Ah but the most important win as far as I am concerned more recently is the divisional one Premiership title in 1997. Labour was in power.

Is that how you define an 'idiot', Durham Giant?

I wonder whether an 'idiot' would be able to use grammar or Key Stage One level punctuation correctly. Quoting a post on here is perhaps a little trickier but I'm sure most 'idiots' would be able to do it. And who but an 'idiot' would brazenly suggest that the mere act of quoting Reagan, or anyone else for that matter, implies that the quoter believes it to be a 'convincing arguement [sic'?

I have had the Reagan quote as my signature for approximately a decade. It didn't seem to bother you overtly when you were taking a free ticket from me. And I thought it was those on the right who put profit before principles.

I must say, I didn't expect I'd have to add the caveat that my post was intended as light-hearted humour.

No hard feelings, and a belated Happy May Day!

A fair point Jools, but may I respectfully point out that the season began in January, so it could be argued that the ground work was done when the Tories were in power...

You can suggest it but given that hull beat us twice in the league that season, and labour won their landslide victory in May, I respectfully beg to differ....

yes we are around the same age , conservatives seem to have got the economy back on track, albeit slowly, to go back to Labour would be a big risk after the mess they made last time they were in.

its going to be very close, milliband may very well be the next prime minister.

i didnt like nigel farage at first but after listening to him he does actually talk some sense and says what alot of the country thinks... but they seem to have only one thing in their manifesto and thats about immigration which isnt enough.

people who say that these immigrants pick the potatoes out of the field that we eat... what happened 10, 15 years ago even longer, did they just stay in the ground and farming stop?! no.

Anyway two things are probably best not discussed on a forum... religion and politics as its just causes endless arguments.

I am 71 now and lived through many changes of government. The thing that stands out most over that time is that every time the Labour party have been in government, they have always and I mean always left the finances of the country in absolute chaos and practically bankrupt.
The country can`t keep borrowing money willy nilly to fund benefits which is one of the main drains on our finances.
The city will be jittery if Labour get in and shares will drop like a stone which sadly reflects on jobs and the economy.
I would personally hope that UKIP does well and forms a coalition with the Conservatives.
But if we vote Conservative we can keep Milliband out who will only be able to govern with the help of the SNP rabble north of the border, and the SNP would certainly be wagging the Milliband dog.
Don`t let the country be dragged back down again, things are slowly improving. Don`t throw it away with Labour vote.

Ukip! Oh my good god.
That bunch of bigots! The day that happens I'm out of the country. .... Well I may as well seeing as they will be turfing my family out anyway!

Always good to see when people have a sound knowledge of all the facts. The country's borrowing has escalated in the last 5 years.

Where were you in the Thatcher years, she did a great job and we're still paying for it




Her and her cronies destroyed the Coal and Steel Industry and blamed it all on the workforce and the Unions, only now are we learning the truth of the long list of lies and deciept she created to achieve this. Once she'd achieved this she declared war on the rest of the workforce and British Industry duly went down the drain. She sold off all our utilities for a fraction of their worth, another thing we're paying heavily for now, and squandered the money rather than re-invest in British Industry. The glorious "Thatcher years" started the great North/South divide and that clown Cameron is happy following his heroines disasterous policies. The only tail wagging is/was done by Thatcher/Cameron looking after their posh, millionaire mates


As for UKIP , just a bunch of Hoorah Henry racist bigots


As for the City getting the "Jitters" if Labour returns, despite what Cameron and the Tory press would like you to believe they got us into this mess in the first place


For Cameron "the workers friend"





and his party of rich out of touch Eton educated buffoons read "Thatcher returns" Don't know about you but I'm not too keen on this Tory ideal of an "I'm alright Jack" society


The Welfare “Reform” Act 2012 marked the continuation of a wholesale dismantling of the welfare state. Cameron has taken up where Thatcher left off. It’s utterly callous and it also steals money from people in work. The unemployed are blamed for unemployment, at a time when Cameron’s Government created a double-dip recession. Thatcher also blamed the unemployed for the unemployment that her policy choices created, but not as viciously as Cameron’s administration has. Living standards are being driven down deliberately while tax cuts are gifted to the rich. Education is slowly being privatised, any remaining pretence of meritocratic principles has been well and truly bludgeoned and our gifted young people are being priced out of university. Local democracy is shackled, Councils (and subsequently, public services,) are turned into a queue of hostages for Eric Pickles’ cuts

