2015 UK General Election Thread

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

I cannot see any reason to vote for Labour.

Simply to throw Dave out of number 10.

a lot of people are playing it like 'Big Brother' 'I'm a Celebrity' 'The X Factor'

sounds silly but that's how it is.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

And you notice that apart from a short period, Cameron has been polling better than Miliband all Parliament.

I just really don't get voters. They think Miliband is doing the worst out of the 3 main Party leaders, yet people still want to vote Labour. I know they have their die hard core of Labour voters, but Tories and Liberals have those as well. Outside of that hardcore bunch though, I cannot see any reason to vote for Labour.

And l cannot see any reason to vote for the other's either as to me its not about personalities but what policies the political parties are offering at the end of the day.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by denphone

And l cannot see any reason to vote for the other's either as to me its not about personalities but what policies the political parties are offering at the end of the day.

I think it is also, for this election, more about whether the people you vote for actually care about the country as a whole and not just a narrow cross-section of it.

[denphone]

The latest Sky News polls are predicting a hung parliament and my hunch is unless something changes dramatically l think its odds on this is what we are going to get.

http://news.sky.com/gallery/1450438/...test-forecasts

http://news.sky.com/video/1450621/pr...-poll-of-polls

---------- Post added at 11:48 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

Originally Posted by ianch99

I think it is also, for this election, more about whether the people you vote for actually care about the country as a whole and not just a narrow cross-section of it.

Indeed.

Originally Posted by ianch99

I think it is also, for this election, more about whether the people you vote for actually care about the country as a whole and not just a narrow cross-section of it.

I'm not sure how allowing unlimited cheap labour in from Eastern Europe or having secret migration plans to make the UK more multicultural or making large sections of society dependent on Government handouts or raising Government spending from 36% of GDP in 2000 to 46% of GDP in 2009 is caring for the country as a whole...

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I'm not sure how allowing unlimited cheap labour in from Eastern Europe or having secret migration plans to make the UK more multicultural or making large sections of society dependent on Government handouts or raising Government spending from 36% of GDP in 2000 to 46% of GDP in 2009 is caring for the country as a whole...

Looks more like a cynical attempt to make large proportion of the population dependent upon the state for their income and thus securing their votes against any reduction in that income however damaging that may be for the country as a whole.

[denphone]

David Cameron 'won't serve third term' if re-elected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32022484

[Osem]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Looks more like a cynical attempt to make large proportion of the population dependent upon the state for their income and thus securing their votes against any reduction in that income however damaging that may be for the country as a whole.

That'd be right.

Originally Posted by denphone

David Cameron 'won't serve third term' if re-elected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32022484

That's interesting. Why has he done that? I can't think what he has to gain from it from announcing it now as he isn't that unpopular - at least not relative to his rivals - so there isn't a case of people wanting Conservative but not him. In fact he out polls the Tories.

[MalteseFalcon]

Might be because if elected, by the time the next Parliament comes around he will have served 15 years as leader of the Conservatives. Actually, I wouldn't mind betting he gets elected, and then in 2017/18 he steps down and we get another scenario of Blair/Brown.

But realistically, who could replace him as leader? Bo Jo would be a disaster, Teresa May I don't think would command the respect and loyalty that Thatcher did.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by denphone

David Cameron 'won't serve third term' if re-elected.

Ok Dave. thanks for letting us know Dave.

I wonder if he'll retire when he gets evicted in a few weeks time?

Salmond keeps saying he'll write the first budget for Labour. Pretty sure the SNP's plan is:

1) Dominate Scotland but the Conservatives get into No 10.

2) Win the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016 with the promise of another referendum.

3) EU Referendum is scheduled by Westminster. Scotland to vote on the same day on the UK union too?

[MalteseFalcon]

Yeah, I reckon that will be the deal breaker for the SNP to form a coalition. With the Liberals it was the AV referendum. Personally, I never understood why the Tories were so against it, as David Laws pointed out in his autobiography, they use the AV system to elect a leader. Also it would have meant that Labour would struggle to get a majority with the AV system in place.

I suspect it was the slippery slope argument: that AV would have created pressure to move to "proper" PR of a kind that would ensure more or less permanent coalition forever. Certainly Nick Clegg liked to refer to AV as a "baby step" in the direction of PR.

---------- Post added at 08:21 ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 ----------

Originally Posted by Damien

Salmond keeps saying he'll write the first budget for Labour. Pretty sure the SNP's plan is:

1) Dominate Scotland but the Conservatives get into No 10.

2) Win the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016 with the promise of another referendum.

3) EU Referendum is scheduled by Westminster. Scotland to vote on the same day on the UK union too?

Something like that. However in that same plan you can see the evidence that Salmond is becoming slightly unhinged. He believes too much of his own legend ... the canny operator, the high-stakes gambler ... he's so enamoured of his own perceived reputation that he seems to have forgotten that he lost the referendum, or else he seems to have convinced himself that the decisive "no" was actually some sort of deferred "yes".

The polls that are giving the SNP a big lead over Labour look fantastic until you view them in the context of the referendum. Last September the SNP successfully crystallised the issue of independence as an actual, concrete thing that could happen, rather than an abstract concept. They also firmly welded themselves to it. We are only just six months on from the referendum and naturally, those who voted Yes are now vowing to transfer their parliamentary vote to the party that stands for Yes.

It's a pity really. We could have done with there being a larger gap between the two. Voters here need to decide the election on the issues it stands for. As it is, Scotland is well on the road to becoming another Northern Ireland, with politicians elected based on their constitutional outlook rather than on a broad manifesto.

[heero_yuy]

A survey of PinkNews.co.uk readers has found that support for Labour has dropped dramatically since the last general election.

Thirty-seven per cent of the 270 respondents had voted for Labour in May 2005, compared with 24 per cent for Liberal Democrats and 23 per cent who voted Conservative.

However, 39 per cent of respondents said they planned to vote Tory in the next general election, compared to only 29 per cent for Labour.

Pink link

Cameron a gay pinup boy?