The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Bruce Wayne]

Nice to see the normal service of party political squabbling has been resumed. I wonder, has any Labour supporter ever praised any Tory policy (and vice versa)?

It's funny. People so often critisise PMQs as being juvenile and pointless. What's that saying about getting the politicians we deserve?

 

[The Esk]

Nice to see the normal service of party political squabbling has been resumed. I wonder, has any Labour supporter ever praised any Tory policy (and vice versa)?

To be fair Michael Hesseltine was a good man and did as much as was possible to rescue Liverpool and Merseyside from the ravages of Thatcher.

I am genuinely struggling to think of any other policy or individual worthy of praise.

Thatcher and her response to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands from a patriotic perspective?

 

[steken1]

I can't help but think that the Murdoch press, or Labour supporting Mirror Group, might have something very nasty up their sleeves for UKIP or Farage. I suspect if they do it'll be released about 2-3 months prior to voting.

 

[Milk]

To be fair Michael Hesseltine was a good man and did as much as was possible to rescue Liverpool and Merseyside from the ravages of Thatcher.

I am genuinely struggling to think of any other policy or individual worthy of praise.

Thatcher and her response to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands from a patriotic perspective?

John Major for wearing his shirt tucked in to his pants ....... and for boarding Ms Curry. That would take some heroism

 

[Bruce Wayne]

To be fair Michael Hesseltine was a good man and did as much as was possible to rescue Liverpool and Merseyside from the ravages of Thatcher.

I am genuinely struggling to think of any other policy or individual worthy of praise.

That's not good is it? I mean the Sutton Trust released a report over the summer highlighting the positive improvements made by academy schools since their inception. That's a good example of something both parties could justly be proud of.

Likewise, Dave posted a link to a Scottish think tank (a left leaning one) earlier in this thread, and they had some good stuff on just that kind of localisation of power, and referenced some excellent projects on participatory budgeting and the like, together with some good points on the importance of open data. Those are things that are simply good governance and not party political.

If we're to have fine public services, I don't think we can put blinkers on and discard things that work just because of who implements them. We need to be both open to ideas, and adaptive enough to both try them out, and discard those that don't work.

In most walks of life, failure is seen as a part of the learning process. I'm sure you can see that this is certainly not the case in politics, where failure is seen as the end of all things and a damning indictment of everything that person/department/party stands for. It's crazy.

We need to be grown up about this, and a good place to start would be to get rid of the tribalism that so infects modern politics. It's not helpful one bit.

 

[Mrk]

I can't help but think that the Murdoch press, or Labour supporting Mirror Group, might have something very nasty up their sleeves for UKIP or Farage. I suspect if they do it'll be released about 2-3 months prior to voting.

Murdoch and Cameron dislike each other a lot, so if anything the Murdoch press will be supportive of UKIP. Sadly.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Nice move to try and close the gap between school and university.

https://www.edx.org/high-school-initiative

 

[neil999]

A perfect example of why so many are disillusioned with politics. Instead of having an open and frank discussion about a difficult issue in the House, the parties spend their time throwing insults and jibes at each other, trying to use an isolated comment to attack the party as a whole.

It's pathetic.

it is, but sometimes i cant work out of its them or us 'the public' getting'the politicians we deserve??

eg- the press jump on any out of turn remark and we the public(not all obviously) turn on the politician

'the public' also vote for policies that may not be the best in the long term , politicians just do whatever it takes to get votes..but if we didnt vote for that, then things may change??

 

[neil999]

A perfect example of why so many are disillusioned with politics. Instead of having an open and frank discussion about a difficult issue in the House, the parties spend their time throwing insults and jibes at each other, trying to use an isolated comment to attack the party as a whole.

It's pathetic.

it is, but sometimes i cant work out of its them or us 'the public' getting'the politicians we deserve??

eg- the press jump on any out of turn remark and we the public(not all obviously) turn on the politician

'the public' also vote for policies that may not be the best in the long term , politicians just do whatever it takes to get votes..but if we didnt vote for that, then things may change??

