How corrupt and inept is the UK Labour Party?
601688
They also seem to be turning the Mother of Parliaments into a Whore House.
756225
1. If anyone is a clone, it is Tony Blair, a self-confessed admirer of Margaret Thatcher. Under his direction, the Labour Party abandoned socialism, and moved over to the right, before it came to power. \n\n2. Once in power the Labour party continued Conservative policies - for example privatisation (the use of the costly Private Finance Initiative continued) and foreign war (the Tories had the Falklands and the first Gulf War, Labour had the invasions of Aghanistan and Iraq).\n\n3. Furthemore the Labour Party's moral high ground was soon seen to be false, and more of the same Tory sleaze became the norm.\na) Receiving money for favours - cash for questions (Conservative), cash for peerages (Labour);\nb) Ministers having affairs with secretaries - Cecil Parkinson (Conservative), Robin Cook (Labour),\nc) Blatant liars hiding their transgressions - Lord Archer (Conservative), Peter Mandelson (Labour).\nd) Unusual sexual practices - autoerotic asphyxiation (Stephen Milligan, Conservative MP for Eastleigh), cruising on Clapham Common (Ron Davies, Welsh Secretary and Labour MP for Caerphilly).\n\n4. If current British politics seem indistinguishable in the eyes of the public, then don't blame the Tories, blame Tony and his cronies.
822029
Voting apathy is only a problem for the elected representatives (MPs and councillors) of the people.  They fear that if not enough of us turn out to vote, they will feel they do not have a mandate to govern.  I think we reached that point about fifty years ago.  If the turn out is under 50 percent, how can any politician legitimately claim to have received a mandate from the people to govern them?\n\nLocal elections are a case in point - the same shipload of cut-throats get re-elected time and time again.  They draw huge expenses (at our expense) and waist their time going on various jamborees abroad to see if the wine is safe for us to drink back home.\n\nMPs are the worse scoundrels.  Many of these thieves draw expenses amounting to £150,000 pa on top of their already bloated salaries of £60,000.  God only knows what government ministers are paid - something resembling a telephone number I should think.\n\nOn the whole I think the British people are let down badly by their representatives most of whom pay little or no attention what so ever to what we the people are saying, once they're elected that is - another five years on the jolly waggon at our expense.  And to cap it all, these people want us to pay for their political parties and their profligate spending.  Oh, never mind, the tax payer will foot the bill.  VOTE NO to that by the way.
666530
From the recent vote, Labor is in trouble, and rearranging a few deck chairs does not help.  I think Blair resigns by the end of the year.  I do not see either opposition party gaining control alone, and I do not see how the form a coalition, so Labor will stay in control.
244613
So we have three main parties in the UK. Labour, Conservative, and Liberal. Labour is in government at the moment with the Conservative party forming the opposition (the party with the second most seats). There are other parties such as the Green Party, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru (Welsh), Ulster Unionist and many others.\n\nMost people in the UK do not openly discuss who they voted for at the last election (normally every 5 years but a Government can call an election at any time, especially if they are riding high in the opinion polls!)\n\nJust a note to the last answer.. The Queen and the Monarchy have nothing to do with running the country and she is purely a symbolic fugure as head of state. In theory she has the power to over-rule and not approve new laws but in practice this has never been done for hundreds of years and is never likey to happen without plunging the UK into a constitutional crisis that would probably end up with us becoming a republic!\n\nThe Labour party has made big inroads into the popular electorate by becoming less left wing and steering away from its traditional union, working class roots to become more centre left and appeal to more of the middle England voters (you know, married 2.4 children, white collar worker, small provinicial town etc). They have also invested billions of pounds in education, health, and law and order and also claim to have overseen a very stable economy.\n\nThe Conservative party lost power in 1997 after being in since the early eighties. People became jaded with them and they have traditionally been more centre right in their approach and strong on economy, law and order, and big on privatisation.\n\nLiberals havent been in power for decades!\n\nI actually voted Green last time round as i feel strongly about the environment. That said I knew they would never get in and it was more of a protest against the Labour governement for taking us to war. I would vote liberal but would never vote for the Conservative party as they have screwed the country up in the past (rail privatisation, defence cuts, slease/corruption, lack of investment in basics, cut tax to look after the rich).\n\nAt the end of the day no party actually represents all the things i want or belive in so its a bit of a trade off each time as to who i vote for, depending how close i think the election will be, and what they are promising in the next government.\n\nPhew. Essay over!
692445
I lose faith in political parties all the time.  Politics (like any other human endeavor) is fraught with human frailty.  Anytime human nature is part of the formula, it can get messy.
