A thousand words

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Image five.. a removal van arriving at Downing Street on May 7th to collect Gordon Brown's belongings

Taxi for Brown!

Only 1000 words? There'll be trillions of words, I bet. I'm switching on the extractor fan to suck all this vacuous verbiage from our living room. Worse than the World Cup it's going to hog television for a whole month, then some more as the post mortems are held and people talking about the post mortems....ad nauseum.

The headline said "Election fever begins".

Some fever. And I've already caught it. Slightly worse than flu. The torrent of words that've hogged the news channel this morning has brought on a terrible lethargy. If I wasn't so lethargic I'd be more apathetic about it.

Motley Crue.

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Anyone noticed how thin the contributions have been from the more sloganeering lefties today??

Wouldnt have anything to do with lack of access to Government internet facilities, would it?

@2 I really hope so. It's time for a change. 12 years is enough.

Image Six: Mass resignations being recieved from a news department in a large building festooned with satellite dishes, located near the Westway in White City on the morning of May 10th....

I hope Brown has enough purple ties and his wife enough purple outfits. Crikey! Purple is the colour of mourning.

I hope he likes hospital food too because it's likely he will be sampling some in the not too distant future. And it has to be an NHS hospital with no special favours for failed Prime Ministers, eh?

No1Bill,
It is unlike you to involve yourself in 'infantile rightism'

Image Three. have you ever seen a less enthusiastic group of "supporters" than that? How many of them are thinking "if only we had dumped him..."?

I count at least 5 cabinet ministers in the Downing Street photo who have had some hand in stabbing the PM in the back over the last 3 years.

A vote for Labour is a vote for 5 more years of infighting, coup attempts, navel gasing and higher taxes.

Finally the nation has the chance to get rid of this incompetent shower of a government.

Rejoice!

If Gordon Brown really believes that crowd of no-goods standing behind him is a strong team then he really is unfit to govern. Before most of that insipid, talentless cabinet applauded him they had to put their daggers back inside their expenses-lined pockets. Caledonian Comment

A day many never believed would ever come.

It's so difficult to actually take in that Brown eventually had to cave in and accept that he couod not stay in Downing Street forever.

Democracy really does work after all.

All those attack dogs and vipers and creepy crawlies who have inhabited Number 10 have all been blown out and the place can now be deep cleansed.

Not completely yet but sufficiently to bring in the fumigators.

Patience has certainly been a virtue for most of us but we can at least be given one day to express our satisfaction that we the voters are now in control. Albeit for a short time.

At last, the end of Gordon Brown!

If he wins, there is no doubt that the Party will get rid of him - by hook or by crook. He is no friend of Peter Mandleson. If he loses, the Party will still get rid of him. He will sink into nthe mists of time, along with another ex Labour leader, now known as Lord Kinnock.

Then we are in for a very hard couple of years, perhaps even five years, as we struggle to pay back Gordon's loans.

It took us 50 years to repay the Americans after the war.

Ti8ghten your belts, readers - it is going to be tough!

Like many of those interested in this blog, I believe that the dominating feature of the coming election will be the economy, and in particular the deficit.

Gordon Brown is committed to halving the deficit from around £168 billion to £84 billion over the next four years. If this reduction is linear then it means a cut of £21 billion each year.

For my own interest I decided to do a few sums to see how this might pan out. The reduction is expected to be achieved by a combination of tax increases and efficiency savings (which I believe ultimately means job cuts).

Let us assume that 50% (£10.5 billion) will be from tax increases and 50% from job cuts. If the population of the UK is about 15 million families, the average tax increase per family comes to £700.

If we further assume that the average wage is £25,000 per annum, then the number of jobs which will be lost will be around 420,000. (If these people then claim benefits then the saving will obviously be reduced.)

I understand that this is a very simple approach that can be criticised in many ways, but I feel that it does give an indication of what any future government has to confront. However, I do not expect any party to admit to anything like this before an election.

I do feel very depressed at times............

Images and the medium is the message, Nick.

And what 'images' did you chose to lead off this post?

Two 'images' of New Labour, three mentions in the copy. A windswept Cameron as a tailpiece using the emotive words "trying to seize power" and no mention of Clegg.

Isn't the reality that Brown has been finally forced to go to the country after clinging on to power until the bitter end?

https://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/bottling-brown-finally-calls-it-day.html

Like the images. All at public expense of course.

