en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4137178 Comments by Gunnerbear http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379994 If the Queen wants a boat, she can pay for it....if you want to waste money on a vote, get a public appeal going to raise cash to cover every penny of it from the design to the running costs including the cost of a RN escort vessel....don't p*** my taxes away on it. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:22:49 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379994 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379908 If the oldsters don't have their lavish perks trimmed huge numbers of non-oldsters will not be voting Blue again in a hurry.... Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:20:07 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379908 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379856 "So we are having this election so she will be strong enough to make concessions on Freedom of Movement, payments to the EU etc and ignore the protests from hard core Brexiteers." I agree with your cynical assessment. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:18:22 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379856 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379850 That's the whole point of having a GE and getting a big majority....May can then ignore the headbangers demanding Berlin is turned in to rubble the Great British Electorate who will be massively angry when the 'softness of Brexit' becomes apparent along with the cheque we'll be handing over to the EU.... Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:17:56 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379850 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379781 There should be no foreign aid. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:15:59 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379781 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379772 The whole article is a list of platitudes....you want GSs...fine but only after the UK is fully funding Technical Education....not as May is planning to do now and splash the cash on a tiny number of schools whilst the rest make do with a fiver each. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:15:40 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2017/04/urgently-required-a-radical-manifesto-to-prepare-britain-for-brexit-heres-a-seven-point-plan.html#IDComment1042379772 http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2017/04/roy-perry-in-hampshire-the-conservative-have-welcomed-new-recruits-from-ukip-and-the-lib-dems.html#IDComment1042373226 Presumably you mean 'have not' had to make further cuts.... Tue, 18 Apr 2017 17:59:34 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2017/04/roy-perry-in-hampshire-the-conservative-have-welcomed-new-recruits-from-ukip-and-the-lib-dems.html#IDComment1042373226 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042371396 Charlotte, Thanks for taking the time to reply but I'm a NOTA voter....none of the major parties offer me anything but more of the same.... ...more green garbage that ramps up power costs that hammer the industry I'm in.... ...more moronic green regulations that the rest of the world laugh at yet price UK industry out of the market.... ...both parties for all their talk, are determined to continue to waste billions on foreign aid - when the Blues or Reds cut the Int. Aid budget to zero, then maybe I'll vote for 'em... ...both potential parties of government - Reds and Blues - despise the working class otherwise the doors of the UK would have been shut so that no more immigrants could get in...because mass immigration has smashed down wages for any one not towards even the middle of the pile.... ...both parties are soft on law 'n' order - life should mean life or we should get the vote on the restoration of the Death Penalty.... ...HMG and the Reds are still keen on the Human Rights Act and still mad supporters of the '51 Charter on Refugees - the Australian govt. has withdrawn from that Charter so that it can keep out the scum and economic migrants. When Blue or Reds carry out the same policy, then either will get my vote.... ....thanks to the Blues, council homes were sold off and never replaced and thanks to the Reds demand for housing has gone through the roof thanks to mass immigration, then a Blue CotE, being a tool decided to use taxpayers cash to boost the demand for housing whilst keeping the supply of land hugely restricted.... ....both major parties seem determined, insanely determined to kowtow to the evil, disgusting totalitarian philosophy that Islam - when will the Blues and Reds realise that Islam isn't a religion, it is a doctrine that is utterly incompatible with liberal democracy.... ....even as the rail network creaks, the Blues and Reds have decided to waste billions on HSR instead of actually improving the network for the majority by targeting the spending across the network to really improve things.... ....technical education has been binned by the Blues and Reds for decades....totally neglected because education policy was and is written by academics for academics.....if you're not academic in the UK, the education system doesn't want to know.... ...neither of the Big Two parties want electoral reform of any kind - so stacks of people are stuck in safe seats where there is no point in voting. The area I live in has returned a Red Mob MP for decades and there are areas of the country that have returned a Blue Mob MP for decades so if you're not a supporter of the incumbent party, there is no point at all in voting....none...it is a futile effort....even if the parties had policies worth voting for..... ....even as voter fraud is rampant because of postal votes, the Blues (supported by the Reds) are dragging their feet about bringing in full voter ID at the polling station and individual voter registration and cutting the availability of postal votes.....in some areas, what's the point of voting when tribal corruption in elections has been imported from the sub-continent and is rampant in the constituency.... .....neither HMG nor the Reds had done much to root out the abuse of children by Pakistani grooming gangs....neither party has talked about deploying the full weight of the state against such people...and remember HMG can order people to go to foreign lands and put their lives on the line or kill via drone strikes....yet Reds and Blues refuse to address such issues in the UK... ...even as the cost of govt. borrowing is to all intents and purposes zero, Reds and Blues remain wedded to the idea of PFI and as a result all parts of the public sector are facing huge bills forced on them by assorted HMGs which wanted PFI to be the 'only game in town'..... ...and you wonder why I choose not to vote Red or Blue and why I point out that joining a party is useless - in fact it is less than useless - because the leaderships of the main parties offer nothing, as I said before, but more of the same... ...once that situation changes, I might vote.... Tue, 18 Apr 2017 17:03:51 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042371396 