Political Stance

[DornochCaley]

Just curious to see other members of this forum's political Stance?

Personally, i am between Socialism and Communism, though not the Traitors that were/are Stalinism and Maoism.

[starchief]

Sheez, you really want to ask that question? Asking for trouble.

[Renegade]

Seriously, who cares?

Edited December 10, 2009 by Renegade

[Oz647]

I read the topic title and I knew who had started it without even looking across. :tonguecheek:

Edited December 11, 2009 by Oz647

[dead_ball_specialist]

SNP.

[Scotty]

Whilst we dont want to stifle debate, let me just make this perfectly clear ...... This kind of thread is usually a recipe for disaster on a forum so be aware that the mods will watch it closely and at the first sign of it descending into abuse or over-the-top arguments we will close it.

ok, now that the warning is out of the way, here is my contributuion ......

Personally, I am apolitical .... I feel that given the chance of power each and every one of the political parties - in any country - will screw you in one way or another and yet each of them also has/had ideas or policies that benefitted me. Margaret Thatcher allowed me to buy my council house, the biggest single act that contributed to my (modest) personal wealth, yet she also forced me to pay the poll tax and scrapped the university grant I was eligible for, Tony Blair cut my direct taxation for which I was greatful as its always good to see more left on the bottom line in your wage packet, yet his chancellor took every opportunity to increase my indirect taxation when I went to spend that income. No matter who is in power, the system rolls on and the bureaucrats and civil servants behind the scenes are the ones with the true power as they transcend any changes made at election time.

Since moving over to Canada I have had to learn about different political parties and systems. We have a federal government that runs the country (currently a minority conservative govt) and we also have provincial governments that run each province (Ontario is currently liberal), and because I live within the city limits of Toronto I have a third tier which is the municipal government (the council). Each takes a chunk out of your wage packet one way or another and each claims the others would be worse but bottom line, they are all screwing us.

The feds obviously take income tax and EI (national insurance), the province takes a chunk too and then adds a health-care tax on top of it that was designed to reduce hospital wait times but has achieved precisely nothing, and the city charges us our yearly fees for things like water, "garbage" collection, recycling, property taxes etc.

The latest idea (coming in on July 1st next year) is to "harmonise" our sales taxes. Currently when you buy something in the shop you see the price then at the bottom you see GST (8%) and PST (5%). Its basically VAT but in our case GST is the federal portion of the sales tax and PST is the provincial portion. The Ontario government has decided in its wisdom that Ontario should now pay a single tax of 13% . No problem there I hear you say as 8+5=13 ... but, right now, with two separate taxes some things are exempt from one or the other tax so you may just pay GST or PST on certain things and save yourself either 5% or 8% ... The new tax is 13% on it all. It will cut down the paperwork for business but supposedly the government is going to give us all a cheque for $1000 this year (and next?) to ease the transition so you know it must be costing us a ****load more than that

As I said - no matter who they are, they are all going to stick it to you !!!

[Alex MacLeod]

I cant see a difference between all the political parties. There's no interest in the country. It's all just about scoring points of each other.

On saying that I do, however, believe that Scotland could stand on her own two feet.

[starchief]

My own personal hate is 'career politicians'. Y'know, politicians that have never done anything else. They don't know what it's like to be either unemployed and looking for work/facing redundancy nor, on the other side, do they know about management and running a business. Life experience.

[Caley Stan]

Political Compass

If you're not sure then take the test!

If the results are to be taken seriously, then i belong to the 'libertarian left', slightly to the left of Stalin and more libertarian than Gandhi. In other words, i'm a utopian dreamer with no sense of reality. I would recommend the work of Michail Bakunin to anyone who suffers from similar delusions.

Edited December 11, 2009 by Caley Stan

[DornochCaley]

Seriously, who cares?

Well it was put in the General Nonesense for a reason. If you dont care, dont post. Not hard.

Scottish Socialist Party.

[MissICT]

SNP

less than 6mths til I can vote :D

[The Mantis]

Political Compass

If you're not sure then take the test!

If the results are to be taken seriously, then i belong to the 'libertarian left', slightly to the left of Stalin and more libertarian than Gandhi. In other words, i'm a utopian dreamer with no sense of reality. I would recommend the work of Michail Bakunin to anyone who suffers from similar delusions.

I got the same: -6.5 and -3.9. Hardly surprising considering the jobs we're both in

The only regret I had was that it made you answer every one even if you had no opinion.

[Renegade]

Seriously, who cares?

Well it was put in the General Nonesense for a reason. If you dont care, dont post. Not hard.

I just find it a bit of an odd question to put out there. I can't say I've ever looked through this forum and said "Oh, there's that Alex MacLeod again. I wonder if he's a Tory" or "Starchief's posted again, I wonder if he's into UKIP". Who really cares?

[CaleyD]

Feet slightly apart, hands on my head and a look of frustration on my face.

[Yngwie]

"Oh, there's that Alex MacLeod again. I wonder if he's a Tory?"

I'm looking forward to Alex's response!

