Arabian+Ian. Any burnings at the stake up there yet ?

Re: its sad really

My Great Grandfather who had voted Labour all his life said to me he was voting Conservative in the last election in which he voted, saying "I now realise Labour is the enemy of the working man".

 

Re: its sad really

We don't have a labour party any more. The Conservative party were in the wilderness while Tony Blair was in charge because they simply couldn't disagree with his policies. He was a combination of post Thatcher Tory with a facade of public empathy. I find it ridiculous that the Conservatives point at the Labour government and blame them for the international financial crisis, because what was needed was regulation of the markets to prevent the crash - there is no way on God's earth that the Tories would've put boundaries in place to prevent some of the ridiculous lending/speculation that was going on. The world and his dog was encouraged to get involved in the housing boom - 'the end of boom and bust' - and all that ********.

We haven't had a socialist alternative in this Country since John Smith died and Tony Blair took over. It's been Tory or 'I can't believe it's not Tory'.

So the Lib Dems capitalised at the next election with promises that they would stand up for things like reduced tuition fees, investment in the NHS, direct taxation over indirect taxation, saying no to privatisation schemes and so on - and they suddenly found popularity. It was clear that we didn't want the existing Labour government to continue down the road that it was on and that Gordon Brown was a poor leader/prime minister BUT we didn't want to give an all out mandate to a bunch of millionaire toffee nosed old etonians (who were obviously going to stick it to us in every way they possibly could - much to the advantage of themselves and their friends). We knew that Cameron was lying when he said 'No top down reorganisation of the NHS' - so while the Lib Dems didn't seem like a plausible 'all out' option for government - we ended up with a coalition.

To me the Lib Dems were supposed to stand up against a lot of what Cameron, Hague, Duncan-Smith, Gove, Osbourn and May set out to do. They traded in their election promises for very little in return.

To me it underlines that there is an appetite for a Socialist alternative. We still have people in the country that want to vote for a fairer Britain - but I don't believe in Miliband, and I don't believe in the Labour party. They only seem to want to distance themselves from the Unions and they only have done a rubbish job in opposition to a poor and weak coalition government.

The political options in this country are very poor. Very poor indeed. I do not feel represented at all.

 

Re: its sad really

Don't want yo disrespect your great grandad as he probably had his reasons, but to disown the labour party as the enemy of the working man is fair enough if that was his view. But to then vote Tory leaves me a bit baffled tbh

 

Re: its sad really

He is of course qiite right the wolf on sheep's clothing that is the labour party always leave the country on its arse

 

Re: its sad really

Yours and his opinions and as I said I can respect that even though I don't agree but still baffled why he would think the Tory's were the answer.