.............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.

Jools
l am very aware about international politics, but l don,t think you want to go there, people in many third world countries are given the option to vote for an obnoxious regime backed by a government that is backed by a government not too far away from where you are sitting right now.
Why should l be greatful for being given a choice, when my choice gets me absolutely nothing. According to you, today there are 4 million bigots who voted last night, yet they have only 1 voice in Parliament, before you berate me l am not a UKIP supporter, for what its worth l voted Green, but UKIP came third in the popular vote 13% yet will be swamped by the SNP, Lib Dems, DUP, etc. in tems of representation, even though none of these parties even came close to the number of votes UKIP got.
The system is rotten to the core, l now look forward to the referendum on the EU, l anticipate in true British fashion it will be full of fudges, grey area,s, loopholes, so as the british electorate will not know whether they are punched, bored, or countersunk, yes we will have a choice, but will anyone outside the chattering classes really understand them, we will see.

Well, who predicted a Tory majority ?

Good news to wake up too today with a conservative majority



labour got wiped out in scotland and lost seast in England too! Lib dems had a nightmare and Ukip didnt do as well as they wanted but still got the 3rd most votes of all parties.

Bye bye Ed, russel brand might take you on.

60% turnout... not great.

And absolutely I agree that the voting system is ridiculous- And there indeed you have hit the nail on the head- if people are apathetic about their vote- then the system will reflect that- if people take their vote seriously it can be use to change the system!!!!

The fact that a Scottish minority of just 1.5million people will be represented in our parliament by 56 MPs is both ridiculous and worrying. I wouldn't be crowing about that if I were you brearley!!!

whos crowing about the SNP? better a conservative majority than a labour/snp coilition, that would have been even worse!

Scotland voted not to leave the UK recently so they will have to stick with us now.

the voting system def needs a reform.

Think Scotland have hit the jackpot as the Tories just need to keep pumping money into the country, the SNP take the credit and Labour will never get a sniff again and as the Conservatives are already shut out there they can give it up as in essence loss a leader if it means Labour will never get a sniff at another General Election win.

Quote ="brearley84"whos crowing about the SNP? better a conservative majority than a labour/snp coilition, that would have been even worse! Scotland voted not to leave the UK recently so they will have to stick with us now. the voting system def needs a reform.'" You can sign a petition for electoral reform here action.makeseatsmatchvotes.org/e ... ng.id=msmv

Quote ="brearley84"whos crowing about the SNP? better a conservative majority than a labour/snp coilition, that would have been even worse! Scotland voted not to leave the UK recently so they will have to stick with us now. the voting system def needs a reform.'" You can sign a petition for electoral reform here action.makeseatsmatchvotes.org/e ... ng.id=msmv

Started this thread as a joke for the people on here who know me and the way I live, and I've been amazed with the debate. the number of people replying on it has made it a mass-debate (had to get that one in

)
Now it's all over for the next 5yrs and I'll live with the choices you made and stay as an offshore (in a way) tax dodger

Bang on. It's the same across any city or town in Britain, a lazy homegrown underclass that is being added to by an army of unemployed immigrants dragging their small army of children down to town to spend the taxpayers hard earned money. The thing is, nobody deserves money for doing absolutely nothing. There is litter blowing around the city streets that these people should be out clearing for their dough. If a man receives the equivalent of £200 per week in paid accommodation and benefits he should be out clearing litter all week for his money, why should he get everything for nothing ? There's plenty needs fixing in this country, and the army of loafers out there should be doing there bit to fix it. Don't listen to Jools, she talks nonsense.

When have I said that benefits shouldn't be earned (where possible of course). And this army of unemployed immigrants - is that the same army of immigrants that come over here and take all our jobs???

perhaps you need to learn the truth rather than listen to the sensational right wing rhetoric about immigrants and benefits they do (not) get.

I don't need to learn anything thanks, I grew up initially in the most culturally diverse area of Leeds before moving onto one of the biggest council estates in Yorkshire, I know how things work, and I also know how some people won't work. The army of unemployed immigrants is there, just take off your rose tinted left wing spectacles and you can see them walking around quite happily all day, Leeds has an unbelievable number of
Africans that has gobbled up large swathes of council housing that I and others pay for every week. There are hard working immigrants, and there are lazy immigrants, that is human nature unfortunately. People like you start to sound really daft when you kid this isn't the case. As for your claim about "UKIP bigots", you're more than entitled to your opinion about millions of people, but if you actually met a few of them you would find most are hard working law abiding people that pay there way to keep this country afloat. I'd much rather have them than the scrote that doesn't get up till 11AM, has the scruffiest house and garden in the street despite having all day to sort it out, and is sat drinking his Superstrength lager on his old sofa in the garden when you come home from a days graft. And yes, you can tell the lazy chavs and pram faces just by looking at them, unless you have your rose tinted left wing spectacles on.

As the daughter of an immigrant I think I can speak from personal experience regarding bigots and bigoted ideas regarding immigrants.