reasons to hate the tories
 

same old stories same old tories Why Margaret Thatcher was not the greatest peacetime prime minister of the 20th century - UK News - MSN News UK

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Mini Mancie ! :D Once you've read through the whole thing & you get to the bottom of the article there's a little snippet entitled :-

Now read Margaret Thatcher: the case for

So if you'd planned to use it as an assassination on Thatcher & her governance c'mon, you may well have shot yourself in the foot there mate :o because all the vitriol in the anti Thatch piece is rubbished by the pro Thatch piece. The expression "Look before you leap" comes to mind. :)

Still good effort though.

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And if you read both articles then at least it gives you a chance to formulate a balanced argument....either for or against.

All the arguments/discussions in the world on this subject do not amount to a hill of beans. There is nothing we can do about what happened in the past.......other than learn from it.... and if you look into history you will note that the human race does not learn from the experiences of its ancestors.....like your children do not learn from your experiences........we only learn from our own.

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Spot on that Dave, you may well see CS limping to Ibrox this weekend with a very heavily bandaged foot:D

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:D Nice peice of Irony. Her 85 birthday was knocked off the news by miners being saved. :D:D:D:D:D:D

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I'm sure she wouldn't have minded that one bit......after all birthdays are just another day when you reach that age.....I reckon she would just be glad to be above the sod.

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You tend to look at life just a little differently when you pass the big 6 0 me thinks Margaret:rolleyes:

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If she was even aware of it.

Whatever our views of Mrs Thatcher she was a milestone figure in the history of Great Britain and didn't acquire the tag 'The Iron Lady' for nothing.

It seems a shame that her mental faculties are now in such a poor state.

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Those are two of the the only things we can't control Ken, getting old and our health, they both start catching up with you at some time

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John, you are spot on about our perspective on life.
Mine changed when I turned 50........things that once would have loomed large stopped being important. I don't need to impress anyone. I've stopped chasing buses..most of the time they are going where I don't want to be.

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she should have been put in an iron maiden,,,,,enough said

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I gave over chasing buses long before I was 50 Margaret:D

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I would say that Clement Attlee is a good candidate for that honour .

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Two more reasons to hate the Tories!

I heard this massive mis-quote from David Cameron and just realised that all Politicians just can't tell the truth. In this quote Cameron blatantly twisted what Ed Balls had said...

BBC - Newsnight: Michael Crick: Was Cameron playing a little too freely with Balls quote?

Another reason to hate the Tories is Lord Ashcroft...

BBC iPlayer - Panorama: Lord Ashcroft's Millions

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Think there are lots of people who would like to twist Eds Balls :D And lets not forget that good old Tony spent 10 years not twisting facts but telling blatant porkies to the British people

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It wasn't a misquote, it was quite true that is what was said.BUT it was a partial quote, can't blame him for that, he's a politician!
Lets face it, Ed Balls comment was silly, right through life you will win some,loose some and the sooner you accept that the better for you.And when you win one, someone else has lost one!Doesn't stop us trying to win, does it?
He was a looser in the leadership election, he's still operating, isn't he?

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

The quote is totally out of context and not what Ed Balls meant - so David Cameron is guilty of editing the words to change the meaning - taken out of context.

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No it wasn't out of context! Both their comments were about free schools, Ed Balls saying it would create winners and loosers, Cameron saying what was wrong with creating winners.Even Balls didn't dare go so far as we shouldn't have loosers, just that it was 'unfortunate'.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Oh yes it was ;)

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Since when has that been an issue for Politicians ! They're all doing it regardless of party, they'll seize a phrase spouted by one of their opponents, turn it, twist it, or cherry pick the best subject matter that gives them a point scoring opportunity, why does that shock & surprise you Kestrelx ?

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Something awry here with the quoting boxes methinks, can someone help ?

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Dave, never mind Balls and Cameron, now you're misquoting me! Are you a politician also??

