Phoney Tony's going to get in again.
Discussion
Heard on the french radio this morning that the Sun, Murdoch's power rag, has come out in favour of Phoney Tony. Added to the lack of opposition, this seems like the last nail in the coffin to me and I reckon the socialists can now be sure of a third term.
Glad I'm not living there, though politically things are no better in France.
Glad I'm not living there, though politically things are no better in France.
nel said:
Heard on the french radio this morning that the Sun, Murdoch's power rag, has come out in favour of Phoney Tony. Added to the lack of opposition, this seems like the last nail in the coffin to me and I reckon the socialists can now be sure of a third term.
Glad I'm not living there, though politically things are no better in France.
Norman Lamont set the whole thing up.
unrepentant said:
This isn't the last nail in the coffin.
Nobody with the slightest nous has expected anything other than a BLiar majority of 60 - 100 for over a year now.
Nothings changed. The Sun always supports the winner, and says so once it knows who that winner will be.
Agreed Sadly
The general public give Labour the credit for the present stable low inflation economic environment-without realising that this is a worldwide phenomenon.
This combined with their payroll vote was always going to be enough to secure them another term.
nel said:
So all we can hope for a weakened government with greatly reduced majority? That's not going to make for radical policy changes unfortunately.
They will have a majority of around 90. That's plenty, even with their awkward squad. Major survived for 5 whole years with a majority of 3? and the backbenches full of "bastards".
No, I'm afraid as Private Frazer put it so well we're all "doomed".
The tories need to re-invent themselves big time after this or it's game over.
Agreed. It has been obvious for ages really.
I think they may go on winning as well.
Not totally sure of the exact numbers, but I think somewhere over 300,000 people leave this country every year with another 300,000 coming into this country.
I can imagine who most of the immigrants will vote for and who most of those who emmigrate used to vote for.
It's all taking it's toll.
unrepentant said:
The tories need to re-invent themselves big time after this or it's game over.
But they said this after the last election and the one before that. Rightly or wrongly, people in this country are not going to vote for a Tory party with such awful leaders - Haigh – it was too soon for him, IDS was just, IDS, and Howard, he's a throwback to the last Tory Govt and the people link that with him! So he had no chance from day one any idiot could see that.
As usual, too much short-termism - please don't let me see Redwood going for the leadership after Howard is ousted following May 5 - that really would be the end!
MikeyT said:
The tories need to re-invent themselves big time after this or it's game over.
But they said this after the last election and the one before that. Rightly or wrongly, people in this country are not going to vote for a Tory party with such awful leaders - Haigh – it was too soon for him, IDS was just, IDS, and Howard, he's a throwback to the last Tory Govt and the people link that with him! So he had no chance from day one any idiot could see that.
As usual, too much short-termism - please don't let me see Redwood going for the leadership after Howard is ousted following May 5 - that really would be the end!
When I say re-invent I mean totally. They should never have gone back to Howard, unelectable and too much baggage anyway.
They need a New Labour type re-invention and they need to dump all the old deadwood like Howard, Redwood, Ancram, Letwin, Yeo etc...
I honestly think Hague, waiting now in the wings would have been perfect. But its too late now for him.
Maybe it needs to be a totally new party?
MikeyT said:
But they said this after the last election and the one before that. Rightly or wrongly, people in this country are not going to vote for a Tory party with such awful leaders - Haigh – it was too soon for him, IDS was just, IDS, and Howard, he's a throwback to the last Tory Govt and the people link that with him! So he had no chance from day one any idiot could see that.
Partly true MikeyT the Tories have two main problems- Firstly how their leaders have been perceived by the General Public from John Major onwards.
This is mainly, but not entirely, due to problems with the leaders themselves.
Their second problem is inconsistency and half measures. They will talk about the problems of over regulation and red tape one minute, then oppose extending pub opening times or building casinos. They need to understand that they should ALWAYS stand for individual freedom and small government.
i think the problem with the tories is that they are more a collection of individuals rather than a controlled centralised body, like labour. they have always developed via the local association and central office has minimal input into selection of candidates (though i may be way out here).
to understand the tory party you need to read alan clark's book on them during the period 1922 to 1997. i fear that they have suffered too long due to infighting and been in the wilderness too long, but it has happened before and i'm sure they will be back, maybe not this time but next. just remeber that churchill spent ten years in the wilderness, when the need came he reappeared to take the helm. mrs T had only a few supporters in her first cabinet. the "experiment" as it was called, she would have been ousted had some argentinians not gone on an invading holiday.
the tories will be back, with a dynamic and fresher team in the next few years, its just political cycles (a bit like ecconomic). another term of TB & gordon will see the UK plc in hock to its eyeballs, with a greater tax take, crumbling public sector. have no fear the "empire will return".
as an aside, as reported last night on the news (C4?)our great deputy PM (thats the fat one) changed his mind about changing public workers' retirment age from 60 to 65 because it would cause a strike, just before the election, but the result of this bending to union pressure is a further hike in your council taxes, marvelous.
to understand the tory party you need to read alan clark's book on them during the period 1922 to 1997. i fear that they have suffered too long due to infighting and been in the wilderness too long, but it has happened before and i'm sure they will be back, maybe not this time but next. just remeber that churchill spent ten years in the wilderness, when the need came he reappeared to take the helm. mrs T had only a few supporters in her first cabinet. the "experiment" as it was called, she would have been ousted had some argentinians not gone on an invading holiday.
the tories will be back, with a dynamic and fresher team in the next few years, its just political cycles (a bit like ecconomic). another term of TB & gordon will see the UK plc in hock to its eyeballs, with a greater tax take, crumbling public sector. have no fear the "empire will return".
as an aside, as reported last night on the news (C4?)our great deputy PM (thats the fat one) changed his mind about changing public workers' retirment age from 60 to 65 because it would cause a strike, just before the election, but the result of this bending to union pressure is a further hike in your council taxes, marvelous.
off_again said:
I may be a bit thick but why do newspapers have political affiliations at all?
Nah, you arent being thick at all. I have the same questions and wonder why they bother doing this. Why not simply report the news and leave it at that?
It is very difficult to report the news without bias.
Also I imagine it is very good way of differentiating themselves from each other.
The Guardian is like it is because it wants to attract public sector employees and left wingers.
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