 

[Eggs]

Nice to see the normal service of party political squabbling has been resumed. I wonder, has any Labour supporter ever praised any Tory policy (and vice versa)?

It's funny. People so often critisise PMQs as being juvenile and pointless. What's that saying about getting the politicians we deserve?

...my loyalties lie with Labour but I am a supporter of cyclical government. Too much of any regime tends to turn sour and become problematic. Change might not always suit but it does ensure a status quo.

 

[Milk]

...my loyalties lie with Labour but I am a supporter of cyclical government. Too much of any regime tends to turn sour and become problematic. Change might not always suit but it does ensure a status quo.

And the worst sort of Government is one of Coalition (see Italy) where the junior party rarely shares the same ideology (unless in time of war where unity is absolute key).
Personally, I prefer the UK Government to have a clear mandate to put in to place its policies & live or die by them. However, I will not tolerate any policies that are sneaked in after they are elected and are contrary to stated aims as outlined in the election manifesto.


The exception to the above will come when us Loonies hold the balance of power. Then Government will rock!

 

[Eggs]

And the worst sort of Government is one of Coalition (see Italy) where the junior party rarely shares the same ideology (unless in time of war where unity is absolute key).
Personally, I prefer the UK Government to have a clear mandate to put in to place its policies & live or die by them. However, I will not tolerate any policies that are sneaked in after they are elected and are contrary to stated aims as outlined in the election manifesto.


The exception to the above will come when us Loonies hold the balance of power. Then Government will rock!

....agree with the sentiment. Government of any colour with a clear mandate is preferable to a coalition. What I have disliked in the current set up is Liberals drunk and pontificating on the power of going into no10 as Cabinet members when they have few seats in the scheme of things (as an aside, I'd be delighted if Danny Alexander lost his seat at the election).

 

[Walken]

Tosh. Read a few back mate. My agenda? What the hell does that mean?

Everyone commenting on this thread will have an agenda of sorts, your more likely to side with tories, im more likely to side with labour, there will be sprinklings of objectivety and theres certainly no aggression to your arguments, but to suggest you would make the exact same statement if the roles were reversed, well maybe in a more extreme case but in these little childish sideswipes we see on pm's qt, bias tends to lead us. For what its worth i was working with kids in care when the tories tool power and saw how little cameron cares about disabled kids and their families in general, im sure he loved his son, but he was also happy to campaign on him as with his glamour wife and the whole 'call me dave' aspect, so personally i treat any supposed anger and self rightousness on this from him with contempt

 

[Coach]

Everyone commenting on this thread will have an agenda of sorts, your more likely to side with tories, im more likely to side with labour, there will be sprinklings of objectivety and theres certainly no aggression to your arguments, but to suggest you would make the exact same statement if the roles were reversed, well maybe in a more extreme case but in these little childish sideswipes we see on pm's qt, bias tends to lead us. For what its worth i was working with kids in care when the tories tool power and saw how little cameron cares about disabled kids and their families in general, im sure he loved his son, but he was also happy to campaign on him as with his glamour wife and the whole 'call me dave' aspect, so personally i treat any supposed anger and self rightousness on this from him with contempt

Millionaire Cameron was quite happy to claim Disability Allowance for his son until he died in 2009. 2010 he gets into power and trashes it.

 

[roydo]

Everyone commenting on this thread will have an agenda of sorts, your more likely to side with tories, im more likely to side with labour, there will be sprinklings of objectivety and theres certainly no aggression to your arguments, but to suggest you would make the exact same statement if the roles were reversed, well maybe in a more extreme case but in these little childish sideswipes we see on pm's qt, bias tends to lead us. For what its worth i was working with kids in care when the tories tool power and saw how little cameron cares about disabled kids and their families in general, im sure he loved his son, but he was also happy to campaign on him as with his glamour wife and the whole 'call me dave' aspect, so personally i treat any supposed anger and self rightousness on this from him with contempt

I was commenting specifically on the use of childish political sideswipes. Especially this one, and whatever side used it, I would have been equally annoyed. But I agree with you, comments in this thread are likely to be tinged by ones natural political leanings.