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Monday 12 April 2010

Sarah McDermott | 11:22 UK time, Monday, 12 April 2010

UPDATE - HERE'S KIRSTY WITH MORE DETAILS ON TONIGHT'S PROGRAMME:

Tonight, we don our sunspecs to look at the Labour manifesto - the cover looks like a 50s ad for Sunlight soap, and it promises that the future will be bright only with a Labour government, but when we scrutinise it - will it wash?

Peter Mandelson said today to Michael Crick, it offers "Blair plus". Is that something the voters will buy?

Michael Crick examines the promises on VAT and public serivce reform, while Paul Mason asks whether the policies all add up?

Then we'll be interviewing the man who wrote it all, Ed Miliband.

David Grossman will be giving us a heads up on tomorrow's Conservative manifesto, and reviewing David Cameron's interview - to be broadcast on ITV tonight - in which, we already know, he says he thought about giving up politics after the death of his son.

We'll bring you the highlights of Jeremy's encounter with Nick Clegg this evening - to be broadcast in full on 大象传媒 One at 8.30pm - the first of his interviews with the main party leaders.

And after the terrible accident which killed the Polish President and 95 others, the Polish foreign minister talks about the impact of his death and the repercussions on Polish Russian relations.

ENTRY FROM 1122GMT

Labour is preparing to unveil its manifesto, pledging more public service reform and not to raise income tax, as it bids for a fourth term in office.

Michael Crick is travelling up to Birmingham on the same train as most of the Cabinet to attend the manifesto launch and will be visiting a West Midlands marginal later to get public reaction to it.

Paul Mason will be analysing the economic measures outlined in the manifesto to see if they add up.

And in the first of our leader interviews, Jeremy will be speaking to Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

More details later.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    :o) Look forward to the exclusive with Nick Clegg tonight!

  • Comment number 2.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 3.

    On the issue again of abuse and so on I am not a Catholic but you have to hope somebody in their hierarchy gets a grip.

    In the Guardian:

    'A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.

    The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.

    Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."
    '

    So Jesus and the disciples WERE Jews - that's not a secret.

    The attack is "powerful and refined" because these problems have been festering for decades and possibly centuries so there is a wealth of incontrovertible evidence.

    As an outsider they need to stop relying on deference and start earning respect in how they handle their problems.

    If they don't then some internal threat will emerge like a modernising force along the lines of St Blair of Iraq.

    Nobody wants that.

  • Comment number 4.

    OH MY GOD - a 大象传媒 blog that has not been closed down - it must be England.

    There are now no open political 大象传媒 blogs in Scotland - they have all been closed down.

    Why is that you may ask?

    Well it is due to the close links that 大象传媒 Scotland have with the Scottish Labour party, and the recent scandals concerning Labour politicians, i.e., Purcellgate, Twittergate and Gangstergate.

    These gates are remarkable in the way that 大象传媒 Scotland have NOT reported them and how they have tried to kill the stories.

    This has resulted in a growing controversy on how 大象传媒 Scotland are reporting the election north of the border.

    1. There have been allegations of a pro Labour bias.

    2. There have been allegations of online censoring of comments critical of Labour.

    3. There have been allegations of attempts to close down news stories critical of the Labour party.

    4. There have been instances where 大象传媒 blogs have been closed down in response to critical newspaper stories of the Labour party deliberating preventing online discussions.

    5. There have been allegations that certain 大象传媒 Scotland reporters are acting in an outwardly partisan way by the friendly manner in which Labour politicians are being interviewed.

    Any attempt to raise an official complaint with 大象传媒 Scotland has resulted in ......... SILENCE.

    大象传媒 Scotland are effectively gagging all criticisms of how this election is being reported north of the border. If that were to happen in England there would be outrage.

    ..... but this is Scotland.

  • Comment number 5.

    On the internal threat theme again we still have the excitement of the BNP civil war.

    As you might expect from people of that ilk they are threatening to kill each other - well Collett was arrested for threatening to kill Griffin but I assume the boundaries of the two factions are not clear even to themselves.

    So if Collett was arrested in Hull is that not the stamping ground of Euro MEP Brons?

    Has he come out and and declared whether he is loyal to his hero Hitler or to the "modern and progressive" Griffin who "is not a Nazi" but is widely assumed to be one nonetheless?

    Have other parties noted whether the BNP activists are zig zagging and avoiding each others company?

