Yeah, moreover this blog has really nothing to do with politics in the first place… Seriously, why starting such controversial debates… People should keep their blogs to the role they gave them, to the urpose that made people follow them in the first place… And not take it as an occasion to advertise whatever other idea they have, just because there are followers. This is not a Twitter, this is a blog dedicated to nice deals on games. No need to talk about something more, moreover that seriously…. who cares? I’m not even in UK, and I guess many followers are not as well.
What about the stuff that isn’t in the manifesto? The fact the the entire party is basically built on the idea that rich people are better than poor people, and deserve more.
The fact that tories are planning to cut off JSA for lots of people looking for work, despite the fact that there is no way near enough jobs for all of them to find work anyway. And they would expect someone with a masters degree to work in McDonalds if it was the only job going.
One of their top MPs on social affairs has set up clinics to ‘cure’ homosexuality, by excising demons from them.
They claim that their economic policy is supported by all the top businesses. Is this really any surprise? Since when has what is good for big business ever been the same as what is good for voters?
If they do get in to power, expect to be stuck with them for a long time too, since their first move is going to be to cut the number of MPs by 10%, and you can be damn sure that they are going to be messing with boundaries very tactically.
They have nicer suits than the BNP, and they have much better PR, but it’s the same us and them mentality that is making their decisions.
“The fact the the entire party is basically built on the idea that rich people are better than poor people, and deserve more.”
I’m not sure that is fact is it?
What I do like is that you will not be penalised for doing well – you can have an aspiration and achieve good things through hard work. Whereas at the moment, if you are successful you are milked dry – Socialist dogma requires everyone to be the same to be “fair”, therefore the peopel who sit on their arses all day and do nothing should be at the same level as the people who work hard – doesn’t sound exactly fair to me.
I believe that it’s thei policy regarding NI increases which is supported by business – which is completely understandable as more people will lose their jobs if the cost of employing them increases.
I accept your point in some privaliged cases, but I personally have worked very hard over the years to get where I am – it certainly wasn’t handed to me on a silver spoon.
However, I see a lot of the cash I pay in tax going to waste on social experiments and rewarding the people that can’t be arsed – don’t get me wrong, I do not want to see anyone in poverty, but there has to be a balance between penalising people who have done well to give to the ones who haven’t.
It does annoy me to see the so called “unemployed” or is that “unemployable” being able to afford to sit in the pub all day and pay for their essential Sky subsciption – these things are not necesities, but they appear (as a gross generalisation) to be the top of the priority list for a lot of unemployed – heaven forbid that they actually take care of their offspring, rather than churning out more to get more benefits.
I’m not saying the Tories will make the world right tomorrow, but I do believe that aspiration is a far better carrot to encourage people to want to do well than just offering another wedge of cash with the left hand and taking it away with the right hand as socialism has done for us.
I do like the Lib idea of no tax for the first £10k earnt – this will surely encourage people to go back to work as they will see they are better off with a job than being unemployed (hopefully the next government adopts this) – but the scrapping of the 10p tax limit along with taxing pention pots just shows that Labour do not really care about the unemployed or pensioners, they just need more and more cash to run their experiments.
Lets be fair, final salary pensions were the norm before the pots started getting taxed – now, you will have to work longer and will have very little disposable income come retirement under fixed fund pensions – assuming you have a pention at all – if you don’t, why should someone who has paid into a pension for 40 years not be better off financially than a person who hasn’t paid anything?
Whatever else happens today, one change is inevitable. We are moving into the era of no-money politics. No money to placate interest groups. No money for new initiatives, regulators, agencies. No money to prove how much ministers “care”.
There was a staggering failure during this campaign, to get Gordon Brown to admit the scale of our debt. Interviewers allowed him to neatly sidestep the issue. Labour mentioned so many times that they had built new hospitals and schools, but no-one asked if these projects had been properly funded.
We’ve got six new PFI schools being built in our area, however it now emerges that not all of them have sufficient private funding, and local taxpayers are having to pick up the immediate shortfall. The Labour council is now asking for redundancies from teachers.
Sound “fair” to you?
I really don’t mind who people vote for, it is a personal choice that should be weighed against the benefit to yourself and to the country. I have a number of clear reasons for voting the way I have, and you should too. The fundamental is that you should vote.
I know posting all of this on a blog is fairly pointless, but it is good to explain the rationalle behind certain choices, and if this helps someone else make their mind up then great, if it doesn’t then no harm done in any case.
Regarding a point rasied earlier with regards to having to take a job even if that means working at McDonalds – why not? Are you above working at McDonalds? Realistically, I can understand why people would prefer not to, but if it provides an income why not do it? In all reality, I do not understand why people don’t look at becoming something like a Meter Reader (~£16k per annum) to fill in any gap whilst looking for the right job? I am fortunate to earn a lot more than this, but if I ever lost my job then I would do something like this in the interim to put food on the table and pay the mortgage if nothing else was available.
Clegg can basically promise the moon – he knows he has no chance of ever being held to account and actually deliever it. It was interesting to note his body language in his closing statement – for each pledge he stated he could not look people in the eye to deliver it, he looked down each time. This is in contrast to the rest of his presentation where he looks forward to deliver the full line, yet when it came to personal pledges his body language clearly shows that he does not believe it.
Brown just looked washed out and ill – a bit like the Labour party in reality. No new ideas, just negative policies.
Cameron was okay, but you just know that he wants to be honest about how deep the mess is we are in, but he knows that it would be political suicide to mention it now.
I think Mervin King is spot on – it is a poison chalice for whoever becomes PM. Cuts will need to be huge and taxes will increase. It’s the only way out of another Labour induced financial mess.
