Off Topic The QPR Not 606 Rolling Election Poll

How dare you say that. We fought a civil war to lock in place a 17th century political system. If it was good enough for Cromwell it's good enough for us. Just a shame we had to extend the franchise beyond adult male property owners. Bloody liberals.

Actually the idea of everyone having a vote on everything all the time is terrifying. Only the Swiss can be trusted with that.

 

I saw him in concert here almost 30 years ago with my wife to be - good show.

 

dear sb

can I tell you who to vote for in 5 years time

yours

kiwi

 

I believe the result that was such a surprise was solely down to the fear of a Labour minority government at the mercy of the SNP, another quirky anomaly of our voting system. As a result many waverers simply voted Tory at the last minute and, rather unfortunately, it was the LibDems that suffered the most.

Personally, I'd rather we had the coalition than than the current small majority Tory government as the Libs were a decent 'handbreak' on some of the harsher Tory ideals and Cameron will find his majority of 10 much more difficult to deal with than the bigger coalition majority. The split in the Tories over Europe is possibly going to be Cameron's biggest headache leading up to the referendum...

 

Their coverage was dire, I switched to Sky after less than half an hour...

 

Sky are getting all the credits for election night coverage - and were fastest for broadcasting results. I didn't stay up, so can't judge. I like David Dimbleby, but he's done his last election now. It's Huw Edwards from now on, who looked like someone had burned his house down when the results came through.

Watched the TV this morning to hear views on fall out. Sky dealt in a balanced way with matters of interest for all parties. BBC News couldn't face the result and so had reporters in Scotland telling us what a wonderful thing it was that 56 socialists were coming south to make life difficult for Cameron, and the rest of the programme was about VE day and how it affected the Channel Islands.

PS That's what you get when you have an ex-Labour Minister (James Purnell) as BBC's Director of Strategy. And we're all obliged by law to pay for this bias!

 

Give it a rest.

 

This:

SNP 5% of votes - 9% of seats

UKIP 12.6% of votes - 0.2% of seats

shows that the electoral process, designed for a two party system, is broken and no longer fit for purpose. There seems to be a consensus in the media that the German system is more democratic, so this might be a precedent for any Independent review reporting to Parliament.

I think there will be an increasing groundswell to change. It won't be easy. Neither the Tories nor Labour stand to benefit from a fairer system.

 

Sorry to hear about your depression, Stroller

 

Sorry, Goldie, but your BBC obsession is getting worrying. It's all in your head mate.

 

In the spirit of our majority, business backing, entrepreneurial Conservative government, I will be selling my vote next time round Kiwi. Feel free to start the bidding. If you can catch a kea and train it to attack Boris Johnson's head over the next five years, that will be a very strong opener.

Yours

SB

PS don't tell anyone because I think vote selling is illegal. Bizarrely you are allowed to buy votes with promises that won't be delivered on.

 

I don't want to bore you, Strolls! You're probably right, I've made my points re BBC.

Perhaps I'll turn my attention to pre-election polling. Their inaccuracies were matched only be the accuracy of the exit poll. Something nees to be learned

 

I agree with you regarding the Sweaty's COL. Given that they've their own Parliament & they sit in Westminster, they now have a disproportionate say on ruling the entire Kingdom. Considering how much smaller than England they are, its a case of the tail wagging the Dog at the moment. I seen this coming & when I put up links to groups encouraging English independence on here a few years ago, folk laughed at me. I bet those same groups have swelled in numbers since.

The only solution to keeping the UK intact in any way, I think, is if the English get their own Parliament and the UK becomes a Federation. Most powers would be taken from Westminster, leaving it just with centralised stuff like defense etc and with each Country having maximum devolved powers for themselves. Either that or the Sweaty's break away for good.

(Goldie, of course y'all should have a referendum if you want one )

 

We are hardly going to have a focussed government are we? Two years of arguing over Europe, followed by two years of leadership manoeuvring. Cameron's pledge that he would serve every minute of a second term is plainly bollocks.

 

Interesting analysis on the wireless this morning, a lot of it from people phoning in (along with the usual ration of ****tards of course). For example:
- the Tories tend to look after the people who vote for them
- certain irony in celebrating VE Day yesterday, when the biggest domestic change brought about by WW2 was the welfare state
- Labour split between those stuck in the recent past (Blairites) and those stuck in the distant past [Blairites out in force last couple of days, saying the campaign was too left wing.....Jesus, why don't they join the Tories FFS]
- Tory right wing MPs rubbing their hands in glee at new level of power
- Miliband's basic philosophy was always at odds with Balls'

Very aggressive speech from Sturgeon at the clan gathering of SNP MPs, how she's 'told the Prime Minister it can't be business as usual....Scotlands interests, progressives, Scotlands interest, progressive.......' Her claim that they would represent all Scots, not just the ones who voted SNP, rang very hollow, as she restated time and time again the SNP campaign slogans. Net effect - probably a help to Cameron in maintaining discipline in the Tory party.

Al Murray only got 318 votes. I will be avoiding Sarf Fannit, wherever it is.

 

There are two main choices Labour need to make to have any chance of winning an election outright. The first is to elect a leader who has something of the 'X-factor', that rules out most of the senior leaders who are, frankly, too connected with their failures. Whatever you think of Blair, at the time he was elected he'd presented a far more voter-friendly proposition than a clapped-out Major-led government and Labour romped home.

The second thing is linked directly to Blair's Labour, they have to embrace more of the centre politics. Socialism just doesn't appeal to the majority of voters and some of Miliband's manifesto just didn't add up or appeal to the average voter, those are the ones whose votes make the difference and without them you can't win.

I think a fresh start would be having someone like Dan Jarvis, a newish face who has actually lived and worked in the real world to lead a party that realised there's more to Labour than just being a front for the unions...

 

I have really enjoyed this thread and would like to thank everyone, no matter what political stance for their contributions. I didn't expect to learn too much about the political machinations of our country from a football forum, but I have. Cheers all.

 

Ah, the Tories.................................Putting the "n" in cuts!

 

Possibly, but cuts brought about by Gordon Browns mismanagement.