But that just highlights another problem with the current system. The worst offenders in the expenses fiasco have safe seats. Even the one Lib Dem MP to have made some questionable claims - Lembit Opik - knows that he represents a constituency that has returned a Liberal or Lib Dem MP in every election but one for the last 100 years.

 

The current system does not allow people to vote against an individual MP. They have to vote against the party.

Liberal/Lib Dem and Conservative have been the only two winners of my constituency since the 1800's.

 

Former PM Herbert Henry Asquith held the East Fife seat from 1886-1918 when the seat was won my the torries for the first time.

 

In 1983 Fife's constituency's were reformed and East Fife became NE Fife, The Torries won with 46.1% with Ming C coming 2nd with 40.2%

 

The Liberals reversed that and Ming C has held our seat ever since the 1987 election and since 1997 has won with over 50% of the vote.

Liberal/Lib Dem and Conservative have been the only two winners of my constituency since the 1800's.

 

Former PM Herbert Henry Asquith held the East Fife seat from 1886-1918 when the seat was won my the torries for the first time.

 

In 1983 Fife's constituency's were reformed and East Fife became NE Fife, The Torries won with 46.1% with Ming C coming 2nd with 40.2%

 

The Liberals reversed that and Ming C has held our seat ever since the 1987 election and since 1997 has won with over 50% of the vote.

But my point is that Opik's seat (Montgomeryshire) has returned a Liberal / Lib Dem in every election since 1900 with the single exception of 1979. Fife NE was a Tory constituency for a long time before Ming Campbell won it. It looks like a very safe seat now but when Campbell first won it he couldn't just assume that the result was a foregone conclusion. The worst offenders in the expenses saga were the ones who knew they would win the seat from the moment they were first selected as a candidate.

But my point is that Opik's seat (Montgomeryshire) has returned a Liberal / Lib Dem in every election since 1900 with the single exception of 1979. Fife NE was a Tory constituency for a long time before Ming Campbell won it. It looks like a very safe seat now but when Campbell first won it he couldn't just assume that the result was a foregone conclusion. The worst offenders in the expenses saga were the ones who knew they would win the seat from the moment they were first selected as a candidate.

Don't get me wrong, i wasn't disputing your point. I was agreeing and trying to back it up.

 

It's a very safe seat right now, the winning margin is over 12,000 votes which is huge given the population in my highly rural region. Luckily Ming C wasn't too bad in the expenses scandal, from what i know anyway, but safe seats have given complacency to politicians.

 

The labour heartland of the central and southern fife constituency's are being taken over by Lib Dem and the SNP after years of voting labour. The current exception being Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath - Gordon Browns seat, previously a very safe seat, but one he could lose to the SNP in the coming election.

 

I hope to see the 'safe' seats shook up a bit, i agree that we should be taking each candidate on merit rather than their party. At the end of the day we are supposed to be choosing someone who best represents our views in parliament, not whatever party we want regardless of their manifesto.

 

 

I will vote Ming C/Lib Dem because i believe he is good for our region, The candidates fielded by the other parties lack something as well. And the SNP has that one thing i can't stand, their stance on Independence.

 

Pledge 2: Tudor-style execution of Simon Cowell.

This would be desperately unfair on Cowell, who would be arrested, held in the Tower of London, and beheaded on live television should Labour get back in. No matter how low your opinion of Britain's Got Talent, the man has clearly done nothing to deserve that kind of extreme treatment. But extreme treatment grabs headlines. And the recent Christmas chart triumph of Rage Against the Machine over Joe McElderry's X Factor single indicates a hitherto-untapped, steadily expanding groundswell of anti-Cowell discontent which a cynical and desperate party could exploit for its own nefarious ends. Barbaric and cynical, yes – but on balance marginally more humane than scapegoating an entire minority and establishing death camps or anything quite as horrible like that.

 

Poster: Photoshop of Cowell's head on pole. Slogan: "BRITAIN'S GOT PAYBACK."

 

Hell even I would vote Labour ahead of conservative if that was in their manifesto :cheer:

But that's where the Tories - particularly under Thatcher were so inconsistent. They kept banging on about how debt was a terrible thing but, at the same time, encouraged people to take on massive debt in the form of a mortgage. Of course it should also be remembered that in John Major's time as PM the national debt more than doubled. Labour reduced that substantially in their early years before seeing it rise again to its present levels - a level which is high in recent terms but not if you measure it against the standards of earlier centuries.

