The 2005 general election is nearly upon us. Which way will you vote, and you reasons why. Here is a brief list of the potential contestants, please add your own.


More tax!
Less tax!
Dont know!
Death to all infidels!
Who gives a shit?

The great pretender.

Another Prescott--BOOB!

well gf, i've left the country cos of the dreadful state of UK. I can only see it getting even WORSE in next decade at least, maybe even next 30 to 40 years. I will not return unless things improve.

That means the death penalty for Brown, Blair and Jack McConnell esp. Little catholic piece of scum that he is.

I'd prefer Joseph Stalin to take over UK right now. He might have been brutal but he would make people nicer. I've been to eastern europe many times in last few years and seen how much nicer these people r compared to selfish ignorant people in UK

Are things going pear shaped for Fony?



Labour lead drops by five points

Poll results in full (pdf)

Alan Travis and Michael White
Tuesday April 5, 2005
The Guardian

Tony Blair will this morning formally ask the Queen to call the long-promised May 5 general election, with only a slim three-point lead over the Conservatives in his back pocket, according to the latest Guardian/ICM poll.

The survey shows that the bounce in Labour's fortunes in the immediate aftermath of Gordon Brown's popular budget has proved short-lived and the eight-point lead the party enjoyed two weeks ago has been cut to three points now.

Full article here.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1452292,00.html

Tories in front by a nose---better get more postal votes rigged!! Note even the Chinese won't buy Rover even with millions of pounds of our money in as a sweetener---because of the huge black hole in it's pension pot, clever Gordon he thought but now the pigeons are coming home to roost!

Shame they wouldnt agree to a public punch up, but I suppose this is better than nothing......Who's going first? Who's got the bottle??



Special report: election 2005

BBC scoops party leaders for live TV first

Dominic Timms
Tuesday April 5, 2005
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1452743,00.html


Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy have agreed to appear on live television for the first time in the same programme.

The leaders of the three major political parties will each be grilled in a special edition of Question Time on April 28.

The BBC said today it considered an American-style head-to-head debate but didn't approach Labour because they had publically ruled it out.

However, the corporation is still heralding this as a major scoop - such was the party leaders' nervousness about taking part in live debates during the last election that the BBC was forced to broadcast three separate Question Time specials.


Article continues

This is the nearest British voters will get to a US-style debate with each leader appearing consecutively in the 90-minute special to be hosted by Question Time regular David Dimbleby.
"We did talk about a live debate but it became perfectly clear that particularly Labour had no interest," said Helen Boaden, the head of BBC news.

"It's going to be pretty splashy. We're giving a big chunk of BBC airtime over to the debate and it is going to be interesting to see how the individual leaders react to being cross-examined by the same audience."

The BBC unveiled its election coverage just hours after Mr Blair went to Buckingham Palace to confirm that May 5 would be polling day.

Ric Bailey, the executive editor in charge of Question Time, said the leaders had agreed to take part in the debate although details about who will appear first have yet to be thrashed out.

"We haven't been talking to the leaders all that long. We came up with the proposals and we got a tacit agreement. A lot of the detail and the choreography has got to be sorted out but they will appear live on the same programme," he said.

Fear in the ranks over votes still up for grabs

Don't be misled by the polls. Not since 1992 has a result been so in doubt

Martin Kettle
Wednesday April 6, 2005
The Guardian
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/polls/comment/0,11030,1453182,00.html

All election results always seem inevitable in retrospect, the undefeated three-time general election winner Margaret Thatcher writes in her memoirs - but, as she then goes on to say, none of them ever look that way at the start of the campaign.
It is as certain as anything can be that there was a nervous and excited end-of-term mood among ministers yesterday when Tony Blair finally confirmed the worst-kept political secret of the year - that there will be a general election on Thursday May 5.



But it is just as certain that the mood of eagerness for the coming fray will have mingled with some genuine gut-tighten ing buttock-clenching fear, as ministers pored over a clutch of new polls showing Labour's lead narrowing. As they prepared to leave their familiar Whitehall bubble behind only the bravest will not have wondered whether they will see their ministerial offices again.
Sometimes that sort of fear is absurd. There was no evidence whatsoever to support the famous "wobbly Thursday" panic in the Thatcher high command seven days before polling day in 1987; a week later the Tories predictably trounced Labour with a majority of 102.