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No but he could be a poet and he didn't know it Gordon:D

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Not at all Gord, I took Kestrelx's quote from post 17 & somehow it boxed it & credited it as your entry :confused::confused: I have no idea what's going on there, well confused ! :o

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The Knight in shinning armour will ride to your rescue Dave, were are you Neil:D

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Now would that be before or after he's had his plums squeezed ? cos if it's after he wont be riding any place in a hurry ! :D

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It doesn't suprise me at all, it's just a very obvious example of it at it's worst - they are all devious. Also notice at the first P.M.'s question time he wouldn't answer Ed Milliband's question about the Child Allowance cuts .:jimbo:

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And at the end of all their political posturing and points scoring, we are supposed to believe they have the countries best interests at heart not there own.:mad:

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Did you not know thats why some of them have BS after their names kestrelx:D

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Here! Here! I second that MOTION!!!

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We'll all be begging for Tony Blair's return soon....

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That I very much doubt ! During the time he was in power, he took us into 2 wars on no merit whatsoever (one of them is still dragging on costing many UK families heartbreak & grief, sure they'd want him back) His triumphs ? Except for his own aggrandisement & to chum up to the Americans (At least he was planning ahead ... for himself anyway).

Then when he went skulking off leaving the petulant Gordo, in charge of the "Titanic GB" half a mile off the Iceberg, slick move & you want that back in power ??? I'll give most of the labor ministers credit because unlike TB, they stayed on board & went down with the ship, not the best of moves but credit too them.

As for those that scrambled into the lifeboats my aren't they reliable cosying up with the enemy, managing to hang onto power of sorts, yeah ! real troopers the Blairites loyal to themselves. Perhaps your New Boy can make a decent stab at it, I mean one of his first comments was to turn on Blairs policies, perhaps there's hope for the Lad yet, let's see eh ?

As to the New crowd, 5 Months in ... not exactly sparkling, they're neither fish nor fowl, lots of back peddling going on, but hey when you jump into bed with strangers, expect some tussling & compromise. They keep making noises but as yet no solid actions still it's only 5 Month as stated, I think judgement should at least be reserved until all the cards are on the table & implementation takes place then let's look again say in 12/18 Month. Don't forget this isn't an out & out Tory Government IT IS A CO-ALITION, libdems & Labor help bulk out the ranks!

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Bring him on.:behead::cheers:

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I'd sooner have bleeding piles

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We will soon see how much this Tory-Con Demolition botch up mob care about the future of this country when they destroy our defence forces.. all of a sudden we don't need soldiers, pilots, or the Navy.. we need cyber experts to defend us.. it's a cop out .. and the myth that the Tories have ever made any attempt to make good the defence of this country has been blown to bits!

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Whilst I agree that some thinning out of dead wood is required across the country, my wife and I sat truly shocked through the news reports last night.

The cuts that are being made are far too harsh and far too fast, we're in serious danger of a double-dip recession. The privatisations are starting already and I'm put very much in mind of the Conservative government of the 1980s. Workers are being laid off in great swathes, how is this helping the people of Great Britain?

I'm sure Jaysay and Andrewb will have something to say about the previous Labour administration as a case for the defence.

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Well I would point out that the cuts are 1% more per year than Labour had planned to make had they won the election.

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Maybe so, but slow and steady is better than knee-jerk reactionary tactics that are likely to bring the edifice crashing down. The cuts are generally in the right areas but they're incredibly harsh and are going to damage the whole country because they're not being very well thought through.

I really am not looking forward to today's announcements.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Neither am I. The alternative though is more pain but over a slightly longer time. I'd rather the Government spend money on educating our children than paying billions of pounds in interest to bankers over a longer period. Slower cuts mean more pain over a longer period resulting in growing debt.

The country already has quite enough debt and if business and markets don't think we have a credible plan to deal with it quickly, yes the country would be hugely damaged.

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The point is that the Tories, the ones pulling the strings despite all this facade of a coalition, are punishing the country in a terrible way for what the banks have done to us so they can give the banks even more of our money. The recursive logic could only possibly have come from a party filled with rich men who have no idea what the 'breadline' is.

A nationalised bank would be the answer. How many people would transfer their savings to a 100% secure Bank of England which helps the country at the same time?

Don't come back at me with any of Labour's mistakes, I'm fully aware of what they were, but making even bigger ones is not the answer.

Make cuts by all means but just slow down a bit, Gideon.