    Are many deciding that being at war with humanity and the other far right factions is too dangerous and that it is time to go to the police should they have any knowledge of impending or past crimes?

  • Comment number 6.

    When you look at the Labour record on the economy and on social mobility and on defence and Iraq and 10p budgets and on .... everything its disaster.

    More to the point after the "sofa politics" years and the Campbell spin machine does anybody actually believe their pledges?

    Do their own activists believe their pledges and on that note do they have an abundance of activists anyway or are they all Unite telephone workers?

  • Comment number 7.

    Clegg should do OK against Paxman and there are plenty of points to be scored off Labour and the public are not convinced by the Tories.

    I have always thought though that they are too "happy clappy" on Europe and needed to take a much more critical approach to the realities of expanding too quickly and so on.

    I am not a Lib Dem member but I vote that way and they do need to lock that down and to also be a bit more precise over immigration.

    Not racist just sensible.

    They should pick up votes from the UKIP lobby as the elitist toff Lord Pearson witters on and candidates like Wiffin in London have said the kind of thing about Muslims and so on that would get them free BNP membership cards - but who would want one of them?

    Meanwhile they are a truly broad UK party that is not indebted to Union money whilst fawning to big business and the banks like labour.

    They are able to look at the economy with confidence whilst Tory wealth creation via free market light touch regulation could be suicidal for the country.

  • Comment number 8.

    Will Paul Mason pass comment on whether any of the parties can feel confident that we won't get another "unique global economic phenomenon" that pans out just like the Wall St Crash?

  • Comment number 9.

    Judging from the number of my posts that were blocked yesterday I am assuming that is due to the BNP sensitivity on their internal issues like Collett having been arrested, as reported in the Independent, for making threats against Griffin also of the BNP?

    I don't believe that any trial could be affected by simply citing what has been reported in the media.

    It is also fair that in an election the electorate can take note of all of the actions of the candidates.

    Whether Collett is guilty or innocent the arrest says much about the BNP and their attitude to politics.

  • Comment number 10.

    if terrorists getting nuclear weapons is the greatest threat then the ira are more likely to nuke london than anyone?

  • Comment number 11.

    So my #2 is pushed to the moderator when I am simply passing comment on what the 大象传媒 itself has reported about Terreblanche?

    Wake up 大象传媒 you have to be fair but not allow the racists to kick any comment they don't like into the long grass!

  • Comment number 12.

    In Russia where they have banned Mein Kampf recently:

    'Eduard Chuvashov was leaving for work on Monday morning when he was shot by an unknown gunman who fled the scene.

    He had presided over several cases involving nationalist organisations and had received death threats.

    In February, he sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead group called the White Wolves to up to 23 years in jail.

    The group was behind a series of racist murders'

    We don't want that sort of thing over here.

  • Comment number 13.

    Am I allowed to point out the same information about the arrest of the BNP Collett in the UK with regard to the BNP Griffin as the Independent reported:

    'Humberside Police said: "A 29-year-old man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of making threats to kill. He was interviewed by Humberside Police detectives and has been released on police bail pending further inquiries." '

    There seems to be great sensitivity on this but it may seem that this has less to do with rules of moderation as opposed to some people with a political orientation complaining to stifle criticism.

    Such incidents say much about a party and its members.

  • Comment number 14.

    So my #2 passed comment on the far right Terreblanche and as the Beeb itself said there are:

    ' allegations of sexual assault prior to the killing of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

    A lawyer for one of the two accused men said Terreblanche tried to have sex with at least one of the defendants. '

    If I reword things when people have tred to discriminate on race and sexuality and then behaved in a totally different manner that deserves comment.

    I don't condone the death and in any event the facts won't be fully known for some time.

    It could be said that people on the far right have often seemed to have a tendency to abberative sexual behaviour like Hitler-Geli and some of the far right in the UK have been paedophiles like the Baby P batterer and wannabe nail bombers and so on.

    That does not mean that all people on the far right are perverted ....

  • Comment number 15.

    I suppose to do a poll on the reaction of the people of Stoke and Barking where the BNP have councillors to the arrest of the BNP Collett in regard to the BNP Griffin may give them publicity?

    If they were not influenced by the Barnbrook explanation for citing non-existent murders as being due to "church bells and dyslexia" then perhaps it would not have much effect anyway.

  • Comment number 16.

    WITH ADVISERS LIKE THAT WHO NEEDS OPPONENTS?

