Sweet Room im there,

All the bloody party's are corrupt, labour especially with that dosey Gordon Brown who knows f*** all.

With politics being the hot topic over the next few months, will be see more political based Art? Could Banksy's next piece be on the subject of the Election?

Yeah, thought as much. What next, a thread on Rolex's and sports cars?

i dont think we have too great a choice,
all the parties have some good points and some bad points, but you only really get to vote for a few (lab, consv, libD, ukip, green, bnp, ind)

and if you are fed up with labour you have to vote conservative to get them out of power..

its not so much rich / poor anymore

its more,s**t / probally just as shit, but i fancy a change.

Maybe Labour will head back towards what it once was after this election? I think they would win back a big chuck of public support if they did.

but where can you hang your pictures grafik?... mind you with scenery like that you probably don't need pictures!

loads of space for pictures.. plently of big blank white walls.

scenery aint bad either

(before the shouts of showing off, recession, how cruel etc..., its my dads ONLY house, and it cost a fair bit less than 100k total to build inc land. 7 ensuites, 2 kitchens, cinema etc...)
you couldn't even buy a garage in london for that. shall we all move to thailand?

as regards to the election.. i dont thing anyone is toooooo fussed..

its a positive that every government is going to:

steal our wages
steal our inheritance
fine us through our teeth
provide a half arsed health system
bad schools, bad services.
f**k around with the banks using our money
send our troops to die and waste billions doing it
screw up young peoples futures
give our money to the unworthy unworking
open the flood gates to yet more foreign workers, most of which will contribute nothing and work in low paid service and labour jobs. (which the great british benefit scrounger could do)

have i missed anything out? it wont change, doesnt matter what side you vote for.

p.s. when i say OUR, i mean YOUR.. i havent paid tax, i dont earn anything.

Don't want to comment on this thread with regards UK politics, I just get cross!! but any of your lovely folks fancy moving to Thailand...(Here comes the sales pitch) why not try before you buy ;-) My house is for rent www.farfromworries.com (shameless plug I know) :-)
Nice place grafik, is it up north in the Chang Mai / Rai region?
As for moving to Thailand for better political options... umm not to sure, I think it will be mayhem when the King passes away :-(
Anyway as Mr Graf said I'm not showing off, man I've had a year, oh and as the other collection thread asks, mine is now about to be halved! :-(
As for my political preference I've always leaned left. Sadly not sure that exists anymore :-(
Have a good one.

Politics is a bit like the art world, an artist would like to be recognised for their work, impress their audience with their apt and succinct take on contemporary issues through their visual style and application, and ultimately have them 'buy' into their vision of the world. Politicians are the same, they want their position on specific issues to be understood by their audience (the public), and through a detailed explanation of how the policy would work get an agreement (vote) that it is the right way forward.

Here's the rub tho... artists are doing what they do for their own creative ends, answering to no one accept themselves (whether for personal achievement, glamour, fame, money etc). But politicians have one very large difference, by putting themselves up for being voted in as an MP by the public, no matter what particular moral viewpoints they have they are ultimately answerable to the people that voted them in.

One of my main issues with the people that want to become an MP and achieve their goal of becoming part of a government is (from what I've seen) they're mostly a particular type of person. Think about it like this, when we were all at school who was interested in politics? I remember (only) two of three and they weren't part of the main stream crowd, because of their interests (in politics) they didn't fit in neatly with the majority of people more worried about music, booze, sex, films, parties and video games.

Once out of school, whether looking for work or going to higher education, how many of you ever thought a career in politics was your calling? Although I started to understand it a bit more then it never crossed my mind that it was a legitimate job I wanted to do. Being a politician is often seen as something someone else would do, and never you. How many of us have thought of becoming a local councilor or volunteering to help their chosen local party deliver leaflets?

Also, what sort of people make up our political parties that are supposed to speak for everyone? We have lords and ladies, rich, middle class, educated and a smattering of local people fed up with the system that decided they'd had enough. How many politicians have come from council estates, lost their home, been on the dole for years because they came from a broken home and didn't have the educational advantages of others? Not a lot methinks, so there's a question immediately, how can this specific group of people totally understand (and begin to fix) things they've never experienced and only know about through sociological lectures and statistical data?

Another thing that annoys me with the current political system is the acceptance that although they may endeavor at times to do the right thing more often than not their hands are tied because of the publics expectations in a quick fix. Once you have been voted in as an MP your goal is to make the right decisions and help the country prosper and grow. This is where we come to the short and long term ramifications of how politicians operate, if the next party that becomes the government went for it and did everything that was needed for the long term health of country there would have to be some very hard decisions to be made. Is it that easy? Well what about if the process and actions needed caused hardship in the short/mid term for all of us but in the long term provided a stronger and more stable platform? Most people would answer yes, that's great, but in actual fact it doesn't really pan out like that. We all see on the news, banks, bad, bailed out by us, money grabbing bonuses etc yet in the news since Labour has announced some tough measures on bonuses their is a backlash that even this isn't right.

A government will always be thinking about the next election, no matter what they do during their first term if they are not getting public approval then the following election could see them voted out. Sooo, when making decisions do they think about it being popular (making them look good in the electorates eyes) or do they just make sure it's the right way forward in the long term? And in my opinion it's more often than not the former. Likewise during an election, when they make policies and promises to the country are they the best and strongest platforms for the years ahead or are they what they think everyone wants to hear?

Ahhh! Not sure if anyone will understand anything of what I've just rambled about hopefully there's some sense in their somewhere. I am not saying one party is better than the rest (I think they're all pretty similar at the moment), but I just wanted to put my thoughts down on the whole shambles. I could go on but I've bored myself!

Ho hum, why don't we all start a new party, from what I've read on this thread everyone has really strong opinions on a lot of things... can you picture yourself ACTUALLY sorting everything out if you're an MP? Or would you pop a piece of art on expenses for your office wall?

AP

ps I await abuse
pps Sorry for the long post, bored, Mrs AP is watching a period drama!

Yeh I know, Hua Hin is/was before all this :-( a bit of a boom town and prices are expensive near the beach as all the major hotels are now moving in and claiming everything. Which isn't all bad for the local economy I suppose.
Sounds a nice place mate...v chilled! Enjoying the snow?

Thats a great post AP and very true

Very good post, very well made.

If anyone saw the daily politics today, there was a perfect example of the absolute rubbish that ALL three major parties are going to trot out during the build up to this election. They say anything to please joe public, not one of them will commit to anything or answer any question put to them. This had me shouting at the TV today.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8441689.stm

What is needed is some one standing over them and each time they waffle on they get a smack in the mouth until they answer the bloody question!