Ed Miliband

[A Red]

He was addressing his friends?

 

Or the cast of friends where there?

All my friends are twats by default so, if he was my friend, he'd never get my vote.

[Bobby Hundreds]

His speech was okay I liked some of it but talk is cheap. I hate the bullshit in the speeches tough "together....together....together" what does it mean it's just words saying slogans that don't actualy mean shit.

 

I'd like Labour Party conference to open with milliband kicking open saloon doors and saying it's about fucking time the banks learnt whose in charge then fire a pistol into the air.

[TheHowieLama]

Ed Miliband, yep I think he... well shoot I forgot what I was going to say.

[A Red]

He didnt mention the deficit because he forgot. Not a problem really.

[stringvest]

I think "socialism" is a broad church. I accept that Labour are more towards the moderate end of that, having learnt their lesson in the 1980s. But even the variety of socialist you get here, very much falling off the left side of the scale, ought to be able to say they are closer to Labour than the other two parties.

 

Yep, and I'm closer to Saturn than to Pluto, but I don't go there to do my food shopping either.

[Bobby Hundreds]

The deficit. It all seems like one giant money scam. They all hand out giant contracts to arseholes, sell services on the cheap on the very day they announced the bedroom tax they gave hedgefunds a tax reduction. All the wealth trickles into the same few pockets but we get told the debt is ours to carry. The NHS needs a billion pounds it's fucked we need to privatise parts of it.... What the banks need money have this 700 billion. Economists can't agree on shit, money and banking has become one giant convoluted octopus of piss. It stinks. These fuckers probably use the money we gave them to buy guilts and now we owe them 700 billion plus interest. Obvously not but the finance industry alongside the arms industry seems like one long con.

 

Huge astronical sums must be wasted through just bad management, too much management, handing out contracts that aren't needed but to firms you have personal interests in. Most of the debts could probably of been avoided but government has become the ultimate scam, syphon off as much public money as you can into private hands. Duncan smith has blown hundreds of millions just on his own. Every local paper should print their politcians, expenses and every single business link they have which they would have to declare by law, that way when they see their politcian saying we need privatization and then look and realize this guy would stand to make money from it, they would know he's a jeremy hunt.

 

George osbourne rents his house out for 10 grand a month. This shit history degree no job bastard tells us about getting on, about hardworking families and about making work pay, not by actually making work pay but by making not working totally fucking destroy you. He may aswell be an alien he has no comprehension about anything other than pure privilege, I don't mind that, but I don't want this arsehole preaching about hardworking values, about tightening our belts and being in it together, his house in one month earns what many survive on in a year. How many times has he said "now houses on 10 grand a month or less no longer have to pay tax" ....." What! its people on 10 grand a year no longer have to pay tax! .... You really mean that my house just standing there works 10 times harder than those bloody lazy plebs"

 

You can't give greedy arseholes who care only about money and nothing else, complete freedom, it's insane. What's more insane you can't let them make the rules and not be held accountable afterwards. We gots ta regulate.

 

I have this same rant every time I see some tory news. Everytime same shit. I'm just going to avoid it all.

[Creator Supreme]

I'm done with labour, still too far to the right for me, it'll probably get them elected, but my vote won't be amongst them!

 

I doubt my arl fella will ever forgive me but I'm voting green, closest thing to an electable socialist party there is at present!

 

I can't forgive millibland for that picture with the rag either, stupid Wallace looking cunt!

[Gnasher]

The modern day Labour Party are useless. Michael Foot was this countries great chance and he was rejected by the electorate because they chose to believe the disgraceful slurs of a right wing establishment in 1979. The country bottled it.

 

I've not voted Labour since, ive got hundreds of good reasons not to vote for them next year either, however i may cast aside my reservations because of four words, Our National Health Service. Like our industries the tory's will smash it with a gavel if they get in again, there will then follow confusion as like our industries it becomes beyond repair.

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bD41YktmOH0

 

Foot, on the tory destruction of British industry.

[Stickman]

The modern day Labour Party are useless. Michael Foot was this countries great chance and he was rejected by the electorate because they chose to believe the disgraceful slurs of a right wing establishment in 1979. The country bottled it.