    Today 'Brown-Bread Man Walking' loomed from my screen and declared that Labour will be 'RESTLESS and relentless reformers'. Now: setting aside fair use of 'allitrition's artful aid' (as Mr Poly had it) we are hit between the ears with the word "RESTLESS", yet another malapropism from Brown's speechwriters. Do they do this sort of thing to make him look a fool? (Unless the 'Scotch Dictionary' has 'restless' as a synonym of 'untiring', he is surely saying that Labour is in a state of reformist agitation - probably down to poor sleep!)

    Could it be that Campbell, Mandelson and Blair (plus a few other usual suspects) are out to destroy Brown's credibility, by restlessly making him look stupid? Do loyal, honourable politicians behave like that??

  • Comment number 17.

    Has Alistair Campbell not spent time trumpeting what Labour has done for the NHS in the shape of hospitals paid on the PFI credit card?

    I am well aware that he has personal friends in the NHS and they seem very loyal to him and don't like you "to say nasty things about him".

  • Comment number 18.

    WHO NAMED AND EXECUTED (sic) 'SHOCK AND AWE' (#10)

    Yo Jaunty! 'Shock and Awe' (So good they named it twice!) was probably the greatest DELIBERATE ACT OF TERROR since the Japan nukes. And what a give-away the name is! Doh! Nothing about 'surgical', or 'precision' or 'controlled collateral', just 'BE AFRAID - BE VERY AFRAID'. And what does it add up to? The Terrorists have already got the nukes - they perfected the first ones! AND YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT THEY CAN DO WITH CONVENTIONAL STUFF!

    'Terrorists' are those who USE terror to control others. That runs the gamut from a violent dad and a drunken football fan, to Israel and America. Ask yourself who has form here? You wanna REAL definition of 'hate-crime'?

    (#4) It is not just Scotland where media will not face the real issues. We have the Blogdog, who has eaten more 'homework' - posted on here - than most dogs get to dream of.

  • Comment number 19.

    I hope Michael Crick can avoid interviewing Yvette "1000 words a second" Cooper as it seems like the fastest route to a coma available.

    Also for Gods sake don't let the sour Phil Woolas smile!

  • Comment number 20.

    Go1 post #'s 5, 9, 13 and 15

    All of the 'in-fighting' at the BNP is surely just normal behaviour...after all, remember all the in-fighting that occured in Germany's National Socialist party just before they rose to power.

  • Comment number 21.

    When Cameron is interviewed can he be asked about whether he would change the system to ensure we could never get a Binjam Mohammed situation again?

    Could he also be asked to endorse or distance himself from the comments by Michael Mates that the fact that the complainants had gone down the civil justice path spoke volumes about them?

    Would the judges comments with regard to MI5 and Mohammed mean that he would implement changes to the MI5 charter and so on.

  • Comment number 22.

    Go1 wrote:

    #7 鈥淚 am not a Lib Dem member but I vote that way and they do need to lock that down and to also be a bit more precise over immigration. Not racist just sensible.鈥

    #14 鈥淭hat does not mean that all people on the far right are perverted鈥

    My word he鈥檚 got it, I think he鈥檚 got it.

    The 'racist' blame comes mainly from the sane.

  • Comment number 23.

    Guys, from your front page:

    During the MEP and council polls, in line with political parties and other UK broadcasters, the 大象传媒 will not be reporting the election campaign or offering discussion about the campaign.

    MEP? I didn't know that there was a Euro election taking place too....

  • Comment number 24.

    andrew neil on daily politics seems to be unaware of the uk's new 'churchill choice' policy on afghanistan. Its not about democracy, womens rights or any of that stuff. Its about working through the tribal system and letting them sort out their 'domestic' arrangements.

    but its no surprise he and many others do not know. because the uk media doesn't cover it and milliband hasn't announced it. so while our troops face danger and death 5 times a day others hide behind the sofa over their massive change in policy.



  • Comment number 25.

    ..The US Army is massively reinforcing its units in northern Afghanistan, with about 5,000 soldiers and more than 70 helicopters set to be stationed as soon as possible in the area led by the German Armed Forces.

    McChrystal has identified Kunduz as a second crisis zone -- following the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar -- and wants to fight far more aggressively in the region....



    another crisis?

    a many headed hydra?

  • Comment number 26.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 27.

    ..As a provincial council member from Gardez, near the scene of the botched raid, declared bitterly last week, U.S. Special Forces "don't know who is the enemy and who isn't".

