Labour manifesto launch

[policywonk]

Thought we might as well get this over with

Yikes

actually maybe we should face reality about post offices. there are three within a short walk of my front door - as is true in a lot of London. That's great but given that I han buy stamps in every newsagent it may not be strictly necessary. In rural France the local pub will often also be the post office and the bookies which keeps everyone afloat - and the community. The post office might want to be a bit more flexible. It can't be sensible to maintain more than 10,000 branches when Woolworths has gone and half the high street is putting up the boards. And maybe the first wave (oops sorry) of wind urbine outfits didn't make it but that's often been the case for the vanguard in a new industry but there's a lot doing OK

Just to be nosey....(and because I can't find them) does anyone have the links for the manifestoes (manifesti?) for Lib Dem, Tories, BNP?

Don't think they've been released yet, Tiny.

You clearly have a taste for fiction, Tiny.

Conservatives launch theirs tomorrow, Lib Dems on Weds. don't have a clue about the BNP...

Okey dokey. I will look for them later in the week.

It is a pure "fun" exercise.....to see how much I can read before I swear! Although that doesn't really apply with the lib dems.

I thought the top secret McKinsey report said in order to cut 50% off your costs cut 50% of your work.

well worth a few hundred thousand if you ask me

like you say Edam a few spotty 'consultants' straight out of Uni know so much more than those in the healthcare business

btw for comparison, Lib Dem policy on GPs = to scrap practise boundaries (or whatever they're called) and let people can register where they want, with GPs to be paid "patient premium" for taking patients from deprived areas.

Scrapping GP boundaries as much as I hate to say anything nice about the Lib dems is a brilliant idea. They should do the same for schools.

What do they say in there about Higher education? They still want Universities to take account of 'context' when considering applications...

Sorry I missed a page, had to go to bed.

Strix, coming back to Labour and the recession. Think it's only fair to point out that it was the Conservative government who so drastically deregulated our banking system and allowed the building societies to turn into banks. A little historical perspective would reveal who really laid the foundations for this mess, and it wasn't Labour.

Brown had the prosperous years and he saved nothing. How is that the Conservative's fault? I've already said he didn't cause it (and neither did the Conservatives), just that he failed to prepare us for it when he could and should have. He has spent everything and now when we need it, the pot is dry. That is fault of the tax and spend chancellor: Gordon Brown.

We're updating the Manifesto pages in our Election section as quickly as we can. Here's the Labour Manifesto page www.mumsnet.com/politics/labour-policies

Will there be anything for the single, hard-drinking feckless man/woman?

I've supported all the previous maternity reforms (lots of lovely paid maternity leave) but even now I'm beginning to think families get a bit much and that - if single - I would be v. pissed off.

WTF is 'a future fair for all' supposed to mean? A future funfair? If they mean a 'fair future', why don't they say it? (Presumably because they could then be done under the trades descriptions act).

God, I hate them.

Builde - I do hate all this talk of 'hard working families'. Patronising twaddle. I'd be more inclined to vote for someone who said, look, everyone's working far too hard, let's sort society out so people don't have to do long hours just to survive or maintain a career. A bit of balance between work and play would do us all some good. Where are all the ruddy volunteers Cameron's so keen to recruit going to come from if the country is entirely made up of hard working people?

" brockyg Mon 12-Apr-10 21:48:23
I swear if you asked 10 people about the lisbon treaty (except rabid Eurosceptics)they'd wonder what you were on about. Everyone accepted that Lisbon merely amended previous treaties and that a referendum was not needed, only the Irish Republic held one in the whole of Europe. Can we talk about what really matters to people? "

Utter bollox, it was the legal document that effectively brought into legal existence the state of Europe, and has paved the way for the United States of Europe.

It gave sweeping powers to europe to bacsically force national governments to obey Brussels, no matter what.

If it so chooses, and it will do at some point when it fees strong enough (if not then why give yourself the power in the first place), can abolish our political parties, suspend any further national elections, dissolve Parliament and discharge all our MP's. It can take over our armed services, our police forces (by merging them into a European Army and a European Police Force) and it can force us to adopt the Euro currency.

