Depressed lefties sign in here...

[WilfSell]

...on the grounds that if we assume there will be a Tory govt, then the crowing triumphalism of all the Chinless Wonders and Thrusting Monetarists and Nasty Racists who'll poke in here to crow and gloat, will somehow force a cosmic rift in the time-space continuum. And it will be like 1992 all over again but the other way round.

I fear the best we can hope for is a hung parliament.

I've suggested hemlock for the Election Night supper thread...

God Freedland's piece is chilling. And exactly what I fear.

Fuck me Gordon was good at that Citizens UK thingummy.

I'm not depressed yet, and tbh, reading this thread, by and large I feel bloody uplifted about it all. There are still people who care. There are still people who understand how bloody important this election is.

I've been quoting John O'Farrell at everybody for the last couple of weeks and I'll quote him again here, if I may....

"A philosophy that did not leave anybody out of the equation. A way of looking at the world that saw an injustice to one person as an injustice to us all. A belief that we were all impoverished if we lived alongside 3 million unemployed people. A knowledge that envy and hatred and crime and violence would flourish unless we gave people dignity, security and justice."

That's the Labour philosophy that I still believe that they still believe.

I am going to be so vile to my 26 thirteen year olds on Friday if all this goes tits up.

Like many others I remember my Mum celebrating Mrs T's victory (I was 14) and me thinking that despite it being A Good Thing that a woman (sort of) had made it to number 10 there was still something Not Right At All about her. I remember working in Liverpool when she resigned and I can tell you not a lot of work got done in that Home Office department that day. I was on my second ever date with dp on May 1st 1997 and was incoherent with joy (and ging) (and a wee bit over the fact that I'd ppulled this really fit bloke)(even when Fit Bloke told me he was in favour of right wing politics.) I remember the scales falling from my eyes as Princess Tony's reign continued, but I still have some of his more impassioned speeches copied out and stuck in one of my books-I-use-for-important-words. I remember thinking bloody hell, I wish he wouldn't keep doing that droppy-jaw thing, when Gordon first started out. And I will remember, that over the last couple of weeks, I've come full circle and believe more than I ever believed before that what I believe is right.

Here endeth Buch's wiffle-waffle.

Yeah Gary Younge's piece is apposite. I do hope those feeling betrayed by Iraq etc will support his sentiment and vote Labour despite their good consciences. He is absolutely right that it was the right decision to exercise a protest vote when there wasn't a threat of a Tory govt.

Section 28. A return to the vilification of single mothers. A return to rampant individualism. Do we really want to go back there?

That Freedland piece has made me cry

Why are you all so anti tory? It's not as if Labour has done anything positive for this country in the last 13 years, spending the first two terms blaming everything on the tory inheritance and the third term f*ing everything up. I know I'm going to get from a high height for posting a pro-tory message on a very anti tory board, but really, relax. And Scottish mum of one - I'm interested in your theory that the media is so influential in one direction only - that they would be the sole cause of a tory win, but have no influence in any other direction...? Hasn't the guardian backed the Libs?? Just because Simon Cowell has said he thinks DC would make a good PM, it doesn't mean all the wavering voters toddle along to polling stations to agree with him...

Elkie I haven't seen that much on the TU Socialist lot but have liked what I have heard. Not standing here though.

Well, we have brilliant rates of recycling, the streets are as clean as any in London, the local MPs are genuine and good people. But it's the big issues I am so angry about.

You're not going to get pooped on.

In fact...

here's what the tories' model of compassionate conservatism has done

warning: v depressing

Haven't read the Freedland piece yet, but he's often rather depressing IME.

'It's not as if Labour has done anything positive for this country in the last 13 years, spending the first two terms blaming everything on the tory inheritance and the third term f*ing everything up.'

woah there missus mumwithbumandtum

surestart
working tax credits and child tax credits
increased spending on the NHS massively
minimum wage
increased maternity leave
devolution for scotland and wales
good friday agreement

I think you need to rethink that statement just a little because from where I'm standing those look like rather good things

I know why some of them appear chinless, WilfSell, just not why it should matter, and be used as a spiteful insult that pokes fun at a whole group of people you appear to despise en-masse either because they've been born into privilege, or just beqcuse they don't vote the same way as you.

