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The Conservatives back in 10 Downing Street.
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Possibly, yes. You're assuming that I make choices based only on price.
I'm happy to pay more for some products and services if they are UK-based. It's not the sole criterion but it is one that I look at.
I'm not assuming that you make choices based ONLY on price Muttley, but it surely is a big factor?
Unless you're very well off, it's a major factor to a lot of people.
I'd pay a BIT more to fly with anyone other than Ryanair, but there would come a point at which I'd grit my teeth and and do it, because money IS a factor.
(I wouldn't pay £500 for a tv under any circumstances, but that's another matter!)
Maybe I'm the exception, Wilkie. I wouldn't spend that much on a telly either. But then, I'm not acquisitive and have watched all this consumerism with distaste. No flat screens or blu-ray players or home cinema systems in my house.
For the record I'm not rich but ... I wouldn't fly Eire o'Flot if you paid me to and whenever I go by train I go first class. It costs more but I'm happy to pay that for the better experience. And experience it a bit less frequently, I suppose. Still worth it, though.
lol
I see them as a new "double act" . Not sure what they should be called...."Bunkum & Lies" perhaps.
LOL Muttley, I like that.
I've had to give Mr O'Leary some of my money, because Ryanair are the only airline flying to where I want to go
A friend of mine said a couple of months ago it wouldn't be long before bankers started to claim the f*** -up of the economy wasn't their fault -a big government did it and ran away - and I didn't believe him. Surely no-one would think the public are that gullible. Apparently I was wrong.
For most of the last 13 years the govt did not run a budget deficit, indeed they repaid some of our national borrowings. They were spending too much but that was because their revenue was inflated as a side-effect of the bankers bubble economy. The Labour govts biggest failing was not properly regulating the city, hopefully something Vince Cable will correct. He looks the only cause for optimism amongst the bunch of deadheads so far announced for the cabinet. I mean George Osborne FFS
I think the fact is...we are where we are.
The "rainbow coalition" would have been as stable as a unicyclist on a bouncy castle, and, like it or not, the economy would have gone tits oop with a goverment that was neither strong nor certain.
They should be given a chance - one or two things they have already said give me a soupcon of hope it might not all be spin and bluster - 5 year fixed parliament; referendum on AV; referendum on further surrender of powers to europe.
However, the acid test is how they get the economy out of the shite - if they get that wrong the electorate will have an interesting choice next time - choose the govt who landed us in the soup or choose the two parties who failed to get us out of it.
10 things wrong with prostituting democracy to the will of big financial institutions.
1. I elect my MP and can get rid of him/her– I don’t elect the chairman of Goldman Sachs and can’t get rid of him – why should he have the power to destroy the government I elect?
2. There is no such thing as a free market; because there is no such thing as free (perfect) information
3. Big finance only ever acts in the interest of big finance. They will allow industries to collapse, governments to fall, people to starve as long as there is a healthy balance sheet and a fat bonus cheque to collect
4. Big finance does not create anything apart from false markets. (Carbon Trading anyone? – oh purrrleees!)
5. There is no such thing as a market that can’t be rigged by big finance in the interest of big finance.
6. Big finance seeks non intervention in its actions – until it screws up... and then we all end up paying the bill.
7. Big finance has no innate morality. It is governed by people with the same failings.
8. Big finance is a political movement – but it never seeks election as it is always in power.
9. Big finance seeks to destroy checks and balances to its actions by accusing those who would seek to curb their excesses as being ‘anti-democratic’.
10. Big finance has no environmental consciousness.
Imagine that most of the media was owned by people who were not only sympathetic to the coal miners but their own financial interests were congruent to the success of the miners.
Imagine if the richest miners sent their kids to one school.
Imagine if all political policy was made under the caveat 'Don't upset the miners' and do what is their best interest
Now imagine that the mines all failed at the same time because they made poor decisions, and you, as a taxpayer were needed to bail them out - but when they made a profit, the price of coal remained the same.
Now imagine two years later the miners' party and their lackeys in the press lose an election and are propped up to government by a third party.
Imagine if the miners leaders appeared nightly on the TV and in their thick Yorkshire accents told you that the reason the mines failed was because YOU have had it too cushy, it's all YOUR fault for wanting things like decent schools and hospitals - YOU need get ready for an age of austerity... but the miners will keep their bonuses.
