Who did you vote for in the UK General Election?

[MPUK News]

Who did you vote for in the UK General Election?

Who did you vote for this General Election? If you're not 18, then tell us who you would have voted for.
Agree, disagree, either way, air you views!

[Afty]

Protest Vote.

But perhaps most worryingly, my voter number was noted on the ballet paper stub, meaning my vote can be traced back to me... this is *WRONG*. Desperately and horribly wrong, and while I was there SEVERAL people expressed reservations about it.

This is something I intend to write to my MP abouit.

[Wizzo]

That is indeed very bad. The whole point is for voting to be anonymous.

[Boffykins]

I noticed that too. I didn't notice anything tying the stub to the paper itself, but I didn't look too hard

[Afty]

I called them on it, and they said that the stubs were sealed and could only be opened with a court order.

I felt like giving them a lecture on how easy court orders can become when a particular behaviour is not "acceptable" any more (like voting for a particular party for example) and how records like that can be brought up in 50 years after we have turned into a police state, but it wasn't really the volunteers fault.

What I want to know is why our national press have not gone mental about this sort of thing...

[Cabe]

I too noticed this, however when asked they said the stubs were mearly to show that I had voted and neither the stub nor the ballot paper are serial numbered.

Short of some invisible markings I couldnt spot anything.

[Tsung]

Actually should you be asking anyone who they vote for?. It's not really right to ask this sort of question, especially as the poll can be traced to the people who decide to click on it. :/
I was suprised like afty when my poll card number was read outloud, and the people handing me the voting slips appear to write it down. It's the first time I've notice this happening..
O well never mind, in 4 years the ID card will be about and we will all be identified by our vote using it. (im sure!)

[Cabe]

your allowed to ask thier vote, its a persons right to tell them who they voted for.

What is illigal is gaining the knowledge without consent.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by afty
Protest Vote.

But perhaps most worryingly, my voter number was noted on the ballet paper stub, meaning my vote can be traced back to me... this is *WRONG*. Desperately and horribly wrong, and while I was there SEVERAL people expressed reservations about it.

This is something I intend to write to my MP abouit.

</60 yo AOP?>

Oh dear god. :rolleyes:

[Afty]

Originally posted by daedalus
Oh dear god. :rolleyes: Are you in possession of so much as even a single clue?

[daedalus]

You're actually going to write to your MP?! How old are you?:confused:

[SilentMike]

Originally posted by daedalus
You're actually going to write to your MP?! How old are you?:confused:

Because he cares about his confidentiality n crap...

[daedalus]

Life is too short. I would suggest more sex and/or drugs and/or rockn roll is required.

[Zenith]

Daedalus:
Believe it or not, writing to your MP gets results. I wrote my my MP in 2001 about my concerns with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill. I got a written answer back about 10 days later. My MP had asked Charles Clarke about it (when he was a humble Home Office minister) and he wrote a reply back, quoting my points one by one with a detailed reason for each. Attached to this letter was another letter from my MP herself saying thanks for raising the issue and she'd keep an open eye on the bill as it went through Parliament. Okay, it didn't make me feel any better about it, but at least they took the time to do what they were elected for... representing Joe Public.

Afty:
If you thought that a General Election is anonymous, then you're sorely mistaken. Attaching your voter number to the ballot ticket has been going on since the Ballot Act was passed in 1872. The Govt. wanted secret ballots, but the Lords opposed them, so the Lords allowed votes to be secret, but also made them traceable.

I'm just surprised that it's taken until now for you to notice. I noticed it the first time I voted in 1992 and raised it with the clerks then. When I had it explained to me, it makes sense. Ballot papers need to be serialised to prevent ballot fraud. I have no problem with that. Attaching a voter number to a particular serial number shows that someone has voted once and once only.

Of course, some people vote for fringe or minority parties. It could be argued that those voters be traced and monitored. It depends how 1984 you think we've got. With the advent of OCR, it is now feasible to get a detailed breakdown of voting patterns by cross referencing the actual ballot paper with the Electoral Register, and then cross referencing that with the Census results from 2001. Statisticians could then break down the voting patterns by age, gender, ethnicity etc etc etc.

