Going, going....almost gone

Started by knight66, May 10, 2007, 05:04:00 AM

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knight66

You may notice that the Right has been moving into the middle and the Left moved into the middle to make itself electable and Lib Dems were in the middle anyway. So, just at the moment we are back to consensus politics where it is perceived that to catch votes you need to be .....in the middle, but with a gimmick. So Lib Dems loose out as usual...unless you can think that their lackluster leader is a gimmick.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

SimonGodders

I think it's utterly miserable and would love to see a return to the polarisation of left and right, but feel the political landscape essentially mirrors society in that every where you look it's safety first and the suppression of risk or behaviour that's deemed risky. No one makes a stand anymore.

As a famous band once sang, 'It doesn't matter who you vote for because the Government always get in'. Far more applicable now than it ever was (or then).

I'm latching on to Gordie' and hope he might morph into an old style tub-thumping union loving Labour PM, shedding the New Labour coat of Technicolor...Probably not :D


knight66

There is that advice not to waft flies away from an open wound....all you do is replace them by freshly hungry flies. Perhaps we should just leave the same gravy train passangers in office, on that advice.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Michel

Agreed, Simon.

And despite what people say, they aren't just both in the middle. At the end of the day, Conservatives enjoy the status quo, labour want change. How people listen to anything that comes out of a Conservative politicians mouth, for example, with regard to the NHS, is beyond me. They would have shut it down years ago if they had the chance.

Their ideologies remain dramatically different.

knight66

#24
I don't agree, the only way of getting elected at the moment is to take the middle ground. Tory's have moved into the centre since Major's time and New Labour is no longer true Left. Of course there are differences, but they are not dramatic.

People like change of Gov. eventually, I wonder if Brown will be a sufficient change to satisfy?

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Michel

Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 10:45:59 AM
I don't agree, the only way of getting elected is to take the middle ground. Tory's have moved into the centre since Major's time and New Labour is no longer true Left. Of course there are differences, but they are not dramatic.

Mike

Why must there be a middle ground? Sure, they aren't radical. But, there are millions of people who hold the values of the left dear - have you been north of Birmingham Mike?

And likewise there are hoardes of reactionary racists out here in the home counties that love to vote blue. Maybe everyone is just boringly liberal where you live.

Its that simple - and for the parties to get their support base in, they must still retain some of the old, else they will go elsewhere. So many people will always vote the same party all their life.

Just because it isn't workers vs capitalists by no means means that there is nothing left to fight over.

knight66

You are a right little joker as you know my roots are in Scotland and the North of England. At the moment, there are so many floating voters who must be captured, that each party has to temper its extreme positions to capture that middle ground....or remain unelectable.

Labour suffered it for 17 years and the Tory folk have been trying to move into the centre, but Labour got there first.

When the electorate get bored with their existing Gov, they always do eventually, we can swop faces.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

SimonGodders

It would have been interesting to have seen the direction of the Labour Party and the Government if John Smith hadn't suffered a heart attack.

knight66

Yes, he is still missed. I suspect he would have lead a highly successful government with very little sleeze or spin.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

SimonGodders

Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 11:41:04 AM
Yes, he is still missed. I suspect he would have lead a highly successful government with very little sleeze or spin.

Mike

Agreed. He always came across as a very decent and honourable human being :'(

vandermolen

The death of John Smith was a great disaster for the Labour Party. He was a man of great integrity; the only man, I believe, who could have got "Old Labour" re-elected.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

knight66

I agree, except that he was all for modernisation, but it is a shame did not get a shot at it.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

vandermolen

Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 01:01:07 PM
I agree, except that he was all for modernisation, but it is a shame did not get a shot at it.

Mike

Agreed Mike,

best wishes

Jeffrey
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

The Mad Hatter

This is what usually pops into my head when I see Tony Blair.


knight66

DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Iago

Sorry, there just are no more Winston Churchills and Franklin D. Roosevelts available.
"Good", is NOT good enough, when "better" is expected

knight66

Yes Iago, they say come the moment come the man, but it looks like we need to bin that saying now.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Michel


Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Harry

Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2007, 01:09:09 AM
That's a joke, right?

I suspected him to be a little deranged, but now I am sure!
This is no joke anymore, but blatant nonsense.