Brown's thin air manifesto

Richard of York

The central policy is that Labour will get the country back tp prosperity without being unfair on those who can niether afford the pain nor are responsible for it.

Labour are not advocating social division and a regressive step back to Thatcherite Britain os social discourse and rampant self interest.
Cameron on the other hand wants to impose community snoopers like the Baath party in Iraq.
Reward his clansmen and give our money to millionaires and our jobs to the bonfire.
He wants to slap women in the face for daring to be working mothers and reward rich Tories with inheritance tax changes.

Holly ......

Nothing beneath his feet but thin air,
Nothing in his head only lovely fluffy clouds.
The cartoon sums this shower up to a tee.
Had Ed Balls all over it,If not in it at some point.
Little wonder they had to bus in the audience.

Ghengis

Iam not hearing much about cleaning up Parliament.

AndyinBrum

Yes Richard, that's exactly what Brown and new labour have done

marc antony

How will this "guarantee" be achieved? How much will it cost and to what extent will it adversely affect other services? If it's so do-able, why has in not been in effect by now?
Anyway, after this hypothetically quick diagnosis, you will be denied the drugs you need!

Martin

So if that is it, what would Brown do for the remaining 4 1/2 years of the next parliament? He will have plenty of time on his hands to screw the country with all the things he hasnt told us.

A bankrupt party, a bankrupt manifesto and a bankrupt country

Maggie

When most people see and hear a rentamob like the one Brown brought with him this morning they don't usually want to join them. If they've got any sense they tend to run in the opposite direction.

sinosimon

most interesting was his claim that survivsal rates for breast and bowel cancer are both at 90%.......

cancer research uk say different

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/bowel/index.htm?script=true#Bowel

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/breast/survival/index.htm

i do hope someone in the media will folow this up. the man has no shame.

Scott

oh Richard pleaseeeeeeeee. Are you from the planet Dork in a gaxaly far far away? We have social division now. That why people wish to vote for BNP. Your points are just contradictions. Everything you say applies to the Government now!. You seriously need to take off your rose covered specs. They do you a complete dis-service. See the world through our eyes and it isn't so cosy.

Guy Liardet

I thought BBC World At One just now was reasonably destructive of this facade. And
Mandy failed to convince under tight questioning.

Lord Monkington-Smythe

Richard, please.

The very fact that Brown has to bring the country BACK to prosperity after being either Chancellor or Prime Minister for the last thirteen years tells the electorate all they need to know. How many times must he be allowed to fail before you realise that he needs to go? I suspect deep down you must know this, for all of your bluster.

Would you be happy with Ed Balls as Prime Minister? I hope so, because if by some miracle Brown pulls this off, you can be sure he will be kicked out in a coup before he even gets back to Number 10.

Raffles

Richard, please explain to this simpleton how exactly Cameron wants to "give our money to millionaires"...i am a bit lost.

Snowman

Richard, go back to York and start knitting, it’s suits your intellect just about right.

In a country that was truly democratic, Gordon Brown would have been pensioned off for his ‘no boom and bust’ insanity alone years ago.

gave battle in vain

Of course, this is a continuation of Labour work, which has seen the rich/poor divide decrease greatly in the last 13 years.

nomad

@ Richard
"Labour are not advocating social division"

There is no need to advocate this policy. Labout successfully implemented that over the past 13 years.

We are now a divided society based on special interests ...

Give me Thatcher and the Austrian school of economics any day. At least we didn't have to nationalise the banks.

Damn I forgot - we all work for the government now (or will be doing very shortly).

David Lindsay

There was supposed to be no increase in income tax last time. We now have, not only the fourth General Election in a row in which both parties are committed to the existing rates of income tax, but the first of those four in which one of those rates has in fact gone up (quite considerably) since the last time. So much for Opposition.

In 1992, the Tories also promised no increase in the scope or rate of VAT. They didn't stick to it, but they were in those days, if not also now, heavily influenced by a certain philosophy of taxation, favouring the indirect over the direct. Still, Labour went to town, and understandably so. Now, however, we find a Labour Manifesto - as Neil Kinnock might have put it, "a Labour Manifesto" - promising not to raise income tax while refusing to rule out any increase in VAT.

So, how could a Labour Opposition oppose a Tory Government if, as when Cameron was last anywhere near the running of these things, it sought to put up VAT while leaving income tax alone?

