tried, hasn't really formulated any policy other than publicity-fuelled environmentalism and its a good point that most of his 'young and trendy' shadow cabinet have been around for a fairly long time!

I believe Brown can win the election as a scot. Spuzzell, you talk about your experiences under the Labour government, and sure I can relate to that. Student loans are a major problem for me (will be in debt for a long time), and my Grandfather got hit very hard on his will when he died last year. Interesting to note, however, that the shadow minister for education is Boris Johnson. I'd really rather not trust the institution in which I learn and work to a bumbling if loveable fool. I really think that we'd be worse off under a Conservative government! Look at the legacies of Thatcher and Major. What do you believe the Tories would have done if they had been in power? They couldn't even organise any seriously effective opposition, I hate to see how that administration would have run the country.

Ultimately, Brown is going to have at least a few months of running the country without any election so I guess we'll see.

[Titanic]

Stopper, the Telegraph is the Tory-Graph, so knocking Labour is all they do. Labours lagacy will probably be the economy as it has grown and prospered greatly under their leadership. Also, the NHS is amazing compared to what it was in '97. Waiting times used to be more then 18 months under the tories, now they are a matter of weeks, if not days. Same story with education, crime etc.. just people are used to Labours standards that they forget what the tories were like.

[Guiscard]

Also, the NHS is amazing compared to what it was in '97. Waiting times used to be more then 18 months under the tories, now they are a matter of weeks, if not days. Same story with education, crime etc.. just people are used to Labours standards that they forget what the tories were like.

This is a very good point. My grandparents have both had consistent health problems since the early nineties and generally things seem to have gotten better for the care they recieve and the time they have to wait for appointments, operations which have been necessary.

[heavycola]

Labour are shot. Finished. Out of ideas. What is their legacy going to be... more money for schools/NHS with precious little to shoe for it, some half-arsed consitutional reforms they gave up on and Iraq. Oh, and cash for honours.

That's not Labour's legacy that's Blair's. I fail to see why a new administration has to necessarily entail a change in the party of government. A new PM will bring in a new agenda and new ideas, shake up the cabinet etc... Precisely because Blair has left such a debatable legacy Brown will have to distance himself through his policy and agenda. He's a proven, sensible politician who I would trust with the next four years of this country. Cameron, on the other hand, has never been tried, hasn't really formulated any policy other than publicity-fuelled environmentalism and its a good point that most of his 'young and trendy' shadow cabinet have been around for a fairly long time!

I believe Brown can win the election as a scot. Spuzzell, you talk about your experiences under the Labour government, and sure I can relate to that. Student loans are a major problem for me (will be in debt for a long time), and my Grandfather got hit very hard on his will when he died last year. Interesting to note, however, that the shadow minister for education is Boris Johnson. I'd really rather not trust the institution in which I learn and work to a bumbling if loveable fool. I really think that we'd be worse off under a Conservative government! Look at the legacies of Thatcher and Major. What do you believe the Tories would have done if they had been in power? They couldn't even organise any seriously effective opposition, I hate to see how that administration would have run the country.

Ultimately, Brown is going to have at least a few months of running the country without any election so I guess we'll see.

Fair enough, it's Blair/New Labour's legacy. I'm not a Tory, mind. Brown will, i think, have to do a lot of work... and who really knows what he thinks (apart from on Trident ) - we'll have to wait and see.