Secretary of State - Your Vote counts!
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Secretary of State - Your Vote counts so have your say in Public!
If you go to this link at Sky News you can vote your preference on Geoff Hoon.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/home
http://www.sky.com/skynews/home
Last edited by flygunz; 16th Mar 2004 at 20:22.
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He had a surly smile on his face when he heard Brown say that the Defence budget was frozen for another year!
He won't resign but I fervently hope that he and his mates will be out of government next year.
He won't resign but I fervently hope that he and his mates will be out of government next year.
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Do you honestly think the bumbling idiots who replace them will do much better, Mr Letwin is making no bones about his plans for defence budget cuts already!
Maybe the PPrune party could run for it!!
Maybe the PPrune party could run for it!!
Ja! First ve make ze Trains run on time. Zen ve build more Autob...err, 'Motorways'. Zen ve take a close look at who ve allow into ze Country. Perhaps ve find a leader mit ein klein Moustache und nur ein Testikel? Ve haff einige Hefeweissenbier, march around ein bit in unsere sehr smart Uniforms singing jolly knee-slapping Songs.....
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Can't find it now, but the answer is obvious:
76.67% say 'Go!'
76.67% form the majority.
23.33% say 'Stay!'
23.33% form the minority.
Blair only listens to the minority.
Hoon stays.
Politics is easy, really.
76.67% say 'Go!'
76.67% form the majority.
23.33% say 'Stay!'
23.33% form the minority.
Blair only listens to the minority.
Hoon stays.
Politics is easy, really.
There was a time when we all believed that defence was safe in the hands of the Conservative Party. We all remembered that evil Dennis Healey scrapped the TSR2 and P1154 (etc.) and instigated huge cuts as we withdrew from East of Suez.........
And we forgot that it was the Conservatives who cut the RAuxAF's flying squadrons and RAFG's day fighters following Sandys' infamous (and mad) 1957 White Paper, and who then slashed the remainder of the RAF on numerous occasions from 1960 onwards. John Nott before the Falklands, Options for Change, Frontline First, etc.
I hate and despise grinning Tone, but Gordon's promised an increase in defence spending in real terms, while Oliver Letwin has promised only to freeze defence spending for two years (a cut in real terms unless we suddenly find ourselves in deflation!).
And we forgot that it was the Conservatives who cut the RAuxAF's flying squadrons and RAFG's day fighters following Sandys' infamous (and mad) 1957 White Paper, and who then slashed the remainder of the RAF on numerous occasions from 1960 onwards. John Nott before the Falklands, Options for Change, Frontline First, etc.
I hate and despise grinning Tone, but Gordon's promised an increase in defence spending in real terms, while Oliver Letwin has promised only to freeze defence spending for two years (a cut in real terms unless we suddenly find ourselves in deflation!).
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So who will you be voting for Jacko
Based on what I have read of your posts over the years you are firmly in the red corner............so your "party political blue denigration" here is no doubt seen for what it is
Keep up the good work
all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced
Based on what I have read of your posts over the years you are firmly in the red corner............so your "party political blue denigration" here is no doubt seen for what it is
Keep up the good work
all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced
You've written me off as a liberal, but I'm not. On education I'm very right wing (grammar schools are the best solution, Uni should be for the top few per cent, etc.) and I want taxes spending on defence. (I'm liberal only in that I believe in social justice and fairness, want to protect the environment rather than raping it for individual profit, and in that I'm in favour of helping and protecting the weak and vulnerable. I'm even socialist - to the extent that I'm in favour of progressive taxation, and that I'm nervous about letting individual self interest drive our economy, and I do believe that the state should have a role). I guess that might 'put me in the red corner' by your standards! But it actually just makes me an ordinary person - cynical about all the political parties and entirely unable to pin my colours to any particular mast. I'll judge every issue on its merits, and not according to a particular party line, and while I despise the Grinning Tony, distrust the slimy Howard and think that fatty Kennedy's a bit of a joke, I can find elements in all of their manifestos with which I agree!
But I'll vote blue, reluctantly, as I always have done. I have always had an excellent, very wet, very liberal tory local constituency MP, so that sweetens the pill somewhat, and I can always kid myself that I'm just voting for my constituency MP. If the Tory party were still the Party Maggie destroyed (the party of Pym, Gilmour, etc.) I'd probably join it, but the present monetarist, 'no such thing as society', tax-cutting, nest-feathering, selfish bunch seem to be awfully 'nouveau', vulgar and hateful, and they turn me right off.
And I have to say that I fear that their instincts are to 'slash and burn' public spending to fund their all important tax reductions (which aren't all important to me - I'd pay more if it ensured better provision in particular areas), and as such I don't think that defence is 'safe in their hands' at all.
But I am VERY pissed, too....... so my judgemeny may be flawed
But to say that: "Gordon's promised an increase in defence spending in real terms, while Oliver Letwin has promised only to freeze defence spending for two years (a cut in real terms)" is simply pointing out a simple fact, though it's a fact that you card carrying Thatcherite Tories might (or should) find uncomfortable and embarrassing. It'll take more than that to make me vote Labour, however.......
But I'll vote blue, reluctantly, as I always have done. I have always had an excellent, very wet, very liberal tory local constituency MP, so that sweetens the pill somewhat, and I can always kid myself that I'm just voting for my constituency MP. If the Tory party were still the Party Maggie destroyed (the party of Pym, Gilmour, etc.) I'd probably join it, but the present monetarist, 'no such thing as society', tax-cutting, nest-feathering, selfish bunch seem to be awfully 'nouveau', vulgar and hateful, and they turn me right off.
And I have to say that I fear that their instincts are to 'slash and burn' public spending to fund their all important tax reductions (which aren't all important to me - I'd pay more if it ensured better provision in particular areas), and as such I don't think that defence is 'safe in their hands' at all.
But I am VERY pissed, too....... so my judgemeny may be flawed
But to say that: "Gordon's promised an increase in defence spending in real terms, while Oliver Letwin has promised only to freeze defence spending for two years (a cut in real terms)" is simply pointing out a simple fact, though it's a fact that you card carrying Thatcherite Tories might (or should) find uncomfortable and embarrassing. It'll take more than that to make me vote Labour, however.......
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No, No and once more NO more money is being spent by Gord on defence. He is using that wonderful new Labour tactic of repeating a promise he made in 2001 to increase defence spending by 3%. If you say in 2001 I am increasing spending by X% and repeat it in 2004 then there is NO INCREASE of 6% just the 3 that was promised then - which would not have filtered down to stuff to use in the desert by the pongoes. Tony and Gord have made this an art form whenever a bold new initiave is announced
Stuk,
Labour have promised an 'above inflation increase'. However small. The Tories have promised only to maintain spending at its current level for two years, without any inflation-pacing.
Defence isn't safe in any politician's hands - it doesn't swing enough votes and is not a priority. It would be foolish to see the Tories (on their record) as being any better than the present lot on defence, and in fact, for all the nonsense in other areas, I do think Labour have done a better job on defence spending than I'd have expected, with SDR being far less swingeing than anyone dared hope.
The Lib Dems are the real enemy to defence spending!
Labour have promised an 'above inflation increase'. However small. The Tories have promised only to maintain spending at its current level for two years, without any inflation-pacing.
Defence isn't safe in any politician's hands - it doesn't swing enough votes and is not a priority. It would be foolish to see the Tories (on their record) as being any better than the present lot on defence, and in fact, for all the nonsense in other areas, I do think Labour have done a better job on defence spending than I'd have expected, with SDR being far less swingeing than anyone dared hope.
The Lib Dems are the real enemy to defence spending!