the country is in a terrible state (read mickey wires post)the things you are on about are nice to have but not essential and things like that are taken for granted..try watching the news you`ll see not everything in this garden is so rosey

The affluence of the lucky ones, doesn't disprove the point. There are a lot of areas of the UK where there is basically no hope, no education, everyone grows up trapped in a cycle of dole and anti-social behaviour and draining everyone else's tax contributions paying for their welfare and policing costs.

For a country of our wealth, we are not using our wealth well, if we compare our public services and transport network to some of our western european neighbours we are behind the ball game. I'm not saying they are all utopias as some of them have problems with unemployment and racial tension as well, but for the comparitive advantages we have we could be doing things better.

The recession has highlighted something very worrying about the UK economy for the long term. Our economy is based on very shaky foundations. Our manufacturing industry has died, we don't really produce anything, we are based on basically pushing money around and borrowing and speculating. That's why everybody gets so panicky about taxing bankers' bonuses, because if the City of London moved out there would be nothing bringing income into the country. But when you have an economy built on high finance gambling, rather than skills, it all comes down like a pack of cards when that finance sector fails, which is why the government threw money we couldn't afford and will take years of hardship to pay back, to prop it up.

Our economy is going into a steady decline and over time we will become a much poorer country unless we address this. The only way out is to seriously invest in upskilling our workforce, not just the talkshop schemes you get from New Labour, but in seriously developing the FE and HE sector, not just pushing everybody to do a mickey mouse degree but giving them options to do a higher level of education to give them a skill which they are interested in and which will be useful to the economy.

All we are going to get from New Labour is cuts to the FE sector, cuts to the HE sector, scaling back public investment, so that there are more people lounging around on the dole and everybody else has to cough up increasingly more and more to subsidise the dead part of the economy, the people who have nothing to offer and will never be able to get work regardless of whether we send all the immigrants home or not.

Precisely my point.

true...but mickeywires point hits the nail bang on the head....all you here nowadays is bad news..and the powers that be do naff all...probably the reason why people leave for a better life and you cant blame em....maybe we are the lucky ones but theres plenty who are not so fortunate

I shall be voting Conservative - the wife says David Cameron seems a decent sort of chap and my dad says they will finally sort out the Trade Unions once and for all ...

Depends what you want to hear.

I hear about the rlIn Harmony projectrl which is uplifting and magical, offering one of the most deprived communities in the country some hope. Public funding in there too.

I see my daughters contributing to local environmental planning through their school.

I walk around Warrington town centre and see all sorts of goods being bought by all sorts of people.

I see St Benedicts church revived with a massive Sunday evening mass because of the number of Poles in the area.

Just to come back to this...

If the holocaust was about destroying a race (or races) of people who weren't Aryan, then denying its existence is racist. Why else would you deny it?

Depends what the point is. The "lucky ones" are the vast majority, and the vast majority have never had it so good, even if there are some problems for parts of the community. Now, if that minority is a concern, and it should be, then a socialist solution is the way to solve it. But that is way beyond the country being in dog poo or whatever the BNP supporter said.

Why can't we just carry on like we are doing? After all we live in a massive country, with unlimited land, a massive surplus of jobs, loads of spare housing, unlimited school places, hospital beds, wide open roads. Suerly anyone who disagrees with this is a racist.

If the BNP were solely an anti-immigration party, then your attempt at sarcasm might have some value. At least we could argue over whether stopping all immigration (and emigration??) would improve the country or not. However, they are a racist party who actually want a white (and probably Christian) country but can't say so.

I think they have actually said so.

I'm off to Pets at home tomorrow to get a few hundred guppies for my 2 foot fish tank.

If you are in Labour, shouldn't you go to the Hospital?

Good post.

I could spend all day listing racist comments/actions of the BNP, but a recent 1 which i've found is pretty disturbing.

One of our most recent Victoria Cross recipients Johnson Beharry was mocked by the BNP after receiving his medal as an "immigrant" and a mere "positive discrimination.

Those who vote for the BNP need to look beyond the glossy leaflet they get on their doorstep and decide whether you are a prepared to be tarred with all of the BNP's racist agenda.

this word racist keeps cropping up..gonna play devils advocate here with those who have a working brain cell.... how come the word racist works only one way...and who are the ones useing/playing it...

How do you play racism?????....