UK election thread

[Raithe]

So with a wonderfully hung government, the next year is likely to be full of all sorts of fun and games... hell, the Welsh are offering to side with the Tories for large cash infusions in Wales.. (don't you just love the concept of out n out bribery at government levels..)

The LibDems were having the whole "we'll side with labour if labour will take our semi-leadership on certain positions"...

 

Ah joy.

 

Why do I foresee that the Tories will probably want to return to the public and have another election in just a year or so?

[Moose]

Looks like the lib dems have backed down to the conservatives. Nick Clegg backed himself into a corner saying there was absolutely no way he could work with Brown.

 

So a Tory minority government.

[Tigranes]

It was always the most likely outcome, I'd have been very surprised to see Brown remain standing.

[Walsingham]

I thought Clegg was extremely impressive this morning on the telly. It's just a shame he's leader of such a bunch of dingbats.

[Monte Carlo]

I thought Clegg was extremely impressive this morning on the telly.

 

Yes, on the telly.

 

The man is an EU-sponsored machine politico who has never had a real job in his life. And, yes, his party is full of astro-turfers. Seriously.

[Moose]

Like a true liberal he's simply trying to have his cake and eat it.

[Humodour]

Like a true liberal he's simply trying to have his cake and eat it.

 

[Humodour]

All seats now declared. (The election in one constituency was postponed until the end of this month)

 

Conservative 306

Labour 258

Liberal Democrat 57

Democratic Unionist Party 8

Scottish National Party 6

Sinn Fein 5

Plaid Cymru 3

Social Democratic & Labour Party 3

Green 1

Alliance Party 1

[Monte Carlo]

Cameron's offer to the Libs has stunned me. Lots of Tories will be furious about it.

 

Of course, it's strategy. Trying to do to Labour what Labour are trying to do to them: destroy them utterly as a credible electoral force. It's also a high-risk strategy - for every superficially similar area of policy alignment there is another which is pure oil-and-water.

 

And Brown is still hiding in No.10, pretending he's in charge.

[Humodour]

You seriously didn't see that coming?

[Monte Carlo]

^ No.

 

Honestly. The overwhelming view here was that the Tories would struggle on then go for a fresh election in 12 months. I suspect the problems the unionist parties had in Northern Ireland might have caused this strategy major problems.

 

Secondly, the Lib Dems have far more in common with the Labour Party than they do the Tories. A lot of the rank-and-file will be spitting blood. Clegg, OTOH is being offered ministerial posts for his people in a way that Labour would not. He has more to gain, but a deal with Labour could see the end of centre right politics in the UK.

 

I still can't see it working. The Lib Dems are moonbats. Barking mad.

[Nightshape]

"They don't agree with me, they must be retards", some good logic... *claps*

 

I'm just gonna take from that, that you know absolutely nothing about Sunderland, or what's been happening there over the last 13 years. Or do you just like the BNP?

 

Well I certainly don't support the BNP, but I just see UKIP to be a party that basically says "I'm not racist but...", which bugs me more.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Cameron's offer to the Libs has stunned me. Lots of Tories will be furious about it.

Yes, you could almost hear the massive hissed intake of breath.

 

The fans of first past the post (and I am not one) insist that one of its best features is that the public is very good at using it to get the result they really want. By that standard, the public seems to want a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, as that's the only combination that produces a working majority.

 

A very interesting result. Hopefully the last FPTP election, if Clegg plays it skillfully.

[Walsingham]

Although I'm chewing over the concept of STV, thanks to Krez, I'm still fundamentally in favour of FPTP. FFS according to the BBC the BNP polled more than half a million votes countrywide. Do we really want them in Parliament?

 

If I were Cameron I'd offer the Libdems a couple of high profile but tricky cabinet positions. Health and education should be enough rope to let them swing from, but both are sufficiently well padded with bureaucratic inertia to prevent a total mess.

 

EDIT: I may have mentioned that I have a friend who worked with Clegg through the election. Apparently he really is quite impressive, having matured considerably under the pressure. But he was described (with noticeable tact) as being 'uttterly driven' to achieve power.