You know, what strikes me most is their arrogance at expecting anyone to vote for them.

We have the expenses scandal; the questions/bribery issues; mudslinging (each party more concerned to tell us what the others won't do than what they can do). We've had the Drugs Advisory Committee knocked for 6; and we now suffer under so many of Bliar's and Brown's mistakes with no one (except Vince Cable) having the least idea of how to get us out of this mess. We've had loads of fatuous, knee-jerking legislation with no chance of its enforcement; we've had terrorist laws that make walking the street a dangerous pursuit because you're now guilty until you prove yourself innocent.

And they want us to vote? Sheesh!

"It is a reminder, too, that one of these men and women is likely to become Labour leader and possibly even prime minister before the election after this one. Remember: Tony Blair said at the last election that he planned to serve a full term. No doubt Gordon Brown will say the same."

Since when has Gordon Brown suggested he would step aside in the next parliament? With an actual mandate surely he would have the strength to stick around for the full term.

That sounds a lot like a personal opinion to me

Images? Crikey Nick, you've hit the nail on the head!

I can't bear to look at Gordon Brown on TV, let alone listen to him!

In all his time as PM, you'd think someone would have given him an overhaul - I especially can't stand that jaw dropping thing he does! I'm sure I'm not the only one that switches channels when he's on - GB won't be able to get his messages across when that happens.

Cameron and Clegg on the other hand look very good on TV - my daughter especially likes Nick Clegg, but either are much easier to watch. By default, they will have people hearing their message, even if they're not especially thinking about what's being said.

Electioneering by image and osmosis!

How funny!

Ok, now the elections been called all you jokers out there can stop pretending you'll vote Labour to pollsters!!

Really! can you take any of these jokers seriously, I can only imagine there is more excitement from the contesting parties and media than from the public.

In Image 3 they look about as enthusiastic as a bunch of school kids lining up for their end of year photo. Come to think of it, they're about as competent as well.

In last night's comment, you quoted from, I assume, the press releases of David Cameron's speech, 'he will tell us that they are "young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight".' Unless there has been some unfortunate editing of the actual speech on both radio and television, it would appear that DC left out the straight / gay words. Interesting in the light of other members of his party's views as disclosed over the weekend.

10#

Oh, come on Sout, dont be such a spoilsport.... you've got to allow me at least one puerile gag, surely????

19) "Since when has Gordon Brown suggested he would step aside in the next parliament? With an actual mandate surely he would have the strength to stick around for the full term."

Agree completely - Brown has the mindset of Mugabe - power at all costs. The man will stay as leader until this final breath if he has any say in it. Power is addictive.

Balls

For the sake of all the decent, honest, hard working people in this country that Gordon Brown and New Labour have treated with contempt for the last 13 years. Best of luck Dave.

Image seven:

Brown seen leaving Buckingham Palace in the Prime Ministerial Jaguar at high speed....

Cut to: HM Queen on balcony, shouting, “Philip! Philip! My gold rings! My gold necklaces! Have you seen them? They were on one’s bedside cabinet 10 minutes ago! They were there, Philip, right there!”

@19 Jonny, Lord Mandleson has already intimated that Gordon would stick around for possibly 5, 4, 3 or even 2 years. If that is not a hint that more leadership coups are afoot then I don't know what is.

A vote for Gordon is a vote for another unelected (by the electorate at least) PM (if Labour somehow manage to win).

What a load of old rubbish; even less interesting than the three leaders' (predictable) sound bites this morning. Another example of the media making the news rather than reporting it.

This particular election has the potential to deliver unusual and scary results. Confidence in Labour and Tories is at its lowest ebb with support for both quite soft. It the Tories continue with their vacuous policy "time for a change" and people remain unconvinced we could end up with a major exercise in tactical voting. Tories might defect to UKIP in major numbers as the obsession grows to "blame Europe", similarly both parties might suffer due to the the anti-immigration lobby supporting the BNP. This could skew the results in an unpredictable way.

Nick once this lot are out NO of the Cabinate will be back in power forever hopefully, its going take take 20 years to get out of the mess they have created.

One of the most sinister and evil of these is to remove the mother and father from the birth certificate. Dr Mengeale and co would have been proud of that move

I am afraid your posting Nick summarises why you are part of the political problem and not the solution. You behave like a wee political piglet mouth firmly clamped on the tit of the great brood sow that is the political/journlistic gestalt.