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Isn't that what he earned from his auto biography?:confused::confused:

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We really do have to look at the chap Labour have entrusted to put forward their alternative, step forward one Alan Johnson who, by his own admissions said he knew nothing about economics, from all accounts he wasn't to good at putting letters through letter boxes even, so was made a Union Leader;)

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We are currently paying £44 billion each year in interest alone, which is more than we spend on defence, this can't go one. The IMF have gone on record saying the GB have the best plans in place to put Britain back on a sound financial footing, better than any other G20 countries, so sorry if I take what they say to be right as opposed to a chap who is clueless on economics.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Yet other economists are saying it is too much too soon, with Scotland even wondering whether it can afford to be part of the Union anymore.

Cuts need to be made, I'm not disagreeing John, but too quickly and the country will be back on its arse. A sound financial footing for the country is not the same as having the people who live in that country being financially sound.

GB could be completely free of debt and considered to be financially OK but still have half of the poor souls that live here unemployed.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Back on its arse, where the hell have you been for the last two years, we've never been of our arse :(

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Maybe not in rude health but at least fighting to keep unemployment under control. The Armed Forces' death of 47,000 cuts yesterday was only the start, I fear.

My main concern in a political role has to be Hyndburn and the potential impacts of today worry me. Frontline services in the borough are already taking a beating yet the power-that-be are preserving the administration team at all costs and throwing money away on fruitless ventures such as promoting Wednesdays in the Market Hall.

We need a country that is working hard in actual jobs, not creating more non-jobs and middle men that don't really contribute anything.

Police, armed forces, the BBC, binmen - all suffering real cuts.

The flabby old bureaucratic machine that is the civil service will be able to state on paper that 25% reductions have been made with barely any effort. The sole purpose of it is to make the figures add up, all you do is stop classifying certain roles as civil servants and there you have it.

We're going to have to agree to differ on this because I cannot see much that is good in the Tory spending model, either nationally or locally.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Spending cuts seem to be part and parcel of our economic system .

In the late 1970s we had massive spending cuts , demanded by the IMF , under the Callaghan Labour government .

In the 1980s we had massive spending cuts under the Thatcher Conservative government .

Now we are going to have massive spending cuts under the Cameron/Clegg Con/Lib-Dem government .

History repeats itself , and will continue to do so because the Lab/Con/Lib-Dem establishment is wedded to the same economic system .

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

So why the hell did Blair and Brown create 800,000 civil servants, take a look at the Guardian Jobs page which is crammed with as you put it None-Jobs, We are now overrun by out-reach workers coordinators and other weird and wonder jobs thought up by Labour, probable using the ethos if they work for us they vote for us:mad:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Boom and bust.

Although we can't blame the last government for the subprime mortgage fiasco, and the resulting worldwide financial crash, although anyone with any sense could see that that lending stategy would end in tears, we can apportion blame on a government who, because they knew they'd lost the election, set out on a schorched earth spending policy. As was sadly examplified by Labour's out going Chief Secretary of the Treasury Liam Byrne's note, stating 'There's no money left'.

New Labour did make some historical change for the better, but when it came to economics they verged on the imbecilic.

If a household was run like the country's economy was managed by Labour, we'd now be pushing our worldly goods through the streets in an old pram.

Sadly the cuts are a bitter pill we'd better get used to swallowing.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

I can't defend that because you're right and current governments should learn from the past in order to avoid the same mistakes but pointing the finger and saying 'Labour has forced this on us' won't make Osborne's pill any less bitter. Make decisions that are good for today instead of saying that the old landlord has made this necessary. All governments are guilty of saying the same thing but it is very lazy politics when that's the best answer you can come up with. Peter Britcliffe is guilty of the same rhetoric but it reduces credibility when the same party is in control at local, county and national levels.

That's getting off the point. To my mind, George Osborne is simply going about things in too harsh a way and in the wrong directions.

We'll see what today brings.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

That's my fear for Hyndburn and no one is listening.

At the moment we have sufficient money which could be better spent.

Peter Britcliffe knows full well there is a reasonable possibility that he is in his final term as Leader of the Council and is writing cheques left, right and centre. I wouldn't be surprised if Baxenden gets a few well-publicised windfalls in The Observer in the new two or three weeks, just prior to the bye-election on 18th November...

