Jump to content

The General Election in the United Kingdom


Recommended Posts

45 minutes ago, P.K. said:

@Cambon

Dear me, you should at least try to get things right...

The world had just come through the biggest financial upset since the Great Depression ffs!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-note-successor

The majority of 2008 was smoke and mirrors, luckily. There are a lot of partial truths in the history and a lot of people made a lot of money at the expense of the taxpayers. The uk government also did well out of it, although I am sure your beloved guardian will say something to the contrary. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Cambon said:

Don't forget, when labour were beaten last time, they left a note “There is no money left.” Or similar. Yes, they were voted out tor pretty much the same reasons the conservatives are now.

You know that's a running joke whenever the party in charge changes surely. You're not that blinded by ideology?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

That's not quite true...given it was a coalition they got at least the following:

1. Significant increase in the personal income tax allowance

2. Implementation of the Pupil Premium

3. Referendum on changing the voting system to the Alternative Vote (AV)

4. Introduction of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011

5. Reforms aimed at protecting civil liberties, including the abolition of identity cards

6. Influence on environmental policies, including the establishment of the Green Investment Bank

The thing is he went into a coalition with Cameron when Liberal values are much closer to Labour and light years away from the tories. Absolutely unforgiveable to take our votes and give them to the tories whom we despise and always have done.

So had it been a Lib/Lab coalition the grassroots are convinced that a great deal more could have been achieved and it's likely the country would not be in the mess it's in now...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, HeliX said:

You know that's a running joke whenever the party in charge changes surely. You're not that blinded by ideology?

It certainly looks like it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, P.K. said:

The thing is he went into a coalition with Cameron when Liberal values are much closer to Labour and light years away from the tories. Absolutely unforgiveable to take our votes and give them to the tories whom we despise and always have done.

So had it been a Lib/Lab coalition the grassroots are convinced that a great deal more could have been achieved and it's likely the country would not be in the mess it's in now...

For starters, Labour didn't have enough seats...and the country was in a right mess following the 2008 crisis and thought Brown was an unwanted chump.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The result of the election was Con 306, Lab 258 and LibDem 57 hence a hung parliament.

The financial crisis came to a head with Chancellor Alistair Darling in Washington and Gordon Brown in the Elysée Palace. "unwanted chump " - don't think so...

Darling argued to his G7 counterparts that recapitalising banks with public money – the British approach – was the only solution with a chance of working in these circumstances. Mervyn King was also at the Washington talks. The Governor took to using a line from another King, Elvis Presley. What they needed, he said, was "a little less conversation, a little more action".


They agreed a five-point plan which included a pledge to prevent the collapse of "systemically important banks" by using taxpayers' money to buy up stakes. The final communiqué lacked precision, but for the first time there was something resembling a plausible global framework for bank recapitalisation.

While the Chancellor was selling that to the finance ministers in America, the Prime Minister was promoting the British plan to his European counterparts at a meeting to which he had not originally been invited. Sarkozy asked Brown to join his summit of leaders of the eurozone at the Elysée Palace. At one point, the French President said: "You know, Gordon, I should not like you. You are Scottish, we have nothing in common and you are an economist. But somehow, Gordon, I love you." Just in case Brown got the wrong idea, the Frenchman quickly added: 'But not in a sexual way.'

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-saved-banks

Brown actually ended up highly thought of...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, P.K. said:

The result of the election was Con 306, Lab 258 and LibDem 57 hence a hung parliament.

 

Yeah, but you're forgetting the DUP, which would have supported the Conservatives.

326 seats are needed to form a stable government and even with the SNP too, Labour were still not there. Imagine the policy mess across that many groups fudging government.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt the Liberals could have propped up a Brown lead coalition. Maybe with a new Labour leader? But even then it would have been a minority governent -

Lab and Lib = 315

Con and DUP = 314

with the Greens and Nats holding the balance of power.

I suppose the Libs kept the Cons in check for 5 years and there was stable government for that time, but with the benefit of hindsight, in a way they did help the chaos of recent years. They basically facilitated the wanton destruction for a taste of power.

The alternative I think would have been to let the Tories form a minority government.

They'd have limped on until 2011 or 2012 then (if the polls from the time were correct) lost to Ed Milliband's Labour, who'd now be in the middle of his third term, and universally popular across the World as an liberal democratic counterweight to Putin and Trump. No Brexit, No Boris, No Corbyn, No Truss, No foodbanks, No Partygate.

Or the Tories would have called a snap election won a majority and we'd have got all the shit years earlier.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Yeah, but you're forgetting the DUP, which would have supported the Conservatives.

No I'm not forgetting the other 27 MPs 5 of which, Sinn Fein, never take up their seats. Brown could have cobbled something together which would have been a whole lot better than what we ended up with...

Didn't Brown and Darling do well digging the Western world out of the financial mess they were in. Brown was the only leader that actually had a plan moving forward that the others adopted. He was quite rightly lauded for his efforts. Except in the UK of course...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

50% more airtime possibly yes, but maybe 20% less votes than they would otherwise have got, due to his tomfoolery.

Not according to the Polls.  They are predicted to get a decent share of the vote.  

It just may not translate to seats because of the way FPTP works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, P.K. said:

No I'm not forgetting the other 27 MPs 5 of which, Sinn Fein, never take up their seats. Brown could have cobbled something together which would have been a whole lot better than what we ended up with...

 

monty-python-im-great.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...