I came up with a theory whilst watching the last debate – governments run for so long then falter due to one fact – they can never admit that anything they or their predacessors have ever done was a mistake. They cannot change something that isn’t working, as that would be seen as an act of weakness in political cicles, so they have to keep perpetuating something that is clearly failing or be seen to be weak … this is the main reason why Clegg can easily score points against both parties, and the Labour party inparticularly has no answers out of the mess we are in.
Actually, i have a better idea than the debates – Next time they should drop the debate format and we just ensure all leaders are mic’d up in their cars – We would have learnt more if we had bugged each leaders car and listened to the out-takes rather than this stage managed guff.
Absolutely not, but the spending policy through the boom time ensured that we were in not in a good position to handle debt. Labour spent and burnt all of our cash and gold reserves through the good times, leaving nothing at all for the bad times – this is financial irrisponsibility of the highest order.
It is akin to getting a 100k a year job and spending every penny you earn each month, along with building up your credit card debt, and not making any provision for being made redundant in the future. When you are eventually made redundant you are still faced with the interest on your credit cards and you have nothing to cover it – irresponsible!
I’ve save my own brand of ire for both the BNP and Respect (“the sweaty perineum between the scrotum of Stalinism and the anus of most vicious form of theocracy”).
But hey, at least if the Conservatives do get into power, it’ll mean everyone will have just that little bit less cash and so will have to be using SavyGamer a lot more.
I think Lewie’s underestimated what gamers are like, has he never been on xbox live?
(though I would note that his follower count hasn’t actually gone down so they might be all talk and no trousers, now who does that remind me of?)
You’ve got at least one strongly non-tory voter in me anyway.
Surely the focus has to be on getting the cash that Labour have just given to the bankers into Private Companies to enable them to grow and thus create jobs.
I have lost count of how many times Darling appeared on TV stating that he had forced the banks to start lending again – he lied!
Much as I share your sentiments, I don’t think this is the place for canvassing. While I appreciate you have the right to do as you wish with it, it’s a site for cheap prices on games, not a personal blog.
I’m not really sure I understand that. I mean, this is my playground, whilst obviously 90% of the stuff on here is about cheap games, some other stuff is important too.
If you want to ignore anything but the bargains, I’ve made it really easy for you to do so.
It’s not like posting anything else is somehow detrimental to me posting bargains.
It doesn’t bother me but I can understand why some people mind.
It’s kind of like you’ve invited us round to your house every few days and given us cake. Sometimes you haven’t given us cake but you’ve talked about cakes we’ve previously had or cakes we might have in the future. This is something everyone who visits here has enjoyed.
But today you’ve invited us round and there’s no cake. There’s no talk of cake.
Instead there are threats that we won’t be invited round for cake unless we do as you command!
Also, it’s not that he’s suddenly not providing cake. There was cake, and then he said that he personally doesn’t like blue icing – only posh people like blue icing, surely? And anyone who would go for blue icing just to not have red icing is silly – there’s a whole range of other icings! You get the same cake underneath anyway…
I think I got lost in that metaphor… the cake became something else along the way.
What are the Tories doing for games again? And my brother’s been on JSA for a while, he’s super smart, hated school, and has no qualifications. Labour didn’t train him, the Tories will just boot him. Fuck that.
This is a blog about cheap games. It’s for people who need to save money. The Conservative party aims to reduce state involvement – privatisation, tax cuts, service cuts, every man for themselves. Gamers don’t have a problem denouncing Bobby Kotick’s profiteering, but when it comes to Cameron there’s some sort of shield surrounding him?
He probably wouldn’t trash the country. Everyone would probably survive, more or less. But would we progress as a diverse and liberal nation? Would they take Gay Marriage even further? Would they get people off the bottom rung and into fulfilling jobs?
It surprises me how intolerant supposed ‘liberals’ or Labour supporters actually are.
As a Tory supporter I respect the political opinions of others, though I disagree with them. It seems Labour supporters brand those of differing political viewpoints as unwelcome, and should fall in line and sing to their tune.
instead of putting up national insurance (The “jobs tax” – i mean, whoever thought up this whole new taxing employment business!?) the tories plan on increasing VAT which means all prices, including computer games will all go up 2%, therefore there will be less bargains.
My advice is to vote tactically for a hung parliament, that way we can have electoral reform through the Lb Dems, thus having a more representative government instead of this two party right wing thing we have going on.
Don’t let anyone tell you coalition governments are weak – here is a list of countries in Europe that DON’T have proportional representation systems that almost always result in coalitions:
The UK
France
Here is a short list of countries that have alliance governments RIGHT NOW
Germany
The Netherlands
Scotland
Wales
Italy
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Iceland
Sweden
Switzerland
Don’t believe those anti hung parliament lies!
Norway
I can’t understand how anyone under the age of 40 who isn’t wealthy as hell would possibly vote conservative. Everyone loves their manifesto and blindly ignore the things that aren’t on it. Ahh, the joys of politics.
I think part of the Tories plan is to relinquish as much responsibility from the state as possible. So effectively avoiding the hardest and most worthwhile aspects of government. They want to wash their hands of public healthcare and worse still hand over the reigns of education…look where this left our public transport..Also in a time or global economic hardship is it wise to not only punish job seekers but other people who receive the same kinds of benefits like the disabled, There are already tight policies on those who refuse employment, while being perfectly able. Do we feel pleasure and introducing various humiliating schemes just to satisfy the bitter Daily Mail readership (The Tory Parties most ardent supporter).
Gordon Brown won’t stay in power (an appeal by Cameron who relies on disenchantment with the current leader above his own policies) but a new kind of politics, may be able to raise its head if you just vote wisely. I don’t and can’t support Labour…but the Conservatives fill me with absolute dread.
Hey, it’s like what we do here in the United States – the Republicans campaign on the basis that Government messes everything up, then we vote them into office and the damn well prove it. Apparently, they did so well last time that they even managed to convince some of you Brits of this fact.
