Off Topic Great Britain General Election May 7th 2015.

Cameron makes my skin crawl. Some of the gash he comes out with, how does the ordinary sod vote for the ****ing Tories like. Oh yeah I forgot why, Blair and Brown, sold every labour supprter in the country down the river

 

Actually yep I have had a few scoops, maybe I was a bit harsh on him probably due to being old school and being brought up when the likes of Tony Benn and Eric Heffer were around, today's Labour Party is far to much like the old Liberal Party for me.

 

Since everyone seems to be at a loss as to who to vote for in the upcoming elections because "they're all pricks", can anyone name a past or present politician they do like...?

 

Anthony Wedgewood Benn.

btw I'm voting labour if they actually open the polling station, Huyton/Page Moss has returned a labour mp including a prime minister since before the 2nd world war and in some elections the opposition don't even put up candidates.

 

Rosa Luxemburg. And Marx (Groucho).

 

John Smith.

A great man who'd have made a fantastic Prime Minister

 

Very true Tobes.

 

Election TV debate: Leaders clash over NHS, cuts and immigrati"
The UK's party leaders have clashed in the first TV election debate on a range of issues including the NHS, immigration and the deficit.
It is the only time David Cameron and Ed Miliband will appear together on TV ahead of 7 May's polling day.
The Conservative and Labour leaders, as well as the leaders of the Lib Dems, UKIP, the Green Party, the SNP and Plaid Cymru, also debated zero-hours contracts, spending cuts and education in the ITV-hosted contest.
An average audience of 7.7m, which was a share of 34%, watched the debate on ITV, the BBC News Channel or Sky News.
Snap polls taken after the debate gave a mixed verdict.
A YouGov poll of 1,100 people gave a clear victory to the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, with 28%, followed by UKIP leader Nigel Farage on 20%, Mr Cameron on 18%, Mr Miliband on 15%, Mr Clegg on 10%, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett on 5% and Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood on 4%.
'Pick and mix'
But a ComRes poll for ITV made it a dead heat between Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband, Mr Farage and Ms Sturgeon, although Mr Cameron came out on top on the question of who was most capable of leading the country.
Mr Miliband was judged best performer in an ICM poll for the Guardian, taking 25% of support, just ahead of David Cameron on 24%.

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Analysis by BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson
There was no game-changer. No single "moment", no zinger, no gaffe which looks set to re-shape the course of this election. Save perhaps for one.
That was the presence on the stage of not two or three party leaders but seven - a debate in which the talk of a new sort of politics, multi-party politics, became visible reality.
If that gives a boost for UKIP's Nigel Farage with his laser focus on immigration and his attack on the "Westminster parties" - as the early instant polls suggest - it will worry the Tories.
If it also promotes Natalie Bennett's Greens, Nicola Sturgeon's SNP and Leanne Wood's Plaid Cymru after their assault on austerity - it will frighten Labour. The consequence could be an outcome more unpredictable and more uncertain than any election for years.
Read Nick's full blog here.

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Some of the sharpest exchanges in the two-hour event came when Lib Dem Nick Clegg clashed with Mr Cameron.
Mr Clegg accused Mr Cameron of wanting to cut the money going into schools - Mr Cameron denied this and accused the Lib Dem leader of taking a "pick and mix approach" to decisions they had made together in cabinet.
Mr Miliband attacked Mr Clegg for "betraying young people" over tuition fees - a clearly riled Mr Clegg attacked the Labour leader's "pious stance" and challenged Mr Miliband to apologise to the British public for "crashing the economy". Mr Miliband said Labour had admitted getting it wrong over bank regulation.
Ms Sturgeon took a firm line against austerity and signalled areas, such as increasing the top rate of income tax, where she could work with Labour but said getting more SNP MPs elected to Westminster was needed to "keep them honest".
Ms Wood and Ms Bennett joined Ms Sturgeon in stressing their anti-austerity credentials.

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The verdict of the snap opinion polls

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The BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme both Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband's supporters were "pretty pleased" - "they felt their men came through it relatively unscathed, they got over their core message, they both believed they managed to look prime ministerial…"
However, he said, those with the most to smile about would be the smaller parties, "particularly the women, and most particularly Nicola Sturgeon".
The SNP leader had "managed to project herself as a distinctive, articulate voice of anti-austerity in a way which we've not really had on the national stage", he said.
Mr Farage, on the other hand, seemed to be appealing "again and again and again to his base, this is not a (UKIP) campaign that is reaching out".
Mr Farage risked controversy by highlighting the number of foreign nationals with HIV whom he said were treated by the NHS, saying: "We have to look after our own people first."
Ms Wood said Mr Farage "ought to be ashamed of himself" for deploying "scaremongering rhetoric".
Policy guide: Immigration
This issue includes EU and worldwide migration, border controls and rules on work and benefits.

 

I pay the 40% as well and do not consider myself rich. The point I was trying to make is that under the last Labour government those on benefits filled their boots as it was better not to work (the housing benefit changes alone cost a fortune were people on benefits could find a house themselves and charge it to the taxpayer) the mega rich, corporations and banks were allowed to get away with murder and the average taxpayer found himself gradually drawn into the 40% tax bracket.

Of course they stuck to their pledge of not increasing income tax, but did not increase thresholds within the tax system and introduced loads of new taxes. They also increased fuel duty, drinks tax, etc.

