Shoutbox

I think he's far from the best.

I mean, if you compare him to his Scottish counterpart (First Minister Alex Salmond), then he's in an awful position. A large majority of Scottish people (forgot what the English think about him, it's nothing to do with them - but we have to deal with Brown as well) think he is the bee's knees.

The only thing that I can really see that makes Mr. Salmond better is that he admits it when he cocks up. That way, no one really notices and makes a fuss.

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As for the thing about knife / gun crime, I would say that around 95% of the problem is the fault of bad parenting. Having never been involved in a child's upbringing I can't really comment, but the way my parents brought me up I was never tempted to carry knives about with me. In generally, as icd said, you will find that all these children (because legally that's what they usually are) are from either poor families, or from families which just don't give a rats arse.

Solutions:
1) Sterilize scummy people. Problem: Well it's just not PC is it.
2) More police. Problem: Costs more.
3) More extreme punishments. Problem: Amnesty International. (If someone goes out and stabs someone for no reason then do the really deserve any form of freedom, ever?)

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quote:

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Originally posted by icd
so we need: a new PM, new MP's that are trusting enough to look after themselves, more police, less tax, lower fuel, electricity,gas,water,food prices, more control on alcohol,drugs,knives and guns, a lower inflation rate, more stable house prices

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Lots of points.
A new PM: Just not bloody labour, please!
More Police: Costs more money
Less Tax: Less Tax = Worse NHS; Less Police; Less Education

Lower Fuel: Cookie already mentioned it's expensive on a worldwide scale. The alternative is Nuclear fuel (this would reduce dependency on fossil fuels freeing them up for other purposes) but people seem to be scared of this. What people don't realise is that oil is running out. I mean, I think there's around 40 years or so left. After that, there won't be a "damn, £5 a litre!". It'll be "so uh, how do I get to work now?"

Food Prices: Again, worldwide problem. Mainly because a few of the basic food groups (wheat and corn I believe) are being produced less as farmers grow biofuel crops.

More Control on Weapons: Leads back to the nanny state problem. Knives are the worst. You can kill someone with a kitchen knife, I have a few in the drawers downstairs I can think of. What's to stop someone just carrying one about?
Guns are a bit easier to control, but there's always grandad's revolver from the second world war that no one ever removed the firing mechanism from.
In all honesty, what we need is the death penalty. Seriously. It's about all America has that we don't. (I'd take Brown over Bush any day of the week) I mean, even a "scummy" isn't going to want to carry a knife around with him if killing someone means he's going to get himself executed. Even if that is a bit extreme, we need a more effective prison system.

Alcohol: The government make lots of money from alcohol. Alcohol fuelled incidents may have cost the NHS a lot of money, but I'll be damned if the tax didn't more than make up for it. (Ok ok, so it's bad that people got hurt and stuff, but still)

House Prices: This is homeowner's faults. People buying and selling for more than the actual value of the house thanks to cheap mortgages and then failing on the payments, putting the mortgage companies seriously out of pocket and putting interest rates through the roof.