Hyndburn is OK for now, but we won't be if this continues up until next May.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Any direction must be better than we were left with, and you have to remember the outgoing Labour government, when it knew it was on its death bed started throw cash about like there was no tomorrow knowing full well what would happen, I wouldn't care but now they have put an utter concom it charge of their fiscal policies,:eek: you couldnt make it up if you tried,

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

There is a very worrying comparisson.

Happily we have the magical Singing, Ringing Tree, standing a' top of the Coppice.

Which happily has money growing off it's branches.

Thus no tax payers' money is being wasted on stupid, and daft schemes here in Hyndburn.

:rolleyes:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

There is an upside to the draconian Tory cuts.

It makes me feel like a teenager again.

:D

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

We're just investigating the costs of Martin-Platt-off-of-Coronation-Street and Kenny Baker for the Market Hall. From the looks of things several of the traders have closed today in an act of solidarity because it's dead.

After finding out what their takings were last Wednesday I'm not surprised, it is financial suicide to stay open.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Is the upstairs caf closed, in solidarity?

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Apparently not. The dust motes have to be given chance to settle somewhere.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

I'm sorry to make the comparison with what's happening in Hyndburn, but....

Would you care to put up a case for the defence, preferably without referring to a Labour administration cocking things up? We had one year of 'power' in 2004 and balanced the books and yet now we're in debt again.

13 years of Labour rule, let's get that out of the way for starters. Now, what else?

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

I'd heard this rumour, (while I was talking to myself in the bathroom), that the entrance to the café is under seige from protesting accywebbers demanding an apology for unfair use of the site.
:eek:

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Then they all want to get themselves a quick frothy coffee from Daddy's Little Soldier and calm down.

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Personally, since the country is facing such devastating cuts, it suprises me that overseas aid is being ring-fenced, and the money we send abroad is to remain the same.

When the bank account is empty, expensive foreign holidays are usually the first to go.

We may be bankrupt, but we can still pretend we are Lady Bountiful, I suppose.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Chipping in a few quid following a natural disaster is one thing but ringfencing it and then giving millions to places such as India with their own space program is not my idea of charity.

Great Britain is broke, unemployment rising, frontline services facing severe cuts but can you imagine the unimaginable damage it would cause if someone said the government was racist?

That bloody word is the most powerful weapon on Earth and Great Britain seems defenceless against it.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Aid to China and India will stop. I can't beleive it has been going on anyway considering the number of jobs they have probably taken from here !!

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Never mind, in a few years at this rate we will be a third world country and then we can go begging from them.
They need to stop worrying about what other countries thing of us and start thinking of our own poor and needy.:mad:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

That I very much doubt ! During the time he was in power, he took us into 2 wars on no merit whatsoever

IF US HAD NOT INVADED civil war would still have happened. Saddam was not going to live forever and sectarian division was only getting more intense while he was in power. Other countries even less concerned with the quality of life of ordinary Iraqis were already trying to invade Iraq. Saudi Arabia Iran and Turkey, have all made attempts and there would have been nothing to stop them if coalition forces hadn’t been present. If the US had not been there far more people would have died.


WMD was only one of the points made by Bush and Blair, Blair was making the case for going into Iraq on humanitarian grounds in 1997 (when Bush was a nobody), the US senate passed the Iraq liberation act unanimously in 1998 on humanitarian grounds.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Sorry.

My mistake.

Foreign aid wasn't ring-fenced, and is being changed.

The budget is being increased by 37%.

Three cheers for good ol' Blighty.

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First of all for heavens sack get the year right, then we can talk, if you can be bother to post a correct date doubt anything else is even close, which I know it isn't

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

r.i.p. britain another600,000 on the dole plus the knock on effects 20% vat in january, rising train fares,over seas aid raised? just dont get it,lets let prisoners out early so much for party of law order ohh and less police on the streets and more criminals on the street:confused: making soldiers who gave there all in war redundant.same old tories doing the opposite of what they say they stand for.

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That is just not right.

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and how are they going to save £9 billion pounds off the welfare budget be very afraid.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Give it a rest CS your getting boring, why done you go in the chat room and have a chin wag with Mancie, your the only ones who thick there's nothing wrong, when e are paying £43 billion n interest on debts left by Labour, harsh measures have to be take, like they always have when Labour leave power

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

The first thing they appear to want to do is make sure those claiming incapacity type benefits are genuine.

