UK Politics

[sun-star]

Originally Posted by Last Child of Ungoliant

and with regards to credit, surely there is a reason to elect them right there^

Not to mention the introduction of a salary for MPs (so that working-class men could enter Parliament) and leading us through WW1...

[The Gaffer]

Yikes! Phil Collins is threatening to return to Britain if the Tories win. Read all about it here.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

so, how bout charlie boy forgettin his party's tax plans?

poor guy, needs some sleep with the new baby an all!

[The Gaffer]

Yeah, hardly suprising.

He made a good fist of his trial-by-Paxman last night, though.

So, what's the verdict so far then? The Tories seem to be losing ground after their good start, perhaps getting rightly punished for their harping on about immigration and MRSA too much. Labour seem to be doing not very much so far. I can't imagine too many people reading their way through their little book. However, at least there's an effort there to put in some substance rather than just style. Lib Dems still haven't broken through the "no, but seriously" barrier I don't think, though I reckon they'll pick up a lot of anti-war votes in Labour seats.

Or is everyone bored to death with it already? (I saw one poll in which over 80% of people said they'd already made up their minds and would like to vote tomorrow so that they don't have to put up with any more rubbish)

I was thinking about voting Green but I see they would ban animal testing so that's them out the window.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

Originally Posted by gaffer

was thinking about voting Green but I see they would ban animal testing so that's them out the window

that would make me vote for them more... compulsory vegetarianism is a good idea, maybe party should adopt that

[The Gaffer]

I would rather have compulsory veggieness than ban testing new drugs on animals.

But it's OK to eat animals. Didn't you know? It's God's way of punishing them for being stupid.

[Draken]

Interesting how Labour's lead is stretching in the polls. Not sure if it's down to disapproval of Tory policies or general revulsion at that chilling leer that Howard passes off as a smile.

I heard a sound-bite from a woman-in-the-street supporter of tougher immigration control saying that 'there were enough people in the country already.' Simple solution! All those minor celebs who said they would definitely leave the country if Labour won the last time (and time before that) but are still here should be made to keep their word. That should free up quite a few acres in Essex.

As for the Greens, whatever they may say they are at heart a single-issue lobby group. As such they've done as much as they could ever expect in our electoral system - they've brought a lot of their concerns into the mainstream. I think they have an interesting ideological problem in the future: as the world gets more concerned about global warming, sooner or later governments will figure out there is only one power source that doesn't produce carbon emissions, that can deliver the power output needed and that can do it in the timescale needed - the one a lot of Greens probably joined the party to campaign against.

[The Gaffer]

*DELETED DUPLICATE POST*

[The Gaffer]

Heh. Indeed. Though I guess you have to discount the costs of keeping a mounting pile of killer yad underground for thousands of years (and perhaps turn a blind eye to the exact extent of the capital costs of building nuclear installations). Easily done seeing has how economists typically reduce costs by 6% for every year in the future in which they occur.

For celebra-Tories like Jim Davidson, Paul Daniels, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan King and Busted (all listed on that Toryscum site), we would definitely be adding to the net value of the nation by rounding them up and putting them on a boat to, well, wherever will have them.

Should we have a system like they have in France, which restricts the use of polling during the election campaign?

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

did you know that the use of cannabis stalk as a fuel produces only water as a by-product? not only that, but it is one of the most efficient fuels available, and it can't be used because of an outdated law, and the convention which cannabis was included on accidentaly!!

[Nurvingiel]

Burning cannabis only produces water as a by-product? Or is it used as fuel in some other way? (Is this your run-of-the-mill pot we're talking about or some other species?)

What fuel were you referring to Sun-star?

[sun-star]

You mean Draken, but I think he's talking about nuclear power.

[Draken]

Yep was me and I meant nuclear power.

Am still puzzling how any burning of plant matter can only produce water though LCoU! You did mean it would be burnt, right? As organic matter, the stalks MUST produce some form of carbon emission, surely?

