That is letting him off far too easily. He didn't make a passing comment about us retaining our AAA rating. He said it was what you could judge his policies on. There is no other way to call it other than he has failed by his own measure. [iWhy[/i he failed doesn't even matter because if he was such a bloody genius we would still have the AAA rating.

What he is good at, as is the Coalition spin machine, is coming up with all sorts of rubbish to say black is white. As Mintball pointed out he is now saying losing the rating just proves he was right all along. This just shows how far we have sunk as a society because Mintball is also correct in saying most people will swallow it. Even if that were true it doesn't alter the fact that IMO he should resign or be sacked. You can't miss one of your key economic targets, twist it to say it proves your point anyway and have any credibility left.

Perhaps we could persuade Frankie Boyle to form his own party and hopefully hold the balance of power like in Italy. Would replace one joke of a party with a joker party.

You still haven't explained what "properly" means in this context.

he's busy forming a list of "those minorities"

Colloquialism. If you want more precise language - not cutting anywhere deeply enough.

If he cut any deeper he might have a few of us stopping in our tracks and asking "Hang on, just exactly why are we paying our taxes if we aren't getting any public services ?"

Paying the finance costs of the debt has become a new public service.

Which is another idiotic statement that is either intended purely to wind people up or, if a genuine reflection of views sincerely held, reveals a chronic lack of understanding of such matters.

Mind, it's been said more than once that trolls always have at least some sympathy with the extreme views that they extol ...

Cameron will get his 2nd term. Democracy is an illusion.

Can you please explain your statement? It seems nonsensical and to bear no relation to my post.

You are a troll, an idiot or a bit of both.
Simple enough for you?

I was asking Mintball a perfectly reasonable question.

Not sure why you feel obliged to write such juvenile stuff. Go play with your Star Wars figures there's a good lad.

I saved her a job and answered you for her.

I am trying to understand this bit of what she wrote:

"Which is another idiotic statement that is either intended purely to wind people up or, if a genuine reflection of views sincerely held, reveals a chronic lack of understanding of such matters."

It makes absolutely no sense in the context of what I wrote.

Also what are the "matters" of which I spoke that Mintball believes she has a superior understanding of?

I read today that Cameron said in PMQs that the loss of AAA meant that cuts would need to be further and faster.

I don't think even Cameron actually believes anything he says nowadays..... His austerity policy lost all credibility quite a while back, and it only continues because he hasn't the balls to stop it running out of control and totally fooking this nation up.

This government is truly the worst in my living memory and there have been some poor ones.

To get away from Dally's pretence at understanding that about which he pontificates - he lost any credibility in that field a long time ago -and to get back to the subject of the politics of the country.

I'm 48. I started voting during the early 80s when the Conservative party were in power and have voted in every single election, at whatever level, since. I believe it to be a fundamental plank of the British society.
I've never voted Conservative and never will. I see that despite their protestations they only truly represent a small part of the population, those with land and money.
I've been a swing voter between the other two all my life, alternating between Labour and Liberal/LibDem depending on which I felt reflected my views most honestly.
In recent years - probably since about 1990 - I've consistently voted LibDem as I felt i couldn't trust Blair, or laterly Brown as I didn't see them as representing anything other then a very small area of interest to them.
Now I can't see myself voting in the next election. Tories? No, they've dragged us to the bottom of the gutter than the Labour party dropped us into. LibDem? Nope, they've destroyed any credibility they had. Labour? See first comment. UKIP? Hahahahahahahahah.... A joke party that will implode after the next election, or when Farange walks away. Whichever comes first.

I honestly don't see a viable party in British politics any more.

Sounds like you should set up a party to reflect your views.

I think we should brace ourselves for some serious cuts in public spending: www.cityam.com/article/loss-uk-s ... e-sterling and, Cameron's response to the ratings downgrade: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -32891961/

I think we should brace ourselves for some serious cuts in public spending: www.cityam.com/article/loss-uk-s ... e-sterling and, Cameron's response to the ratings downgrade: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -32891961/

Your experience is remarkably similar to mine over almost the exact same period of time (I'm 50). I can't currently see myself voting for any of the three main parties and most of the fringe parties are either deeply unpleasant or pointless. Often both.

I'm going to have to find one somewhere though. I can't bring myself to abstain in a General Election.

In which case vote for a minority party whose key message is something you believe in (eg Green if you are concerned with the natural world / environment, UKIP if you are anti-EU, etc). Do not consider it a wasted vote.

I'm going to be voting Labour, probably. I have only ever voted Labour or Lib Dem, and the Lib Dems will never get another vote from me at any level.

I don't think Labour did too much wrong domestically during the Blair/Brown years, if you conveniently forget about the whole Iraq kerfuffle. The [uglobal[/u financial collapse caught most people/governments with their pants down, and it'd have been just as severe for the people of this country under any colour of government. I do think the Labour party would have been far less inclined to use the disaster to drive through an unpleasant ideological agenda of raping the poor, though. So, on that basis alone, I'll probably vote for them.

They did nothing to halt the privatisation and deregulation agenda of the Conservative years, though. They did, as many have pointed out, effectively build the bridge that is now allowing the current government to dismantle the NHS.

They didn't start these processes, but they continued them.

So for instance, we now have the government intending to close down the A&E and maternity departments at a massive hospital like Lewisham – because three PFI hospitals in a different hospital trust area are in massive, massive financial trouble almost entirely because of PFI.

On a wider level, we have a mainstream political class that, if not ideologically wedded to neo-liberal extremism, is terrified of upsetting big business and the bulk of a media that supports the supranational corporatocracy and its agenda, and hysterically spreads lies and knee-jerking myth to back that up.

And thus, unfortunately, to larges swathes of the population that swallow this, hook, line and sinker.

Perhaps I ought to have started that sentence with, "Compared to the current government..."

I agree with your comments regarding the political class as a whole, but on balance, I still think Labour are the best of a bad bunch.

The touble is the more people who have the same view as yourself the more likely we are to get another Tory government. My Grandad was a local Labour councilor and one time Mayor in Hindley near Wigan and despite the area being a staunch Labour area he never took the Labour vote for granted. His view was that Tories always vote. There is a core of Tory support that always turns out and this in my opinion is true.

from what you have said I am pretty sure you don't believe the Labour party would continue the thinly disguised assault on the welfare state that has been undertaken under the guise of necessary austerity cuts. If we get another five years of the Tories, especially in a majority government the NHS will be well and truly a thing of the past.

Andy Burnham and his views on what he would do with the NHS is therefore in my view reason enough alone to vote Labour for anyone. The party is far from perfect and as has been pointed out "new labour" was as wedded to neocon politics as any of them but the alternative is even worse IMO.

With the first past the post system we have voting for fringe parties IS a wasted vote. We are stuck with a poor choice but I would have thought the blatant and deliberate dismantling of the welfare state undertaken by the Tories while the Lib Dems sit meekly by is enough to vote them out and the only way to do that us vote Labour.