This time, though, Britain is embarking on the first election since 1992 in which the result is genuinely in doubt. Thirteen years ago the uncertainty had an apparently solid foundation: the opinion polls were neck-and-neck between the Tories and Labour at the start of the campaign and remained so to the end - even the election night exit polls predicted a hung parliament.

In 2005 the uncertainty is altogether harder to pin down, though it is every bit as potent. This time the polls mostly put Labour ahead - the three-point lead identified by this week's latest Guardian/ ICM survey is in line with most of the other surveys of recent days. This time it is not just the way that the public intends to vote that is the big question, as whether it intends to vote at all.

The media, of course, love a contest rather than a walkover, especially after 2001, and will play that element up. Nevertheless, there is a real sense, and not just in the Westminster village, that many voters are undecided about their voting intention or are not committed to that intention. That has fed the suspicion that all is not as the pollsters claim - and that therefore this could be the most unpredictable and exciting contest for years.

There are several serious reasons why this election is hard to call. The main one is the apparent unravelling of Tony Blair's national popularity, mainly because of the Iraq war, and the consequent disassembling of his big tent coalition that swept all before it in the past two elections.

The means, first, that the tactical voting against the Tories that marked the 1997 and 2001 contests may unwind. Labour voters in seats that Labour cannot win are likely to remain happy voting for (mainly) Liberal Democrats; Blair's unpopularity may even give this process a boost. But Lib Dem and other third-party voters may be less inclined to return the favour where Labour is strong. That could let the Tories back into the game in a lot of seats they lost in 1997 and 2001.

The second consequence could be a pronounced swing against Labour in seats where the war remains a particular touchstone - seats with significant Muslim electorates, for example, or seats containing a lot of students.

A third factor could be the disaffection of the Labour core vote, though this is sometimes exaggerated. Nevertheless, extensive disgruntlement in the Labour heartlands (and elsewhere) could result in reduced turnout, protest voting for parties of the extreme right (or possibly the left) and a general volatility that could have unpredictable results, perhaps rewarding effective single-issue campaigns such as the "Save Kidderminster Hospital" campaign that ousted Labour in favour of an independent in 2001.

Regions

Britain's regions rarely respond uniformly in elections, and if several of these factors impact together, there could be dramatic differences in different parts of the country. The north-east and Wales swung against more heavily against Labour in 2001 than the south-west and the south-east. That could suggest that the latter regions will be more difficult for Labour this time, or it may imply that opposition parties will be most likely to make gains in areas where Labour has been weakened.

There could be a similarly uneven pattern in urban Britain, too. Labour's success in 1997 and 2001 has been followed by widespread opposition successes in local government elections. The Lib Dems think they are in with a good shout in Newcastle and perhaps Sheffield and Birmingham. The Tories hope to make inroads in Edinburgh and Bristol. But it is London - where Ken Livingstone's mayoral re-election may mask a wider slump in Labour fortunes - where the contest will be the fiercest and changes possibly the largest.

If the polls are right, however, Labour may do far better than the on-the-ground experts suspect. Even when the result of an election is heavily odds-on, as it was for Thatcher in 1987, the capacity of likely winners to panic - as the Tories did on the famous "wobbly Thursday" - should never be ignored.

But it is all to play for now. "Cabinet that morning was abuzz," recalled John Major of March 11 1992, when he called a general election he would eventually win by a majority of 21. "Everyone present believed we could win, but not everyone thought we would. Looking around the cabinet table, I could see some ministers wondering if they would sit around it again."

Even Major himself was not immune from doubt. Sitting in the Queen's study in Buckingham Palace while he sought the formal dissolution, a royal corgi settled with its nose on the prime ministerial foot. "As I idly stroked the back of his neck, I wondered if Neil Kinnock liked dogs," Major wrote in his memoirs.

Not even Blair's greatest enemy can accuse him of taking the voters for granted. So when Blair had his own dissolution audience with the Queen yesterday, it is a fair bet that he too may have wondered how Michael Howard would get on with the corgis.

News today that since labour took power Industries output has slowly declined and is due to all the red tape that has been issued and the crafty taxes that labour are so good at.

UK will soon be bankrupt!!!!!! Especially if labour win again.

Come on labour, u can do it. Haha, haha.

i dont care anymore as i've now left shitty britain. now in sunnier climbs and enjoying life again.

scotinvestor

Don't shit on the place you have left....you may be happy to step into your
own dung. But nonetheless, good luck.

What was it that Tony Bliar kept trumpeting so annoyingly? Ah, yes;

EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION!