[her0n]

Yup they did that with mine too :eek:

[MONK]

Yep they have been doing it for ages.

I would worry about the riaa more than that though....

[MaDmAx]

cba to vote. That and it don't interest me. Its not as though things they say actally ends up happening....flame me if you will but thats just the way i feel about it all.

[Dux0r]

im too young to vote, so i didnt realy look into it that much as there was no reason to.

altho i dont have anything against they way labour has run the country, as a student they have done some cool things (like paying me to go to school)

but if i were able to vote, i would of definatly looked into each party a bit more.

however i do know that i wouldnt of voted conservative, they just seem to be taking a stab at labours past actions with every given opertunity instead of talking posotive about the future.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by MaDmAx
cba to vote. That and it don't interest me. Its not as though things they say actally ends up happening....flame me if you will but thats just the way i feel about it all.


Yeeep, it really is not worth the time and effort. They're all wangs who will do whatever they want anyway. I'd vote if you actually voted on the issues, like should we go to war, etc instead of viting some turd in and letting them do *

[Afty]

Originally posted by Zenith
Afty:
If you thought that a General Election is anonymous, then you're sorely mistaken. Attaching your voter number to the ballot ticket has been going on since the Ballot Act was passed in 1872. The Govt. wanted secret ballots, but the Lords opposed them, so the Lords allowed votes to be secret, but also made them traceable.Wow, I will have to look into this more.

The "noting of your number" though has NEVER been done before at a polling station I've been at - and Im sure of this because of the approx 10 or so people in there while I was, three of us brought it up, and a fourth mentioned it seemed strange in agreement...
Originally posted by Zenith
It depends how 1984 you think we've got. It's not so much how far we've gone, it's what might happen in ten years. Twenty. Thirty.

In the US, they are currently neutering peoples careers in comms if they have donated money to a Democrat party by banning them from taking part in international discussions representing the US... and that's just a mainstream party!

Once a record of your allegiance is on file, it can come back to haunt you at any time in your life, or your childrens live. Police States come about staggeringly fast when people are not prepared, and at that point it is better to have as few details as possible on file.

[Afty]

Originally posted by MaDmAx
cba to vote. That and it don't interest me. Its not as though things they say actally ends up happening....flame me if you will but thats just the way i feel about it all. Then do what I did, turn up and spoil your ballot paper. I, for example, wrote "Not until I have proportional representation" on mine in capital letters.

Spoiled ballots are counted as such - and a significant increase in spoiled ballots will serve as an indicator that a significant (and increasing) number of people are dissafected beyond just the usual apathy.

[her0n]

Originally posted by Dux0r

altho i dont have anything against they way labour has run the country, as a student they have done some cool things (like paying me to go to school)


That only started last year and it is means tested by your parent(s) income. Unfortunately I missed out on that.. my sister gets paid £30 a WEEK by the EMA to go to college.... supposedly its for 'books etc' but I mean come on.. she spends it on hair dye and body piercing jewellery type stuff... that money could so easily be spent by the government in other ways... not amused :mad:

[Silk75]

Originally posted by afty
Then do what I did, turn up and spoil your ballot paper. I, for example, wrote "Not until I have proportional representation" on mine in capital letters.

Spoiled ballots are counted as such - and a significant increase in spoiled ballots will serve as an indicator that a significant (and increasing) number of people are dissafected beyond just the usual apathy.

I spoiled my ballot paper with 'Not voting until you engage voters again'

Main political parties are terrible about talking to voters about the real issues we need to face into (Nuclear Power, Pension reform, NHS reform, The Euro).

This has been the worst, most negative campaign I can remember. They have just slagged each other off, rather than think about what they can offer us in years to come.

[wolfnet]

My girlfreinds grandfather used to be the mayor of wigan and all i can say is all MP's a corrupt. He told me if i wanted to get a council house he would be able to get me one within a month but when i asked in town hall they said i was low risk and would take atleast a year and then i would only be able to ave a flat.

I didnt bother voting and never do cos who ever wins we will all get screwed somehow.