Imagine if the minors threatened to devastate the economy of the South East of England and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work because 'The Country' can't afford them anymore - but prosperous Yorkshire was going to feel very little pain.
You'd be out on the streets with a pitchfork and flaming torch...
Well put Corinth. Politicians may be venal toads but they didn't cause the current economic crisis- let's attribute blame fairly. Thatcher's 1980's 'big bang' may have loosened the controls that would have reduced the risk of a crash and Labour's 13 years of doing nothing/being in thrall to the City may have encouraged them to believe they could do what they wanted; but ultimately it was bankers doing what they wanted that caused the crash.
City bankers made huge bonuses of what were effectively sophisticated pyramid schemes - worthless 'assets' being traded at ever infated prices, with bankers awarding themselves hugely each time they repackaged and sold on. The only difference from a pyramid scheme is that those caught with the steaming pile of poo when the music stopped were bailed out by the taxpayer. No-one went went to prison, no-one had their assets seized, no-one was barred from working in fiancial services.
Hopefully now politicians will stop being so deferential to the financial system. As a starter we should at least expect the separation of retail and investment banking and proper regulation of asset-backed securities. If the politicians don't deliver this they deserve to burn in hell with the bankers.
Well we now have a govt led by men from two of the most expensive public schools in the country, and on top of that the Chancellor comes from a third, not just any old private schools but the oldest and most exlusive. You don't have to think too hard to work out whose interests they are going to serve.
Heard Heseltine on about his One Nation Tory nonsense - a net below which nobody should fall but anyone may rise - yet those doing the most rising seem to be the people from the same backgrounds. If we are one nation how about we start by all attending the same state funded schools and having to rely on the same state funded health service ?
Depressing to see how many of either party a) went to a posh school and b) worked in the city before going into politics.
Alternatively, take the new MP for the constituency where I grew up and still call home: member of the local landowning family, Tory of course. I thought we'd moved on from the days of the local squire and his birthright of a seat in Westminster.
Imagine a country where ideologically driven,unelected union leaders left bodies unburied, rubbish festering in the streets, no bread on the shelves, 3 day weeks and power cuts...
Oh, hang on, I don't need to imagine that...
It might be depressing to see how politicians went to posh schools etc, but why judge them on their backgrounds? The 2nd Viscount Stansgate was a right posh bugger and he went to Westminster school. You might know him better as the left wing politician Tony Benn.
While I agree those from a privileged background may well fight hard to maintain it, they should at least be given the benefit of the doubt then judged on their actions.
But the truth is... I'm not wishing failure on this lot - if they fail the country will be screwed and only ideologues and apparatchiks put political considerations before country.
The current level of borrowing is unsustainable and whoever got in would have had to take measures to correct it.I really think we are on an economic knife edge at the moment - personally I would have preferred a 3 party coalition that put the needs of the country before the needs of party and self.
Like that's ever gonna happen.
Yep, them were t'days - homework by candlelight, gas on, electricity off. Then electricity on, gas off. Petrol rationing too (or did I imagine that bit?) Arthur Scargill and his comb-over. Donkey jackets and picket lines.
Ted Heath and his jaunty little sailor cap.
Edited as I couldn't find picture in his sailor cap.
Congrats on your 16001 posts, JB
That's what I'm doing, Timeout. I'm no fan of Cameron but I do think he's done well so far and has done a good job of at least putting together the coalition. Yet to see how it pans out in practice but I'm impressed so far.
But we have too many politicians from the privileged and city caste who not "may well" fight to maintain their privilege but will. Say what you will about Prescott or Johnson, but at least they started out in the world that the rest of us inhabit. I'm sure there's a few Tories who did likewise.
But on the whole our parliament would be much better if it drew from a wider cross-section of society.
Which is I hope where the Lib Dems come in.
I was thinking about this idea of parliament reflecting society yesterday. Is the right person for the job the one who's most like me, or the one who does the job?
I'm not public-school educated and I don't believe that those who have been are necessarily more able than the next man. But I'm not going to dismiss someone because they went to a 'posh' school. I will judge on results.