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/roger-evans-corbyn-cant-blame-the-media-for-his-terrible-photo-op.html#IDComment1042337277 Momentum are keen on the ideological purity that comes with being in opposition....just as some Dark Blues were until Ol' Cast Iron came along and made the Blues electable by, in essence, silencing the Blue Headbangers that the voters had rejected three times in a row..... Mon, 17 Apr 2017 23:20:10 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/roger-evans-corbyn-cant-blame-the-media-for-his-terrible-photo-op.html#IDComment1042337277 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042335706 The Aircraft Carrier programme was around for decades...years and years.....before Brown and when the project finally got the go ahead....the Blues cheered just as hard as the CVF project meant that kit was going to be supplied from all over the UK.... ....the fact that the ships were being going for final assembly at Rosyth was because for decades.....decades...HMG had not put enough work through UK yards and BAES were told to make savings by HMG.....which later led to TOBA (supported by Blues and Reds). I know you blindly hate Brown and think that everything that happened to do with the carriers was solely down to him but at any moment post '10, a Blue PM could've chosen to have the ships built anywhere....not just in the UK...anywhere in the world.... ....the reason the PM didn't is that the cost would have been astronomic as Rosyth was the only yard in the UK capable of actually putting all the blocks together and building the project....in the same way, it was utterly pointless to base the vessels in Scotland as the logistics facilities (including new power lines at dockside, deep water moorings, engineering support etc. was all 'down south'). In a similar vein, you could make nuclear submarines up on the Clyde but HMG chooses not to as it has instructed BAES, over the years, to pour cash into BiF because that is where submarines are to be built as and when HMG wanted them built (which is why BAES has spend about £450m on improving their big shed up at BiF) ready to start building Successor.....or do you want HMG to move that as well? Mon, 17 Apr 2017 22:16:25 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042335706 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333699 Weird isn't it....young men and women who want to be there, get through training, those that are forced to be there tend to fail.....you'd nearly think there was a connection between volunteering and success. Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:05:27 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333699 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333668 " Only I tiny minority of the best conscripts ere able to join the Royal Navy...." Yup the RN fought hard to keep all but a tiny number of NS personnel out of the Navy.....thus proving that National Service is utterly pointless when even then one service absolutely openly distained and fought the policy. Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:03:57 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333668 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333614 If National Service was such a good idea why do think the Royal Navy fought like demons to keep NS personnel in the RN to an absolute minimum - and even then the RN were very, very, choosy about who they accept? Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:01:53 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333614 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333550 Probably a bit of both.... :) Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:58:59 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/nicholas-mazzei-the-korean-crisis-shows-how-britain-is-woefully-prepared-for-war.html#IDComment1042333550 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042321245 Which is why of course all parties fought tooth and nail against the Right of Recall.....if you had MPs that had to worry about being recalled by any part of their electorate, they'd soon start to sweat and deliver what the majority of voters in that area wanted (which is why I want full PR with NOTA on the ballot paper and the removal of postal votes for all but a tiny number of reasons and individual voter registration and full photo ID). Of course RoR would smash the party system because MPs would always have one eye over their shoulder at their electorate and would ignore the whips at will. Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:59:43 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042321245 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/julian-jessop-why-holiday-prices-shouldnt-be-capped-during-school-breaks.html#IDComment1042319220 After a load of wibble the author finally gets to the point which is in essence, "Would it not be a good idea to stagger term times." Can I have a job in a think tank now please? Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:49:07 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/julian-jessop-why-holiday-prices-shouldnt-be-capped-during-school-breaks.html#IDComment1042319220 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042319113 "There is a problem, which we see well illustrated in the Labour Party, that the opinions and values of the zealots who become members of a political organisation are often repellant to the majority of voters whose support is needed to win elections." Yup. Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:44:52 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042319113 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042319056 Very nice of you to provide a list of addresses of who to write to - writing to HMG makes no difference whatsoever - numerous petitions with stacks of signatures on have shown that. Again, you skim over the key point; why have discussions about policy at a local level when there is not the slightest chance that any policy the Party Brass does not agree with will go forward no matter how much the membership want it? Would it not be more honest for the party to say, "Just pay yer subs, stuff the envelopes and that's it...enjoy your raffles and what not but don't for a single minute think your views count when it comes to policy..." To be honest, I'd have more respect for any party that actually said that.... Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:43:02 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042319056 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042318879 Charlotte, I'm well aware of who to write to....I notice you've skipped my first paragraph and focussed on my second....so I'll ask again, "What is the point of setting up and paying for a an expensive conference when the Party Brass will ignore any suggestions?" Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:37:23 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042318879 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042294958 And that is about it.... Sun, 16 Apr 2017 22:24:08 +0000 http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2017/04/john-strafford-my-proposals-to-change-the-partys-constitution-for-the-better.html#IDComment1042294958