Election:Blair Names The Day
 

The Prime Minister has named the date of the General Election, after the Queen agreed to approve the dissolution of Parliament.
It will be held on Thursday, May 5, as expected.
Tony Blair told reporters in Downing Street his "mission for the third term" was to entrench economic stability and public service investment, adding: "It's a big choice and there's a lot at stake".

May 5 is the day already set for elections for 34 county councils across England, three unitary authorities, Northern Ireland council elections and contests for mayor in four English towns.

The move follows a frantic few days since the death of Pope John Paul II on Saturday, which caused Mr Blair to postpone a Downing Street announcement anticipated yesterday.

The leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrats kicked off their campaigns ahead of the announcement.

Michael Howard said people could either reward Mr Blair for eight years of broken promises, or vote for his party "which is taking a stand and has promised action on the issues that matter".

Speaking in Newcastle, Charles Kennedy promised a campaign which would be "positive and ambitious". He said: "I'm not going to spend these precious few weeks doing this country down."

A clutch of opinion polls are likely to give Mr Blair food for thought as he contemplates the looming battle.

Three polls suggest Labour's lead over the Conservatives has fallen to three percentage points or less, while another shows the Tories with a five-point lead.

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What will be the result folks,or is that a silly question?
And what changes would you like to see?

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

bin labour all my life,will probably die labour,but to me blair knows as much about socialism as i know about the internet=sod all.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

oohh goodie i think i will vote conservitave for the first time in my life

labour should rename their party as they are no way labour in any way any more

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Thats a good copy and paste job there, Jason.

Will you be standing for Pendle by any chance? If not Pendle, then there is a Labour candidate vacancy in Ribble Valley. You never know, you could win and get sent to the Palace of Westminster. You could then invite me over and buy me a pint of lager in the Strangers Bar.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

good come back anyone who still thinks the labour party have any amount of credibility must be wrong in the head

conservitaves arnt much better but at least they now know the british public will vote them out like last time if they start messing up real bad

i wonder if people will still remember labours 200 or so tax increases after prommising none at the electrol polls or simply fall for another load of false prommises in the run up to election day

i suppose we could start our own political party and call ourselves the COMMON SENSE party where all decisions will be made upon common sense and not what brussles says we got to do

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

i was taught when i was young conservative means= conserve for oneself.if that is correct what does that make conservatives?

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

The MORI poll from what I understand is the most accurate, and that is the one with the Conservatives in front.

Wouldn't it be interesting if we had a hung parliament!!!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

[QUOTE=chav1]good come back anyone who still thinks the labour party have any amount of credibility must be wrong in the head

I’m not to sure Chav; my post was intended to inject a shot of humour in response to g78 post and I sincerely hope that no one is offended by it, but this may become a heated thread. Politics is a very personal thing to some people and it’s not uncommon for friends and family’s to fall out over individual views, of the three contenders I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I don’t like Blaire or Howard and I’m not to sure if any of them can deliver. I will be looking towards the local parties to see what’s being achieved on the ground and then I will see how things go. But I will Vote. That way I will have earned the right to open my gob……:)

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Yes it would vorlon, I'd love to see all the little bu**ers hung by the ba**s.........:)

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

i'd love a hung parliment vorlon- from the scaffold.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Yeah......hang them all.
Not one of them could run a country,we'll still be millions in debt!!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

i believe every body should vote ,,,,,then if the party of your choice does not win and the other lot cock it up then you can give them a bad time ,,,,if you dont vote ,,then keep your mouth shut ,,

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

have always voted,and believe credit were its due, pain were it isn't,when was the last time there was any credit due,to any of em, please tell me.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

blimey hark at me bossy boots number1

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

even if we vote how do we know its not going to get altered is the question i would like answering by the people in charge of collecting votes

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Another worry coming from The police............

Groups linked to al Qaeda may try to take advantage of the run-up to a May 5 general election to stage an attack, terrorism experts say.

There is a genuine risk of an atrocity similar to the Madrid train bombings which had a direct result on the Spanish election last year, many believe.

