Messages

"Speaking of which, anyone see the front page of The Independent today? It had a rather brilliant graphical representation of "what you voted for" and "what you got", along with a three-page feature on PR-oriented alternatives to our current system (which has just elected Labour with the backing of a "massive" 21% of the eligible voters).

Rumours currently circulating state that even many senior Labour politicians realise that changes have to be made to the system. However, some of the changes could come in under the guise of PR and actually strengthen Labour's position, so it'll be interesting to see what (if any) changes are proposed. Certainly, FPTP needs to be shot and replaced with something that actually represents the voters, rather than a fifth of them."

No...i think there are extreme dangers with PR, not least the growth of extremist and protest parties and the rapid increase in the power of the party machines. What really needs to happen is a redistrubution of seats so they better reflect the proper balance. If the House of Lords is replaced by a proper Senate (i.e.  a mixture of county and city consiteuncies) then the critera that Commons seat should be geographically coherent should be scrapped. Then we would move away from such absurd scearnios where a Scottish Island seat has 20,000 voters whilst the Isle of Man has 1 for 100,000 voters. In addition to the fact that South Easts seat have on average more than 10,000 more voters than than the national average. Such a redistrubtion would have better reflected the will of the British public (which in my view was a Brownite Lib-Lab Government) without the instabilty that PR would cause.

Will

See Usher my belief is that today's voters are selfish and hypocritical as they basically want to be both left wing and right wing. This is what (the brilliant slogan) "Thatcherism with a human face" gets to, its promising the best of 80s conservativism and the best of old fashioned Labourism. The key to winning British elections is not to win from the Centre (if so why have the Lib-Dems only achieved success with their gradual move to the left?) but from both the Right and Left-capturing your oppenent in a pincer movement.

What this means is marrying social independence with social justice, something Labour promised in 1997. It is also what Thatcher promised in 1979. Both were lucky that events went their way in the first terms to the extent that they weren't held to account for their failure to achieve this.

Taking the poorest out of income tax isn't "Old Labour" at all, as it was them who put them under it in the first place*. What it is, is a way for the Conservaties to stay true to their overriding principle of the smaller state whilst achieving a more just society. The expansion in the wealth of the poorest (to the tune of some ?250 ever four weeks) will render irrelevant a whole host of welfare benefits and tax credits, so saving the Government money. It won't overly hurt the middle class because any increase in the rate of income tax over ?12,000 will be off set by the sum their saving underneath. Whilst the rich will benefit from the stimulus it will give the economy.

Another example would be to use the principle "no taxtation without representation" to take all under 18s out of income tax and let them keep all their earnings** as opposed to the baby bonds. Sure most will waste it but its their money, their choice.

*Income Tax under at least 1914 and maybe as late as the 1945 was seen as the preserve of the rich. So limited was its scope that a tea tax was kept for the express purpose of making sure that non-drinking liberal voters would make some contribution to the Inland Revenue.

**Maybe with some exception for the very wealthy.

Will
Will

Will

"I think the main problem the Tories had was Howard was regarded as a relic of the past. He was part of John Major's government, Howard being the Home Secretary, so he was a bit of a yesterday's man. The Tories needed a new exciting leader. Bit of a contradiction in terms, that.:)"

See too many people miss the point of Michael Howard as Tory leader...to use a football metaphor he became manager with 10games to prevent them getting relegated. He did this by the political version of the long ball game; better tactical organisation, pavement politics and a targeted campagin that went with the established grain of public opinion-against immigration but for public spending. And it worked, not only did he hold onto our percentage of the vote but he successfully beat back the Lib Dem challenge in southern England.

Now the challenge is to win and yep Michael Howard will never be able to do that. The problem with the last two conservative campaigns is that they meant nothing, they weren't for anything. What you had was a laundary list of populist policies. Whilst people may deride Blair as an opportunist he came to power offering a vision, a theme for his party "Thatcherism with a human face" or a "third way between social justice and entrepurnal (bad sp) captialism". This is the challenge for the Tories, a lot of people seem very happy to say what they want the Tories to be but not what they want Britain to be. Parties that can't say in a sentence what they are about are doomed to failure.

Of course this won't happen...instead we'll get a bizarre debate led by modernizers who insist that getting more token gay, women and ethnic minority candidates is the key to victory (news flash; the Tories already had more ethnic minority candidates than the other parties, there was an alarming trend of gay candidates doing badly and the Welsh rebelled against the imposition of a women candidate). What we really need is right wing radicalism; bringing a sense of dynamamism and purpose to the party. If anything needs to be tackled from the conservatvie past its our habit of supporting the big guy at the expense of the little guy. We need bold ideas; such as taking the lowest paid (under 12,000) out of the tax system), increasing not only the income tax bands but also the rates, etc.

Well that's what I think anyway.

Will

"1. Was always against invading Iraq"

No they weren't-their eventual opposition was entirely based on the question on the second UN resolution. If that had have passed they would have supported it. A big if I know but its still there.

Also the Lib Dems could never be a lasting opposition to Labour as they're just too similar. The likely result of the Lib Dems becoming the second party would be the growth either of a righist successor party to the Tories or a growth in extremist far-right votes.

Will

That's stupid...you should just sit at home and do nothing.

Worked in 1970 lol

Will

That's stupid...you should just sit at home and do nothing.

Worked in 1970 lol

Will

This helps...sounds like about 250-300 for me in total inc. travel (Leics area to Bristol then Bristol to Norwich. Can prob do that...

And of course will buy something off you Paul...and Bryon...and probably everyone else who thrusts a SP mag in my face.

Will

Oh dont say that...i need a limit.

Will

For those who have been before how much do you think I'll need in spending money to buy comics?

(Trying to work out a budget as I have a holiday directly after Bristol)

Will

Its just loading, that's an ad. The link worked fine for me.

Will

Floyd's got a column up at the nexus.

Hope you all read it and let Floyd know we all appericate him.

NB/ The abscence of the column over the past few weeks is nothing to do with Floyd but my failure to get his columns posted.

Will

Link: http://comicsnexus.insidepulse.com/articles/36856" target="_blank">The Return Home

Missed the first ten mins but what I sure was fantastic!!! Loved everything, just top class entertainment. The BBC has been on a role as late (I wish charter renewal happened ever year) with Casanova, Fingersmith, Genghis Khan and Dr Who-and this episode tops the lot. Bloody brilliant.

Now if only they'd get on with the Halo Jones, Charley's War and Slaine TV shows we'd be all set

Will

"Go ahead, There is nobody here who picks up the lousy mag, Art."

I do...well he gave me two issues and I really loved them. Was going to review them but a mate on nexus beat me to it. Was going to buy the third issue but didn't get round to it...well there's always bristol for that.

Will

DROOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will

Try Andy Diggle...has a lot of links there

Will