Oh Britain, what have you done (part ∞+21)?

[stephen bennett]

Yet some of the Blairites are right on the nail with Brexit.

I have plenty of issues with Blair. But I’d rather have him as PM than any Conservative.

Stephen

 

[matt j]

It seems criticising Labour automatically makes you a Tory by default, I like this internet politics bollocks, it's a right laugh.

Of course I know that Labour was "New" Labour, and how many are still in it? Did we not have old Labour, how did they get on?

Judging by the PFM retirement thread, I find it hilarious that most of the PFM left wing mafia retired in their 50s, benefiting from cheap houses and golden pensions, presumably all acquired under Tory governments lol.

 

[HarryB]

It seems criticising Labour automatically makes you a Tory by default, I like this internet politics bollocks, it's a right laugh.

Of course I know that Labour was "New" Labour, and how many are still in it? Did we not have old Labour, how did they get on?

Judging by the PFM retirement thread, I find it hilarious that most of the PFM left wing mafia retired in their 50s, benefiting from cheap houses and golden pensions, presumably all acquired under Tory governments lol.

That post reminds me of my favourite beer. Bitter and Twisted.

PS My "golden pension" is actually crap but if I'd had a chance of a really good one I'd have snapped their hands off. I presume you'd turn it down on principle.

When where these cheap houses available. We've always been stretched to the limit buying the ones we've owned despite living in a really cheap part of the country. In contrast my kids have found it relatively easy.

PS I think you'll find the Tory Party (the one you support by default or choice) have screwed pensions for nurses, firefighters, police officers etc etc.

 

[Tony L]

I find it hilarious that most of the PFM left wing mafia retired in their 50s, benefiting from cheap houses and golden pensions, presumably all acquired under Tory governments lol.

I’m certainly not part of the ‘left wing mafia’ being a much-hated Lib Dem, but my main area of productivity was unquestionably during the Blair years! Were it not for Iraq and the lasting debt of PFI I’d not have a bad word for Blair as the boom he presided over basically gave me a house!

Thatcherism was awful as I lived in a mass-unemployment black spot, but fun as I could drop-right out into the music/arts counterculture. Despite being a disaster for the country as a whole Cameron and May have been unable to damage me too much as I’m just too far from the rat-race. They have damaged my savings and potential to emigrate though.

 

[matt j]

That post reminds me of my favourite beer. Bitter and Twisted.

PS My "golden pension" is actually crap but if I'd had a chance of a really good one I'd have snapped their hands off. I presume you'd turn it down on principle.

When where these cheap houses available. We've always been stretched to the limit buying the ones we've owned despite living in a really cheap part of the country. In contrast my kids have found it relatively easy.

PS I think you'll find the Tory Party (the one you support by default or choice) have screwed pensions for nurses, firefighters, police officers etc etc.

So your kids have done well then despite living under a Tory government.

I don't support anyone, I just get on with it by myself, I'm not interested in politicians and whatever Mickey Mouse promises they're making today.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I’m certainly not part of the ‘left wing mafia’ being a much-hated Lib Dem, but my main area of productivity was unquestionably during the Blair years! Were it not for Iraq and the lasting debt of PFI I’d not have a bad word for Blair as the boom he presided over basically gave me a house!

Thatcherism was awful as I lived in a mass-unemployment black spot, but fun as I could drop-right out into the music/arts counterculture. Despite being a disaster for the country as a whole Cameron and May have been unable to damage me too much as I’m just too far from the rat-race. They have damaged my savings and potential to emigrate though.

Indefensible scrounging from the good taxpayers so you could drop out!

 

[Tony L]

Indefensible scrounging from the good taxpayers so you could drop out!

Agreed, though there genuinely were no jobs. I remember queues right round the dole office and job centres. The dole office actually had riot-glass between the counter and the signer and I regularly saw chairs etc bouncing off it folk were just so desperate and frustrated (never me!). It was an awful time, though I found a niche or two and survived. The only good thing at that time was Thatcher’s ‘Enterprise Allowance Scheme’. That one kick-started a surprising number of little counterculture projects (alternative shops, record labels etc).

 

[HarryB]

I’m certainly not part of the ‘left wing mafia’ being a much-hated Lib Dem, but my main area of productivity was unquestionably during the Blair years! Were it not for Iraq and the lasting debt of PFI I’d not have a bad word for Blair as the boom he presided over basically gave me a house!

