Depressed lefties - what now, is there any hope?

[electra]

I hate what this government are doing. All the sh*t about 'if you're poor/disabled' we'll look after you - yeah right, by designing a test which tries to make people who are disabled look like they're not. Everything else too.

Do you think Ed Miliband will lessen the chances of us being stuck with the tories for another 5 years? I can't bear them.

David Cameron thinks everyone should go out and start their own business - of course everyone is capable of that

I hate their plans for GPs to have more control of funding - do I have that correct? So unethical - GPs have a duty of care which will now be compromised by a need to cut costs. Conflicts of interest from the very first port of call imo.

BB it's absolutely no consolation whatsoever.

I'm swinging between lets-take-to-the-streets raging anger and sod-it-I-give-up depression.

Surely it's time for another gunpowder plot?

Hassled, Ben Elton HAS just put himself back on the circuit. Apparently he's terrible

I have been waiting for dear old Ben to reappear...

I was a depressed Labour supporter...I won't say leftie. More centre left.

I thought Gordon was dire and knew he didn't stand an earthly.
I was also in despair over Ed. Don't get me wrong, he's a good bloke and sincere I think, but the UK has made it clear over the millenia that they will not vote for left policies.
I had thought to see the tories in for another term at least...

However, as Beenbeeta says, the coalition has been so shit so far, I'm starting to feel more optimisitic.

last time round there was the dole as an unofficial artist's funding network, doesn't work that way anymore sadly, I'm sure there will be some excellent work coming out in the next year - fringe theatre esp.

I feel bad slagging Ben Elton off, though. Watching him, aged about 13, he was exhilarating and that burst of comedy helped shape me as a leftie.
Maybe he plays better to 13-year-old teuchters?

I am very depressed. Has anyone read Chris Mullin's Diaries, Decline and Fall. There was a chilling phrase in there, talking to (iirc) Ruth Winstone, where they discussed the possibility that the labour party in the UK had reached the end of its journey, and the future of the country lay with centrist politics.

I am also depressed because the tories (coalition? pah) are using the spectre of the deficit to ride roughshod through the welfare state and pull it to pieces.

Mind you, this is what tories do, I don't think any of us are surprised by that (mind you, do you remember the plaintive posts at election time, 'the tories are changed, they are not the bad old guys of old'. Huh). I perfectly respect what the tory view of the world is (it is wrong, mind you, but that is anotehr matter). I reserve my deep and spiteful vitriol for those shysters, the liberal democraps.

But, yes, depressed here as well.

I voted for our local Lib Dem to keep the Tories out. Wish I hadn't bothered. Reneging on the fees issue has been the final straw for me. I wish there was a mechanism by which you could take your vote back if they renege on election pledges - without having to wait five years.

There is absolutely no hope or optimism of any kind, no promises (empty) even of better things to come. Just we must tighten belts, slash everything, and be generally grim. And people voted for it. That weird masochistic British streak.

They are taking us back to hell in a handbasket.

EdM will notbe the saviour of Labour.

His mandate is not clear enough to give him power to change things. His mandate is the union block vote while the ordinary membership and the MPs voted for his brother.

I suspect as others have said he is a Hague. Young, very bright, truely commited but ultimately not the new charismatic Blair figure to unite the party and lead them forward.

Hague.

Dh and I are both studying and we are finding our compatriots (at under and post grad elvels) are seriously anti- coalition

So there is hope

The issue is what happens to the disillusioned Lib Dem voters; whether they go to Tories or Labour. Could go either way. If Tories get away with blaming LD for any problems then it's bad newws, otherwise- well Lab recruitment from LD memebrs is positive

And don;t listen to the Tories telling us Ed M is bad- stick you fingers in your ears, go lalala and know they want in fighting!

I haven't seen this anywhere on MN yet, but did anyone hear that insane Tory woman on Today this morning?

I only caught a moment of it, but she was talking about subsidised childcare and how women should be 'free' to stay at home with their kids as the state subsidising working mother's use of childminders meant that neither mother or childminder had a job that 'contributed to GDP'. So both jobs therefore worthless and should cease to exist, evidently...

I am speechless.

I wanted to start a thread about what makes a job 'valuable' in our economy, but fear my feeble grasp of economics and politics is going to see me shot down in flames.

I am still horrified though.

I don't think Ed is the one to lead the party tbh.

I think he is a good man, but the nation will retreat terrified at the thought of the unions wielding power.

I like Hague. He is on my spreadsheet of Tories I Would Rescue From Sinking Ship (along with David Davis, Ed Vaizey (only cos I work with his wife) and Nicholas Soames)

Marking my place. I'm not up to a debate ( 6 day old baby)

The thing is, I did think that the Tories weren't the bad guys of old. I am a Labour member, I wanted Labour to win, but part of me felt well, if we lose it's not as though we'll be plunged straight back into the worst of the Eighties, is it? How naive of me.

BeenBeta - I fear that you might be right re EdM. He's not the unifying, charismatic force that Labour needs - but it's early days.

Getorf, would there be space for Hague's special chum?

Hague would be the first one to get a shove.

I can't even hear what he has to say, with that

Hmm, Dave as a puppet. I'll run with that. Who's behind him?
(It makes a certain amount of sense that HE isn't capable of any of this insidious shit, PR for Carlton TV indeed.)

I would tie Nick C to a rock and unleash the Kraken on 'im.

I don't think David C is the embodiment of evil, but do not think the Etonian affable charm hides a rapier mind. The whole of the cabinet give an impression of being competent enough to run a wine merchant in Pimlico, but not really the wit to run the country.

George Osborne - there are no words in the dictionary.

SNORT at wine merchant in Pimlico