Note that the minimum wage does not already rise automatically in line with wages generally. Note that it is not fixed at, say, half median earnings at the last annual assessment of such matters. Similarly, note that John Smith's signature policy that employment rights beginning on day one of employment, and applying regardless of the number of hours worked, has still never been enacted, after 13 years of Labour government. What is the Labour Party for? (Those who naively look to the EU on employment matters should ask themselves the same question about that, although, to be fair, the EU has never claimed to be for such purposes, but the very reverse, and their belief to the contrary is wholly inexplicable by reference to any factual evidence.)

As for extending paternity leave, it should be made available at any time until the child is 18 or leaves school. That last, in particular, would reassert paternal authority, and thus require paternal responsibility, at key points in childhood and adolescence. Rather than licensing skiving, which is what permitting a man to take time off merely because his wife has a new baby amounts to. What is he doing? Cluttering up the house. I note that the Mail on Sunday columnist Suzannne Moore is to contest Hackney North & Stoke Newington as an Independent. I disagree with her about very many things. But not, apparently, about this.

Simon Stephenson

Richard of York

Do you sit there, locked into Coffee House, repetitively pressing the refresh button, just so you can be first to comment on any new post, with yet more witless braying of Labour slogans, totally tunnel-visioned and uninformative, and designed, presumably, for no other purpose than to annoy the audience you have chosen to address?

What a way to co-exist with people who just happen to disagree with your view of the world. What a way to spend your life.

Peter From Maidstone

RoY, you are soooooooo boring. Please go and troll somewhere else. You are so obviously being paid by the Labour Party. How will the Labour Party get us back to prosperity when it has caused our poverty?

Dan

This abject manifesto, nauseatingly presented, should hasten the demise of Brown and his thugs.

Verityred

Richard the third.

Being a propaganda monkey isn't clever, and as has been said so many times, isn't at all effective. Especially in your case.

Go play in the sunshine until the bell rings.

Greenslime

Dipstick Dick of the North. The Tories are are not proposing social division, nor regression, nor the grinding down of ambition and enterprise. It is saying that if you pay someone to sit on a sofa watching SkyTV sport on a wide-screen TV - all paid for by taxpayers, that is exactly what they will do. One such individual (sadly a relative of mine) told me he wasn't prepared to work on the minimum wage so was happy to live on the £220/fortnight he gets on his jobseekers (or whatever) allowance. Meanwhile, his rent is paid, community charge is paid and his kids get free school meals. So the cash covers his booze and fags. For this is where 13 unlucky years of Labour government has brought us.

At least the Tories propose to get people out of these ruts - rather than just shift them from list to list of variously named unemployed status in order to hide the truth from those of us that pay for it.

Anand

Richard

Which of the conservative policies gives "our" money to millionaires? by "our" I assume you mean low and middle income families and individuals?

I cannot think of a single one thats going to be in the manifesto.

In fact the Conservatives are (alongside the Lib Dems) advocating abolishing universal tax credits and benefits for those on high middle income and above.

As a "working man's" party (allegedly) why do labour give tax credits to millionaires by means of child benefits, child tax credits, winter fuel allowance etc? Surely as a pro wealth redistribution voter such as yourself, you would favour the conservative approach of keeping the rich OUT of the tax credit system?

keen to hear your opinion!

Anand

Stevie

Richard the Third-If Brown wanted to be fair why did he steal the 10p tax from the poor? And if Cameron is just for the rich why does he propose to remove benefits and trust funds from them?

Victor Southern

Richard would those community snoopers be as intrusive as surveillance on families to see if they live outside a school catchment area? Or perhaps those who impose fines for bins too full [in council areas where collection is fortnightly]? Or perhaps those who haunt pet shops to see if a 15-year old boy is sold a goldfish?

As to those who "are responsible for it" one need not look any further than the Labour government, a triumph of ideology over reason. To consider that same tired regime being able to sure itself and reform is not credible.

Now, whilst you rattle on about "millionaires" you might consider that for the most part they are job creators, not job destroyers. The taxes they pay go to keep the shirking class in fags and booze. To a large extent they put no strain on state education nor even the NHS - they just pay taxes. If you are referring to IHT, or Death Duties as it should be known, then you might be able to comprehend that the benefit of the Osborne proposal lies overwhelmingly with those who leave estates of less than one million. The percentage benefit to the estates of the truly wealthy is, on average, less than 3%.

Working mothers will find their annual taxes reduced, not increased and that is fairly obvious.

Labour has created and exacerbated social division. They have done that by unbridled immigration, failing education and military adventurism. Society is more unequal and more segregated now than 13 years ago and that is not just my opinion but that of many specialised bodies such as the OECD.

