To think we are turning into a one party state?

[TinMansBrain]

It is unhealthy, in fact toxic, that we are likely to get another 5 - 10 years of the same party being in government.

I can't bear another decade of this party running everything to the ground. I can't bear to live through another decade of individualism. I'd like to see education and arts, culture and sports flourish once more. I'd like to see unity and hope among the people.

It's like we're living in reverse. We should be having cyclic governments, not one party rule, which seems to be the trend for this generation. I despair.

[Lightkeeper]

@detachablehoof

The Lib Dems aren't seen as a 'serious' party because the of people's mindset. They think those are the only two parties on offer really and that no one else stands a chance.

[Butterisbest]

Money is flexible, it can be moved anywhere and will be moved very quickly. People with large amounts of money are able to pay others to make sure that their money is in the most tax efficient place.

[Mummymummymummmeeeee]

Which of labours policies are extremely left wing? There are other countries in Europe with a top tax income tax rate around 50%. Other countries in Europe have nationalised railways - many of them profit from our rail fares to subsidise their own nationalised railways. I honestly don't see anything extreme in labours manifesto, but I think that the political debate had shifted so far to the right in 2015 that people seemed to accept austerity as a necessity rather than a conservative political ideology, and challenging that view then seemed to look extreme even though it is actually mainstream economics

[detachablehoof]

Well an £83billion spendathon has to be paid for somehow. Greater borrowing saddles our kids with more debt and interest to pay, and higher taxes affect everyone (not just the "rich" as JC would have you believe)

[LipUpFattyReggee]

When you remember that we fought a world war to keep communism out of this country

And what war was this, exactly?

I’m presuming you are talking about about WW2 and the fight was again fascism, so the exact opposite...

The Marxist scaremongering is the most frustrating thing about this election. Nobody is proposing a Marxism style of government (you could read the Communism manifesto or even watch a short into to Marxism video (m.youtube.com/watch?v=W0GFSUu5UzA and judge that for yourself), but stop with that bullshit argument.

[Charley50]

@ChristmasSpirtsOnTheRocksPleas - so you're a high earner. Are you not bothered about ever-rising inequality in the UK? Even economists and bankers are saying wealth inequality is totally out of hand now. Don't you think you are lucky to be making so much money and that paying taxes is a way of contribute to the country you are doing so well in.

If you have employees don't you care if their wages don't cover their rent, or if they need to be on in-work benefits to survive?
You would rather uproot yourself, for what? Save a bit of money you don't actually need, that could be used to contribute to society as a whole.

[Mummymummymummmeeeee]

Detachablehoof it does seem counterintuitive, but borrowing, if it is invested into the economy, produces economic growth and pays back the initial cost, and more. It's not like balancing a household budget but more like running a business, and it is main stream economics

[katee90]

It's called a democracy

[Hingeandbracket]

The Lib Dems aren't seen as a 'serious' party because the of people's mindset. They think those are the only two parties on offer really and that no one else stands a chance.

It’s not the fault of people’s mindset- it is our wanky and outdated electoral system which means in most places voting Lib Dem is a waste and will just enable a Tory or Labour candidate (or SNP) to win

[Mummymummymummmeeeee]

I do think labour have possibly over promised to some extent but the concept is sound, and the conservatives are also making similar promises in terms of numbers of new nurses etc. that wouldn't be funded by their plans for taxation

[Hingeandbracket]

It's called a democracy I don’t call getting power on such small shares of the vote democratic

[BooFuckingHoo2]

Ah yes, the hardline left getting stroppy because they can’t possibly understand that the majority of people want a reasonably central (possibly even right wing) government.

[duckyolucky]

It's weird as if you look at the Scandinavian countries where people & more importantly children are happier they have higher taxes but that attitude seems unpopular here.

I'm historically a lib dem voter but not sure this time. I would actually prefer if a party said "we will tax everyone 5% more" but that money will be ringfenced for X. But it seems if a party was that honest it turns voters off. Its interesting that we have a more divided society in terms of wealth & it's generally concentrated in the older generations plus we have a shrinking tax payer population but those who "have it" don't want to relinquish a penny. I also tend think all the burden should be on tax payers as again income is different to wealth.

[duckyolucky]

don't not tend

[Anotherthink]

Oh yes we should all live in fear of the rich, privileged and greedy moving abroad as they can't bear to contribute a marginally smaller amount of their wealth towards the improvement of society. Just how fucking selfish can you get?

Leaving antisemitism out of it (there are numerous Jewish sources that counter the JC is anti-Semitic argument), Corbyn has been smeared by the press and this has left an impression on a lot of the general public's opinion of him.

