Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Good to see you quoted Hiroki as I've been told that a lot recently. I've been feeling a lot like Tim Henman - only ever able to achieve a semi.

I'm interested in this bit too. Local issues I might be able to grasp, however the actual words used were 'Labour' and their bid for re-election has been largely about throwing mud at the other two parties along with telling some real whoppers regarding service level guarantees and a load of other stuff there's no way in hell they'll be able to afford.

Looking at things pragmatically, if one ignores Labour's scare tactics the promises they have made to the electorate have, in the context of the massive structural deficit they've chalked up, been the most unbelievable by some distance.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

This really spoke to me.

"By instructing us, over the years, to heed fears, not hopes, such voices have allowed Labour to abandon everything it once stood for, and hand us, trussed and oven-ready, to big business and the Daily Mail. We'll be trapped like this for ever, in New Labour's Bermuda triangulation, unless we vote for what we believe in rather than just against what we don't."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...bour-fear-hope

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I don't think the Tories have been much better than Labour in the mud slinging department.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I disagree and think the distance is considerably wider than that especially given that Labour are incumbent so 'should' have a record to draw on while the Tories can only say what they would do and draw on the incumbent's record. Though I would, I am biased ;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

That's a fair point, but I would counter that the Tories have been guilty of considerable mud slinging (by proxy) and FUD towards the Lib Dems. They're no angels by any stretch of the imagination.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Funny, whenever I've heard a Tory being interviewed they've discussed the matter at hand, while the Libs and Labs have just said the others are terrible and should be feared.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

The Tories have gone on about how a hung Parliament would be a disaster which included an advert fronted by a guy pretending to be Clegg, they were in conversations with their friends in the press on how to deal with Clegg a day before all four of them slammed him in the headlines and they were just as gulity as the other parties for avoiding much mention of the cuts they will need to make.

I don't think many people will buy the narrative that the Tories just want to discuss the matters at hand somehow.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Gordon Brown gave an impressive, impassioned speech at the Citizens UK election "assembly" today - quite impressive.
Then Gordon said, if he stayed in power, he would increase the minimum wage more than required over the next parliament to help people like Tia's family - I wonder why he didn't do it during the 10 years he was in charge of the Treasury, or during the last three years?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

You've not seen the debates then?

Edit: Tory PEB (Hung Parliament Party). No FUD here.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Well he/they did introduce the Minimum wage and have increased it at a couple of points..?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

However.......

If he felt that strongly about it, why didn't he do before what he's proposing to do now?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

But he did do something about it. He introduced it? They have also increased it before. I don't know why they didn't increase it again but I don't think Labour can be accused of inaction over the Minimum wage...

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Sorry, I'm not explaining myself well - if this is a Labour Policy, why isn't in the Manifesto? Or is he going for the emotional vote (being nice to a crying 14 year old and her aged granny)?

The point the 14 year old was making that the minimum wage isn't enough in London (and I agree with her, and funnily enough, so does BoJo) - I haven't heard any strident Labour voices for the London Minimum Wage, have you?

(up till two days before the election, that is).....

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

BTW It is probably more disgusting that anyone in employment cannot afford the tube and has to ration their food in the manor described.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Agreed

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Oh fair enough. If they broke promises in the manifesto then you sure as hell can't expect them to keep non-manifesto promises. It does seem like a opportunistic vote-grab in that sense.

Although I would think Labour are more likely to do something about it than the Tories.

---------- Post added at 22:46 ---------- Previous post was at 22:44 ----------

What's even worse is that she works for a government department! Bad enough when companies try to take advantage of the workforce but unforgivable when it's your own government! They need her to come into Central London so pay her dam fare and a fair wage FFS.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

And it transpired that none of the personal attacks that appeared in the papers against Clegg originated from Tory HQ.

As I said, whenever I've heard Tories interviewed they've slammed policy rather than person, with the exception of Gordo as he's responsible for much of what's gone wrong, being the PM.
Contrast that with Lib/Lab, where rather than tackling the other parties' policies head on, instead they claim things which were never said (similar to how Arthur has been doing).
Even the local candidates are at it. The flyer from our MP (Tory) covered what he'd done, what he would continue to do. The ones from the lib/labs barely mentioned what they'd do if elected, with the lib one going as far as to claim that a Tory vote would be wasted saying they couldn't win here!

