[cc100]

who are you going to vote for??

[Sticks]

As this is the friendly forum, can we desist from talking politics here

[cor!! kate]

Umm, gosh that was an interesting discussion

[James]

If you don't know who to vote for, you could let this website make up your mind for you...

http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/

[Kore]

im not voting.

by the time a party win the election, theyll go off and do thier own thing!
wont do anything they promised in the election...

they always put fake tan on too, to look better.

[Sticks]

Originally posted by James
If you don't know who to vote for, you could let this website make up your mind for you...

http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/

Monster Raving Loony was not an option here, what a swizz

[cc100]

apparently i should vote Green!!!

no chance!

[cc100]

apparently i should vote Green!!!

no chance!

[AndyJK]

Im voting Conservative as Ive always done in every general election Ive been eligable t to vote in since 1992. My MP is Iain Duncan Smith who has a 5,000 majority for the constituency of Chingford & Woodford Green. G'wan!

[Amy]

They all make promises they cannot keep.

[huckool]

I'm voting Conservative.

[Sticks]

How about

Tick One Box Only Instructions on the Voting form

25675

I duely declare Tick One Box Only the winner of this constituency

[Lance]

I dont really care,cos Im irish but if I was from th eUK then Id probably vote whatever party Mr.Blair isnt in!

[cc100]

Originally posted by Sticks
How about

[hindi]

i vote the tories yeahhhhhhhhhhhh they are the best CM'ON MAGGIE THATCHERS TEAM

[cc100]

thatcher is 79!!!

the second best pm this country ever had!!

she still looms large over the conservatives

[Sticks]

As a serving Civil Servant, I am not at liberty to disclose any opinion. I will serve whomsoever gets elected.

Anyway as any viewer of Yes Minister will know, it is us that run the country, the politicians mearly distract people's attention from that fact.

[bananarama]

For the first half of my voting life I voted Tory. Having learned a lesson and being in the civil service for 16 years out of the Tory 18 years of sabatage I learned some facts and many lessons about what they are about . Never again. I now vote Labour.....

[Romantic Old Bird]

I voted Tory once - my first ever vote at age 19 when I hadn't developed my own views and just did what my father did. He thought voting 'toff' would make him more of one, instead of accepting and celebrating the fact he was working class.

Then I got an education, experienced life. I have voted labour ever since.

Like Bananarama, I have seen the systematic stripping of assetts and decimation that took place during 19 Tory years to the health service, where I work, and the education service which my children passed through and still work in.

It was horrendous. Services were run down, squeezed, drianed of cash and resources. Buildings simply deteriorated, and staff either left in their thousands, or lost all the joy they once had in their work. Hospitals closed en masse, and bed numbers were drastically reduced.

Since 1997 I have seen very real evidence of investment and improvements in both services again. There is a long way to go, but the damage of neglect, uninvestment and rock bottom morale was massive and we are still paying the price.

The seasonal bed crises can be traced back to tory cuts.
As for the MRSA bug that mr Howard made so much of - I can trace it's proliferation directly back to when the then Tory government got rid of in house domestics and introduced contracted cleaning services. The staff was halved, and their wages lowered. The few who remained had to cover vast areas, and of course, standards fell.

The hospital I work in does have a problem with the superbug -everywhere has- but the ward housekeepers and cleaners work tirelessly to overcome it. The wards sparkle, and they are never 'not' cleaning. Howard's jibes just serve to scaremonger and reduce morale.

My one (big) reservation was the Iraq invasion - I wasn't at all happy about it, and I think it was a mistake. I don't think it was a cynical mistake though. I do believe Tony Blair felt it was something that had to happen, and I think he was sincere in his fears. Remember the tories were in complete accord with his actions at the time, and had been given the same information he had.

I also suspect that part of his motivation was to keep rooting-tooting gung-ho 'Bomb the Bastrds' Bush in some sort of check.

Beware the Tory bullsh*t. Like any bully they will attack were it doesn't show - until an awful lot of damage has been done.

[Sticks]

Voting in a general election is becoming more like voting in a parish council election. We feel worthy for doing our civic duty, but in the end it is meaningless, as all the descisions are taken elsewhere.

