British General Election

[afterlife3]

Meturk, do you speak Gaelic? Cause I really want to learn Irish Gaelic.

[expatben]

LibDems for me. In my constituency its either them Labour Tories Veritas (Kilroy's party) or UKIP. Of them I like the LibDems. I find them to be sensible. They're anti war and anti tution fees.

[MeTurk]

I wish I did speak Irish Afterlife, I spent my whole life in Irish classes and can only string together a few sentences. It's on my too do list. What makes it worse is my whole family on my mothers side is fluent. Two of them are the top Irish teachers in the country and live in the gealtacth.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"agriadam\")</div>

What does the weather have to do with an election?? [/b]

ahh, you'd be surprised.

[OHT1910]

Try this if you are stuck:

http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/

Labour 4
Conservative -21
Liberal Democrat 40
UK Independence Party -4
Green 36

Lib-Dem it is.

[Rozza]

its sad but irish is an almost dead language.... because the govenment tried to force its survival, the irish being celts, went against the government, people learn it, but dont speak it

whereas in wales, they tried to ban it, and every one speaks it, you need welsh to get a good job in wales, its a bi-lingual country

[Rozza]

can i recomend the MRLP Manifestoe? it is very good

[OHT1910]

Labour (Tony Blair's mob) win again but with reduced majority. As Homer Simpson said, "when are people going to realise that democracy doesn't work?".

Seriously though, the UK first past the post system sucks. My favoured party, the Lib Dems, won 23% of the vote yet get less than 10% of the seats. Labour win about 36% of the vote, yet have over 50% of the seats.

[butterj]

I was thinking about it last night, im kind of glad it works that way when i see how many votes the BNP get in some areas. i really would like to see a three party system though, the lib dems gain was good, really impresive infact.

[beergal]

i cant believe we didnt win more seats then we actually did, we as being the lib dems!
so i just wanted to comment on the fiasco of our voting system...im registered to vote at my home town in bristol and because im a student living in halls i was also registered here to vote in liverpool...our voting system is ridiculous, what i was more surprised at was the fact that my international friends who i live with, nigerian and hungarian, and irish rep all had polling cards to!!!

[LiveFreeorDie]

Being over here in the U.K. for work yesterday and today, it has been interesting discussing the election and various societal issues with my Brit co-workers (as I am American). Actually, it is even better because some of my Italian co-workers are over as well. Talk about some good discussions about all sorts of things! Luckily we all have a good relationship and so can have these types of chats. One thing that amazes me is that your gas (petrol to you Brits) is about $9.00 USD per gallon. In the states it is anywhere from about $2.10 to $2.75 per gallon. Holy Shit....the cost of living in the U.K. is outrageous and it does not appear the wages are higher than what I see in the U.S. Tax rates run from 22% to 40%!! I do like your universal healthcare coverage so eveyone is covered (though elective needs/surgeries there are long waits for) and then you can improve coverage with private insurance.

What do the Brits see as the biggest issues in the U.K.? Is it Iraq? Domestic issues such as...........? What is the "Tuition Fees" issue I keep hearing about? I do think it is great you have more party choices...even if they are minority. They still seem to get more headlines and exposure than American alternative parties. Were I British, I sure as hell would not want to join the EU from an economical perspective....i.e. sharing currency and interest rates. England has an unemployement rate in the 3% range while France and Germany have 10%+ unemployement....why take on that burden? Thoughts on this? Just how conservative is your "Conservative" party? Are the anti-social benefits? For example.....I am amazed to hear about GB's unemployment benefits...they seem to go on forever and are amazingly generous....that would never fly in the U.S. and I imagine they contribute significantly to your high tax rate. Do the conservatives want to curb that? Anyway..these issues are quite interesting to me as an outsider looking in seeing what you folks have to deal with compared with what we deal with in the States. Cheers!

[butterj]

well im still not sure about the tuition fees thing, basicly it's university (college) fees. Im a student and in the UK and i still don't understand who wants to do what. It has been a hot topic but i don't think it made much difference except in leeds where the have a high student vote.

The main reason i voted labour, was because i think they deserve longer to change things, the conservatives nearly destroyed are country and labour have not had that long so far things do not change over night. I am very glad the lib dems are gaining votes they are now the second party in many places and they will gain i belive in the next election.

in general
conservative - look after the rich well traditionaly
labour - look after working class
lib dem - well im not really sure but have many good policys, but as untill now they have had little power, and hence you cant tell what they would really do.

But to be honest i dont think any of the partys would change that much in the country, no one is going to stop unemployment or privatise the health service.

[beergal]

What do the Brits see as the biggest issues in the U.K.? Is it Iraq? Domestic issues such as...........?