 

I've not voted Labour since, ive got hundreds of good reasons not to vote for them next year either, however i may cast aside my reservations because of four words, Our National Health Service. Like our industries the tory's will smash it with a gavel if they get in again, there will then follow confusion as like our industries it becomes beyond repair.

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bD41YktmOH0

 

Foot, on the tory destruction of British industry.

 

The sort of passionate speech Miliband should be making, not ones that he thinks will get him half decent headlines in Murdoch's rags...

The sort of speech that should be about the most important issue in the next election and one Labour should be pushing forward at every opportunity...but the won't as Labour jumped into bed with the Murdoch's of this world the minute Blair became it's leader.

I will vote Labour at the next election but Creator Supreme is right we should all be voting for the Green Party..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOb6H6Lzq_E

[Skidfingers McGonical]

The sort of passionate speech Miliband should be making, not ones that he thinks will get him half decent headlines in Murdoch's rags...

The sort of speech that should be about the most important issue in the next election and one Labour should be pushing forward at every opportunity...but the won't as Labour jumped into bed with the Murdoch's of this world the minute Blair became it's leader.

I will vote Labour at the next election but Creator Supreme is right we should all be voting for the Green Party..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOb6H6Lzq_E

 

Well vote for it then.

 

I don't get this I should be voting for x party but I am going to vote for Labour. This sort of voting is what has got us in to this mess in the first place.

 

Vote for the party you want to vote for, get them more seats in parliment, give them more of say. Get the ball rolling.

[Jairzinho]

Well vote for it then.

 

I don't get this I should be voting for x party but I am going to vote for Labour. This sort of voting is what has got us in to this mess in the first place.

 

Vote for the party you want to vote for, get them more seats in parliment, give them more of say. Get the ball rolling.

 

Spot cunting on.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Well vote for it then.

 

I don't get this I should be voting for x party but I am going to vote for Labour. This sort of voting is what has got us in to this mess in the first place.

 

Vote for the party you want to vote for, get them more seats in parliment, give them more of say. Get the ball rolling.

That's one way to look at it. Alternatively, you could vote for the party you want to but they don't get more seats - well, they get none - and your vote is basically a vote for Tories in a lot of areas. There's no denying the system is utterly fucked and there's a mere illusion of choice, but for all the good intensions of the 'don't vote' and 'destroy your ballot' supporters and 'vote green/socialist/other' proponents what's really going to happen is you're going to make it much worse for yourself. Now, there's this ludicrous 'it'll bring us closer to revolution' idea. That's blind hope mixed with idiocy and ignorance.

 

My suggestion is vote for the party who'll best serve you if they have a shot of getting in power in your constituency. Voting green/other in areas where it's tight between Labour and Tory is especially daft, in my opinion.

[Stickman]

That's one way to look at it. Alternatively, you could vote for the party you want to but they don't get more seats - well, they get none - and your vote is basically a vote for Tories in a lot of areas. There's no denying the system is utterly fucked and there's a mere illusion of choice, but for all the good intensions of the 'don't vote' and 'destroy your ballot' supporters and 'vote green/socialist/other' proponents what's really going to happen is you're going to make it much worse for yourself. Now, there's this ludicrous 'it'll bring us closer to revolution' idea. That's blind hope mixed with idiocy and ignorance.

 

My suggestion is vote for the party who'll best serve you if they have a shot of getting in power in your constituency. Voting green/other in areas where it's tight between Labour and Tory is especially daft, in my opinion.

 

Spot cunting on

[stringvest]

That's one way to look at it. Alternatively, you could vote for the party you want to but they don't get more seats - well, they get none - and your vote is basically a vote for Tories in a lot of areas. There's no denying the system is utterly fucked and there's a mere illusion of choice, but for all the good intensions of the 'don't vote' and 'destroy your ballot' supporters and 'vote green/socialist/other' proponents what's really going to happen is you're going to make it much worse for yourself. Now, there's this ludicrous 'it'll bring us closer to revolution' idea. That's blind hope mixed with idiocy and ignorance.

 

My suggestion is vote for the party who'll best serve you if they have a shot of getting in power in your constituency. Voting green/other in areas where it's tight between Labour and Tory is especially daft, in my opinion.

