The United Kingdom Elections 2010

[rory_20_uk]

I am wondering why will give around 2.7 of our GDP as "Foriegn Aid". 2% GDP was considered "Harsh Treatment" for Reperations by the Germans after World War 1. All parties except for the BNP want to increase it as well.

Anyone got any explanation for it?

We should give nothing as a hand out any more. Things have changed over the last 50 years. There are now such things as bond markets that can be tapped by both countries and companies. Rather than create synthetic economies reliant on money to be thrown at them (or in many cases, just to be stolen) if the ability to get money was directly linked to the perceived likelihood of getting it back this would help clean up governments much faster than our current limp wristed whinging.

The UK has had in the recent past to go gap in hand to the IMF - and let's sit back and watch Europe do so. If countries want money, go to the IMF with a plan, no expect an open chequebook from countries who are also broke.

[al Roumi]

It's going to be interesting to see what explaination the parties have when they cut benefits and pensions but keep OSD at it's present level.

Vote for me and I will slash your benefits but on the other hand give squillions to the poor in Africa/Asia/ etc. etc.

If they actually go down this path expect a huge surge in BNP voting patterns.

The politicos truly do live on another planet. Idiots.

We should give nothing as a hand out any more. Things have changed over the last 50 years. There are now such things as bond markets that can be tapped by both countries and companies. Rather than create synthetic economies reliant on money to be thrown at them (or in many cases, just to be stolen) if the ability to get money was directly linked to the perceived likelihood of getting it back this would help clean up governments much faster than our current limp wristed whinging.

The UK has had in the recent past to go gap in hand to the IMF - and let's sit back and watch Europe do so. If countries want money, go to the IMF with a plan, no expect an open chequebook from countries who are also broke.

I don't want to appear like a development stooge here but DFID's website has some background on why they do what they do...

The UNDP website also lists more on each MDG and progress to meeting them.

Edit: Btw, I think its about 1/6th of the world's population that lives on less than $1.25 a day, that's 1 billion people...

[Beskar]

I don't want to appear like a development stooge here but DFID's website has some background on why they do what they do...

The UNDP website also lists more on each MDG and progress to meeting them.

At least it is better than just throwing money at the problem.

[Mooks]

Whoever british people vote for, next year they will be complaining about how they are taking away their rights and destroying the country. And how corrupt and generally awful they are, and how ANYONE could of voted for such a moron.

I know, because its been happening ever since I remember. O, and the guy you elect will also be America's female dog....again.

[Beskar]

Should elect me, because I am different. The irony is, because I am different, I am unelectable.

[Furunculus]

lol, true, but its part of the british condition to have little respect for the state, and possibly one of the reasons why we get worse results out of state spending than some continental countries.

brown is going to suffer on polling day for his remark, there are too many working class traditional labour voters for whom immigration is a 'problem', and to see their concerns so callously bad-mouthed by the man who is supposed to care for them is going to make the coming apocalypse even worse.

many of these labour voters probably are disaffected anyway, and might well have transitioned much of that vote to the lib-dems prior to this remark. that won't be happening now.

the ones that have no alternative to labour simply won't vote.
the ones looking elsewhere may well drift BNP now.

[InsaneApache]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

By the time we got to Wolverhampton, the Prescott Express passed 3,000 miles and our 35th constituency visit in 21 days. I finished off with a meeting with Unite shop stewards and a stump speech in the town centre.

So I only just discovered in the last hour or so what happened to Gordon. While the media are concentrating on what he said and the apology, the real story is how and why it happened.

Yet again, the dying Murdoch empire is doing all it can to influence a British election. First, Murdoch's News of the World editor Andy Coulson joined Cameron – to use the same tricks for the Conservatives that his old newspaper employed.

Then the Sun came out for the Tories during our conference. What an effect that had! The Tories have seen their poll rating go from 41% poll to 33%!

So then the News of the World backed the Tories. Effect? Nothing!

Murdoch's son James and News International head (and former Sun Editor) Rebekah Brooks then resorted to bullying the editor of the Independent (oh, the irony) in his own office to stop him criticising daddy!

But today, the Murdoch family reached a new low in their desperate attempt to turn the election for the Tories. News International's Sky News broadcast a private conversation between Gordon and his staff.

The very same News International that hacked hundreds of phones and saw one of their reporters jailed after listening and publishing conversations involving the Royal Family.

The News of the World and its then editor, Andy Coulson, claimed it was a "rogue reporter" and that Cameron's spin doctor knew nothing about it. Yet they paid over £1m to Gordon Taylor and Max Clifford to buy their silence.

What Murdoch's Sky News did today was just as bad as his paper's phone-hacking. It was a breach of privacy. It was underhand. And it was done in the pursuit of ratings and political influence.

So let's show them that Britain is not for sale. That an Australian with an American passport cannot buy our general election.

And I'll be the first to proudly proclaim on 7 May, "It's the Sun Wot Lost It."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...-john-prescott

No mate, you lot have been rumbled good and proper.

[Furunculus]

all this waffle about the news of the world is entirely besides the point.

[CountArach]

The next couple of days worth of polling will be interesting, if only to see where Labour voters flee to.

A new poll is out showing that the Lib Dems are getting a decent swing where they need it and are now polling remarkably well in their marginal seats (though their swing appears to be mostly in non-marginal seats), most markedly in the Labour-held ones. They are going to take seats from the Tories, but they are going to take even more from Labour if this poll is correct.

[Furunculus]

apparently the best lay-mans break down of the IFS study into the parties fiscal plans:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance...al-knockabout/

[Louis VI the Fat]

YOU'VE ALL BEEN HAD BY MURDOCH BROWN DID NOT SAY BIGOTED HE SAID DUFFY IS 'A BIGHEARTED WOMAN'



maybe not

[InsaneApache]

Apparently Labour are going to nail Mrs. Duffy to her front door with six inch nails should they win the election. Well following labours logic here, if they don't expressly rule it out, then they mean to do it.