Forget bigotgate

[Stevepage]

Speaking of benefits, I'm on job seekers allowance. Being only 23, I get £50 a week. I look for jobs every day and I'm constantly on relatives backs to get me work, went in today and was told by some one at the job centre that there are no jobs going within 10 miles of Hatfield on their database. Which I've never ever heard of before. My only hope for work is from a previous employer, but even he hasn''t got alot of work. So what my point is, I hope Labour don't remain in 'power' and a deal with the Lib Dems and Conservatives comes to fruition. Labour aren't the cause of the recession, but they've made matters alot worse than what they should of been, now $%&# off out.

[Dmoney]

who knows... under a conservative government you might not be able to find work within 15miles!
It's ok though, because when they get power a cut central funding for help to people like the blind and disabled, you can volunteer to be part of the 'Big Society' and help those people within your community, so at least you won't be bored, and everybody wins.

[nfe]

You'll have Labour out by the end of today, if not 5pm tomorrow.

Tories are gonna raise your taxes (the ones we're still paying on benefits) before they find you a job though.

[Stevepage]

I know things aren't going to be better, I didn't even vote because I knew what ever party got into power, it would be the same shite as always.

I'm just quite angry at the moment at how things have been for me for the past 3 years, temporary contracts, nothing permanent and having to sign on again for the 3rd time.

[Dmoney]

I have friends who have what sound like similar issues but on a smaller scale. self employed carpenters etc that can't find regular work. All kinds of stuff. My girlfriend just moved back to leeds from london because she couldn't afford to live, work, and finish her masters degree because she lost her job.

[AndyR]

I know things aren't going to be better, I didn't even vote because I knew what ever party got into power, it would be the same shitee as always.

I'm just quite angry at the moment at how things have been for me for the past 3 years, temporary contracts, nothing permanent and having to sign on again for the 3rd time.

I know exactly how you feel, and I hope you get something sorted soon... every one of you guys who are stuck at the moment...

Trouble is, for me, the last time it happened to me was under the Conservatives - I've been going not too bad for the last 13 years...

But I still haven't got over how the Conservatives helped my life at that time... all through that "loadsa money" growth and prosperity bullsh1t period, andrew was getting shafted... several years of on-off disaster, tangling with the benefit system in a big way, broken marriage, etc, I'm still paying for some of it even now... it would take an awful lot for me to welcome the Conservatives (and the basic approach they'll take once they've "sorted the economy") with open arms again...

I was actually "part" of the benefits system as the last Conservative government died (I worked for a Company that provided "Training For Work", one of their schemes at the time). We were utterly overjoyed that we finally got rid of the crowd that really didn't give a sh1t about the unemployed and disenfranchised, except as a cost to be kept down, or as a bunch of people to be hounded for being job-shy, people who ought to be paying taxes...

And you're right about it's gonna be the same sh1te... none of the lot of them are as caring/sharing as we would like/need them to be... but it's just business really... and none of us really fit the mould...

I spent so long unemployed and "losing" when I was younger, I'll never quite forget it...

You actually sound like you've got a bit more "get-up-and-go" than I had... You'll get there - you're gonna win in spite of the system, no matter what the system is or what it changes to... it's up to us all to fight our own battles, or to give up and let the other f@ckers win... I gave up for a while - don't do that, no-one's gonna give you nothing except the bare bones of what it takes to say they were doing their job properly.... but if you keep fighting/looking/re-assessing for yourself, then you'll get there...

[nfe]

So Cameron is in.

Liberal Democrats have seemingly abandoned PR for a referendum on AV, which will hurt more than it'll help. Anything to get a couple of your pals a seat in government though, eh?

Hopefully they fail to make their 75% agreement and the party tell Clegg to beat it, and then we'll see a fast-failing Tory minority government and another election, which Labour will likely take a majority at because of the dismal term the Tories will have had, and the Liberals will bin Clegg for wrecking their best (and only, within the last 40 years) shout at getting in goverment, probably almost permanently, and we can all live in hope of PR for the next couple decades.