Thatcherism was awful as I lived in a mass-unemployment black spot, but fun as I could drop-right out into the music/arts counterculture. Despite being a disaster for the country as a whole Cameron and May have been unable to damage me too much as I’m just too far from the rat-race. They have damaged my savings and potential to emigrate though.

Few places in the country were decimated to the extent of the North East by Thatcher's policies. Most of the town's and villages of this area gave never recovered from the vindictive policies of that vile woman.

I don't socialise much these days but I always look forward to the annual party organised by some muso friends to celebrate Thatcher's death. As bad as Thatcher was, I genuinely believe May is even worse.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Agreed, though there genuinely were no jobs. I remember queues right round the dole office and job centres. The dole office actually had riot-glass between the counter and the signer and I regularly saw chairs etc bouncing off it folk were just so desperate and frustrated (never me!). It was an awful time, though I found a niche or two and survived. The only good thing at that time was Thatcher’s ‘Enterprise Allowance Scheme’. That one kick-started a surprising number of little counterculture projects (alternative shops, record labels etc).

I remember those dark days very well... The local (Teesside then) steelworks, mines etc were all shut down by the bitch. Strange though that it was fine for you to be a doley drop out muso but not, according to you, for me to be a doley drop out traveller....

 

[HarryB]

So your kids have done well then despite living under a Tory government.

I don't support anyone, I just get on with it by myself, I'm not interested in politicians and whatever Mickey Mouse promises they're making today.

It's utterly ridiculous that you can't see the stupidity of your statement "I just get on with it by myself"

No matter how enterprising, determined, talented or resourceful you are, government policies will have an impact on your life.

Every time a school has to make cutbacks that directly affects someone's child.

Every time the NHS waiting lists get longer, the chances increase that a member of your family or mine waits longer for a diagnosis that could prevent them dying from cancer.

Every time there are cutbacks in social care, the likelihood of someone's elderly parents suffering increase.

Labour's last manifesto contained no Mickey Mouse promises. It was a carefully considered (and fully costed) set of proposals to get us out of the mess caused by Tory dogma and pointless austerity.

At my time of life and in my current financial situation there's only one real way a Tory government could adversely affect me and that's a ruse in the state pension age. They've already done it and will undoubtedly do it again. For oeople like yourself however, a Labour government with policies for the many could have a life changing effect on you. The fact you can't see that is sad.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Few places in the country were decimated to the extent of the North East by Thatcher's policies. Most of the town's and villages of this area gave never recovered from the vindictive policies of that vile woman.

I don't socialise much these days but I always look forward to the annual party organised by some muso friends to celebrate Thatcher's death. As bad as Thatcher was, I genuinely believe May is even worse.

The ink fumes from the Daily Mair must have a long lasting effect if you think any other UK PM in the last 100 years or more was even anywhere near as bad as Thatcher! Plenty of incompetence but nothing of the same level of cold calculating ideological evil as Thatcher.

 

[Tony L]

Strange though that it was fine for you to be a doley drop out muso but not, according to you, for me to be a doley drop out traveller....

I wasn’t being entirely serious with that! By saying that I was always genuinely trying to get off the dole. I’ve always been very independent, never wanted to be an ‘employee’, so was always trying to find my own viable business idea.

 

[HarryB]

The ink fumes from the Daily Mair must have a long lasting effect if you think any other UK PM in the last 100 years or more was even anywhere near as bad as Thatcher! Plenty of incompetence but nothing of the same level of cold calculating ideological evil as Thatcher.

I take your point but I honestly believe that May's spectacular incompetence will lead to even greater long-term damage to the UK economy and the life prospects for millions.

Just look at how child poverty has increased under May. Thatcher didn't manage that. Then there's the obscene and growing number of foodbanks giving hand outs to people - many if them in work. Thatcher couldn't match that.

Then there's ten year's of virtually zero wage growth. Thatcher would gave given her right arm to have achieved that. May is an incompetent, evil, racist bigot.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I take your point but I honestly believe that May's spectacular incompetence will lead to even greater long-term damage to the UK economy and the life prospects for millions.