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I've just heard it. It struck me that he sounded like a leader of the Opposition, fighting for a chance to put his vision into practice. What a pity that he is in fact the leader of the Government, who has already had 13 years to do just that.

Time's up, Gord.

---------- Post added at 23:05 ---------- Previous post was at 23:04 ----------

Still watching that news item as a matter of fact ... LMAO at Atheist Clegg speaking from a lectern with a Cross on it. :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Clegg's more agnostic, or at least that's what he described when asked why he didn't follow a faith.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Really? Do you have a link for that?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

You'll have to look on iPlayer or R4's site to see if they've still got a recording of Nick Robinson reporting what was and wasn't said at the meeting of media with the Tories.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Before I go hunting geese: was he present at the meeting?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I found this.. although it alleges otherwise... ;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobin...ood_smear.html

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Which clearly shows that the personal attacks came from the papers themselves, as Nick made clear on the radio.

The LibDems didn't like being treated like the big boys by the press, and used it to try and slander the Tories.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Logic has clearly left the building. How does

'clearly show(s) that the personal attacks came from the papers themselves'?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Or do you need it made bold to notice it? :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

No. In fact, it reinforces the suggestion that Tory HQ were behind this. The Telegraph had been sitting on this info for a long time and never saw it important enough to release it. They only released it (in synch with a couple of bloodhounds) after a visit to Tory HQ. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

They only released it just before the second debate after Clegg did well at the first debate.
Coincidence? No.
That was the reason they released it, to damage Clegg after he got a surge from the first debate.
:rolleyes:

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Seems they have finally got around to discussing Education.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...10/8658257.stm

Frankly I'm not impressed by any of the suggestions apart from the Lib Dems saying they will phase out university tuition fees.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Ministers encourage tactical voting.

Just to carry on the positive vibe that oozes from a Labour campaign proud of their achievements over the past 13 years and campaigning on continuing their record of achievement.

---------- Post added at 08:17 ---------- Previous post was at 08:15 ----------

These plans are fully and realistically costed and funded, right?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I think we should suck it up if we want our citizens to stand a chance against the rest of the world and provide a free education for ALL our citizens.I'm not talking about grants just tuition fees and frankly all three parties are living in lala land when it comes to economics promises already..;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

i think who ever wins the election [assuming its not lab ]will have a ruddy big shock when they see the true extent of our financial problems ,then the reality of what is actually in the spending pot will kick in ,as i strongly suspect we don't yet have a full grasp of the extent of labours cock up .

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I think you are spot on there.

I also think that if the election had not been due for a few years they would have made huge public service cuts, but this has not happened because they are more interested in keeping their place in number 10 than doing the right thing.

Whoever gets in will have to make massive cuts, if Labour gets in (I certainly hope not) the electorate will have sent a message that they can carry on doing as they like with the country.

Another term of Labour would be unbearable:mad:

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

We do, right up through to Higher Education level. Being a graduate is quite diluted enough by government pushing people to go to university as it is. Universities are complaining about having to remedial courses for their intakes to bring them up to standard already and far too many degrees are of little use in finding jobs.

We do not have the capability to send all our citizens to University and it is quite pointless to. Canada and the States are far more horny on degrees than we are yet charge tuition fees.

If people are doing degrees in engineering, sciences, maths and the like, where skills are in short supply and will equip them to compete with the hordes of graduates in these subjects being churned out elsewhere then definitely. Someone doing an obscure arts degree or the ever famous International Football Business Management degree not so much.

Vocational courses for those who don't have the ability to manage degree level education and financial incentives to those able to pursue a course in sciences, mathematics and engineering would surely be wiser than simply 'Go toss it off at University for 3 years doing a pointless degree no employer wants as they've about 3,000 graduates with a BA in BS applying for every job' surely?

