We're all in it together!.....by D. Cameron and Co

[Trev Clark]

Has anyone else been annoyed (like me) by the Tories speech and slogan We're all in it together! for their proposed 'Austerity Years Ahead' this week.

Fair enough, people like us (not them, hence not 'we') will have to work longer and harder for less money. Several thousand people will now die long before they get their hard earned (and paid for) pensions, by being forced to work an extra year. Yet the creeps who caused it all were given multi million pound pensions 15 years early!!!

Whilst them (the MPs, not us, hence not we) will continue to claim expenses, vote for large pay rises for themselves and take high paid 'consultancies' in addition to being MPs. They (and I include 95% of ALL MPs here, whatever party) will never be together with us (to make a real 'we') because they are slippery as eels!

I think that the next election should feature a NONE OF THE ABOVE box to put a tick in. Until these abstensions are included, what choice have you? Two parties who would have BOTH allowed the bankers to ruin the country, the Tories would have nothing different to stop things in time.

NB, although not UK residents at present, unless the world economy (and interest rates) improve, we will be forced to move somewhere else....goodness knows where!

[AllanL]

We're certainly all in it, and thanks to us the self-promoting prats who got us in it have been got out by the rest of us - who are going to have to pay for it.

One thing is for certain - it is going to be painful to clear the debt that the Government so blithely took on. The proposals made yesterday will only account for 20% of the debt we need to shift annually and the current incumbents don't even have the guts to admit it or suggest how they plan on dealing with it.

Mind you their incompetence in addressing the future power distribution and generation needs of the country are heading us towards winters of power shortages in the next 6 years, so you won't be able to log on to the net to complain about them.

[Buggyman]

What really annoys me is the fact that those MPs who were caught with their fingers in the till have been allowed to remain in office until the next general election before standing down and thereby qualifying for the normal 'resettlement grant' of £46k and upwards, depending on their time served. Who said crime doesn't pay? These people should have lost their jobs immediately for taking the country for a ride and, in a halfway decent society, they should have been facing criminal charges.

Come the election who do we vote for? They all seem to be onto some scam or other whether as 'consultants' or 'advisors'. What other occupation gives the employee the chance to work when he pleases and take on as many other jobs as he can all at the same time? There are probably more honest men and women in Dartmoor and Holloway than in our parliament at the moment - ye gods what a mess.

Sorry for the rant - must get off this soap box, the altitude is giving me a nose bleed!



Alland

[Quixoticish]

I think that the next election should feature a NONE OF THE ABOVE box to put a tick in. Until these abstensions are included, what choice have you? [/i]

Yes yes yes.

Since I've actually had the right to vote I've spent many long hours pondering over the decision. After all, ones' vote is built up to such an extent by many that it comes to symbolise the freedom we are supposed to cherish in our so called democracy. I've come across everything from confusion to ridicule to downright anger when I try to explain why I refuse to vote (in traditional terms), usually by people who only vote the same party as they have always voted based on some flimsy class principle that simply doesn't exist any more and hasn't for many years. I try to explain that in fact it is they who are wasting their vote but do they listen? Of course not, they simply sit on their plateau of smugness and preach about how important it is to "use your vote widely, people fought and did so you could do so" (notwithstanding that those same people who fought and died for our right to vote are probably turning in their graves at the thought of the mess that is modern politics, but I digress).

Recent elections have seen a progressively worsening turn out of voters, and of course the media always put such a delightful spin on things. "People don't know how to vote properly. We need to make it easier to vote." No one, as yet, has had the testicular fortitude to stand up and say what we all know; the reason so few people vote is because so many of us are downright pissed off with the state of modern politics.

At any future elections I will continue to do what I have always done until the system is substantially overhauled. I will use my vote to write my name and address across the voting slip to deliberately spoil the form. I am proud that I have the right to vote, and I choose to use that right to point out how infuriated I am at having no real choice thanks to each political party being as bad as one another. Until we see a "none of the above" option added to the voting form this is the only way to actually use your vote to register your dismay. Sadly I don't believe we ever will since the phrase "none of the above" was actually listed as recently as 2005 as an ineligible phrase to be used on a ballot form after some savvy individuals banded together to form the "None Of The Above" party as a means to allow people to register their vote.

[AllanL]

The one problem Chris, and it has already happened in the last Euro elections with the BNP winning seats and in the '07 elections in Scotland, is that low turnouts play straight into the hands of the lunatic fringe parties.

Alec Salmond and his bunch of clowns got control of the Scottish Executive and promptly changed the name to Scottish Government and are wasting time and money with threats of running an unconstitutional referendum on independance.

The base for his claim,"This government was elected with a popular mandate to put the question of Scotland's future to the vote in a referendum ."?

At the election the SNP got 32.9% of a turnout of 51.7%, so out of 2 million voters only 336,000 - 17% of the electorate - actually showed their support for Salmond. The man is not fit to operate the lollipop outside a school gate, never mind wreck the UK constitution.

[Nigel H-J]

I agree with many of Trevs' points raised.

Retirement, I will have to work the extra year until I am 66 before I can retire but why should I? All very well saying we are in the same boat but mine cast off when I was fifteen and a half, into full time employment.....granted, I did not start paying taxes until I reached 16 but will have done so for 49 years by the time I am 65 and by then I will have had enough of work...So if we are to work to that age then MPs' when they lose their seat or stand down they should not get any pension whatsoever until they are 66!!!

Election......My vote? I honestly don't know, I feel that Labour have contributed greatly to our financial problems long before the recession, Gordon sold half our gold reserves at rock bottom prices, he also raided pension funds, they have thrown money around on all sorts of projects costing millions that have either increased in costs or then cast aside with a shrug of the shoulders. One thing is for certain, Tories will not get my vote nor Labour, looks like we are right in the proverbial!!

Nigel.

[Tomb]

where is the monster raving looney party when you need them eh

screaming Lord Sutch would get my vote.

[Tomliner]

The man is not fit to operate the lollipop outside a school gate, never mind wreck the UK constitution.

.I don't seem to recall incompetence being an obstacle to holding political office.Far from it.In fact it seems to be a prime requirement.Oh don't start me off.I have had a lovely day walking in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh,sunshine,superb views and no bl**dy politicians. EricT

[Garry Russell]

where is the monster raving looney party when you need them eh

screaming Lord Sutch would get my vote.

Not sure since Lord Sutch died but the country is being run by raving looney monsters

Garry

[Trev Clark]

Labour have one chance to avoid a record landslide defeat, elect as PM and party leader (not just hand over, like the last time) a young intellegent, good looking and 'clean' MP, before it is too late. The Tories really are the 'same old bunch', but with a shiney young face, people at least think they are different. G. Brown is so far past his sell by date, he is even looking green around the gills lately! He is also 90% responsable for the bloody mess that 'we' are all in. I wonder what multi-national (or state owned bank) will be offereing him a 'consultancy' for a six figure sum!!!!