[Er00]

I had this discussion last night, and basically came to the same conclusion that I do every time I think about it, that it would make a lot more sense to vote on things as they arose, as opposed to voting for a group of people to vote on those issues. The problem for a lot of people is that there is no party which specifically meets all of their needs and represents all of their views, which means a lot of people don't bother voting.

The other conclusion which I always come to is that that's unlikely and tehrefore they should just bring in proprtional representation, thus removing the common issue of people thinking "I want X to win, but they won't, so I'll have to vote for Y instead so that Z doesn't win". It basically turns into voting for the party you dislike the least who has a chance of winning, rather than the party who people actually want to vote for.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Dux0r

altho i dont have anything against they way labour has run the country, as a student they have done some cool things (like paying me to go to school)


Hmm, take money away from Uni Students who need it.

Give money to College Students who don't.

Yeah thats a real good policy!!!!!


Labour is(as you will hopefully realise at some point) all about statistics. Trying to make themselves look good to the stupid people. When in fact they do very little for the country as a whole.

[Matt]

What I find most interesting is the amount of people who couldn't vote.

Not getting the postal votes in time.

Being registered as postal when they didn't want to be so being unable to vote on the day.


When I went to vote there was a couple of people arguing becuase they weren't allowed to vote. They gave them a phone number to ring, and said they should have phoned it a few days ago. They said they did and had been told to sort it out at the polling station!

[Bluey]

Originally posted by Matt
Hmm, take money away from Uni Students who need it.

Give money to College Students who don't.

Yeah thats a real good policy!!!!!


Labour is(as you will hopefully realise at some point) all about statistics. Trying to make themselves look good to the stupid people. When in fact they do very little for the country as a whole.

I've never seen why UNI students, OR college students should get grants. And don't give me any gumf about paying more back in taxes in the long run.

WORK your way through Uni.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Blue_Monkey
I've never seen why UNI students, OR college students should get grants. And don't give me any gumf about paying more back in taxes in the long run.

WORK your way through Uni.

In Theory Yes.

In Theory Communism works.

[Cheez]

When it costs over £10,000 a year to go to uni, and you need to work full time pretty much to earn that. Working your way through uni suddenly seems somewhat difficult...

[Matt]

Originally posted by Blue_Monkey
I've never seen why UNI students, OR college students should get grants. And don't give me any gumf about paying more back in taxes in the long run.

WORK your way through Uni.

Or a better answer.

Most people are pretty much forced to go to university.

20k of debt is very depressing.

Depressed people commit suicide.

Good enough for you?

[Joey]

Blue_monkey: I disagree - as someone from a low income family I tried going to university and lasted just a term. I'd already lost my social life through holding down a full time job during the sixth form (and consequently seen my AAAA A-level prediction fall to ABBD) and couldn't stomach working my ass off thorugh uni as well, so I dropped out.

Until we have a scholarship system where the brightest students from poorer backgrounds are adequately supported, i'll consider the policy of charging for higher education to be a national disgrace.

[Bluey]

Ever considered an apprenticeship?

Works for me

[Matt]

Its not really like that though.

When at college/school its not really heres your choices.

get a job
apprenticeship
goto uni.

Its more like, your predicted A's you MUST go to Uni.

Your Predicted E's you MUST do this.

etc. etc.

They say you have a choice. But its not really.

[Bluey]

I can kind of see where you're coming from, but when i was given the choice of Uni or an apprenticeship i preferred an apprenticeship because you're actually doing the Job. And getting the degree's / qualification + money.

I guess the better the grades at A lvl the better teh employer you can get, or the more you can get out of them.

[Joey]

my worry is that we are going to be turning away very talented people who could become very talented surgeons or research scientists who do the country a great amount of good, simply because theie parents aren't earning £35k a year and can afford to support them through 4 years of spiralling debt.

[Bluey]

It still doesn't cut it with me to give someone a free ride through Uni.

There's nothing anyone can say to me that will convince me otherwise.

[TelexStar]

Originally posted by MaDmAx
cba to vote. That and it don't interest me. Its not as though things they say actally ends up happening....flame me if you will but thats just the way i feel about it all.