 

I will spoil my ballot paper and have it counted for something.  My MP is Sir Paul Beresford (Conservative).  While in face to face conversations, an affable enough man, I am never going to vote for him, or any of the clones representing other mainstream parties in this area.  However, I will always take responsibility to return my ballot paper, but with a 'none of the above' message.  If you think that is idiotic, ignorant, or filled with blind hope, then you my friend are an apparatchik of a failed system.  The system cannot be reformed from within.  There is a converging of political philosophy amongst all the mainstream parties - assisted by big corporate and the press - that have effectively removed choice for the voter.  None of the parties will serve my interests.  The status quo doesn't work for the vast majority of people in this country.  There's no way I'm going to help to sustain that.  

[razor]

I know we've had the discussion before, but I'm a great believer in the "None of the above" option.

 

A genuine, quantifiable protest vote.

[stringvest]

NV obviously isn't.  

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I will spoil my ballot paper and have it counted for something.

Cool. What for?

 

If you think that is idiotic, ignorant, or filled with blind hope, then you my friend are an apparatchik of a failed system.

Thing is, I know you can read. Having that ability means you already know that I said thinking that not voting will bring us closer to a revolution is idiotic, ignorant and blindly hopeful. Nope, I don't think spoiling your vote is idiotic, ignorant, nor - if this makes any sense - filled with blind hope. I just think you've wasted your vote, which might well have been wasted anyway.

[Section_31]

Have to agree with NV.

 

If you want to help someone like the Greens gain traction then the best way to do it is join them, dole some flyers out, take part in some activism, absolutely no point voting for them in most parts of the country at the moment. It depends what you want from the election, in an ideal world you want a party that represents your views to the maximum extent, but if that's not an option then it becomes about the 'least worst' option, which is always going to be Labour when the alternatives are the Tories and UKIP, surely.

 

The thing about Labour is, even though Miliband is a tit and the stink of New Labour still lingers, it has the greatest capacity for positive change out of the main parties, i.e, there are more people within its ranks who care about social justice than there are in the Tory party, you have to hope that if they get into power, more of those views will come to the fore - they certainly won't if the Tories return to power.

[stringvest]

My blind hope is that spoiling your vote will catch on.  As the numbers of spoiled papers rise, it will develop momentum and increased visibility.  Just imagine - 25% of papers in a constituency spoiled.  That might be enough to 'win', or at least get into second place.  Imagine the coverage this would get in social media?  People would latch on - at the next election, the numbers of the disillusioned who are prepared to spoil their papers increase...is it really blind hope?  

 

Even if it is (and I don't believe it is), better to have blind hope than none at all.  

[Jairzinho]

Have to agree with NV.

 

If you want to help someone like the Greens gain traction then the best way to do it is join them, dole some flyers out, take part in some activism, absolutely no point voting for them in most parts of the country at the moment. It depends what you want from the election, in an ideal world you want a party that represents your views to the maximum extent, but if that's not an option then it becomes about the 'least worst' option, which is always going to be Labour when the alternatives are the Tories and UKIP, surely.

 

The thing about Labour is, even though Miliband is a tit and the stink of New Labour still lingers, it has the greatest capacity for positive change out of the main parties, i.e, there are more people within its ranks who care about social justice than there are in the Tory party, you have to hope that if they get into power, more of those views will come to the fore - they certainly won't if the Tories return to power.

 

You don't think that increased votes for the Greens will put pressure on Labour? If a sizeable amount of people that would have voted Labour 30 years ago vote Green it sends a pretty clear message to the Labour party. Somehow they need to be forced to be a left wing party again.

 

Whilst the bit in bold is true, all of them will need binoculars to see the front bench. In the words of the great Malcolm Tucker -

 

"You're so back-bench, you've actually fucking fallen off. You're out by the fucking bins where I put you."

 

If I thought people like Skinner, Corbyn, and Campbell were going to have any say on policy I'd vote for them, but they won't. Labour will simply be a slightly less hateful version of the Tories. If that is good enough for some people, then fair enough. Not me.

[Section_31]

You don't think that increased votes for the Greens will put pressure on Labour? If a sizeable amount of people that would have voted Labour 30 years ago vote Green it sends a pretty clear message to the Labour party. Somehow they need to be forced to be a left wing party again.

