What will life be like under the Tories? (2010>)

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 18 Feb 2009, 18:46

goslow wrote:the Tories seem to be "getting it" a bit more these days. If they keep their promise on the 3rd runway that could be a vote clincher.

I don't think so. Boris wants a new London Airport in the Thames Estuary. They're all crazy.

Boris Johnson today urged political parties to look "seriously" at the option of a new airport in the Thames estuary.

The London mayor made his appeal after taking a boat trip to the potential site earlier today.

During the visit, he claimed the project would be "absolutely fantastic" from an environmental point of view.

Johnson – accompanied by Nick Raynsford, the MP for Greenwich and Woolwich who chairs a new cross-party parliamentary group on the proposal - travelled aboard a dredger on the estuary.

The mayor has been a vocal opponent of the expansion of Heathrow airport, but has departed from the Conservative party line by arguing that a rising demand for flights could be met by expanding capacity elsewhere on the London perimeter.

He dismissed fears that a new airport on the estuary would damage wildlife.

He was also accompanied by Doug Oakervee, a civil engineer and the executive chair of Crossrail, the cross-London railway project, who is conducting a preliminary feasibility study into the proposed airport.

"Today's trip has reaffirmed in my mind that a new airport in the Thames estuary has got to be factored in as an option for London's long-term aviation needs," Johnson said.

source

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 18 Feb 2009, 19:53

Neither party will be able to afford more than tea and biscuits for visiting heads of state by 2010, so all the spending promises are somewhat academic.

marknorthfield · Post by **marknorthfield** » 18 Feb 2009, 20:35

I don't think so. Boris wants a new London Airport in the Thames Estuary. They're all crazy.

Think that's just a smokescreen. The Conservatives are willing to entertain such talk to show they mean business (ho ho) but ultimately it can all be dismissed in due course as Borisian exuberance.

He's an extremely useful character for them. I recently watched again some old Have I Got News For You appearances by him - utter buffoon and alarmingly likeable. How many other high profile politicians of any stripe can get away with that combination?

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 18 Feb 2009, 21:01

DominicJ wrote:I've not convinced my local tories to love Redwood yet, but I have got them to, before we demand a post office is subsidised, at least think about how much the subsidy will be, who will pay it, and it the money could be better spelt elsewhere.

Yeah, try "doh".

Seriously, you are talking rubbish, but then as someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing I'm not surprised that you regard the value of a community centre such as the local Post Office as being purely in monetary terms.

And yes, in your Manchester highrise flat the local Post Office is probably of little or no community value, but then you're an urban Tory (note in your weird spelling world that that is different from an urbane Tory).

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 19 Feb 2009, 10:01

Seriously, you are talking rubbish, but then as someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing I'm not surprised that you regard the value of a community centre such as the local Post Office as being purely in monetary terms.

Now now foodie, your reading comprehension should be better than that.

We have a limited amount of resources.
Before squandering them, we should make there arent better things to spend them on.
Its an Insulation instead of Gas arguement, if that dumbs it down to your level.

"And yes, in your Manchester highrise flat the local Post Office is probably of little or no community value, but then you're an urban Tory (note in your weird spelling world that that is different from an urbane Tory)."
Yes, I have a high rise flat with a garden...

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Feb 2009, 20:24

dominic, you are a Tory and also rather Borg like.

I suppose that makes you a Borey.

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 23 Feb 2009, 20:34

DominicJ wrote: We have a limited amount of resources.
Before squandering them, we should make there arent better things to spend them on.

I must be even more right wing than you then mate because I'd have said, "why should we be spending money on anything the market can't provide?"

I don't want the government taking *anything* from me other than what I decide I want to give and to be honest there's plenty that's already provided by the market that I'm currently forced to buy from the government every month whether I use it or not.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 23 Feb 2009, 22:37

FC
One step at a time, I'm from Manchester, people here would literaly vote for a monkey if it wore red.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 24 Feb 2009, 07:32

DominicJ wrote:people here would literaly vote for a monkey if it wore red.

