Sandro Raniere

No idea tbh, although i would imagine it to be illegal One of the most barmy things Ed talked about was lowering the voting age to 16 Its one of the most insane ideas I have ever heard of in politics, very few 16 year olds have any interest in politics and we risk MP's being elected on the basis of who is the best looking as opposed to who has the best policies

It was preaching to the converted Chris People on benefits and people who are disabled or/and poor or are struggling because of high energy bills would by and large vote labour anyway If Ed wants to win he has to attract professionals and the middle classes

One of his better speeches delivery wise and some very grand pledges But WHERE WILL THE MONEY COME FROM? It is all the well talking about taxing hedge funds and bankers bonuses but it will cost a damn slight more than that, watch tax or stealth taxes shoot up His pledge to freeze energy bills, fascinating, and very good intentions, but 1) What is stopping energy companies putting up prices 20% the night before the election to compensate for the 2 year freeze? 2) What happens if in those 2 years the price of wholesale gas/electricity goes DOWN? if prices are fixed by Ed then the falls wont be passed onto the consumer This was a speech aimed at Sun readers Will they be taken in? doubt it

Again I can only give 1 isolated example, not out and out national statistics, but I text a single parent, 19 years old with a 18 month daughter, she texts so much as she is too skint to do much and her days are spent watching kids videos, listening to You Tube etc and it drives her mad, she would rather have a job I am sure she would love the sort of environment I listed above

Wow interesting the right lost all their seats bar Merkel party, shows the affection they have for her in Germany I can see a similar thing happening almost in UK too, can see the Lib Dems being near enough wiped out at next election, winning a handful of seats with Labour gaining many Lib Dem seats, although of course in that situation Cameron would have to form a minority government

I think quite the opposite in terms of the single parents, what is dehumanising is being stuck at home with little or no social interaction or having to turn down jobs because no one to look after the kids 1) they would be with like minded people so would make lots of friends and have social interaction with the other residents 2) there would be inbuilt creche and childcare facilities so that the single parents could go and work without worrying about childcare costs 3) there would be a communal social/catering area which would mean again social interaction, kids having lots of playmates etc

Ideas being the operative word, Tyron put me on the spot, I thought of a few out aloud that could reduce the welfare bill I disagree with the annihilation bit, welfare is one of the areas where the public want much tougher action so cuts in the welfare budget would be a vote winner at the election

Interesting facts there, I assumed she was in coalition with left leaning parties, why is she not in coalition with them again? I heard she is having to negotiate with the left

Scrap child benefit for everyone earning over 40k combined Abolition of child benefit after 2nd kid, after 1st kid if out of work Time limit JSA to a maximum of 2 years then compulsary workfare till get a job, this will not directly save money but will get more people into jobs thus paying tax Build hostels for single parents instead of giving them private rent properties, 100 or so single parents per hostel with creche facilities and canteen etc, save a fortune on housing benefit, this could be extended to build hostels for single people without kids too instead of giving them fortune in housing benefit Means test winter fuel allowance and free prescriptions Withdraw free bus passes for everyone over 65 who drives a car Scrap all state benefits for immigrants till they have paid into system via NI for at least 3 years Scrap housing benefit for u25's out of work unless proof they are suffering physical or sexual abuse Forced rehab programs for drug addicts and alcoholics, withdrawal of all benefits if fail to complete Thats just a few i would consider

Merely delaying the inevitable ;)

Can't compare Maggie with Merkel Maggie had a massive majority and could do what she wanted whereas Merkel has not had that luxury as she has to govern as part of a coalition so she cant push through the agenda that she would be able to if she had a working majority like Maggie had Similar to the current regime, the Lib Dems have held back the tories in a lot of areas like reforming GCSE's, scrapping the HRA, savage cuts to the welfare state etc So it is difficult to truly judge Merkel as she has not shown her true political colours

So you would be happy to be represented by say a 29 year old who had a career experience of doing a paper round, having a Saturday job, going to university, joining central office straight from university, writing a few speeches for a minister then being fast tracked into parliament? Whatever floats your boat I guess