Do you think that is wrong of the Government?

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

By getting rid of the scroungers, and getting rid of the benefits culture which now engulfs the country, your right be very afraid if your a dolloper, as you could be asked to work for a living

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Closer to home, it means Hyndburn Council reducing its budget by 7.1% per annum over 4 years. :eek:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

cant believe people on here are taking delight on people losing their jobs .they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes how much money do you think they are going to try and pay private contractors what they say will be getting payed by performance rated pay,most companies will be bankrupt or will the tax payer have to bail them out which will cost the taxpayer more money??and by the way ive worked since i was 16 even had 2 jobs for a while to pay my mortgage and dolloper their are no jobs
for the young these days where are they supposed to work when we will have to work to our grave.you just believe the murdoch and bbc propaganda who are in cahoots with the tories i thought you were better than that peoples livelyhoods are at stake and you are trying to justify the tories mking 600,000 people unemployed only a fool cant see it 500,000+ on the dole with less people handlng their claims i see total chaos ahead

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

It's retro.

Eighties style.

Agadoo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the money tree.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Can't agree with that at all !

1) Civil war wouldn't of happened as Saddam, his extended family & those loyal to him brutally & violently battered down any resistance or opposition to his rule. The link gives you an idea of what these people were like & Uday was the more likely successor had Saddam been taken out.

2) These other Countries ? When was this ? Iran fought with Iraq in the 80's & both parties came out of it badly mauled. Saudi couldn't care less( they just wanted to see him get slapped but didn't want to be seen as doing it themselves as Iraq was also part of the Arab nations=Brothers) The Saudis supported the co-coalition with food fuel & staging areas & the Turks are part of the NATO alliance. The only reason the Turks went in to Northern Iraq was to chase down militant Kurds !

3) So that negates your third point.

Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti

You are unfortunately seeing things from an armchair & trust in the bumpf fed to you by papers & News bulletins, which do tend to be biased one way or another, don't be so ready to believe everything you hear or read.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

al queada would have started a civil war to get to the oil pipes.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

...and Al Jarreau would have sung the theme tune.

Retro.

Told you, it's all the fashion.

:D

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

shadduppa ya face:D

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Absolute rubbish , the Baath party under Saddam Hussien was secular , much like Nassar in Eygpt, Assad in Syria and Ataturk 40 years earlier, all who did their best to rid their countries of the Mullahs influence , and bring their countries into the 20th century.
Al Queda/Taliban was a creation of the US (Ronald Reagan) and Saudi Arabia to fight the Russians in Afghanistan to stop them moving further south thru Balucistan and gain a warm water port near the entrance to the Gulf. A bad geo-political move which turned out to bite the hand that fed it , do you honestly belive 9/11 would have ever happened if the Russians had been allowed to stay in Afghanistan .
Point number 2 , who do you think backed Saddam Hussien during the Iran Iraq war , we did the west ... why ? because he was fighting against the Islamic fundamentalists (Mullahs) who run Teheran . ;) :rolleyes:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

That my friend is pap ! I don't think you realise just who & what Al Quaida are, for a clearer view read SJ's post or see below,

Al-Qaeda — Infoplease.com
Al-Qaida

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Incidentally the 2 major conflicts of the late 20th Century, which were successful executed by the British Military were the Falklands & the Gulf in 1991, both were authorised & presided over by a Tory Government. Furthermore the Gulf War of 1991 had full UN backing, unlike the later debacle of 2003, do we need reminding of who's hand had control of UK's forces at this time ?

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Following my terrible faux-pas, I'll concede immediate defeat over my accusations that the Hyndburn Tories are about to leave us with a debt-ridden council, the full scale of which is not yet known.

Obviously I'm just harbouring under a biased Labour viewpoint and the fact that whoever is in control next year will find themselves financially screwed is just political spin.

I'll get my coat but do me a favour and spare a thought for my ill-chosen words next May when the truth comes out.

