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

[littlebabyjesus]

[insert apocryphal soviet space pencil story here]

Yeah I know, it's not true.

It sooooo should be true, though.

And Bob Holness did play sax on Baker Street. Please...

 

[Blagsta]

,aybe in 20 years well have moved on to those little minipens you get in the shop for doing the lottery

Naaah, it's all about Argos

 

[frogwoman]

Exactly J Ed, you really think john rees votes tusc or some no hope lefty party? Of course he votes tory imo.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

,aybe in 20 years well have moved on to those little minipens you get in the shop for doing the lottery

The place I work has need of public pens, so I just go around the local bookies asking for some. They're always happy to give me them, but they always seem to disappear quick sharp.

 

[DotCommunist]

Yeah I know, it's not true.

It sooooo should be true, though.

And Bob Holness did play sax on Baker Street. Please...

He did play the first Bond in a radio adapt of Casino Royale though. Thats one snopes has not ruined for me

 

[Roadkill]

I don't think the comparison with John Major in 1993 is a good one for a number of reasons.

For starters, three of the Euro sceptics that caused him so much trouble (the “bastards”) were actually in the Cabinet at the time. There was talk that all three would resign on the eve of a key vote, which would have plunged the Government into turmoil. Cameron won’t be so stupid as to appoint any hard-line sceptics in his Cabinet.

Second, their rebellion was about giving more powers to the EU via the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty. The referendum will be about the repatriation of powers.

Third, Cameron has a huge amount of goodwill within the party and a lot of patronage, especially now that he no longer has to give any Cabinet seats to the Lib Dems.

Finally, Cameron and Osborne will have learnt form the mistakes in the past and will do all they can to avoid them.

I guess they will already be looking at the current make-up of the Parliamentary Conservative Party and working out who stands where.

Which MPs are Europhobes who will want the UK the leave irrespective of the shape of any deal? Who are the Euro sceptics who are generally anti EU but could be brought round by reason of argument/patronage/threats? Who are the MPs whose broad view is that the UK is better off in the EU than out? How do the numbers stack up.

One of the arch sceptics, Mark Pritchard, told the BBC today:

“There would be no pressure for the prime minister to rush into discussions about an in-out referendum on the UK's future in Europe, which he has pledged to hold in 2017.

"The party will be 100% behind the PM as he goes off to Brussels to fight for Britain, and indeed fight for an improved European Union," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32670311

May be a load of bollocks, but interesting nonetheless.

It's hardly a surprise that even the looniest of backbenchers are making emollient noises 48 hours after a victory that few foresaw and some thought was impossible. Obviously you have to be careful about drawing comparisons between now and two decades ago, but it's still a fact that a basically pro-European PM has to keep an eye on some backbenchers who think very differently and might be inclined to make trouble if they don't think things are going their way. All we can do is wait and see what happens.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's hardly a surprise that even the looniest of backbenchers are making emollient noises 48 hours after a victory that few foresaw and some thought was impossible. Obviously you have to be careful about drawing comparisons between now and two decades ago, but it's still a fact that a basically pro-European PM has to keep an eye on some backbenchers who think very differently and might be inclined to make trouble if they don't think things are going their way. All we can do is wait and see what happens.

I hope you're right, but fear you're not. The feel-good factor of this unexpected win, and the glow Cameron will be covered in, may take a while to fade. Cameron is untouchable right now for the Tories. He's a clear winner. And the Tories exist to win.

 

[campanula]

sunglasses at dawn - generally his greasy forehead glistens with blinding smugness...but now, I fear the glint from his moon-faced visage will be ultra violet.
I have avoided viewing even a smidge of tory triumphalism as I fear my head may explode.

 

[Dogsauce]

I made the mistake of looking at the papers when I was down the co-op for some bread this afternoon. The smugness and celebration on the front pages was as horrible as you might imagine.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I am in Somerset for the weekend.

Coming down the A 303, I think I must have passed 4 deceased badgers at the roadside.

I think they have heard about the election result



(((suicidal badgers)))

 

[eatmorecheese]

Gove as Justice secretary. I have the chills.

 

[Dogsauce]

Coming down the A 303, I think I must have passed 4 deceased badgers at the roadside.