If Clegg does manage to convince his party, he'll have flung away a vaste swathe of the people who voted for him this time, and at the next election, which will be soon, regardless of what happens, the libs will be gubbed. Good. The deserve it for abandoning their principals, voters, members and plenty of their own MPs.

Well done, Britain.

[Dmoney]

David Cameron lives around the corner from me. i recently found this out. though i guess he won't be living there long now.
I might go see if I can pop in for brew.

[dave_mc]

You're absolutely right.

thanks :)

EDIT: to be fair to clegg, if he'd gone in with labour he'd have been completely savaged by the press. i'm no fan of the tories, though (obviously). I'm just hoping they can moderate the tories enough.

[tomjackson]

Nick Clegg is not daft, he'll suck up to Cameron for a while, get the voting reform that will actually give the Liberals a chance of getting into government through the front door and then he'll let the cracks appear.  He will be an unpopular leader for the Liberals joining forces with the Tories but the voting reform to Proportional Representation will elevate them to having a genuine shot at a majority government at some stage in the future.
When that's sorted he can offer a voice of balance within the Tories to stop them going off on one again!

David Cameron is in a lose / lose position.  Yes, he will put up taxes but how else will he pay for the debt?  I would also like to see some tightening of the purse strings so we are not pissing money out in other areas.  He'll make the hard decisions then at the next election be voted out for them so we don't have to suffer a long period of Tory rule.

I think shifting Govenments now and again can be good for the country, 17 years of Labour and another 4 of Gordorn Brown would have been too much IMO, but if Labour get a decent leader and get things in order they will be voted in next term refreshed.

Stevepage, It's tough, I was pretty much in the same position as you when I was 23, in and out of temporary jobs and finding it really hard to get something permanent.  But looking back I wonder why I didn't give guitar lessons.  £20 per hour and there are always people wanting to play guitar.  It might not be what you want to do but you have a skill that can start earning you a wage quickly....

[dave_mc]

i would photoshop a pic of nick clegg in front of the party slogan "change that works for me", but i can't be arsed. :lol:

[nfe]

Nick Clegg is not daft, he'll suck up to Cameron for a while, get the voting reform that will actually give the Liberals a chance of getting into government through the front door and then he'll let the cracks appear.  He will be an unpopular leader for the Liberals joining forces with the Tories but the voting reform to Proportional Representation will elevate them to having a genuine shot at a majority government at some stage in the future.

But he's not getting PR, he's getting a referendum on AV which the Tories will campaign against, along with the Murdoch empire. And even were the LD to achieve a yes vote for AV, it wont help them in an election. They'd have got a handful more at this election, that's it.

He's not daft, he's getting a few years playing at being in power or the price of his party's future, having alienated core voters, members, backbenchers and activists. LDs forming a coalition without so much as a referendum on PR is mental.

[dave_mc]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8678196.stm

cameron's face at 0:11-0:12 is amazing

[Philly Q]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8678196.stm

cameron's face at 0:11-0:12 is amazing

That's a good moment.  I'm enjoying this human face of politics we've seen the last few days.  I'm sure it won't last.

[fbloke]

I'm also enjoying this youthful, positive and friendly side of the New Politics that the Tories and Lib Dems are showing us at present. I'm sure that it will be a very fruitful and cosy partnership. For about 3 months. And then:

 - they will open the crypt door and let out the ghostly looking but still utterly terrifying Norman Tebbit.  All television programmes will be interrupted at that moment so that his hateful face will fill the screen and tell all the poor people out there that the recession is THEIR FAULT for not working hard enough and that from this point on a new Oik Tax will be introduced to reduce their incomes by another third until the deficit is paid off.  Cameron will then appear from stage left and peel off his rubber mask to reveal: JAMES MURDOCH!!  The fresh new face of the imperialist far right!!  Sanctions will be imposed against Wales and Scotland as punishment for repeated and persistent Labour voting and new work camps for people on benefits will open up somewhere in the depths of Norfolk with big iron gates with Arbeit Macht Frei across the top.

Still, they got my vote. I'm off to touch myself intimately whilst looking at pictures of Sarah Palin.