AIBU To ask what party do you vote for?

[Goldchilled7up]

I feel that a high percentage of mumneters vote labour. I do, what about you?

[PolkadotCircus]

Was labour then libdem.

Seriously considering Ukip next election.That is what the shite from the other 3 have driven me to!

[Abitwobblynow]

So Mini, why if we actually agree with eachother (and I am glad we do), do you ignore the sense of what Pasco says, by impugning his background?

Because, if so then I would like to point out the background of Stephen Byers the polytechnic lecturer who was NO MATCH AT ALL for railway negotiations....

What I would like from any politician, whatever party: having once had a proper job (not tax-funded [Gordon Brown], but in the market place). Being in touch with reality. Competent, and efficient. Polytechnic lecturers, trades unions officials, estate agents, EU flunkeys, political researchers, MPs aides - NO! [you notice that covers the whole lot of them from Byers to Cameron]

An excellent politician by those criteria, was John Redwood. And he was.

[Abitwobblynow]

I really want to make this serious point about incompetence: from the railways, to PPFI, Labour were completely outmanoevred and we pay through the nose as a result.

Whatever their good intentions, they simply did not have the world experience or skill sets required, when dealing with bankers and hardened negotiaters. They [that means us, the tax payer] were FLEECED.

[cinnamonnut]

Anything but Labour

[FannyFifer]

SNP, an independent Scotland is the only realistic option for our country.

[DeepRedBetty]

Despite the nickname, Labour is about the only party I've never voted for. I did tactical Lib Dem voting in my idealistic teens and twenties and since then I've voted for a person rather than a party. We had a Monster Raving Looney one year, I voted for him as I knew him from down the pub and he was alright. (have you ever read their manifestos? - some of the ideas were actually perfectly sensible )

Last time round I voted Green. The Lib Dem was a pathetic party yes woman who'd had no career except government administration, the Conservative was an ex banker dear chum of George Osborne with no local roots and the Labour candidate hadn't even bothered to move to the area and again had never had a job outside politics. At least the Green candidate was local and had had a non-political career, and the green manifesto was ok.

I'd consider UKIP if they'd confine themselves to the single issue of getting out of the economic mess that the EU is in and drags the UK into, but too many of their other policies are distasteful.

[MiniTheMinx]

Abitwobblynow, I have always voted labour but the only way now to get labour to represent the interests of working people would be to storm their head office and chuck them out I agree what is needed is representatives that actually represent working people. I think what has happened over labours quite short history is that money power has corrupted and co-opted the labour movement to do its bidding. Look at Blair......son of Thatcher????

[ironman]

I would vote Tory if Cameron was one! I vote UKIP.
The labour party ruined the country, overspent and flooded the country on purpose with immigration, so that they could get votes and put two fingers up to the Tories. The labour Party (particularly under Blair) were a complete shower of shite!

[Abitwobblynow]

I use these two pieces of news today (about ANY party, but Labour seems particularly prone to this) to illustrate what I mean:

1. Lutfur, who was sacked as Labour candidate in the 2010 mayoral election for his close links to an Islamic fundamentalist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe, which believes in turning Europe into a sharia state. Lutfur is also backed by a group of powerful local businessmen. In office, as this blog has documented, he has systematically given key positions, funding and favours to his extremist and moneyed patrons and is slowly turning a diverse, multicultural borough into a vehicle favouring a specific set of interests and segment of the community.
   

?Ken was ridiculed,? says my informant. ?People were laughing out loud. He had absolutely no support whatever for his proposal, not even from the likes of [hard-left MP] Dennis Skinner.? A former member of the NEC, Luke Akehurst, tweeted tonight that the Kenster was ?in a minority of one? at the meeting. Labour?s secretary in Tower Hamlets, Tarik Ahmed Khan, said: ?Ken Livingstone still meddling in TH politics, [sought] to let Mayor Lutfur back into TH Labour Party. Thankfully, all voted against.

• frankly dangerous [the general point that narcissists and psychopaths are drawn to power, ie politics, medicine, banking, law]. Why do we have these awful people clogging up our public space? Why are they not stopped early in their tracks?
  

1. The report that '[Labour] Ministers paid way too much for the banking bail-out.
   

• I have no doubt that they did. Labour overpaid a hell of a lot and our grandchildren will sit with the debt of their delusions as a result. You HAVE to bring skills to a position. It is not enough to be inherently intelligent and have fluffy good intentions about 'fairness' and all that sh t, when you are up against market makers and experienced negotiators.
  

I heard again and again from people in PFI and health provision 'they just do not know what they are doing. They don't have a clue'. 'They don't seem to understand [in PFI contracts] that they have just agreed to service the debt AND carry all the risk'. And it was hidden off balance sheet, something which put the executives of Enron in the real world of markets, in jail!

I loathe the last Labour government with a passion because they really were a bunch of clowns and they have really harmed this country.

What I want in any government is COMPETENCE. You can hate and sneer at Nigel Lawson, John Redwood etc. - but they knew what they were doing. So for me? What is my qualification for a politician? You HAVE to have had a real job, in the real world. You have to have proved excellence in that field. No county councillors, estate agents, polytechnic lecturers, trades union officials. Sack Yes Minister civil servants. The most honest politician in a long time was Estelle Morris 'I am not up to this job'. What I think she meant was that she was too gentle for the rough housing required.

[LoopsInHoops]

Green. :)

[MiniTheMinx]

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Red Ken is a perfect example of this. The man plays up to his image and is totally sucked in by the Idolatry nature of his supporters. Years ago I silenced a room full of lefties when I dared to say what I thought of him

I find what you have said about the PFI interesting because there is always plausible denial which is what is being used here. Labour would have you believe that "they don't know what they doith" they knew. Blair was a free market champion of neo-liberlisation which has seen huge wealth shift to the very top. They knew what they were doing. I have always voted labour but I have no illusions, they might soften the blow to the workers with carrots like tax credits but they have sold out on their principles.

[Temple247]

Lib Dems or Conservative, TBC.

[elizaregina]

ABITWOBBLYNOW

I used to vote Labour I thought they championed the under class and the under dog and the disadvanted, Their polices however have virtually buried a generation and possibly more, and vicously attacked the elderly - the vulnerable and the weak and the underdog.

I dont know what the answer is.

[lrichmondgabber]

Labour usuallly. Burt like it better when the parties had bigger policy differences. I suppose Ed M thinks he is radical but I am not so sure

[niceguy2]

What is my qualification for a politician? You HAVE to have had a real job, in the real world. You have to have proved excellence in that field.

Couldn't agree more. Too many of our politician's are full time politician's and have never had real world experience.

It shocked me when I watched a program once about our financial problems and they interviewed some politician's about what our deficit was. It was shocking to see how many didn't understand what a deficit was, let alone how big it was. And some mixed it up with the debt. Usually before reverting to the party lines of blame the other party.

I want to see more top tier business leaders moving into politics. People who have taken a small company, built it up and made it successul. But the problem simply is that if you are that successful at business that politics is a crappy paid job for a lot of shit and no reward.

[MiniTheMinx]

I want to see more shop stewards, unionists and working class people in the commons.

Business leaders, why do they need to waste their time in the commons?

[MiniTheMinx]

niceguy2 and I do believe it was ttosca who educated you on the difference btw debt and deficit

[RiaOverTheRainbow]

Green. SNP once in a local election with no green candidate.

[aquashiv]

The party I would really believe in has yet to form