The scuffles were most likely caused by the SNP heavies. They appeared during the referendum run up and are not to be messed with. You thought Labour Millitant was bad, these guys are worse. Sturgeon tries to distance herself from them but at the end of the day does nothing about them.
Glad you said "most likely" as news items up here suggest scuffles may have been 'arranged' by Labour supporters.
Have to say the "snp heavies" are an abomination against freedom of speech! Little wonder ms jimmy krankie distances herself!
I think the betting is a pretty accurate indication on this one. You can have 8/1 Any coalition with the SNP and 25/1 Any coalition with the UKIP, so neither of those are going to happen. Looking at the things that are most likely to happen, the 10/11 favourites in the number of seats betting show that the Conservatives will get the most seats. Unfortunately, other than the Liberal Democrats and UKIP, there are no right-of-centre small parties to do a coalition to get a majority. Cameron may try to do a minority government. It is questionable how long that will last without Liberal Democrat backing because the SNP may have fifty seats and will work with Labour to bring them down. That would then leave us with Miliband leading a vote-by-vote existence until he gets fed up of demands from north of the border. What the BBC should do before Thursday is a prime time ten minute programme where somebody reads out the details from this web page: What happens if no-one wins? That might crystallise thoughts about tactical voting in the minds of some of those planning on supporting the minnows. Classic bluster on the radio this morning from Labour’s Lucy Powell. According to her, people want to get rid of David Cameron and they are flocking to make Ed Miliband the next Prime Minister. Regrettably Peter Allen did not tell us which parallel universe she was talking to him from. Miliband’s approval rating is still a huge negative number so people are certainly not rushing to him. Ultimately it could turn out that Len McCluskey and his mates scored a critical own goal when they defied Labour’s MP and Labour Party members who wanted Ed’s Blairite brother, a much more electable option, and crowned the puppet that they could most easily control. On Daily Politics, long time laughing stock George Galloway was on extolling the Respect Party’s four candidates in the election. He reckons Ed Miliband will be the Prime Minister on Friday and he describes Nicola Sturgeon as “Thatcher In A Kilt”! Curiously he did suggest that Miliband would have to use commonsense and work with the SNP because he cannot ignore one tenth of the population just because they did not vote for him. If Galloway loses his seat on Thursday he is going to stand for Mayor of London! Also it appears that in Thanet South, Labour voters are being encouraged to vote Conservative to keep Nigel Farage out. The polls say that Farage currently has a nine point lead so that could take a huge tactical vote.
Alex Salmond is not that overweight! I expect that Nicola Sturgeon does not have a policy for tackling the obesity problem in Scotland, so there will be quite a lot of SNP heavies heading into the polling stations on Thursday. Labour’s Jim Murphy should be offering deep-fried Mars bars to anybody that votes for them – he could save his job!
Fellow contributors; please accept my apologies. Piers Doughty-Brown a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party has been suspended following the shenanigans in Glasgow. I shall, of course, be taking my fairly slim self to the local polling station to cast my vote for the SNP on Thursday.
Further to Messrs Murphy and Izzard's stroll around the boulevards of the 'Dear Green Place' I preferred Eddie in his lovely and rather fetching Wehrmacht uniform!!
My opinion is that we will get a messy Conservative coalition. The main obstacle to this being will the Lib Dems keep enough seats to prop them up as they did before, and will UKIP register a few more to help out. If not there is little doubt that Labour will enter into a vote by vote deal with the SNP and the Lib Dems. I think although it will be a skin of the teeth job the Tories will manage to form a coalition. Sadly this does not fill me with any optimism and neither does any alternative. Its like asking which of two people you want to kick you up the arse. My one wish however is that Ed Balls loses his seat - can't stand the guy.
The Lib Dems have already said they will not work with UKIP so the only coalition they would do with Dave would be the same as the current one. As Ed has already ruled out coalitions in a desperate attempt to try and get more seats than the Tories, he would be forced into a vote-by-vote scenario, which would mean another election this year when it fell apart. I notice how little we have seen of Ed Balls in the last week. I think they have put gaffer tape across his trap and locked him in a cupboard because Miliband wants to talk NHS not economy.
This is a serious business, I know, and I've contributed b-all to this thread, but why on earth didn't Ed change his name at some time or other? Ed de Havilland, for example, would sound much better, no? (..........SwanHills receives Red Card from Berlin referee )
It looks like whatever happens on Thursday, anybody with any investments might be taking a bath on Friday. According to ‘Master Investor’, the last fifteen months has seen 365 billion dollars worth of investments disappear from the UK because of “concerns that the domestic political climate will turn sour”. In March, 24 billion dollars headed overseas. So expect the Pound Sterling to take a real hit on Friday. The markets do not like uncertainty and that is surely what we will have when we wake up. As legendary short trader Evil Knievil says, “anyone who trusts Labour with a cheque book is more trusting than I.”