Just look at how child poverty has increased under May. Thatcher didn't manage that. Then there's the obscene and growing number of foodbanks giving hand outs to people - many if them in work. Thatcher couldn't match that.

Then there's ten year's of virtually zero wage growth. Thatcher would gave given her right arm to have achieved that. May is an incompetent, evil, racist bigot.

All set up by and the legacy of Thatcher!

 

[Tony L]

The ink fumes from the Daily Mair must have a long lasting effect if you think any other UK PM in the last 100 years or more was even anywhere near as bad as Thatcher! Plenty of incompetence but nothing of the same level of cold calculating ideological evil as Thatcher.

I don’t agree at all. Thatcher at least had a vision and was genuinely on the side of small business. It is since that point that the Conservatives have been reduced to purely being a front for disaster capitalists, asset strippers and global tax evading corporate giants. The current crop really are far worse as they don’t even retain the pretence of helping the middle-classes.

The impact on the north of Thatcherism was brutal, but there was need for change at the time. I certainly don’t agree with much that she did, but I can at least recognise a benign aim behind it even if in hindsight much was misguided. The current crop offer nothing beyond lining their own pockets and those of their covert paymasters. Brexit being the most obvious example; they are perfectly happy to very knowingly trash the country’s economic future and even break up the UK structure itself for internal party gain/their disaster capitalist backers. I’d argue they were actually treasonous. Thatcher never was.

 

[matt j]

It's utterly ridiculous that you can't see the stupidity of your statement "I just get on with it by myself"

No matter how enterprising, determined, talented or resourceful you are, government policies will have an impact on your life.

Every time a school has to make cutbacks that directly affects someone's child.

Every time the NHS waiting lists get longer, the chances increase that a member of your family or mine waits longer for a diagnosis that could prevent them dying from cancer.

Every time there are cutbacks in social care, the likelihood of someone's elderly parents suffering increase.

Labour's last manifesto contained no Mickey Mouse promises. It was a carefully considered (and fully costed) set of proposals to get us out of the mess caused by Tory dogma and pointless austerity.

At my time of life and in my current financial situation there's only one real way a Tory government could adversely affect me and that's a ruse in the state pension age. They've already done it and will undoubtedly do it again. For oeople like yourself however, a Labour government with policies for the many could have a life changing effect on you. The fact you can't see that is sad.

Since when do parties bother implementing manifestos? They're just shiny things they wave under people's noses to win votes.

Parties pledge things all the bloody time and then change their mind two months later when an idea doesn't look good in the polls.

I'm really not interested, I'll more than likely not vote next time and haven't always voted in the past.

 

[tiggers]

House buying has been out of the realms of most normal folk for nearly 20 years, it started with Labour..

I've read some crap on forums in my lifetime, but this nonsense takes the biscuit! You're either too young and too misinformed to know the truth or you're just one of those extreme politics nutters that think everything one party does is right and everything else every other parties do is wrong which is a long winded way of saying you're .... no, I'd better remain polite!

 

[NeilR]

Thatcher at least had a vision and was genuinely on the side of small business. It is since that point that the Conservatives have been reduced to purely being a front for disaster capitalists, asset strippers and global tax evading corporate giants.

Don’t forget racists.

 

[ks.234]

I

It seems criticising Labour automatically makes you a Tory by default, I like this internet politics bollocks, it's a right laugh.

Of course I know that Labour was "New" Labour, and how many are still in it? Did we not have old Labour, how did they get on?

Judging by the PFM retirement thread, I find it hilarious that most of the PFM left wing mafia retired in their 50s, benefiting from cheap houses and golden pensions, presumably all acquired under Tory governments lol.

I think you’ll have to go back to post war years to find a Tory government investing large scale in social housing. Pensions, golden or otherwise, were gotten by much maligned unions rather than given out by a Tory government with a social conscience (and we haven’t had one of those since the Jurassic)

 

[ff1d1l]

Agreed, though there genuinely were no jobs. I remember queues right round the dole office and job centres. The dole office actually had riot-glass between the counter and the signer and I regularly saw chairs etc bouncing off it folk were just so desperate and frustrated (never me!). It was an awful time, though I found a niche or two and survived. The only good thing at that time was Thatcher’s ‘Enterprise Allowance Scheme’. That one kick-started a surprising number of little counterculture projects (alternative shops, record labels etc).

Viz comic...