 

Think that in this election people won't vote based on PR exercises and how the leaders present themselves as they are all as anodyne, bland and offensive as one another (in their different ways). Remember how Gordon Brown's 'bigoted woman' gaffe in Rochdale basically lost him the 2010 election?? Maybe that will happen again, maybe it won't but it's not a two horse race this year so it wouldn't be as significant if it did. This time people will vote based on political sympathy with a larger party so will make decisions on an ideological basis and on what they believe each party represents in terms of political principles and ideals. The ones who actually think about it of course, rather than those who jus put a cross in whichever box allows them to be as reactionary as possible. My hope is that this brings some much needed differentiation, separation and variety back into the political sphere instead of the play it safe, centrist, like-for-like politicians this country has been producing for the last twenty years.

 

Election 2015: Nicola Sturgeon denies 'preferring Cameron'

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SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has firmly denied a newspaper's claim she told a French diplomat she would prefer David Cameron in No 10 over Ed Miliband.
The Daily Telegraph claims to have seen a memo detailing how Scotland's first minister privately said Labour's leader was not "prime minister material".
Labour said it was a "devastating revelation" because she had previously said she could work with the party.
But Ms Sturgeon tweeted that the story was "categorically, 100% untrue".
French officials have also said that she had not expressed any preference as to who should be the next prime minister of the UK.
The Daily Telegraph claimed to have seen the official British government memorandum which includes details of a private meeting between Ms Sturgeon and Sylvie Bermann, the French Ambassador to the UK.
Included in a civil servant's summary was the line that "she'd rather see David Cameron remain as PM (and didn't see Ed Miliband as PM material)", according to the paper.
'Completely false'
However, BBC Scotland's James Cook says a source close to the first minister described Civil Service minutes of her meeting with the French ambassador as making "no mention of a discussion of Ms Sturgeon's preference for prime minister".
"The source said the minutes showed the discussion focused on the possibility of a referendum on British membership of the European Union," adds Cook.
The source insists the Telegraph story is "completely false".
Also, the French consul general in Edinburgh, Pierre-Alain Coffinier, has told the BBC Ms Sturgeon had not expressed any preference for a leader.
That was echoed by the spokesman for the French ambassador Sylvie Bermann, who said Ms Bermann had met Ms Sturgeon in Edinburgh, but that the SNP leader had not expressed an opinion on who she would prefer as prime minister.
Both the SNP and Labour have ruled out a formal coalition in the event of a hung Parliament.
'Uncomfortable truth'
Ms Sturgeon has hinted at offering informal support to Ed Miliband, should he become prime minster, in return for steering Labour away from "implementing Tory policies" on austerity.
She has ruled out a deal of any sort with the Conservatives.
Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy seized on the Telegraph's claims, saying it exposed the "uncomfortable truth behind the SNP's general election campaign".
"For months Nicola Sturgeon has been telling Scots she wants rid of David Cameron yet behind closed doors with foreign governments she admits she wants a Tory government."
The BBC's James Cook said: "While Nicola Sturgeon may or may not have said it... there are definitely some people within the Scottish National Party for whom five years of the Tories to attack would be a better outcome than getting into bed with Labour."

 

I sense the hand of Lynton Crosbie in this.

 

The two (or three) party system is dead. We have entered an era where individual countries within the uk will be looking to exert as much influence as possible and to get as much resources -,money - as possible.

Look at Scotland. From all their debates about independence they have realised that they would get most from Westminster by having a solid separate block. The SNP representing them almost exclusively would be a massive advantage to the scots. The SNP has no remit to have the best interest of the UK at heart. Unlike Labour their responsibility is only Scotland and the interests of the uk is not on their agenda in fact the opposite.

The same for wales. Voting plaid Cymru and getting as many seats as possible will give the welsh a greater voice. Having labour as their greater representation at Westminster and in their assembly has shafted them relative to the scots.

Which brings me to my main point. Similarly for the English we would want a majority win for either Labour or the Tories to counter the bargaining power of the SNP or plaid Cymru. Currently it is very unlikely that labour will get a majority vote because of the collapse in Scotland. So reluctantly if we are to have a non coalition government and one which is not dictated by the SNP IMO we would need to have a majority Tory win in these elections.

 

In what way would saying that Cameron is preferred by the SNP favour the Tories ? I would have thought it may put off some floating voters.

 

SNP is going to be the biggest party in Scotland, and could hold the balance of power in the next parliament. Neither Labour
or Conservative wants to eat with the devil before the election as it's likely to cost them votes. After the election is another
matter.

 

"devil"

A lot of those that sided with the SNP in the Scottish referendum are traditional Labour supporters and will vote Labour(mainly in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Dundee and the poorer area's of Edinburgh.

 

They're all ****ing Jacobites up there still aren't they believing in that Popey hell's underneath your feet ****e

 

Very true, but some are a little confused(mainly Rangers fans), they love being part of the UK and fly the Union Jack, love their Scottishness and the Saltire but not the SNP, yet support Labour traditionally along with their Catholic neighbours who they hate with a vengeance.

Down here its easier, hate one side and vote for the other.

 

I find the rise of UKIP strange, a quick look at their policies and it seems to me that all they want is Johnny Foreigner out of the country and everything to go back to what it was like in the 80's.

 

Sad to say that UKIP are becoming extreme right party . wonder if they have taken over from NF?.