Ghengis

All Posters: Certain regular postings may be not be as they purport. Particularly those most regular and expressing extreme opinions. Large scale scanning with phrase triggering responses being the culprit and becoming more a norm than we have been accustomed. Veiw any material that is not in accord with known fact or common sense as having been produced digitally.

Nicholas

Richard the Dork, your perception of the Tories seems largely based on New Labour propaganda and revisionist history.

Well, you would say that wouldn't you?

Richard of York

Haha
So much vitriol from the caring friendly big society Tories...yep I can feel the change from the slimey, sleezy, xenophonic, homophobic, fuedal landlords that the new Tories are. The broad church with the wide brush that encompasses all from all parts, races and religions....yes the new Tories do exist.
Unless of course you post something they dont like on a message board.

This site should be a compulsory tutorial for everyone studying Politics today. The new "Spectator" sport "kick an off message poster!"
Love it!!!!

The Bellman

@Dick of Dork: Even your desperate cheer-leading cannot obscure the central fact that Labour have, once again, screwed up. It spent so long regulating and managing peripheral and irrelevant issues that it failed in its single most important responsibility, the stewardship of the economy. Now Brown has not the slightest idea what to do about it, other than to do more of the same, and this tawdry excuse for a manfesto confirms that.

The 'central policy' you describe is no such thing: it's a claim, and a grotesquely implausible one at that. Brown's tired platitudes are not an agenda for action, they're a scarcely warmed-over bubble-and-squeak of mismatched policies, designed to distract from the intellectual vacuum at the heart of Brown Labour, and to obscure the fact that he, more than any other individual, contributed to the current mess. His economic illiteracy, his towering, thundering paranoia, his petty, control-freak government-within-a-government clique, his contemptible inability to make a decision (unless it affects hs own personal political fortune): Brown is a yawning gap where a man ought to be, his character detectable, like a black hole, only because of its disruptive effect on everything around it. His 'government' has no idea about what to do with the little power it has left other than to cling on to it by any means, foul or fair.

And your feverish masturbatory outpourings are amusing, in a way. But go on, admit it: you want, no, you *need* the Tories to be as nasty as you pretend they are, because you are a silly little masochist who can derive a mean caricature of sexual pleasure only from the myth of the endless misery inflicted by Maggie Fatcher.

Paul Hawkins

Come along Dick of the North,your posts are beginning to sound half hearted. Could it be you are losing faith in the great struggle? If so I am pleased you are back in touch with reality

Rainer Unsinn

Dick of Dork,

I suggest that you go to Iain Dale's site and read his list of unfulfilled manifesto "pledges" - I think he'd lost the will to live by the time he'd reached 27.........

Brown has a court ruling that "manifesto pledges are not subject to legitimate expectation" - in other words, worthless.

Read the list and you see that his "pledges", truly, are not worth the paper they're written on.

Ctesibius

The pledge not to increase Income Tax RATES is baffling.

Firstly because the RATES of Income Tax have little effect on the Income Tax most people pay - personal allowances and indexing determine that to a large degree.

Secondly because Labout have promised this in every manifesto and yet have massively increased the amound of tax which most people pay each time.

Thirdly because Labout broke this pledge in the last Parliament by doubling the lowest rate of tax from 10% to 20% and also raising the top rate from 40% to 50%.

Fourthly because this government has completely broken the link between National Insuranec payments and benefits and blatantly use National Insurance as a supplement to Income Tax.

So why make this utterly pointless pledge?

Chris

Re manifesto and tactics apparently adopted by Labour, see response by Andrew Lansley to Labour's use of confidential data and NHS - new website to protest at tactics:

http://www.stopthescaremongering.com/index.php

Bob Cat

Even at a time when politicians believed in something other than their own divine right to rule and their salary, manifestos were always to be taken 'lightly'.

Now - all of them - are pretty much worthless. And that will be as true of Dave's little effort and Clegg's - as well as Brown's.

AndyinBrum

Dave Lindsey~ you show your parenting skills with that comment. In my 2 week paternity leave I helped my wife cope with a new baby, our firs, the fact that he needed feeding every few hours, the wonders of expressing, so that the wife could get some sleep and recover from a traumatic birth, emergency c section andcoping with a postnatel diagnosed disability. Especially as we got fuck all support from our health visitor.

But your right we just clutter up the home

Ghengis

The Bellman: I think you may be addressing an automatic digital response program.

Paddy

I would like to know when Brown is going to meet the people.

Everytime we see him he is with his wife or he is surrounded by "heavies".

