06-04-2005 13:55									#61
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quote: You don't remember how state religion worked back in the days of yore do you? At the time of the American Revolution a royal subject could be any religion he wanted to..... provided he showed up at his Anglican parish on Sunday and paid his tithes.

Again, if the queen wishes to have me pay such tithes, then she is welcome to try to collect.

	06-04-2005 15:22									#62
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quote: Originally posted by Clear Skies Short answer: because they're sh1te. Long answer: because at the 1992 election they won on one platform only - the economy and their competence in running it. Polls showed that the electorate thought Labour would be better on healthcare, education, and so forth - but in the event they voted Tory because they wanted their incomes to keep going up (forgive the oversimplification, but that was the basic reasoning). Now that perception has been utterly destroyed - the Conservatives are blamed for Black Wednesday (when they were forced to drop out of the exchange rate mechanism) and the ensuing recession. Now Labour (rightly or wrongly) has a reputation for economic competence that any Tory chancellor would envy; unable to challenge them there, the Tories have been desperately trying to gain ground in the social arena, and failing miserably for the most part. They have a dreadful tendency towards knee-jerk reactionism, attacking immigrants, ethnic minorities and asylum seekers with woeful predictability. Add to this the recent furore over their proposed spending cuts (the party's deputy chairman was sacked, expelled and deselected after revealing that the Tories planned expenditure cuts far deeper than they'd announced). Add to that the depressing state of their election campaign, which (as the election flyer I got today testifies) focuses on hospital cleanliness, school discipline and the 'handover of power' to Brussels - distinctly lacklustre even when compared to the government's vague promises. Add to that... I could go on. Suffice to say the party is weak, disorganised, has no clear agenda and has had its traditional electoral safeground comprehensively stolen by New Labour.

Well with that stunt by the Tories they handed the election to Labour on a platter. They had next to bugger all chance even before then...

	06-04-2005 17:10									#63
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quote: Originally posted by Ben Kenobi Again, if the queen wishes to have me pay such tithes, then she is welcome to try to collect.

OMG! Ben is holed up in his cabin with his arsenal, some barrels of oil and a large number of bags of fertilizer!

	06-04-2005 17:20									#64
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Oh Ben, silly silly Ben. You'd think we'd resort to outright violence to get money when we're so much better at hidden and sly taxation? If the Queen really did want you to help pay for the Church instead of that brand of Mary-worshippers in Rome, she'd probably borrow from the Finnish model and take it directly from your pay cheque.

	06-04-2005 17:28									#65
	Re: UK Government disbanded! Parliament dissolved! Inflate your Upload Space

How many shields did you get?

	06-04-2005 18:38									#66
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quote: Originally posted by Clear Skies But my point was that they aren't actually planning to do anything useful about it. There's no point 'attacking a record' when your own plans are just as dismal. It doesn't 'make me feel better'; I'd far rather there was an effective opposition to this excuse for a government, but this sort of non-policy makes me want to tear my hair out. Do you honestly think that simply publishing these 'tables' is going to solve the problem?

well i think they'd probably do something about it, and anything has got to better than labour's current plan of doing nothing and covering up the extent of the problem.

it is frustrating, and i'd certainly rather have someone to vote for, rather than just someone to vote against. :/

	06-04-2005 19:48									#67
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I do hope for a Hung Parliament. If the Tories can keep their numbers around or slightly higher than that in the recent polls, they'res a chance that of a Lib-Lab coalition. Which would be pretty ****ing cool.

	06-04-2005 19:56									#68
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i'd like a tory-lib dem coalition, like swansea city council at moment, mostly because they seem to agree on very little, so they can't do much damage

	06-04-2005 19:57									#69
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quote: Originally posted by Dr Strangelove OMG! Ben is holed up in his cabin with his arsenal, some barrels of oil and a large number of bags of fertilizer!

Don't think much of his diet...

He could always just threaten Her Majesty's Forces with readings from the Bible. Or fart incense at them. (thanks, 'The Exorcist' for that...)

	06-04-2005 20:31									#70
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Go Greens!

	07-04-2005 13:57									#71
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Correction: Parliament dissolved, but government still in place. We have not fallen into anarchy (irrigated grassland still producing 4 food).

Govt ministers still keep their jobs until (& if) the PM resigns after the election, or he wins and shuffles their useless backsides into other jobs.

As Simon Carr in the Independent said a few weeks ago, think of Geoff Hoon as the next Lord Chancellor and be very very afraid.

	07-04-2005 14:01									#72
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quote: (irrigated grassland still producing 4 food).

You mean farmed grasslands with supermarket, right?

quote: Go Greens!

