Poll: Which Prime Minister does the UK prefer?

[Trivun]

I'm a student running for election to my student union Executive board. I hate the cuts to higher education, and I hate the current government for what they're doing to this country right now. And I voted Lib Dem, which has me torn, as I really like my local MP, a Lib Dem who I voted for, because he tends to go against the party line and has made a number of massive positive steps for students - nevertheless, I hate the Lib Dem leadership now for their collaboration with the Tories.

However, I still feel that the coalition is bringing in some positive things, albeit very few. And I firmly believe that they are doing what they feel is the right step, even though it's clearly wrong, they really do believe in the work they're doing to try to right the wrongs of the Labour government.

Regarding Gordon Brown, at the end of the day he was a great Chancellor, and I admire his work when he had that role, but then he screwed up as PM and when he took that position everything fell apart. But the blame isn't entirely with Brown, he was simply trying to right the wrongs that Tony Blair brought about (a good PM at first but slowly went worse and worse), and was too engulfed by what Blair had done to be able to make the right changes. Also, he was too slow in bringing about the positive changes that were needed, so alongside a failing economy he was out of his depth, and that was his downfall.

Thus I can see good and bad sides, though sadly more bad, to both Brown and Cameron. It's a very tough call on who I feel was better or worse, as they both have or had the potential to be great PMs. I have to go with my gut on this one, and despite everything, my gut prefers David Cameron as Prime Minister. Now if he could just scrap the Browne Report and scrap the education cuts, we'd be fine and dandy, eh?

 

[bfgmetalhead]

I have to reluctantly vote brown as david is just.....horrid his "big society" plan didd'nt work as his fellow MP's and him didd'nt pitch in, they wont, British politics are awfully corrupt. As a neo-marxist I despise the tory's as they punish the poor for the rich's mistakes and then when the working class get a bit miffed they act the victim and demonise them. why not tax the rich and aid the poor they are majorty and thus, the future I myself am allmost blocked from Uni as I don't want a huge loan to pay. This capitalist society that cammeron super-promotes only increases dog-eat-dog feelings, why not promote a commi-capitalism were we instead of fighting each other for the best things in capitalism we work together so everyone can have some.

You could argue that the well off deserve there high status but I have to ask in a modern world why are we banishing people to lives of unfulfillment due to there birth-status?

RISE UP AND RESTORE CO-OPERATION. TORY'S OUT!

 

[Trivun]

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

We kinda did, we gave them enough votes to be put in the lead and have a chance, lib dems are sellouts, saw that coming. Hope people learned from that.

Actually, only some Lib Dems are sellouts, and some aren't. See, this is why I'm torn. I support Lib Dem and voted for them, but I hate what they've done with the coalition, and I agree, they have sold out on a lot of things. However, the party as a whole is not representative of every MP within it. My local MP, for example, in Leeds, is a Lib Dem - Greg Mulholland. I voted for him, and support him (following his Twitter feed at the Lib Dem conference right now). He has done everything possible to fight for student's rights, even going against the party line on multiple occasions. He signed that pledge against the tuition fee rises, and actually followed through, voting 'No' when it came to Parliament. There are still some good Lib Dems, like him, who are trying to fight for the things the Lib Dems stood for before the coalition was formed. In fact he even led a backbench rebellion against Clegg early on with this new government, sadly it didn't get the support he needed and failed rather miserably. But he made the effort, and fought long and hard for the people who put him, and other MPs, into power. If only the rest of the government would follow suit, we'd be in much less of a mess now...

 

[Calcium]

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

Ya know, I'm not the biggest Cameron fan in the world, but this is a really weak argument. No party managed to achieve a majority, but the Conservatives got the highest amount of votes. Labour managing to get into power despite losing against the Conservatives in the election would of been a serious blow to democracy.

The Lib Dems are in the cabinet and they came THIRD. The outcome was no winners, yet two losers got in.

 

[Hgame]

Gordon Brown because the stimulus packages and other measures he drew up and got the other world leaders to implement were what stopped this from becoming far worse than even the Great Depression. He saved the economy from complete and utter collapse, and is one of the best Prime Ministers we've ever had.

David Cameron, on the other hand, is a dirty, lying c***. His main election pledge, placed on hundreds of billboards around the country was : "I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS." Whats the first thing he did as Prime Minister- cut the NHS massively. He lied to everyone, was not elected- he only got in because of the backstabber Nick Clegg. His sole reason for becoming a politician was to get extra money for his poor millionaire banker friends.

Don't even get me started on George Osborne- with that buffoon in charge of the economy we'll be a third world country within a year.

 

[Lethos]

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

Ya know, I'm not the biggest Cameron fan in the world, but this is a really weak argument. No party managed to achieve a majority, but the Conservatives got the highest amount of votes. Labour managing to get into power despite losing against the Conservatives in the election would of been a serious blow to democracy.

The Lib Dems are in the cabinet and they came THIRD. The outcome was no winners, yet two losers got in.

Parties tend to join up in a coalition...Tell me, what do you suggest should of happened instead?

 

[Valkyrie101]

i dont like cameron/cleg he raised university costs, cut the NH

The NHS isn't being cut. It, along with foreign aid is one of two spending areas that were ring-fenced.

I'll go for the one that didn't start any wars.

That's both of them. Although one could argue that Gordon Brown was involved in the decision-making process for both Middle Eastern wars, but Cameron was (I think) a Tory MP back then, and so would probably have supported them.

 

[Hgame]

Brown.
But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

But that's the thing, we didn't vote Cameron. 36% of the turnout voted Cameron, when you factor in the turnout only 23% of the people eligible to vote voted for the Tories. If you count the whole country, only 17% of the population of the UK decided they wanted the Conservatives.