It’s been said a thousand times, but if every single person who said “I’m just voting Tory so Labour gets kicked out!” or “I only vote Labour to keep the Tories out!” actually had the balls to vote for the party the believed in, be it Lib Dem, Green, Pirate, whoever… the Tory and Labour votes would no doubt drop by half or more and we’d actually have a serious multi party system (which might even result in a coalition govt. and as noted above, they work bloody well). In essence, grow some balls and have the courage of your convictions, don’t be a sheep.
I agree to a certain extent, but under the current “first past the post” system your vote would still be useless, and you just make it easier for one of the so called “big parties” to get their majority. Don’t forget, under the current system all votes for any other party than the one that gets the majority count for jack shit. So if UKIP got 10k, Cons 12k, Libs 13k and Labour 15k – the Cons would get the seat and 34k of votes would basically be binned. So even though only 30% of the voting public voted for them Labour would get the seat – democracy at work!
It’s not about growing balls. Under your suggestion, the more votes for the smaller parties would just make the threshold to claim a majority lower, so therefore it would be more easily atainable by the “big parties”.
Under PR you definately have a point, and I would probably have voted UKIP this time around.
Mm, Tories. They’re friendly and loveable and totally not homophobic and evil! I’d rather vote for UKIP, and I’d seriously consider the BNP if it was that or the Conservatives. At least they’re more honest about wanting me dead. Labour are absolutely terrible, but even they’re manageably evil by comparision to the Axis of Mail.*
I’m voting Lib Dems. Not just to vote against the other parties – I agree with a lot of their policies. Even if I didn’t, though, they’d be the least-evil, most-good choice.
* “HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!”, “ABORTION HOPE AFTER “GAY GENES” FINDING”, and basically everything else they’ve ever written that far too many people seem to forget about, because they’re a major newspaper so they must be reasonable and respectable and rational and good. Fuck, Murdoch’s better.
I’ll be voting libs mainly because our local MP is actually quite good at their job where I live and they havent fucked our local area up like our old tory MP did 10 years ago. Also while studying my degree its quite obvious that in the last 100 years neither lab or conservatives actually know how to run a country as this country has been fucked more times than a hooker in the ass. Its time for a change anways and libs seem a good choice remember guys its not just a 2 party race like it is in America there are other candidates with other messages and they may actually give a damn about this country. Until theres a complete reformation politics in this country will always be like a classroom in a secondary school no wonder the world never takes us seriouly anymore.
Well I fit the profile for what should be the perfect tory voter – public school educated, wealthy parents, higher rate tax payer – but I would rather cut off my testicles with a rusty nail than vote Conservative. Lets face it, the only people they are interested in are themselves and their business friends. That’s not to say Labour are any better mind – look at Mandy and his friends in the Entertainment cartels.
Our only hope to give us some kind of real, functioning democracy rather than the sham we have now is to vote Lib Dem, hope for a hung parliament and that they can push through some electoral reform. Hopefully that will mean that in future you can vote for the party you like (not the one you hate least) and that vote will actually count.
Lib dem all the way, unlike allot of people I remember the last Con government and they don’t seem to have changed at all, still pandering to big business just as much as labour are, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Lib dems are the only party the support a devolution of the nanny and observation state. Along with their stance on the the recently passed digital rights bill and also their stance on digital rights as intellectual property as a whole has me thinking they get my vote. They will do more for the average citizen over the two other parties.
Usually I don’t get involved in politics on websites as it’s usually futile to try and change what someone thinks in the first place, that and the keyboard warrior attitude just makes it futile.
We are in debt up to our eyeballs and the idea is to somehow spend our way out of it. UK debt is currently regarded by the rating agencies as borderline, which means the interest payments will shoot up on Government bonds.
The currency markets in London are opening at 1am tomorrow so that people can adjust their positions depending on how it’s going (and I’ll be doing a nightshift providing IT support for a large financial services group, yay).
The level of public spending in this country is out of control, and the private sector (the bit that actually generates wealth) is starting to wonder why bother.
JSA has become a lifestyle choice, above someone whined that because they didn’t want to flip burgers after goin to uni. Sorry you fell for the lie, but not everyone gets to be an astronaut, maybe a more realisitic approach would have been to go and earn some money instead of hiding in Uni?
I started off getting an extra £10 a week on my JSA to go on an employment placement , and in the 14 years since I have worked my way up to a very good job.
In that time I have seen a Labour Govt come to power, betray those who believed that Labour would defend them, build a dependency culture where almost half the country is reliant on the state, either for employment or benefits, raided the hell out of pensions that people had saved into, sold the gold reserves at the bottom of the market, extended the debt when they should have been bringing it down, hammered wealth creators under IR35, sent my brother to war with useless kit, smear anyone who dares to disagree or point out fallacies in their arguments and infringe civil liberties to the extent that we are one step away from East Germany.
Up here in Scotland we have seen them force through the selling off of public assets to companies controlled by their friends and party donors, running around with serious gangsters and fiddling the hell out of postal votes.
Lewie, I respect the job you do with this site, and wish you all the best going forward, but to have a post which says “Don’t any of you dare vote Tory. Don’t you dare, you’ll not be welcome around these parts if you do.” Is niave at best and inflammatory at worst. That said it is your site, and I will defend your right to free speech. Here’s hoping for all out sakes that whoever is in power by the weekend can sort this mess out.
With Brown’s commitment to keep spending, this should at least give some pause for thought if that really is the right policy to get us out of this mess.
Can I just add that the Labour government are also withdrawing JSA for long term unemployed. You get 6 months and then that’s it. Get a job or nothing.
I am very disappointed to see such an obviously ill-thought out comment on here from LewieP. Everyone is entitled to there opinion but to tar all Tory voters (Yes – I am one) with the same brush is poor. And to tar them with the BNP brush is downright offensive.