689391
Not sure of the question here, but...\n\nPolitics is corrupt?...well, no. But some POLITICIANS are certainly corrupt...in my personal opinion the current US administration is the most corrupt since the well documented corruption of the Nixon years.\n\nGROWING-UP nation as well?...what does THAT mean?\n\nIf you are implying that the governments of 3rd world countries have a worse reputation for corruption, well...yes.\nBut we are starting to see genuine 'peoples' leaders emerging in some countries. (Venezuela's Chavez is a good example.)\n\nChavez, since being elected, has, in a sense, "decorrupted" his country by returning ownership of the natural resources to the locals, rather than the US corporations that were raping and plundering the economy, sharing with a select few only.\n\nFor putting his people's needs above those of the multi-national (mostly US owned) corporations, Chavez has been subjected to a string of lies and abuse from the White House and its cronies, including the now famous quote from "Christian" Pat Robetson that "someone should assassinate him" (Chavez)\nSo much for "Thou shalt not kill", let alone "Do unto others"...in my opinion anyone who preaches violence toward any living human is NOT a man of God.\n\nHe even managed to survive a US backed coup attempt because the people came onto the streets in the hundreds of thousands and stood up to the army, and bravely persuaded them not to attack their own people to support rich foreigners...and amazingly, the army listened, for they could see themselves that Chavez is a good man, doing good for ALL the people of Venezuela, not just the elite.\n\nAnd THAT, is where I see "dignity implied"...where the 3rd world governments are standing up to the corruption imposed on them by their powerful and VERY corrupt neighbor to the north.\nHere are some links...just a few of the dozens available that tell more than I can here.
724362
New Labour are looking at ways to form a one party state. Since the difference between New  Labour ,Conservatives and Liberal are negligible, there is no opposition, so, when you vote, you vote for the same policies. New labour has already paved the the way for secret policing and is now paving the way for the removal of free speech to stop parties like UKIP and the BNP from speaking out. I am afraid we are in big trouble unless there is a dramatic shift from mainstream parties to more Nationalistic parties.
152009
poor economic and corrupted politcians of course
290625
I agree he is a piece of work, how a third of the country can still be fooled is beyond me. They just don't have a clue as to how bad he is.
1076390
I used to be a Conservative but now I am not sure.  I voted for them in the General Election but sometimes I think the New Leader is more left than Blair.  I am certainly not a Lib - they are a municipal waste of space on the local council.  I have never ever voted labour.\n\nIf the BNP had a local candidate then I would most likely vote for them.
769195
The BNP is the British version of a Fascist Party and we all know hatred towards a specific group of people never solved any problems, on the contrary it actually created more.\n\nIf "hate" is the answer then the question was obviously "What is the root of all evil in the history of the Human kind?"
716292
He wasn't a great P.M before the war and would never have been one.  You only have to look at the non-elected scum he surrounded himself with, Mandelson, Campbell and the rest.  He has introduced more repressive laws than any other single party we now live in a police state!  The number of petty little officials than can dictate to and fine the general public is horrendous.  My family helped found the Labour party and to see this once great party reduced to the mess it is now and the trash leading it is heart breaking!  He is without doubt the most dishonest and disliked prime minister ever - the irony of it all is that we didn't vote for him in the first place if Britain had proportional representation he would never have been in power!  He won't go gracefully he and his horrible wife have their noses buried too deep in the gravy boat!  Please America don't refer to her as our First Lady, she is mearly the wife of the prime minister and as such has no position, the description lady is open to debate!
980311
Surely you knew that when labour called themselves "New Labour" they actually meant that new labour isn`t interested in the people of the UK. Why should they care about that british pensioners can`t make ends meet, why should they care that NHS is hasn`t got enough money to function, why should they care that childrens education is getting poor ( despite what they say).Why should they care that british troops are dying because they`re poorly equipped fighting in anther country\nSo far they`ve given £10 billion to Africa,given our £10billion rebate back to the EU.given £10`s of millions of pounds to Pakistan. SO £100 million to Iraq shouldn`t surprise anyone.\nIf you followed the budget they had a deficet of £10 billion and went and borred it from the International Monetary Fund, and that was before before they gave all this money away.\nDon`t forget that it`s not the government that has to pay it back, it`s the taxpayers.Labour might not be popular at home anymore but the rest of world loves them
1151547
if you work it out only 1 in 5 voter for this pair last time. \nbut yes cos there is no one eles. camran is a twit and his party is divided. and the ming whats his name is to soft to be priminister. ukip are as bad as the bnp and the green party are kidding themselfs.\n\nwe stuck with labour. god help us.
938915
In the United Kingdom general elections of 2001 and 2005, it was calculated that only 25% and 22% of the electorate actually voted for the Labour Party (who won the elections with majorities of 160 and 66 respectively).\n\nIn UK elections there are no rules stating at which point an election become valid, but most people assume that if national turnout fell below 50%, questions would be raised about the validity of the election in question.
809267
Nope both parties are equally corrupt and it matters not who is charge.The truth about this will never be fully known although many intelligent people have theorized what happened.