Wait... Green party seriously think it'll win even one seat and hasn't endorsed LibDems nationwide yet?

	07-04-2005 15:14									#73
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quote: (irrigated grassland still producing 4 food).

You mean Railroaded irrigated grassland, right?

	07-04-2005 15:22									#74
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quote: Originally posted by Krill quote: (irrigated grassland still producing 4 food). You mean Railroaded irrigated grassland, right?

Indeed I do.

Large UK cities are not currently experiencing starvaton due to anarchy, or pollution, which does not seem right. Someone must have edited the game settings...

	07-04-2005 16:53									#75
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quote: Originally posted by C0ckney i'd like a tory-lib dem coalition, like swansea city council at moment, mostly because they seem to agree on very little, so they can't do much damage

That really doesn't sound like a particularly natural alliance...

	07-04-2005 16:58									#76
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No one answered my question. If Tony Blair is that unpopular why doesn't Parliament "no confidence" him out of office?

	07-04-2005 17:13									#77
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quote: Originally posted by Dr Strangelove No one answered my question. If Tony Blair is that unpopular why doesn't Parliament "no confidence" him out of office?

Parliament could only "no confidence" the government, and the government was the largest party in Parliament. So it was never going to happen - it would have precipitated a general election if successful. The opposition don't bother with no confidence votes unless confident of victory, which usually only happens with very small majorities or a hung parliament.

Blair is PM by virtue of being leader of the largest party in parliament. If the Labour party wanted to topple him, they could do it through party maneouvres, but that was always seen as too great an electoral risk.

edit: typos

	07-04-2005 17:37									#78
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quote: Originally posted by Dr Strangelove No one answered my question. If Tony Blair is that unpopular why doesn't Parliament "no confidence" him out of office?

Tony Blair's not the leader of Parliament but the leader of the party that holds the majority in Parliament.

And parties have much more subtle and devious methods of destroying someone than a crude "no confidence" vote.

If Parliament wanted to target just Blair, they could try to impeach him. A Plaid Cymru MP tried to do just that, with the backing of the PC and SNP MP's, but failed to get enough people to back it IIRC. Impeachment is used when someone has to be brought to trail and the only appropriate court is Parliament itself. Before the Plaid Cymru MP brought it up, no impeachment motion has been used in over 150 years and most people have forgotten it even exists in our system.

Parliament, in its 1000 years of democratic and non-democratic guises, has built up a long list of tricks.

	07-04-2005 17:51									#79
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I just checked BBC and saw nothing on this, could you provide a link?

	07-04-2005 17:54									#80
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What, the impeachment?
http://www.impeachblair.org/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianp...1354571,00.html

	07-04-2005 18:05									#81
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No, parliament being dissolved.

	07-04-2005 18:06									#82
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See here:

http://www.parliament.uk/



General Election
The Prime Minister has announced the date for the general election as Thursday 5 May 2005. Parliament will be dissolved on Monday 11 April and will return on Wednesday 11 May. At 5pm on the day of dissolution all those who are MPs will cease to be MPs.

	07-04-2005 18:08									#83
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_polit...005/default.stm

There's their UK election guide.

And here's the actual article from the day it was announced:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_polit...age/4409935.stm

The actual dissolving of Parliament happens on Monday I think cause the Gov still has a few bills to put through. However, for all intents and purposes, the election countdown has begun.

	07-04-2005 18:09									#84
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They need to restock on concentrated hydrochloric acid.

	07-04-2005 18:12									#85
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Aye. Some of those old Tory MP's can resist anything. Acid, brine, decency...

	07-04-2005 18:13									#86
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Ah, cool, thanks

It seems according to the YouGov polls the Tories and Labour are tied for support.

Last edited by Shi Huangdi on 07-04-2005 at 19:52

	07-04-2005 18:15									#87
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quote: Originally posted by Starchild Aye. Some of those old Tory MP's can resist anything. Acid, brine, decency...

Women's stockings, oranges, drugs, female prostitutes, sex with the Prime Minister, rent boys, bribes, perjury....

	07-04-2005 18:15									#88
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Yeah... according to the BBC website three have labour ahead, one has a tie and one has tory ahead by a couple of points.

You need to look more regionally to see what effect that's going to have.

	07-04-2005 18:16									#89
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quote: Originally posted by molly bloom Women's stockings, oranges, drugs, female prostitutes, sex with the Prime Minister, rent boys, bribes, perjury....

Why didn't people believe their anti-sleaze agenda?

	07-04-2005 18:18									#90
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quote: Originally posted by MikeH Why didn't people believe their anti-sleaze agenda?

They knew they were lying, because their lips were moving when they spoke about it.