Do you care about the price of petrol? Do you care about the price of beer? Do you care about the price of cigarettes? What about the cost of buying a house, perhaps in the future?

If so then you care about politics.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by TelexStar
Do you care about the price of petrol? Do you care about the price of beer? Do you care about the price of cigarettes? What about the cost of buying a house, perhaps in the future?

If so then you care about politics.


Wrong. Its all ******** and once their in they can do whatever anyway. Pointless to waste your time thinking you can make a diffrence. Whoever said choice is an illusion is spot on.

[Boffykins]

Angst angst angst. So what you're saying is that all these manifestos and policies become one and the same whichever party gets in? Get a clue

[daedalus]

Nothing to do with angst. Nothing actually changes that really affects anyone whatever happens. Just over dramatising it pretending that it does.

[Matt]

Originally posted by daedalus
Nothing to do with angst. Nothing actually changes that really affects anyone whatever happens. Just over dramatising it pretending that it does.


Erm.

I'm now £20,000 in debt.

If I buy a house that will make it £140,000 in debt.

Had someone sensible been in and controlled the economy, rather than turning it into potentially one of the biggest busts in history.

Then I would be 0 in debt, and only around £60,000 if I brought a house.

[daedalus]

yeah exactly. that dosnt mean any one of the parties would have magically realised that dream for you. It's not like anyone has ever said. "I'm glad I voted for xxx party, my house is now cheaper to buy!" etc etc etc

[Optimus]

I would have voted/spoiled my paper, but I couldn't...
I'm 70 miles away from my registered polling station and couldn't get back due to dwindling finances caused by rising student fees & house prices causing spiralling rent costs...
It's either pay £10 on the petrol to drive home and vote or actually eat...

In the short term, i'd rather live... In the long term, i'll just vote next time...

</shrugs>

(nb - they wouldn't let me register in Swansea because im a student... As a part-time resident of the city, they said that I would potentially skew the vote as it doesn't affect me... WTF!!!)

[Boffykins]

That's bs. Girlfriend is at Winchester uni and she registered to vote there fine instead of Brighton. wtf crack are they smoking?

[TelexStar]

Originally posted by daedalus
yeah exactly. that dosnt mean any one of the parties would have magically realised that dream for you. It's not like anyone has ever said. "I'm glad I voted for xxx party, my house is now cheaper to buy!" etc etc etc


So because all the parties have failed you in some immeasurable way you've decided to abandon democracy all together?

Many people on this thread have demonstrated how you can act on democracy to express your views no matter how disillusioned you are with the available parties. You don't appear to have any views at all.

Apathy, my friend, seems to have taken a good hold on you. It has nothing to do with magic!

[Semajal]

locally i could have voted for the legalise cannabis alliance.

Voted conservative because whilst i am no a fan of howard, i do like (and have met and talked to) our local MP.

[Moose]

Originally posted by Blue_Monkey
Ever considered an apprenticeship?

Works for me

Blue_Monkey if you managed to find an apprenticeship in IT then good for you, because I've never seen one. Do you think that all Uni students are a waste of time and money? I hope you're not suggesting surgeon apprenticeships!

Originally posted by Matt
Erm.

I'm now £20,000 in debt.

If I buy a house that will make it £140,000 in debt.

Had someone sensible been in and controlled the economy, rather than turning it into potentially one of the biggest busts in history.

Then I would be 0 in debt, and only around £60,000 if I brought a house.

Who do you mean by 'someone'? If you are refering to the Labour government, I think you'll find that the Bank of England has a greater influence in the economy, as they now set the interest rates.

As for house price increases I don't how you can directly blame the government for that either. Blame all the people who have selfishly screwed over the housing market by buying second homes and buy-to-lets. They took advantage of rising prices and low inflation rates and gobbled up the market, making a sh*t load of cash in the process. And who are most of these people? The upwardly-mobile yuppies of the eighties who now middle aged, have kept their sod society I'm in it for myself attitude. Which was pretty much the war cry of Maggie Thatcher.

