The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 4

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Yup. YouGov waited until after all the statements this week.

Have they looked behind the sofa?

Originally Posted by danielf

Question Time is fun

Ah, student politics. That brings back memories.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I've been following the Cambridge PPCs on Twitter (Lib Dem, Labour, Tory, Green, & an Independent... not seen the UKIP one or the Socialist).

After the bigot scandal (I refuse to use the ridiculous "gate" suffix), the Twitter account in the name of the Labour PPC, Daniel Zeichner, allegedly* posted this:

Originally Posted by twitter.com/danielzeichner

"these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" Either she's bigoted or she has a very poor grasp of geography

and

Originally Posted by twitter.com/danielzeichner in reply to @oldhoborn

I deeply regret that the BNP have been successful in making xenophobic attitudes like hers popularly acceptable

*I didn't see it, as the Tweets in question - along with the entire Twitter account itself - have since been deleted. But political blogger & Independent candidate for Cambridge Old Holborn took some screengrabs...

http://www.oldholborn.net/2010/04/go...ll-daniel.html

http://www.oldholborn.net/2010/04/da...s-twitter.html


What then amused me was that Mr Zeichner then said the following to our local paper the Evening News (after Gordon Brown apologised to Gillian Duffy).

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home...that-gaffe.htm

Originally Posted by Cambridge Evening News

Cambridge’s Labour candidate Daniel Zeichner said: “I think most of us have said things we regret, but the key thing is how you deal with it, and he was right to apologise in person, which must have taken courage.

“Actually, it could just be the moment that brings the election alive. I’ve been saying on platform after platform that immigration is a key issue, particularly for working class voters in Cambridge.

“Julian Huppert says it doesn’t come up. It does, and we need to treat the worries that people like Gillian Duffy have very seriously.”

[Xaccers]

I have to say, listening to it on R4, Cameron came over as the strongest.
Cleg just seemed creepy in his way of trying to be the audience's friend.
And Brown, he was just useless.
It was great to hear Cameron point out that Gordo believes that government = economy.

Well I am not sure what has been said before since I have only just watched the debate. (Blame the mrs, she wanted to go out for a curry, very nice btw)

Cameron - Came across well with some good points.
Clegg - Came across well with some good points.
Brown - Looked like he had eyes that would be **** holes in snow.

I must admit, I am still a 'floating' voter at this point.

I like Clegg, he has some good ideas, don't like the idea of losing our nuclear deterrant though.

I like Cameron, he has some good ideas, not sure about the rest of the flannel though.

Gordon Brown looked and sounded like my worst hangover though.

One down, i guess.

[speedfreak]

anyone have a link to watch the last debate? I missed it

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

anyone have a link to watch the last debate? I missed it

Probably be on BBC iPlayer as it was the BBC debate.

Link to it on iPlayer

[punky]

Originally Posted by twitter.com/danielzeichner

"these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" Either she's bigoted or she has a very poor grasp of geography

Or she understands the concept of a rhetorical question.

Originally Posted by punky

Or she understands the concept of a rhetorical question.

Too many tweets make a?

[/cameron]

[danielf]

Originally Posted by twitter.com/danielzeichner
"these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" Either she's bigoted or she has a very poor grasp of geography

Originally Posted by punky

Or she understands the concept of a rhetorical question.

As a rhetorical question it's pretty circular and pointless isn't it? It's not even grammatically correct.

[speedfreak]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Probably be on BBC iPlayer as it was the BBC debate.

Link to it on iPlayer

Thanks charlie

[Niles Crane]

Originally Posted by punky

Or she understands the concept of a rhetorical question.

If she thinks that's a rhetorical question, then she most definitely doesn't understand the concept. It's redundant, not rhetorical.

[punky]

Originally Posted by twitter.com/danielzeichner

I deeply regret that the BNP have been successful in making xenophobic attitudes like hers popularly acceptable

No, what is making the BNP successful is that the 3 main parties won't address the real sharp end of immigration.

1. The Somali rapist who can't be deported because he 'has a child' here
2. The Iraqi woman who has 9 kids and a multi-million pound mansion in Chelsea paid for by the state
3. The ridiculous catch-and-release scheme where when illegals are caught by the police they are obligated to let them go so they can voluntarily report to an immigration centre. Shock! Horror! They never do.
4. The Afghans seeking aslyum but travel through 15 safe countries before sitting at the edge of the English Channel waiting for their chance to come over
5. The demonising of honest goods-haulers who have their vehicles compromised by aslyum seekers.

Get one or two of the main parties to deal with all that in a sensible manner and you'll find support for the BNP drying up pretty damn quick I can assure you.

Another so-called debate about immigration and what was mentioned? Europeans that we can't do anything about and a few intelligent, decent, econonomic migrants that only the most die-hard BNP skinheads actually have a problem with. Oh there was a brief mention in dispatches of Cleggs amnesty for illegals, but that was it.

---------- Post added at 00:55 ---------- Previous post was at 00:52 ----------

In other news, this made me laugh.

[Jimmy-J]

The electorate are actually falling for all their fake promises and claptrap. Surely anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see right through this X-Factor type of politics? They'll be dancing on ice at the next run-up to a general election!

Sad.

If a winner of last nights debate has to be chosen, then, imo, the winner of that debate was Gordon.

This made me laugh though.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Damien

Cameron won by clear margin according to YouGov/Sun

Now that is a surprise..