New Prime Minister, New Government

Marcel

Marcel

Kim Jong Bod
Admin
Messages
29,411
Name
Marcel
Edit My Images
Yes
So there we have it. Gordon Brown has stepped down, recommended that the Queen open the door for Cameron, with Clegg in tow.

I wonder what the next 4 years will bring? I don't profess to know a huge amount about political history and what's gone on in the past, but I can certainly reflect on my own life.

I'm financially better off over the past 14 years than I was before. I'm 'comfortable' but not brilliantly stable. (If the credit card man comes calling for the lot, or my tax credits suddenly stop, I'm screwed). Although I don't own any property, rarely drink and don't smoke anymore.

Hhowever, socially we are in an absolutely dire state. We have much less morals than we used to. Family values are down the swanny, respect for others is down the swanny. Not saying this is down to government, but government controls policies. Policies dictate justice, justice dictates behaviour (very loosely of course).

Our personal freedom and liberties are surrounded by high fences, barbed wire and restrictions. Just take your camera near a police station or airport for evidence of this.

Overall I don't think Labour did a bad job tbh.
Me? I'll go out there and happily state I voted Lib Dem. Why? Their policies fitted in with some of my own ideals, and I thought it was time they were given a chance. At least we could have said in four years "Right, all three of you have had a go.....".

Anyway, this is the one thread that's allowed to contravene the no-politics rule. I've cleared it with the other admins as it's quite a special occasion in our political history.

Please keep any of your comments civil and polite. ANY hint of aggressive posting, insulting posts, or the slightest whiff of rudeness, regardless of whether you think it's justified or not...and the thread will be gone and suspensions given. If someone attacks you or is rude, report it and ignore it.....do not reply to it.

Keep it civil, and write as though you are replying to your mother and we'll all get along nicely.

So....Brown's gone home for tatties n neeps, Cameron's got the keys, and Clegg's got a blanket in the kennel.

Discuss :)
 
Appears to be a coalition built on maths and megalomania rather than real policy alignment to me. The tories alone are worrying enough, this particular combination seems high risk on an even higher number of fronts :/

As for the job labour did, I think, given where the country was 13 years ago, and the long term legacy stored up through Maggie's era, actually they've done a solid job. Equally, the economic crisis was probably unavoidable, or at least would've been replaced by a non-existing financial industry over the last 10 years in the UK. Better in my opinion to have made hay while the sun shines and at least fixed up some decent schools and hospitals previously neglected by the Tories.
 
This wont work. These two parties will never get anything passed, we need a stable goverment. I predict a re-election with Labour giving it another shot with a new leader. I'll put it out there and say I voted Labour, they have been good for my area and have taken care of me and my family as far as I can tell.

I dont want Cameron in but I am also sure that this may allow Alex Salmond to win the referendum on Scotland's Independence, which I dont want. Its all so up in the air.
 
im not sure the population cares, the main topic on facebook seems to be hatred towards the BBC for ditching Holby City and Eastenders for the news..

this coilition is certainly going to be interesting.. personally i thought the libs deserved a better result than they got so its a little "hurrah" from me. but we'll see..
 
Seems a bit bizarre to be campaigning for a change in the voting system when 57 seats has got the lib dems in power.

What labour should have done is put import quotas on the value of goods that could be bought in from outside the EU, we might still have some industry then instead of everything being imported fron China, they seem to think civil service job creation with us paying for it is the way to go.

3 points for speeding, no sir, pay us money and get a ticking off instead
12 months for drunk driving, no sir pay us money and get 3 months off

Hitler called us a nation of shopkeepers, he must be laughing his ass off now :(
 
IMHO this is the right result and the fair result. Personally I'm relieved that any thought of a labour led coalition were binned, as I think that would have been a disaster and totally unreflective of the public vote.

The next 4 years should be interesting and different, but I think a change is well overdue.
And with a Lib Dem presence in the government to balance some of the Tory ideals I think this is a combination that could work.

