Your’s is not on my daily reads, and your politics is further right than I like, I only came over because Iain Dale thought you had something interesting to say. Even though I don’t like his politics either, it has been on my daily reading list for ages, and I did like 18doughtystreet.com. You did not say in your post, nor provide a link to follow the source of your thought. I am not a mind reader.

Certainly, blogs are coming into their own. Obama puts his victory down to the internet. We are slower over here. Having said that, the government is desperately trying to control the internet. It is a waste of taxpayers money having 10 full time staff monitoring the internet to see what is being said about them. Google Alerts are free!

The biggest waste is the money spent on our prisons. If the Titan Prisons project goes ahead, people will be walking around with wheelbarrows full of almost worthless banknotes. Smaller, more manageable units, is not only cheaper but the way forward.

I note from your banner “today’s issues and tomorrow’s problems. An issue today is that the government has failed in its responsibilities to the Convention to implement the ECtHR decision in Hirst v UK(No2). The Observer reports: “The government must give prisoners the right to vote or the next general election will be illegal under European law, ministers have been warned by parliament’s influential Joint Committee on Human Rights” (9.11.2008). I think you will have to agree that this will be a problem tomorrow. It won’t go away. And yet, H.M. Opposition has so far been silent on this. Do you think that the Committee of Ministers in Europe on 17-19 March 2009 are just going to fire paper clips at the UK? Members States have to abide by the Convention to be Members of the EU. In my view, the UK should tidy up its act of face being expelled like a naughty school boy at Eton or Harrow. Just a thought, don’t you have to be in Europe for Economic Competitiveness to mean something in this country?. We have to play by their rules on this, over there it’s Roman law not English law which prevails. Charles Falconer failed to do his homework. Labour are trying to hide his incompetence. When I studied law I took on board the influence of European law, it wasn’t even around when Charles Falconer studied law. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”. Where are the Tory attack dogs? Shouldn’t you be sending them into this political bear pit?

There is a further question of how much of the Labour & Tory vote is there because people feel they have to vote that way to keep out Tory & Labour respectively. If people felt able to vote for a party they actually liked, who put forward arguments & policies that were not merely designed not to alienate the “middle ground” it might well be that few would vote for either party. While such a society would be more democratic & I think more free & adventurous I can sees why their is a Labour-Tory conspiarcy against it.

Reply: My point was just to illustrate that many people did not vote – not a serious calculation.

Who asked you?

Do you know how many bloggers there are in the world? Or, even just in the UK?

In any event, people being people, bloggers moods will vary.

Apparently, Derek Draper is claiming to be able to read people’s minds being a psychotherapist. Have you got a similar qualification which enables you to read bloggers moods?

Reply: Try reading this blog, and you will see bloggers asked me to. I was referring to bloggers to this site.

Actually we see a great tv program coming out of this. Perhaps JR as a leading blogger could devise the format and sell the rights!

Seriously…many of us remember ‘I’m backing Britain’ from the 60s and others recall Peter Finch’s oscar-winning performance and plaintiff cry from ‘Network’ in the 70s. In fact we were moved to use it in a blog at the weekend…

“We’re as mad as hell and we won’t take it any more”

We feel a combination of both evolving in Britain right now…and would love to see the mood of the moment somehow captured positively and imaginatively to shake and stir us to the core!

Mr Brown would not be PM if the 20 odds percent of electors who voted his party in, had 20 odds percent of the seats in parliament.

Reply: On your proposed form of PR large numbers of seats would be empty to represent all those who do not vote, so we would still have a Labour majority! PR does not increase turnout in the UK, and produces something worse than majority government – government by a coalition who decide to change what they promised electors in order to scramble into power.

Maybe we need bumper stickers that say “Don’t vote Labour”?

I also understand your worry about Cameron being “Labour-lite” but given the complete and utter mess the economy is in at present I would happily hand it over to a bunch of 6 year olds because they could NOT be worse than the current shower.

Whatever Cameron does – if he possesses the tiniest bit of pragmatism then things will improve enormously.

In the mean time, prepare the bomb shelter as it’ going to be a rough ride, they won’t give up easily (and more vote rigging will happen)

If you have a garden, dig it over and plant vegetables. Better still, get a pig and a shotgun.

If this fails, buy shares in the hempen rope.

BTW. I understand that Gordon is considering a KFC franchise. He certainly has a lot of chickens home to roost at the moment.

But I do not know of any Labour supporters to challenge, probably because all my contacts either work in a whole variety of commerce and industry, or have private pensions.

Without exception all of my contacts feel nothing but disgust at the way this Country is being slowly bought to its knees finacially, and its way of life threatened by this Governments actions in the form of its financial incompetence, its quest for Political correctness, and the Heath and Safety Nanny State.

The problem now is is what will be left to save, and how much and how long it will take.

Unfortunately neither I or many of my contacts have a great deal of faith in any Political Party at the moment, as we really do have an Elected Dictatorship.

Labour can do as it likes with the majority it has, unless a good number of Labour MPs refuse to co-operate and vote against the Government. As said before, Turkey’s do not vote for Christmas, so it seems its get your fill at the trough before their good times end.

