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UK - Election 2015

The Conservatives are promising

A Tory government will introduce a law guaranteeing no rise in income tax rates, VAT or national insurance before 2020
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32506490

Good way to paint yourself into a corner if you need more government revenue in a hurry :rolleyes:


Meanwhile.....

A decision not to renew the UK's Trident nuclear submarines could threaten "the survival of our nation", 20 ex-military officials say in a letter to The Times newspaper
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Riiiiiiiiiiight :rolleyes:

I can buy that it would reduce our standing overseas but threatening the survival of our nation is IMO hyperbole.
 
The Don said:
.......threatening the survival of our nation is IMO hyperbole.
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That statement of the military folk falls firmly into the "well they would say that, wouldn't they" category. Big boys big toys.
 
I was down the pub last night with some "locals" who are old fashioned Conservatives with a big interest in the election campaign. They were (thankfully) mocking of UKIP but interestingly were very critical of the Conservative campaign in general and David Cameron's performance in particular. OTOH they were grudgingly complimentary about the Labour campaign and Ed Miliband and very complimentary about Nicola Sturgeon but very critical of the SNP and their policies.

It'll make no difference locally - they'd return a mop with a blue rosette if it stood - but it'll be interesting to see whether this sentiment is felt more generally and whether it may have an impact on the outcome.
 
Well, the best I've heard about Milliband is that hasn't been quite as dreadful as expected. Anecdotes, of course, before anyone else makes that point.
 
MikeG said:
Well, the best I've heard about Milliband is that hasn't been quite as dreadful as expected. Anecdotes, of course, before anyone else makes that point.
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Personally I think he has been well coached in voice and body language and is unrecognisable from when he assumed leadership of the Labour Party. The press are also a factor, early on they took every opportunity to present him as a hopeless dweeb, now they either have to show him as a credible political threat (right wing press) or as a PM in waiting (left wing press).
 
ddt said:
Yes, but as Mike said, Ken ran the first time as an independent; Labour didn't want him. After he had creamed the Labour candidate in that first election, there was no way that Labour could refuse him to stand as Labour candidate in the subsequent three elections.
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Which doesn't alter the fact there have only been two mayors, neither of them cookie-cutter apparatchiks. Of course, Ken was a hate figure for the central party for many years and for the Blairites in particular but his power-base in the London party and popularity in London was too much for them.

Upshot is, there's no way to predict from past results what the future will hold for the London Mayorlty. It could be that the dead hands of Party Central will crush the life from it or they may not.
 
MikeG said:
Well, the best I've heard about Milliband is that hasn't been quite as dreadful as expected. Anecdotes, of course, before anyone else makes that point.
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Well if it's anecdotes you want, mine have mostly been of the 'He doesn't look like a PM, but at least he takes part in debates'.
 
I don't get why a possible future government needs to promise to pass a law to do what it's promising to do anyway?

Presumably any promises they make that are not backed up by promised laws are promises that everyone can expect them not to keep.
 
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ceptimus said:
I don't get why a possible future government needs to promise to pass a law to do what it's promising to do anyway
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Maybe they're concerned that they won't see out the full term. This will ensure no tax rises in 5 years even if there's a no confidence vote and a new government.

I think you're right though, it's electioneering pure and simple.
 
The Don said:
.....This will ensure no tax rises in 5 years even if there's a no confidence vote and a new government.......
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I don't think so. I reckon that it would be child's play for the incoming government to repeal such a law in its first finance bill. Like you say......electioneering.
 
No other chancellor in the long history of the office has felt the need to pass a law in order to convince people that he has the political will to implement his own Budget. As one commentator observed this week, there are only two conclusions. Either the chancellor has lost confidence in himself to stick to his resolution, and is, so to speak, asking the police to help him, or he fears that everyone else has lost confidence in his ability to keep his word, but hopes that they might believe in the statute book if not in him. Neither is much of a recommendation for the chancellor of the day.
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George Osbourne in 2009
 
MikeG said:
I don't think so. I reckon that it would be child's play for the incoming government to repeal such a law in its first finance bill. Like you say......electioneering.
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Yes because otherwise any party could declare its policies to be the law, and pass such laws on gaining office. Then a subsequent incoming new administration with a different ideology would all be carted off to the slammer for changing these enshrined policies. That is too absurd to contemplate and is at best a misuse of law.

I'm trying to think of comparable abuse, and recall that Prohibition in the USA was decreed as an Amendment to the Constitution. Ridiculous.

Talking of ridiculous. It seems that the SNP is forecast to take not 57 out of 59 seats in Scotland, as I previously reported here, but all 59. Much as I would like to see that happen, I simply can't believe it. The polls, or the voters who participated in them, have evidently gone bananas and are now spouting gibberish. I wonder what on earth is really going on here in Scotland.
 
Jeez, Craig, don't start agreeing with me. People will get confused. :)
 
Well, our application for a postal vote is fubar unless it can be made electronically, and I can't see where that's possible. We registered months ago, it was accepted and we were told we just had to wait for the forms. The earliest we can now get the papers would be Monday for collection on Tuesday. Emails to Mendip District Council are going unanswered.

Do you guys mind delaying this show for a bit :)
 
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