People should go to work. If they want the benefits of good living then people must earn it. I certainly do. I work hard and begrudge paying for people who obviously have seen it is easier to sponge off the system than to look for work. I am qualified – but if it came to it I would work in McDonalds. I would clean toilets. I would wipe old peoples arses. I have a family and aspirations for a higher standard of living. I am happy to go out and earn it. Only through this attitude can I feel satisfied with my contribution to society (not a wholly Labour trait).
well you’ve got a nice debate started here, regardless of whether people think it belongs on this blog or not. politics effects everything, even video games.
Wow great post Lewie, this is exactly the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, sixth-form political insight i read this site for.
Don’t give up your day job eh, who knows with a Tory government you might find one.
I don’t much like getting into arguments over politics, but I felt offended by this (even though I voted Lib Dem) – personally, for me, it was a tough choice between the Tories and Lib Dems, since they were mainly proposing solutions to the same problems.
Someone said that the Tories are generally perceived as supporting the rich and the cost of the poor. True, that is the stereotype.
Labour was also perceived as actually being in the interests of the working class, but they’ve gone against that.
The Lib Dems were perceived as a good ideal that would never get in. Now they have a chance.
Stereotypes of the political parties don’t count for anything anymore.
Also, you mentioned that “many people didn’t grow up under the Tories so don’t remember what it was like.”
I believe we are the same age (just about) so I do remember. I honestly thought it was better than the last 13 years.
But, here’s a shock – David Cameron and his cabinet are not Thatcher and her cabinet, nor are they John Major and his. Different people are different!
Yes, some people are bad, but is Cameron one of those? Even if he is and pointing it out is fair, this blog entry didn’t point it out. It was simply an attack on anyone who has a different opinion or, god forbid, different priorities.
Minimum wage was Labour. That helped workers. It’s pretty hard to run a country. I thought Blair was doing alright until he became a mass murderer.
Tories could do anything. They’re already offering tax breaks for being straight and married. They’re already promising to kick people off unemployment to save the government money. They could just privatise something and it’d become as badly run as the trains, overnight. What if it’s schools? Care for old people? Garbage collection?
I’m glad you voted lib dems. Our electoral system is crap and the Lib Dems will reform it. I looked at the big three this time and picked libs, but next time I might have the freedom to vote greens and have it count. Some people really feel strongly about Tory voters, like Lewie does. I think I feel more like a Tory voter is someone who really doesn’t understand how they think, was fooled into thinking they’re just reasonable people with radical ideas, or is an actual crush-the-working-classes prick.
To give Lewie credit, he’s just provoking a discussion. He isn’t actually banning you from using the site or deleting comments if you’re a Tory – you’re leaving voluntarily, if at all.
Minimum wage was Labour (I haven’t checked so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt). As was attempting to increase income tax so it was 20% for everyone, rather than 10% for “the working class” and 20% for the “middle” and “upper” classes.
As was creating what Gordon Brown himself called a “welfare state” – a state where people consider working a lifestyle a choice, a state where in order to support those who choose not to work those of us who actually do have to pay more of our money in tax. They shifted the balance. There is no longer “working” “middle” and “upper” classes. There are “working” “upper” and “non-working” classes. Even if they did not start it off, they damned well encouraged it.
One criticism I saw earlier was that the Tories suggested stopping people from being on the dole, that if there is a job available that they can do, they should do it.
Each of the three parties suggested a variation of this. A solution to what I described above.
When I was in Uni I worked at a supermarket. I continued to work there after graduation while looking for another job. I did this rather than going on the dole, because I have pride, damnit.
I did it because I needed money. I did it because I wanted to contribute to society in some way, no matter how small, rather than doing nothing but take from it.
You think Tory voters are either ignorant or pricks? What about those who agree with their policies which don’t involve “screwing the working class”?
That’s pretty damned intolerant of you.
Some people have different opinions, or values. Not every who votes Tory is ignorant or a screw the working class prick. To assert otherwise is an incredibly ignorant and foolish assumption.
I voted Lib Dem and I feel that my vote was wasted, because that spineless asshole Alan Campbell got in again with a 5000ish majority over the Tories, while there were 7000 Lib Dem votes. Had we voted Tory, we might have at least gotten rid of that bastard.
I’d just like to say thanks to everyone voting, because I use Savygamer to check on UK deals to import to the Netherlands and the GBP has dropped quite a bit since yesterday!
And good luck with any future digital rights/Internet bills that will easily get passed by even more people without a clue now…
Guess I’ll be removing your RSS then.
Guess I’ll be un-following then.
Haha, dude, one lesson to learn, never go into Politics because it will get people hating you
Yeah, moreover this blog has really nothing to do with politics in the first place… Seriously, why starting such controversial debates… People should keep their blogs to the role they gave them, to the urpose that made people follow them in the first place… And not take it as an occasion to advertise whatever other idea they have, just because there are followers. This is not a Twitter, this is a blog dedicated to nice deals on games. No need to talk about something more, moreover that seriously…. who cares? I’m not even in UK, and I guess many followers are not as well.
Add another one to the unwelcome list – can’t risk Brown getting in through the back door of Lib vote.
That’s a pretty weak excuse. Surely what you mean is “I want a Tory government and so I am voting for them”.
Good point – having looked at the manifesto’s I agree with far more of the Tory plan than any of teh others, so they get my vote.
What about the stuff that isn’t in the manifesto? The fact the the entire party is basically built on the idea that rich people are better than poor people, and deserve more.
The fact that tories are planning to cut off JSA for lots of people looking for work, despite the fact that there is no way near enough jobs for all of them to find work anyway. And they would expect someone with a masters degree to work in McDonalds if it was the only job going.
One of their top MPs on social affairs has set up clinics to ‘cure’ homosexuality, by excising demons from them.
They claim that their economic policy is supported by all the top businesses. Is this really any surprise? Since when has what is good for big business ever been the same as what is good for voters?