Read what his own Party think of situation today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/07/nlit07.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/07/ixportal.html

Curtesy of The Daily Telegraph.

Educashun is za mess stanber, but what did you expect, real progress??


LOL !

10.45pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MG Rover goes into administration

Mark Tran and agencies
Thursday April 7, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1454341,00.html

Workers at MG Rover leave the Longbridge plant, Birmingham Thursday April 7, 2005 after production was suspended. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA


MG Rover is going into administration after its proposed Chinese partner pulled out of a deal, the trade and industry secretary, Patricia Hewitt, announced tonight.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) said grant aid had not been forthcoming so "there can be no deal".

The development threatens thousands of job at the company's factory in Longbridge, Birmingham and at firms throughout the West Midlands which supply the company.

At a brief but tense press conference by Ms Hewitt and Tony Woodley, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, the minister said the board of MG Rover had decided to call in the receivers.



"This is a devastating blow to all those involved - the workers and their families, the company's suppliers and the wider community. Tonight our thoughts are with them," she added.
The minister said a partnership with SAIC had been critical to MG Rover's future and the company, government and unions had been working "tirelessly round-the-clock" to try to secure the deal. "In the end, SAIC made it clear that they were not confident about the future solvency of MG Rover, and therefore there was no reasonable prospect of a deal.

"The government stood ready to issue bridging finance of over 100 million to help, but without a deal there was no possibility of a bridging loan. SAIC, for their part, indicated that bridging loan finance would not have solved their concerns."

She said the government and unions would work with the administrator to try to secure future car manufacturing at Longbridge. The government would be providing a support package and set up a Rover taskforce, with more details to be announced tomorrow.

SAIC stressed tonight it had always made it clear that MG Rover would have to be solvent for at least two years for the partnership deal to go ahead.

A spokesman said that the DTI had offered to provide interim grant aid but added: "Such grant aid has not been forthcoming. SAIC can do nothing. There can be no deal."

Mr Woodley revealed that Tony Blair had a 25-minute call with a senior figure in the Chinese government as recently as yesterday evening.

Mr Woodley said unions would carry on fighting for jobs at Longbridge and he pledged to work with the receivers to salvage what he could. "The last thing we want to see is another supermarket on a car manufacturing plant."

Mr Woodley and Ms Hewitt will travel to Longbridge tomorrow to meet workers.

Rover had warned earlier today that time was "clearly running out" to clinch a rescue deal with SAIC and urged the British government to make a decision on a bridging loan.

In a clear sign of its growing impatience with the government, Rover said in a statement: "Today MG Rover called on the government to make a decision on the bridging loan which will open the way to the car maker completing complex negotiations with the Chinese company SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation)."

The statement was designed to prod the government into finalising its offer of a 100m loan for loss-making Rover to pave the way to a final agreement with SAIC. Rover said the loan was crucial if the partnership was to go ahead.

Earlier, Rover, Britain's last mass car maker, suspended production at its UK factory, blaming "isolated" component supply problems. The company said cars were not being built on the day shift at its plant in Longbridge, Birmingham.

However, Rover had insisted the suspension was temporary and said it remained optimistic that production would return to normal.

Rover said: "Given the amount of negative media coverage this week it is no surprise that we have suffered a few isolated component supply problems. For this reason we have temporarily suspended production."

Underlining the growing sense of crisis surrounding Rover, one West Midlands based firm that suspended supplies to Rover disclosed it was owed almost 1m.

Wagon, which makes door frames for the Longbridge plant, said in a statement: "The board of Wagon announces that, in view of MG Rover's current inability to meet its payment obligations, it has decided to suspend supplies to MG Rover with immediate effect. Wagon currently has approximately 0.9m of receivables outstanding with MG Rover."

Wagon, which employs 1,000 workers in the UK, said it would restructure parts of its operation if supplies to MG Rover were terminated permanently. Rover said the directors of its holding company had offered 10m of their own money to help secure the government loan. "The PVH (Phoenix Venture Holdings) directors will provide 10m of personal money to convince the government of our commitment. What we need now is the government to decide," Peter Beale, the PVH vice-chairman, said.

On the record on Newsnight a few minutes ago--the board of Rover denied emphatically that they had called in the receivers. Price Waterhouse were asked to advise them and they are outraged at Patricia Hewitts announcement-which is wrong and she had no right to make!! Another Gov. BOOB-which will definitely put paid to poor old Rover and efforts to keep her afloat. look out for red faces tomorrow.

