Metropol

I:m actully starting to think labour could win this election if it come next may!

Well I watched Cameron yesterday in the Nick Robinson interviews.

To be fair to him I appreciated his comments about "tightening belts at Westminster first" in respect of budget cuts - although saving only £120M doesn't add up to a hill of beans, and its clear we're all going to have to pay for the billions borrowed. Interesting how he pointed to "Labour's mis-spending on Minister's cars and salaries", when in fact those perks have been around for decades - far long than Labour's tenure as he very well knows. That's party politics, I suppose.

He was less candid about cuts to services - although I wouldn't have expected him to give too much away at this time.

He mentioned he would scrap the ID card scheme - well that's already been scrapped by this Government.

He also mentioned the scrapping of the idea of Regional Assemblies - this was more of a surprise.

I thought the tories were keen on local power. Its a very popular idea north of Watford. There's a certain amount of evidence (Cameron quoted in fact) that money is spent more effectively when its allocated and spent in the areas concerned.

What's your views - should there be devolved power to regions of England, or do you think its a waste of money?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the main criticism of regional assemblies is that they are just an additional and unnecessary layer between local councils and the government. I believe that the Tories would rather give more power to councils.

By the way, at the last local elections, we changed from a Labour to a Conservative council, and I'm pleasantly surprised by all of the sensible changes that have been announced - most notably, selling off the big expensive new building the Labour council decided to move into (which cost millions) and redistributing all the employees amongst all their other buildings.

all new Phil wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the main criticism of regional assemblies is that they are just an additional and unnecessary layer between local councils and the government. I believe that the Tories would rather give more power to councils.

Thanks for the clarification. I did hear him refer to a tory council who had brought their council tax down by 3%, but managed to keep the services at the same level. That was his point about "money spent locally goes further".

The only thing is, the remit and scope of autonomy of councils isn't anywhere near as wide as that of a regional assembly - so wouldn't that leave an awful lot of Whitehall running the show?

By the way, at the last local elections, we changed from a Labour to a Conservative council, and I'm pleasantly surprised by all of the sensible changes that have been announced - most notably, selling off the big expensive new building the Labour council decided to move into (which cost millions) and redistributing all the employees amongst all their other buildings.

Arguably the worse offenders for buildings is government departments. The DWP own several large city centre offices which were closed years ago (the bottom of Leith Walk is one - for the locals reading along), but have no intention of selling them. Its shocking really.

When you think about it, councils and government are sitting on a hell of a lot of money with the properties they own. Our city hall is absolutely huge, very well appointed, and in a prime location - yet nothing much seems to go on there. It would sell for a fortune, maybe not right now but when the economy picks up again.

It would of course cause an 'uproar amongst locals' in the local press if it was to be sold off, but to be honest I think we've entered an era where a lot more focus is placed on value for money.

barcode wrote:I:m actully starting to think labour could win this election if it come next may!

Not a chance.

In a way it would be fun if they did really. They're currently spreading a rumour that the Conversatives are going to prolong the recession. However, they also say we'll be out of recession by the end of this year How will the Conservatives prolong a recession that, according to Labour, will no longer exist in June 2010?

Ok maybe we'll go back into recession for a while, but then at least people might finally learn they need to live for the future instead of spending money like crazy and living for the moment as if tomorrow's never going to come.

You know, if only we had someone that actually knew about economics that could waft away bullshit like that. Sadly we hounded him out for daring to have an objective viewpoint.

Sput wrote:You know, if only we had someone that actually knew about economics that could waft away bullshit like that. Sadly we hounded him out for daring to have an objective viewpoint.

I beg your fucking pardon?

Sput wrote:You know, if only we had someone that actually knew about economics that could waft away bullshit like that. Sadly we hounded him out for daring to have an objective viewpoint.

EPIC fail.

I think this is why people don't end up discussing politics - because it ALWAYS ends up getting very personal (well, as personal as Scot vs Aussie can be). If I may add my opinion to the pot, it would be that I'd hope Gavin and Mr Q could settle differences outside the room before coming back in. I believe you were a bit quick off the mark, Gavin, in reacting to the "spawn of Satan" remark (I took this as a jibe at capitalist systems in general, not directly at you) and note your apology from the other Labour thread. Debate is something that should never be stifled, and if you both could mend things off-site, this would be wholly advantageous to Metropol.

It'll be a tough call at the next election. The last predictions had the Tories running in the lead with a majority of 96. It'll take more than words, though, to convince particularly elderly voters as they shiver in their homes this winter.

It may well be an election fought on personality. Brown appears to have been taking classes on becoming more personable but unfortunately he seems to have come up wanting. But some would argue that this is exactly what the country needs - a person who doesn't necessarily stand up well to the cameras, but who takes affirmative action backstage. Cameron is a decent PR man but he needs more meat to his plans if he's going to take the country by storm.

I really think that Hague fought too early in his career, and that around about now would be a perfect time for him, but c'est la vie. Hague gives an excellent performance in PMQs when he's deputising (as does, incidentally, Harriet Harman, which makes up for her being an awful woman).

I'm left wondering who to vote for, then. Not Labour - because they've done fuck all for me over the past 10 years. Not the Conservatives at the moment, because I don't believe anything that Cameron is saying will come to fruition. Not the Lib Dems, because Clegg and his party don't really know where they stand. Not the BNP, because their leader is a cunt (and I'd appreciate it if that word was used solely to describe Griffin and Piers Moron) and not UKIP, because I like the idea of the EU, in some ways. Green? Why bother?

I'm in a quandry.

Perhaps abolishing the Sunday trading laws would help to create some more jobs. Supermarkets and shopping centres would be able to open all day and they'd need extra staff. Banks and things could also open on Sundays. Once this all becomes normal, then offices might also want to create a new working day and take on more part-time staff for it (but they can't just give the shifts to existing employees, otherwise there'd be no point).

I doubt the Conservative party would want to do that, though.