(V): Do you all have term limits? What is the solution? They all go in saying they are different, they want to change the way politics works, but before long, they start to like the benefits (both monetary and power) and they all end up the same.

Problem is, once they are established, they carry a lot of clout and influence, and all they have to do is give their constituents a little gravy now and again, and they get voted right back in

(V): i cant believe how aggrogant Margaret Beckett came across on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8051222.stm


Gordon Brown needs to do something now
he needs to get of the fence and stop wishing it all go away because it WONT!!!

we now have a near bankrupt country we have a government that is a joke and the longer it goes on
the more Joe Public suffers

the public voted for Tony Blair to be PM not him and he needs to be ousted
what is he afraid of theres only 2 choices he wins or loses

Czuch: One paper over here is starting a fund for the private prosecution of MP's!!

And if it's getting to your side of the pond... GOOD!! .... Maybe it'll cause a revamp of your system and how your reps sit on the gravy train.

gogul: Because they are part of the House of Lords. And their expenses and pay is paid for from public money.

Pedro Martínez:

Czuch: That was Snoopy!

TheCrazyPuppy: You Brits are doing something correctly.... seems what you have been bickering about in here lately has made our national nightly news on this side of the pond

Said one of your bloke MPs has gotten money to upkeep his moat

Some are paying money back and one woman on the street who was interviewed said they should all be sacked!!!

(V): Why worry about some Lords. A jobless banker could get 6000$ unemployment. Bankers forgot their own risks lmao.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8049614.stm


i hope that many many more heads will roll

Artful Dodger: The system is not perfect... Too much is now razzle dazzle rather then governing. Proportional representation is supposed to be a better system, yet it so long since I looked at the subject I've forgotten the pro's and con's.

And I hope your guys get to fear your people as well. Too many deals done where your reps line their pockets through various systems... or get jobs paying big bucks after they leave the world of politics.

It's no good for democracy.

(V):   I hope our Reps will start to fear the people as well.  Too many politicans are in it for themselves IMO.   Both sides of the isle.  I hate our two party system. 

TheCrazyPuppy: Too right!! They are all getting afraid of losing their jobs. The MP's are starting to fear the people, and quite rightly too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8047410.stm


over 100 grand already paid back

GTCharlie:  PU on the environmentalists too.  ;)  May they all have a breakdown in their septic systems. 

Artful Dodger: What about the greens??

PU on the Republicans. Double PU on the Dems!

I'm a Libertarian now.

(V): or maybe masters of perniciousness ;)

Artful Dodger: !!!! one hundred lines... "MP = Member of Parliament"

Pedro Martínez:Thanks, I gotta start paying attention  ;) 

Artful Dodger: Member of Parliament

(V):   Could you explain again the MPs?  Im too lazy at the moment to look it up but to me MP means military police? 

TheCrazyPuppy: Why the police... because they are having a tantrum.

I recon the papers should all start petitions for a full audit for all MP's!!

(V): if i made claims like this in a job i be shown door very quickly

but this goes to the very top of goverment the Prime Minister himself abusing the system so what confidence does the normal Joe public have in him now


lastest news is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178516/Police-called-investigate-leak-MPs-expenses-dossier.html


it dosnt matter how it was leaked we have has tax payers the right to know
so why waste even more tax payers money by calling in the police

TheCrazyPuppy: Should be out of their own pocket!! It's taking the mickey!!!!!!

(V): it beggars belief what some of the claims have been

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5293320/MPs-expenses-A-Z.html


on the day up in my area 3000 are to lose there jobs because Chorus lost a major contract and are moth balling one of there blast furnaces
this news hasnt gone down well at all here

TheCrazyPuppy: Yes, they are... But it's gonna happen for all parties thank EL!!

Because in truth, this scandal has been going on for decades. Really it's UK MP expenses. Also, the simple fact remains... how can we have faith in any MP that has abused the system of expenses, or uses that now boring cry "I acted within the rules".. The rules were slack.

In a company, the person cheating the company would get sacked... But MP's are a different breed!!

are a disgrace
some of the things leaked are crazy
horse manure
tampons for a male mp
broken toilet seat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8039273.stm

HUH???

Was a bit rude the obscene Delaware trust, wasn't it? Seems interesting these Anglo-Saxon trust thing anyway. Is or should a Delaware Trust be reserved to (wealthy) Americans btw?

Ok let's try a voyaging coffee bean from South America to London. The passport of the bean gets stamped on several different sweet tax havens, cool islands under British control. It makes your cup of coffee cost about awful 70pc more. You know it can be traded differently, and your first thought is that you'd be willing to pay your taxes with these unjustified 70pc. Ever somebody asked Gordon Brown about? But hey, ok, I have nothing to do with it! I even don't know if you ever saw fair traded coffee. It costs about 15pc more than 'conventional' one, allowes sustainable farming and the worker a better life.