What is required during the election is someone with razor sharp insight piercing the haze of spin, accusation and counter-accusation to bring to us the great british public a nuanced analysis of the great issues that face us and what each political party has to offer in terms of policy and proposals.

Are you upto this job ? Past behaviour leaves me profoundly doubtful

The best outcome is one that produces electoral reform. This should herald the adoption of Alternative Voting and hopefully consign the Conservatives to opposition for a generation.
I believe Britain is still a great country. I don't believe that its people will allow the country to be run by an elite clique who have no comprehension of the fears and desires of the decent working majority. History awaits....

#24 hopefully he is going for the ignored majority that fells repressed by the statlinist state created by Zanu_Liebour, and goes full tilt at that too,

See the Archbishop of Canterbury is starting to come of the fence and show some leadership too

@21 - I certainly will be voting Labour, and pounding the streets for the next month to try and ensure that people aren't duped into voting conservative by a combination of "dumb and dumber" and a horribly biased media machine. If the people of the UK genuinely want the Tories to destroy the country over the next 5 years on the basis of fact, then fair enough. I for one however remain terrified at the damage that Cameron and Osborne will reap on the nation and will be making my own case to anyone who'll listen.

What a waste of food!

At last the spineless unelected excuse of a prime minister has called the election.
This country deserves better than this bunch of labour liars.

And the BBC well and truly buggered things up with their sound feed. Brown's voice could hardly be heard above the noise of the helicopter. And as soon as Brown finished, their cameras turned to Sky News's Joey Jones! And that was after Huw Edwards told the audience that Brown's motorcade was travelling down the Mall, when in fact it was travelling down Birdcage Walk. Amateur hour from the Beeb.

26#

The only chance of a man-date he'll get is if he asks Mandelson whether he can join him on Deripaska's yacht next year for a menage a trois...

Nick, nice balanced images to set the camoaign off. I think I can spot you in image 2 wearing your red rosette and leading the chants of 5 more years.

Anyway out of the bunker and into the front line. It seems GB has more armour around him that the boys in Iraq. It's nice to know where the defence budget has been spent.

Saga,

I read with growing amusement first your assertion that naive people make better decisions than wise people, then your desperate flailing defence of your assertion.

It is, of course, natural for people to believe the group to which they belong to be more able than a group to which they do not. I think, as ever, that your naivity is somewhat endearing, but you should know that your opinions are generally more full of holes than swiss cheese that has been thoroughly machine gunned.

The idea that someone who does not experience the consequences of a decision would be better placed to make a decision might be one that suits your ego, but it is, of course, absolute nonsense. If one person is negatively effected by a decision, he is the one who is aware of the consequences. If he is the only one effected by the decision, in a democracy, his voice will likely be lost in the masses (which is how democracy ought to work if truth be told, the greatest happiness and all that). When it gets to the point that a majority of people are negatively effected, in real life, then it is very obvious to all except for the terminally naive that something has gone wrong, and change needs to be made. The real experience of the majority of people superceeds the head in clouds naivity of those who do not have to live with the consequences that their illogical ideological idiocy has inflicted on the rest of us.

That is what you will see at this election. Enough people let down by the empty promises and undelivered aspirations of a party that brought them such hope (I remember the optimism in 1997 with sick regret). I am fairly confident that you will see a much larger turnout than in recent times, as the silent majority announce their dissatisfaction. Whether this leads to more seats for small parties and independents or an overwhelming majority for the Tories, I do not know. But I do know that the silent majority do not participate in polls, and the polls will tell us very little in the lead up to this election.

In consideration I think this could be an election to change the face of the UK. The gerrymandering that brought the assemblies in Wales and Scotland will come home to roost. The number of posters complaining about being English with no power is growing. Brown and Blair split the UK for the sake of an election win. It was along with many of their policies not thought through. As the immigration or non-immigration policy was also not thought through. When you put these two together we have an electorate in England who could just vote BNP. Not from the conventional racist view but more about the non English speakers now working here.

The Labour Party could have brought down the UK.

"I believe Britain is still a great country. I don't believe that its people will allow the country to be run by an elite clique who have no comprehension of the fears and desires of the decent working majority. History awaits...."

Hear, hear Pete. Glad to see you've realised that NL are about to be consigned to the history books.

