UK politics thread

[Basil]

Too early to call it an election thread - but:

Looks like Labour's decision to scrap the 10p income tax rate could be their poll tax. Not taking sides, but an economic crisis is how Major's government began to unravel.

[PearlJ]

Too early to call it an election thread - but:

Looks like Labour's decision to scrap the 10p income tax rate could be their poll tax. Not taking sides, but an economic crisis is how Major's government began to unravel.

Brown was never going to last long anyway.

[Guest]

Trouble is, that telegenic cardboard cutout Cameron is going to be PM next year.

[Allan D]

Trouble is, that telegenic cardboard cutout Cameron is going to be PM next year.

or the year after, more likely.

[Guest]

When was the last General Elecrtion, 2004? If so they will have to have another in 2009.

[Chivalry Augustus]

UK Politics is at an all-time nadir. Voting in a general election is akin to wandering down to the circus and picking your favourite clown. There are only two parties, given the total lack of governing experience within the also-rans, and even they seem to be sister parties, each competing with the other to be more alike, stealing each others policies, subtly changing them sometimes and then citing vast differences therein that set them apart from the other.

What's the point?

Labour will almost certainly be ****** off, in fact, they definitely will be, but anyone who thinks life under the Conservatives is going to be any better is very naive. They have an affectionate robot heading their campaign, and I suppose he deserves credit for succeeding in achieving what he set out to, but ultimately, he shall prove to be at least as incompetent as the current incumbent, and probably moreso.

[filosofee]

Too early to call it an election thread - but:

Looks like Labour's decision to scrap the 10p income tax rate could be their poll tax. Not taking sides, but an economic crisis is how Major's government began to unravel.

And Boris Johnson, he of the Muslim Turkish ancestry and the "piccaninnies with water-melon smiles" quote to is 'credit' will become the new, all powerful Mayor of London, May 1st.

[Guest]

[quote="filosofee"]

And Boris Johnson, he of the Muslim Turkish ancestry and the "piccaninnies with water-melon smiles" quote to is 'credit' will become the new, all powerful Mayor of London, May 1st.

The man who got his sums wrong regarding putting conductors back on buses. £8M he said, then changed his estimate to £110M.

I quake at the prospect of him becoming our Mayor.

[LeFromage]

Says everything about British politics that Boris Johnson owes his supposed electability to his endearing, bumbling incompetence.

That said, Red Ken basically stacks up the same - minus the endearing.

[Basil]

Trouble is, that telegenic cardboard cutout Cameron is going to be PM next year.

FWIW, my money is on a hung parliament - just can't make up my mind which party will be the largest.

[JKLever]

What candidate has promised to tax Londoners more and more?

He's got my vote... if I had one.

[LeFromage]

FWIW, my money is on a hung parliament - just can't make up my mind which party will be the largest.

Or most well hung.

[Basil]

FWIW, my money is on a hung parliament - just can't make up my mind which party will be the largest.

Or most well hung.

It would make for an interesting photograph as the new Parliament assesmbles.

[Allan D]

When was the last General Elecrtion, 2004? If so they will have to have another in 2009.

Last one was in May 2005 and since, under the Parliament Act of 1911, Parliament has a maximum life of 5 years (prior to that it was 7 years) Brown need not call a General Election until 2010 and you can bet he will go the full distance (as did Major who left it to the last legally permitted moment in 1997 before calling time on himself) since as he has waited so long to get to No 10 (and made Blair's life hell doing so) he will not give up before he has to although he must ask himself during the lonely reaches of the night if it was worth all the wailing and the tantrums.

It occurred to me when he was speaking at the press conference on the White House lawn that both leaders have exactly the same approval rating of 28% but whereas it took Bush 7 years to get there it has only taken Brown 10 months. At least Bush has had the satisfaction of being elected whilst Brown, if and when he gets thrown out at the next election, will not have won one contested election in his own right, even in his own party. He perfectly illustrates the saying:

"Be careful what you wish for."

It was said of Lord Rosebery who succeeded Mr Gladstone for a disastrous year in office that he might have been remembered as the best Prime Minister we never had had he not actually been Prime Minister. I fancy the same may apply to Brown.

[Basil]

What candidate has promised to tax Londoners more and more?

He's got my vote... if I had one.

If Johnson wins - the lunatic will truly have taken over the asylum.

[freddled gruntbuggly]

FWIW, my money is on a hung parliament - just can't make up my mind which party will be the largest.

I think you mean 'hanged' . . .

[Allan D]

"Gentlemen, we must all hang together or we shall, most assuredly, hang separately."

- Benjamin Franklin, 1776.

[Fred Nerk]

I think Parliaments are correctly 'hung', regardless of what should happen to individual members thereof.

(Not that 'hanged' for what they did to Ned Kelly has ever been my favorite legal-ese affectation.... )

[Allan D]

I think the correct usage is that meat and pictures are "hung" but men are "hanged" so the argument depends on whether you regard Parliaments as animate or inanimate objects.

"When a man knows he is to be hanged on the morrow, it concentrates the mind wonderfully."

- Samuel Johnson.

[freddled gruntbuggly]

There's so much NSR in this page it's almost sunk the entire thread . . .

[lardbucket]

I've never heard of a hanged parliament, but the phrase 'hung parliament' is not uncommon. Sometimes usage makes a total mockery of rules.

[Allan D]

I've never heard of a hanged parliament, but the phrase 'hung parliament' is not uncommon. Sometimes usage makes a total mockery of rules.

I think the truth of the matter is that it has nothing to do with either executions or suspension but the use of the word "hung" to mean "undecided" as in the expression "a hung jury". One of the many examples the English language has to offer of the same, or similar, words with totally distinct meanings.

"So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful for impotence."

- Winston Churchill, 1936.

[freddled gruntbuggly]

gurgle
gurgle
gurgle
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[Basil]

This thread has been hung out to dry.

[JKLever]

hang on a minute...

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