I think they have heard about the election result



(((suicidal badgers)))

I spent the last half of my childhood living in a relatively rural area, you'd see no badgers for a couple of years then suddenly three dead ones on the main road a few miles apart. The farmers shoot them illegally then dump them along the road to make it look like an accident.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Gove as Justice secretary. I have the chills.

I spent the last half of my childhood living in a relatively rural area, you'd see no badgers for a couple of years then suddenly three dead ones on the main road a few miles apart. The farmers shoot them illegally then dump them along the road to make it look like an accident.

 

[coley]

Oil under $100.

The coconut is in the post

 

[Libertad]

I spent the last half of my childhood living in a relatively rural area, you'd see no badgers for a couple of years then suddenly three dead ones on the main road a few miles apart. The farmers shoot them illegally then dump them along the road to make it look like an accident.

This has increased over the last two or three years. You can tell when it's going on your area because the ratio of badger to fox "roadkills" becomes disproportionate.

 

[coley]

Tbh i think labour might be finished except as a regional party.

Very possibly they tried to position themselves as a centre right party but that area is far to crowded already.

 

[coley]

My mate was saying last night that she thought it might be rigged. I said i thought that was very unlikely.

A lot of the SNP believe they were robbed of a referendum victory by the MI5/6
Consiracyloonerie exists in all quarters

 

[coley]

Thanet South? Totes rigged. By lizards.

Not very bright lizards though, apparently UKIP has walked into power through the council elections?
Mebbes Farage should ask for a recount/ investigation?

 

[AC14]

I spent the last half of my childhood living in a relatively rural area, you'd see no badgers for a couple of years then suddenly three dead ones on the main road a few miles apart. The farmers shoot them illegally then dump them along the road to make it look like an accident.

What, they risk being caught doing that rather than allowing them to rot in a field or buried. Yes, course they do.

 

[Theisticle]

Breathtaking analysis from GCSE student Laurie Penny. The depression angle is poor taste.

"The politics of the modern right are the politics of depression, and right now they are winning. What remains of the British left is flat on its back, staring at the ceiling in a mess of unwashed sheets, and shouting at it to get up is not going to help right now.

I’m not about to tell you to just buck up. I’m not advocating enforced blissed-outedness like a sort of fascist Gwyneth Paltrow. Some of my best friends are hippies, and I like yoga and meditation and suspicious smoothies as much as the next bourgeois lefty throwback, but downward-facing-dog is not a radical position, and that’s not what this is about."

http://www.newstatesman.com/politic...ulation-hard-govern-depressed-population-easy

 

[coley]

why?

Fear of the unknown?

 

[Celyn]

Her reasoning was that she didnt know anyone who had voted tory and reckoned that that many people couldnt have done it.

Wonderfully "innocent" way of thinking there. I mean, I personally don't know any Tories, but I do accept that such creatures exist.

 

[coley]

We should denounce a few. I know who I suspect.

Denounce away

 

[coley]

You've never suspected Galloway was special branch?

A peculiar branch of humanity, certainly, one doomed to extinction? Hopefully.

 

[coley]

Wonderfully "innocent" way of thinking there. I mean, I personally don't know any Tories, but I do accept that such creatures exist.

I know dozens,but they all claim to be labour, homophobic, racist and mysogonistic to a man, but all claiming to be 'real labour supporters'

 

[coley]

The Tories winning the election means we are either collectively suffering from Stockholm Syndrome as a nation or simply a bunch of selfish cunts.
I fear its the latter.

You are correct, but frightened, should have prefixed selfish cunts, never underestimate the Murdoch machine.

 

[coley]

It's hardly a surprise that even the looniest of backbenchers are making emollient noises 48 hours after a victory that few foresaw and some thought was impossible. Obviously you have to be careful about drawing comparisons between now and two decades ago, but it's still a fact that a basically pro-European PM has to keep an eye on some backbenchers who think very differently and might be inclined to make trouble if they don't think things are going their way. All we can do is wait and see what happens.

Fair enough, but there's no point in enjoying the Tories self destructing while there is no viable alternative?

 

[J Ed]

 

[J Ed]

At least you know that the Tory jackboot on your neck has been on a course and knows not to call you a poof, just to give you that bit of reassurance as you get the shit kicked out of you.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Fair enough, but there's no point in enjoying the Tories self destructing while there is no viable alternative?

I have to disagree with you there. I'm not sure it will happen, but if it does, it can be enjoyed for its own sake.