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

You feel dirty? I just found myself in 100% agreement with John Reid, appearing on Panorama.

Rolfe.
 
Just in case this hasn't already been posted: Adam Boulton, presenter with Sky News nearly coming to blows with Alastair Campbell shortly after the announcement of Brown standing down.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/05/sky-news-angry-exchanges-160

He really loses his cool - pretty unprofessional but great to watch. Campbell comes off like the consumate pro he is - regardless of what you think of him, he always give a fantastic interview - you can see why he's the master of spin.

It would have been great to see Boulton lamp him though. That would have made my week :D
 
I refer you back to the aforementioned Mr Cook:



So... Gorgeous George was the sole voice of reason during the build-up to invasion? I think not.


I didn't say he was the sole voice of reason. I said he didn't mince his words. He called a crime a crime.
 
So it suddenly look like the Lib Dems are really seriously considering Labour once again.

David Cameron is sounding quite worried now, poor guy. He's agreeing to a variant of PR (the Alternative Vote) which cannot be pleasing a lot of the Tory party. They're trying to make is sound tough ('Final offer') but it must be a bit galling to find themselves in this position after how the polls looked a few months ago.
 
Daily Mail website [1] leads today with - The men who are trying to steal Britain's election - with a grim looking Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell pictured. Sounds like the Quail panicking their man might not get in.

[1] - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

One thing I am getting a bit fed up of is the newspapers screaming their political stance without any attempt at reason or balance (I know this isn't exactly new but it's getting silly now').

Yes, yes we all know what party each newpaper supports by now. And yes they are all embarassing themselves by continuously demonstrating how they haven't managed to alter anyone's minds drastically in any particular direction.
 
David Cameron is sounding quite worried now, poor guy. He's agreeing to a variant of PR (the Alternative Vote) which cannot be pleasing a lot of the Tory party. They're trying to make is sound tough ('Final offer') but it must be a bit galling to find themselves in this position after how the polls looked a few months ago.
AV is not a form of PR it is an alternative way of calcualting where the post is that needs to be passed in each constituency. The ELECTORAL REFORM SOCIETY has guestimated the seats on various voting systems. Figures from teh grauniad.
VOTE SYSTEM |CON| LAB |LIB DEM |SNP| PC|Other
FPTP: TOTALS | 307 |258 | 57| 6 |3 | 19
AV: TOTALS |281 |262 | 79 | 5 | 3 |20
AV+: TOTALS |275 | 234 |110 | 9 | 3 | 19
STV: TOTALS |246 | 207 | 162 | 13| 4 |18
 
AV is not a form of PR it is an alternative way of calcualting where the post is that needs to be passed in each constituency. The ELECTORAL REFORM SOCIETY has guestimated the seats on various voting systems. Figures from teh grauniad.
VOTE SYSTEM |CON| LAB |LIB DEM |SNP| PC|Other
FPTP: TOTALS | 307 |258 | 57| 6 |3 | 19
AV: TOTALS |281 |262 | 79 | 5 | 3 |20
AV+: TOTALS |275 | 234 |110 | 9 | 3 | 19
STV: TOTALS |246 | 207 | 162 | 13| 4 |18

While I understand why they publish those numbers I think they are a bit misleading to be honest. With a PR system the political system would be totally different, you would see a re-arrangement/realignment of the parties and people's voting patterns would change.

It's difficult to call how it would work out, my own belief is you would see quite a swing away from Lab/Con towards the smaller parties but who knows.
 
While I understand why they publish those numbers I think they are a bit misleading to be honest. With a PR system the political system would be totally different, you would see a re-arrangement/realignment of the parties and people's voting patterns would change.

It's difficult to call how it would work out, my own belief is you would see quite a swing away from Lab/Con towards the smaller parties but who knows.
I agree, they are way out on the smaller parties. However I think we can conclude that AV is not going to produce a dramatically different result from FPTP.
 
One thing I am getting a bit fed up of is the newspapers screaming their political stance without any attempt at reason or balance (I know this isn't exactly new but it's getting silly now').

Yes, yes we all know what party each newpaper supports by now. And yes they are all embarassing themselves by continuously demonstrating how they haven't managed to alter anyone's minds drastically in any particular direction.

I've got to say I'm fed up with supposedly professional political correspondents, in both print media and on TV, seemingly not having an idea how the parliamentary system that they report and pronounce upon daily, actually works.
 
Still people commenting on Have Your Say (BBC) and other forums not grasping the hungness aspect of this election, viz. a majority of the population did not vote for the Conservatives, they simply got the most votes and seats but failed to secure a parliamentary majority.

Enemies of Reason had a good commentary on how the complexity of this result is not liked by the media:

http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/05/09/rejoice-at-the-complexity/
 
So what? Name the last time any party could say that the majority of the population voted for them.

Rolfe.
 

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