Off Topic The Politics Thread

If Trump becomes US President, I will begin work on my air-raid shelter!!

 

One thing is certain, in the lead up to a Trump/Clinton contested election, things are going to get very dark and dirty. I just hope the Clintons have locked all their dirty laundry up firmly, because Trump will have an army out looking for it

 

Even just watching the few minutes they showed on the news this morning Trump was banging on about going after Clinton, if she is allowed to run, whatever that's all about.........totally depressing negative campaigning.......

 

Just as well the Government here is playing fair on the EU referendum...

 

French minister saying that if we leave the eu they may stop our boarder checks on the French side meaning that all the migrants won't be stopped until they are already on British soil! Also that France could look to block certain agreements to try and get the financial industry to relocate. Could just be a bluff but both would be in the best interest of France so certainly a real possibility!

 

Final count completed in the Irish election today after many recounts in Longford/Westmeath. Only 5 votes separated the final two candidates and there were many recounts. The candidate who lost out is talking about legal action.

The final outcome nationwide is as follows; Total number of seats in the parliament is 158.

Fine Gael - 50 seats
Fianna Fail - 44 seats
Sinn Fein - 23 seats
Independents - 17 seats
Labour - 7 seats
Independent Alliance - 6 seats
Anti austerity alliance/people before profit - 6 seats
Social Democrats - 3 seats
Green Party - 2 seats

Make a coalition government out of that lot. They reckon negotiations to form a government could take weeks to complete.

 

Is there a chance of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail working together? Both are centre-right liberalist parties, and a coalition between these two would appear - on paper at least - the best way to form a decisive government bloc. The big difference appears to be economic, with Fine Gael advocating fiscal restraint and Fianna Fail keen to increase public spending where possible. If they could come to an agreement on those points, this could be the best opportunity for Ireland going forwards.

 

They are historical enemies dating back to the civil war in the early 20's. Some of the newly elected TD;s (MP's) on both sides have stated they will not form a government with the other lot but I think this is the only viable possibility. Any other combination would probably involve bringing Sinn Fein into the government and an awful lot of people wouldn't be too happy with that but some would.

 

I really don't think anybody would relish a situation where Sinn Fein were kingmakers. That's yet another reason why I'm not in favour of PR in the UK - because it brings just this situation about.

 

FPP tends to bring one overall winner but it could be argued that PR is more democratic as it is a true representation of the parliament that people voted for.

 

If people voted for months of chaos and then the balance of power held by the least unpalatable minority party, then PR is fine, because that's what generally results. It's extremely rare that PR provides an outright winner, and because of that there's always deals to be made, which means compromise by all parties. You could say (indeed I do say) that with PR, nobody actually gets the parliament they voted for...

 

So you prefer a Corbyn government with a big majority of his ilk (yes I know it's not going to happen) to a coalition? FFP gives us all this crap with continual boundary changes as whoever is in power tries to cling on to it. PR may be messy but it's what people vote for. If we had it we may see a massive drop in support for the old big parties.

 

I believe FPP is the best solution. Is it perfect? No, but it's better than PR or AV. Would I be happy with a Corbyn led Labour government? No - but if that happened, you have to accept it and try for a different result next time. Because that's the thing about elections. You cast your vote, and someone wins. The post election 'protests' last summer were pathetic and showed many up for the sore losers they were.

 

I will be voting to leave. £55m a day to be a member of this particular club. Most of it going on subsidising french farmers & unelected bureaucrats. No wonder they don't want us to go. Time to stop the gravy train

 

I'd like there to be fewer constituencies- perhaps 300- with another 300 MPs elected based on PR.

 

who wants to be a member of a club who threatens you if you want to leave
Kate Hoey and David Davis
George Galloway and Nigel Farage
left right, left right, forward march, on to victory

 

I refer you to my post #113 on this thread. That figure is wrong. It's more like £19m a day. We'll be paying at least that to buy our way into a trade agreement.

If that is your main criteria for voting out at least make the decision on the basis of facts rather than propaganda.

 

What club wants a member who threatens to leave if it doesn't get its own way all the time?

 

Jermaine Jenas on Question Time tonight. Jesus wept.

 

What's the topic?

I don't understand how he's become such a media personality. Well I do, I think, but it's not a nice reason.