All this started with Thatcher, who was certainly behind radical proposals to end free healthcare and schooling in Britain. We know this from the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) Report, that was encouraged and commissioned by Thatcher and Howe in 1982, which shows a radical, politically toxic plan to dismantle the welfare state, to introduce education vouchers, ending the state funding of higher education, to freeze welfare benefits and to introduce an insurance-based health service, ending free health care provision of the NHS. One of the architects of the report was Lord Wasserman, he is now one of Cameron’s advisors

The Government asserts that its welfare “reform” strategy is aimed at breaking the cycle of “worklessness” and dependency on the welfare system in the UK’s poorest families. There’s no such thing as “worklessness”, it’s simply a blame apportioning word, made up by the Tories to hide the fact that they have destroyed the employment market, as they always do. The “reforms” (cuts) consist of 39 individual changes to welfare payments, eligibility, sanctions and timescales for payment and are intended to save the exchequer around £18 billion. How remarkable that the Department of Work and Pensions claim that such cuts to welfare spending will reduce poverty

George Osborne’s “plan A” isn’t about economics: it amounts to little more than a rehashed Thatcherite ideological agenda of stripping away public services and welfare, deregulation and labour market “flexibility”, and an assault on the rights of employees, and Labour’s historic equality legislation. The Tory demand for a “nighchman state” is both ill-conceived and completely irrelevant to Britain’s economic circumstances. It’s a complete abdication of government responsibility, democratic obligations and duty towards its citizens. The Coalition have borrowed more in 4 years than labour did in 13 and have NOTHING to show for it except a handful of wealthier millionaires. And the return of absolute poverty. We know that austerity was intentionally imposed by the Coalition, using a feigned panic over the budget deficit to front an opportunistic vulture capitalist approach to stripping our public assets. With the Coalition in power for 4 years, the deficit has apparently receded in importance


[uTories, the more things change, the more they stay the same.[/u
1 Million people using food banks
Debt higher than under Labour
Hundreds of thousands on Zero hour contracts
3.5 million children living in poverty
Royal Mail "sell off" cost taxpayers £1billion
£3 billiontax cut for the top one percent of earners
Well David, your darling "Maggie" would be proud of you, we're well on the way to your promised land of "Victorian values" perhaps he and his cronies can re-open the workhouses for you

I know who I WON'T be voting for

WOW!!





Unfortunately the truth gets buried by the mostly Tory press - and 1825 days of the continual Tory one-liner "Labour got us into this mess". People might like to read how the [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32549892?SThisFB&fb_ref=DefaultBBC explained the 'mess'[/url.

So if Tories and Labour have both always left the country a Sh!thole, why has the electorate never voted anyone else in apart from the major opposition party ?. If we're all so disappointed by the last government that party oversaw why do we think that they will be 'better' than they're opponents, or even themselves next time ?.

My take ...they're all as bad as each other and act like little kids name calling in a playground, but when a 'new kid' arrives eg - BNP, UKIP, LibDems to a point, everyone gangs up on them too so we are permanently going to be going round in the same vicious circle election after election as long as time prevails !!!!!.

.............CORRECT Daz Sounds simple and IS! And thats why a lot of the younger end cant be bothered to vote!They see it for what it is The televised sessions of Parliament actually show the circus at its best.- and the clowns win hands down ! They are the people who supposedly govern our country and our lives --and mostly most of em arent there most of the time ! ....... then as you say Its "I say black - you say white - but if I say white you`ll revert to black " Its pure comedy !

Another thing is -if I vote someone in - I want him to speak for me based on the respective party manifesto and aims
Not do as they please because they`re in power!

It was proved in the "Expenses" disclosures - like bankers - many of em are not "trustworthy" They ratify laws and rules that govern us - the electorate . but cant obey their own rules !

And finally on many points an MP should back his OWN personal gut feeling, show some principles, and not vote on some whim because hes controlled by "the Party" Lets see some true democracy and transparency and forget "the Party Whip" and all the under the counter /behind closed doors wheeling and dealing .

Things might not always have been such but prior to televised sessions many didnt see what went on!
Now - much of it is pure posturing and playacting for the "cameras"

And they are running the country ! God help us all !

