Just skimming the Times of London political page, it’s obvious that the UK has some pretty big problems:
PM Brown’s bank boss had links to tax cheats: Glen Moreno was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds during a nine-year association with Liechtenstein Global Trust
‘Peer for hire’ grabs £70,000 housing perk: Lord Truscott receives £28,000-a-year tax free by telling House of Lords’ authorities that his main residence is a flat in Bath
Home Secretary in new Commons expenses row: Jacqui Smith is under fire for claiming thousands of pounds for her family house by listing it as her ‘second home’
Treasury watchdog a guest of financiers: John McFall stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky hotel as Treasury officials worked to save some of UK’s biggest finance houses
Prosecute ‘peer for hire’ Lords, say voters : People were shocked by revelations that members of the Lords were willing to accept payments in return for amending legislation
That’s just the corruption. Then there is the Labour Party’s strained relationship with, uh, labor unions.
Labour faces clash with unions Royal Mail: Labour will reach ‘breaking point’ with unions if the Government presses ahead with plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail
And there’s this:
Labour’s job-finder plan ‘in crisis’ : Plans to pay private companies to find jobs for unemployed are in crisis too few available jobs to make current plans viable
I think the Tories will be making a comeback in the United Kingdom sooner than we might have thought possible.
Not really surprised – the Tories have been on track to beat Labour in the next election by a whopping margin for some time. Their numbers recovered after Gordon Brown came out with the first bank rescue plan, but it’s fizzled after equity injections did little to encourage banks to lend more.
Tony Blair sure knew a good time when to take leave from 10 Downing…he’s not going to be responsible for the shellacking Labour receives in the next election.
“Tony Blair sure knew a good time when to take leave from 10 Downing…he’s not going to be responsible for the shellacking Labour receives in the next election.”
A large part of any shellacking with be courtesy of Blair: many inside (and outside) the Labour party will never forgive the attack on Iraq and could so no compelling reason for being in Afghanistan, and party membership has plummeted. Brown’s Panopticon plan for ID cards and a database state will remove other potential ‘liberal’ voters, and the net result will be David Cameron, a man without qualities (as an Old Etonian, that is not how he would see himself, but ‘protector of the very rich’ is not an electoral slogan) as prime minister. God help us.
Isn’t there a party to the left of Labour that’s been making inroads? I hate when the center left parties fail for being too much like the Right and then people vote for the right. Much like Dems who are Republican Lite here in the States.
The UK has the Liberal Party which is to the left of Labour on many, but not all, things. Their inroads are minimal.
Here’s a better link: Liberal Democrats.
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(BBC News) – MPs have called on the Treasury to provide the Foreign Office (FCO) with additional funding to cover shortfalls caused by the pound’s declining value.
The Foreign Affairs Committee says the removal of Treasury protection against currency fluctuations is another blow.
The pound’s value against the euro and dollar has slid in recent months. It is now trading at around 1.10 euros, compared with 1.50 in 2007, and has crashed to around $1.45 in trading against the American dollar.
Pound hits new low against euroThe bulk of what Britain’s diplomats do abroad is paid in foreign currency – so the plunging pound has hit Foreign Office budgets much harder than any other government department.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."