surely the tories cant be winning the polls?

I want a leader who can wrestle bears

our lot could not even wrestle a hamster

I want somebody who governs this country for the benefit of the people in it

not some ideology, which never works anyway

We need a leader with the judgement of Solomon

we are lucky if we get someone with the judgement of Sooty

I reckon the tories, at odds against, are a good price for most seats.  Its the economy stupid.

I think so too Rob. The 'bedroom tax' and scrutiny of benefits probably won't cost them too many votes in the seats they have a chance in.

Guess it'll be a Lib/Lab govt in the end.

You can have your Putins, Magabe's and Adolf wannabe' Farages.

Amid all the meek smiles and conciliatory gestures, and the politics of compromise. No huffing puffing macho histrionics, lurks a femme fatale who has unassumingly taken Europe
without wars, clashes or even anybody really noticing till it was all too late.

Angela Merkel.

"Look what I've achieved without even trying...at least that is what people think - eat your heart out Adolf!"


Brilliant subtlety!

dont mention theWar

Merkel is a very good leader...she has judgement not usual in a female

I never object to anyone who is good at their job

i hate tories. yet if i went in to politics, id probably be one. a bit like a more millitant tony blair but in a slight shade of blue. is that what the clever people call a paradox? or is that bubble bath?

Anyone who thinks our economy is booming...must be dreaming

Compared to pre credit crunch, my local two centre look like a bombs hit it

and there are no jobs, in the centre

that is a serious change

you get my vote Bob, as you seem such a nice chap

town centre
job centre

Alan B'astard bob

same thing eg

dont feckin laugh ya bastard. i am a nic man. a very very nice man. unless you p1ss me off. then i'll flamethrower your garden gnomes.

May 13, 2014 -- 6:21PM, Capt__F wrote:

Alan B'astard bob

worrying thats probably not far off what id be like!

"...she has judgement not usual in a female"

British history has quite a few females who were better than their male counterparts.

Then again eg by your own admission you have been diagnosed as not the 'full shilling'.
'
So any femm.  waif, floozy or 'fly by night', is entitled to more credibility than yourself.

Just me opinion!

when it comes to questions of sanity Northern Lad

people who live in glass houses should not throw stones

People will vote the way they always do, for whichever party they think will benefit themselves most

in fact we are bribed

I think the next election is still up for grabs by the looks of it

although can we trust polls..hmm?????????

"Don't cry for me northern lad,
The truth is I am quite barking.
All through my *?%#$@ whistle stop, whistle stop, days,
My "@%*+?/|\@ spew! spew! "theres a train coming!" sad  ways.
I kept my horlicks,
Don't keep your biscuits...dark chocolate b-i-s-c-u-i-t-s



Yeah...whatever!

Will Cameron/Clegg/Miliband all be leaders by the next GE?

The price is 1.58(only for 3 quid) if they are still the leaders. I think they  will be, i can`t even see Clegg going because the chance of them going into coalition again is big.

Miiliband will be in government. At worst without a majority coalition that will save Clegg. Unless Milliband insists on an alternative Lib/Dem leader - Vince Cable. With Danny Alexander also omitted - we hate him in the Labour Party.

Of course Farage will be quite happy, he and his wife and cohorts  milking the 'EU gravy train' for another five years.

Cameron's toast!
Failed to get a majority when everything including Browns f'ups were in his favour.
Now not even the biggest party.

Silly bat Teresa May is probably less sad than fruitcake chinless warrior Gove.

One thing any government should be doing is moving us to renewable energy

We need many more wind farms and on land

this is not just to save the planet....but good business

anything we get for free is better than paying for it...then our oil and fracking and things can be sold to others

this countries wealth depends on what we have to sell

We must also stabilise our population to a steady level...we can support

this is not racist..it is common sense

We need our National Health service to become more unsustainable, people may have to pay more

We have a looming crisis with an aging population, importing more people to look after them is a solution

from the mad house..unless it is temporary.

sustainable

Tories lead polls with 34%.