The Lisbon treaty is dangerous and will utlimately lead to the destruction of nation states and the formation of the European Superstate.

If you dont believe me, the get off your arse and take the trouble to find out. People like you are sleepwalking us into a european dictatorship because your ignorant of the real implications.

Apart from that, we didnt get the promised referendum because Brown knew it would be an overwhelming NO vote, thats why the lying toerag broke his election promise to give us one. And if Brown was scared he would get a fight to pass it, then that on its own is an indication theres something fishy and dodgy about it and an overwhelming reason to have such a vote.

"brockyg Tue 13-Apr-10 14:46:50
Sorry I missed a page, had to go to bed.

Strix, coming back to Labour and the recession. Think it's only fair to point out that it was the Conservative government who so drastically deregulated our banking system and allowed the building societies to turn into banks. A little historical perspective would reveal who really laid the foundations for this mess, and it wasn't Labour. "

It was also Tory good fiscal management that started the ten year long boom that began just as Labour took power, lets get this clear. The boom years were not browns doing, it was the Major Government's doing. Labour had no hand in bringing on ten years of prosperity.

All Brown managed to do was waste all the money and then stand about looking helpless, having sold off our gold reserves for peanuts and raided our pension funds.

Were you actually awake during the Major government? Did you not notice that infamous day during the ERM debacle where interest rates shot up not once, not twice, not three times but again and again and again? It was hysterical. Only not very funny if you had a mortgage or any other borrowings. Then there was the recession, with millions of people losing their homes... If you want to pretend the Major government was a halcyon period of financial stability, you are going to need the story-telling abilities and lack of regard for the truth of someone like, ooh, Jeffrey Archer.

But Strix, on the spending issue, people voted for the Labour government to put record investment into education and health, and that's why we've seen the improvements we have seen in these vital services.

Linctash you're arguing the true Tory line which is less tax, less spending on public services - and we know what a mess that got us into. Leaking classrooms, waiting lists etc. etc. And let's remember economic guru John Major who presided over Black Wednesday when we were forced out of the ERM at a cost of £3.4billion. Not sure I'd describe that as "good fiscal management".

Thanks Edam, posted same time as you. Glad I'm not alone.

Not just millions of people on hospital waiting lists, millions of people dying on the waiting lists. Did anyone really think it was fine for a developed country to tell someone who needed heart surgery 'tough, you'll have to wait 18 months and we hope you'll die first to sav us a bit of money?' Because that's what the Tories did.

I remember speaking to a heart surgeon who was profoundly depressed at the ridiculous waiting times for one procedure. This procedure (IIRC a coronary artery bypass graft) has to be carried out within X amount of time of the problem being diagnosed - think best results were if they operated within three months. Only the waiting list was nine months. Basically it was pointless - by the time you got to the head of the queue, you would have deteriorated to the point where the procedure was useless anyway. Surgeon pointed out it would have been more effective, and more honest, to just say 'right, we'll operate on everyone whose surname starts with a letter between M and Z'. Because at least some lives would have been saved.

That's why the Labour government had to spend pour resources into the NHS, recruiting thousands of extra doctors and nurses to try to repair some of the terrible damage caused by the Tories. We are still not spending any more than the European average btw - even after all the investment of the past decade.

At least we had to chance to drop out the ERM, if slimy Mandelson and his mates had had there way, we'd be stuck in the Euro and well and truly fucked financially.

And you are unable to refute the fact the boom that labour took over was started by the Tories. It didnt start it self, and labour wasnt in power at the time, so who did start it, the Underpants Gnomes? Whos financial manaagement was responsible for it? Not Brown!!

brocky - maybe we are the only two people who happen to be on this thread who had mortgages on Black Wednesday? People at work turned on the radio and I remember it was all too ghastly to even panic - it was just so ridiculous it was beyond reason and impossible for any of us ordinary people to do anything about it anyway. You just had to wait for the next bulletin, hoping you'd still have a home to go to at the end of the day!