Vote for the ABBA party.... Anyone But Brown Again!

"It is the images - not the words - that stick in the mind after this morning's election announcement."

Fair enough, really. We all know that the words that come out of politicians' mouths are worth diddly-squat.

Already we are seeing the one man labour campaign in full flow.

Mandelson creeping around and popping up wherever he can to castigate the Tories.

Negative campaigning of the worst kind even worse than the weazel words of Charlie Whelan this morning.

He confirmed what this labour campaign will be all about.

Promises today and broken promises if they get back in.

So what's new?

Brown to win, pleeeeze!! It'll make no difference who wins anyway, as they're both hopless, but I reckon you could power Britain free for a year on all the incandescent rage that would be generated on this blog alone!

36#

"If the people of the UK genuinely want the Tories to destroy the country over the next 5 years on the basis of fact, then fair enough."

What, as opposed to watching Labour destroy it over the last 13 years based on lies, like Prudence, a new age for banking and best placed to weather the downturn?

You'd better see the doctor about that terror then, soon... or it'll be panic attacks a-plenty after May 7th!

Clearly whichever party wind there will be cuts. They all talk about efficiency savings in the public sector but let no one be under any illusions; whoever is in power we will have less doctors, nurses, teachers etc with poorer public services but the multi-tiered management and advice structures will remain. The Thatcher era led to an increase in non-frontline staff as has every government since. Sacking most of the administrators would would enable the people who provide the services to get on with that task and free them from the timewasting paperwork that the pen pushers dream up to justify their own existence. There is absolutely no chance that this will have. Ministers in all parties like to have big departments. Indeed not satisfied with an army of civil servants they bring in armies of political advisors and create quangos

What a Rogues' Gallery!

The sooner they are all gone, the better.

Image six

Gordon Brown frantically shoving paperwork into the shredder after a call from Tony Blair 'for heaven's sake Gordon get it all in the shredder before the removal men arrive, my Iraq memo's' your gold decisions; our immigration policy'

Image seven

Man form the treasury walks in 'why are you shredding your cv, Gordon? Didn't you spend thirteen years doing that?'

Taxi for Brown!

Incredibly, Gordon missed a couple of opportunities to show us what a great guy he is by not walking to the Palace this morning. He could have waved to his adoring people, lining St James' Park, as they were - and then he could have jogged back to show how fit he is to govern.

Gordon Brown less popular than his team?

I hope I'm allowed a giggle at that for when I see the likes of Harperson Ainsworth the Balls and the Millipedes and they're the frontliners I am straining to find some credibility anywhere among any of them. Mandelson was out there directing the media as usual I heard.

What a shower!

Given that Labour are currently floundering in the polls might I suggest that they may be able to revitalise their campaign by arranging a key note speech on equality and diversity by the RT Hon Harriet Harman, the niece of the seventh Earl of Longford.

Any comment Nick, following up on Laura K's spotting of a "shredding van" in Downing St?

Whats the betting that all the Smeargate emails are in there somewhere?

Someone had better tell Brown though... you can't shred a server's hard drives.....

Image 4 - is it just me or does David Cameron look like a lost schoolboy, who has just kicked his football over the neighbour's wall?

Is it me or is Cameron morphing into Nick Griffin in the image above?

36. At 1:42pm on 06 Apr 2010, thepolyorchid wrote:
"If the people of the UK genuinely want the Tories to destroy the country over the next 5 years on the basis of fact, then fair enough. I for one however remain terrified at the damage that Cameron and Osborne will reap on the nation and will be making my own case to anyone who'll listen."
There is very little left to destroy that hasn't already been fatally damaged by Blair, Mandelson, Brown et al

Image one - Mandelson! Great - a disgraced, unelected, politician leading the campaign to finally get an unelected Prime Minister elected! Two men who, up until about a year ago, absolutely hated each other!

Image three - the entire cabinet. Good grief, how many of them do we actually need to run the country? I'm surprised there's a room and table big enough in Downing Street to fit them all round! Demonstrates just how over-inflated our Government, and how over-regulated our country, has become.

Hopefully on May 6th we will be able to rid ourselves of these people.

Where's all the Labour support on this blog suddenly disappeared - come on lads and lasses help thepolyorchid (#36) put up a reasonable show or this could turn into a veritable Turkey shoot.

Image? Never mind the quality, feel the width.

