Tony Blair

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Broadly approve. His domestic agenda has been the best of any P.M since Atlee, IMO

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Domestic policy has included massive investment in public services, measures to reduce poverty and unemployment, huge (actually unprecedented) constitutional changes (including the creation of a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly, re-introducing City wide Government in London and abolishing most hereditary peers) and some genuine attempts to end the bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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The Top Up system actually helps me, so I'm not complaining

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Would have happend no matter who was in power... actually had hell frozen over in 2001 and Hauge won the election (shudders...) War with Iraq would have happen sooner... a lot sooner methinks...

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Is my least favourite cabinet member. How come a stuffed shirt like him gets the MoD, while Kim Howells has never got into the cabinet...

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Is as subtle as a sledge hammer

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Agreed

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He had a point though... the '60's Generation voted in Thatcher and never accomplished anything politically.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Michael Z, I agree with you on all the positives but disagree with you on top up fees. It means I pay money afterwards when I am working, not up front when I don't have any which is a good thing in my opinion.

I wasn't talking about top up fees, I was talking about tuition fees per se.

I was in the first year which had to pay university fees. Notwithstanding that I was drowned in the most shambolic bureaucracy imaginable (trust me) in order to attain my loan, and had the right of a grant taken away from me, I'm still in massive debt because of it.

I'm glad they're getting rid of upfront fees. I just wish they would've had that idea when it was my turn to go to uni. Grrr.

Tell that to the NUS

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Are their any TRUE conservatives in Britian? I can't imagine Scotland and N.Ireland being so liberal. They've been brutalized by the British for years now.

Brutalized by the British? The Scots ARE British. Did you fail geography by any chance?

Sorry I meant English. The Scots are not ENGLISH.

No one here would say they were.
It's worth remembering that the Scots did better out of Imperialism than anyone else...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I think the reason the Tories don't win elections is because they are too much on the left. That disencourages their tradicional electorate who either votes for the BNP or the UKIP, or does not vote at all. They should come up with a Project to Return Morals to British Life.
Also, they should be much more vocal in their opositon of the EU's ever-increasing regultaions, which are strangling the european economy everywhere, as Milton Friedman warned recently, and they should also be more vocal oposing Blair's increasing statism and defending personal intiative.
I totally disaprove of Blair, he is blatant statist. the only good thing he's ever done was devolution, but that should go farther. More powers should be returned to the counties.

What's that called? "Third Party by 2005" perhaps?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That's preferable than selling out to statism. And would be win back the votes the BNP and the UKIP have previously "stolen" from the Tories.

Call me right wing nut if you want. THe future will prove me right. Britain has started to go down the slipery path of statism. The right muse to take her back.

Listen and listen good, the BNP have not stolen votes from the Tories! If you're going to use the UK avatar you might as well learn a little about UK politics! Most recent BNP victories have been in depressed old industrial towns in Northern England such as Burnley, Bradford and Halifax. Invariably they have high levels of deprivation and unemployment. These are strong Labour areas.

Generally BNP voters come from all three major parties... usually from sinkhole estates and "white flight" areas... they can't get much bigger in Burnley because most of the sinkhole estates are Asian and geography has limited the amount of "white flight".

In Stoke they cannot get any bigger as there vote comes almost entierly from a load of sinkhole estates in the south of the area... and they wouldn't even have any councillers if the LibDems didn't play silly buggers with racial politics and making absurd claims like they are the only party to beat the BNP (in a place like Stoke that's bullsh**t. The only party that can beat the BNP in Stoke is Labour)

Bradford is a worry... and it's the Tories fault for creating racial tensions by playing racial politics.

They are a spent force in Oldham.

I don't know the Halifax area well, but IIRC correctly it's like Burnley but not as poor... and with more white flight areas.

Labour have beaten the crap out of them in Sunderland two years in a row. They are finished up here.

I'm worried (very worried) about Essex tho'... now in Essex they *are* winning ex-Tory (ex-Essex Man actually) voters over.
I don't know Essex or it's voting patterns that well though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I don't know the Halifax area well, but IIRC correctly it's like Burnley but not as poor... and with more white flight areas.