Also means 66% are opposed to the Tories.

that's the way its always been ^^^

The conservative move wrt pensions and annuities was the best move for many years and this might get them over the line with an outright majority. The economy would be in a state which ever party was in after the biggest financial crisis in our life times. They are doing an ok job imo.

tories can win it imo

Chapeau to the Tories. After taking over a near bankrupt country from a party whose sole tactic always is to spend money they dont have the economy seems to have been turned round.

the national debt has more than doubled in the last four years with more to come and people think the economy has turned round

Well either you want painfully deep cuts to the deficit (to moan about)- or you have to accept the debt grows (and moan). Cake and eat it?

The national debt has not doubled in the last four years.

No but it will have doubled during the coalition term up to 2015.

1.27 Trillion now and ticking

I believe it to be nearer 4.5 trillion

You been drinking again Moisty?

I am no expert (ex being a has been and spert  a drip under pressure)

but I have been advised when you look deeper into what is involved including the pension mess, you will find a lot more is debt than you or I may have understood previously.

I wouldn`t be surprised moisty, perhaps the incompetence is so out of control that no-one knows.

I am told by someone who knows stuff in the city that the pension owed is anything and is unfunded
could be anything from 3  to 5 trillion

the other problem stored up is the potential rise in interest rates - if that happens the cost of debt will go up - etc

You cant just claim any future expense as debt now.  By that rationale every newborn baby is instantly millions of pounds in debt.

The amount of debt all countries are carrying is incredible....the whole lot has to fall in sometime

I hope I am gone when it happens...the Credit Crunch was just a taster...there will be blood, literally

Tories conveniently forget the amount of debt they inherited from Labour, a large part was caused by the Credit Crunch

our debt has gone UP not down since they have been in power

Unless we have a long term sustainable economy we are fecked anyway...which I don't think we have

It isn't only about debt.
The Tories were the same when there wasn't much debt.

The worst things for the greatest numbers have ALWAYS happened under Conservative governments.

The worst thing...is our government said today is complete energy independence is unnecessary

it is better we pay for it

we really do have lunatics running the asylum

I think a lot of people are undecided.

As the weather's so good, I've just been to the swimming baths.  Been chatting to a few people - lots of floating voters

" lots of floating voters"

Which is more than you can say for the country.
Going down like the Titanic under the Tories.

Does anybody feel better off than 4 years ago?
Apart from the banksters, the energy companies, the multi-nationals, and Garry Barlow.

The worst thing...is our government said today is complete energy independence is unnecessary

We are a small island with a large population. We can not be self-sufficient for any length of time in raw materials, we have to trade.
Even China, with its huge land mass is not energy independent. It imports vast quantities of coal from Australia.

We got rid of the lunatics (well most of them ) in 2010. It would be madness to give them back the keys to the treasury next year.

northernlad5    
14 May 14 01:26 
Of course Farage will be quite happy, he and his wife and cohorts  milking the 'EU gravy train' for another five years.

This is the nutjob who wants us to stay in Europe.

Which means all those British in it will also milk 'EU gravy train'
(How do you get milk from gravy anyway?)

But of course, northenloon only picks on the honest and upstanding Nigel.

NONE of the party he wants in (raving monster loony) will claim one euro in expenses, didn't you know that?

With the economy picking up and Miliband's lack of charisma and political impact, it's no wonder the Tories are starting to look good.

You've got to ask yourself what is the point of the Labour party these days?

They can only make things worse if they get in.
A boom on borrowed money followed by a crash in the economy is the norm, and the Tories do that better than Labour anyway.

We are a small island with a large population. We can not be self-sufficient for any length of time in raw materials, we have to trade.
Even China, with its huge land mass is not energy independent. It imports vast quantities of coal from Australia.
Foinavon

Why is Norway rich??????????

all their energy is renewable, they sell their oil

Unfortunately as we have a larger population and not so many mountains and fiords , it is harder for us,

but the principle applies

Of course we have to trade, but what benefits us is what we EXPORT that makes us richer, what we IMPORT makes us poorer

we have to pay for this

I doubt we would ever become completely self sustainable but we could do a lot more

don't you see it is what we SELL makes us rich, what we BUY makes us poor

We also need to accept a steady state population, or we are pi$$ing up against a wall

We allow a slight population inflation, with freezes when necessary

UK population 64 million
Norway population 5.6 million

They generate far more hydroelectricity and have large reserves of oil and gas.

