General Election 2015 - chat, predictions, results and post election discussion

[redsquirrel]

Anecdote. Here's mine. I know a number of people who are likely, in the next year or two, to move to Europe. Some because they have family there. Some because they are very pro-European and social democrats.

So they'll move to France where the FN are on the march? Or go to Germany where I guess the "social democrats" are a least in government with Merkel. Or to the fabled paradise of Scandinavia where the Labour parties brothers in arms are busy attacking the welfare state there?

 

[Orang Utan]

you say it like it's a bad thing.

It isn't if you're honest about it, rather than saying you are leaving cos the Tories hate the poor or whatever

 

[Orang Utan]

such a pity you repeatedly show yourself unable to defend your claims.

Just not interested in your game

 

[brogdale]

he's going to start a second career as a professional sorrow-drowner.

Remember "Indoor League"?



tbf he'd be ideal for a new series...

 

[Pickman's model]

Just not interested in your game

Since the Vietnam War, Thailand has gained international notoriety among travellers from many countries as a sex tourism destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Thailand

 

[Quartz]

Farage is still a EU MP.

 

[Paulie]

Nige just gets to carry on as a MEP, doesn't he?

 

[Orang Utan]

Since the Vietnam War, Thailand has gained international notoriety among travellers from many countries as a sex tourism destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Thailand

Thanks for that.

 

[Pickman's model]

Thanks for that.

you're welcome

 

[teqniq]

check out Alex Salmond here

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10152912653931939/?fref=nf

Why won't FB vids embed anymore?

 

[brogdale]

Vermin at 323 now.

Get down the hospital quick if you feel you might have anything wrong with you...

 

[ViolentPanda]

Fuck

Wtf just happened?

First Past The Post is what happened (although the result would have been similar with the version of PR the Lib-Dims and articul8 tried to flog us a few years ago).

 

[doddles]

So they'll move to France where the FN are on the march? Or go to Germany where I guess the "social democrats" are a least in government with Merkel. Or to the fabled paradise of Scandinavia where the Labour parties brothers in arms are busy attacking the welfare state there?

Germany and Scandinavia mainly. And while it might be true that welfare and public services are under attack there, i) they're starting from a much better position, ii) they have viable political parties that are committed to defending social services and iii) they have voting systems that actually give them a bit of a say in how things are done. No perfect, far from perfect. But a more optimistic situation than one in which 65% of voters are voting for right wing parties.

 

[Quartz]

Well, it's started. I've just heard a snatch of racist (anti-English) abuse through the window. Carried on the wind, not aimed at me. I can't tell if it came from the Grammar School.

 

[Pickman's model]

in the morning it will.be exit stage right for miliband

i called it right

 

[Pickman's model]

Well, it's started. I've just heard a snatch of racist (anti-English) abuse through the window. Carried on the wind, not aimed at me. I can't tell if it came from the Grammar School.

details pls

 

[ViolentPanda]

So we have to look forward to getting hunting back, more shot badgers, an eviscerated BBC, more free schools, tax cuts at the top, Branson running the hospitals, concealment of past tory noncery until the perpetrators have died off and a mass sell-off of social housing? How do we put a stick in these spokes?

We use every legal means at our disposal, and most of the illegal means, too.
You can bet that the "no watercannon" rule will be reversed long before Crimbo 2015, too. The Tories will know that some people won't sit still for another 5 years of "the death of a thousand cu(n)ts".

 

[DotCommunist]

Well, it's started. I've just heard a snatch of racist (anti-English) abuse through the window. Carried on the wind, not aimed at me. I can't tell if it came from the Grammar School.

First they came for the quartzes, and I did not speak out, because he is a nobber

 

[Pickman's model]

First they came for the quartzes, and I did not speak out, because he is a nobber

knobber

nobber is a village in co. meath.

 

[ViolentPanda]

There are people saying they are leaving the country now. Twats.

Cowards.

 

[brogdale]

There are people saying they are leaving the country now. Twats.

They'll not be non-doms

 

[Thunderfist]

How much was the majority in the end? Wafer thin in any case. Watch the Tory party tear itself to pieces over Europe as the backbenchers get an opportunity to act up. Remember Major's ailing administration 92-97? He was propped up by the Ulster Unionists at the end - but that's where Cameron is starting from.

 

[Pickman's model]

How much was the majority in the end? Wafer thin in any case. Watch the Tory party tear itself to pieces over Europe as the backbenchers get an opportunity to act up. Remember Major's ailing administration 92-97? He was propped up by the Ulster Unionists at the end - but that's where Cameron is starting from.

you do know not all seats have declared yet

 

[Libertad]

How much was the majority in the end? Wafer thin in any case. Watch the Tory party tear itself to pieces over Europe as the backbenchers get an opportunity to act up. Remember Major's ailing administration 92-97? He was propped up by the Ulster Unionists at the end - but that's where Cameron is starting from.

Sound reasoning there, that's cheered me up a bit but not much.

 

[crossthebreeze]

Tories just reached 323 seats, the figure for a "just about" majority, they only need to win another 3 out of the 12 seats left to declare to win a majority proper.

 

[Thunderfist]

Twelve left to go? Meaning a maximum Tory majority of 9?

 

[Steel Icarus]

I'm mildly astonished - if such as thing is possible - that Clegg hasn't stepped down. He was evens to go first, wasn't he? And Milliband will be, from odds of what, 3 or 4 to 1?

 

[ViolentPanda]

You're absolutely right, of course - those people deserve solidarity, not anger (except those from the groups above who voted Tory or UKIP - and there would a few).

The problem is, that even amongst Labour voters, there's a large number who would position the party further right than they are, who have no real desire to tackle the fundamental problems faced by society (such as unsustainable economic policy, pandering to multinationals and banks, signing up to things like the TTIP, PPIs, etc. etc.). So if you lump them in with the Tory, UKIP and LibDem voters, you're probably looking at about 75% of the English population who would collectively vote either for the status quo or a move further to the right. I think it's perfectly reasonable to say to them, "you reap what you sow".

The problem isn't the electorate, it's that the major parties don't represent options far enough dispersed on the political spectrum to offer the electorate a clear choice, and that an FPTP system means that one of two major parties who are politically incredibly-similar, whether in coalition with the third or not, will always win.
An added problem (and a reason why Labour continued to shed members post-Blair 'n' Brown) is that the two biggest parties also gutted their various internal practices to pretty much remove democracy and the right to amend party policy from the membership. Even their own members can't hold them to account, let alone the electorate.

So, what have the electorate got? The choice between a shit sandwich garnished with watercress, and a shit sandwich garnished with mustard and cress, that's what.

 

[brogdale]

I'm mildly astonished - if such as thing is possible - that Clegg hasn't stepped down. He was evens to go first, wasn't he? And Milliband will be, from odds of what, 3 or 4 to 1?

tbf probably taking some time to edit his phone contacts list

 

[Libertad]

I may have to take it upon myself to reduce the vermin's majority one by one. Where to begin?