ChatterBank3 mins ago
Another U-Turn By Dave
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Another u-turn it would seem. When Labour said that are going to do this after they win the 2015 election, Dave said that it was a con, but now he thinks its a good idea. A conversion on the road to Damascus perhaps ? Welcome anyway of course.
Another u-turn it would seem. When Labour said that are going to do this after they win the 2015 election, Dave said that it was a con, but now he thinks its a good idea. A conversion on the road to Damascus perhaps ? Welcome anyway of course.
Answers
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10:23 Fri 29th Nov 2013
When Labour announced in their Party Conference that they were going to freeze energy prices, the Tories laughed out aloud and said it wasn't going to work. But they have now had a change of heart, brought about, no doubt, buy the popularity of the Labour position. All to be welcomed of course.
But where Labour will introduce legislation, and force the energy companies to freeze prices, all the Tories are going to do is to ask nicely.
Well, thats OK then isn't it ?
But where Labour will introduce legislation, and force the energy companies to freeze prices, all the Tories are going to do is to ask nicely.
Well, thats OK then isn't it ?
I'm glad that Dave has decided to do a u-turn here. I just think that it casts doubt on his stand on future issues if he continues to change his mind. Here is a list of his u-turns ( sorry thats its from the Guardian but I couldn't find a similar list in the Daily Mail...not sure why )
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So why are you carping on about it then? Personally I'd be horrified if any governement stuck to its manifesto/other "promises" come what may. We all must react and make decisions on the latest available information. All this lefty whinning just confirms that you are more interested in scoring political points that getting the best decisions.
//But as a "leftie" I appear to be in the minority here so I need to fight a little harder.
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You are joking of course, this is a predominantly left wing site. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen the lefties bullying someone who does not conform to their views, especially newcomers.
As to you post, I am not sure there is anything to gain. Fuel prices are wholesale and outside the control of any Government or company. Until the Wholesale and distribution are split and wholesale is Nationalised (as per the the Rail network) I dont see we will have any real change.
The problem is the majority of the public are thick or ignorant and dont think beyond the end of their nose, hence these knee jerk reactions from politicians (of all sides)
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You are joking of course, this is a predominantly left wing site. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen the lefties bullying someone who does not conform to their views, especially newcomers.
As to you post, I am not sure there is anything to gain. Fuel prices are wholesale and outside the control of any Government or company. Until the Wholesale and distribution are split and wholesale is Nationalised (as per the the Rail network) I dont see we will have any real change.
The problem is the majority of the public are thick or ignorant and dont think beyond the end of their nose, hence these knee jerk reactions from politicians (of all sides)
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If you care to click on the above link, you will see that it is from The Telegraph and - at 37 - contains MORE government u-turns than the Guardian's one. Not only that, but it was compiled in October 2012, so there is a whole year's-worth of others to add! We're well into the forties now, including the makings of two more in the past 48 hours...energy prices and cigarette packaging.
Of course governments change tack, but at over forty such changes in 3½ years - one a month on average - one cannot help but deduce that this government is just fluttering in the wind!
If you care to click on the above link, you will see that it is from The Telegraph and - at 37 - contains MORE government u-turns than the Guardian's one. Not only that, but it was compiled in October 2012, so there is a whole year's-worth of others to add! We're well into the forties now, including the makings of two more in the past 48 hours...energy prices and cigarette packaging.
Of course governments change tack, but at over forty such changes in 3½ years - one a month on average - one cannot help but deduce that this government is just fluttering in the wind!
Manifesto commitments are important. How else is the voter supposed to gauge the ideological direction of a political party? What is often wrong in this country is the tribal nature of politics; All too often people will vote based around a partisan gut feeling, rather than what the manifesto commitments of a political party might mean for them and the country.
And consequently a manifesto pledge provides a useful benchmark for measuring the depth of a governments commitment to its ideological values. Chopping and changing manifesto policy on the hoof, reacting purely to populist desire or media criticism should not be desired, since it represents an abandonment of considered principles ( manifesto commitments) in favour of the purely popular vote - power at any cost.
So it becomes a balancing act; Of course a government must be alert to fast changing circumstances and be willing to modify legislation or ideology if they fly in the face of prevailing currents, but governments need to be careful about deviating from manifesto pledges; Doing this too often demonstrates pitiful planning and naked populism and risks alienating your core voters; Failure to respond at all to current events and modify manifesto commitments risk being seen as being arrogant or out of touch or hidebound.
But both the media and the public are conditioned to think that a significant deviation from a manifesto commitment ( a u-turn) represents weakness, flipfloppiness, lack of resolve - and this image was enshrined by Maggie Thatcher,very fond of the Iron Lady description with its implications of adamantine resolve, when she made the now rather famous " U turn if you want to - speech".
Where one party rubbishes anothers political suggestion for partisan party political purposes - as the Tory party did when addressing Labours calls for a price freeze from the energy companies - and then effectively appearing to follow exactly the same path themselves shortly after when it became apparent that the original idea was hugely popular to the electorate- could rightly be termed a U-turn, could rightly be considered both hypocritical and cynical, and so opens the Government and the Tories up to those charges.
That's not Tory- bashing for the sake of it, that's a fair assessment of the current situation regarding cost of living issues and energy prices right now. It's just the political reality. Interesting to note that the Government are now denying that such an approach has been made at all :)
And consequently a manifesto pledge provides a useful benchmark for measuring the depth of a governments commitment to its ideological values. Chopping and changing manifesto policy on the hoof, reacting purely to populist desire or media criticism should not be desired, since it represents an abandonment of considered principles ( manifesto commitments) in favour of the purely popular vote - power at any cost.
So it becomes a balancing act; Of course a government must be alert to fast changing circumstances and be willing to modify legislation or ideology if they fly in the face of prevailing currents, but governments need to be careful about deviating from manifesto pledges; Doing this too often demonstrates pitiful planning and naked populism and risks alienating your core voters; Failure to respond at all to current events and modify manifesto commitments risk being seen as being arrogant or out of touch or hidebound.
But both the media and the public are conditioned to think that a significant deviation from a manifesto commitment ( a u-turn) represents weakness, flipfloppiness, lack of resolve - and this image was enshrined by Maggie Thatcher,very fond of the Iron Lady description with its implications of adamantine resolve, when she made the now rather famous " U turn if you want to - speech".
Where one party rubbishes anothers political suggestion for partisan party political purposes - as the Tory party did when addressing Labours calls for a price freeze from the energy companies - and then effectively appearing to follow exactly the same path themselves shortly after when it became apparent that the original idea was hugely popular to the electorate- could rightly be termed a U-turn, could rightly be considered both hypocritical and cynical, and so opens the Government and the Tories up to those charges.
That's not Tory- bashing for the sake of it, that's a fair assessment of the current situation regarding cost of living issues and energy prices right now. It's just the political reality. Interesting to note that the Government are now denying that such an approach has been made at all :)