:shrug: Just my opinion and I guess only time will tell.

p.s. Thank you to Marcel and the admins for letting this thread go up :thumbs:
 
SarahLee said:
p.s. Thank you to Marcel and the admins for letting this thread go up :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Is there nowhere we can get away from politics? Why on earth should this thread be allowed on a photography forum? :thinking:
 
SarahLee said:
IMHO this is the right result and the fair result. Personally I'm relieved that any thought of a labour led coalition were binned, as I think that would have been a disaster and totally unreflective of the public vote.

The next 4 years should be interesting and different, but I think a change is well overdue.
And with a Lib Dem presence in the government to balance some of the Tory ideals I think this is a combination that could work.
Click to expand...

Depends on where in the UK you live, a Lib/Lab coalition would have been the correct result for Scotland's vote. And there's no way this will last four years.
 
As Neil already mentioned, I think the worrying thing is that more people care about Eastenders being cancelled than who is going to run the country!!

I voted Lib Dem, simply because I agreed with their policies

The realism is that our economy is in the toilet and I genuinely dont believe that labour have the stones to deal with it. We dont live in a fairy land where everything is jolly and we can all dance round in a circle singing Kum bay ya, this is the real world and government spending needs to be reduced and thats going to mean harsh times ahead both for the public and the private sectors.

People need to wake up to the fact that regardless of who is the blame, something needs to be done and changes need to be made if we want to dig ourselves out of the hole we are in!.

Labour have made some very bad choices in my opinion and unfortunately for them, those choices are what the country remembers.
 
:wave:

IDGAFF.


:wave:
 
awp said:
Is there nowhere we can get away from politics? Why on earth should this thread be allowed on a photography forum? :thinking:
Click to expand...

Don't worry . . . as the night goes on, I predict this getting heated. I'll be off to bed soon, but I can see this thread being closed by tomorrow morning despite all the good intentions :D

dod said:
Depends on where in the UK you live, a Lib/Lab coalition would have been the correct result for Scotland's vote. And there's no way this will last four years.
Click to expand...

Only time will tell I guess. I'm remaining optimistic, but then I've always been a glass half full type of girl :)
 
awp said:
Is there nowhere we can get away from politics? Why on earth should this thread be allowed on a photography forum? :thinking:
Click to expand...

Its one thread.
In the, you know, off-topic section.
Is it really *that* hard to not click it?
 
first time voting (not cos I'm crap just cos I'm young) and I went lib dem because I liked where they stand on intellectual copyright, scientific/education budgeting and they seem to have a plan for the country that fits in with where I would like us to be - a primarily RnD nation cos its what we're best at (the making of awesome stuff in sheds)

I disagreed with several of their other policies inc the cuts in defence as I think defence often goes hand in hand with RnD and also because I know several people who will make their living from defence and designing the next set. I also am v uncertain about their ideas for election reform as it would give the small parties a lot more voice inc the BNP.

My next best would probably have been conservative because they admitted taxes were going up and because I wasn't a massive fan of some other lib dem bits

tbh I think a conservative lib dem agreement should do ok and we've had similar governments in the past
 
Vic said:
This wont work. These two parties will never get anything passed, we need a stable goverment. I predict a re-election.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, with a mixture of Tories and Lib dems in the cabinet, this coalition is doomed to fail.

Vic said:
I dont want Cameron in
Click to expand...

I also agree on this but I didn't want Brown back in either.
I based my vote on our local MP who has done a lot for our area and is very proactive so my vote went in favour of a hung parliament.
 
As a libertarian I'm pleased with this result, it means the end of ID cards and I can hope for a rollback of some of the horrible restrictions on liberty imposed by the authoritarian government we have had for the last decade.

I think the presence of the Liberals will serve to moderate the "Daily Mail" wing of the Conservative party and combined with a balance of Conservative and Liberal economic policy (for both Osbone and Cable have some good ideas) this gives a good balance for the future. If the coalition can last.
 