Maybe now we actually have an election called Alistair Darling can explain what exactly is his position on the NI increase next year.

His Mr wibbly-wobbly act on this; it won't hurt many jobs to it didn;t hurt any jobs in 2002 needs to be explained. He may be an unattractive and unamusing cove (in the wrods of Lord Mandleson) but he is also the guardian for the next four weeks of the national finacnes and needs to explain himself more clearly about the shocking damage his new taxes will do the British economy.

Taxi for Brown!

"It is the images - not the words - that stick in the mind after this morning's election announcement."

What an utter indictment of the state of UK politics, that the image seems more important than the words (verbal or print), that a group of smiling politicos (be they in Downing Street, on the banks of the Themes, or in a party HQ) mean anything more than "Vote for me, never mind what I've actually achieved or not over the last five years, I want my job back"!

Next we will have picture books for manifestos...

Finally a chance to get shot of this labour shambles!!

A shame it's taken most people 12 years to realise that new labour is just the same as old labour :

1. Left wing idiological clap trap
2. Higher taxes
3. Waste
4. Corruption (backhanders to the unions, cash for honours, Cash for lobying, expenses etc. etc.)
5. More wasters sponging off of hard working tax payers
6. Strikes
7. Economic disaster
8. Higher national debt
9. Higher crime
10. No noticable improvement in anything as a result of labour policies

In summary 12 wasted years and a big mess left behind for the next government to sort out.

May 6th can't wait

"Huge effort will be made by the parties to subvert their rivals' carefully planned pictures "

Working so far, Nick.

@ 46 - virtualsilverlady

You're absolutely right - this is going to be a horribly negative campaign, with disgraceful personal attacks on each of the leaders taking centre stage rather than a reasoned debate on policy. But you're deluded if you think that it is only Labour adopting this approach.... I have no doubt that the Tories will plunge new depths in their desperation to fill the enormous gaps evident in the party's current policy suite and ideology.

Whatever your political persuasion, the adoption of negative campaigning in preference to reasoned debate by each of the parties must surely be the most depressing aspect of the state of politics in the UK.

My biggest fear is that we will be lumbered with Cameron and Co for 5 years purely on the basis of a better fudned and almost entirely negative campaign when there needs to be a sensible discussion around the direction the country takes....

#47 LippyLipo
"Brown to win, pleeeeze!! It'll make no difference who wins anyway, as they're both hopless, but I reckon you could power Britain free for a year on all the incandescent rage that would be generated on this blog alone!"

Unfortunately all that energy would get sucked into the slough of despond that would also be generated. It really doesn't bear thinking about, like finding the dentist is closed forever when you've had a blinding toothache for 13 years.

great haye maker,

"I read with growing amusement first your assertion that naive people make better decisions than wise people, then your desperate flailing defence of your assertion."

Did you? Well that's good. First things first though, I do NOT "flail" at things or people. I approach them (things AND people) in deathly quiet from an oblique angle where I can't be seen until the last second. Too late by then, of course, for the thing or the person I've approached. They are "done". And so it was here; the point I was making is that "real world experience" is not what it's cracked up to be - is a drawback, in fact, unless handled very very carefully and preferably ignored. Other bone to pick is that I was chuntering away happily to all and sundry on the other blog for about an hour before realising they'd all decamped over to here. That leaves a nasty taste. There's some on this Board (Robin springs to mind, regardless of my efforts to prevent that very thing) ... some on this Board who never stick around to finish conversations on "old" blogs. And by old all I mean is a few hours of age, but superceded by a new one. These bloggers are not the Real Thing. Limelight junkies. For them it's the Main Gig or it's No Gig. Dilettantes. David Cameron, if he were one of us, would be such an operator.

A touch homophobic Bill (at 40) but reasonably funny. Was the first couple of times you posted it anyway.

#48

Billy-boy.... thanks so much for your concern. I better hope that there's still an NHS to treat my 'panic attacks aplenty' once Cameron's indiscriminately swung his axe through the NHS (and every other public department) safe in the knowledge he's got the job for 5 years.

48 Bill..

don't worry; one presumes if polyorchid really will be 'pounding the streets for the next month' he is one of the eight million economically inactive? No-one else has the tiome to pound the streets for the next month, do they?

'I've been living off the taxpayer for the last thriteen years; vote for me' - kind of unattractive message.

Taxi for Gordon!

