posted
If he's not online right now, maybe try sending him an 'email' or a message through facebook or something. That way, when he's online later he will pick it up and you will be in contact.
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posted
I just checked my mail and apparently I haven't had a message on facebook so you might want to resend that as it doesn't appear to have come through Benway.
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Oh I see. I'm in Hove as could probably be guessed by my username so we voted in a Tory. I think it was Brighton Pavilion that voted in the green. I didn't vote for the Tory but I didn't vote for the Labour one who had won it before as she is awful.
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posted
I'm getting a bit annoyed by facebook updates saying things like "That's it I'm leaving the country" and "I weep at the return of the Thatcher years" and things like that, given that a) no-one knows what the fuck is happening, and b) it's not like a Tory government with fewer than 300 seats will actually be able to do anything extreme.
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posted
Also, you know. There's the whole "Won't Get Fooled Again" element. If it's always a disappointment when a revolution you believed in turns out the exact same boss as the old boss, then surely the reverse is true: a change of government you dread would surely turn out to be something of a relief.
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posted
Obviously with most of Reema's family being from the NE of England, there's a strong sense of dread at the thought of a Conservative government gaining power.
I'm really hoping there will be a push for full on electoral reform so we can vote again properly. It seems pretty undemocratic that if you vote for one party in one area your vote holds more power than another person voting for a different party in a different area.
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posted
I think electoral reform is going to be the only carrot the LibDems will go for.
As for the sense of dread, I just don't think there's any real comparison between the Thatcher government and... whatever this turns out to be. How can there be? 13 years of Labour didn't plunge us back into the three day week and all the rest of it. The biggest problem with the way things are now is that nothing can get done.
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I totally agree. I don't have any ideological problem with any of the three main parties. I do with fringe parties like the BNP but that's a different matter really.
I suppose the one thing to be said for the current electoral system is that it produces strong governments with good majorities (except like now where we have a hung parliament) who can make the big decisions. It's a bit of a double edged sword of course as it means that, unless you have a strong opposition, decisions can be made unopposed which aren't necessarily in the public interest. But the flipside to that is that with proportional representation we end up with a neutered government which would spend its time endlessly bickering over the smallest point and ultimately achieve nothing.
The fundamental problem is that none of the three main parties can bring themselves to work together for the greater good. They all have their respective agendas, and potentially powerful paymasters who must be appeased. Even though, as you pointed out in th run up to the election, they almost universally agree on the main objectives they must work towards. it's like they're all sat in a car together, all wanting to go to the same place, but because they all want to go via their own route they end up simply sat there staring out of the windows in silence.
Replacing the hereditary peers with elected officials would only exacerbate things.
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Amp linked me to an article about the Tory borough in Hammersmith and it was gutting. Tackling homelessness by selling all 12 shelters to private companies. Suggesting a homeless woman prove herself homeless for the next 4 days leaving her to sleep in the park, heavily pregnant. Cutting handouts for people who required help clothing and getting in and out of the bath. After a woman with senile dementia saying 'she didn't need to eat' was struck off the meals on wheels list. Here's the article. Maybe that's a one off. But here's some dudes livejournal which implies that the same thing happens in tory led boroughs and cities. I'm willing to keep an open mind, but that shit worries me. That isn't the 'get people back to work' shit that's being peddled. It's the 'simply stop the funding' shit of the vulnerable, weak or poor. That's the stereotype of the Conservative party that they mock or laugh at and it's happening in those areas within the past couple of years.
posted
It's a free society, except there ain't nothing free, because there's no guarantees. You're on your own....That's the law of the jungle.
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quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Amp linked me to an article about the Tory borough in Hammersmith and it was gutting. Tackling homelessness by selling all 12 shelters to private companies. Suggesting a homeless woman prove herself homeless for the next 4 days leaving her to sleep in the park, heavily pregnant. Cutting handouts for people who required help clothing and getting in and out of the bath. After a woman with senile dementia saying 'she didn't need to eat' was struck off the meals on wheels list. Here's the article. Maybe that's a one off. But here's some dudes livejournal which implies that the same thing happens in tory led boroughs and cities. I'm willing to keep an open mind, but that shit worries me. That isn't the 'get people back to work' shit that's being peddled. It's the 'simply stop the funding' shit of the vulnerable, weak or poor. That's the stereotype of the Conservative party that they mock or laugh at and it's happening in those areas within the past couple of years.
So... are you saying this kind of thing couldn't happen under a Labour government?
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I always feel like city councils are kind of separate entity to the House of Commons. Councillors always tend to be even more deranged, useless and crackpot than MPs, and their decisions seem more down to personal lunacy than political affiliation. I don't know how much you can infer about the national government from an article like that. You know. Every time someone goes "Liberals are a bunch of c**ts" and then cites one deranged city councillor that tried to ban Baa Baa Black Sheep, I think "that's not really a reflection of the Liberal party as it happens in Westminster." I dunno. City council seems much more down to individuals. The only thing you can draw from that article is "when it comes to council elections don't vote for a total twat". You know. On either side.
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posted
that seems fine. I was working within supporting people for a while, for the odpm. I think it means that whitehall gives the money to LA's, who then decide which shelters and programmes get the cash... with the money going to the 'third sector' ie not for profit. I say I think... I'm not sure what this dropping of the ringfence means. anyway, i think this serves as an example of Labour not doing what the tories would... i mean presumably something like Supporting People would be ditched, or at least, virtually destroyed, and replaced with for-profit stuff. unless i'm mistaken. which i could be. but i thought that shrinking government was about tendering this kind of thing a la mikee's article.
posted
Right, I see what you're saying. The trouble is though, the issue is that parties end up being made of a mix of people. Some twatty. Some not so twatty. I've just got an email from Nick Clegg's office with carefully small prints their decision to merge with the conservative in a 'we never said we wouldn't form a coalition" in such a way that for all the dirt they've tried to dig up on him during election time, he's just basically made me regret voting for the **** .
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: So... are you saying this kind of thing couldn't happen under a Labour government?
Wait. What? Do you mean that a Hammermsith labour council would halve their own homeless shelters in a year?
I thought we were talking about government, rather than local councils. Although it's framed as 'this is Cameron's Britain', it actually takes place in Labour Britain. Presumably if Cameron got in and yet Hammersmith went back to being a Labour council, then it would go back to being awesome at providing for the homeless and disabled. What would that prove? That life under Cameron was great? Or just that local councils and national governments are two different things?
I dunno. Like I say I don't really equate local council to Goverment. In Oxford, the city councillors change parties depending on who's more popular, so that they can hold onto their positions. It seems to be much more about individuals than party philosophy.
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Also, if it helps, there haven't been Conservative councillors on Oxford City council for about ten years, but they still chuck out homeless people who can't 'prove' they're from Oxford, and have committed to a 'zero tolerance campaign'; the homeless shelter is actually run by a charity - I don't think there's a council have one at all. The one that does exist is considered so appalling by the city's homeless that they set up a 'Tent City' of their own, instead. They've been closing sports centres for the last five years or so, and are pushing up rents on the covered market which is squeezing out local business owners and they've sold off green belt land to private businesses to build on, and halved the landfill collection days, creating problems with rat infestation. I don't think a conservative council would run things better, or with greater moral backbone, but I do think it demonstrates that whatever name you put on the local council, they're all capable of acting like twats in much the same way. I mean, in general the city council seems to do an OK job, but it's not hard to find examples of twattery that are analogous to most of the things in that article: victimisation of the vunerable, public land sold off to private business, youth facilities closed down, and so forth.
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