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Q; Just who is running the country?
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roz


Posts: 1,796
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #1
06-01-2011 10:56 PM

A; Extremely rich people! No doubt their experience of the rougher side of life will inform their decision making on your family's economic future and life chances.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election...ories.html

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jon14


Posts: 145
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #2
07-01-2011 10:11 AM

Roz, I find this rather short cited and it's old news. I would think that there are quite a few 'asset rich' people in society - I know several people who are very asset rich - i don't think it's that uncommon, especially in London.

That's not to say there aren't cash rich people in the cabinet - but Blair and Brown were hardly the poor of this world. To suggest they can't make decisions for society because they're rich is patronising.

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Londondrz


Posts: 1,538
Joined: Apr 2006
Post: #3
07-01-2011 10:16 AM

Roz, the Daily Mail is as believable as most of the Red Tops.

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megan


Posts: 49
Joined: Mar 2004
Post: #4
07-01-2011 10:22 AM

Roz

Who would you want to run the country?

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michael


Posts: 3,255
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #5
07-01-2011 10:53 AM

No shortage of great candidates with 'real-life' experience to run the country:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/
I'm sure their gritty realism, ability to lie, and their need for attention from the a Sugar-daddy millionaire party donor (I'll have a K and a P please) would make them so much better to run the country.

Perhaps the PM should choose the chancellor based on not upsetting anybody's husband, while knowing that he overlooked the best woman for the job. Or should we only do this for shadow cabinet positions?

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Sherwood


Posts: 1,412
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #6
07-01-2011 02:02 PM

The daughter of the richest man I have ever met is a Labour MP.

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shzl400


Posts: 729
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #7
07-01-2011 04:08 PM

Agreed - I think you will find that most of the greasy pole climbers who have reached the top, of whatever political colour, are all probably fairly well-heeled, and many have had previous high-paying jobs - often as top lawyers, but also e.g. in publishing, PR and journalism.

Also, these days, it doesn't take much to make you a millionnaire. If you look as some of the larger houses in our very own area, you'll find that most of them will take you over the £1m in assets mark without any bother at all and as you get closer to Dulwich all the more so.

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roz


Posts: 1,796
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #8
07-01-2011 06:50 PM

And do you think these people are sharing your pain, which if you are not experiencing right now, will do so shortly? Do you think they will be suffering along with you and the rest of us? Are we all in it together? I think not.

I don't think its acceptable that landed multi millionaires decide the fate of a great many of us. Its the extent of their wealth and landed privilege of the current party leaders that is the issue and its

I see people every day who have lost their jobs, and incidences where short cuts are made in respect of health and safety because organisations can't and won't pay for precautionary measures.
Essential services in local government are closing under the continuing shallow claim that we have no money, yet you can bet it will be found for the royal weddings that are planned for next year, found to bail out the Irish government and found to prop up the increasingly unpalatable and self interest of those who rally round the Tory Party and increasingly the shameful leaders of the Lib Dems. However I can't see the latter being voted in again, not in Sheffield anyway so perhaps he will look for a safe Home Counties seat next time amongst his own kind. And good riddance that will be.

Unfortunately this is essentially what you will get under the AV system of PR- the minority parties having way too much influence disproportionate to their support.

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shzl400


Posts: 729
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #9
07-01-2011 07:41 PM

Oh no, of course not. I was just trying to say that it cuts across all parties.

Do I think it fair that these landed millionaires make the decisions? Given that they're all the same, there's not much to choose from. You are entitled to vote for whichever one of them you find least displeasing. Until there is a box that says "none of the above", the only other option is spoiling the ballot paper or staying away from the polls. Unless you're proposing revolution, Roz, they've been democratically elected (by and large) under the current legal system.

Of course, you could always stand yourself, Roz. Ah yes, family to feed and the lower stages of politics e.g. local councillor are not well remunerated. Hence the tendency for politicians to be loaded? You have to be financially independent to get going. And then the result is you get politicians who have no idea what life is like on a council estate. QED.

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andrewr


Posts: 296
Joined: May 2006
Post: #10
07-01-2011 08:04 PM

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Sir Winston Churchill
British politician (1874 - 1965)


I think we are lucky to live in a relatively stable democracy where we can vote for whoever we want without fear of reprisal. We may feel that the choice of candidates is not always what we would wish, but at least we can attempt to change the system by democratic means.

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roz


Posts: 1,796
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #11
07-01-2011 08:37 PM

I still don't see them or their friends sharing the pain through a proportionate loss in service/amenity or tax rises which I believe are still required in order to reduce the deficit. So the lower paid take the greatest hit as usual. Nice to know the British public voted for that kind of thing.

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oryx


Posts: 205
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #12
08-01-2011 12:28 AM

I agree with roz.

Sadly, we are used to seeing upper middle class wealthy people, who were born that way, running the country (though I'm not sure about Labour being just as bad - look at Johnson, Blunkett, Reid, Prescott).

But for the current government to say we are all in this together is not just farcical and hypocritical, it is an insult to people who will struggle and who will lose their jobs due to government-imposed cuts.

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