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Original poster

The Labour Party....really?

66 replies

BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 16:29

I moved to Britain from Botswana when I was 16 back in 2005 for educational purposes. In all the time I've been here, I still fail to understand some of the....call it 'opinions' of the British, including the outward support for the Labour Party and democratic socialism. I don't want to have a political argument, merely an education as to why people support the Labour Party. Because looking at the facts, every time Labour has been in power for an extended period of time (two terms plus), the economy has collapsed. And the Labour administrations have in my mind introduced no progressive legislation (except for homosexuality, which was proposed by a Conservative MP, abortion and the minimum wage). They seem to be a total write off, even for socialists. And now they are being downtrodden and proven wrong by Conservative market reforms (Ed Balls said it wouldn't work, and it has Shock) So could Labour supporters illustrate to me why they support the party, because I'm totally lost as to why. Apologies if my spelling is poor! Wink

OP posts:
EverythingInMjiniature · 28/12/2013 01:17

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EverythingInMjiniature · 28/12/2013 01:01

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Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 28/12/2013 00:20

Generally by people. It's expensive, unreliable and debilitating. I do think universal healthcare should exist, but the system introduced doesn't work at all.

OP posts:
Oakmaiden · 27/12/2013 23:53

The system frequently considered the worst in Europe?

Really? By whom?

Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 23:49

I am arguing because you are making me, you especially road walker, you didn't give me a reason to support the Labour Party, you gave me a reason to hate the imperialistic Tories...I asked for a reason to support them, not reasons to not support their opponents.

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Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 23:46

TheGreatHunt The NHS? really that's your demonstration of Labour's progressiveness? The system frequently considered the worst in Europe? I've found a few policies actually worth talking about that labour introduced, and the NHS isn't one of them.

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roadwalker · 27/12/2013 22:14

Agree with above
Disagree you do not want a political argument, you sound like you have been storing up arguments and are looking for somewhere to use them

TheGreatHunt · 27/12/2013 21:59

Minimum wage, the NHS, the welfare state? Read up on Victorian history - how this country treated the poor was awful.

You see it as labour ruining the economy, I see it as the Tories grinding down most people and labour having to spend to bring everyone back up to a decent standard of living.

You can see history repeating itself already. The Tories at the moment are seeing an explosion in food banks, failing to see that benefit claimants are human, not scrounging scum,
People cannot afford to heat and eat they have to choose?! Yet the rich are getting richer and the Tories do not care. They don't.

It makes me angry. I'm not a labour voter - simply because the recent labour governments have got it wrong. However I believe that the fundamental reasons for founding the Labou party were good ones (again I suggest you read a bit of history as to why the Labour party exists)

Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 21:43

TheGreatHunt, I hear you but can you give an example of the Labour government introducing a progressive system/legislature for the betterment of society as a whole (except the minimum wage, I will concede this as one good thing Labour did).

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Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 21:42

roadwalker, I beg to differ. Jaguar Land Rover, although owned by Tata, produce an incredible amount of profit for the UK. 4.5 billion of the 6.5 billion pound deals in China recently were JLR. Furthermore the shale gas and fracking exploitation in Britain will provide a steady revenue of profits. And for non-British industry, as the global economy is finally stabilizing, people are buying more stuff, and Britain believe it or not produces quite a lot of stuff (e.g. cars, not just JLR but many Japanese companies also), bringing a huge amount of profit toward us. And even if none of this was true, Capitalism has produced far better results than Communism/Socialism economically. You cannot deny that. The poor in a Communist system are worse off, or at least equally impoverished, than in a capitalist system.
My belief is that the socialist movement fights for income equality, which is totally impossible. We should work to make the poor richer, not make the rich/poor divide smaller.

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roadwalker · 27/12/2013 21:24

The bankers have proved how good privately run business is- capitalism at its best
This country has no way of making money

TheGreatHunt · 27/12/2013 21:23

Because the labour party give a shit about the majority of the population whereas the conservatives are a party for the rich?

Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 21:22

roadworker

The fact the state owns no industry is a good thing, governments have no responsibility running business, businesses do. And who cares if the industry isn't home-grown or UK run? They provide jobs, which provides money. That's all that is necessary. The crash was caused by Gordon Brown borrowing money from every which way to fund benefit packages for the interminably lazy disadvantaged. I can confidently tell you that homegrown industry is not a developer for a recession. I am a Motswana (person from Botswana) and that country is essentially a banana republic with no home-grown industry. Diamond mining from De Beers et al. (was) the only source of income for Botswana for most of its independent life, and we are the richest country per capita in Africa (dependent on whom you ask), and booming faster than the Four Asian Tigers.

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Original poster
BechuanaGirl · 27/12/2013 21:11

SundaySimmons

I agree fully...I am a Conservative also, and the link clearly shows that Labour's input to the United Kingdom has been overall terrible and useless. So why do people continue to vote for them? Is there a large masochistic population?

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roadwalker · 27/12/2013 20:54

They are all cut from the same cloth anyway
The Conservatives have built the economy on a deck of cards. They sold off all industry, nothing is owned by the Uk, they undervalued everything to attract foreign investment
All that's left is house building and that relies on ever growing debt and was the cause of the crash

SundaySimmons · 27/12/2013 20:50

Hi, I am a true blue Conservative voter.

This article sums up what I feel about the Labour Party

thebackbencher.co.uk/labour-the-party-that-hates-britain/