Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)
  • so who thinks our politicians are doing a good job?
  • spchantler
    Free Member

    following on from the happy slapping of politicians thread, and given that stw is a microcosm of society and the great oracle, does anybody actually know of an instance when a politician (current) has done something decent? we tend to focus on the negative things in the media, is this because there isn’t any positive things? I’m not talking about major legislation, tho that can be included if it can be proved to have been brought about by a group of mp’s. maybe you’ve written to your mp about some issue and they’ve personally followed it up.
    we are so quick to moan about them, but moaning gets us nowhere, lets see some actual evidence that they are worth there salaries (and expenses).

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    I remember when Thatcher resigned…that was a good thing done by a politician

    Lights touch paper and steps away

    TBH there must be something but nothing springs to mind instantly
    Minimum wage?

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Politicians are generally only good at doing the job of being a politician.

    They will only look as far as the next election.

    Who ever got elected and said;

    “Look, it all seems to be going quite well so I’m not going to make any changes and we’ll see how things go, OK?”

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    willard
    Full Member

    *tumbleweed*

    jota180
    Free Member

    There’s less and less conviction politicians these days, most are either power mad or just doing it for a career

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    I think the MSPs are doing a great job, but the MPs should all be put in a big bag and thrown in the canal.

    druidh
    Free Member

    Some of the polling organisations do “satisfaction” surveys, particularly on the party leaders. One party leader regularly receives a high positive rating.

    ditch_jockey
    Free Member

    I’m generally satisfied with the performance of the SNP at Holyrood – think they’ve done a competent job, and not allowed themselves to be distracted by the constant background drone about independence from the opposition parties.

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    Who ever got elected and said;

    “Look, it all seems to be going quite well so I’m not going to make any changes and we’ll see how things go, OK?”

    Same thing happens with any management change. New guy has to be seen to be doing something, which usually means charging in and changing stuff just as a way of saying “I’ve arrived. I’m in charge around here now. Look at me making my big decisions”

    Also … “We tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress … ” (quote from somewhere)

    It’s all too easy to criticise politicians.

    Considering that very few of the voting riff-raff actually know what politicians spend their time doing, and all the stuff they have to deal with, it’s impossible to say whether they’re doing a good job.

    Just because we don’t always like their policies or decisions also doesn’t mean they’re not doing a good job.

    They’re also tainted due to numerous scandals over the years, such that the voting riff-raff are generally quite cynical an untrusting of govt.

    I’ve got a pretty good idea of the stuff my manager & his superiors hsve to deal with. This sounds bad enough. Especially with all the whingers and moaners. So I can only hazard a guess at how many times more difficult it is for politicians managing a whole country. With several million whingers and moaners.

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    you do realise how whingey and moany that sounded don’t you ?

    mt
    Free Member

    By what measure would you like?
    They are good at argueing with each other.
    They are good at acting like they give a sh.t.
    They are great at not actually seeing a good idea and putting stupid left/right idiotologies to one side and doing the right thing.
    They are great at never saying sorry we got it wrong.
    They are truly brilliant at screwing us all for there expenses that would be illegal (according to HMRC)for us to claim from our employer or own business.
    They are just brilliant a being career politicians. I’d swap the lot for a mixture of Thather, Bevan, Benn, Churchill, Brown (not that one), even Wilson (the lying git was entertaining) and many more with a conviction that they had to do a job.
    That from me was a mini rantette.

    edit-worse than normal spelling, comp school education. 🙂

    camo16
    Free Member

    So I can only hazard a guess at how many times more difficult it is for politicians managing a whole country.

    Surely only a small handful of politicians (the Cabinet) manage the whole country. Your average politician does nothing of the sort. Louise Ellman, here in Liverpool, certainly doesn’t manage us. So it’s not really like the

    stuff my manager & his superiors hsve to deal with

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    You have some serious respect issues for the people of this country that politicians serve – I suspect this attitude is shared by many politicians and is part of the problem – like our views are some sort of ill informed moaning and winging that has to be tolerated when it is thor job to minimise this and serve the people not hold them in contempt and call them riff raff, moaners or whingers

    The attitude is part of the problem IMHO

    binners
    Full Member

    Most politicians nowadays seem to spend their time in office pushing through legislation that will benefit the huge multinational’s who’s board they’ll pop up on, in a hugely remunerated consultancy role, once they’re voted out.

    I think the Nu labour lot were even more shameless about this than the tories

    I’ll predict the following when this lot get voted out

    Gideon and Dave will be appointed to the boards of various banks – their reward for kicking banking reform into the long grass

    Andrew Lansley – a shoe in for the board of a huge healthcare firm now making a killing out of the NHS

    Jeremy Hunt – On the board of Sky or News International

    Gove – seamlessly slotted into a private education provider now making a packet from free schools

    I could go on….

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Despite my MP-bashing posts, I think most do an OK job especially when they remember that they are our representatives and civil servants rather than being self-servants. We live in a mixed economy, in which the state plays a key role in allocating resources. Politicians need to focus on ensuring that this system is as efficient and as effective as possible. Of course, the civil servants play a key (the key?) role in this. Where they go wrong IMO is their compulsion to intervene in areas where they are neither needed nor qualified to play a role. The need to respond to events is a political addiction when 9/10 they would probably be better off doing n’owt.

