So why did Miliband message of less austerity and more for the NHS utterly fail to win him an election?
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Just because someone looses an election doesn't mean their message was wrong.
Otherwise we decide the Germans were right to vote to Hitler in or countless other incidents where the people have voted in terrible governments.
The average British person barely understands a reasoned complex argument. It's why politicians try to win us over with simple arguments.
Otherwise we decide the Germans were right to vote to Hitler in or countless other incidents where the people have voted in terrible governments.
The average British person barely understands a reasoned complex argument. It's why politicians try to win us over with simple arguments.
Yes but it was at the heart of milibands campaign during the live debate with farage and the 3 witches of eastwick all him and the witches seemed to talk about was the NHS. It's ok saying it should be important to everyone blah blah lots of things should be important to people but they just aren't
So we are all to stupid to vote for the right party?
Mcfadden
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At the end of the day, the lefties put out their message and people didn't agree with it for a range of reasons. That doesn't equate to "right or wrong", it's merely a reflection of what society feels and thinks for a range of reasons. Not necessarily to do with "people are more likely to vote for a right-wing government after a recession." If we are looking for simplistic reasons though, then having a decent leader of your party might help.
From my perspective you all voted for the wrong party.
But no that's not what I'm saying and to be honest I'm sick and tired of the "we won so lump it" mentality of conservative supporters when they got 36.9% of country voted for someone else. Over half the country voted for somebody else and I don't believe I should have to just agree the country knows what's best for itself because quite frankly it doesn't. Lots of people wouldn't vote Milliband because they didn't like his personality....as if personality actually matter when it comes to running a bloody country.
But no I'm not saying you personally are stupid however suggesting I said that doesn't help your argument. What I said was the average British person does not understand the complexity of the arguments and details of politics...lets be honest here who here actually is an expert on economics? Who actually know the resources required to run the NHS or the school education system? What we vote for is ideologies or simplistic numbers as most of do not understand the actual reality. Net-migration is another people hate "foreigners stealing our jobs" but it's been proven time that it's simply not true but the arguments never works.
Here's another during the election conservative pledged to keep spending per pupil the same, labour promised to keep spending in line with inflation. Who actually promised to spend more? We don't actually know as we don't know if pupil will rise quicker than inflation (I know this as the Lib-Dems actually promised to do both).
Because Labour were unfortunate enough to be in power when the recession occurred. The Tories reduced the economics of the recession down to a few soundbites that were effective, since the public, in general, have a very vague grasp of economics.
The UK is a financialised country. Our financial sector accounts for a larger per cent of our GDP than most other countries. (London is often known as the financial capital of the world.) Policies of both Labour and the Tories dating back since Thatcher have caused this. And so the collapse of the financial sector particularly harmed the UK.
However the main reason for a lack of change is actually quite simple. The conservatives were seen to be doing a good job after the economic crisis and very few people saw a reason to rock the boat. Trying to win people over when they 'think' something is working is actually very hard work no matter how good your argument is (not saying anyone actually had a good one).
Well personality does make a difference particularly if your dealing with aggressive foreign powers such as Russia. Leadership is 99% personality which is why Blair got elected 3 times and Brown didn't get elected once.
Odd view to say what sort of person someone is won't affect how they do major tasks. Not everyone has the right sort of personality to lead and to deal with pressure. Refusing to vote for someone who doesn't have that personality seems quite sane to me.
Personality makes little difference in international politics you think Putin gives a single **** that Obama comes across as a nice guy?
Mcfadden
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Personality, utilizing social media, conveying complex arguments in a simple way for the working man to understand are all important. It would be fantastic if they didn't carry so much weight and we could deal economic reasoning terms and understand the nuances better, but that is a little bit utopian. People don't have time for that. And it's not just in Britian where left wing parties struggle with this.
To put a bit of perspective on things: the Tories fought a platform of austerity. Simultaneously, they have also reduced taxation on the richest. When it comes to tackling the deficit, if you cut welfare by £1 and reduce taxation on the wealthiest by £1, the net result is no change in tackling the deficit. You are spending less, but you are also bringing in less by reducing your tax receipts. A party that truly believes that tackling the deficit is the surest way of getting the economy back on track would not be reducing tax intake. This showcases how ideology-driven the Tory economic policies are.
I think it's a question of how people come across on television and that doesn't matter. How someone reacts behind closed doors to the stresses and leading those working for him is far more important than having a winning personality for the public.
It's not about being nice its about being savvy and clever. Things that Miliband didn't seem to show. He just came across as a rich kid playing at being a union man and someone that Putin would eat for breakfast
I agree entirely with this but it's not the reason why they should just give up and run with right-wing policies. Okay left-wing ideologies are a far harder sell but if you believe in them you shouldn't give up on them for that reason.
But Labours plan to spend out of debt goes against so many people's logic that it was never going to work.
That wasn't labours plan though....
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Sorry to be more clear Labour were pro-austerity their plan was to ease down the level of it that was being done by the coalition goverment.
As ncurd said, that's not true. Labour announced spending cuts, but eased them over a longer period.
But that said, "spending out of debt" isn't necessarily a bad idea. It depends on how much tax revenue you think you will be able to get.
As you can see, government spending and tax revenues were fairly close. A fairly modest overspend, but nothing unmanageable until the recession. (Worth mentioning that the Thatcher and Major governments also, in all but a couple of years, had an overspend.) The damage was done when the UK went into recession and tax receipts plummeted, as you can see on the graph. The Tories want to cut government spending faster. The risk of this is that it can weaken the economy, causing government income to increase slower. An anti-austerity platform wishes to keep spending as normal and increase tax income to close the gap. In reality, a mix of the approaches probably has the most efficient effect on the economy: tax increases and spending cuts. Ideologically, I believe that the richest should shoulder more of the burden of the economic crisis than the poorest, so I'm inclined to increase taxes on the richest, and make fairly modest cuts (but not utterly annihilating the welfare budget, as the Tories are).
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