If they do get in to power, expect to be stuck with them for a long time too, since their first move is going to be to cut the number of MPs by 10%, and you can be damn sure that they are going to be messing with boundaries very tactically.
They have nicer suits than the BNP, and they have much better PR, but it’s the same us and them mentality that is making their decisions.
“The fact the the entire party is basically built on the idea that rich people are better than poor people, and deserve more.”
I’m not sure that is fact is it?
What I do like is that you will not be penalised for doing well – you can have an aspiration and achieve good things through hard work. Whereas at the moment, if you are successful you are milked dry – Socialist dogma requires everyone to be the same to be “fair”, therefore the peopel who sit on their arses all day and do nothing should be at the same level as the people who work hard – doesn’t sound exactly fair to me.
I believe that it’s thei policy regarding NI increases which is supported by business – which is completely understandable as more people will lose their jobs if the cost of employing them increases.
Mac I think you’re confusing working hard with being wealthy.
They are not mutually inclusive.
@ Auspax
I accept your point in some privaliged cases, but I personally have worked very hard over the years to get where I am – it certainly wasn’t handed to me on a silver spoon.
However, I see a lot of the cash I pay in tax going to waste on social experiments and rewarding the people that can’t be arsed – don’t get me wrong, I do not want to see anyone in poverty, but there has to be a balance between penalising people who have done well to give to the ones who haven’t.
It does annoy me to see the so called “unemployed” or is that “unemployable” being able to afford to sit in the pub all day and pay for their essential Sky subsciption – these things are not necesities, but they appear (as a gross generalisation) to be the top of the priority list for a lot of unemployed – heaven forbid that they actually take care of their offspring, rather than churning out more to get more benefits.
I’m not saying the Tories will make the world right tomorrow, but I do believe that aspiration is a far better carrot to encourage people to want to do well than just offering another wedge of cash with the left hand and taking it away with the right hand as socialism has done for us.
I do like the Lib idea of no tax for the first £10k earnt – this will surely encourage people to go back to work as they will see they are better off with a job than being unemployed (hopefully the next government adopts this) – but the scrapping of the 10p tax limit along with taxing pention pots just shows that Labour do not really care about the unemployed or pensioners, they just need more and more cash to run their experiments.
Lets be fair, final salary pensions were the norm before the pots started getting taxed – now, you will have to work longer and will have very little disposable income come retirement under fixed fund pensions – assuming you have a pention at all – if you don’t, why should someone who has paid into a pension for 40 years not be better off financially than a person who hasn’t paid anything?
Whatever else happens today, one change is inevitable. We are moving into the era of no-money politics. No money to placate interest groups. No money for new initiatives, regulators, agencies. No money to prove how much ministers “care”.
There was a staggering failure during this campaign, to get Gordon Brown to admit the scale of our debt. Interviewers allowed him to neatly sidestep the issue. Labour mentioned so many times that they had built new hospitals and schools, but no-one asked if these projects had been properly funded.
We’ve got six new PFI schools being built in our area, however it now emerges that not all of them have sufficient private funding, and local taxpayers are having to pick up the immediate shortfall. The Labour council is now asking for redundancies from teachers.
Sound “fair” to you?
I really don’t mind who people vote for, it is a personal choice that should be weighed against the benefit to yourself and to the country. I have a number of clear reasons for voting the way I have, and you should too. The fundamental is that you should vote.
I know posting all of this on a blog is fairly pointless, but it is good to explain the rationalle behind certain choices, and if this helps someone else make their mind up then great, if it doesn’t then no harm done in any case.
Regarding a point rasied earlier with regards to having to take a job even if that means working at McDonalds – why not? Are you above working at McDonalds? Realistically, I can understand why people would prefer not to, but if it provides an income why not do it? In all reality, I do not understand why people don’t look at becoming something like a Meter Reader (~£16k per annum) to fill in any gap whilst looking for the right job? I am fortunate to earn a lot more than this, but if I ever lost my job then I would do something like this in the interim to put food on the table and pay the mortgage if nothing else was available.
To those voting for the Tories, can I ask why?
Having watched the debates:
Clegg can basically promise the moon – he knows he has no chance of ever being held to account and actually deliever it. It was interesting to note his body language in his closing statement – for each pledge he stated he could not look people in the eye to deliver it, he looked down each time. This is in contrast to the rest of his presentation where he looks forward to deliver the full line, yet when it came to personal pledges his body language clearly shows that he does not believe it.
Brown just looked washed out and ill – a bit like the Labour party in reality. No new ideas, just negative policies.
Cameron was okay, but you just know that he wants to be honest about how deep the mess is we are in, but he knows that it would be political suicide to mention it now.
I think Mervin King is spot on – it is a poison chalice for whoever becomes PM. Cuts will need to be huge and taxes will increase. It’s the only way out of another Labour induced financial mess.
I came up with a theory whilst watching the last debate – governments run for so long then falter due to one fact – they can never admit that anything they or their predacessors have ever done was a mistake. They cannot change something that isn’t working, as that would be seen as an act of weakness in political cicles, so they have to keep perpetuating something that is clearly failing or be seen to be weak … this is the main reason why Clegg can easily score points against both parties, and the Labour party inparticularly has no answers out of the mess we are in.
Actually, i have a better idea than the debates – Next time they should drop the debate format and we just ensure all leaders are mic’d up in their cars – We would have learnt more if we had bugged each leaders car and listened to the out-takes rather than this stage managed guff.
Labour induced financial mess? So the US sub-prime mortgage crisis was caused by the Labour Party economic policy?
Absolutely not, but the spending policy through the boom time ensured that we were in not in a good position to handle debt. Labour spent and burnt all of our cash and gold reserves through the good times, leaving nothing at all for the bad times – this is financial irrisponsibility of the highest order.