Not that I'm an expert in education, just speaking from the POV of a taxpayer and a potential employer, one who has no degree in anything at that, though I am commencing one in October.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Nice article by Armando Iannucci in the Independent

Only thing.. "Turned the media into a pack of shrieking gibbons".. I thought they were like that all the time! ;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Surprised Gary hasn't picked up on this yet.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I do and I wouldn't IF I had had to pay tuition fees..This is my point entirely that many useful and highly intelligent possible future teachers,doctors,solicitors,research scientists,engineers etc are put right off because of tuition fees.I KNOW this for a fact as I see many students who won't even consider accepting the burden.A country gets the workforce it deserves if it won't pay the necessary basic funding for it..

However I don't want to derail this thread too far.

---------- Post added at 10:11 ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 ----------

Thanks for the link.:)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

If the level of commitment is such that if a few thousand pounds extra, ignoring the prodigious maintenance loans, is too much to invest in their future perhaps it's best they don't follow that course. My wife took her degree, tuition fees and all, on without a second thought or a moment's hesitation because it's what she wanted to do. It's a fairly simple equation and if the frankly fairly small tuition fee scares people away one has to question their dedication, especially if it is specifically tuition as you suggest rather than maintenance loan and other costs that is the issue.

If you want tuition fees have a look at this.

The experiences of Canada, the USA, Australia and several other countries throughout the world would appear to disagree that tuition fees are a critical impediment to educating the work force. The amount of people piling into university to study a variety of somewhat precariously relevant courses appears to suggest it isn't greatly dissuading people.

No-one likes paying but they can either take out a loan and pay it back on a means tested basis or pay higher taxes later. They pay either way with the difference that one way takes account of ability to pay while the other to an extent does not.

Winding this into the thread I find the Tories' suggestion of keeping tuition fees but expanding bursaries far more realistic than the abolition of tuition fees which was the point I was trying to make somewhere along the line, that with finances as they will be for the foreseeable future tuition fees will at best be held static.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

It matters not one jot who gets in.
Once the feet are under the table, if you work you will be hammered, plain and simple.
Their manifesto's are not worth the paper they are written on, income tax and vat will rise, regardless of what they say.
They bailed the banks out and now whoever gets in wants that burden lifted asap.
The only real vote is a no vote.
Send a message that people have had enough of the corruption of politics and the spin.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Especially when you consider that if they do the right degree (and a good one), it should increase their potential earnings way beyond the tuition fees..

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Wow. A truthful candidate at last! :Yikes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...10/8659440.stm

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

He's the candidate for North West Norfolk. Should put him outside of Nokia range for now.

Good on him for telling it like he sees it though.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

For all readers of The Sun...

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/hungparliamenttr

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

oh you mean Arthur ;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rdsutch01a.jpg

If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It...

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Yes and lets face it they've 'saved the world', 'broken the cycle of boom and bust', 'taken control of our borders', 'sorted out crime and antisocial behaviour', 'ended child poverty' etc. etc. etc. so ought to have plenty to boast about.... :rolleyes:

New Labour's supporters ought to dwell on the fact that it really isn't difficult to spend money like so much confetti. This is especially true when it is money you don't have but can borrow (or 'steal' for that matter), the real pain of paying for which is passed on to future generations but the kudos for which sates even the most egotistical politicians.. The difficult bit is 'earning' the money then ensuring every penny of it is spent as wisely as possible, providing the required level of services etc. whilst ensuring value for money for the taxpayer so that more is achieved for less. New Labour have consistently done the reverse - achieved so much less for so much more! Brown's 'prudence' was nothing more than a cynical con trick aimed at the gullible, the naive and those so clouded in judgement by their disdain for the previous Tory government that they'd have voted for and accepted just about anyone or anything other than them. Now they're on the run, having finally been rumbled as the opportunist idiots they are, we can expect any amount of negative campaigning, smears and slurs from people who turned political spin into an art form.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Bigot!











;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

So much less compared to what?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

absolutely any one who is against Brown is a bigot [new labour new rules:)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Compared to what they should have achieved had they been more prudent with the money they spent but all too often sadly wasted.

