Election Week For the Brits!

Desdichado · May 5, 2015

That was at least the reasoning behind the first English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. The American War for Independence was a continuation of the same phenomenon in British politics- an organized revolt seeking to reestablish a perceived traditional order. Prune the tree of liberty if you will.

Americans forget that for over a hundred years we were British and that our ancient historical identity is on the island of Britain. By seeking to understand Britain, we seek to understand ourselves. Vice versa for the British. In the 1700's the Anglophonic world saw two paths in the woods and chose to take both.

I find it all utterly fascinating.

Desdichado · May 5, 2015

MadParrotWoman said:

Thanks.

Good to know.

I expect UKIP to make gains and hope they alter the political discourse of Britain. Africa begins at Calais after all.

mrh35 · May 5, 2015

arhhhhhhh I come here hoping to get away from politics ......

Pumicestone · May 5, 2015

You came to a thread called "Election Week for the Brits" hoping to get away from politics ???

At least it's a refreshing and more important subject than that darned baby !

Agricola · May 6, 2015

I always used to vote Conservative in every General election, but not this time. However I can not see Conservative loosing the ward I live in, as the Torys could dress a turnip in a suit and it would still get elected. HOwever that was in the past, demographics are changing a bit combined with other factors it will be an interesting election.

Politics is becoming interesting again with the rise of UKIP, notice how all the main parties are running scared of UKIP. How many seats UKIP will get no idea, but it will be great if they pick up a dozen or so. I used to live in Portsmouth, Porstmouth South is interesting from a political point of view, so much scandal with previous MP involved in numerous legal action and being expelled from the Lib Dem, strong UKIP support too.

mrh35 · May 6, 2015

Pumicestone said:

You mean somebody has had a baby and made the news as well.....wow what a week

royalscot · May 6, 2015

no body is running scared of any political party, when you understand its a two horse race. and the mps will still get paid, for this weeks work. the different view point between, mps and voters is, its my job,v its your vote.

MadParrotWoman · May 6, 2015

The thing that worries me about Cameron getting re-elected it the further demise of the NHS. He has already allowed it to deteriorate, I think it's on the verge of imploding. I cannot vote for him for this reason and the fact that he calls himself a Christian yet voted in favour of gay marriage. I'd sooner vote for someone who doesn't claim to be a Christian voting for gay marriage than that.

royalscot · May 6, 2015

when did politics worry about christian values. for a political point, if 1 in 5 children at school(2015) talks an other language other than english, that 20% of the vote in 5-10-15 years etc. and you wonder, why political correctness is being addressed and talked about more and more in political circles, there job v your vote. etc

MadParrotWoman · May 8, 2015

Well it didn't go too well from my point of view but I guess it has all been predicted...end times all of a sudden seem a little closer.

PennEd · May 8, 2015

MadParrotWoman said:

You have a great Christian heart, and wonderful morals, but I don't understand why even fantastic people like you and Agricola embrace socialism so much?
For almost a hundred years your country and mine has fought wars and spent trillions on defense, to stop this evil philosophy. Can't you see that the moment you agree to have others pay for YOUR needs they have a right to dictate how you live? Only 2 forces in all human history has been proven to stop man's corruption. The 1st is a belief in, and an accountability to, God, and the second is COMPETITION. At it's heart socialism is anathema to both of these forces. Why would a secular NHS worker, who has NO fear of competition, and a gov. looking to cut costs, care about you and the treatment you receive? The sickness of socialism and gov control and power to administer ALL of everyone's needs has now even infected many freedom loving Americans. It will be tough sledding to wean everyone off of this stuff and I fear a global economic collapse will yank the rug out from those not prepared to give up gov welfare programs when it happens.

Desdichado · May 8, 2015

PennEd said:

I wonder how they will answer this.

I can kind of see their point. On a fundamental level I'm opposed to the American Welfare State, but think that the institutions we have in place now ought to remain in place until we find decent and easily-communicated alternatives that provide a transition for those who legitimately rely on the Welfare State for funding.

This ought to happen fast, because these programs are going the way of the dodo as the British can see with NHS. Cameron does indeed have a moral responsibility to seek alternatives and let that trundling behemoth take a trip to Avalon.

Miri · May 8, 2015

PennEd said:

Actually we we do pay for the NHS and other welfare services through the National
Insurance contributions we pay as well as tax.

Also the majority of medical staff in the UK do care about patients. For example I am
a carer for my elderly aunt. In the first four months of this year due to ill health problems
she had, the following were necessary:-

3 ambulances called out to home
3 GP home visits
7 telephone consultations with her GP
2 visits by me to my aunt's GP to discuss her health
3 nurses visited at home (1 of which went out of her way to pick up
a prescription for us from an out of hours chemist)
6 days she spent in hospital
2 visits by a specialist falls team
1 visit by a physio. (Lovely lady)
1 visit by a lovely lady who put up hand rails around the house for my aunt
2 chiropodist visits to the home
2 optician visits to the home
1 out patients appointment at hospital
Plus I visited the GP twice for my own needs - lovely man, great sense
of humour.

