Election Losses
Posted: Sat 3 May, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »“Gordon Brown says it has been a “bad and disappointing” election for Labour“
In light of the recent governmentary cockups – 10% tax rate, house prices going down, oil (and just about every other) price going up, fuel price exploding, multiple strikes etc. – is it really any surprise to see that people are finally getting sick of Labour?
And when we then get told that £50bn of our money is going to help out the banks (and is thus at risk of being lost, if those banks collapse in the credit crunch) while the 10% tax rate is abolished (as Ian Hislop put it on Have I Got News For You, “the government has taken from the poor and given to the rich”) it’s just another nail in the coffin of Labour.
A “bad and disappointing” election? Only to the people in Labour. Most of the people with any common sense see it as the beginning of a very well deserved end…
So, in what way is the ‘credit crunch’ a governmental cock-up, when it was so clearly caused by out-of-control bankers overseas and domestically. As for oil, and the knock-on effects for food etc, although clearly the current government is culpable re Iraq, why on earth would that create a logic for people to vote for a Conservative party that was more pro the Iraqi war.
And why on earth should national and international factors matter in local elections? Or are you saying people are too thick to understand democracy…which is a rather patronising view?
No, I didn’t mean (and didn’t say, so far as I can see) that the credit crunch is the government’s fault – however, bailing out the banks with taxpayer’s money does put it at risk in an ongoing credit-crisis thing.
With the oil in particular, (as I understand it) the price rises aren’t helped by repeated increases in the duty paid (and imposed by the government) which means that something like 55% of the price of our fuel is tax. And that oil price (which I know is also higher from the source, not just from tax) is the primary cause of most of the other price rises.
I don’t know why national and international factors matter in local elections – in an ideal world they wouldn’t, but well, they do. People do see national government as being reflected by local government – for good or for ill – and thus the local elections do, to some degree, mirror public feeling about national government.
I’m not saying people are too thick to understand democracy – but there is an issue with discerning between local and national, and that is also propagated by the media to a large degree. (As is shown in the linked story, and others)