2015 UK General Election Thread

[richard s]

Now with have the Tory's Right to Buy back again! Good in principle but are the majority of housing stock now run by Housing Associations. Questions to ask: who is going to make them sell their housing stock at a knock down price, who qualifies.

Would you buy yours if you live on a crap estate etc.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by richard s

Would you buy yours if you live on a crap estate etc.

If enough people buy up then sink estates tend to get transformed into desirable places to live.

I'm glad to see that they have pledged that the money raised would go into building more affordable housing. It could become a virtuous circle if correctly managed as well as requiring less input from the taxpayer.

[Mr K]

I'd like to make manifestos's contractually binding. They can put whatever they want in it, and not deliver any of it if elected. The Tories have no intention of delivering any of these unfunded giveaways. I suspect they know there's no way they can get a majority, so on the off chance they are part a a coalition, they can say the other party won't let them deliver the manifesto goodies. That's what they did with their inheritance tax pledge last time. The promises/lies are getting increasingly desperate.

Originally Posted by Mr K

I'd like to make manifestos's contractually binding. They can put whatever they want in it, and not deliver any of it if elected. The Tories have no intention of delivering any of these unfunded giveaways. I suspect they know there's no way they can get a majority, so on the off chance they are part a a coalition, they can say the other party won't let them deliver the manifesto goodies. That's what they did with their inheritance tax pledge last time. The promises/lies are getting increasingly desperate.

You can't make them legally binding because events can undermine the best of intentions.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

If enough people buy up then sink estates tend to get transformed into desirable places to live.

I'm glad to see that they have pledged that the money raised would go into building more affordable housing. It could become a virtuous circle if correctly managed as well as requiring less input from the taxpayer.

Yeah like Grant Shapps promised 1:1 replacement when they increased the discounts on RTB.

That went well - the replacement ratio dropped from 18:100 to 14:100.

It won't require less input from the taxpayer. As of 2 years ago in Wandsworth over 1/3rd of all properties sold under right to buy were being privately let. You end up with people buying up then 1/3rd being lived in by tenants who come and go, turning places with stable populations who may care about their properties into ones with transitive populations. For the sink estates it might improve it'll mess up other developments.

It will however do a great job of bribing a few and will get some social cleansing going. Forcing LAs to sell off properties in more expensive areas to fund this will do a great job of that.

Incidentally if you're a 'small c' conservative this is hideous as it's the government confiscating something they don't own - housing associations are charities - and forcing its privatisation.

If you're a large 'C' conservative it's short term idiocy as it will reduce the level of home ownership over the longer term, just as HTB has. Some people used to use social housing to save up for home ownership, now they have to have an amazing job, mortgage themselves to the hilt, rely on the bank/hotel of mum and dad, or use the taxpayer to guarantee them.

[denphone]

Labour-SNP heading for majority in poll projection.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...ted-to-hit-326

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by denphone

Labour-SNP heading for majority in poll projection.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...ted-to-hit-326

Almost every poll leading up to polling day predicted either a hung parliament, with Labour the largest party or a small Labour majority of around 19 to 23. Polls on the last few days before the country voted predicted a very slim Labour majority.

With opinion polls at the end of the campaign showing Labour and the Conservatives neck and neck, the actual election result was a surprise to many in the media and in polling organisations. The apparent failure of the opinion polls to come close to predicting the actual result led to an inquiry by the Market Research Society. Following the election, most opinion polling companies changed their methodology in the belief that a 'Shy Tory Factor' affected the polling.

Wiki

1992.

Whether that change of methodolgy makes the polls any more reliable remains to be seen.

[denphone]

Yes the polls are very hard to predict as voters are much more volatile then they used to be but one cannot be surprised at that given the political rabble we have at our disposal nowadays.

The possible result is probably, in order of likelihood:

• Labour minority government (supply and confidence via SNP)
• Labour-Lib coalition
• Tory-Lib coalition

UKIP, Greens and the N.Ireland parties will probably not get enough to be a factor in any talks although it's possible the Tories might try to sustain a minority government via that route.

The SNP/Labour block will probably be enough to make a Tory minority government unworkable less they can command a narrow majority with the backing of the Liberal Democrats. A lot depends on the scale of UKIP voters moving back. I think the UKIP vote will collapse in favour of the Tories as people see how close the result will be.

My hope is that either that the Liberal Democrats win enough seats so that either Labour or the Conservatives can form a majority government. The worst outcome is a supply and confidence deal with the SNP who'll spend the next 5 years trying to undermine the commons for populist appeal up north.

I am just totally dumbfounded by the sudden large sums of money being found for all these promises and still 12 billion coming from welfare you can't have it both ways in that there is plentry of money for this but we're so skint massive amounts have to be cut here and from 2018 tax cuts for all. This election is blowing the brown stuff detector off the scale as it clearly has more to do with ideology then political or economic needs you can almost hear the hatred in Cameron's voice whenever he talks about welfare. If labour had a better leader I think they would walk this election to be honest as I don't believe most of the public really do want the conservatives.

[Osem]

It's the same at every election - most of the promises fail to materialise fully, if at all.

[Pierre]

A narrow Tory majority, because I believe the the population of the country not to be complete knobs.

I could be wrong.

[Dave42]

Originally Posted by Pierre

A narrow Tory majority, because I believe the the population of the country not to be complete knobs.

I could be wrong.

if nasty party win proves lots of country complete knobs and god help us

Originally Posted by Dave42

if nasty party win proves lots of country complete knobs and god help us

And if the ******* party win, we will go further down the toilet...

[Dave42]

Originally Posted by Hugh

And if the ******* party win, we will go further down the toilet...

only if nasty party win