Meanwhile, there aren't many parts of society that Johnson hasn't offended in black and white and yet he is is the sensible option.

[AgeLikeWine]

The Tories should have lost this election badly. The fact that they are set to win and the country will be subjected to five more years of Johnson is down to Labour’s incompetence and lack of credibility.

Corbyn has been an absolute disaster for Labour, and a gift to the Tories.

[HoundOfTheBasketballs]

The fact is that historically we have been a one party state for a very long time now.
Since the first Labour government was formed under Ramsey McDonald in 1924 the Labour Party has been in power for less than 35 years out of the last 95 years.
With the exception of the period of national government during WW2, the Conservatives or Conservative led coalitions have been in power the rest of the time.
This is nothing new, unfortunately.

[Tanith]

"It's called a democracy"

There is nothing whatsoever democratic about this Conservative party.

They have taken over most mainstream media, including the BBC:
politicsandinsights.org/tag/marcus-moore/

They control posting on local social media.

They avoid debate and scrutiny of their policies.

They even tried to subvert the Labour party from within by applying to join under Ed Milliband.

But then, the Conservative party itself has been taken over, hasn't it? It's kicked out 21 MPs who disagreed with it, including Churchill's grandson. They want us to forget about that, though.

[PhilSwagielka]

Well, if things get really bad under the Tories I'll just buy a load of morphine off the Deep Web. Hopefully it won't but Johnson's comment about foreigners frightened me, because it's only a matter of time before they'll start to turn on Jews. And don't ANYONE start lecturing me about Corbyn, the Tories have a serious anti-Semitism problem themselves, but none of you care. None of you gave a shit about anti-Semitism until Corbyn showed up.

[PhilSwagielka]

@BooFuckingHoo2 I'd be fine with a centrist government but there is nothing centrist about Johnson.

[safariboot]

British politics in general and the current government in particular can fairly be criticised, but we are in no way a "one-party state". In a one-party state Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage and everyone else would not be on national TV debating the upcoming election.

Through the 20th and 21st century, the UK does fairly often keep the same party in power for several Parliamentary terms. We had Conservatives for 18 years under Thatcher and Major, then Labour for 13 years under Blair and Brown. If the Conservatives win this election then 2010-2025 will be Conservative government, that's not out of the ordinary (and consider that the first 5 years were in coalition and recently it's been minority government).

[DuckWillow]

I am praying for a hung parliament personally.

Both Labour and the Conservatives will then hopefully rid themselves of the more extreme elements leading their party and put in more central people.

I live in hope.

[user1497207191]

Even if they don't move out of the country, their money will, you can be sure of that. I don't know if you were around in the late 1970s when James Callahan was PM of a Labour government, the highest rate of income tax rose to over 90% and there was a mass exodus of top earning people and/or their money.

Exactly. In the 70's loads of UK "creatives" such as authors, pop stars, sports personalities, etc moved out of the UK and took their tax payments with them, leaving the UK worse off. Do people really believe all those pop stars, composers etc live in Switzerland for "creative" reasons - nothing to do with low tax rates then??? It's hard to move bricks n mortar businesses abroad, but creatives who earn from ability rather than selling goods can easily move. In this internet age, it's very easy for online businesses to move abroad, especially the likes of those supplying e-services such as downloads, e-books, online gamers, online betting, etc etc. We're in a global economy and tax rates are part of the competition to attract businesses and wealthy people to the UK.

[BarbaraStrozzi]

If we get another 5 years of the Tories with Boris the Buffoon in charge, I'm afraid that will be squarely at the door of Corbyn and his momentum cronies for being so utterly shit and unelectable that even the Tories look like a better option. And I say that as someone who has been mostly a Labour voter in the past, even held my nose and voted Labour last time round (I have a great constituency MP). But sorry, can't do it this time.

I agree by the way that the current situation is unhealthy. But you really have to do some self-examination as to why, when you should be shooting at an open goal (yup, that's how bad the Tories are), you've managed to make yourselves totally unelectable.

Antisemitism, cosying up to terrorists, an authoritarian streak a mile wide for the far left, and a cosy Islington socialism-lite that totally dismisses the concerns of anyone north of the Watford gap among the moderates. Plus a willingness to shove women's rights out the window. I can't do it. Sorry OP.

I could be wrong of course, we could end up with another hung parliament. In which case Swinson (despite her protestations to the contrary) will throw in her lot with whoever gives her the most realistic chance of power (just like Clegg did).

[PrittSticky]

If Scotland becomes independent, then England/Wales will become a permanent one-party Tory state.

There's no possibility of a left-wing majority without 50-odd Labour/SNP seats from Scotland.