Political Beliefs

[Bear]

Thats usually what people use, its a whole thing of gangs and people just stabbing each other to prove themselves. Its very common in East London.

[Thomas.]

Yeah, it is quite bizarre. I heard there was over 20,000 deaths in London in 2008 with regards to knife crime, the police are cracking up on knife crime in Britain but I doubt they'll be able to even get near to resolving it.

Also, another thing that is getting me is the devolved Scottish Parliament, I really do not like it. I preferred the days when Scottish Labour were in control. But next we're getting a referendum on independence when most of the population of Scotland only want more powers given to it. I wrote an essay about it in English several months ago. It would be illegal for this referendum to go through. If Scotland were to become independent then it would no longer be a member of the G8, EU, NATO nor the UN, it would have to somehow make its own army. I really don't think the SNPs have thought about the prospects of independence thoroughly.

[_Ray]

I was watching a documentary about the Columbine attacks about 10 years ago. It detailed the far fetched differences between the United States (example used in the documentary was Michigan) and Canada (the example here was Windsor). Both Michigan and Windsor have a river and an international border separating both countries. On the Michigan side there is a safety issue in regards to guns, people have to lock their houses whereas in Windsor, Canada there is not a safety issue with regards to gun crime, and people don't need to lock their doors. The shows how backwards the United States is on gun control, almost half the population of the United States own a gun of some sort.

Homicides by gun (% of all homicides):

• United States: 65%
• England and Wales: 8%
• Canada: 34%
• Australia: 16%
• New Zealand: 13%

Perhaps if nations followed the United Kingdom's way of handling with gun crime, there might not be such as big a problem with guns in particular countries. Canada is in a unique position being neighbours of the United States whereas the others mainly follow British or Commonwealth Law.

It's not just gun control, it's weapons control in general.

Sounds like your country needs more knife control.

How about we get a graph that tells us murders every year based on population?

[Bear]

I love how this turned into a massive bitching session of whats wrong with our countries. I hate that if I go to Scotland (no offence Thomas) and Wales then its free prescription yet in England I need constant medication because of my asthma. My pumps run out so quickly and I need two so it costs me £15, yet if I wanted the pill then thats free. Not fair.

[Thomas.]

http://en.wikipedia....l_homicide_rate

Out of the five Anglophone countries mentioned above, the United States is in lead, then the United Kingdom, then New Zealand, then Canada and then Australia. Also note that England and Wales would come somewhere between Canada and Australia.

Edit: @ Bear: I hate Scotland anyway. But I see what you mean there, I can get almost any prescription from my local doctor for free, whether it be really expensive to buy in England or really cheap. My mum has asthma and she gets her refills for free all the time. It would probably save her a lot each year.

[Bear]

Another bash at Scotland is the fact they get to go to university for free yet they are thinking of raising tution fees up to £7000. I don't think thats particularly fair.

In alot of ways when you hear the Scottish how much they hate the English, I just end up thinking fine then gain Indpendence but I don't think they should because like Thomas said it will bring up so many problems. But I think that what applied to Scotland (free prescriptions) should apply to England too.

[Mpilk901]

I support the SNP myself. While I think their decision to release Megrahi was wrong, I still believe in the majority of their political beliefs. So I'm pretty much a nationalist.

I actually met Kenny MacAskill and got the chance to ask him a few questions. I asked what were his reasons for Scottish independence and he made some real good points. He lead on to say that Scotland does not have it's own voice any more as when the UK makes a decision on something it is not necessarily what Scotland wants but because they are under as part of the United Kingdom it is automatically assumed by most people outside of the UK that that is what Scotland believes in.

But besides my political views I think that there is a huge deficit in the democratic system of the UK. Isn't a representative democracy supposed to represent the views of the people? The fact that the UK is still using first-past-the-post alone is a reason to claim that the UK is not representing the people's views. I'm all for PR.

