British Politics Thread.

[Mr Mystery]

[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11109845/Why-arent-the-British-middle-classes-staging-a-revolution.html]Here you go dude[/url]

Didn't post originally as it popped up on my Facebook feed.

[Wildeybeast]

I personally wouldn't spend it on either to be frank. As I said in a post above smokers and drinkers should pay any costs associated with that. Likewise fatties and gastric bands, I totally agree.


But there are things need fixing here and here should be the priority. If you can find more than 20% (if that) of nations we give aid to, that don't have an army, a war with their neighbours and a hugely corrupt government and a president with a full swiss bank account, I would be surprised.

I would countenance putting them all under Empire again as they were probably better off - but which ever way you cut it, it is not the business of government to give charity for nothing to external countries.

There is real genuine poverty here, there is dementia, cancer, a million and one things that that money could go to that are NOT self inflicted by feckless wasters and I would rather look after our own first.

I agree that we need to look very carefully at exactly how and where we are spending money abroad, but there are plenty of methods of spending it so it goes directly to the people that need it and no where near Mugabe and chums. I'm just objecting to the idea that we scrap it international aid outright. Quite apart from the moral objections that British people deserve it more simply by luck of having been born here, it is a well established historical precedent that isolationist polices damage countries in the long term, not to mention the benefits we gain from international aid.

I quite agree more should be done to tackle poverty and illness at home, but there are plenty of less deserving, not to mention less effective, wastes of money at home. Let's start with all the money that gets pissed up the wall by the NHS on incompetent and unnecessary middle management and compensation forked out every year due to blunders bought about by poor training and procedures. That should free up plenty for dementia research.

[Denzark]

I quite agree more should be done to tackle poverty and illness at home, but there are plenty of less deserving, not to mention less effective, wastes of money at home. Let's start with all the money that gets pissed up the wall by the NHS on incompetent and unnecessary middle management and compensation forked out every year due to blunders bought about by poor training and procedures. That should free up plenty for dementia research.

We do have SOME common ground then Wildey..

[Wildeybeast]

So it would seem.

[Mr Mystery]

I'm actually saddened that our Politicians seem to lack balls (and no, Ed Balls does not in fact count, Mr Milliband).

I for one am sick and tired of party politics. If your election campaign predominantly revolves around people voting for anything with your colour of ribbon on it, things have gone wrong, and badly so.

I was in favour of the Alternate Vote, because I object to First Past The Post. Yet it was ultimately voted down not because 'one person one vote', but 'christ! What about our safe seats??'. Seriously, why did we allow those in power to vote on how they get there in the first place? At least put it to the people. And yes I'm quite aware that would indeed be a First Past The Post vote - but those are unavoidable on a 'yay or nay' subject.

Completely regardless of those that form it, that we have a coalition at all shows that the will of the people has indeed not been made manifest on this occasion. Whoever had formed it would have had somewhat limited support in the populace. And I'm not daft - I'm quite aware that any party making the majority of a coalition will still just foist it's own peculiar brand upon the country as if they had a landslide - this is not a discussion about Tory policy, but a weakness in our democracy.

Proportional Representation is trickier for most to grasp, but also a much better system for recognising who the people really want in charge.

And back to party politics, having gone on a wee tangent there. Why is it the extremes? Why not 'right philosophy in the right job at the right time'? As I've mentioned in the past, I'm very much conservative (small c!) on the economy, as I don't like to see waste. But I remain otherwise quite Socialist in my view, seeing it as being very real benefit to the country. I stand against increased privitisation, as it simply hasn't worked. It was supposed to bring competition, and through that lower prices (hurrah!) and more efficiency (hurrah!). What did we get? Corruption and Collusion, and successive politicians too bloody toothless to do a jot about it. So privatising the NHS bits? Well done, you've just introduce a profit margin, you cockwomble* how the hell is that going to make things cheaper?

But with my brand of Socialism? Yeah it comes with personal social responsibility. So drinkers, smokers, big fattyboombooms? Guess what maties, you'll have to foot some of that bill (perhaps through a higher tax banding?). Simply put, too much Socialism can lead to indolence in society, a perception that it doesn't matter what you do, someone else will clear up the mess.

[Brakkart]

I'm of the opinion that Britain needs to move to a more federal system. Devolution for England has to happen, but honestly I don't think that will fix things, as England will still be weighted too much towards the South-East (and London in particular). I'd rather see England split up into 5-6 regions, name them after the old historical English kingdoms such as Mercia, Wessex etc, one of which should be London/Kent. Heck make Cornwall a region of its own too. That will give us roughly 9-10 states (inc Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland) as part of the United Kingdom that can all run their own regional affairs far better than Westminster can. that leaves the national government in Westminster then to deal with issues like defence, foreign policy, national curriculum, laws, trade etc and big multi-region infrastructure projects like HS2 and a Severn Barrage. Things like the NHS and a lot of taxes are better dealt with at a local level.

In addition to the MP's for the various regions in Westminster I would have representatives from Britain's remaining overseas territories too, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands lest we forget the lesson of history ("no taxation without representation") and to send a message to anyone who might covet them (Spain & Argentina in particular)that these are parts of Britain and are not up for grabs.

[Denzark]

I don't get the problem with London. The urban area is some 9m, the metropolitan area is 13m. proportionately that is what, 16-20% of that 53m population of England.

Now Wikipedia gives the urban area to generate 20% of UK - not English, but UK - GDP. It gives the metropolitan area to generate 30%. So it contributes above its weight.

So why get sh*tty about its pre-eminence - why would we hamstring one part of the UK that is productive? My local city is Norwich - I love Norwich, it has personality and character. Would I want some token financial sop to Norwich that satisfies anti-London critics and yet jeopardises London performance?

No Sir.

[Wolfshade]

Yes.

I have to agree with zark. Things are going to be london centric, because so many people live there and it generates sooo much revenue.

There are also massive efficiencies with high density populations in terms of services, like Hospitals, Fire, public transport etc.

But then I did propose re-establishing the kingdom of mercia and the line of true kings...

Let's face it low density regions like Cornwall, for instance, recieve far more than they generate. If cornwall only had cornish money to improve services and grow then it wouldn't. It would need to pare down services.

There are also efficiency savings to have things based at a central location.

[Wildeybeast]

Treasonous worm to make grovelling [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29357114"]apology[/URL] after spilling her Majesty's secrets; may keep his head.

[Mr Mystery]

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29368838]Nigel Farage promising anything in successful attempt to generate publicity, despite knowing he's never to going to see the inside of Westminster outside of a tour[/url]