What we buy also makes us richer if we add value to it by converting it to things we can export. Without imports our industry would grind to a halt.

One of the reasons many African countries remain poor is that they sell their raw materials to developed countries without adding value themselves.

the can is just being kicked down the road,the national debt and i suspect private debt are as high as they have ever been with interest rates only able to go one way

True GAZO, the electorate won't vote for the alternative.
Would you want to go back to the austerity of the 1940s and 1950s?

I don't mind us importing stuff, adding value to it, and re exporting it

but we cannot do this with energy, we just use it, so what is the point???????

foinavon

you forget the austerity of the 1940's and 1950's was caused by our massive war debt

but the 60's was quite prosperous


yes I agree we kick everything down the road GAZO

I disagree with this, we should be looking for long term solutions, not should hope it will go in the future

the chances are, it will get worse

go away in the future

pensions crisis...close all final pension schemes now

otherwise we are just kicking it down the road

yes, I know why things were so bad in the '40s and 50s, I'm old enough to remember most of it.
It's just that if we wanted to pay off our present massive debt in the next few decades we would need a similar austerity programme.
We just don't have enough economically recoverable energy to meet our present needs although a massive expansion of fracking and nuclear capacity would help. We can't just turn on the tap.

ebulgery 'don't you see it is what we SELL makes us rich, what we BUY makes us poor'
Unso in fact. As any retailer will tell you - the profit is made when you BUY not when you sell.

The fact is, the majority of ordinary people are living in poverty. Food banks, energy bills, all the utility companies, whom I despise with a passion because they are basically evil, all get away with murder. It's getting where people have to choose between food or no heating, or water, babies arent being fed properly, and this in a so-called western civilised country.
Yet certain people just totally ignore what is actually happening, the rich banksters fecking the economy over and asking the poor and vulnerable to pay for them, there is an enormous gap - bigger than its ever been - between the elite and the less well off, this same elite, and you can even narrow them down to a very few; own probably over half of the entire world funds.
I cant even understand how and why ordinary people just sit there and put up with the way things are, they should be rising up in revolution again.

I hope the tory swine get smashed and never ever return, not that the labour party will be much better because all politicians are corrupt, and only care about their next bonus or claim for £2000 meal expenses.

but dont worry, next time this same elite bring about a world war, and they will, theyll be asking those same vulnerable people to sign up for the armed forces, at least that'd probably get them out of the house and they may even be fed!

You are a fine man Tony, and I respect that..
but, as usual. you are so COMPLETELY and UTTERLY wrong!

no! Everything ive said is completely true, in fact im being lenient to that evil cvunts

*those

ebulgery 'don't you see it is what we SELL makes us rich, what we BUY makes us poor'
Unso in fact. As any retailer will tell you - the profit is made when you BUY not when you sell.

then I am not surprised we are in such a mess

if you really believe this country is going to get rich by buying everything from abroad

and selling nothing abroad Ivor

using that analogy Ivor

If somebody in a market sells something, the person that sells get poorer

while the person that buys get richer

I appear to have strayed into the wrong universe.

I do realise that someone who imports something and sells if for a profit

that is good business for them...does not benefit this country a lot

Up the revolution Tony

I feel like you

I don't understand high level economics

but I was brought up to believe our wealth depends on goods and services we export

all I was saying was, why do we want to pay for something(energy) if we can get it for nothing????

Of course there is a cost in building wind farms, but it is an investment for the future, surely

we don't have to build them all at once....

Also we cannot just keep increasing our population if we do not have the wealth to support them????

it is only a suggestion

I do not care which party gets into party, as they work for the long term benefit of this country

that includes everybody in it

"why do we want to pay for something(energy) if we can get it for nothing????"

do you really think a government is going to give you something for nothing? In the 50's the mantra was that nuclear power was going to be so cheap it would cost them more to send out the bill. Yeah right.

If we had gone to 100% Nuclear Power it may well have been.

We did not

France went 100% nuclear but their electricity is not free.
Not unless the power workers work for nothing, the uranium miners work for free,
The plant suppliers and builders give it away and everybody volunteers to do the decommissioning in their spare time.

agree...but it is still cheaper than buying in fossil fuels Foinavon

The decommissioning costs were not factored in at the time. With renewables you would not have those costs.

