Off Topic Great Britain General Election May 7th 2015.

What country is having an election the UK or everyone else?


I will vote UKip, Vote Labour and get the SNP running the show

 

Elections here too in Finland.

The Anti NATO party has won !! **** YEAH,

Finns are pissed off with ruined farmers over russian sanctions, the EU doesn't give a **** that being lackeys to Obama has let EU farmers take the brunt of the fallout of their utterly pointles sanctions to try hurt Russia. Costing EU jobs in times of EU austerity. Agriculture a substancial part of the economy here.

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Election 2015: SNP to launch manifesto as parties continue campaigns

• From the section Election 2015 Scotland

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Nicola Sturgeon will launch her party's manifesto in Edinburgh
The SNP is to unveil its election manifesto, setting out an "alternative to austerity" and positioning the party as a force for UK-wide change.
Ahead of the launch, the party's John Swinney said the SNP would back "positive and progressive" policies.
Current polling suggests no one party will win an overall majority on 7 May and that the Scottish Nationalists could be the UK's third largest party.
Labour has rejected the idea of a coalition with the SNP.
However, its leader Ed Miliband has refused to be drawn on whether another arrangement, such as a vote-by-vote deal, could be done.
Mr Swinney told Radio 4's Today programme the SNP had pledged to use its influence at Westminster to ensure the next government would protect services like the NHS.
He explained: "The direction of travel in the health service in England is taking the health service increasingly in the direction of marketisation which will ultimately affect the funding available to the health service in Scotland, where we don't believe in marketisation.
"So, there will be policy changes taken at United Kingdom level that will ultimately have an effect on Scotland by the nature of their implications for public finance."

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Policy guide: Key priorities
What are the top issues for each political party at the 2015 general election?
Compare parties' policies

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Policy guide: Where the parties stand

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Focusing on the SNP aim of gaining fiscal autonomy over Scotland's finances, Scottish Labour accused the SNP of creating a financial "bombshell", while the Liberal Democrats said the plans would be "felt harshly" in Scotland, if "they cut the ties of pooling and sharing across the UK".
Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander argued full fiscal autonomy - which would mean Scotland gaining control of all tax powers - would result in a cut of £1bn to public services in Glasgow alone.
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said his party's manifesto had produced fully costed policies that would "bring an end to austerity and make life fairer for working class Scots".
He added: "Now it's the SNP's turn. Their key general election policy is to cut Scotland off from UK-wide taxes, meaning an end to the UK pension and welfare state here.
"Their plans would drop a £40.5bn bombshell in Scotland's finances, a bombshell that would only get bigger over time."
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said a "backroom SNP-Labour Deal would threaten Scotland".
She urged Labour to "wake up and realise the SNP's first and last priority will always be separation".
Ms Davidson is due to tell activists in Glasgow later: "How can people all across the UK possibly be asked to believe a leader who claims to have the interests of a country at heart which she still wants to break up?
"If Nicola Sturgeon really wants to prove her constructive credentials, there's a test she has to meet.
"It's to accept - right now, before the election - that the United Kingdom is staying together for the next generation, in line with her own pledge, and in line with the decision made by the people of Scotland last year."
Elsewhere on the election trail;

• Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was interviewed by ITV's Lorraine Kelly. He told the broadcaster he thought his party. would win enough seats in order to play a role in the next government.
• Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron is due to make a speech warning against the SNP.
• Labour launches its NHS week with a Q&A with shadow chancellor Ed Balls, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham and shadow health minister Liz Kendall. Party leader Ed Miliband is due to address the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

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What will be covered in the manifesto?
By James Cook

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The Scottish National Party's general election manifesto is expected to reiterate plans for a "modest" rise in public spending across the UK.
The SNP has claimed that an "alternative to continued austerity cuts" of real-term spending increases - of 0.5% per year - would still bring down the UK's debt and deficit while freeing up "substantial resources for investment in jobs, economic growth, and public services".
The manifesto will also commit the party's MPs to participate in votes on major issues south of the border, such as legislation to "restore the NHS in England to a fully public, publicly-accountable service - reversing the 2012 Health and Social Care Act".
The SNP argues that this "will also protect Scotland's budget by stopping the process of privatisation and patient charging in England which threatens future public funding".
The manifesto will also include a commitment to cancel the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system which, the SNP claims, "would free up some £3bn of expenditure UK-wide per annum - rising to a peak of £4bn by the 2020s".
The SNP say such savings "should be spent on health, education and childcare".
Read more from James....