    CIA and military intelligence operatives have continued to rely on tribal patriarchs and local warlords as intelligence sources on the Taliban. As recently as December 2008, U.S. intelligence officials were telling Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick that their operatives had been using gifts of Viagra, among other inducements, to get warlords and tribal leaders to provide such intelligence.

    ...He reported that one provincial governor had "stated that there were people in his province who made a business acting as intermediaries who would give false tips to the international forces in return for payment from individuals holding grudges."

    Alston was told by a village elder in Nuristan that a district government had fed false information to "international forces" that led to a raid targeting his local opponents..



    so we are just cleaning up tribal grudges? great.

    afghanistan. heart of darkness. mind of madness.

  • Comment number 28.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 29.

    :o) So now we know - Gordon Brown finally submits to Jeremy in 2 weeks time!!!!!!
    Absolutely brilliant interview by Jeremy with Nick Clegg tonight - after that interview, I see potential LibDem voters declining....his creme de la creme line of "Jeremy, what planet are you on?" sealed the deal.
    If anyone hasn't seen the entire interview, I would strongly recommend they watch it on 大象传媒i Player.

  • Comment number 30.

    Having just watched Jeremy Paxman interview Nick Clegg it has confirmed my view that it is time for Paxman to retire. He uses unrepresentative examples to bang away at his interviewee in a rude, immature and arrogant way. I believe in challenging interviewing but not this petty approach. Let's have some younger blood. (from a non-aligned voter)

  • Comment number 31.

    Well that's interesting you allow someone to crit me on a subject ( last week ) not to do with anything on NN. I reply with classical greek translated to English and you remove Aristotle.

    Oh dear.

    Well no worry, the 大象传媒 and its wild spending ways with our money will get caught up with.

  • Comment number 32.

    #24

    Jauntycyclist

    Churchill's dead - he died on 24 January 1965

    mim

  • Comment number 33.

    #18

    And what if they get stuck, singie? It could prove painful and most uncomfortable (^_^)!

    mim

  • Comment number 34.

    #31

    flicks

    I remember Aristotle to be a bit too stuck up and rigid on quite a few issues while I found Plato a little airy fairy. Socrates and Seneca seemed to be more open minded but the b....... finished them off. Their courage, of course, is legendary. Hume I liked for his humanism, didn't get on all that well with Descartes and Locke towards whose philosophies I felt a sense of rebellion.

    Some of Kant's and Leibnitz's propositions had an immediate impact on my body and soul, I'd venture to say.

    All this, however, is based on very limited knowledge snd I haven't studied them all though have been trying to catch up a bit recently with Alain de Botton's 'The Consolations of Philosopy'.

    mim

  • Comment number 35.

    Can someone tell me how they are going to get a 2 megaBYTE broadband connection to everyones house in the UK??

    Do they not mean 2 megabit?

    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

    Broadband Britain, Page 13!

    Seriously, do they actually proof read these things?

  • Comment number 36.

    Ask Ed Milliband who will decide our VAT rate; Labour or the EU. We will be fixed to 20% to standardise the rate as Labour's Lisbon Treaty will dictate

  • Comment number 37.

    #30

    Duncan Preston

    I didn't think that at all. In fact, I thought there was a degree of complicity between them. After all, Nick Clegg knows exactly what Paxo is like and has undergone Jeremy's grillings before. It was good to see that none of them got really flustered.

    mim

  • Comment number 38.

    Just read the comment on Scottish 大象传媒 blog sites being closed down and allegations of labour bias....newsflash! It's at the 大象传媒 SOUTH OF THE BORDER TOO. Let's see if the Conservative manifesto gets the kid glove treatment tomorrow like Labour's risible offering got today. The Income tax pledge is jaw-droppingly hilarious; they broke it in 97 (via stealth taxes). They broke it in 05. It's an irrelevance now as they will increase NI and will be forced to raise VAT by the EU and the Lisbon Traety they shackled us to. UNBELIEVABLE!!

  • Comment number 39.

    The Cleggster is a Lib, so by default is useless. Are there people out there who actually vote Liberial?

    The Cleggsters lesson in the value of things & stuff & "what planet are you on"..
    How much is a loaf of bread?
    How much is a state pension worth.?

    Yeah, save it Nick.. save it!

    A third rate former euromandarin hack leading a third rate party..and supported by third rate simple minded folk.

