The 2010 General Election Thread: Week 2

[Xaccers]

Aren't most of the items on the list provided by flyboy actually european directives?
Smoking ban etc.

[Flyboy]

Did anyone see the LibDem broadcast this evening? I hope they picked up all the paper.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Aren't most of the items on the list provided by flyboy actually european directives?
Smoking ban etc.

The smoking ban is not a European directive, but they are considering it.

The commission is calling for an EU-wide ban on smoking in public places by 2012. Currently all EU countries have regulations of some kind designed to protect people from second-hand smoke and its harmful effects. But the rules vary widely from country to country.

The UK and Ireland have the strictest laws - a complete ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and public places, including public restaurants and bars. Bulgaria is due to follow suit in 2010. Greece, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Slovenia, France and Holland have introduced smoke-free legislation that still allows special enclosed smoking rooms. The EU is now proposing that uniform laws be drafted for all 27 countries to regulate smoking more strictly in public areas and workplaces.

http://ec.europa.eu/news/environment/090708_en.htm

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

Did anyone see the LibDem broadcast this evening? I hope they picked up all the paper.

http://twitter.com/helenduffett/status/12175766601

Originally Posted by Helen Duffett, Lib Dem PPC for Romford

I was at the #LibDems Party Election Broadcast shoot. To reassure you: every bit of that paper was picked up at the end!

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Derek S

And how are these being paid for? By cold, hard cash or by some dodgy PFI scheme where the money is spread out over 20-30 years and off the books to try and make the national deficit even less scary than it is.



Yep the liberalisation of drinking laws has been a great success, you only need to go down the local high street each Friday or Saturday night to see how the British have taken to the continental drinking culture.



Hmmmm, more police but less than ever actually doing 'policework' thanks to reams and reams of paperwork foisted on them. Murder might be down but violent crime is up.

If Labour are such friends of the Police and law and order try checking out some of the Police blogs to see how much support they are giving them in their quest for re-election.

Murders may well be down thanks to improvements in medical care, wounds that would have been fatal 5-10 years ago are now mostly survivable, which leads me on to.



And a huge increase in the number of managers and the cost of them to the service. Plus as in schools most of these are being paid for by costly PFI schemes.

Mere facts Derek, mere facts.....

We all know New Labour are very 'relaxed' when it comes to minor details such as facts, truth and honesty. They and their apologists aren't good at answering questions either (they've got 'better things to do' IIRC ) although they just love asking them.... For a party that's been in power for 13 years, has access to all the 'books' and, if we're to believe the rose tinted brigade, has served us all very well, they don't seem to have many answers and are being remarkably coy about where the axe is going to fall....

They've definitely spent, wasted and lost UK PLC loads of money, however, and if these were the sole criteria for judging a successful government, this lot would be the best by a country mile. Discrimination's obviously become so politically incorrect within government circles that, so far as the economy is concerned, New Labour have suspended theirs in favour of Ponzi style economics and Viv Nicholson's budget control....

Anyway, I wonder if any of the New Labour apologists who've defended Brown so blindly over the years and were in total denial about what the rest of us knew he did wrong, realise how stupid they look now he's finally admitted he made serious mistakes WRT the regulation and oversight of the financial sector..... No doubt they have better things to do than face up to reality....

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Matt D

http://twitter.com/helenduffett/status/12175766601

I can't imagine that every piece was collected. It seemed to be very windy.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by danielf

The smoking ban is not a European directive, but they are considering it.



http://ec.europa.eu/news/environment/090708_en.htm

The clue to whether it is not currently an EU directive is that Germany does not have a ban. Only if Berlin gives the ok, will it be an EU directive. Although they usually implement a law first and then insist that everybody else follows suit.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by nomadking

The clue to whether it is not currently an EU directive is that Germany does not have a ban. Only if Berlin gives the ok, will it be an EU directive. Although they usually implement a law first and then insist that everybody else follows suit.

I knew there was going to be rubbish when I saw your name next to the post. I was not disappointed...

[Hiroki]

Anybody had a play around with that http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/ site?

I saw it on the north east news earlier and it was suggested that it may help people decide who to vote for.....anyway my results http://vfp.me/4BC645382FE73

[Ignitionnet]

No real shocker for me.

http://vfp.me/4BC648D28830B

Voting based on local reasons rather than national so doesn't change anything. That I dislike paying taxes (high-ish income and I get very little return on the taxes I pay), like grammar schools (attended one), dislike current approaches to immigration (worked in Brick Lane and lived in East London so saw plenty of its' fallout) and consider the welfare state to be overly complicated and in some cases too generous and others unfairly harsh (have known plenty who've gamed it and some who suffered because they didn't) isn't a surprise.

[Flyboy]

What was startling was how easy it was to spot the BNP's ludicrous policies.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I dunno... the fact that they are always so ludicrous makes them rather easy to spot a mile off, not so startling really.

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The first Election Debate with Gordon Brown, David Cameron, & Nick Clegg, takes place on Thursday night at 8:30pm on ITV1.

http://www.itv.com/electiondebate/

Be interesting... I think this will be the first time we've had something like this in the UK?

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Matt D

I dunno... the fact that they are always so ludicrous makes them rather easy to spot a mile off, not so startling really.

----------------------------


The first Election Debate with Gordon Brown, David Cameron, & Nick Clegg, takes place on Thursday night at 8:30pm on ITV1.

http://www.itv.com/electiondebate/

Be interesting... I think this will be the first time we've had something like this in the UK?

From a totally neutral stand point each of these guys must be worried sick about making a mistake on air, talk about pressure.

Welcome to the General Election Thread, Week 2. I have moved the last 24 hours' worth of posts from the week 1 thread in to this one to help preserve the continuity of the discussion. If you want to reply to an older post from week 1 please copy and paste it into your reply. Remember to attribute your quotes within the quote tags: [ quote=namehere] paste content [/quote].

Remember to have a vote in our new poll - let's see whether voting intentions are changing as the campaign progresses.

[Ignitionnet]

If the debates have an effect will be interesting - I suspect right now most will be more entrenched in their views than they were a week ago