Well... to misquote Bomber Harrris: "to those critics who doubt this policy, it's never been tried before and we shall see..."

Glad that GB bowed out gracefully and hopeful (but not too much) that things will improve...enough of the Tory (read: Thatcherite) old Guard have faded out so it may well work...as one commentator put it: "for as long as the current economic crisis focusses minds"...
 
BigSoy said:
As for the job labour did, I think, given where the country was 13 years ago, and the long term legacy stored up through Maggie's era, actually they've done a solid job
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say a solid job but I don't think they've done as bad as some people think.
I'm surprised that as well as the poll tax, no one has mentioned the two recessions under Thatcher.
Apart from the Falklands and sending in the SAS at the Iranian embassy, I can't think what else she did that was good.
 
awp said:
Is there nowhere we can get away from politics? Why on earth should this thread be allowed on a photography forum? :thinking:
Click to expand...

This is the non-photography section of the forum, by that rationale most of the topics here should be deleted as not being about photography. Or are you arguing for the deletion of the Out of focus forum completely?
 
hashcake said:
I wouldn't say a solid job but I don't think they've done as bad as some people think.
I'm surprised that as well as the poll tax, no one has mentioned the two recessions under Thatcher.
Apart from the Falklands and sending in the SAS at the Iranian embassy, I can't think what else she did that was good.
Click to expand...

How about breaking the union's strangle hold on this country?
 
onomatopoeia said:
As a libertarian I'm pleased with this result, it means the end of ID cards and I can hope for a rollback of some of the horrible restrictions on liberty imposed by the authoritarian government we have had for the last decade.

I think the presence of the Liberals will serve to moderate the "Daily Mail" wing of the Conservative party and combined with a balance of Conservative and Liberal economic policy (for both Osbone and Cable have some good ideas) this gives a good balance for the future. If the coalition can last.
Click to expand...

while I am really with you on being free to do stuff and that there should be less centralised control, I did some looking into ID cards and they could be shockingly useful, they've been made legally the equiv of a signature in a european country (the name escapes me) and they've revolutionised the voting system in a really positive way.
 
hashcake said:
Apart from the Falklands and sending in the SAS at the Iranian embassy, I can't think what else she did that was good.
Click to expand...

Crushed the NUM under the heel of her boot when Arthur Scargill tried to hold the country to ransom by threatening the energy supply, thereby ending the political power of the big unions.

It had to be done. We can't have union leaders determining government economic policy. That was her legacy, not the Falklands, not privatization and not the poll tax. It was freeing the country from the yoke of the union barons.
 
wack61 said:
Hitler called us a nation of shopkeepers, he must be laughing his ass off now :(
Click to expand...


Are you sure it was Hitler?







Meaning
The English.
Origin
smith.jpg
Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, 1776, wrote:
"To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight, appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. "
​
Napoleon I, who was familiar with Smith's work, is reported as later using a French version to dismiss England's preparedness for war against France:
"L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers."
​
Josiah Tucker, the Dean of Gloucester, preceded them both in 1766, although not with the precise text of the currently used version of the phrase:
"And what is true of a shopkeeper is true of a shopkeeping nation."
​
 
Though I am massively against the privatisation of utilities, we really ought to have a network of power, water, communications, road and rail links that are centrally maintained and upgraded. Right now most developing nations have an IT infrastructure that kicks ours into touch and bandwidth is very important to build in the internet ages
 
Well, what choice did you really have - the government you had come to hate or the clowns who don't have a clue.

The result was exactly as you'd expect to that question and had the ballot paper had "none of the above" I'll bet the black flags would be flying in Downing Street.

As for now, well, don't imagine thats the end of this mess....
 
wack61 said:
[..]

Hitler called us a nation of shopkeepers, he must be laughing his ass off now :(
Click to expand...

I think it actually Napoleon who said that ... he didn't like us much either :)

Also, Adam Smith refers to it in Wealth of Nations

Anthony.
 
