Quote Of The Week

[threegee]

"It is true Cuba has political prisoners and no free elections, but it has very good dentistry" - Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes (who recently signed a Commons motion praising ageing communist dictator Fidel Castro)

This, of course, would be in comparison with the fully democratic UK which: has political prisoners, no free elections for its leader (hello there Gordon!), and absolutely lousy dentistry!

[Pete]

This, of course, would be in comparison with the fully democratic UK which: has political prisoners, no free elections for its leader (hello there Gordon!), and absolutely lousy dentistry!

How true, Bungler Brown the unelected Prime Minister

[Malcolm Robinson]

How true, Bungler Brown the unelected Prime Minister

Do we, the general public at large, ever get to elect a Prime Minister? We elect a MP who then if he is in the majority party elects somone as Prime Minister. I think we are jumping the gun somewhat on this one GGG, we would elect a President if it was a republic but we have little impact on who becomes PM, save the fact that he/she has to be media aware of course!

[threegee]

But this isn't what be are led to believe when he goes flying around the country canvassing at election time, or spouts away on the party political broadcasts! People are left in no doubt precisely who they are voting for to run the ship. And, this is what the parties themselves discuss these days, far more than political direction or finer policy matters. It's the person they can put to the public that will get them elected.

It's totally dishonest to pretend the situation is otherwise! And these day's it's particularly damming as folks no longer know who stands for what, even assuming the parties know themselves! It's all the electors have left to tell one mob from the other.

This would be OK if we had an elected president to oversee what he's up to. But what we have is a load of dozy old of time-serving hacks that he himself (not his party) has placed. The few hereditary ones who haven't been got rid of and aren't completely subservient, are under constant threat of being abolished. Now, of course, we have The Parliament Act which was sneaked under our noses to ensure that even if the PM gets rebels in his own lot he can still have his way - not the way of his party or his cabinet.

A few years back if I had said this is the guy who has the power to drag us into a war on any old pretext, you'd have agreed, but added that it was a purely hypothetical argument. Now everyone knows differently!

The next stage in the slippery slide that's the (make it up as we go along) British Constitution, is that a PM gets to anoint his successor. A few decades back we had some sort of standards. People resigned even when they weren't directly to blame as a matter of principal. Often on "major" issues like who had slept with who! Now, taking one, or even a hundred thousand innocent lives as a result of your organisation's total incompetence doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Then, if the PM resigned or was taken ill, we had a "caretaker" PM who was under a moral obligation to go to the country for a new mandate. No more! Once again the constitution has been bent for the sole purpose of grabbing at power, and the average voter doesn't even realise that they've been further disenfranchised!

Getting back to the subject of this thread: it's this that makes such damn silly statements possible from our MP's, of whatever party. They've lost all grip on what really matters!

[Denzel]

This, of course, would be in comparison with the fully democratic UK which: has political prisoners, no free elections for its leader (hello there Gordon!), and absolutely lousy dentistry!

Right on brother.

[Pete]

Do we, the general public at large, ever get to elect a Prime Minister? We elect a MP who then if he is in the majority party elects somone as Prime Minister. I think we are jumping the gun somewhat on this one GGG, we would elect a President if it was a republic but we have little impact on who becomes PM, save the fact that he/she has to be media aware of course!

Most people today vote for the person that leads the party and not your local MP simply because its not your local MP that gets the publicity but the leader of the party,

Bungler Brown became Prime Minister by default and not by election. Tony Blair won the election for the Labour party, yes people had to vote for their local MP but that was just another way of voting for Tony Blair.

Whats the point in thinking that your local MP will get things done they only do what the leadership tell them or there out.

[threegee]

...Tony Blair won the election for the Labour party, yes people had to vote for their local MP but that was just another way of voting for Tony Blair.

Whats the point in thinking that your local MP will get things done they only do what the leadership tell them or there out.

Yes, there's another point here that I missed. When TB stood for election he did so promising to "serve a full term". What circumstances conspired to stop him keeping this promise? Did he become ill? Or did he simply choose to dishonour this promise at the first instant it became inconvenient?

At the time of the election we were left in no doubt that it was him, and him alone we were electing. Brown has absolutely no mandate, and his refusal to call an election illustrates that he has no honour either!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Getting back to the subject of this thread: it's this that makes such damn silly statements possible from our MP's, of whatever party. They've lost all grip on what really matters!

Lost the grip, I don't think many HAD any grip on reality! We seem to have created a political/aristo class where MP's are career politicians with no real outside world experience. That is bad enough but when they show no regard, certainly morally, to the people who put them there you have to wonder what is going on! We can organise a telephone vote for a twopenny happeny TV show where people vote in millions but we cannot have a referendum on matter which effect the country/us greatly? Course they might just reflect the values in society these days.........

[Pete]

We can organise a telephone vote for a twopenny happeny TV show where people vote in millions but we cannot have a referendum on matter which effect the country/us greatly? Course they might just reflect the values in society these days.........

Yes you are right Malcolm, people do vote in their millions for the supposed made for television reality shows but Brown is not going to organise a referendum he will lose.

The point Threegee made is also true he won't call a general election because he knows he would lose that as well, so what kind of person is he, he obviously realises that the people of this country don't want him as Prime Minister at least I have not meet anyone yet or spoken to anyone who wants him as Prim Minister.

[Malcolm Robinson]

So what you are saying GGG is that we have entered an age where the leader of any political party drags his party towards the policies they want espoused, instead of a group of party members setting out a mandate for the leader to follow, in his/her own style and putting that to the people to vote on. That would be what, presidential style by default? I can see it happening every time Cameron opens his mouth but it seems less than an honest approach to our form of democracy. Either put the person up for a vote or have a clear and unequivocal mandate by the parties concerned! What we have now is a mismatch of the two and is probably partly responsible for alienating the voting public.

The Tony and Gordon double act seems to have had a pretty easy ride of things when they were in power due to the growth in the global economy. With one or two exceptions they had an easy time in world events as well. Now we get to see what the Iron Chancellor is really made of and he looks pretty malleable to me as well! Gordon might not be the candidate most people wanted but who else was there and who might replace him? My money would be on Milburn as he seems to be favored by our political elite. Course his claim to fame is his idea to dump all the country’s toxic waste off the North East coast!

One final thing is this European Constitution, oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is, means there has to be a President elected to be the head of the created ‘state’. I will wager anyone Tony gets the call and may be the main reason he ‘abdicated’ in favour of Gordon when he had such a length of service left! He may be feeling the ‘hand of history’ once again!

[threegee]

Just about sums it up Malc.

Milburn is just too slick by half for me, but that's the sort of people who get on in politics these days. At least when dowdy old Michael Foot spouted some crap you could be sure that at least he believed it himself, and it wasn't simply a result of what this week's research had indicated a vote-winner!

Baby-face Cameron lost me when he apologised for riding his bike up a one-way and through a red-light. Bet Boris Johnston would have had something more interesting to say on the matter!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I think Brown has missed his chance to go to the country for his mandate. When he has to call an election it looks likely there will be financial carnage in the economy and people will just vote for someone else! Slick boy Cameron looks about as oily as the last teflon coated leader we had and may well pull if off by default if nothing else! As you say GGG it would be nice to see someone with the guts to stick to their beliefs and not pander to media interest but in this day and age...........