Poll: General election voting poll round 3

[joeyjojo]

The current student loan arrangement is very good, its pretty much just a graduate tax. Yes £9000 is a lot of money, but this does ensure Universities are fully funded.

It's really not, it costs more to students and the Treasury than the £3,000 system.

Student fees policy likely to cost more than the system it replaced

 

[McGray]

Question from a noob.

As my area is a very safe Labour seat, is there any point me voting despite not wanting a Labour government?

 

[Lifelong]

Question from a noob.

As my area is a very safe Labour seat, is there any point me voting despite not wanting a Labour government?

Have a guess.

 

[Destination]

Prior to which the Conservatives ran the country into the ground for 18 years, so while I won't claim Labour were perfect, they did do a lot of good fixing the damage caused by the Tories.

By spending money we didn't have then during the boom times, and continuing to spend when it crashed and we didn't have the money either.
Fiscally positive over a 15 year term, all governments should be forced into plans of suchlike.

The current student loan arrangement is too good to be true - it's unsustainable and will add considerably to the national debt unless changes are made to make it less favourable to students.

Quite right, it is insane the current system doesn't stand up to basic maths, unless inflation goes skywards and we get Mugabe money the debts will never be paid off.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I'll spoil my ballot. They need to know the game's up.

 

[ubersonic]

Can't stand the tories. All they do is blame Labour for everything. MPs give themselves a 13% pay rise meanwhile the rest of the country has to face austerity. "We're all in this together", lol. YEAH RIGHT.

I love the way you say that then pick an example that's 100% Labour's fault

Seriously you can blame Gordon brown for that one, he set up an independent body to regulate MP pay due to the expenses scandal but the buffoon forgot to limit it's remit to maximum pay. When Cameron took office he cut MP pay by 5% then repeatedly froze it for two years until the the body (which was staffed by Labour cronies ofc) then declared our MP's were underpaid by EU standards and forced through a 13% pay rise, while Labour attempted to blame it all on the Tories (and in your case succeeded).

 

[Schlong&Stable]

Prior to which the Conservatives ran the country into the ground for 18 years, so while I won't claim Labour were perfect, they did do a lot of good fixing the damage caused by the Tories.

Nonsense. The country was in a pretty good state when the Tories handed it over in '97.

The current student loan arrangement is too good to be true - it's unsustainable and will add considerably to the national debt unless changes are made to make it less favourable to students.

I don't disagree, I was speaking from the students perspective rather than from national interest. In the near future the government is going to need to fill a funding gap, but that is entirely achievable by trimming welfare or better still, overseas aid.

I do believe we should adopt a different model, one which promotes STEM, but the current model is a very good situation for students and Universities at least.

 

[Freakbro]

By spending money we didn't have then during the boom times, and continuing to spend when it crashed and we didn't have the money either.
Fiscally positive over a 15 year term, all governments should be forced into plans of suchlike.

But again, if you look over the last, what 30 years, we have run a surplus for about 5 of them, 3 under Labour 2 under the Conservatives.

So 'everyone' spends money we don't have....it's such a stupid soundbite tbh and bears no resemblence to how macro economics works.

Hell, we're still paying off debt from the 1700's

 

[Freakbro]

Nonsense. The country was in a pretty good state when the Tories handed it over in '97.

You mean apart from (just one example) the appaling results coming out of the NHS due to the chronic underfunding during the Conservative tenure, which then Labour get blamed for spending loads to improve the service again.

 

[Stelly]

I'm a massive military person and so both 4 SSBN subs and 2 carriers sold me on the tories this time

Stelly

 

[Trifid]

I disagree, in spite of the barrage of "news" reports on failing hospitals/trusts. Structurally the NHS was the most efficient system in the world, it was just chronically underfunded, even compared to other universal systems.

You've interpreted that to mean I am in favour of requiring health insurance aka American system, which I don't support and will have very little traction from politicians. I will remain open minded by the UKIP 'top-up' system, although am less convinced it will be best for the population as a whole. If the NHS is to provide comprehensive, top quality healthcare it will need more money (with targeted spending). We would need to agree where this comes from and how it is spent.

 

[scorza]

Question from a noob.

As my area is a very safe Labour seat, is there any point me voting despite not wanting a Labour government?

Depends what you define the point of voting as. Will you get your preferred candidate returned? Very unlikely. Will you have exercised your democratic right to have your say? Yes you will.

Safe Labour seats typically have very low turn outs. I sometimes wonder what would happen if everyone who didn't vote in those constituencies were forced to? Would it be a less safe Labour seat maybe?

 

[scorza]

I'm a massive military person and so both 4 SSBN subs and 2 carriers sold me on the tories this time

Stelly

The Tories won't commit to spending 2% of GDP on Defence, as per our NATO committments. AFAIK only UKIP have done so.

 

[Schlong&Stable]

You mean apart from (just one example) the appaling results coming out of the NHS due to the chronic underfunding during the Conservative tenure, which then Labour get blamed for spending loads to improve the service again.

NHS spending remained around ~4% for decades, under both Labour and Tories. It was actually increasing under the Tories and may well have ended up in a similar position as Labour ultimately did. Its hard to say on that.

Now its true Labour pretty much doubled funding over the space of a decade, but this doesn't appear to have had much impact on life expectancy, so what actually was the benefit? We've now heaps of debt either way.

 

[Trifid]

Now its true Labour pretty much doubled funding over the space of a decade, but this doesn't appear to have had much impact on life expectancy, so what actually was the benefit?

I'll quote one of my previous replies on this subject here:

I think this may be a too simplistic view of the situation. What was the spending profile like in 1997 and then again in 2010? Has the cost of providing healthcare gone up? The cost of drugs? The cost of nurses? Does the NHS have to do more paperwork for compliance? Are basic things more expensive in real terms like bed sheets? Hospitals use more disposable items now too like paper curtains around beds. I suspect mixed sex wards were cheaper to run too. Doctors may have used more instinct previously or cheaper diagnostic tools. If you dig even deeper, I suspect phone bills are more expensive now then they were in 1997.

A simple £ per year life expectancy is probably not the best way to understand the NHS budget.

 

[ElliorR]

I'm waiting on one of the parties to pledge that they will withdraw the license funding for them. Would get my vote for that and yes, it is Monday morning

God, if the Tories brought that policy in I may have to sell my soul and vote for them

 

[ubersonic]

Now its true Labour pretty much doubled funding over the space of a decade, but this doesn't appear to have had much impact on life expectancy, so what actually was the benefit?

The NHS got a billion pound supercomputer that didn't work (and has been replaced IIRC?).

 

[Schlong&Stable]

I'll quote one of my previous replies on this subject here:

A simple £ per year life expectancy is probably not the best way to understand the NHS budget.

Yes, I am aware that healthcare spending is slightly more nuanced than the rather crude measure that I used. But it does at a very high level make my point: NHS spending was bound to grow anyway, as it had under the Conservatives, not because our healthcare was so dire before, but because it had to grow.

 

[FuriousGeorge]

I'm a massive military person and so both 4 SSBN subs and 2 carriers sold me on the tories this time

Stelly

2 carriers, one of which is straight into mothball and the other has no planes?

The scrapping of our long range recon flight capability, meaning we have to beg from our allies.

Scrapping of the Harrier with no replacement in sight.

Cutting of the army by 20,000 to be replaced with TAs, whilst privatising the army recruitment leading to a shortfall in numbers.

Postponing the decision on Trident by 5 years so they could go into Coalition with the lib dems, costing £1.4 billion.

Strategic planning from the Tories my arse.

 

[RavenXXX2]

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/04/how-election-campaigning-works/

I did lol, tories are done.