---------- Post added at 13:01 ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 ----------

:confused: .... But New Labour have been telling us for ages that they understand the need for a debate on peoples' concerns surrounding immigration.... :rolleyes: Since coming under much pressure from the possible BNP vote, their candidate in Barking, Margaret Hodge, has been much more 'understanding' of those who're worried about it... Is she a bigot too or just another of those cynical New Labour MPs who say/promise one thing before an election and subsequently do another.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Fair enough.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

He's still suspended isn't he?
Hmm, think about it, so much good anti-muslim material but no ability to post about it.
You know that bit in Scanners when someone's head explodes? :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Yeah, that'll be Brown and Mandelson the day after the election with a bit of luck.... :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Isn't that what they did in Cuba, China, Laos, Vietnam, and PDR of North Korea?;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Got him in trouble with his mum though :D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...10/8659399.stm

You have to love blind loyalty. I have to confess I'd be rather unlikely to associate my spouse with what Gordon Brown has done to the country or take the side of a political party over a member of my family but each to their own.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

LibLabCon all the same..

i know who i will be voting for.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Green Party?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

lol not quite, i will be voting bnp

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Who? Is that some local issue party?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Looks like Labour were setting Gordo up to take the bullet, he'll quit if they don't win.
That way they can hope he'll take all the bad feelings against them with him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...10/8659148.stm
He's staying true to form though with the last few comments.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Oddly as soon as I read your post before that one I guessed you would be voting BNP, sadly I didn't get to post asking if my thoughts were correct as I had to go do the school run. :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

"The prime minister said that if he "couldn't make a difference anymore", he would go off and do something else. "

He's certainly made a difference. I don't think any of us could argue with that.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I think the AvP tag line work for this election

"Whoever wins, we lose" :D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

True. We have already lost it's just a matter of how badly we lose.

---------- Post added at 18:15 ---------- Previous post was at 17:28 ----------

Ouch.

Here's a US style attack ad directed to Ed Balls from the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics.

From what I can tell Sunlight COPS seems to lay the smack down on politicians on both sides of the aisle, a quick search showed them causing grief for both Labour and Tories alike but of course that's no guarantee of them having no bias.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

That is horrible. Hopefully we will see no more of these ads in the UK (although it's web online so not much you can do!)

---------- Post added at 19:11 ---------- Previous post was at 18:51 ----------

Cameron:

Douglas Alexander:

Screw any of that. I am just not going to go the bed Thursday Night! That'll show em.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Then you're either a fool or blind. Or else you pay too much attention to that bloke down the pub.

Pray tell. :erm:

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Gordon brings in the big guns -and then sacrifices a child

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/elec...n-miracle.html

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

That first picture should really be accompanied by the Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Yeah right - I'm sure there are loads of charities just crying out for someone like him to come along and waste their money.... :rolleyes:

Yep well there's no doubt that New Labour are serious - seriously awful! Policies not adding up is one thing but Brown's sums clearly didn't add up and it's not the other parties who've almost bankrupted us...

---------- Post added at 21:02 ---------- Previous post was at 20:19 ----------

Forgot to mention, I also heard Ken Livingstone condemning New Labour's more recent policy on EU migration during his LBC radio show at the weekend. Red Ken's not noted as being a xenophobe so it comes to something when the likes him see that sort of thing as a problem....

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

He already did, did he not?

Twas the BNP if you had not already guessed.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

they've got 2 more votes than the green party :rofl:

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Labour FTW!




I have cast my bait...

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Enjoying a glass of Scotch and listening to Bach so zero interested response here :)

Daniel Hannan FTW.
Yep you know it.

You get the general idea. Despite his occasional ill-advised comments a lot of what he says makes sense because it is the simplest solution to problems. Why tax people in order to give them money back when you can just not tax them, why centralise control inefficiently and at a distance when there are local legislatures that know the areas better and are not being used, why take directives from Brussels which are blanket applied to the whole of Europe. Power should be as close as possible to those it affects, those it affects should have control over those who make these decision in terms of votes of no confidence and US style primaries, this gives better accountability, more local empowerment and a better democracy.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Hasn't BBKing espoused the virtues of the Green party in the past?

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Now. There is a question.

Where is BBKing?

If there was ever a thread on here I would expect him to be active on it would be this one....

