kitchenpete wrote:Grand Duke wrote:
KP - Looking at your test results, are you sure you're not a closet LibDem?
Erm...on the basis that the Labour score is highest, I'm still Labour.
Sorry mate, I was making a (weak) joke, as the LibDems came a close second in your results, but forgot the :wink: to make it clearer!
Quote:I have certain points of sympathy with the LibDems:
1. Proportional representation would give us a more fair reflection of the choices of the population.
I agree with PR. Judging from what I already knew and Walter's articles about how the current first-past-the-post system favours the incumbent government, it appears a much fairer system. One downside is that the lunatic fringe like the UK Independence Party, British National Party and maybe even the Monster Raving Loonies would get a say. I guess that's a price of democracy.
Quote:2. Very consistent message - the state should provide more/better services, in particular Education and Health but (the honest bit) you have to pay more in taxes for that.
I also admire their honesty in being a pro-tax party. It sure beats stealth taxes.
Me too. I can't see what the problem with being in Europe is. Some say it dillutes the national identity, but I'm sure that if the rest of Europe can manage, so can we.
Walter, Nimh, Francis - do you feel any "less" German, Dutch or French for being more integrated in Europe than you were before?
Quote:4. Most environmentally friendly (though it's always easier to be this in opposition than government)
True. Regulation and control of industry costs money.
Quote:However, I have certain views which some would call right-wing but are certainly not represented by the Conservatives' appeal to the "little Englanders"/Daily Mail/Telegraph-reading middle classes:
For example, I believe that the provision of health services is fundamentally flawed by the fact that no profit motive operates and would therefore do away with the NHS, to be replaced by a compulsory insurance scheme to be provided through deduction at source for all employees (in the same way as PAYE income tax). For those unemployed or long-term sick/disabled, the government could pay for such care through social security.
Sounds like a sensible idea to me. Profits sharpen the mind. The general consensus in my industry (railway engineering) is that the railways are better value now than they were in the BR days. And that's after taking into account the various profit slices that are taken before cash invested filters down into actual work done.
Quote:The balance of competence on economic issues with a value system that most closely represents current British interests, as I see them, is why I'd choose Labour.
KP
I just don't like Tony Blair. Gordon Brown is slightly better, but whenever I see the LidDem politicians, they simply look like an honest bunch. Perhaps that's too arbitrary, but it does for me!
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