And so it begins

[Sorastro]

For the next six weeks the worlds your lobster. The electorate will be promised the earth and I'm afraid the vast majority will fall for it.

Rishi Sunak....Never trusted him, never will.
Keir Starmer...Never trusted him, never will.
Ed Davey....... Never trusted him, never will......... ad infinitum

I've mentioned this before, as I was approaching voting age I sought advice from my dad {as I assume most did} he being a Labour supporter all his life it wasn't difficult to see which way he voted, but even he was disillusioned then and here we are 60 years later and we're still no nearer having a decent government. He only passed on two pieces of knowledge:-
1/  The only good politician is a dead one..... at least you know where they are and what they're up to any time of the day.
2/ I would chop my right arm off before I ever voted conservative.

Apart from those words of wisdom politics, when I was growing up, was a subject in our house that was never discussed, never a need to discuss it. We were a family of 7 siblings and over the years we never knew each others preferences because we never asked, I only found out {by accident} that my two eldest brothers always voted Conservative.
 I've been married for over 50 years and I STILL don't know who my wife votes for mainly because I've never asked, and why should I, it's none of my business.

It wouldn't hurt for the voters to re visit past decades and find out how many promises were either kept or broken by successive governments then make up your minds.


 

[Sorastro]

Only a few days in and already the promises are coming thick and fast from all sides.

Allegedly.. the junior doctors are going on strike again presumably wanting Sunak out so they can get their 35% pay rise, but it looks like they may not get it with Labour either.

The Tories have said this and promised that if they are re elected, but why wasn't any of these "great" things brought in BEFORE the election date it's just another con to get them back in power.

Anyway whoever wins it will just be another 5 years of the same, and why people can't or won't see this is beyond me.

[Sorastro]

Finally watched the first debate that was on the other night Sunak  V Starmer and, predictably, unimpressed, a classic example of how politicians can talk for an hour and not say anything, as the Americans would say it just became a pi**ing contest.

Apparently there's another one next week, with no doubt more of the same, with more parties this time and now that Nigel Farage has thrown his hat back into the ring that should stir things up a bit.

Sunak lost several brownie points yesterday {D day}, was his schedule THAT full {or did he realise he'd left the gas on?}. His own common sense should have told him you don't leave midway through proceedings especially something so important as that. If Biden can travel all that way and Zelensky can risk travelling through his war torn country to get there PLUS veterans in their nineties can make the effort AND stay longer it doesn't look good for one of our countries representative to duck out, especially someone who only travelled about 100 miles.

[Old Cruser]

He's obviously got different values to us.

[Sorastro]

The Triple Lock for pensioners..

I have just had a quick look at the Triple Lock promises made by Labour and Conservative.
 For those unfamiliar with T/L this has been used when calculating pensions, this goes up annually by either 2.5% or inflation {whichever is the greater} granted over the last couple of years it's gone up by the rate of inflation which has been high so it looks {on paper} as if O.A.P.'s are doing well, unfortunately the personal tax threshold {P.T.T.} which is the figure what O.A.P's are allowed to receive in pension before having to pay tax on it, which has always gone up slightly at the same time, has been frozen since 2021 and both the Tories and Labour have virtually said the freeze will continue till at least 2028 which means that O.A.P's {especially O.A.P.'s on just the basic pension} will find their pensions overtaking the P.T.T. and will have to start paying tax which is taxed at 20%.
I myself am already paying tax as I have two small private pensions coming in and this has tipped me over, not only for this year but last year as well.

[Old Cruser]

We can't win. If people working struggle some needing food banks what chance do pensioners have.We can't pick up a bit of available overtime to help pay bills.

[Sorastro]

Say what you like about Nigel Farage he's the only one that seems to be talking sense.
 I mean after all, the chances of him getting anywhere near number 10 are slim to none so he has no reason, when interviewed, to lie or in any way bend the truth.

I think the man should be given a chance... Farage as P.M. with Martin Lewis as chancellor of the exchequer, as P.M. he certainly couldn't do any worse.

 

[Sorastro]

Since the start of proceedings I have had leaflets through the door from the Reform party, the Tories and just this morning Labour, all of which are now adorning the bottom of my wheelie bin.

I think the only people making any money out of this are the printers!

It appears a few of the Tory big wigs are already admitting defeat as it doesn't look good for their party. They are actually asking Tory voters, who are disillusioned with the party, to vote for anyone but Labour to try and water down Labours majority.
Although Labour must be rubbing their hands together already, nothing is certain till the last vote is counted.

[Sorastro]

Last week there was another election debate on t.v. with all the main parties, and I.T.V. came on a few days before asking viewers to send in questions that can be put to the candidates. I ended up having to tape the programme and watched it the next day and the whole programme, which was almost 2 hours long, consisted of about 4 studio audience questions and just 1 viewer question.

If your going to do something like that have a programme with audience questions and one with viewer questions, or at least the same amount of each.

P.S.  In my opinion Farage won hands down.

[Sorastro]

Betting on outcomes.......

So it looks as if they are all in it, one candidate has bet on himself to lose at the election, others were caught betting on the timing of the election, why can't they just pass a law making it illegal to bet on anything connected with politics....problem solved.

The betting shops need to take most of the blame for this as lets face it some people will literally bet on anything.

I have a better use for my money.

[Sorastro]

Only a few days to go now and it seems {at the moment} Labour are going to win, unless of course the muck raking increases to muddy the waters still further.

So if your wanting the next government to be up front with the voters, not make promises they can't keep, stick to their manifestos and not change their minds mid stream, no scandals and generally end up  being bad apples {as bad as this lot and those before them} 5 years down the road then to me there is only one course of action on July 4th....

Wimbledon will be on the telly!

[Sorastro]

The 4th of July.

Not long now......I thought I was hallucinating watching the news this morning, up pops Boris Johnson singing the praises of voting Tory.

Whatever the outcome is on Friday you'll have 5 years of it, good luck.

[Old Cruser]

Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden

[Sorastro]

Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden

There is no room in politics for sentimentality. Anyone with an ounce of brain can see the man is totally unfit to hold high office, he is not up to it physically or mentally and the longer he stays in the better Trumps chances.

Unfortunately it appears no one likes the vice president Kamala Harris so they are stuck either way.

[Old Cruser]

I agree and wonder why he actually wants to carry on given the age he is.
His eyes don't look right at times.  He does appear to have a medical problem