I'm not a Labour supporter but I don't think you can blame governments for the actions of individuals. You could also blame all those flipping housing programmes on TV, who make sound perfectly natural to spend a quater of a million quid on four walls and a roof!

[Blind]

Originally posted by Moose
Blue_Monkey if you managed to find an apprenticeship in IT then good for you, because I've never seen one. Do you think that all Uni students are a waste of time and money? I hope you're not suggesting surgeon apprenticeships!



Who do you mean by 'someone'? If you are refering to the Labour government, I think you'll find that the Bank of England has a greater influence in the economy, as they now set the interest rates.

As for house price increases I don't how you can directly blame the government for that either. Blame all the people who have selfishly screwed over the housing market by buying second homes and buy-to-lets. They took advantage of rising prices and low inflation rates and gobbled up the market, making a sh*t load of cash in the process. And who are most of these people? The upwardly-mobile yuppies of the eighties who now middle aged, have kept their sod society I'm in it for myself attitude. Which was pretty much the war cry of Maggie Thatcher.

I'm not a Labour supporter but I don't think you can blame governments for the actions of individuals. You could also blame all those flipping housing programmes on TV, who make sound perfectly natural to spend a quater of a million quid on four walls and a roof!

Quite easy to prevent house inflation. Regulate lenders ensuring they don't overlend to people. Also taxing the crap out of BTL owners would help. Thats what pushed prices out of reach.

[MONK]

Originally posted by Matt
Erm.

I'm now £20,000 in debt.

If I buy a house that will make it £140,000 in debt.

Had someone sensible been in and controlled the economy, rather than turning it into potentially one of the biggest busts in history.

Then I would be 0 in debt, and only around £60,000 if I brought a house.

This is a joke yes?!?!?!?!?!?!?


Have you any clue, as to how the housing market works?

Originally posted by daedalus
yeah exactly. that dosnt mean any one of the parties would have magically realised that dream for you. It's not like anyone has ever said. "I'm glad I voted for xxx party, my house is now cheaper to buy!" etc etc etc

Really depends if you vote for someone who said they wanted to take down stamp duty or try limit second house buying for none home ownership, e.g. renting. In which case in a single budget cycle you could indeed be saying "I'm glad I voted for xxx party, my house is now cheaper to buy!"

[Skye]

i dont know about anyone else's 6th form experience, but in our's we were forced to fill out UCAS applications or we were in pretty deep trouble with our head of year, or our tutor. you HAD to put down at least 3 choices, and this then encouraged a feeling of "OMFG IF I DONT GET A PLACE AT A UNI ALL MY FRIENDS WILL LAUGH AT ME AND PICK ON ME" im only at uni now because everyone else did... I am also from a low income family, and infact, lost contact with my parents 2months before starting uni, no support, i had a full time job from finishing 6th form to starting uni, and then went to a part time job after starting, but im sorry, £125 a week is just not enough to pay for your way through university!!! If you are lucky, like i was, you got days off, or a few 1/2 days, and were able to work overtime, but being a student of social sciences, its a very time demanding course. I have now had to stop working and rely on those LOANS (not free btw all you tax payers) to survive. I am fully aware that it is coming up to the summer, which is why im now looking for another job to fit around the lans.

[Optimus]

Originally posted by Skye
you HAD to put down at least 3 choices, and this then encouraged a feeling of "OMFG IF I DONT GET A PLACE AT A UNI ALL MY FRIENDS WILL LAUGH AT ME AND PICK ON ME" what a bunch of children :rolleyes:

[tiSSue]

ffs, no1 forced anybody to goto uni....

i did well at college, but didnt fancy further education, so went to get a job, im now in a fairly lushti job, working on a first line support desk, with alot of prospects to move up... suprise suprise, out of 5 of us on the first line, im the only one with no degree, and we're earning the same very similar amounts of money, except they are over the threshold and have to pay back a bit every month...

all in all im glad i didnt goto uni, as for IT i think it is pointless...

[Matt]

Originally posted by MONK
This is a joke yes?!?!?!?!?!?!?


Have you any clue, as to how the housing market works?