Labour have beaten the crap out of them in Sunderland two years in a row. They are finished up here.

The BNP held (hold?) the ward of Mixenden in Halifax, it's a complete sh*t-hole. It's a very, very grim area of sink council housing and nasty private slums cut off from the rest of the town. Actually Halifax is quite nice, affluent even, however there are some truly dire bits, Mixenden being one of them.
I can't imagine the BNP ever doing well in Sunderland, it's completely white isn't it?

Yes, Sunderland is all but competely white... there was a fuss over some asylum seekers in the area or something... it's all died down now and the BNP did worse in 2004 than 2003 (they have never won a council seat though)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, however these Essex voters are not natural Tory voters I'm sure you agree and many of them returned to Labour in 1997. There's no way places like Basildon, Dagenham, Barking & Tilbury could be considered Tory areas. In fact Labour held Dagenham & Barking even in 1983 and held Thurrock in 1997 with a 17,000 majority! Tory Essex is not BNP territory, it's the white working class Labour areas like Dagenham where the BNP are making inroads.
As for coming from all 3 major parties we'll have to agree to disagree. I know in Leeds and Hull, the BNP leaflet (and thankfully fail) in poor Labour areas with racial problems. Usually sink estates bordering ethnic areas. These sort of locations usually weigh Labour votes rather than count them. I'd say 40% of BNP voters previously never voted, however of those that did vote, 60% voted Labour, 30% voted Tory and 10% LD.

Traditionally South Essex (Thurrock, Basildon et al) is a Lab-Con swing area, the part of Essex in the GLA (Dagenham et al) is strongly Labour...
What's worried me in Essex, was that the BNP picked up (IIRC) 3 councillers in Epping Forest of all places...

The BNP's vote varies from region to region... in Stoke it's entirely driven by racial tensions and comes mostly from people that don't vote normally or Labour voters protest voting.
In most of Lancashire however, they win a lot of old style redneck Tory voters (most of their wards are white flight suburban areas that went Tory in the '80's).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Traditionally South Essex (Thurrock, Basildon et al) is a Lab-Con swing area, the part of Essex in the GLA (Dagenham et al) is strongly Labour...
What's worried me in Essex, was that the BNP picked up (IIRC) 3 councillers in Epping Forest of all places...

The BNP's vote varies from region to region... in Stoke it's entirely driven by racial tensions and comes mostly from people that don't vote normally or Labour voters protest voting.
In most of Lancashire however, they win a lot of old style redneck Tory voters (most of their wards are white flight suburban areas that went Tory in the '80's).

I really dislike South Essex. If Basildon or Thurrock was anywhere else it would be safely Labour. Have you ever been to Basildon? It's a tip. Huge council estates and nasty cheap private housing. They only vote Tory because they're the type of people who think moving to Essex from the East End means they've moved up in the world.

True, very true. Basildon is the "Sun capital of Great Britain". Sun meaning the newspaper rag soft porn publication not a solar object...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Essex also has the habit of electing right-wing bigots.
Teresa Gorman (Con- Billericay),
Teddy Taylor (Con- Southend East (or West?)),
...and not forgetting Lucifer himself....
Norman Tebbit (Con- Chingford),
IDS (also Con- Chingford).

There was also a fuss at the last election when the conservative cadidate in Brentwood and Ongar got accused of being cahoots with some christian right organisation.
Don't you just love Essex? The UK's answer to Texas!

...and it's basically a swamp...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, you're both right to a degree, but Essex isn't SO bad. It does have its reactionairy spots (Colchester, for instance) but by and large people tend to more down-to-earth and less stuck-up than in the rest of SE England. Go to East Anglia if you want to see some real uptight provincialism.

Also bear in mind that it's in places up north where the BNP are doing frighteningly well, so it's not like Essex doesn't have its fair share of contestants for the title of most reactionairy county.

Thing is in most of Cottonopolis the BNP have peaked... while the NSDAP BNP's expansion into Essex (three councillers in Epping Forest. Ironically that used to be Churchill's seat) is new... and needs to be stopped before it hits Burnley levels.