Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by Bibio

i very much doubt that any political party wants to be leading the country right now.
i can predict that vat and income tax rates will go up considerably next april's budget. the uk is skint hence all the money grabbing corruption at the top level in the Gov.
remember that Scotland had a 98% SNP majority in Holyrood at one point and it seemed to do well. not bad for a political party that used to huddle round an oil drum fire at the bottom of Calton Hill in the 90's. change can happen....

I should think inflation will go through the roof.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by chris8886

This is your point of view and you're most welcome to it, whether I agree with it or not, but please don't snip out my reasoning for not having proportional representation when quoting me. I feel that it paints what I have said in a poorer way with no reason given.

ok, here's your full quote

Originally Posted by chris8886

And you think the proportional representation idea of the Lib Dem's is better? Because it wouldn't be, we'd get even less done as a government/country because there just be even more arguing, bickering and the like trying to come to an agreement that all are prepared to go along with. You have to rule by majority and if you don't like what happens in that time campaign to change it the next time voting comes round and vote a different way.

We have no long term experience of two (or more parties) ruling together, nor do we have any experience of proportional representation. The Con/LibDem pact was a coalition that did modify the more extreme Conservative behaviour - the glaring failure was the student loan promise by Clegg. We have had 300 odd years of people shouting across the Commons floor at each other (hear, hear!) maybe PR would stop the shouting and enable some constructive listening. The current government is highlighting the failures of our system by exploiting its weaknesses for idealogical gains not for what is beneficial for the country.

The problem with first past the post is the fact that the "losers" in an election have no representation plus we get politics that tend towards more extremes. Look how the Tories started to panic at the rise of the Brexit party and started their drift to the right. When ministers played by their "unwritten rules" (Code of Conduct - hah!) it sort of worked but in the current situation the rules are being broken with no way of correcting it because the rule breakers are setting the (new) rules.

I'm in a Conservative constituency (Cleethorpes and Brigg). 73k electorate, 63% turnout. So 46k people voted, 32k voted Tory/14k voted for other parties (where's their voice?) my MP always votes for the party (I have checked) even when he agrees with what I'm saying - how am I being represented? Plainly, I'm not. He's 71 years old and has views that represent the 1950s (Martin Vickers - check his voting record) - most people vote for him because he has a nice avuncular face but have no idea of how he votes (I've asked around).

A PR system would give 14k people in the example above a voice where currently, they have none and, judging by prior voting records, never will have. How many times have you heard: "What's the point of voting, it never makes a difference? In my case it's true (but I vote anyway), it would take an egregious government screw up to overthrow Vicker's majority.

Edit - PR is the most common electoral system worldwide so, plainly, it can work.

[Chris_SVS]

Originally Posted by Seeker

ok, here's your full quote



We have no long term experience of two (or more parties) ruling together, nor do we have any experience of proportional representation. The Con/LibDem pact was a coalition that did modify the more extreme Conservative behaviour - the glaring failure was the student loan promise by Clegg. We have had 300 odd years of people shouting across the Commons floor at each other (hear, hear!) maybe PR would stop the shouting and enable some constructive listening. The current government is highlighting the failures of our system by exploiting its weaknesses for idealogical gains not for what is beneficial for the country.

The problem with first past the post is the fact that the "losers" in an election have no representation plus we get politics that tend towards more extremes. Look how the Tories started to panic at the rise of the Brexit party and started their drift to the right. When ministers played by their "unwritten rules" (Code of Conduct - hah!) it sort of worked but in the current situation the rules are being broken with no way of correcting it because the rule breakers are setting the (new) rules.

I'm in a Conservative constituency (Cleethorpes and Brigg). 73k electorate, 63% turnout. So 46k people voted, 32k voted Tory/14k voted for other parties (where's their voice?) my MP always votes for the party (I have checked) even when he agrees with what I'm saying - how am I being represented? Plainly, I'm not. He's 71 years old and has views that represent the 1950s (Martin Vickers - check his voting record) - most people vote for him because he has a nice avuncular face but have no idea of how he votes (I've asked around).

A PR system would give 14k people in the example above a voice where currently, they have none and, judging by prior voting records, never will have. How many times have you heard: "What's the point of voting, it never makes a difference? In my case it's true (but I vote anyway), it would take an egregious government screw up to overthrow Vicker's majority.

Edit - PR is the most common electoral system worldwide so, plainly, it can work.

We do, it's not great

[Craig380]

I lived in Denmark for many years, where the electoral system is a form of PR. It works. Of course it isn't perfect, but it does ensure no single party gets a mandate to do what the f**k it likes for 5 years. And it makes politicians actually work for their money, as they have to debate and represent their constituents properly as there are no 'safe' seats.

[Adam Ef]

Commuting this week. Crazy traffic in Bristol and selfish *tvv*tz who purposefully block me from filtering. Had one guy who edged right to block me passing as he was waiting on a jammed up roundabout to turn right with queues across it, blocking everyone else. I want to go straight ahead (which I could have done with loads of space for a bike between bumpers). He'd seen me filter the last 100 yards or so and blocked me getting further on purpose. A few minutes later the traffic moved again and I passed him on the right and sailed straight across the roundabout. No gain for him, waste of time for me.


Just one of many examples of morons I've encountered in the last few days. The other main one was a van jumping a red light across my path who obviously hadn't noticed as he was on his phone.

[Sir Trev]

The fitter the garage got in to do my towbar install on Thursday has not replaced the trim around the tailgate properly. That means I need to go back in to have them rectify it which is irritating.

[Kenzie]

What car was it Trev? Trim can be a pain sometimes.

Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

[embee]

Having fitted a towbar to my Yaris a couple of months ago I have some sympathy with the fitter, not that it excuses the work not being completed to your satisfaction.
I went for a Witter towbar thinking it's as good a brand as any available, which it probably is, but it didn't fit particularly well as supplied. The side rail mountings were made assuming the body pressings were at 90deg, but they weren't ... quite. This meant the bar end brackets didn't sit flat on the body members for bolting. Fortunately I was able to tweak them using a hydraulic press (12mm steel plates on the towbar, fairly robust items). Commercial fitters would simply have graunched the bolts up, the body rails would have then been bent to fit the bar brackets, not a nice outcome.

[MrMessy]

Down at my Daughters in London and cannot believe the amount of people that openly smoke cannabis including car drivers! Also cyclists and scooter riders that run red lights at crossings and nearly run you over, must be terrible for visually impaired people.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by MrMessy

Down at my Daughters in London and cannot believe the amount of people that openly smoke cannabis including car drivers! Also cyclists and scooter riders that run red lights at crossings and nearly run you over, must be terrible for visually impaired people.

its not just Londinium its all over. they are under the assumption that it has been legalised/relaxed as it is in most of America, Canada, Spain, Holland, etc.etc.

modern society is full of awipes with no regard for others, you can blame social media for that one.