I think that Mr Balls has a pact with the country’s comedy writers. If he gets into 11 Downing Street, they are going to have a field day with Balls jokes every time he announces one of Nicola Sturgeon’s policies...
This should not be on this thread, I know, but it just shows you that anything can happen in an election. Having lived in Alberta for nearly eight years a long while ago, I am absolutely gobsmacked about the New Democratic Party (NDP) winning control of the province. Alberta was just like Texas when I was there, deeply conservative and very right-wing. Incredible result, how things must have changed! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32604002 (Like that "pigs do fly" comment by one observer ).
And Ms Sturgeon seem to like having her photo taken with PDB http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/pictured-nicola-sturgeon-organiser-glasgow-5640372
It will soon be all done and dusted, or will it? Some commentators predicting it could take a month to stitch it all together. I have a sneaky feeling the Tories might out perform their poll rating. Whatever happens though this whole process has convinced me that the first past the post election system needs scrapping. Too many people's votes mean nothing. Has to change.
I believe that I am right in stating that come Friday the clock starts ticking and somebody only has until May 27th to actually form some sort of government because that is the fixed date of The Queen’s Speech. That will keep the media circus going... I wanted to see Sir Michael Parkinson on Daily Politics. Andrew Neil could ask him what his number one interview was, because Parky reckons that it is a difficult question, and be assured that he would not get an answer but an offer of a dodgy life cover product for as little as £4 a month.
Q: Why has money been fleeing the UK for over a year? A: Because for most of that time Labour was ahead in the polls. Apparently the thought is in the City that when Labour’s Manifesto tax rises come up well short of their spending plans, they are going to increase the tax on share dividends (because only the rich have shares) and they will raise Corporation Tax to 30%. Those two measures will be catastrophic for business, the economy and tax revenues (i.e. public spending). Economic Incompetence: A Historical Guide From Labour In Government The first Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald was a minority government supported by the Liberals and lasted from January until October 1924 and there are no deficit statistics available for that period as they are annualised. That government collapsed because the Liberals would not support much of MacDonald's largely socialist agenda. The second Labour government, another MacDonald minority supported by the Liberals lasted from May 1929 to August 1931, during which the deficit fell from 7.23 billion (160% of GDP) to 7.15 billion (171% of GDP). After WWII, the third Labour government under Clement Atlee governed from July 1945 to October 1951. At the end of WWII the deficit was 20.63 billion (215% of GDP). The British government entered into the Marshall Plan in 1948-51, ostensibly a 3.3 billion dollar loan from the USA that took until 2006 to pay off. They also received 4.6 billion dollars in unconnected loans. When Labour left office, the deficit had statistically risen to 25.38 billion (175% of GDP) despite high employment because of high public spending (e.g. the founding of the NHS). The fourth Labour government from October 1964 to June 1970 under Harold Wilson saw a rise in the deficit from 30.67 billion (91% of GDP) to 34.84 billion (64% of GDP) through the swinging sixties, a period of high employment (i.e. GDP rose). The fifth Labour government from February 1974 to May 1979 saw Wilson and latterly James Callaghan increase the deficit from 42.21 billion (47.8% of GDP) to 90.4 billion (43.6% of GDP) through the strife of the Winter of Discontent but with the help of a 5.3 billion dollar loan from the US Treasury and a 3.9 billion dollar bailout from the I.M.F. in 1976 after runaway inflation had destroyed the pound/dollar exchange rate. The sixth Labour government from May 1997 to May 2010 saw Tony Blair and latterly Gordon Brown increase the deficit from 368.47 billion (41.9% of GDP) to 825.93 billion (53% of GDP) as GDP fell and Brown bailed out the banks, whilst also spending 220 billion off the balance sheet using the Private Finance Initiative (current value 300 billion). (Monetary values are nominal not adjusted real)
Some spin going there -err no mentioning of tax avoidance /evasions -that even hmrc admit is 70 billion a year minimum........
My prediction for what it's worth Conservatives over perform Labour under perform Lib Dems under perform SNP over perform Greens over perform but it come to nothing still UKIP under perform and people wonder how they ever got so much publicity only a year ago. Tories to form a coalition with the Lib Dems again (just) Labour need to lose this election to get rid of the leader nobody but Unite wanted and elect a more credible leader to fight the next election. One they will win. I personally am not happy with any of the above and consider them all flawed.
I pray the common sense of the British public returns and we awake in the morn to another Conservative majority. Labours spend spend spend mentality has failed throughout time and with the albatross' around his neck of the SNP and McCluskey who knows maybe in 5 years there will be an outcry due to the number of Brits trying to paddle across the med and into Libya and Eritrea in search of a better life!!!!
