We are in a world recession - is this really the time to listen to the media about 'boring' Brown?

[Monkeytrousers]

Boring is good, isn't it. Maybe not for the media, but definelty for us. Isn't the media agenda for 'dynamic' news worthy politics contry top our national interest at this time? Have they been a bit spoilt by the drama of the Blair prime ministership?

Is is really the time to hand over power top the Tories who have an ideological interest in preserving the privledges of the rich - especially at this time?

can't stand it when people have a go at them just because of where they went to school...why should it stop them being politicians?

I've met GB and thought he came across as very bright but not that impressive tbh.

No-one has to do anything till 2010 so he has 2 years if he isn't stabbed in the back in the meantime.

I never get the point of the "champagne socialist" phrase.

FWIW (not a socialist myself) socialists are not opposed to wealth. They are opposed to huge inequalities of wealth. So one can be a socialist and be wealthy and drink champagne. It just means you think everyone should be able to do the same.

Aitch, you have been eating too much ice cream!

He is NOT sexy.

It's the hormones talking. You will soon see reason and when this happens, I will have the bucket at the ready .

well imo - it is very easy to think that everyone should be doing the same when you are drinking Champagne and living in a nice house in a good area and going on lovely holidays...

..."but it's ok - I really do think everyone else should be doing the same"

Cheers

Now David Cameron is just scary.

Never trust a man with beady eyes.

in fairness i don't think it should, i suppose, but i am deeply suspicious of their motives, especially being part of it all back then. a champagne tory is more repellant imo than the worst champagne socialist.

and GB just didn't fancy you, did he foxy? he fancied me.

(actually i believed the gay rumours at the time, which dates me. )

oi, I really think the enormous privilege of going to Eton should give anyone pause before entering politics.

I know one or two people who went to Eton and who are very privileged and who would not go into politics for that very reason.

These are people I admire and respect but they frankly have absolutely no idea how the rest of the world operates and acknowledge as much.

To go from Eton to Oxford to Conservative Central Office in 1988 and thence to a post as special adviser to Norman Lamont does not suggest anyone with much of an interest in what it's really like out there.

There were once rumours that Brown was gay?

WTF kind of glue were those people sniffing?

Not sexy, sure, but he's got to be the most un-gay man in the UK.

in person, he is imo sexy, expat. but on camera, nope. and that thing he used to do with his mouth, gar. but he is a believer, or was, and i do find that attractive. (please don't start quizzing me about hitler... i don't know what i'd have done in a dirndl... i am easily led. )

fucking norman la-mont. the rest of his family pronounced it properly and he was all hyacinth bucket about it.

Can we please have a reality check? - none of these politicians (of any hue) know what's real

If you can claim money for bills, meals, plants, kitchens, statues etc

and still smoke in the bars in the Houses of Commons then you have no idea what the "common man" has to deal with

Bloody ludicrous

P.S Don't get me started on smoking in the House of Commons - I really might have a heart attack [fuming (in every sense of the word) emoticon]

at aitch in a dirndl

the first time I heard how 'lamont' is actually pronounced here it took me a second to register the spelling.

of course, they were an Argyll family so there are many Lamonts about here.

but i was pronouncing the name all wrong .

silkcutmama, they hold surgeries usually once a week. Believe me, they see the real picture then. Especially if they have a working class constituency.

They are basically social workers one day a week.

weeeeeell, if they actually hold the surgeries themselves, marg. i know a couple of old-school MPs who send their staff and then do a catch-up.

Oh right - and I can watch a programme about abuse and listen to people around me talking about all kinds of things. It really does make me "know" how they feel

Total bunkum - listening to people saying how awful their lives are and then going home to luxury away from all knives and murder and guns and crime is not living in the real world

yes I'm sure that's true. And prob true for govt ministers though they've definitely paid their dues.

It just pisses me off when people are kneejerkingly cynical about MPs. Most of them hold their own surgeries, spend weekends and evenings trudging round estates delivering leaflets, endlessly fundraise for the local party which supports their constituency office etc etc.

The MPs I know well (one lib dem, one labour - both inner London constituencies) work exceptionally hard, live in very modest homes, face horrific demands on their personal lives, expend huge energy dealing with the poorest of the poor and trying to sort out housing/benefits/services for the truly needy and actually CARE about their constituents. I wouldn't do it in a month of sundays.

m and j - what do you mean they've definitely paid their due??

ok silkcutmama if that's what you want to believe. Of course it's not actually a true reflection but I can't help much there.

Remember the MP who was attacked by a constituent with mental health probs wielding a samurai sword? This is a real world example. They don't live lives of luxury.

lol aitch. So it was you he was pining for.

sorry margo, just don't get the connection re the wealth thing. Having wealth hasn't stopped DC having the experience of a child with disabilities or having his bike nicked or a thousand other experiences that normal people go through. Yes, he has money and has had priviledge but so do/have a lot of people, doesn't disqualify them from doing any other job as far as I know.

sorry missed your last post - I mean they've spent usually years as an MP doing the constituency work which is unrelenting and unbelievably stressful and when they become ministers it becomes untenable - the PM doesn't therefore run his own surgeries. And quite rightly. He's now running the country and someone else is sorting out his constituents' housing queries.

It's not wealth I object to. It's the cloistered and privileged world of Eton to Oxford to Cons Central office.

My boss, who followed this route but not into politics, has never been on the tube

and aitch, I do believe he has that conviction. Fervently. Which makes it all the more sadder that he's going to get done in really.

It is debates like this one that hightlight the real problem with British politics - there are only 2 real contenders for power. And all these folk who say things like "I would vote lib dem if I thought it would make a difference". If every single person who said that actually DID it, it just might make the difference. But it would be practically revolutionary for a third party (whoever that might be) to give the Tories/Labour a run for their money.

So democracy can never spread its wings in the UK.

i know, i am gutted for him. poor old bastard. if that smarmy fucker had gone when he said, i don't think he'd be in this mess.