The Leaders' Mass Debate

[brogdale]

Wouldn't be at all surprised.

Did you see this?

http://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/hm-treasury-team-wins-special-civil-service-award

[Civil servant] said: “This is one occasion where we've worked with the rest of Whitehall.

"We all had something in common, we're trying to save the Union here, and it came so close. We just kept it by the skin of our teeth. I actually cried when the result came in. After 10 years in the civil service, my proudest moment is tonight and receiving this award.”

He added: “As civil servants you don't get involved in politics. For the first time in my life, suddenly we're part of a political campaign. We were doing everything from the analysis, to the advertising, to the communications. I just felt a massive sense of being part of the operation. This being recognised [at the Civil Service Awards], makes me feel just incredibly proud.”

Got to be, I suppose.
This "reverse machiavellianism" doesn't seem totally thought-through to me? WTF do they think they're up to?

 

[DotCommunist]

surely the idea of ultra red SNP acting as puppetmaster to a minority Labour government is the spin.

 

[danny la rouge]

Got to be, I suppose.
This "reverse machiavellianism" doesn't seem totally thought-through to me? WTF do they think they're up to?

They really think the SNP is a threat. A worse threat than Labour.

They behaved like this when Labour was a new threat, too. Zinoviev letter anyone?

 

[treelover]

Very British Corruption.

 

[brogdale]

surely the idea of ultra red SNP acting as puppetmaster to a minority Labour government is the spin.

The 'strategy' is inconsistent; it don't make sense...and the level of nuance they're demanding of English voters is too great IMO.

 

[brogdale]

They really think the SNP is a threat. A worse threat than Labour.

They behaved like this when Labour was a new threat, too. Zinoviev letter anyone?

But it's a nonsense electoral strategy; if they were able to undermine the nationalists it would only increase Miliband's chance of a working administration.

And it demonstrates that their own polling must be confirming what we're seeing; they know they can't win.

 

[brogdale]

..and the desperate chump has latched onto the vermin's (disputed) leak. Twat.

Ed Miliband has described an allegation that Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National party leader, told a senior French diplomat that she would rather see David Cameron win the general election as “damning”.

 

[treelover]

What it all seems to show is that they(the establishment) won't tolerate even a mildly social democratic administration anymore, the fact they endorsed Blair's(in the end) speaks volumes about that particular one

 

[danny la rouge]

But it's a nonsense electoral strategy; if they were able to undermine the nationalists it would only increase Miliband's chance of a working administration.

And it demonstrates that their own polling must be confirming what we're seeing; they know they can't win.

It presumably tells us they think a labour government without SNP involvement serves the national interests better than one with.

 

[brogdale]

It presumably tells us they think a labour government without SNP involvement serves the national interests better than one with.

We should also remember that the vermin have the resources to run another election campaign coming quick on the heels of May.

 

[brogdale]

It presumably tells us they think a labour government without SNP involvement serves the national interests better than one with.

 

[weepiper]

How's it playing up there? Not very well I'd have thought.

Much as you might expect

 

[brogdale]

Yep...

 

[weepiper]

 

[nino_savatte]

Yep...

Bingo.

 

[danny la rouge]

New low for @scottishlabour as their canvas stalls adorned with Daily Mail

 

[brogdale]

New low for @scottishlabour as their canvas stalls adorned with Daily Mail

..but no union flag?

 

[danny la rouge]

But it's a nonsense electoral strategy; if they were able to undermine the nationalists it would only increase Miliband's chance of a working administration.

And it demonstrates that their own polling must be confirming what we're seeing; they know they can't win.

Newsnet Scotland saying that the leak came from Scotland Office. Scottish Secretary, Carmichael, is a Lib Dem.

 

[brogdale]

Newsnet Scotland saying that the leak came from Scotland Office. Scottish Secretary, Carmichael, is a Lib Dem.

Yep.

 

[Sue]

Newsnet Scotland saying that the leak came from Scotland Office. Scottish Secretary, Carmichael, is a Lib Dem.

This should be on the Why the Lib Dems are shit thread really. So shit their smear campaigns crash and burn within hours...

 

[brogdale]

This should be on the Why the Lib Dems are shit thread really. So shit their smear campaigns crash and burn within hours...

Woah! It's already across 3 threads!

 

[elbows]

And now we have Ed the happy warrior, using the audience at home, never getting agitated, getting the chance to show who he isn't.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32188119

 

[elbows]

I think they missed a trick not to big up the Greens and, to some extent Clegg's articulation of "progressive" ideals.

The tories? They only had a limited appetite for Camerons detoxification and progressive rhetoric last time around. And after years of a coalition which, in the minds of some of their base, took too much of the nasty edge away from the party, the last thing the tories want to demonstrate in this campaign is how they strut their stuff when slightly watered down by bloody liberals or green agendas. Balls to the progressive stuff, they want to give people a glimpse of what they could expect if only the electorate had the decency to give the tories a nice majority. So, all Cameron could really do on the green front was shit some shit by getting them into the leaders debate, he wasn't going to go out of his way to praise or pilfer their rhetoric this time.

 

[two sheds]

I'm surprised the Sturgeon-wanting-the-tories-in story got the exposure it did, really. Half the time Miliband looks like he'd actually like the tories to be in next time, too.

 

[treelover]

Children are turning up to school sick because their parents cannot afford to take time off to care for them, teachers say.

School staff are also still seeing youngsters arriving for lessons hungry, tired and wearing inappropriate clothes due to a continuing squeeze on family finances, according to the NASUWT teaching union.

It warned that the lives of many children are young people are being “blighted and degraded by poverty and homelessness”.

In some cases, teachers reported being aware of pupils living in “Victorian conditions”, of youngsters coming to school with no socks or coat and of more families depending on food banks.

http://www.theguardian.com/educatio...n-living-in-victorian-conditions-say-teachers

Pity this didn't come out before the debate, but would Milliband have raised it anyway, I doubt it.

 

[treelover]

 

[Karac]

Why does Wood come out so badly? She's kind of 'the left' along with Sturgeon in that debate eh. She didn't speak as well as Sturgeon, but she's surely better than Bennett?!

Like others have pointed out she was totally focussed on Wales.
Sturgeon from a stronger position post referendum was able to develop a more UK wide position which went down a lot better.
Leanne Woods main focus is getting elected as the AM for the Rhondda in 2016 -which will be no mean feat.

 

[redsquirrel]

Just to go back to Farage's comments about HIV and immigrants, YouGov has done some polling on the issue and found that

On immigration and HIV – perhaps the one specific issue from the debate that stood out – 50% of people would support the idea of banning immigrants to Britain from NHS treatment, 34% of people are opposed. Asked specifically about Nigel Farage’s comments on HIV, 37% said he was scaremongering, 52% said it was a serious issue he was right to raise.

So no evidence of a backlash against UKIP there.

 

[William of Walworth]

Plenty of people believe what they want to believe

 

[Lord Camomile]

The rhetoric of the right is very seductive - it's someone else's fault, the answer is simple, you can have everything, your priorities come before everyone else's.

Not hard to see how they do well the way politics currently operates, with crowd-pleasing soundbites winning out over serious discussion.