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    You have some serious respect issues for the people of this country that politicians serve – I suspect this attitude is shared by many politicians and is part of the problem – like our views are some sort of ill informed moaning and winging that has to be tolerated when it is thor job to minimise this and serve the people not hold them in contempt and call them riff raff, moaners or whingers

    I don’t think it’s necessarily politicians’ job to minimise moaning and whinging.

    It’s their job to do what’s best for the country, which will mean making decisions and implementing policies that people don’t always like.

    You can’t please everybody all of the time.

    alex222
    Free Member

    I forgot to register to vote for the local elections so I have no say.

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    so who thinks our politicians are doing a good job?

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *breathes* hahahahahahahahahahaha!

    We need a total reboot of politics in the UK. Politicians need to be better connected with the public they serve and chosen for their real-world experience, not the length of time they’ve spent spouting flawed party dogma. None of the parties are worth voting for, they all know that they only need to appear to be slightly less crap than the next guy to be elected.

    spchantler
    Free Member

    I forgot to register to vote for the local elections so I have no say.

    http://www.spoilyourvote.co.uk/

    voting riff-raff

    surely you mean the electorate, the people who actually pay their wages? poor attitude there.
    so far then, no one has come up with anything positive to say (apart from snp’s) one person has called us riff raff for daring to express dissatisfaction

    which will mean making decisions and implementing policies that people don’t always like.

    this is your opportunity to mention something that politicians have done that people do like

    alex222
    Free Member

    I do normally vote but I did forget.

    camo16
    Free Member

    As a token protest vote against Louise ‘Dame of Dereliction’ Ellman, I voted for the only major party that had no feasible way of screwing the country up – the Lib Dems. 😯

    * sighs at futility of voting *

    sharki
    Free Member

    It’s their job to do what’s best for the countrybenefit of the next election

    Imo

    Sadly all the damage has been done over years of bad decisions/reforms.
    Each new policy attempting to repair the previous damage done, and in doing so ruins something else.
    Society just about gets used to system in place only to see change come along and unsettle the routine which pisses people.

    In essence governments only do right by themselves and their like, there’s no intent to please society as society will just in most cases tow the line, feeling powerless to make proper change for the good.

    It’s an unstoppable force that will rape and pillage humanity and the earth till it breaks.

    They do nothing positive because they don’t need to. They may mean well and tease you with promises and token favours but look into their souless eyes and tremble from the truth that stirs within…

    On the bright side the suns out. 😀

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    we are so quick to moan about them, but moaning gets us nowhere, lets see some actual evidence that they are worth there salaries (and expenses).

    Michael Gove is certainly doing a job with his education brief. He’s getting stuck into it with gusto. No one could accuse him of sitting on his arse or lacking conviction. Likewise, I don’t think anyone would seriously argue that reforms in education are not required.

    Whether he’s doing a good job – harder to say. He’s clearly one of the most polarising figures in the government. A dangerous idealogue poisoning our children’s future versus a courageous raiser of standards in the face of mass teacher intransigence and incompetence. Take your pick. Even if you try and get behind the rhetoric there’s the simple fact that education policy takes years to mature (like a fine red, or a malignant prostate tumour), so it is an area where it’s harder than usual to predict the future.
    His policy to make it easier to bin incompetent teachers was seen as correct – I even heard some teachers grudgingly admit he was right on that one.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    All politicians are great while they’re thinking altruistically. I think they all do…for the first couple of weeks after their first ever election win. After that, they seem to become very self motivated. Seen it happen at local level and see no reason to think the “big boys” are any different.

    So, combining the two related threads, who is doing a good job? All those in their first two weeks. How needs a slap? Anyone who’s been there longer than two weeks.

    yunki
    Free Member

    I’ve not noticed any real world changes that will drastically effect my family’s lifestyle positively or negatively..

    same as usual then..

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    jota180 – Member

    There’s less fewer and less fewer convicted politicians these days, most are either power mad or just doing it for a career

    FTFY

    mt
    Free Member

    Onzadog wins the prize for being right (almost). There are some who are into it for themselves only from day 1. Mind you they are just a reflection of the society we live in. There are greedy gits who don’t care who the stand on, there are nice people and there are the moaners who do nothing at all like us STW. 🙂

    gusamc
    Free Member

    I don’t think we’re best served by a 5 year term system and I’d prefer a (much smaller)management committee as opposed to the current system which I feel encourages mindless point scoring arguing, short termism and even malicious management(e.g PFI – it looked good on the headlines, shiny new hospital, a bit later – how f**king much for how long, long term non all party agreed contracts where it cost more to cancel than complete etc)

    As I don’t see that happening at the very least I’d like to see a long term link between MPs and their benefits, esp pension, such that instead of being guaranteed it was linked to overall country wellbeing, you could aurgue that loosing you seat is the performance link, but I’d suggest too many seats were predetermined to stop this being a true control.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Being a politician is a pretty thankless task**, and in the case of MPs if done correctly requires considerable input, very long and unsociable hours with very little personal time, and not particularly high wages, in fact for many being elected to Parliament can represent a fairly substantial wage cut.

    ** Many people seem to think, or at least behave as if, MPs are self-appointed.

    Tiger6791
    Full Member

    I would say they are all very good at not being apathetic.

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