Why hasn't this been mentioned more?

[redemwaru08.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many brits are on here or simply how many of you follow uk politics but we are currently in danger of electing a ,quite frankly ,mad conservative party.
One thing in particular that has outraged me is the very strong and very frequent homophobic outbursts by this party

http://news.uk.msn.com/politics/general-election-2010/news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=153189118
the most recent incident

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8602371.stm
And another

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Stephen-Fry-And-Labour-Supporters-Call-On-David-Cameron-To-Stand-Up-For-Gay-Rights-In-Europe/Article/200910115400452
And another which was addressed in open letter form by the wonderful stephen fry and others as you can see

But its not just this, the tories are associated press-wise with the daily mail.
A paper which frequently makes very homophobic outbursts, what worries me is what was mentioned in the first article that proves the following point;
The conservatives have always been very homophobic.
To be honest it worries me that should we elect them not only will the unions and education system face trouble (as they always do under the tories) but i am seriously concerned about how this homophobia will manifest itself should we elect them.
This isn't the only part of their plan that concerns me.
Another that does is how they plan to treat education they want to cut 6 billion from education while allowing parents to set up schools, translation : you want your kid to get a good education, you pay for it.
This party is quite honestly , crazy, and yet they are at 33% in the polls.
It worries me genuinely that in this election the British people will shoot themselves in the foot and elect a nuts tory party fronted by a man that can only be described as a prick, a prick related to the queen with no sense of reality. I feel like this country is about to elect its very own sequel to George Bush, only worse.
Opinions?
Oh and i do apologise for my poor typing, an accident as a child affected my brain somewhat with regards to punctuation and the like, but without the nhs (another thing set for 'reform' under the tories) i'd be dead so it could be worse.

Three different examples of fiscal (ir)responsibility

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Dear fellow economic laics experts, because we've been talking about Greece lately I'm going to try to make a short comparison between a couple of European economies, and see the differences how they're coping with the crisis.

First, the Greeks. Apparently, they're still living in some kind of illusion, as if failing to fathom the depth of the dire predicament in which they've put themselves. There was an incredible post some time ago which pretty much summed up the reasons for this situation, so I'm not going to delve into that. What matters now is that it is not going to end soon and the Greeks are doomed to a prolonged suffering. Because when you don't take adequate measures while it's early enough, once you've entered the down spiral, it gets very hard, almost impossible to get away.

Sure, this has its good sides too. The situation could finally give a lesson to the Greeks and help them go through a cleansing moment. It could make them realize their errors and besides, it could serve as a warning to neighboring countries in similar conditions (like my country, Bulgaria) to understand that it is very important to be extremely careful with the way you're dealing with budget deficits and populist promises.

( Two quite different examples )



A question for the Right:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I wonder why, if the Health Care bill could be willingly defied because it's a "Bad law" and people can pick or choose what law they wish to follow the rhetoric suddenly does a 180 when it comes to the immigration bill? Why is Immigration so special an issue that it must be absolutely enforced, where the Health Care Bill, passed as it was by both Houses of Congress by all legal means (and with the added bonus of fitting right square into the 9th Amendment where the Arizona bill violates both the 14th Amendments and the Guarantee Clause) can be willfully disregarded?

Wasn't it not so long ago that people like Congresswoman Bachmann were suggesting that the Health Care law could be ignored? My feeling on this is that the Right Wing cares not one whit if the government extends its power into the lives of individuals but will scream bloody murder the very instant the government attempts to regulate corporations with anything approaching equal severity. For that matter, why does this bill receive support when it puts the onus on individuals, as opposed to things like the CEOs who hire mass illegal workforces so they can make money on the cheap and behave like Gilded Age Fat Cats? Surely if people were serious about the problem ensuring that corporations find no profit in lawbreaking and instead in hiring people who are here legally and citizens, however that is defined would be a help, no? Or would that be the bloody red hordes of Yekatirenberg ravening for the blood of the John Galts of the world?

Another simple, simple step to actually dealing with immigration that would be more than something directly out of the playbooks of totalitarian societies such as the Confederate States of America would be something as basic as simplifying the extremely cumbersome legal immigration process so it doesn't take 4 years and exhaustive work to become a naturalized citizen while simply walking over the border becomes the cheaper and more affordable option.

But alas, that doesn't send a tingle down the leg of El Rushbo and the "let's overthrow the guy who wants to ensure people don't die in emergency rooms because they lack insurance because he's TOTALLY EQUAL TO UNCLE JOE" crowd.