Yes I find it really funny how this Government is pretty much forcing me out of this country if I ever want to buy a house.

I laugh at it all the time.

Don't find excuses for them, they run the country, they can do something about it, it IS their fault - 100%.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Moose

Who do you mean by 'someone'? If you are refering to the Labour government, I think you'll find that the Bank of England has a greater influence in the economy, as they now set the interest rates.

As for house price increases I don't how you can directly blame the government for that either. Blame all the people who have selfishly screwed over the housing market by buying second homes and buy-to-lets. They took advantage of rising prices and low inflation rates and gobbled up the market, making a sh*t load of cash in the process. And who are most of these people? The upwardly-mobile yuppies of the eighties who now middle aged, have kept their sod society I'm in it for myself attitude. Which was pretty much the war cry of Maggie Thatcher.

I'm not a Labour supporter but I don't think you can blame governments for the actions of individuals. You could also blame all those flipping housing programmes on TV, who make sound perfectly natural to spend a quater of a million quid on four walls and a roof!


Labour passed the Interest rates onto the Bank of England.


The fact of house prices is

The Blair family have a lot of money invested in property, so the price won't fall, so were all screwed!

[Moose]

Originally posted by Matt
Labour passed the Interest rates onto the Bank of England.


The fact of house prices is

The Blair family have a lot of money invested in property, so the price won't fall, so were all screwed!
Yes, the interest rate control was passed to the Bank of England to stop politicans messing with the rates, especially around election time.

If politicans can no longer change interest rates because of personal interests, then how does the Blair's house purchasing effect rate change and therefore the state of the housing market?

If you want to hate Tony Blair and Labour fine, but have a reason based in reality. You know choice of ties, cheesey grin, saying you know too often.

[MONK]

Originally posted by Matt

The fact of house prices is

The Blair family have a lot of money invested in property, so the price won't fall, so were all screwed!

Yes it's all one big conspiracy against you buying a house!

Dear god... well let me clue you in on a few things.

“The fact of house prices is” in fact a massive short fall in housing being built. If you read the barker report you will note that there is a need for a huge amount of housing to be built +70K per up to around 120K year.

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consultations_and_legislation/barker/consult_barker_index.cfm

A couple of problem exist with building this housing, of which one is not the blair family buying property.

Currently there is a lack of skilled construction workers in the industry this has caused a shortage in the rate at which building can be achieved. If we take a look at Heathrow terminal 5 you will see that they are getting in apprentices due to the shortage.

Due to the unresponsiveness in the housing supply market this and a high level of migration from the north to the south this started a housing prices boom. This link nicely in with another problem, plaining! The refusal rates in council planning offices (not government) for major housing development was at 15% in 96 - 99 but this jumped to 25% by 2002. To take a very local example a local housing developer is building in Gosport a VERY heavily congested town.

They want to add a couple of thousand homes into Gosport over the next 5 years, due to the massive problem this will cause, a lot of the applications get blocked. Meaning there isn't enough housing and we have the same problem all over the region. There is one small field near where I live they wanted over 300 homes to be added with no facilities and no off road parking. This again was blocked. People can add 10 – 20K without a problem as there is no room for housing here.

When you also take into account reasonable consumer confidence, high consumer spending, a stable economy then it's not surprising the house price market took off. So far I have not even mentioned the effect of smaller house holds more people living on there own and the huge market for buy to let that has sprung up.


Don't find excuses for them, they run the country, they can do something about it, it IS their fault - 100%.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear

They are not all powerful, and they can try and do something about it, doesn't mean it will work though. What would you have them do then......?

[Matt]

Your finding excuses!

Who runs the country?

Were these problems around before Labour were in power?


Is there more Houses then there was before Labour came to power

Yes there is!

Is there more people in the UK since Labour came to power

No there isn't*


You work it out!




* Well maybe with all the illegal immigration.

[Afty]

Originally posted by Matt
Is there more Houses then there was before Labour came to power

Yes there is!Sure about that? How many? Care to quote some statistics?
Originally posted by Matt
Is there more people in the UK since Labour came to power

No there isn't*So the asterisk means you don't really know? I'd bet my car there are more people in the UK now than when Labour came into power - it's over half a century since we had no annual population growth in this country.