It is akin to getting a 100k a year job and spending every penny you earn each month, along with building up your credit card debt, and not making any provision for being made redundant in the future. When you are eventually made redundant you are still faced with the interest on your credit cards and you have nothing to cover it – irresponsible!
I’ve save my own brand of ire for both the BNP and Respect (“the sweaty perineum between the scrotum of Stalinism and the anus of most vicious form of theocracy”).
I would like to remind everyone that you can filter out every post except the deals posts by visiting http://savygamer.co.uk/category/deals.
But hey, at least if the Conservatives do get into power, it’ll mean everyone will have just that little bit less cash and so will have to be using SavyGamer a lot more.
Nice attempt at a save Will…
I think Lewie’s underestimated what gamers are like, has he never been on xbox live?
(though I would note that his follower count hasn’t actually gone down so they might be all talk and no trousers, now who does that remind me of?)
You’ve got at least one strongly non-tory voter in me anyway.
You always were Mr Sensible ;D
Afraid of them cutting your unemployment benefit are you 😉
I’m not on JSA, but some of my friends are or are going to be soon.
Surely you can see that some things matter even if they don’t affect you?
Surely the focus has to be on getting the cash that Labour have just given to the bankers into Private Companies to enable them to grow and thus create jobs.
I have lost count of how many times Darling appeared on TV stating that he had forced the banks to start lending again – he lied!
Much as I share your sentiments, I don’t think this is the place for canvassing. While I appreciate you have the right to do as you wish with it, it’s a site for cheap prices on games, not a personal blog.
I’m not really sure I understand that. I mean, this is my playground, whilst obviously 90% of the stuff on here is about cheap games, some other stuff is important too.
If you want to ignore anything but the bargains, I’ve made it really easy for you to do so.
It’s not like posting anything else is somehow detrimental to me posting bargains.
It doesn’t bother me but I can understand why some people mind.
It’s kind of like you’ve invited us round to your house every few days and given us cake. Sometimes you haven’t given us cake but you’ve talked about cakes we’ve previously had or cakes we might have in the future. This is something everyone who visits here has enjoyed.
But today you’ve invited us round and there’s no cake. There’s no talk of cake.
Instead there are threats that we won’t be invited round for cake unless we do as you command!
It’s kind of like that… Kind of.
I like your explanation the best Auspax. Luckily I already qualify for provisional future cake.
I find cake similes are the best way to describe everything.
…
Unless you’re Frankie Boyle…
There’s cake?
Does it have yellow icing? I like yellow icing.
Also, it’s not that he’s suddenly not providing cake. There was cake, and then he said that he personally doesn’t like blue icing – only posh people like blue icing, surely? And anyone who would go for blue icing just to not have red icing is silly – there’s a whole range of other icings! You get the same cake underneath anyway…
I think I got lost in that metaphor… the cake became something else along the way.
You’re right – back to the cake!
Concern troll is concerned.
All this talk of cake? It’s clearly more like a plate of chips.
I’ll be following you all the more now, Lewie P!
I’m with Lewie. Tory voters shouldn’t be allowed video games, let alone onto related websites.
What are the Tories doing for games again? And my brother’s been on JSA for a while, he’s super smart, hated school, and has no qualifications. Labour didn’t train him, the Tories will just boot him. Fuck that.
This is a blog about cheap games. It’s for people who need to save money. The Conservative party aims to reduce state involvement – privatisation, tax cuts, service cuts, every man for themselves. Gamers don’t have a problem denouncing Bobby Kotick’s profiteering, but when it comes to Cameron there’s some sort of shield surrounding him?
He probably wouldn’t trash the country. Everyone would probably survive, more or less. But would we progress as a diverse and liberal nation? Would they take Gay Marriage even further? Would they get people off the bottom rung and into fulfilling jobs?
It surprises me how intolerant supposed ‘liberals’ or Labour supporters actually are.
As a Tory supporter I respect the political opinions of others, though I disagree with them. It seems Labour supporters brand those of differing political viewpoints as unwelcome, and should fall in line and sing to their tune.
Very un-liberal if you ask me.
Inclination towards generalisations – my favourite of the traits ALL tories posses.
#realisestheirony
Your just a Biggot – lol :p
instead of putting up national insurance (The “jobs tax” – i mean, whoever thought up this whole new taxing employment business!?) the tories plan on increasing VAT which means all prices, including computer games will all go up 2%, therefore there will be less bargains.
My advice is to vote tactically for a hung parliament, that way we can have electoral reform through the Lb Dems, thus having a more representative government instead of this two party right wing thing we have going on.
Don’t let anyone tell you coalition governments are weak – here is a list of countries in Europe that DON’T have proportional representation systems that almost always result in coalitions:
The UK
France
Here is a short list of countries that have alliance governments RIGHT NOW
Germany
The Netherlands
Scotland
Wales
Italy
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Iceland
Sweden
Switzerland
Don’t believe those anti hung parliament lies!
Norway
oh, and of course, how could I forget? Belgium
They’re all crooks. I’m voting Marmite!
I can’t understand how anyone under the age of 40 who isn’t wealthy as hell would possibly vote conservative. Everyone loves their manifesto and blindly ignore the things that aren’t on it. Ahh, the joys of politics.
I think part of the Tories plan is to relinquish as much responsibility from the state as possible. So effectively avoiding the hardest and most worthwhile aspects of government. They want to wash their hands of public healthcare and worse still hand over the reigns of education…look where this left our public transport..Also in a time or global economic hardship is it wise to not only punish job seekers but other people who receive the same kinds of benefits like the disabled, There are already tight policies on those who refuse employment, while being perfectly able. Do we feel pleasure and introducing various humiliating schemes just to satisfy the bitter Daily Mail readership (The Tory Parties most ardent supporter).
Gordon Brown won’t stay in power (an appeal by Cameron who relies on disenchantment with the current leader above his own policies) but a new kind of politics, may be able to raise its head if you just vote wisely. I don’t and can’t support Labour…but the Conservatives fill me with absolute dread.
