Off Topic The QPR Not 606 Rolling Election Poll

I've changed my vote as well, Stan - from Green to Other (TUSC).

 

Have they actually got a candidate where you live? Manifesto looked a little out of date.......It would be nice to have an SWP option, but of course with that acronym they can never have my vote.

 

Yes, here he is......

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/...s_your_vote_in_Ruislip__Northwood_and_Pinner/

 

I don't understand why you base your vote (or appear to) on your personal like or dislike, first impressions it seems, of your local candidates. Surely there are far more important issues to consider which you more than anyone on here, have very impressively described, and with a lot of detail?

From all you write you sound like you prefer a Labour led Government, which I guess could be supported loosely by Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru, possibly the Lib/Dem. maybe one or two others, to a Tory one which I guess could include UKIP, The Irish Right and maybe also the Lib Dem. So if I'm right (I guess not!), why don't you just vote Labour. Seems to me unless you vote Labour in England, your vote could end up helping the Tories form another Government, as it doesn't seem clear which of the 2 major parties any of the other smaller parties in England are likely to support. You say you switched to Green - I thought I saw that large woman who leads them making lots of big eyes at Cameron in the TV debate I saw....

 

The short answer is I think the whole thing (indeed everything) is fundamentally absurd and imaginary, so from my perspective its an opportunity to have some fun and entertainment rather than anything else. I like debate.

More precisely my particular curse is to be a contrarian mate. If someone presents something to me which is clearly an opinion dressed up as a fact or a solution I'll instinctively try to find a different perspective. Chaz et al have given me ample opportunity to practice that on this thread. I waste a lot of time and energy in this way, but it keeps me entertained. The little tests near the beginning of the thread are, I think, pretty accurate in general terms for me - the policy one I came out 40% Tory, 30% Labour, 30% Lib Dem, in the context of the rather limited choice available (I can see very little difference between Labour and the one nation wing of the Tories for example). If I was able to say a particular party represented my views close to 100% I'd be very worried about myself and the party concerned. Ubers tests had me a leftie libertarian, which I suspect is basically true, though more libertarian than leftie.

Sadly the parties are made up of individuals, and the quality and competence of those individuals is important. The particular one I met today struck me as both rather ignorant and rude. She wants to 'represent' me in Parliament, and I'd rather not vote than see that happen.

 

With a real prospect of another election in a year or so, a "wasted vote" could actually be very beneficial.

Given the desperate way that the main two are trying to pander to popular opinion, a proportionately high vote for the Greens could see the environment catapulted up the agenda for round two.

In my Labour /Tory swing seat, I'm currently thinking that I'll stick with the Lib Dems and hope that some of their pledges (which match my opinions best) get plagiarised for a future election.

Perhaps a long shot but it makes sense to me.

 

Great "short answer". So I did the test you referred to and struggled to find acceptable policies to short list. On immigration I couldn't find one. Came out 70% Green, 20 Lib Dem and 10 Labour.

 

A wonderful advert for deportation...

 

You've identified the only major party you can vote for in England that has socialist policies, which is entirely consistent with your posts on here.

I'm assuming the Kipper voters are just too embarrassed to show themselves, or its posters from other clubs.

Frank Field? The Labour Keith Joseph? Are you sure? Natalie Bennett is a disaster, I can't understand how she got the leadership when the MP, Caroline Lucas, is actually quite impressive. As Brighton shows the party is fundamentally split anyway between 'mangoes' (green on the outside, liberal inside) and watermelons (green/red). But if they closed the airports I would have to retire, which ain't so bad, because their pensions would be more generous too.......Keep an eye on them, their share of the vote could go up 500% this time....in any other electoral system they would be a big player.

Still plenty of time to change my mind. All I need is someone to show some vision and convince me they are competent.

 

As I've said before, I'm not a UKIP voter. I watched Farage's performance on the BBC last night having recorded it (- incidentally, I congratulate the BBC for getting a fair and balanced audience on the Question time interviews - finally).

If you cut out all the nonsense about discrimination over HIV patients, people speaking foreign languages on trains and if Farage kicks out all the closet racists in his party (there are still a few) ...what you are left with some things I have some sympathy for, namely I want good trading relationships with fellow European countries - but I do not want political union through an unaccountable EU .

If we stay in the EU, we'll be left behind if we don't join the Euro. Unsettling thought, but the Euro block will call the tune and the centre of the EU will mostly likely be Germany, and London could well lose out to Frankfurt. If we weren't in the euro, we'd be powerless to stop it, and yet still constrained by EU rules set by the Euro block. What I want? - well, I always thought the Common Market was a great idea.

As far as immigration is concerned and numbers coming in, the section of society most often adversely affected, are recent immigrants. Increasingly, UKIP is appealing to ethnic minorities Once Nigel, or his successor, finally casts off the racist image, I think they'll get find support there and so UKIP will evolve.

 

Absolutely. With Lucas as leader, the Greens would increase their vote substantially. As would Labour with Alan Johnson.

How did the lefties at the BBC allow this woman get on Question Time?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/poli...enies-claims-she-was-tory-plant-10218545.html

 

I'd vote Labour though. The Greens aren't going to form a government now. Labour might and only with them will I be pretty sure I wouldn't be voting to support a Tory government. I hate everything the Conservatives stand for, their values which are those of the 19th century still, not the Chartists, but most supportive of a lord of his manor, their upholding of the haves and throwing the smallest bones of charity to the have nots if they need to make themselves look big to do so. they are full of bigots, racists, nationalists and will take us to war again for a few rocks thousands of miles away.

 

Would this would be the same Labour party that took us to war in Iraq, Oslo?

 

I think your position is pretty clear Ossie!

I suspect you may be exagerrating for effect....but remember I said I was a contrarian? Left wing/socialist 'values' are more rooted in the C19th than the Conservatives (Marx, Kier Hardie etc etc) and are in many ways more discriminatory. Labour used to be (before it became Tory lite) about just that - labour, workers. The real poor are a problem for both ideologies. The modern Conservatives are implicitly (I doubt many of them know this) rooted in game theory, the voodoo economics of Hayek and Friedman, the mind set of the Rand Corporation and the Cold War. Scary, but undoubtedly modern. But I know plenty of really nice people who class themselves as Tories (and loads of even more scary - on paper - Republicans in te USA). If you broad brush condemn them all for their political preferences we will be in a very bad place indeed.

 

That'd be me, then...

 

Oh I don't hate all people who vote Tory if that is what you mean. There are plenty of good people there who are just badly mis-guided!

 

I didn't support that nor did a lot of Labour MP's or Labour supporters. Conservatives were fully supportive of the Labour government action on Iraq, more so than the Labour party itself. Labour are less likely to go to war than Conservative, always been.

 

Right back at ya....

 

More Labour MPs than Conservative MPs voted to go to war, on evidence 'sexed up' by Labour to make the decision more likely. I think the moral high ground you are placing Labour on is more than a little shaky there....