[Caley Stan]

I got the same: -6.5 and -3.9.

You're a dangerous extremist Mantis!

While i don't think that this compass thing can be taken too seriously, it is striking that every political leader in the western world inhabites the space in the top right hand side - neo-liberalism with a wee touch of authoritarianism.

This is where the political consensus lies and parliamentary democracy is a lot poorer for this narrowness. There isn't a mainstream political party that represents the left - even the 'soft left' or 'social democrats'. I don't think that this is because people wouldn't vote for such a party in decent numbers (over 27% of the poulation voted for Labour in 1983 when they presented a manifesto which wasn't far off the one that Marx proposed), but because political parties are far more responsive to big business than they are to the electorate.

[Alex MacLeod]

"Oh, there's that Alex MacLeod again. I wonder if he's a Tory?"

I'm looking forward to Alex's response!

A left of centre, humanitarian, nationalist

[dan_ict]

SNP.

My cousin represents the SNP in Europian Parliment ....Somthing along the lines of that anyway

[starchief]

"Starchief's posted again, I wonder if he's into UKIP". Who really cares?

Well, I can't have that (but I know you weren't really suggesting I probably was)! Federalist and internationalist. Quite the opposite of UKIP. But it's just not a good idea to mix football and politics.

[tm4tj]

Guys

As this is a serious subject I am moving this to the appropriate forum.

Welcome to the serious forum.

[DornochCaley]

Personally, i feel that during times like the ones we are currently facing, we need a more left Government. Recessions just make the working Class despise the upper classes even more as they have so much money, yet they complain they are losing it, whilst if the Working Class complain, it falls upon deaf ears. Moving towards the left helps collectiveise the population which will reduce the impact of recessions ect. In the current capitalist climate, we will forever be in a cycle of Growth and Recession which will continue until a new system comes into place.

Britain has one of the most conservative mindsets in Europe. Most here are scared of change. They fear it as they think it could impact negatively on their own little lives. They refuse to see the larger picture. They dont think the prospect of Communism for two reasons. Both ending in the result that shows Narrow-mindedness. They look at Communism and believe that because it didnt quite work in Russia, and isn't great in China, it will always be useless.

Rubbish.

Under a reasonable leadership, one which will not abuse the power given, then a diffrent style of Communism could work. On the other side, the British people do not like the idea of the left as it envoles sharing wealth. Too many think that they worked for their money, so why should they share it. Well they should as it is the RIGHT thing to do. Since the days of Thatcher, people have been told its ok to be greedy. Well its not. Greed is Immoral and combating Greed, small doses at a time, can cure not only Britain, but the World. The Capitalist West needs to be brought to justice.

[DornochCaley]

Seriously, who cares?

Well it was put in the General Nonesense for a reason. If you dont care, dont post. Not hard.

I just find it a bit of an odd question to put out there. I can't say I've ever looked through this forum and said "Oh, there's that Alex MacLeod again. I wonder if he's a Tory" or "Starchief's posted again, I wonder if he's into UKIP". Who really cares?

I see your point, yet this is a forum is it not? A place where people put across their opinion. Well, you have an opinion in politics do you not? Wether you feel it a pile of crap, or a very important thing.

[Renegade]

I do have a great interest in politics, but I ain't going to share every aspect of my views on here. And anyway, I don't have a particular stance or party I have a huge interest in, hence the reason I support an option on the ballot of "None of the Above".

[Heilandee]

Right wing? left wing? they all gie me ring sting!

awa to meh bed now as ehv had a beer

[Guest]

Personally, i feel that during times like the ones we are currently facing, we need a more left Government. Recessions just make the working Class despise the upper classes even more as they have so much money, yet they complain they are losing it, whilst if the Working Class complain, it falls upon deaf ears. Moving towards the left helps collectiveise the population which will reduce the impact of recessions ect. In the current capitalist climate, we will forever be in a cycle of Growth and Recession which will continue until a new system comes into place.

Britain has one of the most conservative mindsets in Europe. Most here are scared of change. They fear it as they think it could impact negatively on their own little lives. They refuse to see the larger picture. They dont think the prospect of Communism for two reasons. Both ending in the result that shows Narrow-mindedness. They look at Communism and believe that because it didnt quite work in Russia, and isn't great in China, it will always be useless.

Rubbish.

Under a reasonable leadership, one which will not abuse the power given, then a diffrent style of Communism could work. On the other side, the British people do not like the idea of the left as it envoles sharing wealth. Too many think that they worked for their money, so why should they share it. Well they should as it is the RIGHT thing to do. Since the days of Thatcher, people have been told its ok to be greedy. Well its not. Greed is Immoral and combating Greed, small doses at a time, can cure not only Britain, but the World. The Capitalist West needs to be brought to justice.

I can see someone finding themselves on an undesirable list if they ever try to enter the US. :D

Seriously though, if wealth is to be shared then how do you motivate the workforce? I don't think there has been a communist system which has worked, I may be wrong as politics is not a subject which takes my interest (not where it does not affect my personal life anyway)