Nothing to do with me....she says..

40m support for car firm suppliers

The Government has announced a 40 million package of support for firms which supply MG Rover following the collapse of talks aimed at securing the company's future. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt revealed that some companies in the West Midlands which supply components for manufacturing at the huge MG Rover factory in Longbridge, Birmingham, had started to lay off workers. The collapse of the proposed partnership with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation threatens 6,000 jobs at Longbridge but an estimated 18,000 jobs in companies which supply MG Rover are now also threatened,


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1560504,00.html

MG Rover suppliers lay off hundreds - report
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Suppliers of under-threat car maker MG Rover have begun laying off hundreds of workers despite a government aid package for them, the Press Association reported citing industry sources.

Rover's failure to reach a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp (SAIC) has not only put in jeopardy Rover's own 6,100-strong workforce but also an estimated 18,000 jobs in its component suppliers.

The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) said the news highlighted the urgency of resurrecting some kind of deal which will save Rover's Longbridge factory from complete closure.

Car components maker Wagon PLC last week warned that it would restructure its UK manufacturing operations if supplies to Rover were not restarted.

The 6,000 Longbridge workers have been told to report to work as normal Monday when they will hear from administrators whether they are to be laid off immediately.

The British government last Friday pledged a support package worth 40 mln stg to MG Rover's suppliers following the collapse of the talks with SAIC.

lc/ga/ak





COPYRIGHT



Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved.