 

With pure saving, it's impossible for people to own a house either. Moreover, do you sincerely believe that Margaret Thatcher wanted to bankrupt you with debt? She decided to reform the economy so people can aspire to improve their living standard by hard work and thrift, instead of flaunting and showing-off their wealth. She saw people having a right to own a house and if getting credit is the affordable way to do it, then why not?

 

However, it's easier to know what you are freeing them from than why you are freeing them for.

 

Nowadays, small and big businesses depended on credit to run and/or expand their operations. Who are you to say that a business borrowing money is a bad thing?

 

A football club is a completely different proposition to a country's economy! :rolleyes: By the standards of the Conservatives, who believe debt is ALWAYS A BAD THING, Japan, Germany and the USA have all been broken nations for the past few decades due to having a public debt of close to or far past 100% of national GDP. What that debt is spent on is key: like I said, debt isn't always a bad thing in an economy. It is no argument to say that debt is always a bad thing then to point out one nation where it is seemingly a bad thing!

 

Again, those weren't loans to save an economy! Those loans went straight into a war effort, which didn't recoup any money...

 

But do you know what happens when government borrows too much? They will crowd-out the private sector which needs credit to do business all the time as there are only so much money to go around in the economy. When government has to start repaying their debt, they either increase taxes or cut expenditure or both. If those methods can't save them, then government is really in trouble, let alone the interest payment, which will become a drain in your fiscal budget.

 

Also, the GFC happened because of too much debt having lent to those people who can't repay the debt in the first place.

 

Ah well, I may sound naive in the comments above, feel free to punch to me if you feel like doing it. :P

But do you know what happens when government borrows too much? They will crowd-out the private sector which needs credit to do business all the time as there is only so much money to go around in the economy. When government has to start repaying their debt, they either increase taxes or cut expenditure or both. If those methods can't save them, then government is really in trouble, let alone the interest payment, which will become a drain in your fiscal budget.

 

Also, the GFC happened because of too much debt having lent to those people who can't repay the debt in the first place.

 

Ah well, I may sound naive in the comments above, feel free to punch to me if you feel like doing it. :P

I know the GFC happened because of too much debt being lent to people who couldn't repay it in the first place, but a person isn't a government! :P The essential theory is that when demand collapses the government steps in and funds in whatever way it can to stimulate growth, in order to repay the debt, otherwise the demand collapse spirals out of control as supply is cut to reach the lack of demand, which in turn leads to less demand...the way you go about spending the debt accrued by stimulating the economy is the key point. Labour hit upon a fabulous idea with the scrappage scheme, but ultimately that was just one small sector of the economy and they really lacked inspiration with other ideas...but that's for another rant of mine :P

 

The point was to stimulate growth to a point where the taxes could be easily handled, rather than have our economy destroyed. Cutting expenditure (at any point in the next three/four years in the UK) is a foolish idea as it removes the governmental aspect of meeting the shortfall, and we go back into the demand spiral...which is what happened in 1937. Clearly Osborne is unfamiliar with his essential economic history.

I partly agree with you. But debt is debt and you have to pay it back and government is no exception.

I won't be so mean as to PM you on the day after the election when me and B.A. are proved right and Cameron has a good majority. One poll just out for Political Betting showing them at 40% and Labour 24%!! Dream on about a hung parliament but it ain't gonna happen. Do you go on any political sites or forums like I do or is your prediction of a hung parliament just wishful thinking? :rolleyes:

How things change in the space of a year...

No as they're an irrelevance and have no chance of forming a Government. A Lib-Dem vote then is a wasted vote. Plus their leader is a nobody. The Conservatives will form the next Government with a good majority and the Lib Dems will have fewer seats than they have now.

 

He just about mangled a reasonable prediction right at the end but the first sentence made me laugh :lol:

In fairness, Craig was right when he said the Lib Dems would never have any power.

In fairness, Craig was right when he said the Lib Dems would never have any power.

HEATHROW CIVIL LIBERTIES PRISONS LIFTING PEOPLE OUT OF TAX!!!!11