The most important question that this country should ask of Brown is why he did not give us the referendum on the Lisbon treaty that was promised in his government's manifesto. I dearly hope Cameron has the guts to raise it in one of the debates. Cant wait to see Brown squirm at that one.

Nick, all this stuff about images and messages may be interesting to you, the rest of the media, and the Westminster Village, but please remember that your audience is the electorate. We want to know what the parties stand for and for you to provide in-depth analysis of their manifestos and pledges. This is an important election. Far too important for you to be concentrating on soundbites and images.

Mentioning Alistair Darling as a perceived electoral asset is spot on in my humble opinion.

I think I'm going to be voting for a chancellor this year rather than party/PM as none of the parties really stand fully for what I believe in (a bit here, a bit there is as good as it gets... plus they're all so transient in the things they claim to stand for, there's no flag in ground 'this is us' from any of them).

We do need a good chancellor though, particularly this time around.

Vote for change my ****! Come on Cameron, do you think we're stupid? If you really believed in change you would get behind the electoral and constitutional reforms needed to make parliament relevant again. Wouldn't it be ironic if he narrowly lost the election because of the absurdities of the first-past-the-post system?

Nick says that huge effort will be made by the parties to subvert their rivals' carefully planned pictures - remember the Grim Reaper who followed Michael Howard at the last election.

Actually, I don't.

But I do remember Alastair Campbell's 'Shylock the Jew' poster of Michael Howard.

That poster was withdraw, but of course, the damage had already been done to the unfortunate Howard.

Politics can be a filthy business.

Why is Bob Ainsworth looking the wrong way? Confused between right and left?

https://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47592000/jpg/_47592262_cabinet466260_getty.jpg

is that david cameron, or nick griffin?

58 Essential Easter Rabbit

Polyorchids lie dormant for many years and this one must have just woken.

Woken but not yet shaken.

#55 the van driver is going to be rich

Bill_De_Zas - oh yes you can shred (or crush into oblivion..) server hard disks. Just search for "disk crusher" or similar and you'll find desktop-sized machines designed to do just that.

It doesn't matter, however, because knowing the government track record with data security it'll all be on a memory stick or laptop accidentally left somewhere.

59. At 2:36pm on 06 Apr 2010, Paul_L wrote:

"leading the campaign to finally get an unelected Prime Minister elected!"

Care to point out were on a ballot paper there is a selection of tick-boxes asking the voter for who they would like to be Prime Minister, perhaps before making comments about others you should first find a clue about the basic facts of the UK's political/electoral system! All UK Prime Ministers are unelected, even after their party has gained an electoral majority with them as leader - the UK doesn't (yet) have a presidential election even though the leaders and media present such a front.

#34 Pete,

I'm all for voting reform - we need it. Our system of politics does not represent the will of the people, simply by redefining constituency boundaries you can entirely swing the outcome! That shouldn't be allowed

I don't go along with the whole 'Eton toff' and 'bully boys' line though - maybe a couple of generations ago this was true but not now. Most of the Labour party went to private schools and come from very wealthy backgrounds

I just don't think it sways younger voters any more - certainly not me anyway (not that i'm that young!!) I think we left the class war behind us - just as we should have done

The only people that still hold those ideals dear to them are people stuck in the past with no vision of the future, consigned to a belief that would see them quite literally cut their own nose off to spite their face. I'm not one of them - I don't care about anyone's background as long as they can do the job......

Which is where all the main parties fall over i'm afraid - none fo them are fit for puropse

#60 well the Turkey has just voted for christmas, its taken him 3 years to pluck up the courage , left to the last possible minute before execution at the hands of the electorate.

68 sagamix

talking to yourself agian, sagamix? Just like your newlabour apologist paymasters; talking to themselves.

Taxi for Brown!

You say that 'The chancellor the prime minister planned to sack is now seen as a key electoral asset.' yet at a press conference Gordon Brown flatly denied ever wanting to sack Alistair Darling. So did he lie at the press conference or are you misleading the country now?

66

A certain self satyrical approach. You come accross as a parody of yourself.

In one breath you bemoan negative campaigning.

And in the next (and previous) you indulge in a fairly rabid and completely unsubstantiated attack about how some Tory policies that you fail even to name, let alone develop into an argument, will "destroy the country".

Very newlab.

