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Post by juju on Apr 12, 2015 16:35:33 GMT
OK, so this is not international politics, but any bets on the outcome? My nightmare scenario is a Conservative / UKIP coalition. I may need to book my one way flight to Kye's sofa if that happened...
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Post by Kye on Apr 12, 2015 17:43:53 GMT
Yay! But we have Harper as our PM and that's pretty crappy...
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 12, 2015 20:12:37 GMT
A Labour/SNP alliance without an overall majority. Using Green and Norther Irish Republican parties to prop it up.
I don't think there's a hope in Hades of anyone doing a deal with UKIP
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Post by juju on Apr 12, 2015 20:14:08 GMT
I hope you're right on all counts, Alan
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Post by Alvamiga on Apr 12, 2015 22:16:33 GMT
This is international politics to those of us not in the UK!
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Post by tangent on Apr 12, 2015 23:33:56 GMT
I agree a Labout/SNP alliance looks likely but I'm not sure the polls are forecasting more than a couple of Green seats.
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 13, 2015 1:59:37 GMT
With the NI seats a couple could be enough.
Basically it would be a fair reflection of the prevailing attitude of 'anybody but Cameron'
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Post by tangent on Apr 13, 2015 11:10:11 GMT
Interestingly, Labour seem to be creeping up a little and have gone into the lead, according to these very sketchy opinion polls. This surprises me because David Cameron faired better than Ed Milliband in the debates (whatever you call them). I guess the general public see the SNP as a stable party who would be willing to support Labour, and this gives Labour the capability to form a government. I, however, wouldn't trust the SNP as far as I could throw them. They would be in government for one thing and one thing only.
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Post by Moose on Apr 13, 2015 16:12:19 GMT
Which would be?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 18:13:15 GMT
When she the elections?
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Post by tangent on Apr 13, 2015 20:47:06 GMT
Thursday 7 May. Which would be? You're joking, right? An independent Scotland.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 21:23:51 GMT
We have elections here on May 10th.
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Post by JoeP on Apr 13, 2015 21:32:41 GMT
I, however, wouldn't trust the SNP as far as I could throw them. They would be in government for one thing and one thing only. Unlike UKIP, you mean?
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Kate
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2015 7:48:03 GMT
I agree that a UKIP Conservative party sounds terrible. Does anyone know how popular the Green Party is?
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Post by Alvamiga on Apr 14, 2015 8:19:52 GMT
At least UKIP are open about having scummy policies.The probably wouldn't have the support they do if the others weren't becoming so untrustworthy and self-serving!
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Post by Moose on Apr 14, 2015 19:19:45 GMT
I don't think an independent Scotland is a bad thing to want ... as long as they're open about it and they seem to be. And yes, I was joking
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Post by spaceflower on Apr 15, 2015 0:14:13 GMT
This is international politics to those of us not in the UK! So true. I remember learning that there were only two big parties in UK: Tories and The Liberals, and then Tories and Labour. This was due to the voting system (they had single winner, we in Sweden had proportional). Small parties could never have any influence. But nowadays there are new parties. Ukip who wants to get out of EU. Liberal Democrats, is that the new name of the Liberal Party? Any big questions which are discussed? Unemployment, criminality, bad schools (Pisa resluts)? These are problems which are always discussed here. And of course, the refugee immigration (now from Syria).
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 15, 2015 16:52:34 GMT
The issues are:
The UK economy. The Conservative party is campaigning hard on this. They have made a fantastic job of restoring the economy but at a huge cost to many people at the lowest end of society. The National Health Service. The Labour Party are campaigning hard on this. A great deal of the ground that has been made in strengthening the economy has been done by reducing funding to the NHS in real terms. Immigration. UKIP are campaigning hard on this, they want to reduce immigration from both outside the EU and from within the EU and they want an immediate referendum on the UK's membership of the EU and whether the UK should withdraw from the EU. The SNP campaigns mainly for Scotland to be removed from the rest of the UK and is also campaigning to bring an end to the austerity measures that the current coalition between the Conservatives and the Lib/Dems have enacted (mainly the Conservatives). There is also Plaid Cumru who want Wales to be removed from the UK. There is also the Green Party, they also want an end to the austerity measures. There is of course the Lib/Dems who are a party comprised of the old Liberal party and the long defunct Social Democratic Party
Education is always a hot issue as is the minimum wage as is the Police Force and the Armed Services and their funding
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Post by Alvamiga on Apr 15, 2015 17:25:00 GMT
You can't believe a word any of them say, this close to the election. All they want are soundbites so people vote for them. If they get in, then all the reasons why they either can't do it now or have to make cuts to other essentials will spew forth! That gives them 5 years to make a hash of it, then start covering their tracks to get back on the right side of the electorate. ...or am I just being cynical?!
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Post by tangent on Apr 20, 2015 12:09:17 GMT
The issues are: The UK economy. The National Health Service. Immigration. ... Education For Christians in the Evangelical Alliance - nothing like American evangelicals - the main issue is poverty and inequality according to a recent poll. [My church belongs to the Evangelical Alliance but we are about as far removed from America's evangelicals as possible.]
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 20, 2015 17:36:29 GMT
I'm not surprised that the report says that a third of traditional Tories are considering not voting Conservative this time.
On an entirely random poll of the Tories I drink with on a Friday night, most of us feel that the 'bedroom tax' was a step too far. It's one thing to impose stringent measures to drag this country out of the economic disaster that Labour left behind them, but it's another thing to place the biggest burden on those on the very lowest rung of society's ladder. We were told 'we're all in this together', fair enough, so why impose the most discriminatory tax on those with the lowest disposable income?
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Post by JoeP on Apr 20, 2015 18:51:21 GMT
Did your poll determine who they are likely to vote for instead, Alan?
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 20, 2015 19:06:50 GMT
Yes, we're a bit of a block vote element.
To do that we had to look carefully at the local candidates. i.e. The actual person we cast our vote for. This was done irrespective of which party they are standing for. Of the five candidates three were dismissed quite easily. Of the remaining two one had never set foot in the constituency before and the other lives here. So the vote goes to the person who has the best understanding of local issues. In this case it's the credible candidate who lives and works in the constituency.
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Post by JoeP on Apr 20, 2015 19:38:42 GMT
And are you prepared to share the name of the party that candidate stands for?
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Post by tangent on Apr 21, 2015 11:52:50 GMT
Sadly, a lot of sheep who read the Daily Mail will consider the bedroom tax fair and just.
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Post by Moose on Apr 21, 2015 23:08:54 GMT
Not UKIP I hope
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Apr 22, 2015 22:09:23 GMT
The local UKIP candidate is a homophobic moron who's education never went past secondary modern.
Not a credible candidate.
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Post by Moose on Apr 22, 2015 22:20:44 GMT
Our local UKIP candidate is a homophobic moron who went to grammar school and then Birmingham uni
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Post by tangent on Apr 23, 2015 15:19:17 GMT
I was slightly disappointed to find only six grammatical errors in our UKIP candidate's manifesto on Facebook. Admittedly it was only a summary of the main points but I expected a lot more from him.
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Post by Alvamiga on Apr 23, 2015 17:48:28 GMT
Isn't the correct spelling of Cymru W-A-L-E-S ?
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