In other words you're guessing (wrongly) and you don't really know what the root causes are, you're just being reactionary and alarmist.

I hear The Sun is cheap, go read it.

[Matt]

Okay fine, add significant to the questions.

Its goes up by about 0.3% (Census)


More Houses - Erm look out of your window.


No I don't read the sun, can't afford it, gotta save up for a House!

[MONK]

Originally posted by Matt


Is there more Houses then there was before Labour came to power

Yes there is!



This is true there are more homes in the UK, not shocking really we don't tend to knock to many down a year. Homes in UK 24.48 Million, average number per house hold 2.36

Also as to my comment before about people living on there own if we look at the real number not something just made up.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=8705

We can see there is a swing to single or double person occupancy and away from the more traditional 3 or 4 person occupancy. Now if you are correct about there being less people then this is no problem what so ever, as long as it is in proportion (can you guess if you were right about that!)

http://www.rtpi.org.uk/resources/news-in-planning/2002/q2/1464/146403.html
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/uk.asp

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=350 (Notice
One-person households up to 30%)


Originally posted by Matt
Is there more people in the UK since Labour came to power

No there isn't*



Wrong

In 1997 there was a population of 58.3 Million

In 2003 there was a population of 59.5 Million

The current projection of 2005 60 Million

That is an increase of 1.7 Million people in the space of 8 years.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=760
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.more.ukpoptable.html


Now if you read through there you may notice demand peaks at about 200 – 220K houses a year and supply peaks about 140K, this has obviously caused a major problem.


Originally posted by Matt

Your finding excuses!

Who runs the country?




No..... you are massively over simplifying the problem and just complaining at who is in power. You may want to check when the economy started to pick up and along with consumer confidence, then take into account the continued drop in unemployment since about 1990 – 2005 and this is really not a shocker.

Now if you want to know what the current government is doing to try avert this, have a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3886875.stm

If you read into it, it seems a fairly solid plan at first and first time buyers get a big cash boost by having grants (around 60K) to knock the price down for them.

Of course we are hiding some facts here

There is depopulation in some parts of the north and Scotland (hence it wants immigrants.) The problem is people don't want to live there they want to stay where they are, well that just isn't going to work in the long run. While the government is getting homes built and I have no doubt the house price will crash back down in the next 2 – 4 years, there is no infrastructure to handle it.

So while you worry about not being able to buy a house, by the time you can, you really won't want to live there, it's going to be over populated.

[Zenith]

I'm in awe! :)
A well researched and referenced piece of writing from Monk.


As for the Scotland being underpopulated bit, I want to move my family up there at some point in the medium term future. Any assistance will be good, but thankfully house prices in Scotland are a tad lower than the rest of the UK.
A £150k household in Scotland would cost about £170k-£180k in the lower parts of the UK (rough guesstimate).

[Matt]

Hmm, call it a draw?


One small point.

Its all very well the Government investing money in housing, but I bet it will bypass the majority, and help the minority who are on benefits and don't work for a living.

[Flufball]

There is depopulation in some parts of the north and Scotland (hence it wants immigrants.)

I've no idea why, Its nice up here in scotland.

[KingDaveRa]

Well, I voted.

I voted Labour.

I suppose you could say it was a slightly wasted vote, seeing as our local constituency is Tory, always has been, and increased their majority. Still, I excercised my right to vote. I'd much rather a Labour government than Tory. After the Thatcher years where she killed this country, followed by Major slowly killing off public services, they don't deserve to be back in power.

I'm all for things like the EU, the Euro and the fact we do seem better off since having a Labour government. I'd be keen to see a different PM though. Blair was good at first, but he's gone to pieces since Iraq. You can shake up the cabinet all you like, but if the PM gets stuck in their ways you're pretty much buggered. I think Gordon Brown could give it a good whack. He's got the best part of 4/5 years to try!

I know a lot of people don't agree with this - that's fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it.

[Baz]

has this vote been tampered with or is the electoral demographic on these forums really that evenly spread?