Hey, it’s like what we do here in the United States – the Republicans campaign on the basis that Government messes everything up, then we vote them into office and the damn well prove it. Apparently, they did so well last time that they even managed to convince some of you Brits of this fact.
It’s been said a thousand times, but if every single person who said “I’m just voting Tory so Labour gets kicked out!” or “I only vote Labour to keep the Tories out!” actually had the balls to vote for the party the believed in, be it Lib Dem, Green, Pirate, whoever… the Tory and Labour votes would no doubt drop by half or more and we’d actually have a serious multi party system (which might even result in a coalition govt. and as noted above, they work bloody well). In essence, grow some balls and have the courage of your convictions, don’t be a sheep.
@Rich
I agree to a certain extent, but under the current “first past the post” system your vote would still be useless, and you just make it easier for one of the so called “big parties” to get their majority. Don’t forget, under the current system all votes for any other party than the one that gets the majority count for jack shit. So if UKIP got 10k, Cons 12k, Libs 13k and Labour 15k – the Cons would get the seat and 34k of votes would basically be binned. So even though only 30% of the voting public voted for them Labour would get the seat – democracy at work!
It’s not about growing balls. Under your suggestion, the more votes for the smaller parties would just make the threshold to claim a majority lower, so therefore it would be more easily atainable by the “big parties”.
Under PR you definately have a point, and I would probably have voted UKIP this time around.
Mm, Tories. They’re friendly and loveable and totally not homophobic and evil! I’d rather vote for UKIP, and I’d seriously consider the BNP if it was that or the Conservatives. At least they’re more honest about wanting me dead. Labour are absolutely terrible, but even they’re manageably evil by comparision to the Axis of Mail.*
I’m voting Lib Dems. Not just to vote against the other parties – I agree with a lot of their policies. Even if I didn’t, though, they’d be the least-evil, most-good choice.
* “HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!”, “ABORTION HOPE AFTER “GAY GENES” FINDING”, and basically everything else they’ve ever written that far too many people seem to forget about, because they’re a major newspaper so they must be reasonable and respectable and rational and good. Fuck, Murdoch’s better.
I’ll be voting libs mainly because our local MP is actually quite good at their job where I live and they havent fucked our local area up like our old tory MP did 10 years ago. Also while studying my degree its quite obvious that in the last 100 years neither lab or conservatives actually know how to run a country as this country has been fucked more times than a hooker in the ass. Its time for a change anways and libs seem a good choice remember guys its not just a 2 party race like it is in America there are other candidates with other messages and they may actually give a damn about this country. Until theres a complete reformation politics in this country will always be like a classroom in a secondary school no wonder the world never takes us seriouly anymore.
Well I fit the profile for what should be the perfect tory voter – public school educated, wealthy parents, higher rate tax payer – but I would rather cut off my testicles with a rusty nail than vote Conservative. Lets face it, the only people they are interested in are themselves and their business friends. That’s not to say Labour are any better mind – look at Mandy and his friends in the Entertainment cartels.
Our only hope to give us some kind of real, functioning democracy rather than the sham we have now is to vote Lib Dem, hope for a hung parliament and that they can push through some electoral reform. Hopefully that will mean that in future you can vote for the party you like (not the one you hate least) and that vote will actually count.
Lib dem all the way, unlike allot of people I remember the last Con government and they don’t seem to have changed at all, still pandering to big business just as much as labour are, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Lib dems are the only party the support a devolution of the nanny and observation state. Along with their stance on the the recently passed digital rights bill and also their stance on digital rights as intellectual property as a whole has me thinking they get my vote. They will do more for the average citizen over the two other parties.
Usually I don’t get involved in politics on websites as it’s usually futile to try and change what someone thinks in the first place, that and the keyboard warrior attitude just makes it futile.
We are in debt up to our eyeballs and the idea is to somehow spend our way out of it. UK debt is currently regarded by the rating agencies as borderline, which means the interest payments will shoot up on Government bonds.
The currency markets in London are opening at 1am tomorrow so that people can adjust their positions depending on how it’s going (and I’ll be doing a nightshift providing IT support for a large financial services group, yay).
The level of public spending in this country is out of control, and the private sector (the bit that actually generates wealth) is starting to wonder why bother.
JSA has become a lifestyle choice, above someone whined that because they didn’t want to flip burgers after goin to uni. Sorry you fell for the lie, but not everyone gets to be an astronaut, maybe a more realisitic approach would have been to go and earn some money instead of hiding in Uni?
I started off getting an extra £10 a week on my JSA to go on an employment placement , and in the 14 years since I have worked my way up to a very good job.
In that time I have seen a Labour Govt come to power, betray those who believed that Labour would defend them, build a dependency culture where almost half the country is reliant on the state, either for employment or benefits, raided the hell out of pensions that people had saved into, sold the gold reserves at the bottom of the market, extended the debt when they should have been bringing it down, hammered wealth creators under IR35, sent my brother to war with useless kit, smear anyone who dares to disagree or point out fallacies in their arguments and infringe civil liberties to the extent that we are one step away from East Germany.
Up here in Scotland we have seen them force through the selling off of public assets to companies controlled by their friends and party donors, running around with serious gangsters and fiddling the hell out of postal votes.
Lewie, I respect the job you do with this site, and wish you all the best going forward, but to have a post which says “Don’t any of you dare vote Tory. Don’t you dare, you’ll not be welcome around these parts if you do.” Is niave at best and inflammatory at worst. That said it is your site, and I will defend your right to free speech. Here’s hoping for all out sakes that whoever is in power by the weekend can sort this mess out.
Have fun voting everyone!
I’m off to my job interview with the SNP’s Scottish Government.
(No really :D)
Good luck
(bah, couldn’t just say Good Luck as message too short – how’s this for padding?)