So no, I rather use this board for personal purpose. Down with the UBs, arguing should do it IMO.

Amazing

Pedro Martínez: that is just too funny ..........

Artful Dodger: Actually, there's more. The "Youth in Asia" was only a part of a discussion on medical ethics. Diapers on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UST26RjBXvo&feature=related

Bernice: I'll never be able to go to an Asian doctor again!

Artful Dodger: ROFL........so did I....so nice to have a bit of levity hahahahahha

Pedro Martínez: Please don't post anymore links like that. I peed my pants!

Pedro Martínez: hahahaha...........youth in asia ROFLMBO

Bernice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_uJHdOtdc

your thoughts on Euthanasia?

Dear Americans! Stop using obscene Delaware trusts and hide your money in good old Switzerland!

Let me recommend the UBS, this ssolid bank with exellent connections to the Republicans.


(kill it pls, a matter of entertainment

Czuch: Yep. I saw those anti-gay Christians on the news yesterday along with the news of the list.

Their website is so crazy... baroque, inaccurate...

And they reserve the right to not respond to emails from those they consider "not learned".

I'll see if they reply to my polite but frank point on that they seem to have forgotten certain core elements from the Bible.

Artful Dodger: It's not only them.. it's the civil servants as well that help keep it going.

Czuch: No, that's what we've allowed it to become. It's time our Governments were fully audited.

And I want Alan Sugar to go over and re-organise the Government here.

As recently reported over here, our 'leaders' have been taking the mickey (again another word is better but PG rating. ) over expenses. It makes me sick that they have been living on the gravy train whilst people are struggling ... But a full report is in place.. Something certain politicians don't want, but the opposition parties as well as members of the Labour party are behind the review.

I mean, an MP rips off the country for over £200k and only has to pay back less then £50k... That's not right!!

(V): In both parties. I'm sick of the Republicans as much as the Democrats.

(V): I don't think the government is the problem.. It's the politics involved that are causing the problem. Too much bickering, worrying about getting re-elected, etc, etc....

I'm sorry, but your emergency response system seems to have too much red tape.




Government is politics, and the red tape intertwined into the emergency response system, that is also systemic of the government. The whole government has too much red tape and other pitfalls..... look at our IRS tax codes etc.... Thats exactly what you will get when the government runs our autos and our health and anything else they run

There is no reason for me to believe they will be any better at doing these things than they are at the FEMA (federal emergency management agency) or most anything else they currently run right now.

Czuch: I think a lot of government systems need..... .... tweaking. And I'm being very understated there!!

As to Katrina... I'm sorry, but your emergency response system seems to have too much red tape. If I get the gist of the delay right.

I don't think the government is the problem.. It's the politics involved that are causing the problem. Too much bickering, worrying about getting re-elected, etc, etc....

As to in 50 years time... it'll be part of history.. as you say.. it will be talked about

(V): unless you feel that they are wrong and their plans just won't work, or are ill thought out.


I think they are ill thought out really....

If you print me a million dollars, I am sure that I can manage to work things out for a few years


Sure we can pump trillions of dollars into the economy and sure that will make things better, at least in the short term (several years maybe) But then what? You might say it is just a shot in the arm, to keep us going until things turn around? All good, except that things will turn around on their own anyway, and without putting us in debt and turning the autos and the banks and the health etc, all over for the government to run.


I love to listen to the people who always complained about the lack of federal response to Katrina and other complaints about the federal government. Yet those are the same people who would willingly put so much more responsibility into the hands of the very same federal government?

Reagan said it best.... the government cant solve our problems, they are the problem!

I think that in 50 years it will be the same argument about this recession, and how it was handled, as the great depression is today.

Nobody today can agree if it was the government stimulus, or if that really made it actually take longer to recover than doing nothing?

Czuch: Czuch.... I you remember my concerns with Iraq, off the reconstruction it was because of the lack of a plan.. which your Government of the time freely admits from what I remember. And if you feel it'll take decades for Iraq to be stable, then I feel sorry for the troops who will die from the lack of planning.

As the old saying goes "Victorious soldiers win first then go to battle, others just go to battle and hope to win." (paraphrased as I can't remember the exact wording )

Also one of my concerns was the need, I find it strange that Bin Laden and the Taliban did not get the attention Iraq got in terms of troops and logistics. That war would probably be over now, the one to get those who planned and executed 911!!!!

And if you feel things take time, then give your current Admin more time, unless you feel that they are wrong and their plans just won't work, or are ill thought out.

But.. the current feeling in the EU is that it'll be some time before we see daylight from this recession.