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The Official UK Election Thread! 6th May it is!

Here's a New Scientist report on last night's battle for Bosworth:

http://tinyurl.com/2c2qju5


I've been following the travails of Science Party candidate Dr Brooks via Twitter.
(@DrMichaelBrooks)

He later added that such treatments are popular elsewhere in the world. A member of the audience heckled that popularity does not prove efficacy, when Tredinnick noted the high status that alternative treatments enjoy in the Indian health service.

That was me!
 
You heckler, you!

I was actually a little disruptive at one point. When Tredinnick mentioned the aliens thing, he claimed it was in a blog, when people started shouting about how that's not exactly a reliable source, particularly since Dr Brooks hadn't got the first clue of what he was on about, he changed his mind and said it came from an interview, and he could give us the details.

I shouted, repeatedly "So tell us who the interview was with."

I was, amazingly, ignored.


ETA: Amazingly enough, Mullaney, who was awesome, brought up something he had read in Hansard. That Tredinnick thought it would be best if we went back to, no joke, the medicine of the 16th century!
 
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Wow, that sounds a lot more fun than what went on in Peebles Old Kirk hall last night! We only had a Godwinning UKIP racist to heckle, and the moderator kept rather a tight rein on that.

Rolfe.
 
Less than a week to go so lets have your updated predictions.

Mine is still for a Tory government with a comfortable working majority in the range of 20 to 40.
 
Actually, Mark's story is really quite depressing in that it highlights the whole thing about voting on party lines even though the candidate is a moron. (OK, I'm not in a position to criticise here, but it's still a topic worth discussing.)

One hopes that the major parties, with the biggest chance of getting a lot of MPs elected, will also have the biggest influx of good MP material, and will select for those people when it comes to candidates for safe or winnable seats. How the hell does anyone like Tredinnick get into that position?

Rolfe.
 
...snip... How the hell does anyone like Tredinnick get into that position?

Rolfe.

Politics.... :)

Seriously you must have seen this Rolfe, the best candidate, defined as being the best MP for the constituency, may simply not be the most politically expedient candidate from the view of either the local political activists or the national political parties.

One of the reasons I never went down the path of trying to stand for a political party was because of what is required to become a candidate at even say local council level in terms of the compromises of principles and the networking required. Oh and the fact that I just cannot be that controlled or tactful for a sustained period of time without my mouth running away with me - "bigoted woman" would be one of the mildest things I'd be heard saying about the people I met during an election! (And since I wasn't the son/nephew/bit-on-the-side of some local political bigwig that route was closed to me.)
 
While a lot of that is very true, something as off-the-wall as Tredinnick's woo outlook should really be a no-no for selection in any normal process. There's no seat needs a raving quacking whackjob as a candidate.

Rolfe.
 
Actually, Mark's story is really quite depressing in that it highlights the whole thing about voting on party lines even though the candidate is a moron. (OK, I'm not in a position to criticise here, but it's still a topic worth discussing.)

One hopes that the major parties, with the biggest chance of getting a lot of MPs elected, will also have the biggest influx of good MP material, and will select for those people when it comes to candidates for safe or winnable seats. How the hell does anyone like Tredinnick get into that position?

Rolfe.

Want to hear something scary? I know one of the former members of the selection board in this constituency, and after the Cash-for-Questions scandal broke, and Mr Tredinnick was suspended for 20 days, he spoke to the head of the committee and stated that he couldn't believe they were going to stick by him.

It turns out that a number of the local Tories actually LIKE this guy.
 
While a lot of that is very true, something as off-the-wall as Tredinnick's woo outlook should really be a no-no for selection in any normal process. There's no seat needs a raving quacking whackjob as a candidate.

Rolfe.

I suspect that at the selection interviews no one thought to check whether he believed magic spells was an effective health system!
 
Want to hear something scary? I know one of the former members of the selection board in this constituency, and after the Cash-for-Questions scandal broke, and Mr Tredinnick was suspended for 20 days, he spoke to the head of the committee and stated that he couldn't believe they were going to stick by him.

It turns out that a number of the local Tories actually LIKE this guy.

David was born in 1950, and educated at Eton College, Mons Officer Cadet School, St John's College, Oxford (M.Litt), and the Graduate School of Business at Cape Town University (MBA).​

What a surprise.

ETA: And from a Tory party Central office perspective he is a very good candidate: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/david_tredinnick/bosworth
 
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Well, that's my vote done, dusted and in the post. I hope nobody starts eating babies in between now and the actual polling day.

I've never done a postal vote before. You don't usually get (or need) much time to stand with the polling card in your hand at a polling station, and I'm daft enough to admit that I got a bit of a frisson of excitement to be able to do so today, and study it all carefully. I'm actually quite glad to be able to say that I'm not yet so cynical that voting doesn't still have a bit of a thrill about it.
 
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I just posted three of the things!

Explanation. I helped my partially-sighted mother do hers on Wednesday evening, but forgot to post it yesterday. Today, I put it in the post box at work with some other stuff I had. The courier didn't show up at his normal time, so I volunteered to take the contents of the office post box to the pillar box at the road-end for the regular collection. When I sorted out what was there, there were two more postal votes as well as my mother's.

I put the lot in the pillar box, and met the courier as I headed back to work. Oh well.

I suppose it shows how vulnerable a postal vote is if you don't put it into an actual PO box. I could have lost these, swallowed them or pocketed them. Didn't, though.

Rolfe.
 
As an aside, did anyone here Nick Griffin's electoral phone in today? If not I can tell you it was priceless

The best bit was when one caller told him that he had three foreign born grandparents and asked Griffin if he considered the caller to be British. Griffin said he couldn't tell over the phone!!
 
As an aside, did anyone here Nick Griffin's electoral phone in today? If not I can tell you it was priceless

The best bit was when one caller told him that he had three foreign born grandparents and asked Griffin if he considered the caller to be British. Griffin said he couldn't tell over the phone!!

Yes I did and that was an hilarious moment, followed up by his claim that he would be able to tell if the caller's three grandparents were Irish just by looking at him.
 
Yes I did and that was an hilarious moment, followed up by his claim that he would be able to tell if the caller's three grandparents were Irish just by looking at him.

The bit where he said that he could not say anything about the holocaust because if he did he would be sent to Germany to face charges was funny as well :D
 
The bit where he said that he could not say anything about the holocaust because if he did he would be sent to Germany to face charges was funny as well :D

Oh yes and you could tell she was biting her tongue not to ask "Are you really that ******** crazy?"
 

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