why do different councils have their elections at different times in the uk and england?

I am not sure why they have different elections at different times in Britain but I think that it is actually a good idea.

I think it would be much better if 1/5 of our local authorities were elected every year. I think that if only a few authorities were being elected at a time it would reduce the effect of national politics on how people voted, which is probably how it should be.

youngdan wrote:

Why would London need an army unless they were expecting some shower of Kents giving them grief.

It's not just armies. Foreign policies, secret services, central banking and so on are activities of governance which are more effective at a national, rather than local level. I do agree with you in the sense that we require a greater degree of de-centralisation in government and that the principle of subsidiarity is not being properly observed across many western democracies but I think there are limits to the granularising vision to which you subscribe. There are core competencies to which a national government is best suited to fulfil and there-fore the idea of a nation-state will prevail as a viable and necessary creation.

Again, to keep this on topic, look at the area of economic development. Do you think that each and every local authority which was voted upon on Thursday could successfully create economic development agencies and policies that would meet the needs of the people in them? I think not. There would be far too much duplication, a discordance of views, a failure to create a unified vision and a great unevenness across Britain since each council would be pursuing different visions and goals. A central government with a far broader view can make better decisions in this regard. They can see the bigger picture and can therefore make the pieces fit.

Ronald Binge wrote:

... increased
Euroscepticism and British isolationism/atlanticism.

All the working class of Britain will gain from a more Atlanticist
Britain is the thrilling opportunity to be cannon fodder in Neocon
wars.

You can say all that again... left the UK 9 months ago and am still fuming about the state it was in. I lived in South Wales and the Army recruiters were all over the Valleys secondary schools like a rash, while leaving the wealthier Vale of Glamorgan schools well alone. Note the slavish pandering to the arms industry... 1 billion quid in bribes to Prince Bandar to buy 24bn worth of fighter jets, allegedly, enquiry shut down when serious Fraud Office tried to take it further (Tony Blair in person) and when the issue was raised again a few weeks ago, the Tories closed ranks with New Labour saying that it was not in Britain's national interest to have this taken further....In my humble opinion, NO Irish politician has plumbed such depths and I hope they never do.

And as for the Brits themselves... the place is going to the dogs, education is woefully underfunded, and largely inadequate (unless you have the moolah for a house in the right catchment or to go private), the NHS, from the personal experience of various family members both here and there is in a worse state by and large than here, taxes are through the roof.... and I wouldn't mind that if Scandinavian style public services were provided, but they effing well aint. Dublin is a paradise by comparison. They've built probably as many new houses all over the S. Wales valleys as they have in the sprawl around Dublin, but unlike OUR glorious capital , they haven't even opened a single new priority bus lane and we used to call the train service Arriva Trains Snails for obvious reasons. In the same time period, while our services could still be improved, we have multiple Luas lines, the M50, bigger and better Darts, Lana Bus-es everywhere, and improvements to everything promised, despite the downturn

And yis ask why New Labour got a kick up the backside??? It richly, richly deserved it, but will the Tories be any better??? They're both obsessed with maintaining military position at the expense of all else

And the ultimate tragedy is, that most of the British public have been edjerkated on a diet of Britains former colonial "glory" and assume that no matter how bad it is at home, it must be worse elsewhere, so they don't EFFING complain.

And to blame for the queues at the doctor's etc??? All the immigrants fault...well, except for now they've administered the boot to the derrieres of the current crop of incompetent public school/Oxbridge elite currently gracing the corridors of power....with those particular eedjits elected to represent the working class??? Fettes educated "man of the people"?? Not a bit of it. Don't make me barf. They haven't a clue, from their priviledged backgrounds, of what the British working classes have had to endure... but more fool the working classes for voting them in. They get who they deserve, IMHO, at least in this country, we don't like to let our politicians away with much and we have STV to keep 'em accountable (not to mention the odd Tribunal or two!)

And before anyone accuses me of being anti British, I'm married to one, and if you think I'm upset, you should listen to him!!!!

I've lived in the UK and know Wales too, and it was shocking to go back not too long ago and see the state of the place - tumble weed down the main street, out of town shed stores and call centre work or no work at all.

I'm not sure of the comparative worth of the politicians. Ours may be more accessible, but that is some times in the wrong way. The present government have presided over creating a gulf between rich and poor on a scale that could not have been imagined in Ireland ten years ago. In fact the gulf has opened so wide that most people don't get to see across to the other side and haven't a clue what it is like there.
On another thread, I would love to know what your husband makes of it here.

If you think WE have a rich/poor gulf, just consider the Russian and City billionaires in London. They are all the more toxic owing to the entrenched privilege inherent in their system... many jobs are only open (despite what it may say on the Equal Ops form) to Oxbridge graduates, 50-60% of whom are public school educated and often from the "old rich". It is a hard system to break into if you don't come from the upper caste... they bang on and on about racism, but their real problem is social apartheid, often almost deliberately supported by the undereducated working classes, many of whom dislike their own people "getting above themselves and thinking they know it all". Meanwhile, the CBI (equivalent of IBEC) get away with surveys asking employers which accents they prefer in employees....racism by any other name. Yes, our politicians are far from perfect, but after 5 and 1/2 years of watching one legged dead donkeys get elected just because someone stuck the right blue or red sticker on them (depending on the constituency), I'd take ours any day. At least we make them work for a living and they have to actually represent their constituents.... localism maybe, but is that what is ACTUALLY on the job description...
So far, de udder half loves it here... he's well educated but doesn't come from the Brit middle classes, is a raving Socialist and was active in his particular union in the UK (which struck several times in his tenure as his Dept's "shop steward".... he's joined the one here for an equivalent job, but doesn't feel the need to be very active as he thinks the working conditions are far better. His reaction to the statues of James Connolly etc in O'Connell St?? Great, you've got statues of revolutionary Socialists up here!! I would have to admit he's a fairly serial expat though.... we met on the other side of the Atlantic. The funny thing is, I didn't realise how unusual emigration was in Britain until I lived there... they seem to think 50 miles down the M4 is a long way away.... suppose it is given their traffic probs.

Class Division in Ireland

You might be interested in this thread

Interesting.... We aren't saints here by any means, but consider this.. most of our recent Taoisigh, Garrett the Good excepted, have been from humble origins (even though they may have raked it in on the way up). In the UK, apart from John Major (and even he was forced to adopt "the accent"), most of the recent PMs have been from at least the middle classes, more often the elite. And, Major excepted again I think, they all went to Oxbridge. Not so here!

youngdan wrote:

What dismantling took place Atticus

Sorry for not replying sooner, Youngdan. Cf is right, I meant devolution and it's consequences. Was afraid I might sound like some unreconstructed Ulster Unionist but looking at the news headlines of the last couple of days, devolution will be a real issue over the next few years.

Labour is in a fix over Scotland this week -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7387669.stm

A website I only recently discovered, which might be of interest -

http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/


( .... am dead late for work, really must go now! )