OK, I'll kick off tonights Political thread.....

[UNG]

Ed milliband? well I consider him a caretaker leader, he has no go in him at all and cannot even stand up to Cameron in PM questions, I do not rate or like him, however I will vote for my Local Labour Candidate because I like her, and I would rather eat a wall brick than vote for David Cameron.

Don't think Milliband will last to long especially with the man that has Ball'sed a few things up in the past

The man who vetoed europe without discussing it in the house, the man who sold the royal mail for 3 billion under value, the man who has raised taxes 22 times and yet back tracked on them when the public found out, the man who doesn't care about disabled people, the man who has destroyed the NHS and who,s next policy regarding it is to make us pay 150 quid to see our GP, the man who has actually added 500 billion to our dept and who has actually wasted more money than Gordon Brown and yet gets away with everything because he has the press on his side.

Surely that should be "the men who have destroyed the NHS" Blair and Brown built all these new hospitals on borrowed money and the mortgage payments are crippling two hospitals close to where I live couple that with the GP contract negotiations they screwed up half the work for twice the pay obviously a good deal

Everyone on here knows my political views, I am a Tony Blair man and even worse drink Creamflow beer lol.

We all have a cross to bear

I think deeper, even you may think I am mad Trev. There is a program called benefits britain life on the dole on the TV. It is about scroungers and layabouts, the other week it was about a Romanian Gypsy coming to the UK, the first shot of him was at his home in Romania, the second when he was saying I want 40k a year in benefits and Britian will give it to me.

This got me thinking, how did the BBC know about this guy? why did this guy devulge this on TV?Why did the BBC go over there to watch him come here?

a week later Cameron told the press he was clamping down on Benefit cheats and especially immigrants, I honestly believe the tory's paid for this program to con us to voting for them, I know, I know it sounds crazy but they are so low they will even stoop to this tactic to get our votes, they are scum, end of, scum.

We are the land of the great give away even before Cameron came to power, look at it another way it could have been Labour paying to try and score points.

They're still a single issue party, their solution to everything is to pull out of the EU. I'd rather not risk 4 million jobs thanks very much.
Now, before you play the "other countries are not members and manage to trade successfully with it" card. There is still a mountain of EU legislation that their companies have to comply with to enable them to have that trade so the cost to business is still there.
I'd rather be inside the tent ****ing out than outside it trying to **** in.
Reform not resignation

A weekly £385 millionish black hole in the EU accounts would blow the EU apart the Eurozone is struggling to stay afloat now with Greece and Spain having major finance problems you only have to see that Germany don't want to be left on there own to prop it all up.
The juggernaut that is the EU is beyond reform in my opinion there are too many on the gravy train and too many minor countries with a lot to lose if the EU is reformed

The mountain of EU legislation you quote is applied as and when they feel they need to, a mate of mine exports into Europe amongst other places and they change the rules all the time when he imports stock from the US he is never sure what EU taxes and UK duty he will pay as they keep changing the goods classification, and the best one has to be one of his customers trying to import a container of the goods direct from the US into Greece it wasn't allowed in and in the end the container had to be shipped to the UK was lifted onto the dockside the import documentation completed and then loaded onto another ship back to Greece at a cost to the customer , his suppliers in the US have spent somewhere between a third and half a million pounds to comply with EU legislation and get product registration for their goods as required by an EU directive it is illegal to use a non registered product yet the legislation is not enforced and companies are known to be selling and their customers using unregistered product that sells cheaper under cutting those who comply

So the EU ain't all it's cracked up to be tons of legislation that few comply with

 

[D Skelton]

I'm against immigration at this point in time not because I think they're all scroungers and not because of some suppressed bigotry, but simply because of supply and demand.

As much as I loathe Nigel Farage's Thatcher worship, I fully support him on every argument he has ever put forward about both the EU and the damage it does to us, and, our out of control immigration policy.

Immigration can be good, it also can be bad. At this point in time, there are too many of us on this tiny island. In the past, we've needed immigration.

What I hate is the trite labels put upon people who have legitimate questions about our immigration policies. We're automatically branded as intolerant and as closet racists. The fact is, there simply arent enough jobs to go round which means that they can afford to work for less to get them. Bunked up ten to the dozen in a little hovel somewhere allows them to do this and then scurry back to their own countries like millionaires whilst we struggle to eat because we're not prepared to huddle up together, twenty to a room, in a little bedsit somewhere.

I don't blame the immigrants I must say. If I could bugger off somewhere for a few years and put up with less than favourable living conditions for a couple of years but bring back enough money at the end of it to buy myself a couple of houses here outright, I would do it! It's for that reason that I blame the masterbators up in parliament for allowing it to happen in the first place.

Finally, I will add one more thing. If I had a licence to kill just one person, David Cameron would be that person! Slowly and painfully!

 

[Adam W]

How very dare they speak to each other in their mother tongue! Tell me, have you ever worked in another country? If yes did you bother to learn the language? Out of courtesy to the natives did you always make sure you never spoke to one of your colleagues in anything but the language of the country you were in?

