I'm sorry you are wrong.....Until Labour took over, the majority of schools were crumbling jokes, in which people, both teachers and pupils, could take little pride.

With huge investment, Britain now has schools which they can actually be proud of....Under the Tories, education would have been a disaster, as apart from looking after their own, they have little interest in the rest of the country.

I'm not naive enough to believe that all is perfect, but it is obvious through exam results and also through the amounts of childeren now going into higher education, that by improving actual surroundings, the desire to learn is actually improved.

Is this not like the Duke of Edinburgh scheme which has been running for years

Quote ="morleys_deckchair"some of you may find this interesting www.voterpower.org.uk/'" Helen Jones is safe. We all knew that. I can see Warrington South going to Conservatives sadly. Only reason being that Helen Southworth is stepping down, but the Tory candidate is going to have to really fight it off Labour.

Quote ="morleys_deckchair"some of you may find this interesting www.voterpower.org.uk/'" Helen Jones is safe. We all knew that. I can see Warrington South going to Conservatives sadly. Only reason being that Helen Southworth is stepping down, but the Tory candidate is going to have to really fight it off Labour.

Was looking at that today. Bought The Blair Years - Campbell's Diaries. Anybody else read it?

Is this just a blind accusation or do you have anything to back it up?

For all those first time voters who have had enough of Labour, just put a big 'X' next to their candidate to tell the counters that you don't like their party.

A few hundred pages of it. Interesting stuff if you like to know how power and leadership work.

lifes too short to be reading stuff like that...

Yes I have and according to a number of sources within the Labour party it has been heavily edited. Out of interest, is anybody on here a member of a political party? Bar Keith the beef - we all know about that sadly.

I'm a member of one.

[url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23823065-billy-bragg-im-fighting-for-englands-soul-against-the-bnp.doBit of a battle going on in Barking[/url

Well, it is Alistair Campbell!

I dont follow politics,but what a very good thread to read.To all the posters keep up the good work.

If it was made compulsory those who it's targetting wouldn't want to do it.

as long as we fatties have the right to smash your face in for such sizeist statements...

all's fair in love and food!



am i joking??? must be, cos i've read the AUP

I AM

Vote UKIP: Same policies as the BNP, but you won't get branded a racist.

Billy Bragg/Red Wedge typifies champagne socialism.

By the way does he still live on the A13 or does he have a huge pileup in the West Country?

"Don't pay more than £5.99 for this album". OK Billy I won't.

PS - I'd love to see whether his income as an artist is accounted for as self employed with NI or whether it's via a Limited Company and dividends and corporation tax.

I was going to buy it, but I decided not to after finding out he cut out all the juicy bits so as not to embarass Brown, when it's re-released I will get it



Heseltine's autobiography is a good read, I could reccomend you quite a few books but they are mostly for/by tories!

A lot of political memoirs are good reads. Unlike sports autobiographies, they wait until their career is over, and they take time over them and write them themselves rather than being rushed out by ghost writers.

The best and most readable IMO is John Major: The Autobiography.

Nigel Lawson: The View from No. 11, and Thatcher: The Downing Street Years are good reads but a bit more technical ie there are parts which go into detail about the economics which might bore you if you just want a general read, Major's book is good bedtime reading.

A good book if you are interested in economics is The Chancellors Tales, edited by Howard Davies, this has a chapter each from Denis Healey, Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke about their time as Chancellor, some of the accounts are quite witty (Lamont/Clarke) but also explain what was the thinking behind the various decisons taken at each time.

Overall probably my main book recommendation for someone with a general interest in finding out more about British politics is The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders since 1945, by Peter Hennesy, this has a chapter profiling each PM up till Blair (no doubt there will be a revised edition out soon including Brown). That's written well and because Hennesy has been a political writer for donkeys years he is very well connected, and has loads of quotes from "anonymous Cabinet ministers" about the various PMs. He also has a section about rating them in a Premier League of Prime Ministers.

Thanks for the great reccomendations, I will add them to my reading list



I wonder if Helen Southworth will publish her memoirs? Cant see it being a very long book...

Not Tony Benn, Sally?

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/12_04_10_labour_manifesto.pdfLabour Party Manifesto[/url

Some good ideas in there, spoiled by Chapter 5 which puts Crime and Immigration together. Talk about doing the BNP's work for them.

It would be wrong not to examine the links. Of course crime was committed well before the huge increase in immigration since the 1950's but a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by the population with recent overseas heritage, especially gun crime and stabbings.

I see that Rugby League gets a mention.