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.

Winners and Losers....

Haze,

At least Miliband will be negotiating, rather than strutting the boards, as Cameron does, in a vain attempt to keep himself as leader of a split party, with the right wing haemorrhaging to UKIP frantically wishing to join the Mad Hatter's tea party, while the rest look around for a suitable alliance.

===========

Haze, you are doomed, doomed, doooooomed.

Ask Manuel to put his waiter's waistcoat and trousers on and he can join you.

Just a thought.

Moses went into the Wilderness and returned, Cameron won't!

Shortie,

The present lot of tories have certainly showed that ability.

Suggest they all go back to the Bullingdon Club. That is if they ever left it!

They never left it, in fact the Bullingdon Club controls Cameron, Milliband and Clegg anyway so which ever you vote for you'll get the same thing.... Like I've said before the vote and election are just to give the electorate the sense that democracy exists and the belief that their vote counts... In reality, it doesn't make any difference... The polls help with the propaganda and the run up to the election will have your average Joe convinced that people rule when in fact they are ruled and always have been...

Real democracy doesn't exist and never can. You can't have the people being involved in every decision at all levels. Once you realise that, it is then a matter of degree that is consistent with efficiency. The extremes are having a referendum to decide the colour of lamp posts on motorways and electing a prime minister for life. Somewhere in the middle there is a tolerable compromise. That is where we are now. The higher the degree of democracy the more pointless it becomes.

You miss the point Haystack, when all three party leaders come from the same backgrounds, have the same perceptions, then you'll never have a democratic vote. It takes money and influence to form a party which ensures that only a select few will ever rise through the ranks to become a PM. This ensures that the rich remain rich within policy and the poor remain poor!

Where would you prefer your party leaders to come from then, Shortie?

The Holmfirth Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club?

Well if they did they might be more 'in touch' with the general public and not just the 'toffs pool'!!.

It is the same situation in every country. The best educated people form the pool from which senior politicians are drawn. Private schools and the best of the rest turn out very confident people. The same can be said for the best universities, but the real difference is in the school experience. Private schools have a much higher work load and expect much higher success. Where I live there is a comprehensive school which is in the list of the top ten comprehensive schools in the country. Even so its results pale by comparison to private schools. Also near us is Highgate public school. It results are in a different league despite having a similar catchment area. The differences in the education are many. Almost without exception the teaching staff are from Oxford or Cambridge. There is a homework load of several hours every evening; at least three hours from the age of eleven. The intensity of the education is completely different. A normal result would be 11 A* grades at IGCSE (much harder than GCSE) and frequently four or even five A* A levels.

Sounds like a perfect school to send some parents to.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

George Orwell - Animal Farm

Do you mean unable to distinguish between the pigs and the humans?

Seems familiar with some eating out of troughs with silver spoons!

Spoons eventually tarnish.

It is the same situation in every country, but its why a large majority of people don't believe in politicians and don't bother to vote... The three leaders of the main parties don't represent the working class although they claim too...

The trend is for people to not vote in most countries except where it is compulsory. All of our parties have the interests of the working class at heart. Their methods of improving people's live is different. The conservatives believe in the minimum of state interference and making business successful in order to provide employment and therefore wages. The taxes on these businesses pay for services and infrastructure. Labour are similar except their emphasis is different. Their ideology tries to limit what successful people can earn and wants to average out people in a way that is against reality and interfere constantly. The Libs are similar and just a different mix of the other two.

The dominant factor in modern times is always the management of the economy. Any party, whatever its style, will always have to provide an environment where business is successful. Parties are always going to be broadly similar. It is the details that make the difference.

NHS
well gobmeister finished the year in typical form

having ranted and raved incessantly about the demise and worse of NHS over the last 4+ years under the tories (and of course during their previous times in power) i asked him for his suggestion as to what should be done to rectify the matter

54038 was his response, but search as hard as i could, i could see not a single idea as to what action the mighty gobmeister would recommend