"We must be aware that al Qaeda will see the opportunity this year for a worldwide statement," said the country's most senior policeman Sir Ian Blair. "There is a threat, a very serious potential threat."

The morning rush-hour bombings on commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people in the most devastating attack in modern Spanish history, just three days before a general election.

The attackers claimed to represent al Qaeda in Europe.

READ MORE.................. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050405/325/ffp3l.html

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

food for thought.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Postal voting is beginning to look more attractive then...

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

So she was either standing behind a brick wall or a supermodel then?!

I am sure she has been mistaken for a postbox on occasion, too!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

There is already just such a party. It's called UKIP. But I suppose you lot will ignore it and just carry on voting for the same old parties. When we eventually become a region of the United States of Europe and you don't even have a country left to vote in, then I'll take a grim satisfaction in saying "I told you so!"

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

i liked robert kilroy silk,s attitude,about free speech ,,,but them days seem to have gone now,,,you are not allowed to think for yourself ......

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Labour equals higher taxes. Not an opinion, a historical fact. Simple. SO - if you work for a living and pay taxes, it's your choice. Taxes will go up still higher if Labour get back in, because Blair inherited a very sound economy from the Conservatives, which is now beginning to limp due to their ham-fisted policies.

Also despite having promised that he would never do so, Blair has handed control over OUR immigration policy to Brussels. So the Germans and the French can decide how many more immigrants WE take. Anyone coming to this country has the right to vote, so long as they are on the electoral roll - asylum seekers etc. They have an interest in voting Labour, because it is Labour policy to follow the Human Rights Act slavishly - therefore, even if they have no right to be here, you can't kick them out because that infringes their human rights. ... work that one out.

And that is not a racist comment - this is a small country, France is roughly 5 times the size with about the same population. Wholesale immigration prejudices those decent people from the immigrant population who have lived and worked in this country for many years.

As for Europe - vote Blair back in and you can kiss goodbye to your pound - it will be Euros sure as sure.

No prizes for guessing which side of the fence I stand!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Many very valid points their Pendy..............although I'm not convinced much by the others either. It's time someone made a positive stand for Britain or England if people prefer. We do to much bowing and scraping to Europe and the US. We may have to accept that we are no longer a world power, but that doesn’t mean we have to be subservient. Where is our pride………

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

UKIP may not have the answers, but a sizeable protest vote for them would "bounce" the other parties into being more euro-sceptic. Labour and Liberals are wholeheartedly pro-EU. The Tories play the most dangerous game of all, pretending that there is a way to stay in the EU, yet maintain our independence - a total fallacy.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I accept you point unequivocally………………..but how long before someone will realise just how close this thing with Europe really is. UKIP have had ample opportunity to define their role within british politics and then blown themselves out by with interpersonally contest within there own ranks.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I will be voting Labour,I'm more old than new it's got to be said,but you vote for the party that will do most of the things you want,no party will do everything you'd like,My top concerns are health jobs crime education and the econome,now the only thing I'll add is that please will all of you that are thinking of not voting please do,it does'nt matter to me what party you vote for but please do. We can vote others never get the chance to!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

well said wayney ,,,,every body should use their vote

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I agree with the sentiment of using your vote, but I do not trust ANY of the politicians.......Do they really listen to what the general public want?????? In the last election 58% of the population who were entitled to vote did so. So this government is not the majorities choice....it is only the choice of the majority who voted.
I cannot align myself to the policies of any one party........that is my quandary.
I will listen to what each of the politicians has to say and probably vote with a pin on the day.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

[QUOTE=Margaret Pilkington]Do they really listen to what the general public want??????/QUOTE]

They will now Mrs Pilkington, every word you utter. Then when the b*****ds are in they'll p*** off and forget every word you said. What we need is a Great British revolution. Let the buggers know you mean business and vote for a change.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I had a note from the Labour Candidate put through my door on Saturday.......It said something along the lines that the Labour Party canvassers had called and there was some blurb on there about choosing........it should have read 'choose'.......but was spelt 'chose'.......tell me, how much did they pay for their literature ? Did anyone proof read it ? Should I trust my vote to people who can't even get their own publicity stuff right ?

