What has made you happy today

[Danroush]

She's my MP. I can never remember which one is which, Maria or Angela. When the boundary changed and she became my MP, she actually sent a proper letter out asking for my support. As if I would ever vote for Labour.

I've got too many bad memories of the looney left in Liverpool when they bankrupted the city. The recent austerity cuts are like a picnic compared to the 1980s. When the likes of Derek Hatton was drinking expensive champagne paid for out of council funds, whilst making thousands of people redundant.

Who do you vote for out of curiosity? As you've defended the Mail before, and now are saying you'd never vote for Labour, whilst complaining about the 80s, during which the tories were in charge.

[Beardy]

She's my MP. I can never remember which one is which, Maria or Angela. When the boundary changed and she became my MP, she actually sent a proper letter out asking for my support. As if I would ever vote for Labour.

I've got too many bad memories of the looney left in Liverpool when they bankrupted the city. The recent austerity cuts are like a picnic compared to the 1980s. When the likes of Derek Hatton was drinking expensive champagne paid for out of council funds, whilst making thousands of people redundant.

Who do you vote for out of curiosity? As you've defended the Mail before, and now are saying you'd never vote for Labour, whilst complaining about the 80s, during which the tories were in charge.

Not in Liverpool they weren't. I'm no Tory and it's controversial (to say the least) to say but Michael Heseltine as "Minister For Liverpool" did more for Liverpool than Derek Hatton and his champagne socialist 'Militant' cronies ever did!

[Danroush]

If we're talking about local level, surely the amount the local govt could do would be mostly controlled by the national level, even at that point in time? Of course the local govt could be shit at making things run smoothly but the basics were still controlled by westminster

[Beardy]

I'm going to sound very patronising here Dan, which I apologise for, but you weren't there at the time and couldn't possibly know the shit that was going on up here at the time. Yes, the Tories fucked the docks up and screwed Cammell Lairds right over by not letting them build civilian ships because they were a 'military shipyard' - and awarding the major military contracts elsewhere but Hatton was championing himself as some kind of voice for the 'people' whilst simultaneously bleeding the city dry to feather his own nest! This cunt would turn up to the opening of an envelope to get his name in the papers (and collect his appearance fee!) and was driving round in a brand new V12 XJS with a private number plate (Degsy) - which cost about 4 times as much as the average house up here at the time - while doing nothing to actually help the people he said he was so concerned about!

Heseltine was pretty much directly responsible for the resurrection of the (long abandoned) Albert Dock as a tourist attraction (still one of the major draws in the city today) and bringing the International Garden Festival to the city, which brought in a shitload of money and got a huge landfill tip reclaimed as usable land - something the local Council at the time failed to capitalise on afterwards, with the site falling into disrepair for decades after.

Right now Liverpool's docks are busier than they have been since WW2 (though admittedly they employ a fraction of the workforce, due to mechanisation), Halewood is busier than it's been for years now it's a Jaguar/Land Rover plant and not Ford, we're a major stop off point (soon to be starting point) for cruise ships and there's a flourishing tourist industry. Things aren't perfect and certainly times are hard for a lot of people but, like gandalf says, compared to the 80's it's a picnic!

[Danroush]

No worries I fully accept not knowing about the situation. That said I wouldn't agree that one local council prick is a real reason for voting tory over labour, although ofc I agree neither party is all that great.

[Beardy]

I wouldn't vote for either party myself.

I know you're not doing this, but the amount of Labour apologists around at the moment is getting right on my tits! All the "evil Tory scum" stuff, whilst conveniently forgetting how utterly fucking useless "New" Labour were for near enough 15 years, getting us involved in 2 unwinnable wars, increasing the wealth gap, removing checks on the banks and completely fucking the economy - all the time blaming the 'previous Government' for all their ills (funny how the Tories were to blame for anything bad during 15 years of Labour rule but Labour aren't to blame for anything now! )

Yes, Cameron's a cunt and Nick Clegg's got slightly less spine than a jellyfish but the simple fact is that no matter who was in charge now we'd still be in the shit because we've got the biggest National Debt since the end of WW2!! Still, at least we won't be in hock to the Americans for the next 60 years this time...

[Danroush]

Perhaps we'd be in the shit either way, but this is where the "tory scum" thing comes in.

All being in the shit, fair enough.

Cuts in taxes for the wealthy by reducing the rate of the top tax band, whilst commissioning true scum like Atos to force genuinely disabled people into work (literally the majority of appeals made have agreed Atos acted wrongly) to save money on benefits, causing hundreds of suicides and many more attempts, along with making many of these people worse in terms of mental health, especially those who already had mental health issues. All this for less than 10% of just the welfare budget let alone the overall one, is why I would call the tories 'scum'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/atos-told-incontinent-woman-to-wear-nappy-firm-condemned-by-mps-for-pressuring-sick-and-disabled-into-returning-to-work-8456447.html

[Beardy]

Agreed... but do you really, genuinely think it would be any different under Labour? Because I don't.

[Danroush]

Agreed... but do you really, genuinely think it would be any different under Labour? Because I don't.

In terms of the deficit reduction failing, or a good proportion of the general incompetence, perhaps not, but in terms of harming the most vulnerable members of society, Labour would do a lot better in perhaps not massively helping them, but at least not actively fucking thousands of them over to the extent of partially causing their deaths!

[Beardy]

Having been completely fucked over by a "New" Labour sponsored Job Centre several times in the late 90s/early 00s (to the point that I was a week away from signing up to the RFA before getting my current job), I'll have to respectfully agree to disagree with you there Dan. They're no better than the Tories in my eyes.

[Danroush]

Having been completely fucked over by a "New" Labour sponsored Job Centre several times in the late 90s/early 00s (to the point that I was a week away from signing up to the RFA before getting my current job), I'll have to respectfully agree to disagree with you there Dan. They're no better than the Tories in my eyes.

Don't know enough about that time so can't comment and will agree to disagree in return

[De Stijl]

Aside from the extreme idiot parties like BNP and Green, there is almost no difference at all between the parties. They can say what they like pre-election, but once they get into power they have a choice between reversing what happened during the previous government, or carrying on with their choices and moving the country forward.

[Moonburp]

Aside from the extreme idiot parties like BNP and Green,

What makes the Green party "extreme idiot"?

[Beezerk]

Aside from the extreme idiot parties like BNP and Green,

What makes the Green party "extreme idiot"?

Maybe he meant their policies or association to?
You're guaranteed with those fringe parties that they have at least one ludicrous policy like "no killing of crabs on a Thursday" or summat

[peypea]

Lost a kilo since coming home