Is he out knocking doors or summat? ;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

He's online on Facebook right now actually. He's more leaning towards the Lib Dems this time around looking at his group memberships :)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Out of the three main parties, I like what I am hearing from the Conservatives, it is what they are not saying that bothers me.

I voted Conservative in the above poll, but if I am honest, I am still undecided.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Aaahh!! Don't do it yesman, think how soiled you'll feel in the morning.:D

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

the Green party is ok but and its a big but
i don't fancy cycling every where in a Lycra suit -i love petrol and they don't so they aint getting my vote ;)

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I've only one real beef with the Green party..they want to get rid of the Monarchy.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Election debate rap battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h92DALSM_A

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Interesting article on Canada's recent minority goverment experiences.

---------- Post added at 11:02 ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 ----------

Quick link on the massive electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets.

Noteworthy is that there have been no complaints from Labour and as I mentioned before a journalist got beaten up there for looking into these issues.


---------- Post added at 11:29 ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 ----------

I have several, this being the a good example of the biggest:

Utterly clueless left-wing nut jobs - they'd have to raise taxes by a fair bit more than 25% from current level once various large corporations left the UK and ran their European presence from somewhere that doesn't have a punitive tax regime along with high earners with in demand skills disappearing elsewhere. Rape my pay slip I can't buy as many goods and services and can't support the economy which means less employment in the private sector and a lower tax take, ignoring that if taxes went that high I'd be off and zero tax income from me anyway!

Here's a highly partisan video apparently produced by the Tories which nonetheless gives a lot of reasons why we need a party, any party, besides Labour. Stuff the bit about how only voting Conservative would work at the end, anyone apart from Labour would be just fine.

Not trying to change anyone's mind with that video of course, I have little doubt I could show Gordon Brown sacrificing small children and some posters here would still vote Labour, but it puts the bad side of the current administration nicely into focus. Do remember that they have some achievements to be proud of as well, of course, and make your own decision.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Blimey, just listening to a Greek union spokeswoman on BBC News.

Ye Gods, don't ever annoy a Greek woman. EVER.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Sorry for not being able to respond in the way you would like, I am not very good at arguing/expressing myself over a forum :dozey:

I don't really need to give a reason

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Maybe just a few bullet points? Local or national issues? Public services? Economy? Foreign policy? Defence?

Of course you don't have to give reasons but given you apparently saw the candidates, thought everything through and what you heard solidified your view that voting Labour was the best idea you must have some vague idea why?

As it is right or wrong it just comes across that you are living up to my tongue in cheek post regarding voting for a vomit covered turd so long as it has the right rosette which is of course your right but please do correct me. Doesn't need debating skills to simply list what concerns you that you think Labour do better, and I couldn't care less really how you vote or what you say it's quite obvious where Newcastle was going to go anyways and it is your vote to use how you please. Just a bit of a shame if you're using something so important so apparently lightly :(

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I nearly hit my hand with my trusty club hammer when I heard Gordon Brown promising a referendum on electoral reform again this morning... :mad: That'll be like the one we got on the EU constitution will it??? :confused: :rolleyes:

As with so many things he and his miserable party have promised over the years, he's all for action before elections but not so keen afterwards... Eager to 'listen' to people before they vote but back to his usual arrogant and patronising self afterwards when his place at the feeding trough is guaranteed. God help us if this man and his band of inept leeches are still in power in any form on Friday!

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Well if the opinion polls are to be believed and i am not sure they should looks like were heading for a hung parliament with labour and the lib dems ready to do a deal. Yes yes i know clegg keeps denying it but both he and GB have done the cosying up bit a few tiomes quickly followed by attacks almost to make it look like there is no common ground. I would much rather one party had the majority even if that party was labour then enter into bargaining positions in a hung election.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

It seems Brown will go unless Labour are the majority party. Anything else and he will be gone with someone else leading an possible collation. There does seem to be geniune hostility with Brown/Lib-Dems than Labour/Lib-Dems, not sure where you get the impression that they are close.

The Liberal Democrats seem to be more open to a deal with the Conservatives, if they get the most votes, than Labour but I think voting reform will be the key issue, if Labour offer a referendum on that then that may well be enough.