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

And as for postal voting......well, that is a joke and a half!

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Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

The thing is Doug.......I don't remember moving to a banana republic!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I have narrowed it down to two possibles; MONSTER RAVING LOONY or BNP

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I have always voted Labour, but the coming General Election, and main stream politics in general is just one big yawn at the moment.



I will go to the polling station though just to spoil my paper, to show l've thought about my action.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

On most occasions, I have voted Labour but unless Blair steps down before the election and Gordon Brown takes his place, (VERY unlikely) I will vote Conservative this year.

I feel that Blair has become complacent about the needs of the country and is acting like a mini dictator. I worry too about the influence his wife puts on him as I consider her the biggest PC nerd yet!:(

The Tories on the other hand want to cut the PC crap, stomp on the travellers, stop illegal immigration and severly restrict legal immigration. ALL the things we have beeen moaning about on the Accy web!

Of course, most will be forgotten when they get into power but if that happens, Labour will be returned at the next election WITHOUT BLAIR!!!:D

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

BNP FOR ME!
I'm not racist before anyone calls me......its just the others are all as bad as one another and couldn't run a pi** up in a brewery.
The economy is down the drain and wont get better when we join all the other idiots in using the euro!
The problem with this country is that our leaders follow everyone else (usa,brussels) that we cant stand on our own 2 feet!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

B.N.P. is fine in theory but like it or not, many ENGLISH people originate from the Asian continent and under the B.N.P. would be treated like second class citizens.

EVERY person that is legally entitled to live in this country should be treated equally without this P.C. nonsense and without bias!

Labour go in the other direction in that "minorities" get preferential treatment but there must be neutral ground somewhere?:confused:

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Minority groups get a lot more than the whites because labour let them and,they always play the race card.
Again not being racist (because i aint) but shouldn't british citizens come before immigrants and scroungers?
Tony blair has open the floodgates for more and more immigrants to bleed this country what little money it has left!.........and who pays for it?.............we taxpayers do!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Totally agree slapperdapper, but the mistake is to blame minority groups for getting more than the rest of us! If WE (i.e. caucasian) emigrated to another country and that government gave us preferential treatment, we would milk it to the hilt! so you can't blame the Asians for doing the same thing!

This is why I am anti Blair.....but with the right leader, Labour can come good again but for Gods sake, don't vote for the National Party as a "knee-jerk" reaction!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

In reply to Doug, who urged me to vote for anybody rather than spoiling my paper.

Rather than not vote through apathy, my action shows l do care about my right to vote. Rather than vote for somebody that l don't agree with, ie: a 'looney' party or one issue candidate, as a spoilt paper my action will still be recorded without aligning myself to any one party just for the sake of voting. As for prolonging the count by spoiling my paper tough, that's democracy.

I come from a long line of Labour party members, and this is the first time in my life l won't be voting, partly as l sadly see very little difference between the two main parties. :(

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

You have hit the nail on the head slapperdapper, i agree with you, that's why i will not be voting labour this time, i do not think i'll be voting at all.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Have you forgot what the tories did to the working class of our country,they are a very hard party,so think back and dont for god sake let Thatchers (Howard) party back in,if you think its bad now think back.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Yeah, So who now remembers the Winter of Discontent? Rubbish piled high in the streets, the dead unable to be buried, inflation at 18%, Economic growth at 0%, half the workforce on strike at any one time...complete and utter chaos throughout the country. It was'nt for nothing that the UK was known as the Sick Man of Europe.
One person had the guts to kick arse and rectify the situation,and that was Maggie..Because of her, our lives are an awful lot better for it. Labour's economic record over the last 8 years rests purely upon the underlying strength of the economy as bequethed by the conservative government, but look closely and you will that it is gradually withering away under the misguided auspices of that skirt-wearing economic illiterate, Gordon Brown. God help us all if this fool is the Chancellor in 6 months time...the bills are going to be rolling in and we're going to have to pay 'em.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