All entirely free and all absolutely wonderful people.
I don't even have to say my name now when I ring up the GP surgery, all the
receptionists know my voice over the phone and the nurses stop and chat to ask
how my aunt is if they see me in reception. The surgery has about 7000
registered patients, but they seem to know them all.

I can't imagine privatisation would improve on this. If anything i would think
profits will be put first instead of patient welfare.

Long live the NHS

Desdichado · May 8, 2015

MadParrotWoman said:

You knew it was going to be bad when David Axelrod was advising the Labour Party and Jim Messina was advising the Conservative Party.

Would you like Obama or Obama?

Desdichado · May 8, 2015

Meanwhile conservative politicos don't know how to choose friends. Thinking of Morton Blackwell going to France for the Front National.

I would too I suppose if I were to meet Marion Marechal-Le Pen. Gives a whole new meaning to flirting with fascism.

Miri · May 8, 2015

I think the demise of the NHS is severely over estimated. Everyone including the
politicians know that any party brave enough to dismantle the NHS would never
get in power again, there would be a public outcry.

Its more likely that certain services would be put out to tender, but not the whole
NHS.

Actually all the parties said they would increase spending on the NHS if
they won the election.

Angela53510 · May 8, 2015

So who won? Sorry I missed this earlier. We had a big election in Tory Alberta (my home province) and they elected an unabashedly socialist party - majority.

I always like minority governments, so much actually gets done.

As for universal health care, it is only Christian to take care of "the least of these." And in an expensive world, a truly universal health care system is the answer, not a piece meal mess like Obamacare.

Agricola · May 8, 2015

Conservatives won with a majority of 12 seats

Agricola · May 8, 2015

This year I will be paying £1200 in tax specifically to contribute to NHS and welfare. The cuts I highlighted are chicken feed compared to the money we paid just to bail out Greece and other nations in the EU. The truth is the poor and sick are soft targets, the real crooks and benefits cheats get away with it, instead the most vulnerable of society are hit the hardest, which is evil.

We have strict rules in place as to whom is entitled to benefits and those benefits are not huge amounts. The unemployed are not left to just sit on their backsides, they have to actively engage in schemes and courses to get back into work. It seems you have to much of a black and white thinking when it comes to socialism, yes 100% socialism does not work and is prone to the greed and evil of humans, which makes it fails, Animal Farm is a superb read to illustrate this.

The NHS and Welfare system in the UK is not evil socialism, it was put in place a long long time ago when poverty was nothing like how poverty is classed today, it was also a time when medicine and hospitals were more basic care structure.

Our nation has developed and grown with this in place, it is ingrained into our culture and we all pay to help those in need, isn't this one of the most basic Christian principles? help others in need? The Welfare system is not simply just a free money for all system giving out stupid amounts of money, the amount of benefit given out is not huge and I struggled to survive on it, until the Torys cut the benefits and found ways to stop the money all together for a few weeks, that hurt, how does depriving me of £200 help in the long run? Instead I had to borrow money and went into more debt.

All this has been in place during the wars and conflicts you speak of, is that irony? Comparing the UK social welfare system with what is happening in America is chalk and cheese, a nation such as America trying to implement something along the lines of our model of welfare and healthcare is going to be a disaster, anyone can see that, especially with the size difference in population.

Our NHS is straining under mismanagement and overpaid managers, but that's another political story, the nature of medicine has changed beyond recognition resulting in spiralling costs to run the NHS, in the 60s, you would have perhaps had one or two surgeons who dealt with cancer patients, regardless of type of cancer, now you have separate departments dedicated to different types of cancer.

Advance in technology demands countless of millions spent on amazing machines. One thing many people from outside UK do not realise is that most of the equipment running in hospitals is actually paid for from fund raising and donations, my local hospital is fund raising for Da Vinci Robotic Surgical Centre, not the public purse, so can this be classed as evil socialism that must be stamped out?

At some point , everyone in the UK will be relying on the NHS and welfare system, which is why hardly anyone I know complains about the amount of National Insurance tax we pay, sorry but this is not evil socialism.

AgeofKnowledge · May 8, 2015

Not to detract from your very valid point (which I agree with); however, we must remember other less important influences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States#New_France in colonial American politics.

Other nations had colonies here too including France which established Detroit, Green Bay, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Mobile, Biloxi, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Desdichado said:

Election Week For the Brits!

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