Gordon Brown on the Brink ?

Permabear

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Can'tseeme

I think he'll see it through till the GE, were they'll suffer a heavy defeat to the Tories. Labour need to gather themselves, bring in a few hard hitters, to stabilise themselves and try and win back some support. I can see Alan Johnson become the Labour leader after that

He's made mistakes but to be fair some of the criticism has been unfair and he's been pretty unlucky. The expenses scandal and the global economy is hardly all his fault. But he seems to be taking the brunt of it. He has shown very good leadership through the economic problems, something that the British public have overlooked. Another problem he has is that he's at the end of a tired old government, that were involved in an extremely unpopular war.

He seems to be an extremely clever and astute politician, with plenty of experience to see Britian through the economic problems. But he's terrible in front of a camera or confronted by Cameron.

ART6

I can't see Gordon Brown surviving for much longer, but I suspect that his survival at the polls will have less to do with the economy than with the EU and Lisbon. He promised the people a referendum on Lisbon, and then rowed back from that with a pack of lies and indecision. Given that the majority of the British seem to be hostile to the EU Constitution (in whatever name and presence) I suspect they won't forgive that, and so whatever he does with the economy he will still be branded as the man who broke his promise. The Brits are a proud and independent people, which is why they wouldn't give way to Hitler whatever the cost. They have never, historically, had anything other than deep distrust of European countries.

The other issue is that he is Scottish, and that poses the Midlothian Question, where MPs who represent Scottish constituencies can vote on matters affecting English ones, but English MPs can't vote on issues controlled by the Scottish parliament. That has kept Labour in power for too long, and has penalised England and Wales to the benefit of Scotland. English friends tell me of the deep resentment in England over that.

In spite of all of that, what would be the result for Ireland if Labour collapses and the Tories take over? Internationally I suspect there is concern about the fragility of GB's government, hence the low value of Sterling. If the Tories take over, with a concise strategy (as they seem to have more or less) then the pound might just start to increase in value. Given the UK's importance to Ireland as an export market, that might just be the good news we very badly need. The world's financial community doesn't like uncertain and tottering government.

irish_bob

Affable wrote: »

They are a nasty outfit IMO.

Out of interest whats Ireland like politically? Would Irish people tend to share the poltiical sensibilities of the North of England, Wales and Scotland rather than the South-East more in veering more towards (to however moderate a degree)collectivism and socialism economically and culturally-or if not that, would they be more in line with Labour/New Lab than Tories? Do they tend more to the social liberalism of England, Holland, Sweden etc or to the social conservatism of the USA?

you talking about idealogy there , we dont do idealogy in this country , most people vote based on whatever party thier family tree voted for since 1922, other vote for whoever can get thier son or daughter planning permission for a nice bungalow , the only place you find idealogues are on internet forums

while donegals definition of irish poltics is spot on , the majority of irish people would not charechterise the countrys politics in that way , this is in many ways due to the fact that we have an overwhelmingly liberal media which has conditioned many people into believing most parties are actually conservative