We need someone who can see the bigger picture, who has some clear and concise ideas, who can convey them to Public and inspire some confidence and hope for the future.
In short we need a true Statesman who can rise above all of this Party Politics stuff and once again talk some commonsense.

I am no extreme righty. I try to be compassionate and responsible. I have no personal malice towards Socialists. I just think that they are deluding themselves as to the soundness of socialism as a workable political philosophy as judged by all the evidence of history.

And yet here we are again governed by a lefty party that has yet again created massive inflation and destroyed the currency, inflated the public debt, undermined enterprise, increased dependency and failed to improve, or even just run, state monopoly health and education systems (’services’ they ain’t).

Having abandoned Cl4.4 (nationalisation) you’d think they’d realise that tax ‘n spend was also not workable. But nope. Off they have gone using the only remaining leg of their philosophy and bust us.

As regards the financial regulatory ’system’ installed by Brown, well it’s just a travesty. It dismantled a workable system and replaced it with something that is accountable only to the whim of the Chancellor and has none of the checks and balances that the old tried and tested system had. Consequently an inept and ignorant Chancellor of the Exchequer has been able to manipulate the workings of this system until it broke under the strain.

None of this analysis is party political. It’s observational. If New Labour had got it right and reformed the state monopolies as they promised I would be the first to congratulate them. But they haven’t. They’ve just thrown massive amounts of our money at them.

PS. I have had more bonkers ideas come in today from the FSA. Please will you lot make it clear that the FSMA 2000 is No 1 on your agenda for attention and caution the FSA that they’d better be very careful what they do between now and when (if?) you get into power? I can tell you that if you do not the small business retail advice end of FS will have been destroyed by them. And you should note that IFA’s get massive trust ratings from their clients. Trust ratings that far far exceed those of banks (and always did) and politicians. L.

It’s heartening to be part of what is really a significant political change via the blogosphere whereby ordinary voters CAN get their views heard and sometimes influence opinion.

You’re right in that this government is uniquely susceptible to the winds of media and consumer opinion (probably why they have helped launch such a poor one-eyed site as Labourlist themselves…they don’t really want to court criticism!)
and we shall circulate this particular blog of yours to as wide a readership as we can.

1. Talk to people around us, particularly those who are inclined to vote Labour, and persuade them of the alternatives. For others who don’t read blogs it can be a real chance to express their feelings and know they are not alone in their views – this is particularly the case for older people.

2. Talk to the young people in our families and of our acquaintence. I am now in the process of educating my hairdresser, beautician, and cleaner,(who all want to understand more) and my god daughter and a rather leftwing neice who are very happy to debate – useful for me to understand them too.

3. Don’t stand for any assumptions in general conversations that left = good and right = bad. Politely challenge all views that enhance this view. I was recently on an art history course where the lecturer mentioned the Spanish Civil War. To her the fascists were wicked and backed by the Nazis and the left were ‘goodies’ (her words). I pointed out dreadful atrocities were committed by both sides, the politics were complicated, and ‘the Repulicans’ were backed by Stalin. Who would people choose for a friend Stalin or Hitler.

The political elite (of all colours) have closed ranks, successfully destroying democracy, leaving us a choice of the rock or the hard place. I don’t know anyone who wants either Gordon Brown or David Cameron to win the next election, but as there are no viable/realistic alternatives, one of them will certainly win it – probably by default – leaving us little, or no better off than we are now.

If the polls are right, then the tribal Tory voters will almost certainly be out in force to ensure a win for Tony Blair’s clone, and will then spend the next 5 years wondering why nothing seems to be changing. I find myself agreeing with Peter Hitchens’ theory that if the Tories lose the next election, there is a chance they will fall apart leaving room for a new, and truly (small ‘c’) conservative party to emerge. Unfortunately I think neither will happen in the near future. What worries me is the likelihood of increased support for the extremist BNP-type parties.

What adds to the annoyance of our predicament is that everyone in the mainstream media sides with the political spin of the day and refuse to question anything, presenting only one side of a story. The BBC epitomise this, and this is made all the more aggrevating because I will go to prison if I refuse to fund them! True fifth columnists the lot of them.

There must be a reason for all of this; for the blatant disregard for the opinions of the masses, the deliberate shutting down of debate, the destruction of our nation and incorporation into the EU (and probably, ultimately, one world government) and the poor decision making in this recession. I simply cannot believe these guys and their advisers are really this stupid, and can’t help thinking there’s something more sinister at work.

So, in the meantime, what can we do, other than to sit helplessly in front of a computer complaining on blogs like this, it’s so frustrating. Actually, it’s pathetic.

1. Get the election called
2. Make sure Labour loses badly.

On point 1 I feel the only way is a vote of confidence

On point 2 we also need to persuade those Labour voters who will NOT vote Tory that they must vote Lib Dem this time around.

John – the Tories and the Lib Dems need to reach an agreement that they will stand clear of each other in 3-way contests. If the LibDems are the likely victor then the Tory should stand down and encourage the locals to vote LibDem. The Libs should do the same from their side for the Tories.

The objective must be to ensure that this putrid government falls and falls hard. I have no objection to the LibDems being the second party.