Suffice to say Warky that I disagree with all you say! And I do agree with most of Nuggs and others contribution. When Cameron came to power, he specifically set out a charter of promises, based on his manifesto. He has broken or lied on every single issue. (its all up on the web, clinically pulled to bits). The Tory home website has been v embarrassed and tried to unplug it! In my book, of over 45 years of elections, I have voted for all major parties, but not the Greens. I ask myself which of this load of customary tripe would make a fairer more just society, properly believe in and fund the dear old NHS, which we will all need sooner or later, and which has a real focussed eye on our planet earth, our children's future and a genuine care for the elderly, our weakest, as well as invest in business and a modern economy that delivers for everyone. This time - and it might be my last! - Green for me, possibly Milliband, who has by all accounts behaved more honourably than Nigel or David.
Warky mate, with respect, that is a very old chestnut and pure political spin. It was the worlds banks and cheats that crashed the global economy. And yet there is still no proper legislation in place to charge them and put these finance scheisters behind bars!
SCOG I like the fact that you say that Milliband has acted most honourably! Is he the same bloke that knifed his brother in the back to get the leadership in the first place?
Fair cop on that one! I actually think he is a decent bloke, but the media (press) is notoriously right-wing bias in this country, he and Greens etc never get a fair hearing. Oddly and entertainingly, I have been watching the great debate....the only one Dave was brave enough to do. All very predictable, loads of usual numbing brain-washing facts from main leaders....but who has shone for me? The Green Natalie, the Welsh and Scottish Nicola....all have kept us interested, passionate, talked about real people matters. Farage down but good clown value, Cameron & Milliband about the same, Cleggy surprisingly quick to rapidly distance himself from his Tory boys. So, unless Warky et al can convince me we all need another 5 years of this dross....I will be voting Green, as a matter of principle, only 1-2 seats, but not worried by that; and will lay a tenner, that their voting percentage will rise dramatically.........so much so, that after May 6th, the political landscape will have changed.....and many, especially millions of Young will breathe a huge sigh of relief. In fact I will forecast that the Greens will make 8% of the entire vote. UKIP failing to have that big impact but still a creditable if to me alarming 12%.
Just looked at all the polling data and I reckon that Ipswich holds the key nationally. If the Tories hold on to Ipswich then the Tories will just about hold on to form a government. Labour need a 4.5% swing to take Ipswich and recent polling suggests that they won't make it.
Interesting that throughout my years up Suffolk, the well known election 'fact' was that East Anglia always voted different to the rest of the country! It's going to be very close - also think that Nicola Sturgeon did Labour a favour. Thought Cameron looked rattled and he was pincered by the rest, and was flapping at women questions in the audience. Neither main leader really shone, all women leaders outperformed and could afford to speak from the heart, and not just reel off the same boring tired statistics that Dave & Ed were prone to. End of day, no-one won and no-one lost. Only person who made a howler that offended and showed his true colours, was clown Farage.
I don't think that debate is going to win over many voters who have made up their minds and know who they're going to vote. The debate served its purpose of underlining the party leaders' stances on various topics, most of them important although they overlooked climate change. As for the 'winner', I think the average poll is correct in awarding Sturgeon of the SNP the victory, although there was no clear outright winner. Sturgeon did well, came across fluently, and was the only politician to really challenge Farage effectively. Leanne Wood and Natalie Bennett were both fairly anonymous, although Wood got a cheer for the "you should be ashamed" quip to Farage. Bennett, of the Greens, put in a fairly average performance, I thought. I voted Green in the most recent Council and European Elections, and while I agree on the theory of most of their policies, I struggle to see how they'd implement them effectively and practically, because policies like the Citizen Wage, for example, come across as unfeasible. Nigel Farage came across very poorly, but then I'm not a fan of him or his party, so I would say that. His quip about the HIV victims was low (as was Cameron using his son to offer a defence of the NHS). I'll admit Farage is a passionate man, and it's easy to see why his image of a 'man of the people' is largely intact, but he is a very one-note politician. Apart from Immigration, I don't think he shined in any of the other debates. Nick Clegg is a good public speaker, and it was easy to see why I voted for him in 2010 from my perspective, but he came across as hollow. Talking about the problems the country faced and criticising decisions and policy from the last five years came across, to me, as hypocritical and he floundered on the last question about the younger generation. His challenge with Farage was probably a messy draw, but he's quip about their wives both being 'foreign' might have led to some voters double-take and actually read up on Farage and see the mess of contradictions the man is. But the main event was obviously Miliband vs Cameron, and as a likely Labour voter, Miliband was on-form for me and the clear winner. I find The Sun and The Daily Telegraph's front pages incredibly inaccurate in saying Miliband 'failed'. He didn't win, but he fared better than Cameron. But then there is no surprise the big bosses and owners at those newspapers want to undermine Miliband, because under him they'd rightly be contributing more to the economy.The general thrust of his message and policy cannot really be argued against, I think, and when he came up against Cameron one-on-one, it was the Labour man who mostly got the better hits in. Cameron often fell back on the last Labour government, which got tiresome, while offering a poor defence of his own record. Miliband came up short against Sturgeon though. One thing Miliband did do wrong was that weird look in the camera he kept doing while repeating "the people back home ..." to the point where it got irritating and predictable. I can see why Cameron wanted as many people in that room as possible. While it meant a lot of people could have a pop at him, including his coalition partner, it often got lost amongst the rabble and the Party leaders were quite content arguing among themselves. But it gave the impression of Cameron being quite remote in the debate and only really coming into it when Miliband questioned him. One thing I will credit Cameron on is dealing with the heckler towards the end there, but she had a point. According to the average poll, the winning order is: Sturgeon Farage Miliband Cameron Clegg Bennett Wood For me, it's: Sturgeon Miliband Clegg Cameron Bennett Wood Farage
I agree on that order but would put Farage up two places simply because he played well to his own support. Evveryone hates him,but he don't care.!
The latest row over Trident reminds me of these genius clips from Yes Prime Minister... This program is over 30 years old but the issues raised are still most relevant for today!
Brilliant Warky! I watched quite by chance last night a Rising Damp episode....do you you remember those!?
I would have liked to have said that I was far too young.... Never really liked Rising Damp but in that era there were so many great Sit Coms around. Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? My favourite of them all
