The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

Who will you be voting for?

  • Tory

    Votes: 38 9.9%

  • Diet Tory (Labour)

    Votes: 132 34.3%

  • Tory Zero (Greens)

    Votes: 44 11.4%

  • Extra Tory with lemon (UKIP)

    Votes: 40 10.4%

  • Lib Dems

    Votes: 9 2.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 31 8.1%

  • Cheese on toast

    Votes: 91 23.6%
  • Total voters
    385
  • Poll closed .
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I genuinely can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading on here today. Our society is proper fooked if some of the views expressed are representative of vast swathes of the population.
 
daylightrobber said:
I genuinely can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading on here today. Our society is proper fooked if some of the views expressed are representative of vast swathes of the population.
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I can't believe that someone states quite clearly that 'children are going hungry' yet has not one shred of evidence that this is actually happening.......

Society is not fooked because society makes sure via individual generosity, social services, charities, church groups etc etc that no 'children are going hungry'.......
 

peteblue said:
What does social exclusion mean in this context.......
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essentially not having the money to do stuff the rest of society do

a basic example would be not having the money to have an internet connection and be online, the majority of society have this

obviously you dont need this to live, but it can lead you to not being fully involved in society meaning knock on effects of not being able to do well at school, to get a job as easily, progress your career etc etc

hence, absolute poverty - lack of food and shelter

relative poverty - poor in relation to the rest of society

the public do misunderstand relative poverty, but it doesnt mean it doesnt cause wide ranging issues, you just have to think about them a bit more..
 
daylightrobber said:
I genuinely can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading on here today. Our society is proper fooked if some of the views expressed are representative of vast swathes of the population.
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the majority of it is lack of understanding of the issues, its why politicians almost have to cater to lowest common denominator policies
 
peteblue said:
Exactly. If I wanted pictures of poverty I'm sure the Internet would provide millions, but none of them would be of modern day Britain...........
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The crazy thing is, the average Czech salary works out at around £700 a month. As I've been thinking of moving there, I've explored the price of food and so on, and a weekly shop is no different in price at all (I think it was a few pence either way). That must render every child in the country as living in poverty.
 
Let me tell you why I support Labour and believe the welfare of society is more important to the wealth of the nation than the promotion of the individual.

I'm lucky, I'm privileged and so are my kids and family. So should I care about what happens to others less fortunate? Dam right I should care. You can't value people on what they own, what job they have, where they live, what car they drive, how much they earn.

However increasingly, life opportunities in the UK are linked to these values. Your ability to provide a decent education for your children for example is intrinsically linked to your finances. Is this right? Of course not. The same of course, is true of health provision. So financial poverty brings along other forms of poverty too - education poverty and health service provision poverty for example.

It brings along a greater poverty too - the poverty of opportunity and expectation which must be most soul destroying. Not only are you subjected to poverty but your ability to escape from it is less than those who are better off.

Is any of this right? Is this really the way we want our kids to grow up in the 21st Century in one of the richest nations on earth? Surely there must be a better way?

Now Labour certainly does not have all the answers, I'm certain of that. In fact increasingly it seems to provide less answers than in previous years. Yet having said that it provides more of a solution and support than any other credible political party. Ideally I'd prefer them to focus on reducing the effect of relative wealth (or in many cases poverty) on life chances rather than this nonsense over balancing the budget in line with Conservative economic policy.

Putting resources into the poorest areas of Britain is an investment in our country's future. If by doing so we can improve health provision, improve education provision, improve social services provision then the investment will bear fruit in a better educated, healthier population more able to cope with the demands of modern society and globalisation.

To paraphrase someone who once spoke of the cost of education, "If you think investment in the poor is expensive, please examine the cost of not investing". Without providing support we can not have a functioning society, and the cost of that in human terms as well as financial is horrific.

(I'll get off my soap box now)
 

peteblue said:
And what have you done about it ?........
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Not that it's any of your F'in business, but my wife and I made a very conscious decision that I work a specific job (often 60hrs a week) so that she can volunteer with Banardos. We live a comfortable enough life, but we'd be a whole lot better off if we both worked 40 hrs a week and she got paid for it.

As you already know, I also work with a housing association to help provide housing for the working poor.

What do you do?
 
Sturgeon saying that SNP will "prop up" a Labour Government even if the Tories have a 40 seat majority.

Wonder how Ed will play this ........ get it badly wrong & it could be the end of the Labour party forever.

It is my guess that if the Scottish Referendum was to be held tomorrow, the YES vote would be >80% because everyone would be wanting rid of the sweaties lol
 
Bruce Wayne said:
The crazy thing is, the average Czech salary works out at around £700 a month. As I've been thinking of moving there, I've explored the price of food and so on, and a weekly shop is no different in price at all (I think it was a few pence either way). That must render every child in the country as living in poverty.
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not in relation to what the rest of czech society earn
 
daylightrobber said:
Not that it's any of your F'in business, but my wife and I made a very conscious decision that I work a specific job (often 60hrs a week) so that she can volunteer with Banardos. We live a comfortable enough life, but we'd be a whole lot better off if we both worked 40 hrs a week and she got paid for it.

As you already know, I also work with a housing association to help provide housing for the working poor.

What do you do?
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No, I appreciate that you do other work, but I mean what have you done about the specific children at your school who you believe are currently going hungry........this is not a trick question but a genuine concern.........
 
the esk said:
However increasingly, life opportunities in the UK are linked to these values. Your ability to provide a decent education for your children for example is intrinsically linked to your finances. Is this right? Of course not. The same of course, is true of health provision. So financial poverty brings along other forms of poverty too - education poverty and health service provision poverty for example.
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As I've said before, I don't think that's the case at all. Maybe when we were growing up it was but I don't think it is any more. It begs the question though, given that the government spend roughly £150bn on free health and education for the population, how on earth can there be poverty of provision?
 

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