Still, we can always blame 13 years of Labour government, that'll help.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

I was wrong. Labour planned to cut deeper than the Conservatives did yesterday.

cmonstanley it's all very well criticising every aspect of the spending reductions, but what would you do instead? The coalition are in office and have to deal with the enormous deficit they've inherited or the whole country will go to the wall.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Few would disagree that spending reviews are required but the speed and severity of the Conservative cuts is the main bone of contention.

Labour recognised the problems and had planned a slow steady program over a few years but this £83bn package is going to do a lot more harm simply by the way in which it is being implemented.

Certain aspects don't seem to have been properly thought through, either. Closing the Woodford plant 18 months early won't save that much and is making life for those workers far harder.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Ken, Labour planned to cut deeper and just as fast. They've changed their mind now they've become the opposition. It's easier for them to criticise the coalition that way.

If you don't cut fast you are choosing to give money to bankers in interest payments rather than spending the money educating our children or putting police on the streets.

What you're saying is a lot more pain but over a longer time. We're already paying £120 million a day in interest payments. The scale of the debt is colossal and it's only going to get worse if we don't start reducing our deficit quickly.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

So perhaps you could explain, Andrew, why the government are increasing the overseas aid budget by 37%? We all have to tighten our belts, while we give money to India - a country rich enough to fund its own space programme? Yeah, that makes sense. :rolleyes:

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

I'm not disagreeing with cuts and neither are Labour but I think you better go and double check the timescales that have been put forward because Gordon Brown was saying that Conservative proposals were too quick even before the elections.

Yes, we need to bring the deficit down and quickly but not too quickly. It's like paying off a loan in one month but leaving nothing in the kitty to keep you going, you simply replace one problem with another.

There's no pleasant way out of this but an even keel is better than choppy waters.

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That's another problem were going to inherit. Somehow I think I've seen this film before.Local Government has come out if this spending review very badly. Soft target for the Government.

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And you will be 100% right for a change;)

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'Looking at the figures I discover that, over the last five years for which data are available, Britain has given £8.7 million in development aid to Singapore, whose gross domestic product per capita is the fourth highest in the world, and 46 per cent higher than our own.'

'Over the same period, other recipients of British development aid have included Slovenia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Hungary, all highly developed First World countries, fellow members of the EU, and two of whom are even in the euro. In the last year for which figures are available, Britain also gave £380,000 in aid to the enormously wealthy oil sheikhdom of Saudi Arabia.'
Did Britain really need to give millions to the wealthy state of Singapore? - Telegraph

So as well as giving overseas aid to shockingly wealthy countries, and plan to give 37% more, whilst we suffer drastic cuts to services in the UK, we also send funds to countries with appalling records when it comes to human rights abuses, such as the enormously rich Saudi Arabia?

The whole thing would be comically farcical, if it wasn't so sick.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

For me Wyn that's the only thing that has been left alone that should definitely be cut, I know the reason, even in these times virtually nobody is cutting foreign aid, but like you I feel that aid begins at home especially with the mess this country has been left in

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

And my problem is if you do take control your one of the people who'll be running Hyndburn, maybe you should go incognito and change your name by deed pole to Robert Owen;)

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Britain also gave £380,000 to the enormously wealthy oil sheikdom of Saudi Arabia.

(For anyone who can't believe their eyes, and who might require a larger text.)

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Mind you, fair's fair.

A lot of the mad Mullahs, who preach hatred in British mosques, receive funding from the Saudis, so perhaps it's only right we give something back.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

George Osborne hinted yesterday that the 37% increase was a mandatory requirement from Europe.

It's time to reappraise this European Ideal and start looking after our own. Not exactly the official party line but it really is time for a bit of common sense here when sending money to rich countries is immune from cuts and frontline home services who look after us are being trimmed back.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

Forget reppraisal.

It's time for a referendum.

The last, in 1975, asked if we wanted continued membership of an economic union. Not if we wanted to be part of a United States of Europe, and ruled by laws passed in Brussels.

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

It appears your wishes could become reality both Merkel and Sarkozy want to rewrite the constitution, probably because something doesn't suit there own needs

Re: reasons to hate the tories
 

At the same time that we were receiving the bad news about the cuts, the EU was voting through a 6% increase in its own budget.

British payments to EU set to rise £900m next year - Telegraph

Reasons to hate the Tories?...reasons to hate the Tories, Labour and the LibDems. :mad: