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ConManDave

Listed below are comments made by ConManDave between Tuesday, 15th July 2008 and Friday, 7th November 2008.

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Extraordinary 12:06pm on 07 Nov 2008 Many are attempting to downplay Labour's success by pointing to the reduced majority. Can any who have done this tell me how many mid-term by-elections have resulted in an increased majority for the party of government? (I can't remember any, but I guess there must have been ?)

Its as disingenuous as pointing to the Tory lost deposit to make a case that Cameron peaked too soon!

The fact is a few weeks ago Labour looked to be heading for meltdown, this result would indicate otherwise and gives them something to build from and, perhaps more importantly, a morale boost to its activists and supporters.
Cameron's economic problem 4:38pm on 20 Oct 2008 204 well I must live in a unique contituency (Dudley South). The local secondary school (Summerhill) has been completely rebuilt, the next closest (Kingswinford GM) has had new classrooms and a brand new sports hall, my kids primary School has been extended and all mobile classrooms (installed in the 80's) replaced by permanent buildings. In addition our local NHS Hospital (Russell's Hall) has been massively extended, new A&E department and is a credit to the NHS. My wife has worked in the NHS since the mid-80's as a ward manager (Sister), she used to come home and literally cry with frustration at the lack of staff, beds and equipment, things are not perfect now but are a world away from the Tory starvation of investment years.
Cameron's economic problem 3:02pm on 20 Oct 2008 #62 asserts a Conservative government wouldn't have lead us to recession .... on what do you base this claim ? Perhaps the factual evidence that a Conservative Government lead us to THREE deep recessions? Tory economic policy seems to be based on short boom and bust cycles, so the exact opposite of your assertion would have been the likely outcome of a Conservative government. If the trend continued from 1997 we'd have been in recession by 2000, again by 2006 ... we would never have had the money to invest in Schools and Hospitals and now that the American sub-prime market has collapsed we'd be in the same credit crunch but with public services completely dessimated. At least real investment was made in public infrastructure when we could afford it, it seemed that we could never afford it under the Tories (I know, I was educated in decrepit state Schools during Thatcher's years, leaking ceilings and shared dog eared reference books all round).
Cameron's economic problem 11:10am on 20 Oct 2008 If your analysis is correct (personally I think you over state the positives for Labour) and the polls get to a point that would indicate Labour could secure a fourth term, will we still have the endless 'Election now!" shrieks from Tory supporters on here and HYS. After all, most of the calls were justified on the basis of needing an election for the 'sake of democracy'. I guess they were really calls of opportunism and if a Labour success looks likely the 'Election now!" shrieks will be from the other side. Funny how things start to improve for Labour when Campbell and Mandelson back behind the scenes. I think the 'end of spin' is all spin.
More demands expected 11:15am on 13 Oct 2008 Well for the Billions of pounds spent I'd expect a lot in return, but here's just a few small requests:

- pass on fully any Bank of England base rate changes to variable and tracker rate mortgages (exiisting and new customers)
- base all customer call centres in the UK and allow customers the option of the first language of the operator they get connected to (e.g. separate customer service numbers for English, Welsh etc.)
- make administration charges (e.g. late payment) relate directly to the cost of the administration, and not use them as a profit making enterprise.
Back to the future again 11:56am on 03 Oct 2008 Personally I don't like Mandelson and feel he'll be a liability for the Government. Though I must say the he wasn't 'sacked in disgrace'. He resigned to halt media stories creating an unwarranted impression of wrongdoing amongst the government. His first resignation was over non-declaration of an interest free loan from another Labour MP, though no evidence that this loan had influenced Mandeleson's decisions was ever produced. An inquiry into his second resignation cleared him of any wrongdoing, though again, he resigned to prevent the media mud slinging over claims he'd 'helped' Srichand Hinduja with his application for British Citizenship. I suspect the media will be after him again, so I think it’s a bad move from Brown. The fact that some on here have immediately recalled that he 'was twice sacked in disgrace' shows the power of media mud-slinging over the power of actual facts.
Regrets? Just the one 10:23am on 29 Sep 2008 Labour inherited a national debt of 43.6% of GDP from the Tories in 1997 (about the same level as now).

The wealth of the good times has been well invested in Schools , Hospitals and Police. I'm glad we had a government with the foresight to fix all these things whilst we had the money.

If Brown has any regret it should be that he didn't reverse the Tory changes to banking rules that made their irresponsible behaviour possible, so the era-of-irresponsibility was started by the Conservatives here and the Republicans in USA.
The charm of the Championship 08:20am on 23 Jul 2008 #39
Igor_Stimac said ".... why's that?... that's because exposure to the best brand of football i.e. the premiership, makes these teams better. I'd take premiership any day of the week.... and that's despite our 11 point total still fresh in my thoughts!"

No, that's not the reason. Exposure to premiership football does not prepare a team for the championship. In fact it can take relegated Premiership teams some time to adjust to the championship. They usually lose some key players and have to rebuild. The reason why these teams are strong is money. They have millions in parachute payments that give them a financial advantage over the rest of the teams.
The charm of the Championship 12:29pm on 22 Jul 2008 As a West Brom fan I'm probably in a good position to judge (having our time split between premiership and championship over the last few years).

The quality gap is clear between the two leagues. For the long term financial health of a club like West Brom (no rich benefactor (yet!) ) spending time in the PL is essential. I see it as a necessary evil. In the Championship we win more, score more and its just more enjoyable. OK in the PL you get to see the big clubs, big names up close, but its not much fun seeing your teams destroyed by a club with vastly superior resources. There's always the odd surprise (e.g. beating Arsenal 2-1 at the Hawthorns) but generally the PL is tough for promoted teams.

Just hoping Mowbray can break the yo-yo cycle and we can establish ourselves in the PL, but if not a stint in the Championship is not the end of the world.
It's the economy that counts 12:04pm on 15 Jul 2008 Labour did 'fix the roof whilst the Sun was shining'. In many cases quite literally fixing the leaking roof of Schools and Hospital wards brought about by years of Tory neglect. Labour have invested well in much of our public service infrastructure. Many Schools have been refurbished or completely re-built, similar investment in our hospitals has been made. Thank goodness we had a Labour government investing 'whilst the sun shone', a Conservative government would have given tax cuts to the well off instead. I can't imagine the state our Schools and NHS would have been in of we hadn't booted the Tories out in '97.

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