When are we going to see him meet the general public and not labour activists.

Clunking Iron Arse

@Ctesibius

"So why make this utterly pointless pledge?"

The majority of people hearing the headline will not be bothered to investigate whether the pledge will be possible and will not appreciate the subtle difference between what is promised and what actually happens. Broon is a master of the art of saying one thing and meaning another so as long as it makes a good sound bite, it doesn't really matter what the policy is behind it.

Tony Moore

What irritates me most about this election campaign is that none of the parties are giving a clear indication of how the horrendous debt and deficit situation will be resolved. All we get are vague comments followed by more spending promises.
Come on , Richard of York, let's start with you. Put you money where your mouth is - Exactly what are labour going to do abouth the mess they have created ?

John Bracewell

A certain ignorant poster feeds off any attention it gets, just ignore it.
The Labour manifesto contains old ideas which are of little significance, otherwise they would have been implemented during the last 13 years. No Income Tax rate increase means a continuation of stealth taxes except of course if they break their manifesto pledge like in the 2005 manifesto by putting up the highest rate of tax when they said they would not increase tax in the next parliament. Any pledges or guarantees are worthless, remember Labour did not hold a referendum on the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty when they promised one in their 2005 manifesto.
Many of the manifesto items are simply looking at what is currently wrong with what their government for 13 years has produced and saying give us another 5 years and we will put right what we got wrong!
An amazing waste of time, Brown and his incompetent cronies do not deserve another 5 minutes never mind 5 years.

Robert Eve

After Lisbon who cares what the Labour manifesto says.

Not worth the paper ......

stepney

Come on Coffee Housers, Richard of York wades into these discussions for nothing other than sheer vanity. Like the vain ugly girl who thinks she's better than all the other girls at the party and puts out with abandon (and everyone), all RoY wants to be is to be the focus of attention. A more blatant example of low self-esteem it would be hard to find.

Don't take the bait. Ignore the tw*t and leave him to rant alone in the corner on his own.

He'll soon get the message.

Richard of York

@Ghengis,

Haha....your post does not compute....resend.......error 4556 does not compute.....beeep!

Chris lancashire

Why the surprise that there is nothing in the Labour manifesto? The whole New Labour Project has no substance other than to gain office. At least Blair had his transatlantic alliance/illegal war to pursue. Ever since Brown gained No.10 the UK has been waiting for his Big Idea. Wait on Britain, this "serious man of substance" who only wants to debate policy has neither substance nor policies.
Very shortly he will be consigned to the dustbin of obscure political history and, other than a massive debt, we can forget he ever existed.

Fox in a box

Ghengis,

actually Richard's real name is James, and we saw him at the Labour Manifesto launch...

welease woger

Once again Fraser writes an article, Richard the Turd is first to respond and nearly everyone then bites and ignores the original article.

He's loving it. The only solution is to ignore him.

Stevie

Richard the Third-If Brown wanted to be fair why did he steal the 10p tax from the poor? And if Cameron is just for the rich why does he propose to remove benefits and trust funds from them?
Second time of asking.

Simon Stephenson

Richard of York

"This site should be a compulsory tutorial for everyone studying Politics today. The new "Spectator" sport "kick an off message poster!" Love it!!!!"

I think it's presumptuous to give what you do the compliment of being called "off message". This would be to credit it with being in some way constructive - an addition to the discussion, however contrary, with the purpose of enhancing conclusions. Your contributions add nothing - but then they're not designed to add anything, just to give you the teenage satisfaction that comes from annoying people with whom you disagree.

This isn't off-message, it's off-adult. There are plenty of football-fan type sites that cater for your needs - why insist on inhabiting one that doesn't?

TrevorsDen

I think the turds posts are great - and appropriately he is as thick as shit - it shows how lying and thick labour supporters are.

Invoking the baath party is sublime and complaining about snoopers when labour are advocating putting cameras and micro chips in our rubbish bins is surreal.

You have to pay for this sort of entertainment down the West End.

Browns manifesto slogan 'Back to the Future' ?? Or maybe 'Its deja vue all over again'??

TrevorsDen

Guido slams Browns manifesto launch which seemed to consist of haranguing the assembled press by a bussed in bunch of rowdies and a raft of insults from Brown himself and the shadow cabinet.

Gawain

I'm afraid I couldn't spare the time to watch Grim Gordon gurning his way through their manifesto. We rely on people like you who are paid to endure such pain to keep us informed. An added bonus is to have the comments of the under employed Dick of York. The post and Dick's mutterings confirm what I suspected, Labour is exhausted and is now an intellectual desert.