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Do folks realise, the NHS frontline services have already begun to be privatised? American and other foreign companies are running frontline NHS services.
#stealthprivatisation

As always privatisation reduces access to medical care for a certain demographic.

Where does it end? People having to foreclose on their mortgages to pay medical bills, 65% of US foreclosures are related to medical bills.
Combine that with your £ being worth less and less every year andd the cost of everything going up... where does it end?

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/aug/06/privatisation-ripping-nhs-from-our-hands

 

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, I prefer to call her Surgeon is a pain in the neck for labour and Conservative. The devil no one wants to dine with until after the election.

 

Honest question.

If Farage had found out some downright illegal activity Cameron was up to that would destroy him, do you think he would 1 go to the police or 2 use it as a card to play or a lever against Cameron?

 

Election 2015: Sir John Major warns of Labour-SNP deal

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Sir John Major was prime minister from 1990 to 1997
Former Prime Minister Sir John Major is to claim that a Labour government propped up by the SNP would be a "recipe for mayhem".
Sir John will use a speech in the Midlands to say a Labour-SNP government would mean families paying with "higher taxes, more debts and fewer jobs".
He will say a future Labour government would be subjected to a "daily dose of blackmail" from the nationalists.
But Ed Miliband told the BBC "that ain't going to happen".
With 16 days to polling day, Sir John will say that, in practice, Mr Miliband would be forced to agree to the nationalists' demands or face the collapse of his government.
'Slowly but surely'
"If Labour were to accept an offer of support from the SNP, it could put the country on course to a government held to ransom on a vote-by-vote basis," he is expected to say.
"Labour would be in hock to a party that - slowly but surely - will push them ever further to the left. And who would pay the price for this? We all would. We would all pay for the SNP's ransom in our daily lives - through higher taxes, fewer jobs, and more and more debt.
"This is a recipe for mayhem. At the very moment our country needs a strong and stable government, we risk a weak and unstable one - pushed to the left by its allies, and open to a daily dose of political blackmail."
But interviewed by Evan Davis on the BBC, Mr Miliband rejected claims that the SNP would "call the shots" in the event of a hung parliament.
"That ain't going to happen; that ain't going to happen," he said.
In other election news:

• Labour would launch an emergency recruitment drive to get 1,000 more nurses into training this year if they win the election
• Nick Clegg has said owners of second homes in rural beauty spots could pay double the rate of council tax under Liberal Democrat plans
• The BBC should be "cut back to the bone" and the licence fee reduced by two thirds, according to UKIP's Nigel Farage

Policy guide: Key priorities
What are the top issues for each political party at the 2015 general election?
Compare parties' policies

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Policy guide: Where the parties stand
Launching her party's manifesto in Edinburgh on Monday, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon sought to allay the fears of some English voters, insisting they would act "responsibly and constructively" in the interests of the whole of the UK.
Recent polls all point towards there being a hung parliament after 7 May, and suggest the SNP could be the third largest party and crucially hold the balance of power.
As a consequence of this, the "threat" of an SNP link-up with Labour has emerged as a major Conservative line of attack in the election campaign.
But the BBC's deputy political editor James Lansdale said Sir John has long opposed Scottish nationalism, warning before the 1997 election that voters have 72 hours to save the union.
"Almost 20 years on, he is once again banging the same drum," he said.
The Conservatives are determined to keep up these warnings to bring any wavering voters back to the Tory fold, our correspondent said.
"But Labour believes the Conservatives are themselves putting the union at risk, by acting as cheerleaders for the SNP," he added.
'Dangerous view'
It is a view echoed by the former Tory Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth who told The Guardian newspaper that his party was playing a "short term and dangerous" game by building up the SNP.
"We've had the dilemma for Conservatives, which is they want to be the largest party at Westminster and therefore some see the fact that the nationalists are going to take seats in Scotland will be helpful," he said.
"But that is a short-term and dangerous view which threatens the integrity of our country."
But despite this Sir John Major will say that the SNP's "driving ambition" is an independent Scotland, and it would use its position to demand policies that favour Scotland at the expense of the rest of the UK.
"That is no way to run a country. And nor is it remotely fair to England, Wales and Northern Ireland," he will say.
Meanwhile, former Labour minister and London mayoral contender David Lammy told ITV that his party could "do business" with the SNP after the election.
He said: "I still think Labour can form the next government and that's what I am fighting for. But yes, there is common ground with other parties and the SNP would be included in that and we may need to enter into discussion after the general election".
About sharing [/paste:font]

 

The dicktoss who privatised the railways talks of 'disasters'. And this is the creep who ****ed Edwina Currie. Or perhaps that is the other way around.