Also we have keep rebuilding Nuclear Power stations...we would not have to do that with renewables

I'm not so sure Gery. Uranium is expensive and there are a lot of costs involved in preparing the fuel cells and disposing of the spent fuel. Safety costs and building the plant is much more than for a fossil fuel burner and nobody wants one in their back yard.

all true Foinavon

Haven't seen costings for renewables but you need an awful lot of windmills to generate as much electricity as a nuclear plant.

That is true...but I still think we must be moving towards this. We must have them on land.

Strictly speaking our population should be no larger than we can feed ourselves either.

We still trade of course.

World exponential growth is a time bomb....people will end up starving. We don't have the energy for everybody.

This country must start thinking of self sustainability, or Europe has to, if we wish to tie ourselves

to Europe forever.

World exponential population growth is a time bomb

I agree that we should have built more nuclear plants during the past 20 years but the NIMBY lobby was too strong. To fill the gap and reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuel we should get on with fracking. The trouble with using indigenous fuel is that we become too complacent as happened with North Sea Oil and we are only now waking up to the reality.

As nations become richer population growth tends to slow. Eventually they import the labour they need from abroad as we have seen in this country. This creates other problems of course.

Fracking wont last forever, divert some of this money to renewables, as neither will North Sea Oil.

Also at some point, there will be nothing left to burn will there?????

Only some countries become richer. Capitalism drives inequality.

As things stand the whole edifice is unsustainable, built on the sands of the Arabian desert. "Fiddling while Rome burns" comes to mind.
Democracies don't seem able to act until the lights go out and the complacent voter starts to wonder what happened.

There will always be something left to burn, however it will cost more energy to extract than is generated by burning it.

Well we will have to disagree on that one Foinavon....I firmly believe we must move to renewables

and the idea of a steady state population...which should ideally be no more than we can feed ourselves

because I think we are endangering ourselves if we do not

The world could become a better place in the future, but it could also get a lot worse, we have no idea.?????????

That would seem ideal Gery and people would have to accept a static and egalitarian standard of living for it to work. If all wealth is spread across the present 7 billion equally then the standard would not be very high.
Probably would need a big brother world government and police force to enforce it too. Doesn't tally with human nature unfortunately.
At present I would compare our state to a piece of mouldy bread which has taken a week to be half consumed as the mould population doubled and redoubled. On day eight the mould has doubled again and all the bread has gone.

The alternative is the shambolic labour party

just watch this interview with douglas alexander the guy running their election strategy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b042b8tc/sunday-politics-northern-ireland-11052014
go to 6mins 30

The VAT part would be funny if it wasn't for the possibility they could be running the nations finances again. Its no wonder they got us into such a mess last time.

That would seem ideal Gery and people would have to accept a static and egalitarian standard of living for it to work

yes that is what I believe in

Doesn't tally with human nature unfortunately
true also

as the repression...well no, I am somehow hoping we will see this voluntarily

I was only speaking for our own country at the moment

I think the whole world economic system will collapse at some point, I would us to protect ourselves

Foinavon

Anyway I was only speaking about making our own society sustainable...whatever economic system we want to adopt

Sorry Gery, I was watching Douglas Alexander

Don't see how we could isolate ourselves from the outside world as we would still need to trade. If the rest of the world is carrying on as normal then shortages would sooner or later occur and affect us as would pollution, climate change and political decisions of governments and groups who might be hostile towards us.

Sooner or later the four horsemen will put in an appearance.

Fair play to whomever posted the douglas alexander link. He was abysmal.

Can't blame Labour for the financial crisis given nearly every other western country went into recession too. Now the conservatives have sorted it out get Labour back in and let the good times roll again.

Labour rolled in it when the times were good, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years of unrivalled prosperity they said come every budget, but it was all built on a lie.  Gordon Brown said no more boom and bust.  Then was in charge for the biggest boom and bust ever.  Fk new labour, fk blair and fk brown.

Sooner or later the four horsemen will put in an appearance. Devil

indeed they may Foinavon

don't say I did not warn you