Anyway, I heard on the news last night that The Sun has once more thrown its intellectual might behind Blair - allegedly because Murdoch wants to stay the right side of his mate Bush.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

i tried to respond to nurvi last night, grrr @ my stupid home computer...

the stalks of cannabis sativa, when burnt, produce only trace elements (ie: carbon dioxide) in addition to dihydrous oxides (commonly known as 'water'), it is an incredibly efficient fuel, and most of the energy is transferred to usable.

of course we are not talking about the leaves here, they produce a much different by-product

on a different note...
a four-yr-old son of a tory mp, whenever he sees michael howard on tv, goes into a mock-horror routine, saying 'I won't hurt you children...', it was reported in the independent today (i had to read that, there were no guardians in the library at college this morning )

[Draken]

Well... burning is burning, and for anything organic to produce water, it HAS to produce a good amount of CO2 and CO as well. HOWEVER I think what you're saying is that for cannabis stalks (or for that matter the stalks of any annual plant) the process is carbon-neutral as the carbon released by combustion is simply that absorbed from the atmosphere by the plant over the previous few weeks.

Burning fossil fuels releases carbon fixed from the atmosphere a long time ago, so adds to our present-day problems.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

yes thats what i mean, i really need to learn to phrase things betterer

but i am opposed to nuclear and fossil fuels

[Draken]

Depending which model is right, it could be a choice of nukes or losing the likes of Fiji. Lesser of two evils time. No skin off my nose, according to one model of climate change I could end up with with a beachside pad in a Mediterranean climate, without even moving house!

[Nurvingiel]

Every form of producing energy has some unhappy byproduct. Even wind power, which has no emissions or radioactive material, still takes a lot of energy from other sources to build the windmill and the battery. (Or whatever they use to store the energy.)

I thought nuclear power has emissions anyway, from the cooling towers or something.

Burning coal, needless to say, has hideous emissions. Natural gas seems like a good option, except there's quite a limited supply.

There's problems and advantages to every energy source, so I think we should use diverse sources. That way we can have small hydro-electric dams, nuclear plants, etc. instead of huge mega projects. This would have the bonus that if one plant failed it wouldn't cause a huge crisis.

I don't think that nuclear power is the only sensible option for the future. There's a lot of avenues that could use more research.

[The Gaffer]

OK time to liven it up a bit. What about some discussion of specific issues? How about health to start with?

Even though I won't be supporting them I think Labour wipes the floor with the opposition here. They have shifted the debate around health such that it is unacceptable to talk about cuts; there's increasingly good evidence that their reforms are improving the quality of the NHS; most importantly (IMO) they've implemented new contracts for GPs and consultants which means that for the first time the NHS will actually be able to predict how many hours of these people's time will be available for treatment and tell them what they have to deliver. They should also get credit (but don't) for implementing the European Working Time Directive, which means that junior doctors can't be made to work insane hours any more.

The Lib Dems are strong in health, with a focus on eliminating charges for dental and eye checkups, and free personal care for the elderly. However, they spoil it by talking populist tripe about abolishing targets and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs). To me, targets are essential if we are to improve overall patient care across the board. Yes, we know that it leads to people playing the system, but that's why you review and move the targets (through agencies such as SHAs!). There's no better way of changing the behaviour of a million employees. It's funny how there are no newspaper stories about how nobody gets dumped in a corridor in A&E any more.

The Tories, are of course planning to take over a billion of NHS money and hand it to the private hospitals to subsidise rich people to jump the queue. Completely insane and bordering on evil, nuff said. Though it is worth pointing out that the NHS is so efficient that the "tariff" (the cost of the operation within the NHS) is far, far less than the cost in the private sector for the same operation. Hence, the bung these people get for going private won't even cover half of their operation cost.

[emily leonard]

this is a completly true story!

at my shool the 6 formers had the chance to ask the local mp's a question. a few 6 formers from malwood (another local sckool) came down too. there was 1 boy that was a member of the conseritave party (and so were the rest of his family). he asked such a good question that the conervitave leader (butt) could not anser it he was completly stumpt.

a few days later the boy who had asked the question had a letter through the post. his membership to the conservative party had been canseld.

i for 1 am worried that these people want to run our country!!!