[Slyde]

I have not read anyone else's posts yet but these are my views. In Australia there are too many people lazy people that do not work and suck money off the benefit/financial program. This was one of the reasons why our economy grew slower compared to other "wealthy" countries in the world. Now it's growing fast because of our trades with China but that is a different story. China does not have these benefit programs, thus forcing many to work which in turn creates a strong economy. I like to support the environment as much as i can so I'm all for it. Laws MUST be separate from religious views. As good as the morals are, it is still unlogical thinking/close minded/retarted/bad reasoning.

For the government bit, it really depends on what the citizens and government officials are like. Stupid citiziens will make retarted decisions and stupid government officials will make stupid decisions. USA for example has lots of close minded/retarted citizens who may vote against/protest about things that are good for them. As a democratic country, the government no matter how smart has to comply. In China, the government officials (i say) are pretty smart and make good decisions. Of course there, no idiots can protest against it. Even though it is good and a bad thing, right now it is the reason why they are becoming the next superpower. Basically its - Give power to the people, the smart ones.

[_Ray]

I have not read anyone else's posts yet but these are my views. In Australia there are too many people lazy people that do not work and suck money off the benefit/financial program. This was one of the reasons why our economy grew slower compared to other "wealthy" countries in the world. Now it's growing fast because of our trades with China but that is a different story. China does not have these benefit programs, thus forcing many to work which in turn creates a strong economy. I like to support the environment as much as i can so I'm all for it. Laws MUST be separate from religious views. As good as the morals are, it is still unlogical thinking/close minded/retarted/bad reasoning.

For the government bit, it really depends on what the citizens and government officials are like. Stupid citiziens will make retarted decisions and stupid government officials will make stupid decisions. USA for example has lots of close minded/retarted citizens who may vote against/protest about things that are good for them. As a democratic country, the government no matter how smart has to comply. In China, the government officials (i say) are pretty smart and make good decisions. Of course there, no idiots can protest against it. Even though it is good and a bad thing, right now it is the reason why they are becoming the next superpower. Basically its - Give power to the people, the smart ones.

Also because they've bought our half of our country with all the money we've spent through them.

[Thomas.]

Another bash at Scotland is the fact they get to go to university for free yet they are thinking of raising tution fees up to £7000. I don't think thats particularly fair.

In alot of ways when you hear the Scottish how much they hate the English, I just end up thinking fine then gain Indpendence but I don't think they should because like Thomas said it will bring up so many problems. But I think that what applied to Scotland (free prescriptions) should apply to England too.

Another reason that I dislike Scotland is because they hate the English due to history and politics. They hate the British government but what I doubt they realise is that both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are Scottish. I am completely fine with Wales though, Northern Ireland is almost completely pointless.

[Bear]

I like the Welsh. I never understood why the Scottish hate the English so much. Its annoying really, when I was looking at Scottish unis they were snotty to me when they heard I was English.

[Gerard]

There are so many awesome welsh musicians and bands: Stereophonics, Lostprophets, The Autoamtic, Feeder, Super Furry Animals, Bullet, FFAF. Oh and Lloyd Daniels <3

[Thomas.]

The money robbing government are bring up the expenses row again. Apparently 80 MPs are fighting their expenses repayments. Their greed has led them to become even more greedier, who did the people elect? Greedy bastards (making up the majority of the government) or MPs who actually represent the people (rarity).

I like the Welsh. I never understood why the Scottish hate the English so much. Its annoying really, when I was looking at Scottish unis they were snotty to me when they heard I was English.

They were probably thinking about the lack of tuition fees in Scotland in comparison to England where you have to pay tuition fees.

[Bear]

So the elections are coming up, does anyone think Labour will actually win? I think its most likely the Conservatives will win, I have had enough of Labour and the fact this country has gone down the pan in the last few years.

[Gerard]

If Labour win this election, then they will know they are invincible. They will stop trying to please the public, and just do whatever they like. Even after two stupid wars, bankruptcy of the entire country, uncontrolled epidemics (foot-and-mouth, MRSA, swine flu), a crippled health service, cash-for-honours, an unelected Prime Minister and the expenses scandal, they still get re-elected? They might as well give a knighthood to everyone in their familes and kill everyone they don't like.

At the very least, Labour need to lose to prove to ALL parties that they ARE accountable, and that we DO have a say in what they do. If Labour in, ALL parties will know they can ignore the public and do what they want.