My youngest is 20 this year and this would be his 1st general election, i remember when i was old enough to vote i saw it as a real grown up moment in my life and couldn't wait to go to the polling station as i felt it was my duty and i was doing my bit for society and the nation, my lad's verdict on the same situation ?? " what's the point, they're all s anyway and all do the same and if you don't vote for one of the top 2 parties people call you a racist or a communist...". Him and his friends should be the future of our country but they don't give a flying crap. They have no interest in who is running our country and are afraid of voicing their opinions. Sad, but that's how previous governments and supporters of the top 2 have made them feel.

First of all I did not agree with everything Maggie Thatcher did even though I voted for her, everyone can`t agree with every parties policies, but having said that she was a brilliant Prime Minister and stuck to her guns. And we would not have the Falklands if the dithering Labour lot had been in power.
Regarding the pits, I did not agree with closing them down as I believe all the available coal should have been mined and stockpiled, but she had to bring Scargill down as he was holding the country to ransom. And Scargill is still showing his true colours nowadays (still claiming everything he can out of the Union ) and the miners are paying for it.
Benefits are still far too high :- example, outside Tesco stores I frequently see very overweight, and unemployed people ( you can tell to look at them ), smoking, mobile phone in hand, trolley full to overflowing, waiting for taxis to take them home. This really sticks in my throat as I still pay tax on my pension to pay for these people. And don`t tell me there are no jobs for them, as in the Examiner were 2 or 3 pages of jobs, and the Yorkshire post had Quite a few pages of vacancies. Compare that when Labour lost the last election, you would be lucky if you could find half a page of jobs.
Food banks, If you think all that go to food banks are starving, you are kidding yourself, I have heard, although I can`t prove it personally that an Asian shopkeepers wife went to a food bank, what happens then, does it go on sale in his shop???.
Zero hours:- You can`t blame the government for it. It is down to the firms and companies who use the system. I know a company that use zero hours as they have busy periods and quiet periods, and they cannot keep the zero hours staff employed during quiet times, but if they find a good reliable worker they will offer him a job when a full time vacancy comes up. I am not very happy with zero hours but it does allow extra people to be employed in temporary jobs.

I stopped reading after you said "you can tell by looking at them" that really pi$$ed me off-
71 years old and making judgements like that- you should be ashamed.

Ashamed !!! I`m annoyed because I`m contributing to their lifestyle out of my pension. Of course you can`t judge everybody, but there are some that stand out like a sore thumb. I am not getting at the person who can`t get a job and is actively looking for work, but the ones who are content to live on state benefits out of the working man`s tax.

Their lifestyle??? It gets worse!

Watching the news today, commentators are talking about reforms to the system, of co this is nothing new , when our leaders got caught with their grubby little fingers in the till, they all talked about reforms, Political, Parliamentery, Electral, reforms, as soon as the dust settled Cammeron said "we don,t need reforms", they are all liars, he said we will reduce MPs from 650 to 600, lmn my opinion thats still 200 to many, the USA gets by with 451.
l always vote for a minority party, you may say thats wasted, but it makes the big boys take notice, Lab and Con have always stolen Lib policies when they notice the electorate are backing them, its the same with UKIP today with immigration, of co they will turn against them once elected.
Of co one of the main parties in the UK is the aperthetic party 4 out of 10 just carn,t be bothered, millions will, like me vote for the minors and therfore be unrepresented, but thats democracy UK style,

I thought this was a rugby league forum not a discussion of the national muppets association.Get a grip guys

Of course you are quite right

Which is better than democracy Burundi style!!!

Which does,nt mean it carn,t be improved.
What the hell has Barundi got to do with anything, like l care what happens there.
There are many of governments worse than ours, but then again many that are better, which way do you want to look.
Democracy? no matter which party governs us the majority of the electorate will have voted against them,

Whilst not a Moderator, may I suggest that you be careful when quoting so extensively from Kitty Jones lest you be accused of plagiarism? A link to her blogs may suffice.

I thought you'd be aware of international issues which is why I memtioned Burundi. They are currently undergoing elections..... 40,000 people have fled for their lives due to them failing to vote for who they have been "told" to vote for.
Be grateful you have the freedom of choice- even if the choice is awful.