    GO1: Who do you vote for again? you mentioned..but I've forgotton.


    The wicked witch is dead...Littlejohn will be pleased.

  • Comment number 40.

    32

    ..Churchill's dead - he died on 24 January 1965..

    but as they sing in america

    '.but his soul goes marching on. Glory Glory Hallelujah...'

  • Comment number 41.

    Kirsty made a few slight word errors but its been a vast improvement from the recent past. Her hair volume being well proportioned to shoulders leading the eye to a black bra and slightly transparent black top - exquisite.

    Its not worth talking about the political stuff none of it is to be believed.

  • Comment number 42.

    STRUGGLING WITH THE CLEGG LOGIC

    Clegg made clear to Jeremy that 'the people might not want to give any of the parties a clear mandate to govern'. OK so far. But he went on to say that it was then up to the parties to come to some arrangement, BY INFERENCE, WITHOUT FURTHER RECOURSE TO THE VOTERS! How does that work? Are we back with Maggie and 'THERE IS NO OTHER WAY'? Why was he not challenged on the impropriety of this view?

  • Comment number 43.

    Anyone that has even the smallest of concerns about immigration and it's consequences really should check out Sir J's full interview with Mr Clegg via the iplayer facility.

    Barrels and feet come to mind ....

    Has he been anywhere near real people lately?

    Does he read the papers?

    Does he watch the tv? (It's even covered by the 大象传媒 for goodness sake!)

    I might just start a book on how much he believes a pint of milk costs?

    The answer "Two cows" is already at evens!

  • Comment number 44.

    SURELY THEY ARE NOT GONG TO DO A MONTY PYTHON CHILD-LOSSATHON?

    I caught a bit of Cameron being interviewed (in timely fashion) about the loss of his son. Politics is now such a soulless morass, I cannot believe the interview (or its release) had not been considered from the taste/advantage trade-off.

    Clearly the Brown camp will be working late on this one. My guess is they will 'engineer' into the public domain, some 'innocent' information about death/health issues in the Brown household.

    I dearly wish this post were disgraceful, and uncalled for, but sadly it is the opposite. Politics has now gone way past the gutter, and is alive and well in Hades. Where is the voice of the People?

  • Comment number 45.

    #39

    By implied logic as per #40 - though her soul keeps marching on.

    But, what was the date she died, kevsey?

    mim

  • Comment number 46.

    It's a very tacky looking cover of the Labour Manifesto. As somebody said, it reminds one of the old Soviet trash paintings.

    mim

  • Comment number 47.

    THE PARTY OF CHAOS PROMOTES ITSELF

    The Labour party says 'how they would not increase taxes' and 'where they would spend public monies'- but virtually nothing is said by Labour regarding strategies that they would action in order to maintain and enhance the competitiveness of existing UK and UK-based industries and to create new, profitable UK economic sectors and wealth generating companies...

    Even less was said- if that's possible- regarding what Labour would do in order to create jobs and to enable existing UK and UK-based firms to produce goods and provide services that can be successfully marketed overseas
    - in order to pay for the public services that are at risk: due to the UK's Labour-govt caused budget deficit...

    Through their half-baked, incompetent devolution programme, Labour has wrecked the UK's constitution...

    To suggest that they would be a party capable of facilitating workable UK constitutional reform is laughable...
    -------------
    -------------

    It ought to be remembered that in 2006- under heavy pressure from a UK govt wanting to generate a few quick pounds for application to public services- and against its Board of directors and Senior Management's recommendations- British Nuclear Fuels was forced to sell its Westinghouse nuclear power unit to Toshiba of Japan...



    Westinghouse was and still is one of the world's biggest, most technologically capable and successful nuclear power and energy companies... set to reap many billions of pounds in profits over the next 2 decades from burgeoning nuclear power contracts in China, India, the United States, Continental Europe and elsewhere...

    Several years later, the UK's British Energy is sold to France's part state owned EDF, which promptly gains approval from the UK Labour govt for rights to facilitate the building of and operating many nuclear power plants across the UK...

    Plants that Toshiba's Westinghouse will play a lead role in building...


