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General Election - Paul Robinson (13th Apr 2010 - 07:14:59) Last night I attended a presentation in the Village Hall given by Damian Hinds, the prospective Conservative candidate for this area. The meeting was well attended and Mr Hinds dealt with some intelligent questions from the audience regarding EEC membership, the NHS, International aid etc. Was I the only one to spot the elephant in the room i.e. the abuse of M.P.'s expenses system at which our last Conservative M.P, who's name was not even mentioned, proved himself to be an expert? Mr Hinds did say that his party would ensure that this practice would not continue however, coming as it does on the day that three M.P.s claimed Legal Aid to defend charges of corruption and many others who have elected to leave Parliament are being awarded 'golden goodbyes', I am wondering if Members of Parliament from all parties really understand the real world. This country is facing financial ruin. All of the political parties are forecasting increases in taxation and cuts in services at a level which are akin to 'moving the deck chairs on the Titanic' and will have very little impact on the estimated £160billion debt. If you want to see the sort of measures that need to be taken then take a look at Ireland who are addressing their balance of payments problem of 300 billion euros with cuts of 20% in salaries for those in the public sector. M.Ps of all persuasions both past and present should take a lead in addressing our financial problems. Speaking for the private sector I can tell you that the shareholders to whom they are accountable would not put up with this level of blatant fiddling and severence packages if their finances were as bad as this country's. Paul Robinson

Re: General Election - liz (13th Apr 2010 - 11:08:42) Budget deficit £160bn possibly more. Total debt c£800bn.

Re: General Election - John Lush (13th Apr 2010 - 16:13:42) So as we all so worried about the deficit can we agree it would be a bad idea NOT to go ahead with the planned national insurance rise? Can we agree that you can't 'cut' this tax, cut inheritence tax AND protect frontline public services?

Re: General Election - Steve Read (13th Apr 2010 - 17:23:32) The problem facing the ordinary working person is where do we go from here. I for one have always voted, however in the wake of all the blatant stealing, sorry MP's expenses, for once in my entire life I'm considering not bothering. I know how many people gave their lives in order for me to be able to vote, I know by not voting I relinquish my view by word of opinion and I’m aware that not to vote is a lost vote. However I also know that if you threw all the MP’s into a hat you would struggle to draw a good one out of the lot of them. The majority have a personal agenda they are not interested in your concerns or looking after our best interests, it’s all about what’s in it for me etc etc. That unfortunately is a trait a great many have today, those who can recall will remember that Thatcher instigated that mentality and installed the greed factor into the British way of life, of which I suppose in some shape or form we are all guilty. Everyone who has had a recent fuel bill, those of you on here who commute by train or try to find a bus, make a telephone call or try to substantiate where our community charge gets swallowed up, is everybody happy? Did anybody look further than the sweetner of some free shares when all things state owned were privatised? I’m not advocating which way is best far from it, but I do see a continued cost rising to all of us and one thing is for sure it will get worse before it gets better, who can get us out of it? I honestly do not know. In closing what is more worrying is that I work with a great many young people coming up on their first voting experience and when questioned in a poll nearly 80% stated they are not interested, says it all really.

Re: General Election - John Lush (13th Apr 2010 - 18:06:59) Steve The choice at the next election is clear - the two parties now offer a very different philiosophy to each other. There is no excuse not to vote.

Re: General Election - Steve Read (13th Apr 2010 - 20:59:29) John, Whilst respecting your view, do you really believe that? We all know from past experience that one side or the other throw all sorts of philosophy into the pot of pre election fever, this changes radically once elected. The truth of the matter is that the opposition party will always try to convince us that the grass is greener, once in power they then have to contend with the true reality of what they have inherited. For the benefit of all why can they not accept that this country is on the slippery pole and for once agree that hard decisions have to be made without proportioning blame. No matter what your political allegiance the down turn of the world economy was not endemic to one party or the other, it was instigated by the greed of the worlds banking system, a system deregulated and allowed to follow any path which allowed them to get their grubby hands on even more money. When this went to the wall, as most people with common sense predicted, it was us the tax payer who then bailed them out, only now for them to continue as before. Crazy, yet we accept it. I posted on this site a few years ago slating the financial institutions and the fact that too many people in this country were making money out of money and not enough people earning it, that still stands today. I got shot to pieces that time and probably will again, but the truth is we are now broke and sinking fast, as Paul states about shifting the deckchairs around on the Titanic. Accountability always ends with us, we are the ones who will always end up paying one way or another for the mismanagement of others whether that be in business or government and that unfortunately is a fact of life. What can we do about it? I have not got a clue! Therein lays my predicament.

Re: General Election - Nigel Myall (14th Apr 2010 - 18:54:35) Dear Steve, "Accountability always ends with us" should perhaps read "reponsibility ends with us". As responsible citizens we should therefore elect whatever government we think best represents our interests; and as responsible citizens we should VOTE. Although corruption has been detected in MPs expenses, at least it is not endemic. I was living in Spain when the "Malaya" case broke in Marbella - 2.4 BILLION euros were dishonestly taken by corrupt officials in that town. My Spanish friends and neighbours just shrugged their shoulders and said "that's politics here". Similar scenarios have since been discovered in town halls across the whole of Spain (though not such an outrageous amount of money). What I'm trying to get across to you that the system there actively encourages corruption, whereas here the reverse is true - corrupt officals are rightly treated with the contempt they deserve, after all it's really theft of our money. The recent scandals in the UK have arisen because the systems in place to protect our money in the hands of politicians have been inadequately policed, and by the wrong people. It is therefore up to US to send a message back to parliament that this will not be tolerated; however, in my opinion by not voting you merely send the message that you have no interest and therefore they might as well continue as before. I suggest we all look deeply into our candidates pasts and come to our own conclusion about who is most fitted to represent us. I suspect you can find bad apples in any party, I'm more interested in Damian Hind's own conduct and that of the other candidates. Does anyone have the data, and could they share it with us?

Re: General Election - Eneida (15th Apr 2010 - 09:31:30) Nigel, Have you not heard of Google?? Anything you want to know about virtually anybody, and certainly politicians, is out there in the ether!!

Re: General Election - Bill Ratcliffe (15th Apr 2010 - 18:19:09) The failure of puplic services, the escalations in costs and reduction in value is the direct consequences of the falure of politicians of all parties at national and local level. The sheer number of MPs caught up in the expenses scandal, and the runaway costs of local government are indicative of a collapse of standards in public life as politicians, civil servants and senior council officials seek to grab a share of public money. They do not have to earn this money, they cannot go bankcrupt, they hardly ever get dismisssed and they get rewarded for failure. It is likely that the electorate will, over time, find a way eventually to let the politicians know that they are seen as the cause of many of problems, not the solution. Then new political structures will emerge that remember democracy is government of the people, for the people by the people.

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