Thetownend.com

We had the big political topic a month ago, I'm interested to see if anyone changed their minds during the campaign.

I'm not really. I'm just bored and I like polls

I was always going to vote labour.  I read all the manifestoes and there was only really one choice really!

i was (and still am surprisingly) a month too young to vote.

i wanted labour to win but it wouldnt have mattered for who i voted for because this is tory land

I don't understand the fact people voted for a fella who lied to the nation.  We had an ideal chance to let these policitians know that they can't just do what they like and we as a nation blew it.  So now we have to put up with that smug, lying cocky bastard Blair.  It's a fucking disgrace.

i voted labour because my mum told me to. They did lots for the local area apparently. Rebuilt Lethbridge school, did something at Coate Water. all in all things I dont care about

How did Justin "Tara Palmer" Tomlinson get on?  Can't be bothered to look up the results.

it's the lesser of the evils. michael howard is just a prick (as with almost all tories) and charles kennedy seems like a nice enough chap but not the sort you want to lead your country.

lost by 2000 votes

Ok you thought he lied, personally i don't believe he did and i generally belive he did what he thought was best.  Odviously people have the right to disagree.

But would you actually have wanted any of the other parties in power??  Labour, iraq aside, have done a pretty good job really!

The conservatives are still as bad as they were and i believe if they had come in the economy would have taken an almost immediate dive as the American economy did when Bush came in.  Also the Libs Dems know full well their policies do not stack up.  Theire policies are just vote winning policies and everyone knows that they are not sustainable in their current state!

Totally agree

Iraq and taxes - hes lied on both.

I hope people who voted him in dont complain when him and Brown dream up another stealth tax and give the revenue to pikey single mums, work dodgers with 30 kids and economic migrants pretending to be asylum seekers

I feel marginally better for that.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a tory, and I don't believe we had much choice this time around.  I just couldn't bring myself to vote for a party/man who ignored International law and should be brought to justice.  We illegally invaded another country and that's not on.  We could have sent a message to these MP's that we don't accept that kind of behaviour but we haven't and that's what I'm annoyed about.

if the iraq war was illegal then surely we have to put saddam hussain back in power

it was the right war done for the wrong reasons. id have had no problems with them saying that they were going to war to remove saddam rather than wmds

Have they? I must have missed that then.

Taxes up, (council tax up by national average of 70%) billions spent on reforming public services for very little if any improvement from what i can see. Billions wasted on a new army of pointless civil servants to apease the trade unions.

Yeah the economy has been managed fairly well, but credit for that should go to brown rather than blair.

But i think we have sent a message by narowing the majority so much.  It is about the strongest message we could send this time around.  Had we had better opposition then "maybe" it would have been different!

Also i do not belive we illegally invaded personally and if you go and see the JIC report you'll see what he saw.  If i was faced with that evidence i would probably have made a similar decision.  The main problem was that the rest of Europe were not prepared to take action for various reasons.  how many times can you tell someone you will punish them for doing wrong before you do?  

Ok they may not have found WMD, although there is good evidence some did/do exist,  but there is good evidence they had weapon programmes in varying forms.  Nobody wants to take a country to war but decisions has to be made.  I for one would not have wanted to be in Blair's position!

i voted labour.

i'd rather have a lying blair than an honest howard (not that he is or would be) in no.10

i see that in one of the oxford areas there was an independent who stood called Honest Blair.

is this a joke?

Don't get me wrong, in some areas they have made mistakes but they do appear to accept them most of the time and try something different.  

8 years is not a long time to turn a country around when it was left in the state the tories left it.  The main thing they have tried to achieve thus far is steadily increasing investment to counter the massive under-investment with the tories.  I believe that now more money is finally beginning to get through then reforms will begin to take place and we will see improvements, which we already are, in the ext few years.  In can not be done overnight!

Mate the country wasn't in that bad a state when they took over.  The tories were responsible for most of the up turn in the economy, Labour inherited an improving economy when they took over.  

I wonder when the council tax huge rises come in to play in 2 years if you'll be as happy with Mr Blair and his cronies.

18 years of Tory rule fucked the country up. Was no way i was letting them back in.

I voted Labour. I don't care about war in Iraq one little bit, and quite honestly, no matter who was in charge of the country, they wounld not have stood up to Bush. And we did de-throne Hussein in the process, which was nice.

Liberal Democrats are pathetic, and their sums don't add up. Tories relied too heavily on the immigration thing.  I hate the influx of scroungers looking for an easy life, but you can't base a whole campaign on something bordering on Racism.

Brown has improved the economy no end, and to keep him in, a vote for Blair was essential.  Labour have been in power since i left college, and i haven't done too badly.

They were my reasons, really.

The economy may well have been improving but how long before it went bust again!  Plus they were still massively under-investing and using policies that were damaging.

If the council tax goes up again then so be it, as long as i still believe things are moving in the right direction then i will not mind.  Council tax is one area that needs major reform and it will be interesting to see what happens when the forthcoming report comes out.

If things go wrong i am more than happy to admit i was wrong but i genuinley belive we are better with Labour at this moment than the others.

18 years of tory rule fucked up the country......