That was in the days of the unions try to better there wage packets,the unions no longer have that power since Maggie had the miners beaten in to submission,things are not all that bad today,think back the bitch had everybody scared,and so will the next tory rabble.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

She also got the Channel Tunnel built, that was just what the country needed a way in for hundreds of interlopers, she attracted big bussiness so goodbye corner shops, she sent us on a 6000 mile route march for a poxy island in the middle of nowhere, no talk in the Sun about we shouldn't have been there or how many died or was it worth it. Yeh bring back Maggie!!!!!!!!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

couldn't agree more chav well sed!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Anyone who doesn't vote though can't really complaign about things once the whole thing is done with.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

the politicians are only lining their own pockets and once they are in they are set up for life.
thats all they really care about.
if this is not the case then they must all just be stupid

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

It is only a job though!

They just chose a weird one!

I saw a client today, and we were discussing the Pope (he is Polish - the client, that is!), and he was saying that a lot of priests care more about the money they earn from their job than they do about their congregation.

I expect that there are people in Government who feel exactly the same way. They see it as a job, and don't necessarily care about their constituents. Or should I say, they care more about how much they are going to earn than their constituents, and getting voted in is their motivation to keep going.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

If Tony Blair gets in again it is my bet that he will only stick around to wait for some lucrative EU job.......and then he'll Bu**** off.
I am going to choose my party with a pin!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Is that a belaying pin - round someone's head?!?!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

No it's a sewing pin.........to choose the candidate who gets my vote......though a belaying pin would be much better.

I don't trust any of the politicians.

They are all a shower of S****!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Your very aggressive tonight Margaret?

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

It's the red meat.......oh, and watching question time last night that does it.

But no Doug.........I truly do despair about the way this country is going.

Is there no way we can turn the clock back a bit?

Everyone was so hopeful when Labour were first elected.........and they have not lived up to expectations.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I for one am not surprised at all.

Get them out would be a very good idea.

At least then we would be spared any further pictures of Mrs Postbox Face

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

I think she must sleep with a coat hanger in her mouth......in fact if she had any more mouth she would have no face to wash........she has a mouth like a roven pocket.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Do you find posting letters erotic Doug?

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Oh god your some funny when you get started Mrs Pilkington. :D

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Erotic, where that bloody dictionary. lol.



Big gob? :eek: Maybe that’s why she’s been so successful….She’d be good at parties blowing balloons up wouldn’t she.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Dunno, but expect her husband has had some first hand (or mouth) experience!!!

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Utter rubbish. Either you have been blinded by politicians or you are making wild assumptions, possibbly both.

The social contract broke down around 76 and the strikes, which didn't last long, were because Callaghan had already implemented some tough economic reforms that catapulted the unions onto the streets unhappy at the tough sanctions. Shoooting oil prices in 79 following the Iranain conflict put the breaks on economic recovery. Callaghan was as moderate as many New Labour.

The economy went down the tube after OPEC hiked prices by 4 times some 6 years earlier. Under Heath [A Conservative] we had the three day week and blackouts, candles et al [fond memories!!].

Inflation shot up to 16% and then 24% in 74 and 75 and was brought down to 8% in 78, before it went to 18% [with oil price hikes in 79] and then 12% in 79 and 80 and dipped thereafter as the money supply was squeezed.

However we all know Thatcherism didnt work as squeezing the money supply is a politicians cheap trick and by 89 it was back up at 10% pa. At the 83 general election it was 9% and only the Falklands War saved a distastrous economic performance.

BRIEFLY:
• The ‘oil price shocks’ of 1973-4 (triggered by the Arab-Israeli War) and 1979-80
(triggered by the Iranian revolution) helped create inflation and recession
simultaneously.
• ‘Tightening’ labour market conditions, workers’ increasing aspirations, and a chaotic
Trade Union structure contributed to industrial unrest and inflationary pressures.

IMF loan (Autumn 1976) committed the Labour government to deflationary macroeconomic policies. By 1979, some success had been achieved in reducing inflation, and re-kindling economic growth.

But unemployment remained high with the global problems. A further wave of industrial unrest in the ‘Winter of Discontent’ (1978-9) paved the way for Tory success under Margaret Thatcher in the May 1979 General Election.