 

Looks like Labour are gonna pip the Tories. UKIP in the wilderness.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/gen...abour-have-one-point-lead-in-latest-poll.html

 

The polls (including this one) have all had UKIP around 13-15% of the vote which would be a huge increase on the last general election (3.1%, 920k voters). The poll you've linked has UKIP winning more votes than the lib dems and greens combined. That is quite impressive a gain on the last general election.

With our ridiculous system in this country they could still end up with no representatives in government despite, if polls are correct, UKIP getting the third most votes and that numbering millions of people. But I expect the two tories who defected to UKIP will win there seats and there's another 4-6 that have been running very close between Tories and UKIP that I've seen on the bbc polls.

If UKIP manage 13-15% of the vote and ended up with no seats there would be around four million people who had voted and ended up with no representation in government, not a single voice for four million people. Surely that could be the catalyst for reform? Or maybe that's too optimistic and the same old two parties that benefit from our political system would pat themselves on the back at managing to silence so many people.

 

It's nuts isn't it, but that is democracy, you end up with no representation for millions in every country.

I don't think it would be a catalyst for reform though of course it should be, you're right.

The craziness of it is, with the last elections and the coalition government, no one ended up getting a government they voted for.

In Ireland last elections it was even worse because the majority party made the coalition junior party totally subserviant to their will, which meant that 60% of the voters had no presentation in government regardless of the spread of seats!!

Even on parliamentary votes Finne Gael instructed Labour how to vote on matters before parliament. Crooked or what! but only after sitting in the free dail bar all evening getting sloshed before the voting took place.

 

@afcftw


do you have any ideas on the types of reform that would be beneficial to a more inclusive representation? I've had this discussion a few times in the past. It's a worthy topic and the current system of political parties and partisan politics do not work for us.

These days political opposition resembles sports fan rivalry. Each side just wants the party they identify with to win, often not knowing anything about the policies of the party\ideolology they allign themselves with

 

You're exactly right, and it's the reason why new parties can never generate enough seats in parliament to gain any real traction. It's completely wrong that your geographic location should be the only factor that decides whether your vote actually has any impact whatsoever.

However, turkey's don't vote for Christmas, which is why it's never changed.

 

UKIP should get into bed with the Tories and do a deal on PR that would see them forever hold the balance of power. Worked for the Liberals....

 

Neither Conservative or Labour is going is going to win outright. The question is, who are they
going to go into alliance with?. SNP problem for Labour UKIP problem for Conservative

 

Labour won't have any problem forming a coalition with the SNP after the election if it gets them into number 10, they would look weak as **** if they openly admitted before the election they can't win it outright.
Its a two way street though because the SNP would appeal to Scottish labour voters who want more autonomy but have labour roots if their was an alliance between the two.

 

Despite their share of the vote I can't see UKIP winning enough seats to hold any sway tbh.

The result of this election and the horse trading that will follow it is going to be fascinating though. A complete 'no result' is entirely possible imo.

 

Any coalition with the SNP would have the issue of Scottish independence forming some part of its agenda, as it's always been their core aim. That'd be a very dangerous trade off for power for labour.

 

And, Labour core policies and pre election promises such as 'abolishing the bedroom tax' will not come to fruition without the backing of a coalition partner, the Tories have already promised Scotland more autonomy within the Union and considering the SNP can't get much bigger within its country's boundaries they would need many years before they were granted another referendum on independence.
But whether its a dangerous pact or not a Con/UKip pact is to far to the right for a mainly middle of the road political nation.

Imo.

 

It looks highly likely that'll be how it pans out mate, I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a marriage of convenience that turns sour quickly. I could see the SNP playing the beaten wife role and crying from the mountain tops.

If Cameron tried to form any sort of coalition with UKIP he'd isolate his party and getting into bed with an uncontrollable man, who has potential PR disaster just around every corner. It'd be funny to watch like