What about Labour's rule in the seventies???  They did really well didn't they.  3 day working weeks, strikes, unions more powerful than the government...

I dont think the arguement that the tories would have fucked up the ecomony really holds any weight.

And what did Labour do when they came in? carried on with tory spending plans.  Remember Thatcher praising Blair?

Don't get me wrong though, Labour aren't bad for Tories and I think the little kick they got this time will only serve to help.  After spending the first 18 years of my life under a Tory government, I'd rather buy a season ticket at the Kassam than vote for them.

Again, a very good point. The county was in a worse state in 1979 than it was in 1994. Historical cock ups of political parties count for very little.

Of course this thread only goes to prove the point of what is wrong with politics in this country and why people are still so turned off.  

The old arguments of "oh 30 years ago you did this", "ah yes, but 20 years ago you did this".  I know you have to look back and learn from your mistakes but would it not be refreshing if people looked forward!  I know i am being idealistic now and it will probably never happen but there is something fundermentally wrong when only 60% ish of the nation can be bothered to vote.  Personally i find that appaling!

I think there needs to be fundermental reforms of how politics and government is operated.  When i was doing a politics course we talked in great depth about this and almost everyone was in agreement, and indeed some MP's etc, agreed with this.  however, they all said it will not happen as there will never be enough strong people to action it.  

Quite sad really as we all really want roughly the same things at the end of the day!

True PM, I voting on the now, and the biggest issue for me is taking the country to war, for nothing.

For me the biggest issue was paying roughly £1000 a year more tax than when labour got in.

That's why I voted for the only mainstream party that pledged to put taxes down. That said, I still disagree with some of the conservative policies.

Which is why I will be launching a military coup in the near future. There will be only one candidate per constituancy and they will represent the Piemonte Party. Anyone who disagrees with me will be exterminated by my army of pet daleks. Swindon Town will become the offical football club of the state (a bit like Red Star Belgrade used to be?) and will go on to win the champions league for an unprecedented 10 seasons running.

VOTE PIEMONTE - You fucking knows it's right

Absolutely, the trouble is now though that the country is so much more appathetic to issues that actually concern them, because its not seen as cool to have an opinion other than whether Colleen off of the Rooneys is a chav or not.

I know its not the same but I helped a mate of mine with his campaign to be a Vice President of the union at uni last year.  It was unbelievable the number of people that were simply not willing to take 1 minute out of their day to bother to vote.  Then of coures they are the first to complian when someting at uni happens that they don't agree with.

He wasn't voted in by the way, not because his campain was rubbish, or his proposals were crap, but because his opposition was a bird with a short skirt on - she wasn't even fit!

I'm not affraid to admit that I have a real dislike for that smug, lying, irritating wanker that is Blair.

As for the comment (I can't remember who wrote it) about the fuel guzzling Tories, what about that twat Prescot using one of his Jags to drive 500 yards - the fat fuck!

How about the labour MP saying that anyone who hits someone should be sacked ie Bowyer/Dyer, even though a couple of years ago Prescott lumped someone and wasn't even charged by the police.

I thought that was fair enough when Prescott punched that guy, I'd have done exactly the same if it was me.

I voted Lib Dem because they best represent what I wanted. Labour are the lesser of two evils and I'm simply glad the Tories haven't got in. My lifestyle hasn't got any worse under Labour, I didn't agree with the war but I was quite happy that Saddam was taken out of power although the government lied throughout the whole thing. I'm no maths genius so I won't comment on the economy, I'll take your word on that one.

Realistically it was only a choice between Labour and Tories - who'd you rather have?

i voted for the tories, but i dislike Howard - he seems sleazy (quite a funny term to use as most politicians are, but he seemed to take it to new levels). basically i knew that labour would win and howard would step down. hopefully the conservatives can appoint a leader the public would identify with a bit more. it was a shame that Portillo didn't get it IMO

Portillo's teeth removed to boost pound!

Like Boris Johnson.

:soapy tit wank:  boris would be great  8)

i think it's funny how the lot of you are slagging each other off because you don't share the same political views

nobody's slagging anyone off

No, noone has slagged anyone off!  I actuall y think it has been a very good discussion with people putting accross their different views very well!

Except all those people who were called 'Tory wankers' last night  :-))(

Thats not slagging anyone off!  That is stating a fact!  :P  :wink:

 :D  oh yeah

i honestly can't see why people would risk voting tory. this country would be an utter mess with them in charge.

Everyone has their own views and opinions. What seems logical to one person won't for another, that's why we have different parties. I could list plenty of reasons why the country would be in a mess if ANY of the parties ruled. I think a person's ethos comes into how they vote a lot of the time

Spot on Si!

what i mean is i cant see how people can logically think voting tory would be a good idea when they're so blatantly an utter mess.

bring back hague indeed  8)

wahey! im a little scoate!  :wink:

I would have voted Blair as he is the lesser of three evils.

Lets be honest. Charles Kennedy is a totally hopeless, pathetic excuse for an MP, and you just have to look at Michael Howard's track record to see how bad our country would be under Torie power

Kilroy!!   8)

he just wants his show back, give it to him and he'll go away like a happy little boy! and never to talk about politics again as he is so bad at it.

or someone could just shoot him, either way is good.