    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
    -----------------
    -----------------

    The Labour party's claims that they would facilitate open, transparent govt are absurd when contrasted against their unsavory and hugely improper efforts during the last Parliament to block the release of MP's expense claims details:

    Even the (Labour party) Speaker of the Commons worked against the release of MP's expense claims details- despite his position demanding strict impartiality...
    --------------------

    The Labour party have sold the UK out for petty short term interests:

    wrecked the economy and its military; destroyed its impeccable reputation by under-resourcing & bungling the Iraq & Afghanistan operations; devastated its Defence high-tech ship-building industries AND destroyed its constitution...

    For complete chaos- vote Labour...





    _________________
    Roderick V. Louis,
    Vancouver, BC, Canada

  • Comment number 48.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 49.

    ONLY GOD CAN PAINT A SUNSET (#46)

    Nearer home Mim, the manifesto cover is a dead ringer for Jehova Witness magazines and, if you will pardon the pun, A PICTURE IS EMERGING.

    There is a tendency among my friends to see Cameron as 'normal', and compared to Brown, he is. But Shiny-Boy Dave allowed his FACE to be photoshopped to a FALSE aspect ratio - normal people do not lightly accept such. Now we have this 'SUNSET OVER A PATCHWORK-LAND OF SHOPKEEPERS' picture, again approved by Dave.

    Is it not obvious that, to Shiny-Boy Dave - WHO KEEPS SHOWING US HIS BLOODY KITCHEN! - image is everything? I have looked in vain for anything of substance in his past - perhaps 'looking special' was all the cultural legacy he inherited. However that might be, it is always important to ask WHY DOES HE WANT TO MESS WITHMY LIFE? I have a strong suspicion it is simply to look great while doing so. IMAGE IS ALL.

  • Comment number 50.

    ITS ALL ABOUT YOU/ME (But NEVER them)



    and



    All just Sooooooo lovely for the individual and for baby. It's where MUM should be if possible.

    But what about who pays for that privilege. What about the effects on business and further recruitment/growth. What of the end user, the client, the customer. What about the person/people paying (directly or otherwise) for the service. The service that is either lacking completely or being outsourced to a 'temp' during this time.

    When do they get a say?

  • Comment number 51.

    #49

    I beg to disagree with you, singie. He's listened, he's thought, he's considered and I'm impressed with the great progress he's made in coming up with his humanist approach by being able to distance himself from some of Margaret Thatcher's hard and individualistic ideas on one hand but on the other his suggestion of 'communities {having} the right to buy their local pub or post office', for example, is reminiscent of Maggie empowering ordinary folk to become home owners. Although there may have been some, as per your post the other day, not able to keep their council houses or flats, millions of families have benefited from the scheme.

    I also think his National Service plan for 16-year olds is a very worthy proposition.

    So although he is keen to involve 'ordinary' citizens in running the country, he stands firmly against dictatorial statism.

    Plus, I'm pretty sure the Tories would be much more sensible with the public coffers than any other party and as far as I can see, are best placed to reduce the outrageous debt the country is in.

    mim

  • Comment number 52.

    WHY DO POLITICAL PARTIES NEED TO ADVERTISE?

    Because the other lot advertise.

    WHY ARE POLITICAL PARTY ADVERTISEMENTS SO NAFF?

    Because advertisers understand their target audience.

    'DEMOCRACY ISN'T ADVERTISING' - well it shouldn't be. But until we stop living within their lie, it will be.

  • Comment number 53.

    #51 addendum

    I haven't seen David Cameron in the kitchen even once. His wife spoke about him preparing meals every now and then in this or that style, but otherwise I've only seen him out and about talking to all sorts of people without being condescending or belittling.

    I never follow anybody lock, stock and barrell and there may be things I'll see differently, either due to lack of understanding or simply having quite a firm and opposite opinion but I think he is a man who would respect that.

    mim

  • Comment number 54.

    #50

    It's all getting out of balance, Brightyangthing. It does seem lovely and caring but it is at a high cost to hundreds of others, financially and service wise - as you say, from both the business/public service and customer/client/pupil point of view.

    mim

  • Comment number 55.

    No Big Idea

    nihilism denys that the good is the highest idea of the mind. because they see it as a 'discrimination' and so an 'oppression'. so the fact they have no big idea means a failure of philosophy. which is consistent with their policies over the last 12 years.

    1 million more jobs? but does that mean the unemployment will go down by 1 million? or a million more migrants?

