Might come as a surprise to most Britons to find their country is currently on its knees.
Not to the public-school boys, it won’t!
[rimshot]
Not today, perhaps. But historically England has been oppressive to Scotland and Wales – and Ireland – and the Brits have very long historical memories. “An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way and an American thinks a hundred years is a long time.” Besides, a federation, if that’s what the UK should shape up to be, is unstable and dysfunctional if one member state overwhelms the others by size or anything else, the way Bismarck’s German Empire was really a Prussian Empire. For that reason alone, it would make more sense for each of the nine Regions of England to have its own local parliament than for England-as-a-whole to have one. Then the UK would be a federation of 12 more-or-less-equal provinces – the English regions, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Well if one component of a confederation or federation has the majority of the population and economy it should be natural that it has the most political power.
And that is exactly why, in such a situation, that component should be politically subdivided. Germany is a much healthier federation now that the megastate of Prussia no longer exists.
Not really. Germany’s instabliity during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic had many reasons but the existence of Prussia wasn’t a particularly an important one.
A German state without a dominant Prussia would never have entered WWI.
Being a Labour candidate in a Glasgow constituency does not require any great personal popular appeal. You would basically have to donkey punch the Pope in order to lose.
Less facetiously, winning under the aegis of a major political party which has been the incumbent in the region since before you were born is easy. Galloway toed the party line, wore the rosette and got the votes that would have gone to any Labour candidate. He was not at that point a fringe crackpot, which is a reflection on the political evolution of both George Galloway and the Labour party.
On top of what amrussell said, the ability to win elections doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of his character or policies, he is a capable rabble-rouser and feverish demagogue.
I arrive late to this thread but heres my two pennor’th.
I am a floating voter because you should be voting for a partys policies of the time, not out of some misguided loyalty for what a particular party did in the thirties or the seventies or whatever.
Once when Labour and the Conservatives seemed like Siamese twins I wanted to vote Monster Raving Looney as a protest vote but we didn’t have a candidate locally so I voted for the Greens instead.
It would be nice if the Lib Dems got in and broke the stranglehold that the other two have held for so long but I think that its unlikely that’ll they’ll get in.(A self fulfilling prophecy most likely).
Labour IMO is finished in any real political sense for the time being even without the disasterous G.Brown element.
Labour have been in power a good many years and have had more then enough time to rectify some of the countries problems but have failed to do so.
I would guess that the publics perception is that giving them a few more years wouldn’t allow them to magically overcome these problems.
I will probably vote Tory though to be quite honest they don’t seem to have any radically new policies to change things.
Unfortunately when politicians try to change things they offend a lot of people and usually give up trying.
IMO the two things that actually affect the average voter where they feel it are crime and unemployment and THEN its the N.H.S., education etc.etc.
At what point did he become a fringe crackpot?
He’s done pretty well for a fringe crackpot. He had a national radio show for years during his crackpot years and is a regular guest on national political programs like Question Time. That doesn’t sound like fringe crackpottery to me.
I did that online test and landed myself squarely in the middle of Labour and the LibDems, which I would’ve guessed anyway.
I could never vote Tory for the simple reason that their record even in recent times on gay rights is disgusting - reading their voting records is truly depressing. I am by no means a single issue voter, but for me it would be like a black person voting for the BNP.
I’ll see if I can dig up the video, but for me it was about the time that he announced that anyone voting for Labour was committing a sin against the Lord and would literally burn in hell.
More recently, of course, he’s donated £25,000 of his own money to Hamas.
On a more general note, I scored 64% Green, 61% Lib Dem and 58% Labour. And 14% Conservative. Which pretty much makes me the irrepressible lefty I alway thought I was.
It shows a flaw in the website though - I’m in favour of nuclear power and the Greens aren’t, so even though Environmentalism isn’t a key issue for me, there’s no way I should be lined up with them.
Cameron fucks up really really badly over Tory MEPs voting for homophobic legislation in Europe.
God how embarrassing.
He’s only a crackpot to those who disagree with his views. Time-old smear tactics from people who aren’t fit to lace his boots.
It very rare to see a leader of a major party that confused about an issue. You can bet the next time he’s asked he’ll have a statement rehearsed and ready to go.
Wow, political type uses hyperbolic language aimed at his specific audience newsflash!
In general this is true. However, Galloway’s Hillhead constituency was an odd one - it had been with the Conservatives from 1918 until 1982 when Roy Jenkins took it for the SDP. Galloway then held it for Labour from 1987 until the seat boundaries were redrawn in 1997.