I want to see the right people running the country, if that happens to be 650 men or 650 women or 650 black or asian people so be it But I am against the idea completely of younger people being MPs, there should be no one under 40 IMHO as an MP, it is impossible to have the life skills and the career/business experience to be able to have a job running the country. There are some MPs in their 20s or early 30s it is insane Parliament is essentially GB PLC, now if say Osborne was not an MP and was applying for the job as finance director of Tesco and he had his cv as furniture salesman for his dad would he get an interview for the job? his cv would be tossed in the bin by HR yet he is in the position of finance director of GB PLC, my comments are not a dig at him but an example of how inexperienced people get to a high level in politics No one should be allowed to be selected as an MP unless they have at least 10 years experience in a profession be it running a large business, law, medicine etc The quite brilliant Karren Brady has applied to be an MP at the next election, she is exactly the type that should be getting into parliament not 27 year old speech writers who are still wet behind the ears

Politics should be reformed, instead of a PM have a CEO type who picks the cabinet of his choosing even if they are not MP's, the elected PM can be the chairman The foreign secretary should be a former diplomat The health secretary should be an active or recently retired surgeon or doctor The chancellor should be someone who has run a large business at finance director level The education secretary should be a headmaster who has been head of an academically successful school The business secretary should be a successful entrepreneur The defence secretary should be someone who was a general in the army If such people are not MPs then a peerage should be given to them to fast track them into cabinet or have legislation allowing outsiders into the cabinet The CEO too should be a former FTSE100 CEO

Expenses have been reformed but MP's salary has gone up by an obscene amount to compensate them for loss of some expenses, my salary went up by 2% this year, MP's are going up by 10 times that, plus they will still have their free travel, their accomodation allowances, their heavily discounted caviar and champagne in the house of commons bar, its a gravy train Tyron If parliament was made up of 650 people with a successful career in business, medical and legal professionals etc that would be more acceptable but the current shower of shit are largely MP's with no proper career or life experience outside of joining a party at uni and becoming a speech writer or special adviser and getting put forward for office Cameron worked as a PR agent, Osborne sold furniture yet these 2 are the most important people in the country, I am not saying they are doing a bad job but neither had the career experience that justifies them being MP's, i am not picking on them merely pointing out examples of unqualified people who became mp's not through talent but through being party stooges, i suspect 600 MP's are in the same boat

I don't know any CEO's or directors of large companies so i can't vouch for how much work they do or what personal contribution they make but it is a massive responsibility being in charge of thousands of stores and tens of thousands of workers like for example the CEO of Tesco's is The shelf stackers and checkout people on minimum wage put in a great contribution to keeping things tick over but the CEO makes the decisions that make the entire network function, I would imagine he puts in massive amount of hours a week

You pretty much would stand a good chance of making the 1% if you earn in excess of £100k a year I would say, certainly £150k a year would get you into the 1% So most politicians if you include basic salary, very generous expenses, consultancies, fees from lobbyists, outside interests, jollys abroad etc would easily pass the £100k mark Surgeons if you include private work and NHS earn easily enough to make the Top 1%

I am talking purely how i rank the 1% wealthiest in terms of level of respect

Rooney for example, £250k a week for 90 mins work a week and 2 hrs of training a day That does not compare to me to a self made entrepreneur working 100 hrs a week as many do or the head of a utility managing 100,000 people

Politicians get everything for free on expenses near enough and largely got into politics by having the right connections so politicians didn't have to sweat and strive to get what they have earned, the consultancies and directorships they have too are largely due to being politicians

Yeah they probably do, in terms of wealth for me i have a sliding scale 1) Self made entrepreneurs 1= Surgeons/scientists 3) Executives 4) Sportsmen 5) Inherited wealth / politicians / royals

I thought Davis voted for gay marriage :unsure: maybe I am wrong though and certainly if he did vote against it I certainly disagree with his stance on that issue You could well be right about another coalition, I hope not and am hoping and still expecting a tory majority of some sort

I quite like Cable I disagree with much that he says but he is true to his beliefs and convictions even if it means going against his own party, he would be a far better leader than that smarmy prick Clegg who would say anything to get votes Cable reminds me of a centre left version of my fave MP, David Davis

They might not be likeable individuals but they all started businesses from scratch and took risks or in the case of O'Leary took on a business that was dead on its feet and turned it into a giant, they deserve respect/admiration even if they dont need to be loved The rich people I have no time for are people with inherited wealth, royals and the likes of Tamara Ecclestone and her sister who have a lifestyle beyond 99.9% of peoples wildest dreams but have never done a days work in their lives, I have no time for inherited wealth

The people I admire are those that create something from nothing, I have no time for CEO's of utility or train companies, just glorified bean counters but I have nothing but admiration for someone that creates a business out of nothing and takes risks to do it