The Good News thread, local jobs, economy etc

[Guest MattP]

The Green party were of real interest to me until I watched the Sunday politics. Natalie bennett seems to be genuinely clueless and deluded.

It was incredible a party leader could know so little about her parties policy.

It's almost as if when it was read out loud she started to realise how ridiculous it sounded but couldn't deny it as it was all there in black and white.

They have been campaigning to be included in the leaders debates and it's the worst thing they could do looking at that, they'll humiliate themselves in front of the nation.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Do you think that there's an element of parties that haven't got a (realistic) chance of power not bothering with the nitty-gritty, and make do with promoting their broad principles?  After all, what's the point of devoting a lot of time, effort and money to coming up with a plan that you're never going to get the chance to actually put in place?

 

A lot has been made of UKIP's haphazard approach to actual policy, but this doesn't seem to be a big issue for those that would vote for them, those lovable rascals.

 

I suspect you can apply the same to the Green Party's support - they won't get in in a month of Sundays (and we all know this) so you're not voting for them because of what they would do if in government, but what they might contribute to debates in the House of Commons, how they would likely vote on issues and the influence they might yield if part of a coalition government, of which they'd only form a small part.

 

Therefore, you might as well vote for me.  I haven't got time for detail, but I'm a nice bloke and will do my best

[Webbo]

Indeed. It's rather similar to how the hard and soft right get so conflicted about the idea of the market. Yes, it should be a free market and individualism along with nationalism should reign supreme, but no, we can't allow these big banks to fail or bring these multinational corporations to heel when they don't pay their taxes and put smaller merchandisers out of business - that wouldn't be right!

 

Lack of consistency is not a one-ideology problem, oddly enough.

It was Labour that bailed out the banks.

[Guest MattP]

It was Labour that bailed out the banks.

It's absolutely amazing how many seem to forget that.

BelSeb - of course they are all promising things they can't keep too but if they are going to be involved in debates and be parties claiming to want to hold a balance of power they have to answer seriously.

The green party manifesto at the minute is the most dangerous political literature I've read since some of the old NF stuff.

[MooseBreath]

It was Labour that bailed out the banks.

And it's the tories who are actively taking tax avoidance seriously, as per davieg post earlier.

[sphericalfox]

It was Labour that bailed out the banks.

 

Pretty certain they were the government in power, yes. But I think you'll find there was cross party support from all corners for the bailout.

[Webbo]

Pretty certain they were the government in power, yes. But I think you'll find there was cross party support from all corners for the bailout.

Possibly, but you can't blame the tories for Labour's decisions.

[sphericalfox]

Possibly, but you can't blame the tories for Labour's decisions.

 

Possibly? Horseshit. You made a statement leaving out a wealth (excuse the pun) of important facts. There was unanimous support for the bailout across ALL parties. Essentially if the Tories had been in power they would have done the same thing. If you really want to go back over details, you might want to consider that the Tory's started the mess in the first place in the Thatcher era.

[sphericalfox]

Have a watch of this. Probably a documentary that should be shown in schools to teach them where it went tits up

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04yn2yq/the-superrich-and-us-episode-2

[Webbo]

Possibly? Horseshit. You made a statement leaving out a wealth (excuse the pun) of important facts. There was unanimous support for the bailout across ALL parties. Essentially if the Tories had been in power they would have done the same thing. If you really want to go back over details, you might want to consider that the Tory's started the mess in the first place in the Thatcher era.

And if the tories had been in power and done that then you would no doubt be blaming them, saying they gave our money to their rich mates, whether there was cross party support or not. As for the Mrs T thing, really? Gordon Brown did a hell of a lot of deregulation, created the financial services regulator and encouraged the casino banking. He certainly wasn't blaming them when he was spending the taxes they were generating.

 

Is there anything bad that's ever happened that wasn't Mrs Thatcher's fault?

[SMX11]

The majority of the conservatives wanted to bail the bankers out. They are all crony capitalists.

Would have been interesting to see if we followed what Iceland did. They are in a pretty good position.

Edited 26 January 2015 by SMX11

[sphericalfox]

And if the tories had been in power and done that then you would no doubt be blaming them, saying they gave our money to their rich mates, whether there was cross party support or not. As for the Mrs T thing, really? Gordon Brown did a hell of a lot of deregulation, created the financial services regulator and encouraged the casino banking. He certainly wasn't blaming them when he was spending the taxes they were generating.

