3point14
Pi
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UK - Election 2015
- Thread starter The Don
- Start date
I'm glad you are.
I will do everything I can to prevent it, but a result of this election is that there's a very real chance that my company will be out of business in two or three years and that the UK economy will hit a depression which will make the last seven years look like a cakewalk.
Personally I think it's perfectly acceptable for someone who will benefit from Conservative government to vote conservative. The ones I would classify as "thick" are those who either haven't thought it through or who have swallowed the anti-Labour and pro-Conservative propaganda and have voted against their interests.
LondonJohn
Penultimate Amazing
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anglolawyer
Banned
That is far from funny and you have my sympathy. While I don't think the UK will leave the EU (the British public are not stupid) you will nonetheless have the uncertainty hanging over your business while the wrangling goes on.
3point14
Pi
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Rum
Critical Thinker
http://newsthump.com/2015/05/08/everyone-thick-as-pig-****/
Quoted a mini-meme (above). But as a long term believer in social justice and redistribution of the wealth, much of it owned collectively in the past, I believe that many have voted against their own interests. The poorer will in all likelihood get poorer. The NHS will be parcelled up and flogged to the highest bidder and Cameron and his cronies will now feel that have a mandate to complete Thatcher's work.
The economy, and levels of employment.
LondonJohn
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It certainly does.
I will happily admit that I was wrong in absolute terms, but I was by a substantial margin the least wrong of practically everyone in the entire country, as of 9.59pm last night.
I wonder if the exit poll actually might have forecast something this far out, but applied some form of correction since this sort of result simply looked too extreme. I hope we might find out. But even if that didn't happen, the exit poll was still well north of 95% accuracy.
I wish I shared your confidence. Whilst they may or may not be stupid (I'd say that they aren't especially stupid but that's not saying much) I'd say that they are susceptible to simple and enticing messages. This is underpinned by a sizeable minority who are simply anti-EU.
If the EU referendum "Out" campaign runs simply on the fact that the great British public will get their duty free back I reckon they'll breeze it. Nissan warning that they'll gradually back out of the UK is less immediate and less enticing than the prospect of a £10 litre of vodka.
Nevertheless, there'll be a opportunity to fight the referendum and I'll need to change the business to be more UK centric and/or more worldwide (though for a small services company the later has proved to be prohibitively expensive in the past). Obviously that'll need my time and energy.
My big fear is that leaving the EU - even if I've been able to change the business - will mean that young talented people will leave the UK and return to Europe and there'll be tens or hundreds of thousands of retirees who have lost their right to live in the EU.
lonepinealex
Muse
On days like to day I have to try and remember that I claim to be an absurdist.
The UK's going to look very different in five years, if it exists at all... Scotland, NHS, the BBC. They'll keep the names I s'pose, but they'll be unrecognisable.
The UK's going to look very different in five years, if it exists at all... Scotland, NHS, the BBC. They'll keep the names I s'pose, but they'll be unrecognisable.
Damn, forgot about the BBC - Murdoch and his ilk will have cause for celebration.
lonepinealex
Muse
Damn, forgot about the BBC - Murdoch and his ilk will have cause for celebration.
Yep. The wheels are already in motion to privatise BBC production, and the charter's up for renewal next year. It's screwed.
MarkCorrigan
Героям слава!
If we end up leaving the EU I end up leaving the UK.
Nigel Farage's vanity party sicken me.
Nigel Farage's vanity party sicken me.
LondonJohn
Penultimate Amazing
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Almost certainly wrong (and hyperbolically wrong). I assume you're referring here to the promised EU in/out referendum? I will tell you now, with more than 95% certainty, that the result of the referendum will be for the UK to remain part of the EU.
Cameron has promised the referendum for three reasons and three reasons alone: firstly, he knows it will appeal to the die-hard Eurosceptics among the voters, who might therefore have been persuaded to vote Tory rather than Ukip (or even Labour or SNP); secondly, he did it to appease Eurosceptics within his own party, for internal political reasons; and thirdly, he did it in order to create a strong negotiating position for EU reform (and specifically reform of the UK's deal with the EU).
Cameron has zero intention (or desire) to take the UK out of the EU. What will happen is that there will be a period of renegotiation with the EU, after which Cameron will return "in triumph" (a la Neville Chamberlain from Munich
) with a new deal, after which he will announce that now the UK has a better deal, there should be no question that the UK must stay within the EU (indeed, you'll hear lots of "at the heart of" the EU). The referendum result will be a resounding "yes" for staying in the EU.Almost certainly wrong (and more hyperbole to boot). This is sounding more like the rant of a devastated Labour voter than a dispassionate analysis of the situation, I'm afraid. The limited austerity measures will almost certainly lead to continued slow recovery.
Most of the electorate don't know what they are voting for, other than in extremely broad terms. That's a political truism. People vote overwhelmingly for the party that they and their parents/friends/peers have always voted for. The small proportion who don't vote for personalities rather than issues.
A US political commentator once (correctly, though exaggerated for effect) stated that you could put a monkey up as the Republican presidential candidate and it would still garner 40% of the popular vote. Likewise if you put a monkey up as Democratic candidate. The same is broadly true in the UK - 30% will always vote Labour, 30% will always vote Tory, 25% will always vote for one or other of the remaining parties. The remainder are more likely than not to be swayed by intangible "soft" factors - in this instance, the chief factor by a huge margin (in my opinion) was the negative sentiment for Ed Miliband. That's democracy, comrade.......
Oh goodness, yes. You did too. Sorry.
The NHS was always going to be screwed. Most of the transformations implemented by the Tories had been initiated by the preceeding Labour government. If anyone thinks things would be any different, then they are deluding themselves.