 

Whilst the bit in bold is true, all of them will need binoculars to see the front bench. In the words of the great Malcolm Tucker -

 

"You're so back-bench, you've actually fucking fallen off. You're out by the fucking bins where I put you."

 

If I thought people like Skinner, Corbyn, and Campbell were going to have any say on policy I'd vote for them, but they won't. Labour will simply be a slightly less hateful version of the Tories. If that is good enough for some people, then fair enough. Not me.

 

Just playing devil's advocate here to an extent, but Labour also has to be careful with regards left wing leanings because, whether we like it or not, this is a right wing country. Labour traditionally only gets a sniff when the Tories have fucked up through sleaze or when they've been in power too long, or following a world war when everyone had been faced with their own mortality, or when Labour became Tory lite and thus more palatable, old Labour talked its way out of more than one election victory with left wing rhetoric.

 

The country just isn't the same as it was, people aren't unionised, the working class don't exist in the same way as they did, they're either aspiring middle class or 'underclass'. Universities are more alive with crabs than they are with political activism and most students probably think Che Guevarra directed Pan's Labyrinth.

 

In fairness Miliband had Crudas, the left wing poster boy of Labour, as his policy advisor for a time didn't he? Although I believe Crudas got pissed off in the end. Still, it's a marked departure from the days of Blair and Mandelson,

[Gnasher]

I live in a marginal area, it fluctuates between Labour and Tory, currently Tory. I will vote Labour next year for the first time in many years because i want the tory kicked out.

 

I will tell myself I'm not voting Labour but voting against the conservative to make me feel better. I'm not voting for what the current Labour party offers but against what the Tories would do to our health service if they gained another term of power. I'll tell myself it's tactical voting, although i can understand the argument that this philosophy is wrong.

[Jairzinho]

Just playing devil's advocate here to an extent, but Labour also has to be careful with regards left wing leanings because, whether we like it or not, this is a right wing country. Labour traditionally only gets a sniff when the Tories have fucked up through sleaze or when they've been in power too long, or following a world war when everyone had been faced with their own mortality, or when Labour became Tory lite and thus more palatable, old Labour talked its way out of more than one election victory with left wing rhetoric.

 

The country just isn't the same as it was, people aren't unionised, the working class don't exist in the same way as they did, they're either aspiring middle class or 'underclass'. Universities are more alive with crabs than they are with political activism and most students probably think Che Guevarra directed Pan's Labyrinth.

 

In fairness Miliband had Crudas, the left wing poster boy of Labour, as his policy advisor for a time didn't he? Although I believe Crudas got pissed off in the end. Still, it's a marked departure from the days of Blair and Mandelson,

 

I agree on the nature of the country. The country has been Thatchered, then Blaired into the hateful cunt hole it is today. Not only more right wing than, for e.g, other countries in Europe, but far less politically engaged full stop. I have a lot of mates in Italy, of varying political leanings, but they all care. They all take an interest in life beyond their tiny little friends/family/Xfactor bubble.

 

Whilst it doesn't bother me in the slightest how Miliband comes across, it will for many. Especially those that take somewhere between a passing interest and nofuckinginterestatall in politics. A lot of these people were very easily taken in by a bit of UKIP rhetoric, I've no doubt they could be taken in by some strong Labour rhetoric, and if achievable, the Labour Party could be far more left wing. A lot went from no views on anything of substance to horrible right wing views within a couple of weeks. I refuse to believe that these working class people (including those that think they're middle class, yet work at Carphone Warehouse on minimum wage) can't be convinced to hold more left wing views. 

 

The extreme ignorance of great swathes of the nation is something the Labour Party should be desperately trying to exploit. Miliband is the first port of call for these people. Sadly a first impression will leave a lasting one.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

My blind hope is that spoiling your vote will catch on.  As the numbers of spoiled papers rise, it will develop momentum and increased visibility.  Just imagine - 25% of papers in a constituency spoiled.  That might be enough to 'win', or at least get into second place.  Imagine the coverage this would get in social media?  People would latch on - at the next election, the numbers of the disillusioned who are prepared to spoil their papers increase...is it really blind hope?  

 

Even if it is (and I don't believe it is), better to have blind hope than none at all.

When you consider the amount of imagination it would take, then yeah; it's most certainly blind hope.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Oh, and I still don't think the country is right-wing. Certainly not on a huge range of issues.