Is The Nation Ready For Hard Line Socialism Again?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24235688
Now I know many on here would love it but they've probably forgotten our last flirtation.

[Gromit]

Blair / Brown hard line socialism?

PMSL.

[jake-the-peg]

I won't hold my breath

As I recall David Cameron promised to manipulate petrol prices to freeze them

Then he found it was more difficult than he thought and ran away

[ToraToraTora]

err who mentioned Blair/Brown? I'm talking about Red Ed!

[Gromit]

Milliband is not a hardline socialist, no more than Cameron is a Nazi.

Anyone equating our current crop of middle ground parties with extremes is either a worried man or clueless.

[Gromit]

When you wrote

// forgotten our last flirtation [ with socialism ] //

Of whom were you referring?

Surely not Edward Heath!

[ToraToraTora]

state control of utility prices regardless of economic factors! certainly has a socialist ring to it.

[ToraToraTora]

I'm thinking from around 1955-1979 Gromit, they tried their best to make us a soviet state, yes including Heath, his contribution was of course by innaction rather than action.

[Sqad]

TTT...the nearest thing that the UK got to a "hard line socialist government" was in 1992. Neil Kinnock. left of the Labour Party, intellect and highly electable.................lost the election.

The nation will never accept "Hard Line Socialism" in my opinion.

[Gromit]

Privatisation of the utility companies has been a disaster for the British consumer. The promised competative market never materialised. They operate now anti-competatively. Some have been fined.

But some who have a few quid to spare in the 1980s made a quick buck, so anyone queztioning the market we now have is labelled a communist.

It is policies (if they can deliver it) like this which will differentiate them from the Tories, which is why Tora is worried.

[Quizmonster]

From 1955 - 1979, we had the Tories...Eden (2), Macmillan (6), Douglas-Home (1) and Heath (4), as opposed to Wilson (6) in terms of years in government.
These years - which you, Tora, seem to believe were a hotbed of socialism - were ruled in this country by Tories for over twice as long as by Labour!

[Gromit]

You know when you have ventured into looneyville when the OP thinks Edward Heath is a hardline socialist.

[Quizmonster]

Sorry...forgot Callaghan (3). Still predominantly Tory years, however, weren't they?

[youngmafbog]

Gromit, it won't work, and nothing for us Tories to be worrried.

Now if Ed was not Red then maybe he would have pciked up on the way forward here is to force transparency between generation and sale. At the moment it is very difficult to see where the cost is so the companies take us for a ride. Same goes for petrol companies.

On another separate point I, along with many other right-wingers, never agreed with essential services being privatized. Gas, elec, water, sewage and rail should be public companies. Tendered out for private running maybe, but ultimately owned by the tax payer.

[youngmafbog]

Gromit, I have tried my hardest but I cant see where Tora says heath is a hard line socialist.

Seems your words not his.

[Old_Geezer]

Difficult to think back to when there was a hard line socialst government. One may have missed that chance when Foot & Ben were in the ascendancy, but folk were not ready for such a thing, which is why Thatcher appeared to have so much support despite being such a disaster. Lesser of two evils: maybe.

[ToraToraTora]

I did not say heath was a hardline socialist. Heath was much, much worse, a Tory wet! His crimes are many but the main one is not attempting to stop the rot.

[Quizmonster]

"They tried their best to make us a soviet state, yes including Heath."
These were your actual words. Are you now claiming that someone who tried to make us a soviet state was not a hardline socialist? What might he have been, then?

[Gromit]

Tora

Do you seriously think Milliband is a hardline Socialist?

I mean really!!

[ToraToraTora]

Must I spell it out, yes I said that QM, but Heath's contribution was innaction, he never wanted socialism but he did not have the bottle to stop it. The Labour leaders of the period wanted socialism the Tory leaders failed to stop it. that's what I'm saying.

[Quizmonster]

For pity's sake, how can "trying your best" to achieve something involve nothing on your part but "inaction"?