I am appalled that Robinson managed to do his analysis on Breakfast this morning and World at One this afternoon and not mention ONE word on the Lib Dems. What prejudice!

Not a word on his blogg either, what bias.

What incompetance.

#71 taxi's, Mini-Buses etc for the whole of ZaNU_LIEbour, for what they have done to the UK , for what they have done with the inheritance of 97,

It is going to keep the History Books in much work trying to explain
where it all went wrong in all its many faciets.

Never again should the country think that just because the economy is looking good should be be safe to vote labour into power

claire @ 24

"Unless there has been some unfortunate editing of the actual speech on both radio and television, it would appear that DC left out the straight / gay words. Interesting in the light of other members of his party's views as disclosed over the weekend."

Mmm. If this is true (and is it?) then it's more than very interesting, it's (potentially) tres interessant. We've just had B&B gate and it could be that the calculation has been made by the Conservatives that getting out the Core is more important than sounding all "modern" and stuff. Would be disappointing because, regardless of electoral advantage, homophobia should not be given a scintilla of encouragement by any of our serious political parties ... especially one which has a chance (albeit a faint one) of winning power.

Carl wrote

"Mentioning Alistair Darling as a perceived electoral asset is spot on in my humble opinion.

I think I'm going to be voting for a chancellor this year rather than party/PM"

You will be out of luck if you want Darling. He is going to lose his seat in Edinburgh South West

#71 rockRobin7

Not that my lifestyle is your business, but you're lazy assumption makes me so cross that I'll rise to the bait. I am (thankfully) in full time employment, in an industry with access to data that fully reinforces my concerns regarding the danger of a slash and burn conservative government. The number of SME's who will fold once Cameron unilaterally pulls their commercial contracts with central and local government will be enormous.... it will be nothing short of a tragedy.

My pounding the streets will be during those evenings and weekends when I'd much rather be doing something fun with my time, but I feel compelled to try and do my bit avoid a tory government lacking in any kind of ideology other than "I'll say whatever the electorate wants me to say today and do what I like tomorrow.....".

Like I said in my first post, if the UK wants a tory government then that will be what comes to pass. I just hope that the decision is taken with as full a knowledge as possible of the consequences.

70#

Probably not mate, you'll end up with one of Labour's Pollyclinics... where the Champagne Socialist adulatory tones of one Ms Toynbee are read out to you in mellifluous tones, thereby inducing an immediate torpor and the forgetting of all your problems...

#16 Surrey_pensioner

Just to put your sums in perspective, a linear reduction in the deficit of 21bn per year for 4 years, to achieve Brown's target, would still mean for each of the 4 years there would be a budget deficit, the cumulative effect of which would be to ADD 462 bn to the already large cumulative deficit that we have.

That is the true enormity of the position we are in, and reflects the true magnitude of the pain that we have to suffer.

Now are El Gordo and his band of merry henchmen the right people to solve the problem for us? Go on, you know the answer don't you? Emphatically NO, NO, NO!!!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

69#

It always pays to have a sense of humour, saga.

Although I notice my other old joke about Mandy at Number 1 has been referred.... Oh well. I'm sure it'll do the rounds quick enough over the next few weeks. Wouldnt be surprised for it to come up on HIGNFY or something along those lines.

Never mind. Today is the beginning of the end of the fag end of this corrupt administration. Cause for celebration if ever there was. TTFN!

#79 virtualsilverlady

"Woken but not yet shaken"...... I'd respond if I had the first idea what you're talking about?!

64:

I wonder how long it will take us this time to work out that New Conservatives are just the same as old ones ? You list could have been written in 1997 (and more of it is correct for that year).

p.s.
I don't think following left wing ideological claptrap is a charge that will stick to New Labour - their main problem was following right wing ideological claptrap but not actually having any idea how to go about it properly since they really didn't understand it.

#71 rockRobin7 (again)

Apologies.... forgot to mention in my reply that if you feel strongly enough about something (as I do regarding the fitness to govern of Cameron and Osborne), you will absolutely make time for it.

Here's a thousand words - Millenium dome £550 million wasted, Gold reserves sold at a fraction of todays prices. Lets see the letters the treasury sent advising Broon NOT to do it, Immigration fiasco after fiasco, phony dossiers, lies to the electorate regarding Iraq, scams, expences, cover-up, dodgy mortgages, dodgy expence claims, 2nd homes, incompetance, champagne socialists the lot of them.