We have seen in this region someone prosecuted for selling bananas in imperial units. When they cited a British law allowing them too, they were told a european law over-ruled it!!!!!

If the Europeans had had their way in 1982, the Argentinian flag would be waving still over the Falkland Islands giving a vistory to armed aggression, long before the Madrid bombs gave an ultimate victory to terroists.

We have been sold down the river on a number of things to the EU. It is a miracle that we are not members of the Euro. (Any champions of the Euro should remember what the ERM did to this country before white wednesday when we could get shot of it)

That might give an indication of how I would have liked to have voted, had I been given the chance in the general election, like I had in the European Election

[cc100]

most politicians will say what they think we want to hear just to get elected, and then do as they please.

is charlie kennedy a serious candidate?

[cc100]

check out The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, www.omrlp.com

amongst other policies, they say theyll abolish gravity!!

Other policies:

They will issue a 99p coin to save on change.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party will not join the single European currency. We will invite all Europeans countries to JOIN THE POUND.

Rich people should be taxed to pay for the printing of money, as they use most of it.

In reaction to the old adage, “Children are so honest” they intend to reduce the age of standing for parliament from 21 to 5.

We pledge to reduce class sizes by making the pupils sit closer to one another and issuing them with smaller desks.

In the interests of fair education policy, under a loony government all children will automatically be given full marks in their exams.

Bright pupils will be provided with dimmer switches to prevent them distracting the rest of the class.

SAT’s tests will be abolished and replaced by Gordon Ramsey style cookery lessons and Rolf Harris art classes.

All children will be given two birthdays like the Queen.

The number 13 will be abolished due to its longstanding unpopularity.

Eton and Oxford will be relocated to Blackpool and Bognor Regis leaving the other Universities with a chance of a bigger intake.

check out their website, it makes politics seem cool!

[bananarama]

Ok. Want some Tory facts. probably not but here they are.
My time in the Dept of transport saw floor space reduced from 8 floors to 3 floors. Ahhh. Good you might think save money on staff and floor renting costs. Sorry...Not that simple.

Tory waste was emptying floors that they were still contracted to pay for. Workers cramped while empty space was available at no extra cost. A Tory lie about being able to save and not waste.

Staff being axed were mainly low earners. Problem for the tax payer was that it was actually cheaper to keep low paid staff because they cost the state more on benefits. Hence the usual Tory lie when they claim savings can be made.

I personally know of a failed market testing exercise that cost the tax payer half a million pounds. Was it reported in the then Tory press. Not on your nelly..Typical Tory waste. Another fact I know was that contracting out work was in some cases costing twice as much as in house staff. Yet another Tory deception that they save money.

The in house cleaners were privatised almost immediately that Thatcher took control.
Their wage was £1-90 per hour. Now changed to a private company at the same rate of pay. 16 years later their wages had gone up to £2-10 per hour. A rise of 20 pence over 16 years. If that is what some of you youngsters want then vote for the evil scum bags and you will deserve everything you don’t get…..

Yes I voted Tory at every election including helping to put Thatcher in her first term of office and for that I am forever ashamed that I was stupid enough to be suckered by their smart talk…..The Tories in their present state are a bunch of right wing stranger to the truth incompetents……Never again. Never again will I support either the extreme right or the extreme left…..

What ever you may think about the Iraq war Blair put his own career on line and the future of his party. Rightly or wrongly he did what he thought was right even at the risk of destroying his own future or his party future. A brave and honest politician.

[Sticks]

In the end though Brussles comes to rule more and more and our parliament matters less and less.

We are deluged with dictacts from the unelected EU commission which wastes far more money than our lot do.

And we are ceding more of our sovereignty to the EU every year.

So what is the point?

[bananarama]

Thats' a pessimistic point of view that i don't agree with...

All political organisations and countries waste. As to which where and when and who wastes the most is a fact that can never be known with any degree of certainty.....

Pay yer money to a car insurer and you can bet your bottom dollar that most of it is wasted on high flier directors and lush furnishings.....The perverse way of humans

My pessimistic belief is that we are all born to waste...and when we save for a rainy day.....Guess what!!!!! We don't want to give it up until a later rainy day.....