Last edited:
onomatopoeia said:
Crushed the NUM under the heel of her boot when Arthur Scargill tried to hold the country to ransom by threatening the energy supply, thereby ending the political power of the big unions/QUOTE]

As I said in Grendels post, I forgot about that.
However we no longer have a mining industry, electronics industry or most other industries due to competition from abroad but I can't blame Thatcher for that.
Click to expand...
 
Grendel said:
How about breaking the union's strangle hold on this country?
Click to expand...

I think that was done during the Thatcher years. The incoming Labour government of 1997 didn't reinstate anything much in the way of Union power. Overall they, the Unions, are much less powerful than they once were.

Anthony.
 
Marcel said:
.....However, socially we are in an absolutely dire state. We have much less morals than we used to. Family values are down the swanny, respect for others is down the swanny.

....personal freedom and liberties are surrounded by high fences, barbed wire and restrictions.
Click to expand...

I was chatting to a salesman in a car showroom last week (waiting for the service to be completed) and he asked me why I'd left Britain.

I don't claim to be fluent enough yet to know the french word for "swanny" but the rest of my reply contained each and every point quoted above.

Changes in morals, family values and respect are a series of measures that used to be discussed by folk in their 60's or older....simply because the changes used to be so slow and subtle that you had to have been around for that long to perceive them. It's now evident that 20 year olds can detect the decline....that represents a frightening escalation IMHO.

Next time you're taking the kids out for a treat, drive past McD's and find a soup kitchen instead.

Bob
 
13 years is enough, familiarity breeds content.

Not saying any party is better than any others but change is good for the soul.

I have been self employed since I was 18 years of age, never signed on even though I have suffered great hardship in my line of work, including doing what the Eastern Europeans are doing now (I worked abroad in Germany and Holland in the late eighties and early nineties because there was no work in the UK, the money was too good to turn down). The last couple of years have been my hardest, financially but it doesn't make me turn against a particular party, just makes me concentrate more on politics.

There is not a lot to choose between the 2 main parties at the moment and that is the main reason for the hung house.

I will offer a friendly wager to all on TP that there will be another election within 24 months.
 
I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about politics and the party policies, but this is new for me. I'm not sure how it's going to work out but I'm eager to see how it all unfolds. I was and still am a big supporter of Gordon Brown. He did a lot of things wrong but he took responsibility. He also got a lot of things right and made the decisions I think few other people would have wanted to make. I think as time goes by people will see how good a man he is. I don't think his legacy is immediately recognisable, but one which will become evident in the long term. That's what I believe.

I'm disappointed in the Liberal Democrats though. I know a lot of people in Scotland voted for them and Labour and instead they've got the Conservatives. A party which only holds one seat in Scotland. Hardly representative... but at the end of the day Scotland is still part of the UK and in the greater scheme of things that is what matters. I hope the coalition does a good job. There is a lot riding on it. If you think Gordon had some tough decisions to make, Cameron and Clegg have got a whole other level to deal with in making sure economic recovery doesn't stall.
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
I think that was done during the Thatcher years. The incoming Labour government of 1997 didn't reinstate anything much in the way of Union power. Overall they, the Unions, are much less powerful than they once were.

Anthony.
Click to expand...

That's the point I was making :)

Breaking the union's strangle hold on GB Ltd was one of the (IMO) un-arguably huge positives to have come from the Thatcher era.
 
So some think it will work some think it won't. Could say that for every government ever elected. Guess We will just have to wait and see.

However, with a left of centre party (lib dem) and right wing conservative making a majority slightly larger than Labour had last time I think?, it will be interesting to see how they work together with the lib/dems moderating the conservative hard liners. It may be good for the country it may not. Unless we have a time machine I guess we will have to just go along for the ride.. and give them a chance.

Oh and I voted Conservative and in my constituency know my MP quite well and like what he does.

I've even photographed him, oh no mentioned photography in OOF:bang:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top