Amities / With reference to an earliar post regarding the perception of the UK to us Europeons. Allow me to preface this piece by saying l am French;- both extremely nationalistic and proud : and part of the growing army of Jean-Marie Le Pen supporters following the dogma that France is for us FRENCH !! and we are not allowing our culture to be comprimised by the scourge of mass immigration ! ,,,,,AFTER all it was ONLY immigration into France in the 1980s that brought what are now permanent high levels of crime . Perhpas some would call that Fascism but that is a pure misnomer and if it avoids a future civil war it is absolutely essential. Lets not forget even Holland , a once reknowned bastion of liberalism, now has the Nationalist Party as the second biggest party in the country .ltaly is the same. Spain has never been any different. l have no problem with France allowing our fellow Europeon tribal cousins entry but draw a line at unproductive purely economic refugeees from countries where life is so very cheap and crime is thier ONLY forte and agenda. lts like a Trojan Horse scenario .We open the gates and our enemies are within . So if my sentiments are unpalateable to certain quaters like whimps who read the Guardian then so be it . l dont give a jot . =====But to the point .From my vantage point beneath the gossamer thin veneer of apparent political accountability the UK is the definition of a "police state " of the very first order hanging dearly to the shirt tails of world policemen/ terrorist -The USA . My observation is one of a vicious, hypocritical, arbitary and utterly corrupt state prepared to unleash its OWN army dressed in police attire on its OWN people as it did in its successful attempt to smash the miners union via the miners strike; and yet somewhat perversely frees murdering worthless lRA scum whose bloodlust and greed knew no bounds from life sentances imposed legitimately through the UK courts for the worst crimes in the criminal calander . all this against a background of a state which at one stage had such vast oil/ gas revenues it could have joined OPEC but more importantly have totally revolutionised its own countries antiquated industrial infrastructure -eg ,lts delapidated rail system and afforded with consumate EASE to give every city and major town a REAL facelift But they didnt . They gave it to thier cronies { ln France our channel trains travel at 200 kmh but have to slow down by 50 % when entering the UK as the rail is in need of replacement. ) More importantly they could have made for an made for a environment of decent housing,hospitals with untold fortunes at thier disposal , schools with all pre-requisite aids to learning. and SECURITY for its people. But , of course, it was all totally corruptly squandered and shared by the very select few. And to think had it not been for the persistance of Anthony Benn as Minister of Energy in the 70s North sea exploration may never have even happened . l know. l am a resource analyist specializing in energy ; and i know how juste much revenue North sea oil brought to your coffers .The few "elephant fields " came on tap on tap juste in time for Thatcher to spend on all the WRONG things like err War .The Uk had so much oil it that at one time BP were casing and cementing over 300 billion barrel fields as they knew through seismic survey bigger fields existed .But what can one expect from a state whose status qou has remained continous and uninterupted for several centuries, and subsequently, institutions and elitist organizations have evolved and developed which operate by stealth in the background and have had many centuries of perfecting the very subtle art of keeping both the prols in order, the middle classes appeased, and the aristos privaleged. And more than anything SHAPING the future . Corruption of the truth is due to that odious box people call a TV .And you have to ask yourself who controls that box as a media . The very same names who counselled Henry V11 and V111 and Elizabeth 1 counsel todays politicians .This was no better illustrated more so than in Margeret Thatchers first administration. The great aristocrats of the Plantaganet and Angevin dynasties of 700 years ago with French names are still among the political elite lurking in the background. !You need only look at the origins of the names of the Permanant Secataries of State who instruct ministers who come and go like the seasons .But the permanant secataries are exactly that . PERMANANT . !!As are your later Dutch & Hanoverian masters .Lets face it the English are ruled over by the house of Saxe -Coburg-Gotha and decadence,hedonism greed and corruption is its middle name . Little wonder countries like its ex colony Nigeria emulates its ex master -except Nigeria is a fledgeling democracy ( sic ) and lacks the sophistication and fiscal tools and instruments of keeping a secret of its absurd corruption in somewhat contrast to the UK which is an expert - eg -FTSE companies raiding their pension funds The day is arriving when pension funds will be utterly bankrupt . . Ohh the whole thing is beyond repair and not worth even going into to. . l see no future in a country where it will be a crime to be poor within a few years and i FULLY endorse the feelings of Scotinvestor as to why anyone with both money and pure common sense would even entertain the idea of being domiciled in a country - a dour sad hinterland of uppity RACIST blacks and Asians and all bizzare types gibbering all types of nonsense and all carving out gang cultures,propogating fear among citizens and targetting the youth with thier drugges, guns and causing a plethora of social problems. Africa is screaming out for literate blacks to form beaurocracies so why dont they go and do something productive like rebuilding thier own continenet ,,,, ! l note with some concern that Derby recently homed a few hundred Armenians right in the middle of a Pakistani community; and the cheeky Pakistanis complained that this was their patch and vociferously complained as to Derby city councils actions which had been ordered by Central govt anyway . ......The nerve of these bloody people. They have more front than Blair who thinks the iraqis posed such a threat we had better risk life and limb , spend billions,travel thousands of miles and give them a damned good larruping; yet he is quite content to release suspected lraqi terorists/ recidivists from Belmarsh prison to cavort around London ,,,ls that sane ? Am i on the wrong train here or something ?? Well am l ? ..... its open to debate. lm quite reasonable ....l mean am i sitting next to a maniac with a bomb inserted in his rectum on the jubilee line ? ...l mean come on now ? What with the ghettos that have become 50% of East London ..Aww the sceanario worsens ...Can you imagine breaking down in Clapton on the road to Bethnal Green in a Ferrari right outside a excusive black individuals pub ? Well actually i ran out of petrol,,lol ..became something of a sideshow actually ....As if i were Mr pimp daddy or something ...ohhh what a performance that was ,, and inbetween stopping people wishing to have a "kwik drive" while politely refusing offers of everything from ganga to crack to uranium 237n and Kalachinikov assualt weapons ,,,,, and resisting would be assailants,,, it was not my idea of what makes a good night ... ... You will not find many men who have had as privaleged background as myself but the thought of Michael Howard running the show is utter madness. the 1980s revisited ,,,Deport them anyway Michael . ,,,,,lm here purely for the money i can command in the city..l personally dont give a s$& anyway about who wins the election Does it really matter ?,,vraiment ? C'est creve ou marche oui ?,a'bientot ..@+ J

Spot on I'm afraid.

One thing that always amazes me in the UK is the number of folk you describe as 'proles' who'll vote Conservative in the next election! Bit like the Wildebeest voting for the lions - but plenty will!

As for our immigration it's even worse than that into your France, though with similar results! I feel it's terrible that our masters allowed the floodgates to open and our industrial towns and cities to be swamped with supposed cheap labour from the 3rd world. Most who neither have anything in common with our culture nor wish to embrace it. Political correctness is fine if you live on ones country estate in Gloucestershire but a totally diferent matter if you live in a city like Bradford! And, and... my local town has large numbers of rather threatening Iraqi Kurds hanging round the centre - why on earth are they not back in Iraq? Surely Saddam has very little chance of getting back into power there? Asylum seekers my ar$e! Are we really such a soft touch!

I'd say Vive La Revolution but the working class seems to have lost their balls since the miners strike collapsed.