Politics, The Election May 2015

[Beefheart]

it's all conclusive proof that they are just ordinary blokes interested in ordinary peoples' lives...

(am still chuckling to myself about Dave's "I'm an ordinary bloke who passionately supports a football team like other ordinary blokes might do... West Ham? errr.. Villa??? oh - feck - I totally forgot which one I passionately support like any ordinary bloke might do...")

Farage - look I'm an ordinary bloke who drinks pints and slags off immigrants
Cameron - look I'm an ordinary bloke who supports West Ham Villa - oh - and I eat pasties at train stations (honest! err..)
Milliband - look I'm an ordinary bloke who eats bacon butties in the kitchen
Clegg - look at me - an ordinary casual bloke in a jumper, not a suit and tie like those un-ordinary blokes

The best Cameron one was 'How much is a loaf of bread?' 'Err actually I use a bread maker at home'. Although not as bad as Mandelson asking for guacamole in a chip shop on the campaign trail after failing to recognise mushy peas. I'd be fecked if I was a politician with those questions. I reckon a load of bread is about a pound, but I never buy milk or eggs.

I wish they didn't feel the need to pretend the like football, how does that have any bearing on their ability to be Prime Minister? We all know you like polo or shooting peasants or whatever, why pretend? I think at least Miliband admits to being a baseball fan, and if he claims to like football I haven't seen that.

[Hoboh]

Yes, I am an ex-city boy telling you the reason there's no money is immigrants.

Yes I am the leader of a party made up of ex-Tory members funded almost entirely by ex-Tory funders telling you the problem is the political establishment.

Proves how little you know, round here most are and have been Labour for a long time and everyone I know with the odd exception is voting UKIP but keep it up socialist boy you may believe yourself one day.

[Beefheart]

That doesn't change the facts about Farage.

[Prufrock]

Yes, I am an ex-city boy telling you the reason there's no money is immigrants.

Yes I am the leader of a party made up of ex-Tory members funded almost entirely by ex-Tory funders telling you the problem is the political establishment.

Proves how little you know, round here most are and have been Labour for a long time and everyone I know with the odd exception is voting UKIP but keep it up socialist boy you may believe yourself one day.

Party treasurer - Stuart Wheeler - in 2001 made what is still the largest political donation in UK history, £5m to ...the Tories.
Deputy Chairman - Neil Hamilton - ex-Tory MP

UKIP's two MPs came from where?

Six of the 13 MEPs used to be Tories.

Dozens of councillors are Tory defectors.

It's just a Tory splinter party.

Michael Howard will tell you that the public didn't want them then, and we'll see very soon that they don't now.

Plenty of ex-Labour voters in the North, but they aren't the people with influence.

[thebish]

The best Cameron one was 'How much is a loaf of bread?' 'Err actually I use a bread maker at home'. Although not as bad as Mandelson asking for guacamole in a chip shop on the campaign trail after failing to recognise mushy peas. I'd be fecked if I was a politician with those questions. I reckon a load of bread is about a pound, but I never buy milk or eggs.

Mandy used to be my MP in Hartlepool... a local party official who I was quite friendly with told me that the "Guacomole Dip" story was actually a story put about by Mandelson himself for some bizarre reason, as a kind of self-parody!

actually - all said and done - he was a very good local MP...

[Lord Kangana]

I buy bread and I couldn't tell you the price of it - partly because it varies from shop to shop, and what type of loaf are you talking about anyway? Its a vacuous, meaningless question.

However, I'm not sure that I've ever been pissed enough or tired enough to ever forget who i support. Which, as bish has pointed out, is the problem with politicians always trying to be everymen. Blair's strange way of holding his mug of tea used to make my f*cking teeth itch because it was so obviously put on for the cameras. Obviously secondary to him declaring war based on a pack of lies, but you know, up there.

[KeyserSoze]

Has Cameron ACTUALLY promised to ban tax rises until 2020? Really?

[thebish]

Has Cameron ACTUALLY promised to ban tax rises until 2020? Really?

aye - he has promised an actual LAW to ban rises in income tax rates, VAT or national insurance before 2020..

which seems to me to be a bizarre use of the legal system!

if the tories get in and raise VAT (like last time) - will they ALL go to prison - or just Osborne - or just the cabinet?? how the feck does that work? If it's a fine - who pays it - the UK tax payer, big Dave himself???