 

Is there anything bad that's ever happened that wasn't Mrs Thatcher's fault?

 

Watch the video, and come back and we'll discuss. No doubt the lefty Beeb will have only constructed made-up facts, but if you base the conversation on that myth, we might as well finish it with this post.

[Webbo]

Watch the video, and come back and we'll discuss. No doubt the lefty Beeb will have only constructed made-up facts, but if you base the conversation on that myth, we might as well finish it with this post.

It's one person's opinion, it's not fact.

[Webbo]

The majority of the conservatives wanted to bail the bankers out. They are all crony capitalists.

Would have been interesting to see if we followed what Iceland did. They are in a pretty good position.

The British and the Dutch seized their assets.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1076854/Government-seizes-4bn-Icelands-assets-battle-3bn-British-savings-held-failed-banks.html 

 

You can't just welsh on your debts and expect to get away with it.

[sphericalfox]

It's one person's opinion, it's not fact.

 

Funnily enough it's an opinion that is shared, not just one journalist doing an editorial piece. In fact, ask any non-politically biased economist, and it'll pretty much back most if not all of that documentary. Have you watched it already then?

[Webbo]

Funnily enough it's an opinion that is shared, not just one journalist doing an editorial piece. In fact, ask any non-politically biased economist, and it'll pretty much back most if not all of that documentary. Have you watched it already then?

No, I couldn't be bothered. It was discussed on the radio though and the non-politically biased economist said it was rubbish. The programme maker who was also on the show was blatantly not politically neutral.

Edited 26 January 2015 by Webbo

[sphericalfox]

No, I couldn't be bothered. It was discussed on the radio though and the non-politically biased economist said it was rubbish. The programme maker who was also on the show was blatantly not politically neutral.

 

What was the economist's name that rubbished it?

 

So you 'can't be bothered' to watch it.   Brilliant Webbo, I like it when people draw their opinions solely on others opinions rather than their own first hand account.

Edited 26 January 2015 by sphericalfox

[Webbo]

What was the economist's name that rubbished it?

I can't remember, it was about a fortnight ago. It was the Jeremy Vine show if you can be bothered to look it up.

[sphericalfox]

I can't remember, it was about a fortnight ago. It was the Jeremy Vine show if you can be bothered to look it up.

 

Can't be bothered. 

[MooseBreath]

Have a watch of this. Probably a documentary that should be shown in schools to teach them where it went tits up

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04yn2yq/the-superrich-and-us-episode-2

I watched that when it aired and I'm pretty sure they didn't blame Thatcher for the credit crunch that led to the 'bail outs'. They did mention Thatcher but they were talking about inequality which is a separate issue.

[sphericalfox]

I watched that when it aired and I'm pretty sure they didn't blame Thatcher for the credit crunch that led to the 'bail outs'. They did mention Thatcher but they were talking about inequality which is a separate issue.

 

I fairly certain, they made the point that Thatcher's government laid the foundation for the banking crisis, not the bail out.

[Webbo]

What was the economist's name that rubbished it?

 

So you 'can't be bothered' to watch it.   Brilliant Webbo, I like it when people draw their opinions solely on others opinions rather than their own first hand account.

Tell you what, you read the Daily Mail opinion pieces and then explain to me why they're wrong. I've got better things to do than watch some politically motivated shit stirrer tell me how terrible everything is.

[sphericalfox]

Tell you what, you read the Daily Mail opinion pieces and then explain to me why they're wrong. I've got better things to do than watch some politically motivated shit stirrer tell me how terrible everything is.

 

. 

 

 

Webbo, I have read tons of the wind-up Tory bollox on here and elsewhere. Keep calm and maintain that line. Resolute to the end! 

[MooseBreath]

I fairly certain, they made the point that Thatcher's government laid the foundation for the banking crisis, not the bail out.

Well given that the whole thing started in the US, i doubt that.

[Guest MattP]

Have a watch of this. Probably a documentary that should be shown in schools to teach them where it went tits up

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04yn2yq/the-superrich-and-us-episode-2

Grow up. The days of you lot indoctrinating children with your warped left wing anti Tory rhetoric has gone.

I watched the program and you were drawing your own conclusions if you thought Thatcher was being blamed for it all, they made a lot of points about a lot of inequality that stemmed from that time but I took a different message from it than you did.