  • Comment number 56.

    clegg wants amnesty for illegals providing they haven't broken the law?

    haha libdem logic.

    given they are illegal they are law breakers? these are people who have no respect for law which is why they are illegal. any illegal should be made to say who gave them work and who gave them housing, who gave them forged papers, how many other illegals do they know, who are the gang masters, who are the gang bosses, what the the routes into the uk.

    there can be no amnesty without a truth committee that fully documents all of their activities. if they decline then they are merely protecting other law breakers. are these the sort of people who make good citizens? why should we trust them given they are law breakers and if they refuse to tell all about the underworld they have moved in?

  • Comment number 57.

    poland

    one might wonder why all those people were in the same plane? seems a bit naive?

  • Comment number 58.

    There are plenty of polls but no information about projections of turnout.

    That is something that used to favour the Tories who tended to have cars and be terribly organised but I am not sure that is so much the case these days.

    But it will effect the results and the validity of the results as a slim majority based on a low turnout is clearly quite different from a large majority based on a high turnout.

    I was thinking the public were well aware that it was an important election and that the turnout would be high.

  • Comment number 59.

    #39 kevseywevsey

    "GO1: Who do you vote for again? you mentioned..but I've forgotton."

    "Forgotten" - but you are expressing yourself and so that is progress.

    Well actually the Lib Dems whilst you see "the Griff" as being a king maker. That's terribly clever of you except that none of the democratic parties would be seen dead talking deals with Griffin.

    As for Clegg he did OK last night but I strongly disagree with him about total population numbers.

    We can't start being punitive about measures to stop total population numbers but it is the job of government to identify that there is a problem and lead the debate - that would take a long time - about how we balance economic, social and sustainability issues with total population levels.

    Of course to me and the huge majority of the population it is not the racial make up of the UK population that is the issue it is the total numbers, managed immigration and a viable long term strategy.

    I think on the latter there is still some way to go.

  • Comment number 60.

    Out of the tragedy of the deaths of so many Polish luminaries there has perhaps emerged a new image of Russia showing great compassion and concern for their neighbour. That is a strength.

    That is a source of some joy amidst the sorrow and you can only hope that it translates into a new beginning for them both and also in relations between Russia and the US.

    The greatest security will probably always be genuine friendship.

  • Comment number 61.

    CLOGIC.

    Your #56 confirms my #42 jaunty.

  • Comment number 62.

    "JOIN THE GOVERNMENT OF BRITAIN" (Tory slogan)

    1/ Get party political credentials.
    2/ Be picked by one of only two parties, as a candidate.
    3/ Find yourself in a safe, or a marginal seat.
    4/ Wait for, and win an election.
    5/ Take the whip and toe the party line.

    Only then MIGHT you 'join the government of Britain' (but still not on behalf of those who voted you in - that would be democracy).

    I think, perhaps, the poorly educated wordsmiffs of politics, meant to say: "Join in the governance of Britain." I doubt they know the difference.

    Big Conversation any one?

  • Comment number 63.

    #56 jauntycyclist

    "why should we trust them given they are law breakers and if they refuse to tell all about the underworld they have moved in?"

    Err the BNP have a number of people with criminal records and err ... one Richard Collett has been recently charged by Humberside police over alleged threates to kill err ... one Nick Griffin.

    Throw in the Holocaust denial and the allegations of Jewish "hegemony" that are never backed by facts.


    So "why should we trust them given they are law breakers " - the BNP whose motives on immigration are purely racial.

  • Comment number 64.

    #20 debtjuggler

    "All of the 'in-fighting' at the BNP is surely just normal behaviour...after all, remember all the in-fighting that occured in Germany's National Socialist party just before they rose to power."

    So that's what the voters of Stoke and Barking should be aware of - threatening to kill each other Collett-Griffin IS the same as Hitler-Rohm and the BNP IS all about National Socialist imitation of Hitler and the Fuhrer-State.

    So the BNP line about them not being a "Nazi Party" is as much of a lie as they BNP Barnbrook murders that never happened and were cited due to "church bells and dyslexia".

    Such coherent and well balanced people.

    By the way are you a Collett or a Griffin supporter?

  • Comment number 65.

    #57

    It was the late President's idea. He liked to 'surround' himself. A little 'silly'? The two twins, as you may know, when boys, acted in a film 'About Those Who Stole The Moon' and now all those Polish lives have been stolen from the country. To my liking too much talk is being made about his death as opposed to the death of all the others.

  • Comment number 66.

    Yes mim I do agree with you that the media and Polish public seem to have focused on just the president. Unfortunately a great many able people (it sounds like) were lost, a great shame for Poland.

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