Iraq was certainly a big issue for the electorate in Bethnal Green (london) as they voted in the respect mp goerge galloway (bet that wa a kick in the teeth heh Mr Blair!)

I think issues vary for different members of the public whether you would be working..middle..high class etc. Personally voting issues for me were (in no particular order)

Immigration
Europe
Education
Health

Both the Conservative and Labour Parties have agreed on introducing tutition fees which enables all universities to charge a fee for education at around £3000 per year which does not depend on income etc everyone has to pay them. Many students have been arguing that this will increase the amount of student debt after you leave university which when you have a job in the civil service ie working for the government is totally unfair and unjust why should a newly qualified teacher who would earn £20000 per annum be in around £24000 in debt by the time they leave university??

Were I British, I sure as hell would not want to join the EU from an economical perspective....i.e. sharing currency and interest rates. England has an unemployement rate in the 3% range while France and Germany have 10%+ unemployement....why take on that burden?

Lol we are already in the EU...most of the general public especially those that read tabloid newspapers have no working of what the EU actually does for them in fact my hairdresser didnt even know what the EU was!! while on an economic perspective of the emu it is not viable for us to join with out the 5 qualifying standards being met most british people go on about the stupidity of the idea of loss of soverignty i.e. losing the pound ha ha i dont think these people realise that the monarch's head only appeared on the notes during the 1960's. As for the constitution the Blairite government has not done nearly enough prior to the rotational presidency in june in informing the public on the benefits of the constitution..although this probably has reasoning to do with the french refferendum in the way that in which if a founding member (i.e France) refuses the acceptance of the new constitution then the treaty will already become dead and buried.

[LiveFreeorDie]

Beergal - I do realize GB is an actual member of the EU from a trading perspective, what I was trying to say (and did a poor job of it) was how do people feel about taking the final step and becoming a fully linked member that shares the Euro and the central bank, etc. Were I you, I would not want to do that right now, just because of the economic realities. For example, each country still has a different economy (in spite of the concept of "1" EU economy)and are in different phases of economic prosperity or recession. Generally, interest rate management by the central bank helps ease recessions and can also reduce inflation...however, if you have only one central bank, but many different and separate economic situations, it becomes hard to effectively manage the overall economy. That was my only point, I guess, since GB's economy is doing fairly well, where the rest of Europe is not doing so well, they could well pull GB down into their situation. That would be my fear.

As far as University goes, do I interpret your post to mean that currently all universities are "free" in GB? Or at least a large percentage of public ones? Or are you saying the universities currently charge varying rates of tuition depending on ability to pay? Just curious. Anyway...interesting comments.

[Canadian Bacon]

I know that you guys only elected Blair, because you wanted labour in there, and there's more to the election than the Iraq War....and most of the populace doesn't back the Conservatives or the Social-Democrats....but still

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU RE-ELECTED BLAIR!!!

[beergal]

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU RE-ELECTED BLAIR!!!

i think for the british public it was a case of better the devil you know then the devil you knew before...Michael Howard (leader of the conservative party) made catastrophic policy decisions as home secretary when the tories were in power, i.e. Poll Tax and the Bulger case. I dont think he was a credible party or primeminister candidate.

LiveFreeorDie

Were I you, I would not want to do that right now, just because of the economic realities

me either! it is wholly not viable in an economic sense for us to join the euro at present when the pound is one of the strongest currencies in the world, however, we cant have it both ways as being citizens of europe, although i dont fancy an isolationist policy much either.

Or are you saying the universities currently charge varying rates of tuition depending on ability to pay?

yes thats correct universities are currently fee paying anyway, it just depends on your (or your families income) on how much you pay, because i went back to university as a mature student i didnt have to pay any fees because i wasnt earning £20,000 prior to commencing university education.

[LiveFreeorDie]

How do British people feel in general about the British practice of only voting for your local Parliament member, who then elects the PM? There must be a lot of times when you might want to elect a member of parliament from a different party from the PM candidate you might want?? Granted...I imagine you do not always know who the PM will wind up being after electing your parliament members. It just seems that if, for example, I really liked the Labor Party, but hated Blair (like it sounds like a lot of people felt) you would want the option to vote for a different PM. Just curious!

[butterj]

well if you look at the stats, if we did not have the strange local system(i don't know the jargon) we would have a very intresting parliment but we would alos end up with extreem groups with quite a few seats, like the BNP who find it hard to win any seats but if we changed to proportional they would definatly hold seats.

i can't make up my mind but from an expert i was told that this way the government is more stable (which i guess is good)

[beergal]

in real terms our parliament should make joint decisions anyway, i think Blair has realised his form of presidential leadership was not working in his favour!!

[butterj]

i agree i don't think he will be around for long, they are talking already about him leaving his post. im still holding out to see labour succed in improving our country. We will see