Everyones thoughts on the impending General Election

[Tigger]

With the Election date now set for 7th June, what are peoples comments so far on all the parties and their recent Manifesto Pledges.

Also what about the guy who hit John Prescott and then John Prescott hit him?, made the news a bit more exciting than normal.

As at year end 2000, the UK's stock of foreign direct investment stood at US$517bn making it the world's second largest recipient of inward investment after the US. Around 25% of the total foreign investment into the EU presently comes to Britain alone with it attracting twice as much as countries such as Germany and France in 1999 and 2000. Britain remains the top destination for investment by both Ford and General Motors as well as Asian companies overall.

As for Motorola, the cuts at Bathgate (which makes mobile handsets) is part of the 22,000 redundancies worldwide the company is undertaking with the cuts broadly proportionate to the number of workers employed in the UK. The company only has one mobile handset factory in Germany and that is considerably newer and more efficient that the Scottish facility. They are still pressing ahead with their plan for 850 new jobs elsewhere in Britain over the next 18 months. As for BMW, the cuts in Britain relate solely to Rover which the company sold. The BMW marque continues to do well (unlike Rover) and so there's no need to cut jobs elsewhere.

With a global slowdown underway, it is inevitable that Britain will suffer hardest in the next year or two given that in the past decade, it created more jobs than in the rest of the EU combined. For example, more than 30% of laptop PC's sold in the EU are made in Scotland alone (let alone the rest of Britain). So now that we and the US are facing slowing growth, it's obvious that more cuts are likely to be made in Britain than elsewhere.

There are many areas where strong arguments can be made for Britain joining the single currency but the ability to attract foreign investment isn't one of them!!.

Everybody votes for who helps them, don't they? If you live in Swindon aand you work for a company there, you'll be into europe, and if you're a Farmer you'll probably be a Tory. for that reason, I will vot eLabour.
My Husband and I fell victim to a (now sacked!) director at the company we wboth worked for. I had turned down a date with him the week before we went public with our pregnancy and suddenly all the overtime stopped. We used up all our savings and 18 months later when on Maternity leave again we ran low.. WFTC saved our house. We both work, and we both study on top of that so we can improve our prospects.
People say we should be embarrassed to claim.. why? We're doing all we cn. We live in a low wage area. 2 years down the line when i have my egree and my Husband his CPC we should be well clear of needing help.
The new rules also helped my friend literally survive with her 6 week
odaughter after her Husband ran off with his Secretary and declared
himself bankrupt rather than help out (he just transferred his TVR etc t his girlfriend...).
However hard you try, everyone nedds a safety net
ad as far as I can see Labour are the only ones who really provide that.

Clairgod, not all farmers vote tory, some are even daft enough to vote for the Labour Party. The Labour Party only cares about the Urban Areas, anything outside that can fall to the wayside if it pleases, as he said on BBC1 with David Dimbleby, he doesn't care about the Rural/Farming vote, which shocked and dismayed David Dimbleby, when have you ever heard any member of a Political Party say they didn't care about a vote?. Not all of us who live in the countryside are farmers, those who don't live in Glasgow or Edinburgh are classed as rural.

I am really disspleased with labour's scheme which allows you to get some benefit if you earn less than 40K a year... and that works if both parents earn less than 40k... what about all of us who earn just above 40k and whose partner doesn't earn a penny - because he looks after the children ????????? We get zilch !
I can't see myself ever voting Tories (too far right) so I'll be going lib dem.

Clairgod,
Not everyone votes for the party that helps them specifically. As a higher tax payer I would be much better off if the Tory party were in government. My taxes would (probably) be lower and I could still afford to pay for the private health care and education etc that my family may need. However, I have a conscience and would rather that everyone was in a position where they could enjoy these facilities provided to a high standard by the state. I think education and health are fundamental to the future wellbeing and prosperity of a country. I used to work for the NHS and it makes me so sad to see the decline it's suffering.

I know how lucky I am. Others aren't so lucky. So the conservatives won't be getting my vote.

Considering how right wing I was in my youth I can't believe I'm saying this. Maybe motherhood has made me more compassionate!

Tigger, did you read in the Telegraph today about the Labour candidate in Dorset? he is a beef farmer, and has done some of his campaigning on his horse, who is called Spartacus. He recently tackled a fleeing burglar!

I voted this morning, LibDem for a variety of reasons: favourably impressed by Charles Kennedy and policies, safe Labour seat, ethnic minority candidate was bound to lose votes from local white racists, last but not least he had the silliest name on the ballot paper, just couldn't resist it.... also had a dust-up with the polling booth clerk who was rude to one of the candidates in my hearing...

Hey Sml, nice to know Emily Davis did not chuck herself in front of the King's horse in vain all those years ago...silliest name indeed! :-) At least you know enough about your Lib Dem candidate to be aware he is from an ethnic minority. They seem to have chucked in the towel totally in our constituency, sadly. I think ours lives in Putney and has clearly not been bothered to come over and say hello to us SE Londoners.

The silly name vote is a well known effect! as is the donkey vote and the reverse donkey vote in multi choice voting (that's voting 1,2,3,4 etc all the way down or up the list respectively) - roll on proportional representation! Believe me, I will never be too apathetic to vote, because of Emily Davis and all those who campaigned for universal suffrage.

Sml, we don't get the Telegraph, we get the Glasgow Herald, and I get it after DH has moaned about various journalistic points. I voted today as well, as had most of our area, the lady said that there were not many people left to vote, better than last time when hardly anyone in our area voted at all.

nothing to do with the election, but what does DH stand for, it keeps appearing on this site and try as i might, i don't get it?

DH means dearest or darling husband. likewise DW means wife and DS or DD son/daughter. I tried DP when I had a partner but it didn't seem to catch on on any site I use!!

emmagee, the d doesn't necessarily stand for dear or darling - can be damn or dratted - serves the same purpose though!

This thread is from 2001!

Agree TMMJ - for all their faults (which are legion), NuLab has done a fair amount for low earners. See no reason to believe that the Tories wouldn't gleefully remove much of that support.