Up to 1976, fiscal policy was used actively (growth and employment). Monetary policy had been used passively (keep interest rates steady to create a stable climate for investment). After 1976 [under Callaghan/Labour], monetary policy [disatrous doctrine of the IMF still to this day in the 3rd world] became the main macro policy instrument, in pursuit of inflationary control. [what it needed was a balance of both - as is always the case - and Callaghan should have been allowed to continue instead of the 1million to 3million unemployed knee jerk reaction]

Fiscal policy played a subservient role until 85 when the Tories reversed their own position because it wasn't working, Britain wasn't growing despite lowish inflation. It did produce a stable climate but didnt produce investment and growth because there wasnt enough money [and therefore investment incentive] for the economy to grow.

Even the humblest person thinks of the 80's as zero investment, little expansion, unemployment figures fiddled and general depression with no growth. After the snap reverse we created the opposite, too much money and to little capital to invest in [proper factories and proper growth investments] and the stock markets plunged as panic crept in and the economy has moved beyonds it means [it was overpriced and everyone was selling].

And when it come to waste. Howabout £3bn of taxpayers money wasted proping the £ up on black wednesday when interest rates hit 15%.

You claim a legacy lasts 8 years, ie from Major/Tories in 97 through to today. However in 1967 the £ was devalued not long after a Wilson Labour govt. So I suppose you would argue there are two types of economic legacies depending on your voting preferences.

In the last few years we have heard the Tories claim the economy would go down under Labour. Even The City has underestimated economic performance under Labour with growth rates at 3%, something no Tory gov't could even dream about.

Its like the minimum wage. The economy to plunge. Some plunge! Its just the kind of politics we need to get rid of, bu*****t politics, pardon my French.

In the last century teh Tories had something like 87 of the 100 years to put Britain right. Fairs fair, they had enough chances, I would suggest dont give them anymore.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Whats all this, Graham? Practice for your economic history GCSE next month? OK, not a bad effort....I'[ll give you a C grade and a little bit of advice. When it comes to the real thing, read the question carefully before you answer. Or, as in this case, read the posting carefully. My comment was about the Winter of Discontent, a series of strikes in 1978/79 involving a substancial proportion of the public sector workforce.

I think you would only have been a youngster at the time, but I remember it very vividly, and, yes, as you say in your opening remark, it was utter rubbish - A pile of it 30ft high in London's Leicester Square to be precise, infested with rats. What a splendid thing to show the tourists!

Whatever much you may wish to speculate about the relative merits of fiscal as against monetary policy (and I am prepared to debate those with you any time) the fact remains that it has been the Tory supply-side changes - albeit often seemingly socially brutal - that has given the UK a competitive edge over it's European Competitors, albeit now slowly being eroded as Blair & Brown surrender to one more set of mad-cap EU laws and regulations after another. The issue of competition with the far East is another matter.

That there were stupid mistakes made under the Tories there is no doubt - the worse one being the formal decision to enter the ERM at an exchange rate only defendable by high interest rates. The initial cost of withdrawing on Black Wednesday has been far superceded by the long term benefit of letting the market determin the external value of the pound, and to Labour's credit, giving the Bank of England independant control of monetary policy. By the last years of the Major goverment and the first years of labour, the UK was attracting almost as much inward investment as the rest of the then-EU combined. Alas, this is no longer the case.

By the way, do you know what I was doing on May 3rd, 1979? I shall tell you. I was 22 years old, having been a card-carrying member of the labour Party since I was 17, and I was back in Hyndburn working hard to get the sitting Labour MP re-elected. Like many others, he was'nt. Sometimes, it's better to fail.

Re: Election:Blair Names The Day
 

Fair comments and I respect your opinion when put it like this. This boils down to your economiuc viewpoint and the cost/value of that economic change. Fiscalism, monatrism or a bit of both.

I read your points and wanted to comment on how things ended up there IMO. The Winter of Discontent didn't just happen because Callaghan lost control [or never had it], there was a build up of factors.