Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

People moaning, 23 years after Thatcher left power, and not one of her policies has ever been reversed: what does that tell you about her getting it right?

ok , the poll tax

But how many of the anti union law's , Labour had 14 years to reverse them

indeed, i saw in the papers that one of the labour grandees (shadow cabinet?) said that the unions needed a further spanking

The 'poll tax' was one of the best policies.

Sounds like all your yesterdays.

Some of the memories are confabulated.

I suppose a little like the present tory coalition.

Not sure who the tories will be able to blame at the next election.

Will it be Heath, or even Maggie (for signature), but I bet it won't be themselves.

The excuses are already be written. (Of course there could be another U-turn.)

What a bunch of schoolboys and "girls".

The school boys and girls are clearly Labour. Ed Miliband still looks like a sixth form perfect. No wonder he is so unpopular with the public and Labour MPs alike. Can he last out until an election?

Clegg, Miliband, Cameron all have one thing in common, the public doesn't trust them. Is Farage really being voted for due to policy? If so then you'd assume people are aware of UKIP's policies, not so. Farage is winning votes because the public trust him more than the other three amigos heading their parties. A reshuffle must come before the next election I think or else.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22518403

Tories to publish details of draft EU referendum bill

The Conservatives are to publish a draft parliamentary bill to legislate for an in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union to be held by the end of 2017.

Misuse of public money for torid party needs, comes to mind.


Cameron is a leader being led by his nose.

PS.

Stupid, but what one would expect of this leadership.

Suggest the tories oust Cameron and his disastrous side kick Osborne and offer the job to Farage or Boris.

Perhaps he can rely on scapegoating somebody, to divert attention:

It is a good idea. There is no government time available for the bill and the Libs would oppose adding it to the government list. It will have to be introduced as a private member's bill by a back bencher.

The good thing about it is that if the bill is debated and voted on, Labour and the Libs will almost certainly vote against it. This leaves both parties in a very difficult position regarding the electorate. The voters will see these two parties opposing a referendum. The winner in in that situation is going to be the Conservatives.

certainly a strong whiff of being panicked into draft legislation, but it sure throws labour into a tizzy, so it's sort of good news, bad news ...... ukip have one of their major planks damaged too, though they'll now rattle on that the referendum should be "next week" instead of after much thought and debate ...... lib/dems are also wrong-footed as they don't want any sort of debate with a potential view to walking out of eu

in sensible circumstances - in politics? hahaha! - i think DC was quite right; try to negotiate an acceptable deal, and only after that, go to referendum or whatever ..... anyway, for whatever reason, his hand has now been forced

over 100 tory MPs concerned about their jobs and so they should load of sheep
we want out of the EU now not in 2017 load of bollocks Cameron and several more MPs familys get millions in land subsides from the CORRUPT EU
building silly wind turbines that to make uses more CO2 than they ever save it is a con on a big scale .build new coal stations now

More nonsense. You can't leave the EU now and it still may not happen in 2017. No Matter how well UKIP does between now and the election, they will not be in government and not even in opposition. If Labour is elected we won't leave and won't get a referendum. The ONLY chance of leaving the EU or getting a better deal with Europe is a Conservative government with a clear majority next time. The rest is a fantasy.

To call for a vote as on something at a date in the future and what has not been negotiated is risible.

It isn't a plausible route for a split party where the looney right wing will be baying for more.

My guess is that by 2017, with probably a lot of the present "economic" chaos settling down and Europe economies lifting and a movement to greater integration being driven by Germany and France, then there will be a wish by Joe Public in the UK to join in the party.

The financial and political costly reality of being outside the main union, will be brought home to the UK government (of whatever colour) and the voters.

With greater integration and regulation of the Taxation and Financial services etc. from Brussels in association with America, we would be fools to be bystanders.

Cameron, Miliband and Clegg know this, and hence the hesitations, while waiting for the remaining Neanderthals to die out.

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Those Neanderthals, relying on primitive drives of xenophobia are being "used" and "manipulated" by Fauxrage.

The reasons you quote above are some of the reasons to leave or change. Why would we want greater integration and regulation of the taxation and financial services? I think you will find that as a referendum approaches, there will be pressure from several EU countries for one as well. But none of this matters to the electorate. They will see very soon that only the Conservative can give them a vote on Europe. There is no realistic possibility of UKIP being able to achieve anything. This EU debate has come along at the right time. It holds the possibility of a strong Conservative victory next time with a big majority. There seems to be a groundswell of feeling that we should return to our original relationship with Europe as a trading partner. The Common Market was a good idea, but the EU is not.

Published today

There is no realistic possibility of UKIP being able to achieve anything
Hays - that's a very bold assertion, though come a general election, and the picture may well be different ...... do you happen to know how many seats ukip currently holds in the eu parliament?

I'm with Tanker on this. If Cameron's got any sense, he'll wait for a clearer sign of economic recovery and call a snap election with the promise of an in-out referendum asap thereafter. The public don't want to wait until 2017 and why should they?

It's about time for this old chestnut again.

They hold those seats because the MEP elections have proportional voting. It is the lack of PR that stops the Libs getting anywhere and stopped the SDP. UKIP will suffer in the same way. They may do well, but cannot budge the traditional Con and Lab voters. There is a stubborn rump of voters who won't alter their voting choices. In the UK elections are fought over the floating voters. The floating voters are not enough to put a party even into opposition.