Yet another made up fact from our resident liar.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... elections/

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 24 Feb 2009, 10:04

Again with the random insults food.
I do advise everyone to check the link, it shows the recent local election results, it Confirms Labour as the largest party, having more seats than the Tories and Lib Dems combined.

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 24 Feb 2009, 10:29

Even as a conservative Dom, you must realise that the gap between haves and have nots cannot be allowed to grow any bigger? At some point the have nots take what the haves have. I feel if you had your way, the wealth of the nation would continue to move into the hands of the few (I take it you are wealthy and earn at least a six figure salary) and at some point you would end up with someone putting a gun to your head so they may take what you do not want to give rather than a tax system doing it....

fc, again, there is no such thing as a free market, except maybe the black market. All markets are regulated, and fees are charged to enter the market, so they are not free. The free market is an ideal that we are straying from rapidly. De-regulation has taken us further from the free market ideal not closer to it.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 24 Feb 2009, 11:05

Even as a conservative Dom, you must realise that the gap between haves and have nots cannot be allowed to grow any bigger?

I really dont care, I would however point out, that it was narrower in 1997 than it is today.
11 years of socialism has made the gap between rich and poor bigger, not smaller

(I take it you are wealthy and earn at least a six figure salary)

I wish! I drive an £800 car, not an R8
I simply know that my life would be much better if the Government didnt take a little over my half my earnings for "services"
I grew up in a single parent family and until I was in my mid teens "welfare" law kept my mum out of work.
I've been right at the bottom of the ladder, I'm climbing it, and every rung I climb, I do so in the face of kicks from a paternalist government who thinks it knows best.
I budget pennies, theres a big piece of roast pork in my fridge because I worked out the cost of buying it and cooking it compared to buying precooked meat.
My council spends more a week than I earn in a year on a quarterly magazine to tell me how good a job its doing.

As a "have not" who's now a "has a little" working towards a "have", the biggest roadblock every step of the way for me has been the Government. Whether its employment legislation that was supposed to stop the big nasty corporation firing me, and instead just stopped it hiring me or just the constant demands for more and more of my money.

On to your FC posts

there is no such thing as a free market

Depends, I'm free to choose lamb from ASDA and Tesco, I'm not free to choose from ASDA, Tesco or Vortex, but thats the government interferance at work, not the free market.
I'm certainly not free to choose a GP close to my place of work

De-regulation has taken us further from the free market ideal not closer to it.

Whats been de-regulated?

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 24 Feb 2009, 11:18

hehehe. Our backgrounds sound identical. I drive a £300 though

I still value what the state gave me (mostly under the conservatives it has to be said) in the form of free higher education, money to enable my Mum to feed us, and to put a roof over our heads. I value the roads I drive on, the health service (it's excellent where I live) etc.

I have been sad as hell to see labour throw much of this away. How you can call them socialists I really don't know. As you say, the poverty gap has grown, and our welfare state has been eroded. Don't be fooled by names. All the parties are simply servants to the gods of economic growth. Erosion of welfare and rights has been key to achieving growth. Ideologies play a poor second fiddle to these aims.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 24 Feb 2009, 13:00

DominicJ wrote:FC
One step at a time, I'm from Manchester, people here would literaly vote for a monkey if it wore red.

Is that Manchester USA Dominic? I live in Greater Manchester, the borough I work in is Conservative and the borough I live in is also Conservative.

caspian · Post by **caspian** » 24 Feb 2009, 13:13

The Tories are an absolute shower of shit, always have been, always will. Like all political parties, they will change their tune to whatever suits the mood, and then do the exact opposite when they get into power. A plague on all their houses.

Really, can someone please tell what the point of voting is now? The idea that politicians represent "the people" is laughable. They are a sorry example of the human race. When I was young and naive I used to be a big fan of voting and democracy but my optimism has been ground down by years of Tory and NuLab misrule.

I'd vote Green if they weren't so clueless, or Plaid Cymru if they didn't represent a narrow nationalist agenda. Democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be.