The point I was trying to make is it depends where you go and who is around you - in parts of London, Birmingham, Leicester, Bradford etc 'British' are a minority group.
Yes I worked in the Algarve when I was younger. I made an attempt to learn Portuguese but I was working in a tourist resort catering for English speakers. I appreciate there are places in different countries where if you walk down the street most people are speaking English instead of the native language, but it seems strange you should have to go to a different country, or a specific part of this country to experience this.
When I was there I also experienced immigrant life, with 6 people sharing a 1 bedroom flat. None of us wanted to be in that living arrangement for the rest of our lives but we put up with it for the experience of working in a different country. The difference is we all worked in the tourist industry and weren't taking 'regular' jobs away from locals, but working for and alongside them.

My block was just an example - if the majority chose not to work the system would collapse, which is the concern with things getting out of control. I don't think I've ever met anyone claiming £30k in benefits but I have met people who live off benefits, whether or not they also have an undeclared income.
I've also been in the situation where I would have been better off on benefits than working - £500 per month housing paid for, £75 per month council tax relief, plus £70 or so JSA per week adds up to £10,540 a year, plus extra benefits such as free prescriptions and dental treatment and that's more than a shop or bar worker gets paid, without the hassle of having to get to work every day. Add in child-related benefits and you're talking about a significant amount.

 

[Adam W]

Just joking about that obviously Adam lol

Well obviously that bit was tongue in cheek but the rest of what you said wasn't far off.

 

[Guest77]

It is strange though how the BBC followed this Romanian to the UK, how did they know he was coming here? why did they devote a whole program to him and why did he say the things he said? Why did they spend thousands of licence payers money following him from Romania to the UK, who told them about him? is it real? I believe the tories are behind it.

 

[Guest77]

Don't think Milliband will last to long

Me Neither UNG, he is on borrowed time for sure, I don't like him myself, he is too weak for a potential prime minister.

 

[Adam W]

It is strange though how the BBC followed this Romanian to the UK, how did they know he was coming here? why did they devote a whole program to him and why did he say the things he said? Why did they spend thousands of licence payers money following him from Romania to the UK, who told them about him? is it real? I believe the tories are behind it.

I can't get over how that seems to be an answer to everything - anything left wing supporters don't like is put down to 'Tory propaganda' with no real substance to the debate.

One thing I don't understand is why the main parties are so keen on Europe. Apart from the possibility of a few politicians getting cushy jobs in Brussels once they leave office, is there a major benefit to us pandering to Europe which they aren't telling us?

 

[trev]

I can't get over how that seems to be an answer to everything - anything left wing supporters don't like is put down to 'Tory propaganda' with no real substance to the debate.

Of course, the right wing have never ever complained about the BBC's left wing bias have they? The fact is that the BBC are dependent on the government of the day and so switch allegiance at the drop of a ballot box.

 

[Guest77]

I can't get over how that seems to be an answer to everything - anything left wing supporters don't like is put down to 'Tory propaganda' with no real substance to the debate.

One thing I don't understand is why the main parties are so keen on Europe. Apart from the possibility of a few politicians getting cushy jobs in Brussels once they leave office, is there a major benefit to us pandering to Europe which they aren't telling us?

Adam if you can explain it to me then I will be happy to take it all back, I saw the program and it was just strange how a week after Cameron came out publically saying he was going to sort out immigrants, just a week after the whole series on benefit cheats finished, seems rather coincidental to me.

 

[Adam W]

Of course, the right wing have never ever complained about the BBC's left wing bias have they? The fact is that the BBC are dependent on the government of the day and so switch allegiance at the drop of a ballot box.

I disagree - large public funded institutions such as the BBC, councils, the NHS, police forces etc are left-wing biased because the left wing ideal is everyone works for the public sector.

 

[trev]

So, you complain about a leftie (Mike) complaining about right wing bias and you deny that the right have ever claimed left wing bias.
Then, by implication, you seem to say that there are no right wing councils or right wingers in the police.
Yeah, ok mate, no bother.

 

[Adam W]

Adam if you can explain it to me then I will be happy to take it all back, I saw the program and it was just strange how a week after Cameron came out publically saying he was going to sort out immigrants, just a week after the whole series on benefit cheats finished, seems rather coincidental to me.

Maybe to address public opinion to the program?
I'm not suggesting Labour orchestrated the Dunblane massacre so they could win votes by banning private ownership of handguns, but that they put in a policy to address something which was hot in the media.

 

[trev]

Maybe to address public opinion to the program?
I'm not suggesting Labour orchestrated the Dunblane massacre so they could win votes by banning private ownership of handguns, but that they put in a policy to address something which was hot in the media.

You might want to rethink that timeline Adam. Dunblane happened in 1996, who was in charge then?

 

[Adam W]

So, you complain about a leftie (Mike) complaining about right wing bias and you deny that the right have ever claimed left wing bias.
Then, by implication, you seem to say that there are no right wing councils or right wingers in the police.
Yeah, ok mate, no bother.

I don't think I said that - I'd have to read back to see where Mike complained about right wing bias but I was talking about the right wing 'complaining' about left wing bias in the public sector.

 

[Adam W]

You might want to rethink that timeline Adam. Dunblane happened in 1996, who was in charge then?

OK then the conservatives didn't orchestrate the Dunblane massacre in an attempt to gain votes. Whoever was in charge it's the same effect - the government react to public demand by introducing policies which don't necessarily help.