I am quite happy with a hung parliament. If it is the case that the Tories have not done enough to convince people to award them a majority then they will have to compromise or be sidelined. There is nothing wrong with such a deal because it would mean that at least 50% of the electorate will see the people they voted for wield some kind of influence to get things done. Rather than 30-37% of people deciding who should govern the entire electorate.

We might have seen a lot fewer bad bills passed if we had such a system in the last Parliament.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I'm very relieved that I managed to sell out all my stock options before election day. If those ass-bags from Neo-Liebour get back in, I expect to see bad things happen on the stock, and futurers markets.

If the next government, whoever they are, don't get a grip on public spending, and the budget deficit quickly abd decisively. I expect the internation markets will be queuing up to hammer Stirling. That double dip recession is looking a bit more likely in my eyes....

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I would add - a hung parliament would rid us of the arrogance that both Labour & the Tories are guilty of.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

The EU have thought about the upcoming issues and decided the best way to deal with such things is to regulate the credit rating agencies and considering making their own which clearly won't be politically influenced at all. :rolleyes: How dare they downgrade Greece rapidly because it was three weeks from defaulting? That'll teach them for doubting a Eurozone country. Maybe I'm being overly simplistic but the story really does read that the EU are considering retaliating on the agencies for doing their job and downgrading the credit of a nation in deep excrement purely because it was an inconvenient truth.

I actually totally agree the rating agencies need looking at - for being far too generous with their sovereign ratings.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BA2J...ture=topvideos

Where did he pull that from!? He needed to be like this from the start of the campaign.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

It has probably taken this long to get GB to a point he could look and sound sincere thats why we havn't seen it from the begining. Also i never said labour and the lib dems were close i said they had both had spells of cosying up to each other prepping the ground for a coalition. I don't see a hung parliament as a best of both worlds more a worst of both worlds where bargaining is more important to maintain the coalition then actually getting doen what needs to be done.

Right now we need a strong government that is going to get a grip of this country and start to sort it out. Sadly given the depth of the mess were in we really need a two term for the party that starts to sort this out because it cannot be done in just five years. I like the general idea of a the big society in which we all play our part in our communitys and surely after all these years of people complaining about the growth of government and it's interference in our daily lives we should all be supporting that sort of idea.

Also if it hapens we all get the real chance to make a positive contribution to our communitys rather then just sitting on our backsides moaning but never doing anything. More then anything i want government slimmed right down from where it is now and labour will only increase government and the some of the policys the lib dems have also seem to me to herald a further increase in government. Oh for thursday to come so that all this can come to an end and we know what we have to endure for the next five years.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

With all thats been said and done over the past 4-6 weeks by all parties Cameron still gets my vote, 4.45pm a big fat X will be marking the conservative box.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

i heard to day that if gordo looses he will be looking for work with a charity,
i just hope its not in charge of finances or buying equipment .

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I can honesty say I'll be glad when I can turn on the TV without being bombarded by all this election crap.

I personally think we should adopt something the USA does, and that is the week before voting there is no coverage in campaigning (any media).

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

The apathy at election time in this country is astounding especially when you see such low turnouts, we should do as many other countries do and adopt a policy of fining people who do not vote.

I ensure that my vote is cast by registering for a postal vote and my vote was sent back a week ago.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

I'm voting for the guy that managed to keep his suit jacket on.

Cameron looks a real wilf in his rolled up cheap cream shirt. Does he think rolling up his sleeves makes him appeal to the both the common man (of course they don't wear suits, just shirts) and the toff (the kind of look sported at the weekend, kinda casual like).

At least Brown looks sharp, dress wise.

As for Clegg, the least said the better innit...

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

What I want to know why our vote tomorrow isn't private.

You look when you go and get your ballot paper tomorrow, they will take it out of a "cheque book" type book and when you state your name, they will write a number on the stub.

On both the stub and ballot paper are punched holes unique to that paper/stub.

Re: The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4
 

Are you kidding? The trade off in the USA is that you get campaigning for an entire year before the election. Do you really want that?