I just read this article from the Guardian (not pro Tory)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/05/uk-budget-deficit-worse-than-greece
With Brown’s commitment to keep spending, this should at least give some pause for thought if that really is the right policy to get us out of this mess.
Can I just add that the Labour government are also withdrawing JSA for long term unemployed. You get 6 months and then that’s it. Get a job or nothing.
I am very disappointed to see such an obviously ill-thought out comment on here from LewieP. Everyone is entitled to there opinion but to tar all Tory voters (Yes – I am one) with the same brush is poor. And to tar them with the BNP brush is downright offensive.
People should go to work. If they want the benefits of good living then people must earn it. I certainly do. I work hard and begrudge paying for people who obviously have seen it is easier to sponge off the system than to look for work. I am qualified – but if it came to it I would work in McDonalds. I would clean toilets. I would wipe old peoples arses. I have a family and aspirations for a higher standard of living. I am happy to go out and earn it. Only through this attitude can I feel satisfied with my contribution to society (not a wholly Labour trait).
Enjoy your £20 extra a year
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-welcome-to-cameron-land-1962318.html
well you’ve got a nice debate started here, regardless of whether people think it belongs on this blog or not. politics effects everything, even video games.
hung parliament FTW!
shit, politics *AFFECTS* everything
Politics effects plenty of things too!
Wow great post Lewie, this is exactly the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, sixth-form political insight i read this site for.
Don’t give up your day job eh, who knows with a Tory government you might find one.
I don’t much like getting into arguments over politics, but I felt offended by this (even though I voted Lib Dem) – personally, for me, it was a tough choice between the Tories and Lib Dems, since they were mainly proposing solutions to the same problems.
Someone said that the Tories are generally perceived as supporting the rich and the cost of the poor. True, that is the stereotype.
Labour was also perceived as actually being in the interests of the working class, but they’ve gone against that.
The Lib Dems were perceived as a good ideal that would never get in. Now they have a chance.
Stereotypes of the political parties don’t count for anything anymore.
Also, you mentioned that “many people didn’t grow up under the Tories so don’t remember what it was like.”
I believe we are the same age (just about) so I do remember. I honestly thought it was better than the last 13 years.
But, here’s a shock – David Cameron and his cabinet are not Thatcher and her cabinet, nor are they John Major and his. Different people are different!
And when you look into those people, some of them are terrible people. Pointing that out is fair.
Yes, some people are bad, but is Cameron one of those? Even if he is and pointing it out is fair, this blog entry didn’t point it out. It was simply an attack on anyone who has a different opinion or, god forbid, different priorities.
Minimum wage was Labour. That helped workers. It’s pretty hard to run a country. I thought Blair was doing alright until he became a mass murderer.
Tories could do anything. They’re already offering tax breaks for being straight and married. They’re already promising to kick people off unemployment to save the government money. They could just privatise something and it’d become as badly run as the trains, overnight. What if it’s schools? Care for old people? Garbage collection?
I’m glad you voted lib dems. Our electoral system is crap and the Lib Dems will reform it. I looked at the big three this time and picked libs, but next time I might have the freedom to vote greens and have it count. Some people really feel strongly about Tory voters, like Lewie does. I think I feel more like a Tory voter is someone who really doesn’t understand how they think, was fooled into thinking they’re just reasonable people with radical ideas, or is an actual crush-the-working-classes prick.
To give Lewie credit, he’s just provoking a discussion. He isn’t actually banning you from using the site or deleting comments if you’re a Tory – you’re leaving voluntarily, if at all.
Minimum wage was Labour (I haven’t checked so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt). As was attempting to increase income tax so it was 20% for everyone, rather than 10% for “the working class” and 20% for the “middle” and “upper” classes.
As was creating what Gordon Brown himself called a “welfare state” – a state where people consider working a lifestyle a choice, a state where in order to support those who choose not to work those of us who actually do have to pay more of our money in tax. They shifted the balance. There is no longer “working” “middle” and “upper” classes. There are “working” “upper” and “non-working” classes. Even if they did not start it off, they damned well encouraged it.
One criticism I saw earlier was that the Tories suggested stopping people from being on the dole, that if there is a job available that they can do, they should do it.
Each of the three parties suggested a variation of this. A solution to what I described above.
When I was in Uni I worked at a supermarket. I continued to work there after graduation while looking for another job. I did this rather than going on the dole, because I have pride, damnit.
I did it because I needed money. I did it because I wanted to contribute to society in some way, no matter how small, rather than doing nothing but take from it.
You think Tory voters are either ignorant or pricks? What about those who agree with their policies which don’t involve “screwing the working class”?
That’s pretty damned intolerant of you.
Some people have different opinions, or values. Not every who votes Tory is ignorant or a screw the working class prick. To assert otherwise is an incredibly ignorant and foolish assumption.
I voted Lib Dem and I feel that my vote was wasted, because that spineless asshole Alan Campbell got in again with a 5000ish majority over the Tories, while there were 7000 Lib Dem votes. Had we voted Tory, we might have at least gotten rid of that bastard.
What’s up Lewie? Does the Tory website not offer affiliate cashback so you’re throwing your toy’s out of the pram?
It’s called an apostrophe, and you don’t know how to use it. Oh yeah, I went there. Lets dance.
Ok let’s Dance ; )
It sounds rather like most of the people voting Tory don’t understand what the Tory party is. Short memories or too young, I guess.
I’d just like to say thanks to everyone voting, because I use Savygamer to check on UK deals to import to the Netherlands and the GBP has dropped quite a bit since yesterday!
And good luck with any future digital rights/Internet bills that will easily get passed by even more people without a clue now…
First time voter, voted Labour. Hopefully they’ll coalesce with Lib Dem.
Although a hung parliament wouldn’t be all that bad. Better than Tory Majority