OllyK

I would say that in this case Tony should therefore step down, but the prospect of having 3 years of Brown scares the crap out of me.

lordretsudo

I never normally post on political threads here or elsewhere, as it tends to be a complete waste of time! It's not like anyone's going to change their minds because of threads like this.

However, today I feel the need to vent! I've never known such a useless bunch of w*nkers as the current government. I'd never vote New Labour but when they first came to power I genuinely welcomed it as I thought nothing could be worse than John Major, and I hoped that with such a big majority they had been given a real mandate to change things, hopefully for the better. 10 years on, what have they achieved? Absolutely nothing. Criminal sentencing is beyond a joke, the NHS is in crisis depsite wasting vast sums of money on it, taxes have steadily increased without any benefit to anyone other than those with lots of kids (like the Blairs), education is a joke, immigration's out of control, pensions are in chaos, europe dictates more and more of our laws, etc, etc. And that's without mentioning one-off catastrophes like their "handling" of the foot-and-mouth crisis, or Prescott's entire career.

That anyone voted labour at the last general election actually scares me. I refuse to believe that anyone actually wanted to, and presumably they were only re-elected because of a complete lack of credible opposition. It's strange that a similar situation has occurred in the USA, France, Italy and Germany in recent times, with the first two seeing immensely unpopular politicians being re-elected, and the latter two effectively fudging any chance of sorting out their countries by not giving Merkele/Prodi proper majorities. It should be so easy to mount an effective opposition to incompetent self-serving imbeciles like Blair, Bush, Berlusconi, Schröder and Chirac, so why is no-one doing it?!

All it would take is 'common sense' policies that the vast majority of people agree with - proper sentencing of criminals, reformation of the NHS, restricted immigration, complete overhaul of welfare system, gradual withdrawal from European superstate, re-introduction of corporal punishment in schools, etc, etc. All really, really obvious and although there are always going to be vocal minorities who don't agree, I'd bet my house on a party espousing these values getting elected.

The Zohan

You may not post often but it is worth it when you do, could not agree more.

I do not post on here because i think i am changing things or i am bering listened to by the power that be - just to vent my speen from time to time and it is good to have somewhere to do it

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Oh that's easy to explain mate:

Minister: "Mr PM, I know that this is going to be embarassing/damaging for the party so I want to do the noble thing and offer my head to satisfy the press wolf pack (*coughs even though I don't think I'm to blame!) and save the party's face."

PM: "Sacrifice a good MP to satisfy the bloodlust of the press, I won't have it- it's not moral and, as you've pointed out, you're not to entirely to blame.....Cigar old chap?" (*coughs, besides firing you is simply not good spin; then we'll get accused of scapegoating!*)

Press: "Why don't you resign you incompetent idiot, just like you offered the PM earlier."

Minister: "Why? I'm not entirely to blame, I simply offered to step down out of nobility. The PM supports me. Now, I've got a job to do!" (*coughs and a secretary to ****; if JP can do it so can I*)

Meanwhile a member of the public says:

"I voted you in, and now I want you out"

Unfortunately, with all the fuss, no-one heard them!!

Thus ends todays lesson in political crisis management...............until the next one!!! SAme time tomorrow then???

Class dismissed!

The Zohan

Oh dear, the figures are likely to be incorrect anyway

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/27042006/14...-pressure.html
Quote
"It has emerged that the rate at which the offenders - including murderers and rapists - walked free actually increased after warnings about the problem last July.

And there could be 1,500 more foreigners in UK jails than previously thought, reports suggest.

The Home Office has admitted there are 915 inmates in England and Wales jails with no nationality recorded.

Home Office sources also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a further 600 have falsely claimed to be British.

Clarke faced further pressure on Thursday after the Home Office released its latest crime statistics"

David Lock

Now I hold no brief for "wingnuts" but it strikes me he is taking a lot of flak for failures by his civil servants.

It is the job of the civil servants to run the department according to the regulations i.e. to chuck foreign prisoners out of the UK when their sentences were over. This they clearly failed to do despite several warnings over the years. It's not the Minister's job to run the place as such. He is there to provide strategic advice and introduce new legislation. If the civil servants can't cope then they should say so and the Minister should take appropriate action. So I think the civil servants should be held to account starting with the prison governors as presumably they have a brief to deal with their prisoners as required by the courts (which included recommendations for deportation). dl

SJ_Skyline

More sleaze!

Leslie

Could not agree more with Lordretsudo's post. This has been a spinning, lying, hypocritical bunch of self serving incompetents who have shown no interest in the wellbeing or safety of the electorate. We are now seeing the underlying sleaze which is far deeper than that shown by the Conservatives in 1997. Their only real achievement has been to be able to tell us exactly the opposite of what is really happening should it not suit their purposes, and thendo a very good job of feathering their own nests as well as of those who helped them financially or otherwise. I very much fear the way they are setting this country up for a future repressive government and complete surrender to the Eu. Those Eu commissioners must have an honours degree in graft and corruption. How can they be allowed to continue in power when their accounts have not been accepted by the auditors for ten years?

There seems to be no honour any more amongst politicians. Its all grab what you can while its there and sod the people!

David Lock.

"Wingnuts" is the man in charge of the Ministry. He is getting the obscene salary and tax free allowances in exchange for taking full responsbility for the performance of his department. He was warned several times about what was going on and no significant action was taken. That is fairly and squarely down to him, including the 288 who were freed after he was told about it. He is responsible for the safety of the electorate and also the buck stops with him in this situation.

How can we trust him to sort the ensuing mess out when he has shown such total incompetence at his job? Why should he be allowed to continue to receive that salary etc with all the perks and favours that go with it when he has screwed up so badly with our safety?

Les

Iwan

Just out, some of the offenders have reoffended - including one alleged rape.

More to follow I think.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4954476.stm

Edit: At least 5 cases of reoffending.

The Zohan

Very sad news and so easily preventable

JTaylor

I'm not entirely sure about your politics but......thank goodness for a weighty post.