[Prufrock]

Nothing happens. If Parliament decides that suddenly we need to raise taxes, it passes a law to raise taxes. Taxes go up.

[Bruce Rioja]

I haven't a bloody clue how much a loaf costs, or indeed the price of anything else that I decide to buy on the Friday BIG shop. And I certainly couldn't tell you the price of a pastie be it from Gregg's, Carr's, that overrated place on Churchgate or anywhere else. Is the Bullingdon Club allowing outsiders to join these days?

[Prufrock]

Why don't any of them say that? No-one knows how each of those things are. I'd love Cameron to say "I don't know, I'm too busy running the country to do the shopping". I'd feel far more relieved than thinking he bought his own milk in order to take a break from chillaxing supporting Burnley.

[Lord Kangana]

Scunthorpe, surely?

[Hoboh]

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury, has taken the extraordinary step of lifting the lid on Tory plans for an £8bn plan to cut welfare, including slashing child benefits and child tax credits.

Alexander reveals that in June 2012, members of the Quad – the inner group of the four most senior cabinet members – were sent a paper by the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith entitled “Welfare Reform Quad Summer Reading Pack” setting out plans for £8bn of welfare reforms.

The proposed cuts included:

Limiting support to 2 children in child benefit and child tax credit, so cutting up to £3,500 from a family with three children.
Removing the higher rate child benefit from the first child, an average cut of over £360 for every family with children.
Means testing child benefit – cutting £1,750 for a two child middle income family
Removing child benefit from 16 to 19 year olds – a cut of over £1,000 for parents of a single child.

Don't see much wrong there actually, not the shock the Guardian seems to think.

[Gary the Enfield]

Scunthorpe, surely?

He lent his name to the same......

[Bruce Rioja]

Oh dear, Boris (though I do see him forming either an E major or an A minor there )

[Prufrock]

Boris was confused because no matter how much effort he made distinguishing between the fingering of E Major and A Minor (establishment member fingers A Minor?!), they still sounded the same !

[Gary the Enfield]

He apparently dampens G strings all over the Capital.

Bonking Boris!

[TANGODANCER]

Is it a really terrible confession to say I'm not going to vote quite simply because I don't know who to vote for?

For quite a long time I've had no confidence in a government, that I see as claiming to be concerned with the welfare of Britain and its people, being nothing more than squabbling power seekers who talk the talk starting on day one when a new lot get in the building. What have we really learned from a long history of supposedly inteligent "politicians" (in effect nothing more than a hollow-sounding title) who are no nearer agreement than when Oliver Cromwell left? The same concerned leaders have managed to sell off every facet of responsibility to private enterprise moguls and left the people paying the price and carrying the can.

Our own town is a shining example: A new interchange costing a fortune and that little work has been done on in the last twelve months, to do what? The existing one is already bigger than Bury's, a town showing us how it should be done, and it won't bring in visitors because there's nothing to visit outside of a museum, a decent theatre and a few out of town historic sites. There are more shutters than shop windows in sight and the "shops" (I use the term very loosely) comprise charity outlets, fast food suppliers and nail and tanning salons. Oh, I forgot the pawn shops and money lenders. This isn't just repetition, it's the reality of Bolton. I know because I go into town every week and see it. Our most interesting feature after the Town Hall is a fish and chip restaurant.

It's a depressing place to be. We've managed to knock down any decent buildings with character, cock up the water park, turn the central Market Place into a desert and make the rents on all the shops high enough to empty them. On the good side, we have a top-class (I think) skateboard park and Morrisons have expanded to include a petrol station. Just what every town centre needs. I could add we've manage to have a football club that's millions in debt and miles away from Bolton, but I'm not quite sure who to blame for that.

Maybe a candidate will emerge next time who sounds like they may be interested in people as someting more than crosses on a bit of carboard. That's why I'm not bothering. Always best to do that rather than just voting for voting's sake and the fact that everyone else might be.

Rant over.

[Harry Genshaw]

I keep hearing young people aren't engaged in politics but I'm hearing more and more from old gimmers like Tango that they're weary with it all too. Lowest turn out ever this time?

[Bruce Rioja]

See, this is why we need a 'none of the above' option.