"We know that Labour is far from perfect and has made mistakes but the bottom line is Labour tries to rule for the good of all whereas we know that the Tories will rule on behalf of the elites whilst taking away as many "rights" from everyone else, this cannot be disputed it happens every time the Tories are in power, the reasons or necessity of their actions can be debated but not the fact that they happen." newwave
Well that's just a load of outright bollocks isn't it? How do you square Blair's "forces of conservatism" speech or the policy of letting every man and his dog into the country to, and I quote, "rub the Right?s noses in diversity" with your comment about them ruling for the good of ALL. Those cynical bastards deliberately set out to upset large parts of Middle England for political gain - that's not for the good of all in my book.
As for taking away rights, try reminding yourself who banned fox hunting, winning goldfish at funfairs, buying more than two packets of painkillers, owning a pistol, smoking in public, smoking in your own home if there is a public servant visiting in the near future, drinking alcohol in public, carrying a Swiss army knife if you're younger than 17, working with under 16's without a licence, protesting outside of parliament, putting sweets inside your children's lunch boxes, expressing a dislike of religion, taking a bottle of water onto an aeroplane, photographing a policeman without a permit, wearing a hat in public (numerous ASBO terms), buying or trading fur. They even removed our ancient right to buy eggs with the express intention of throwing them at Halloween time! Surely the state has more important things to do? I could go on... so I will.
They gave the state the right to intercept and read your mail (both postal and electronic), snoop on you and go through your bins, force entry into your house to evaluate if you've had the effrontery to improve your home by more than their arbitrary limit, stop and search anybody walking down the street, impose curfews on children, force religious groups to compromise on their beliefs (see adoption agencies), and to retain your DNA / fingerprints despite EU law saying that this is illegal.
Even our ancient rights weren't safe with those bastards. They did away with trial by jury and habeas corpus. You no longer have the right to remain silent and are expected to incriminate yourself if you are unfortunate to be caught speeding. We now have a double-jeopardy law where the state can try and re-try you for the same crime, with the same evidence, until they get the result which suits their nefarious aims. You can even be extradited to Europe for pursuing perfectly legal activities in this country which are illegal on the continent - see David Irving.
By contrast, I'm struggling to think of any inhibitor to my personal freedom that any conservative government has brought in. But, if as you say, the Tories take away as many rights as possible every time they're in power, perhaps you could name some.
Blimey, I managed a whole rant about how useless Labour were/are without once mentioning 'the economy'.
D'oh!