Alexander Pelling

When I was at primary schoool the first thing we learnt about Richard Of York was that he Gave Battle In Vain.

I believe he was also informally known as "Dickon."

'Nuff said already, methinks.

Norman Dee

I know it's frustrating, but Welease Wodger is right if you just ignore Richard and his long winded partner David Lindsay they will go away eventually, as soon as you see the name just pass over it it won't take long and it will become automatic. You should also feel sorry for anyone that spends his entire life just sitting reading blogs so he can be the first to comment.So lets everybody tell him how sorry we are for him lets shower him with sympathy if we work together it might move him on to commenting on the Beano where his kind of drivel will be more appreciated.

Jonathan L

Another fine mess...they are getting themselves into. Maybe life in labour is a line of dominos - and they are now finally getting to the end of the line!

All I have heard and read so far sums up what they have in their portfolio - a big fat ZERO - Zero ideas, Zero money, Zero proposals. This is a team without. They are without any direction, without leadership, without support.

If the public and electorate have any sense they will finally give GB (Gordon Brown the PM ) and PM (Peter Mandelson - not to be confused with Prime Minister) the golden boots and they can hang them up for good!

So let's say GOOD BYE PM - GB PM! Good Bye Prime Minister and Good Bye Peter Mandelson - the show is over!

Nicholas

Richard the Dork, the concept of being "off message" is a New Labour construct that does not apply here at a website reflecting a true diversity of mainly right wing opinion and comment. Your attempts to smear and stereotype confirm only your own inherent New Labour prejudice and bigotry.

You are being "kicked" for the startling arrogance and ignorance of your posts, together with your naive belief that anyone here is likely to swallow your shit when we have had 13 unrelenting, miserable years of same.

Richard of York

@ Trevor's Den

The only council I know of putting chips in bins is a Tory council. The CCTV exposion has been greatest in Tory councils.
Always makes me laugh when people complain about council spending or the number of foreign workers in the councils when they look they see they a mostly Tory councils.
You couldn't make it up if you tried...oh dear!!!

Simon Stephenson

Richard of York

"The CCTV exposion has been greatest in Tory councils.

Always makes me laugh when people complain about council spending or the number of foreign workers in the councils when they look they see they a mostly Tory councils."

I don't suppose you'ld care to give anything as interesting as sources for these two assertions? Or, in your Humpty Dumpty world, does the thought of giving sources not feature, since what you say is by definition right, and independent confirmation would therefore add nothing?

logdon

Viz has a character, Student Grant whose surname is Wankshaft.

I's also the name which springs to mind whenever I read the likes of young Dickey attempting to post as mature adults.

They're all of a marxist educated type and usually congregate around the water cooler of CiF, which is their natural home.

There, amongst fellow sheeple, they can lie and bleat to their heart's content to the masturbatory applause of like minded peers.

Hint!

Edmund Jerk

It's a very Stalinist poster: if Brown wins can we start calling him Uncle Gord ala Uncle Joe?

Ali C

1. Liebore have spent 13 years wrecking this country and it's economy.

2. They and the main architect of the downfall McDoom, need to go.

3. Richard is a very tiresome Draper-bot. I wish he'd buzz off because he's just very very tedious and probably not very bright. And yes I think he may be Student Gwant from Viz.

Ruby Duck

Snowman, please don't dis knitting.

Frank Leader

Just another work of fiction. Like the first three.

John Bracewell

Posters on this topic cannot be very bright since they have allowed Richard to dominate the thread. Instead of attacking the Labour manifesto, they have taken up time to 'converse' with a Labour agent who has achieved his aim. IGNORE the bar steward.

Ghengis

Fox in a box: I presume you are referring to Spud.

Rob Lledsans

who is the blonde girl behind Cameron to the left at the manifesto launch

alexsandr

ghengis said
"All Posters: Certain regular postings may be not be as they purport. Particularly those most regular and expressing extreme opinions. Large scale scanning with phrase triggering responses being the culprit and becoming more a norm than we have been accustomed. Veiw any material that is not in accord with known fact or common sense as having been produced digitally."

spectator, put in CAPTCHA verification please...

Paul Wigmore

In the way that one sits back and muses about the effects of unlikely events I have been sitting back and musing on the possible outcome of this volcanic eruption. So far, it has emptied the sky of jet aircraft. Virtually. Someone has said that the conditions could last for years. Has anyone wondered yet how that might that affect little things like world economy?