What are the three most insulting and hugely over-generalised qualities/labels should I attribute to the average Labour voter? I'll have a think -see what I can do for you.

Besides, if a tendency towards slightly underformed jawlines is all we have to worry about, then the inbreeding is surely not that bad, is it? On the other hand I'd just love to know what you'd have to say if I coined an insulting and unpleasant phrase that mocked the whole British-Pakistani community based on this

I just don't like hypocrisy, and inverted snobbery - it's ugly and unnecessary. Why is it that certain people will leap to attack anyone who uses the word Chav, or Pikey, White Trash, or makes sterotypical assumptions about immigrants, ethnic minorities, or a feckless underclass, etc, etc, yet those same people can be perfectly comfortable with the spiteful name-calling and mockery of anyone deemed to be worthless contemptible individuals purely because they were born much, much richer than the majority of us? Besides, if all Tory voters needed to fit that stereotype they'd never win in a million years - there just aren't enough of them. The way the Tories will win (if they do) is by having the support of millions of ordinary people just like you and me.

Bucharest!

I nearly started a thread last night going 'Bucharest you are great' because I read your post on the Gordon Brown webchat thread and it was brilliant. Your post and that of NotAnOtters made me really pleased as punch. Absolutely what being a labour supporter is all about.

Lol at Margaret Thatcher. I was in my English lesson when Margaret resigned. We were listening to the radio, and the teacher buggered off to the staff room for about an hour. I imagine all the teachers were in the staff room shrieking with joy.

But maybe depressing and right in this case?

Good grief, it's not an anti-Tory board.

In any group of people, if you stand up and say ''Tories/Labour/Lib Dems/Teletubbies/Boden/Chocolate spread - utterly fantastic!''
people will disagree with you and then usually explain why they disagree. It's called debate. Sometimes it is polite, sometimes robust, sometimes everyone else with agree with you, sometimes they'll agree with the Teletubby fan. We all have opinions.
Perhaps you only notice the opposing opinions?

Yep, I reckon Thatcher resigning is the Kennedy assassination for our generation .. . I was outside the library at college, just remember a girl (even remember her name, though she wasn't a particular friend of mine) rushing up shouting it to everyone.

TiggyR what are you on about? you are saying that tories actually are chinless because they are inbred? am confused

I was on the front page of a national newspaper wearing a Thatcher mask with tears down it with people with champagne all around (I was a teenager) the day after she resigned. I remember getting the tube to Trafalgar Square and everyone being really elated.

For me it wasn't so much the resignation as that speech by Geoffrey Howe and knowing it was The End for Thatch. It was bloody marvellous wasn't it - I still get goosebumps when I see that speech on TV

Cat is Sleepy, you are quite right...I was making a flippant statement to even out all the anti-tory sentiment (trying to be brave, but as I wondered, probably quite stupid). The Labour govt has got a few things right, especially for the family in SOME respects, but things like their campaign to delete child poverty has completely failed with more children living in poverty now than ever before, more people on benefits now than ever before (and something like 2,000 claiming benefits because they are too fat to work) idiotic spending ideas like the ID card system and the NHS IT system, the fact that Brown as Chancellor sold all the gold stocks at rock bottom prices to buy the Euro at peak prices and then realising his fuck up, had to dip into the pension funds, thereby completely screwing over hard working pensioners for life (I think you'll agree that £58 / week state pension is a joke...) So, yes, whilst they may have done a small number of good things, I'd say on balance we'd be better off not with a labour govt. And perhaps not one with a two faced leader (woo hoooo, awaiting lots more slagging off now I've said all that).

Oh dear, I haven't worked out the italics very well...

Ha yes Geoffrey Howe. Not so placid and weak then was he?

Of anyone who watched the 1997 election, was anyone actually sober by the time Stephen Twigg ousted Portillo. Me roaring with (wine-fuelled) laughter at that one, and David Mellor in Putney (out out out) were the things that really stick in my mind from that night.

Ooh yes and the helicopter following the cavalcade of Tony Blair's cars going from Buckingham Palace to Dowining Street, going down the wrong street and the whole convoy having to do a three point turn.

Oh and Cecil Parkinson saying the Dimblebey re Kensington and Chelsea 'well at least we know we are going to get at least one seat'.

Sorry, trip down memory lane there

happy days getorf, happy days