Out of the other parties, the Conservatives are the most democratic and have sensible ideas and clear policies. Other parties either live on disagreeing with whatever the government says (Lib Dems), or are just single-issue parties (eg the Greens, BNP, UKIP).

[Bear]

UKIP are getting quite popular, why I will never know. I think the Conservatives should win as like Gerard says if Labour wins they know they can just walk over the British public. Also with UK politics the choice is really between Labour and Conservatives. There should have been an election when Blair left as we did not vote for Brown to be our PM, but he knew he would lose if they held one. I still think its wrong for us to have a PM we did not vote for. Labour concentrate too much on being PC and banning all sorts of things as they may be 'offensive' yet don't bring in any laws that actually help.

[Thomas.]

Yeah, I agree there. I think that the Conservatives will definitely win, however, they may have tougher competition from other parties as opposed to an election in the 90s where it was really only the Conservatives and the Labour party who got the majority. I've never liked Gordon Brown, I thought that he did a better job as the chancellor. I think he would be a better Prime Minister if Tony Blair hadn't have left a lot of problems in the country for Gordon Brown to sort out - like the Iraqi War and several other things. I also think that the Labour Party has lost it's original purpose in supporting the lower classes, I haven't seen many things that they have done to support them.

[Mpilk901]

Yeah, I agree there. I think that the Conservatives will definitely win, however, they may have tougher competition from other parties as opposed to an election in the 90s where it was really only the Conservatives and the Labour party who got the majority. I've never liked Gordon Brown, I thought that he did a better job as the chancellor. I think he would be a better Prime Minister if Tony Blair hadn't have left a lot of problems in the country for Gordon Brown to sort out - like the Iraqi War and several other things. I also think that the Labour Party has lost it's original purpose in supporting the lower classes, I haven't seen many things that they have done to support them.

If you haven't noticed, labour has completely abandoned their old policies. They now only nationalise if the country is in a recession (Northern Rock) whereas they use to push nationalisation and said it was the way to a healthy economy. If you ask me, Labour are starting to turn into the New Right Conservatives a lot when Thatcher was around. I can't comment on that so much though as I've only read about that by looking at old Conservative and Labour policies, I wasn't exactly alive around then..

[Thomas.]

Yeah, I wasn't alive around that time either. The labour party haven't done a lot during the recession to help the tax payer except with changing the VAT rate to 15% from 17.5%. I think the Labour government is rather lazy in comparison to other governments that do a lot more. Our government doesn't listen to the people, most of us don't want that war in Afghanistan as we only became involved due to the U.S.A.

[Bear]

This country really does suck up to America after all look at the Gary McKinnon case. The Afgan war is pointless, one of my tutors described it as the French Revolution as they trying to bring democracy by force and violence. Also I doubt a war will flush out and destroy the Taliban, its a nice thought but I doubt it will happen any time soon.

[Mpilk901]

But are the other countries of the world to stand and watch thousands of people dying needlessly in Iraq every year? To make absolutely sure Saddam had no WMD's we needed to inspect for ourselves. While the news might not say much, the British troops have made tremendous progress in the Middle East and continue to make it a safer world for everyone.

[Bear]

Yet there have been so many soldiers dying so there can be democracy in Afghanistan yet there was a vote and hardly anyone turned up. Saddam needed to go but what about the leaders of Zimbabwe and North Korea?

[Thomas.]

I agree with you on that one, what's so different between those three leaders. They are all brutal leaders, ruling non-democratic countries. The only really good non-democratic country nowadays seems to be China. I don't understand why it was only Saddam who was sought by the USA and UK, might have something to do with the OIL in Iraq which is almost absent from North Korea and Zimbabwe.

[Bear]

I think that is the reason, when you think of how the people of Zimbabwe are treated, it is appalling. Yet there is nothing in it for the UK/USA so in their logic why spend billions on a war when they won't get anything out of it. I just think its wrong. Tony Blair was reported to have said that he would have declared war even if he knew there was no weapons.

[_Ray]

I think that Iran and North Korea need a good nuke in the ass from the good ol' Yanks out West.