Edited May 7, 2010 by Walsingham

[Monte Carlo]

^ Education is too important to leave it to the astro-turfers. Ditto health.

 

Give them... municipal parks management.

[Walsingham]

Hang on. I wouldn't describe them as having terrible aims. They always seem to want niceness. I think having someone a bit woolly but keen could be just the ticket in health and education at the moment.

[Monte Carlo]

No.

 

Health: The budget needs a massive restructuring programme, invloving the brutal carving out of many tiers of superfluous management. This isn't a job for the feint-hearted, especially a lib Dem. Ironically, their manifesto pledge is interesting on this one, but it matters not because they wrote their manifesto never expecting to win. The NHS needs some very tough love to make it match-fit and forward-looking.

 

Education: Both tories and LDs have some interesting policies. Gove's Swedish plan is better. In fact it was one of the best tory policies. To dump it so that some pro-teaching union lib dem moonbat can ruin everything? I wouldn't let any of them run a whelk stall yet here's call-me-Dave offering them the Home Office?

 

Bleh.

[Walsingham]

Health: Surely what we need is precisely a keen Libdem aching to prove they've got the cojones to govern? Someone who won't be dissuaded by reasoned argument or union aggression, but will just set about the NHS with a bludgeon and halo.

 

Education: Any mentalism in education would be met with strong and effective resistance by the teachers and heads unions. There isn't the public conviction for change that there is in the NHS.

 

Besides, if you want to arrest the trend for the Libdems you need to give them a chance to prove they are arse. Or do you WANT the libdems to get in at the next election, untainted by reality after a few years of tory austerity? I may be channeling the spirit of Patton, but I say let them stick their necks right out; then we can cut them off.

[RPGmasterBoo]

You people act as though there's any discernible difference between the policies of major UK parties.

[213374U]

Although I'm chewing over the concept of STV, thanks to Krez, I'm still fundamentally in favour of FPTP. FFS according to the BBC the BNP polled more than half a million votes countrywide.

You really need to stop this under-the-counter lobbying for your de-acronymization forum app, man. It's getting out of hand.

 

Anyway, I'd like to know what you guys think about how a possibly weak(?) British leadership could affect the latest attempt by Euro bureaucrats to centralize economic decision making at the expense of national governments. I know we can't have a true Union (is what what people really want?) without centralization, but I'm not sure I like it.

[Monte Carlo]

You people act as though there's any discernible difference between the policies of major UK parties.

It's a luxury of living in a peaceful state.

Edited May 9, 2010 by Monte Carlo

[Walsingham]

Although I'm chewing over the concept of STV, thanks to Krez, I'm still fundamentally in favour of FPTP. FFS according to the BBC the BNP polled more than half a million votes countrywide.

You really need to stop this under-the-counter lobbying for your de-acronymization forum app, man. It's getting out of hand.

 

 

It was actually unintentional. I don't think I could have planned it better on purpose.

 

I think there are definitely differences between the parties. A big fat difference is that one of the parties is run by a power-crazed scotsman who believes government be involved in everything and actually run nothing.

[Meshugger]

Although I'm chewing over the concept of STV, thanks to Krez, I'm still fundamentally in favour of FPTP. FFS according to the BBC the BNP polled more than half a million votes countrywide.

You really need to stop this under-the-counter lobbying for your de-acronymization forum app, man. It's getting out of hand.

 

 

It was actually unintentional. I don't think I could have planned it better on purpose.

 

I think there are definitely differences between the parties. A big fat difference is that one of the parties is run by a power-crazed scotsman who believes government be involved in everything and actually run nothing.

 

Aren't Scots known to be very frugal? Like groundskeeper Willie in The Simpsons?

Edited May 10, 2010 by Meshugger

[Moose]

RBS

[RPGmasterBoo]

You people act as though there's any discernible difference between the policies of major UK parties.

It's a luxury of living in a peaceful state.

 

Boring.

 

Btw you're not peaceful. You're involved in two wars at the moment. Its just that all the shooting and killing is not happening in your back yard.

Edited May 10, 2010 by RPGmasterBoo