 

[Stephanos132]

Not overly fond of either, frankly.

Brown did a lot to prevent things being worse than they could be, but he was unlikeable, powerhungry and, like many Labour MPs, kept going on with inflation of the public sector and trying to manage everything, which is antithesis to my personal desire to be left the fuck alone. Also, we have been involved in 2 unwanted and unpopular wars under Labour, so there you go.

Cameron is an utter toad, and Clegg a fucking idiot, but cuts had to happen due to the recession and labours big spending projects which more often than not fell through (big education budget rise followed by our literacy and numeracy figures slumping... hm). Why on earth they couldn't trim the parts unnecessary to our country first before taking the shears to our services is beyond me.


Both were and are firmly in the pocket of the much maligned bankers and both continue to dodge the issue which many Britons are aggrieved by: Why are we part of the EU without our consent? And, of course, the big immigration elephant in the room (I have no problem with immigration per se, but a lot of folk still believe it is too much).

So yea, can I kill both now?

 

[Calcium]

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

Ya know, I'm not the biggest Cameron fan in the world, but this is a really weak argument. No party managed to achieve a majority, but the Conservatives got the highest amount of votes. Labour managing to get into power despite losing against the Conservatives in the election would of been a serious blow to democracy.

The Lib Dems are in the cabinet and they came THIRD. The outcome was no winners, yet two losers got in.

Parties tend to join up in a coalition...Tell me, what do you suggest should of happened instead?

Policy wise it was reported at the time that the Lib Dems were closer to Labour than the Conservatives. All I'm saying is that if you call the idea of Labour gaining power after getting second most votes, you should be disgusted that a party that did even worse holds some power.

If Labour managed to get power through a coalition, I don't see how that's worse than the Conservatives managing to get it from a coalition.

 

[Knusper]

I've got to say Gordon Brown. He can't be criticised for bailing out banks that belonged to the taxpayer, and although he did try to get some silly laws in, his main flaw was that he just wasn't a good orator or people-person.

Also, I would quite like to be able to afford Uni when I'm older.

 

[Inglip]

Griffin.

Oh shit, you're not meant to know about that yet.

 

[Hgame]

i dont like cameron/cleg he raised university costs, cut the NH

The NHS isn't being cut. It, along with foreign aid is one of two spending areas that were ring-fenced.

I'll go for the one that didn't start any wars.

That's both of them. Although one could argue that Gordon Brown was involved in the decision-making process for both Middle Eastern wars, but Cameron was (I think) a Tory MP back then, and so would probably have supported them.

They were going to ring-fence it, but when they got into power they decided not to.

 

[mb16]

David Cameron. as the Tories are doing what needs to be done, not just what we want till its too late.

 

[Lethos]

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

Ya know, I'm not the biggest Cameron fan in the world, but this is a really weak argument. No party managed to achieve a majority, but the Conservatives got the highest amount of votes. Labour managing to get into power despite losing against the Conservatives in the election would of been a serious blow to democracy.

The Lib Dems are in the cabinet and they came THIRD. The outcome was no winners, yet two losers got in.

Parties tend to join up in a coalition...Tell me, what do you suggest should of happened instead?

Policy wise it was reported at the time that the Lib Dems were closer to Labour than the Conservatives. All I'm saying is that if you call the idea of Labour gaining power after getting second most votes, you should be disgusted that a party that did even worse holds some power.

If Labour managed to get power through a coalition, I don't see how that's worse than the Conservatives managing to get it from a coalition.

Clegg openly stated before the election that if a coalition was essential, than he would form one with the party that received the most votes. The Lib Dems may have receieved the third highest amount of votes but they were invited to form a government by the party that received the most amount of votes. They did not form the government themselves and ultimately the Conservatives hold ultimate power.

If the Lib Dems had formed a coalition with Labour than they would of been invited to form a government with a party that holds no legitimate power. Big difference.

But the UK voted cameron, and now they deserve it, maybe this will be a good lesson for them about voting tory.

The irony being... we didn't vote him in, we didn't vote anyone in. They just decided amongst themselves that 'hey, LibDems, your leader's pretty good looking, let's get a room.'

'We' didn't 'vote' Cameron to do anything.

Ya know, I'm not the biggest Cameron fan in the world, but this is a really weak argument. No party managed to achieve a majority, but the Conservatives got the highest amount of votes. Labour managing to get into power despite losing against the Conservatives in the election would of been a serious blow to democracy.

The Lib Dems are in the cabinet and they came THIRD. The outcome was no winners, yet two losers got in.

Parties tend to join up in a coalition...Tell me, what do you suggest should of happened instead?

The conservatives gained majority via an extremely flawed electoral system.

I'm all for electoral reform trust me. But a government elected under FPTP is still a government. I will be happy when we get a more proportional system, but we can't punish the Tories for being elected under the system that was already in place.

 

[supermariner]

i really dislike both of them

But as a PM, Cameron is doing a much better job
as a party as a whole, Brown's labour had the right ideas
Apart from the Iraq war obviously but that was a Blair issue

i chose Brown

not because he's the better prime minister
because everything he touched went to shit
and Cameron is an Ex-PR man so knows how to be seen doing the right things
BUT he's fucking us working classes up bigtime with removal of benefits and working opportunities, he's just doing it with a smile and hoping we don't notice

BUT at the end of the day, The PM alone has little to no power
whereas the collective party does
so Brown's the man for me

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Brown. I can't say I'm a fan in any way but I prefer him to the Tories. He wasn't a people person and couldn't deal with the media but he wasn't actively bad where it really mattered. The Tories are just using the recession as an excuse to enact a load of idealogical policies that they'd never get away with otherwise that ring money out of the poorest sections of society and do little to deal with the actual causes of the recession.