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UK - Election 2015

BTW, this is the site Mrs Don took the quiz on

https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

From the profile of respondents, they seem to be left leaning in the main so it is possible that the site is hopelessly biased on only skivers and students found time to complete the quiz :D.
 
Rum said:
I get the impression that the oomph has gone out of their campaign - or perhaps they just don't have the jackboots on the ground.

I hope my impression is correct in any case! Loathsome creatures.
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FTFY ;)

Seriously though, I think that there is a significant minority for whom the UKIP's message is appealing. UKIP will make significant progress in areas where either there is a large and very conservative electorate (Conservative defectors) and in areas where there is a large and disaffected working (or non-working) class vote and a perceived immigrant problem. These supporters are impervious to UKIP candidate gaffes and view them as merely a side effect of UKIP's straightforwardness and un-PC approach to politics.

IMO UKIP will be an unpleasant thorn in the side of UK politics for some time to come :(.
 
I agree with that The Don. But I still predict that most marginal Ukippers/ Tories will revert to voting Tory tomorrow, knowing that things are so tight that voting otherwise would let in the hated Europhile Labour party. This is one of the reasons why I think that the polls underplay the Tory prospects.

Of course, the die hard Ukippers will vote for them, but I'm hoping the percentage will be in single figures. One of the reasons I lean marginally towards supporting an EU referendum (apart from the bargaining power it would give Britain in the next couple of years of negotiations with Europe), is that it should shoot Ukip's fox.
 
MikeG said:
I thought at the time that Labour had the bare-faced cheek to oppose the efforts of the coalition to repair the carnage they (Labour) had wrought so soon after being humbled at the polls, and with the very same people responsible for the mess leading the "too far, too fast" campaign. It was the ultimate political hypocrisy in my view. Labour stuffed up, and should have gone away and shut up, because they were wrong, and should have felt humiliated and chastened for getting things so wrong. They were punished by the electorate, but 5 minutes later they were back with the awful Ed Balls pontificating at the new government and acting as though he hadn't been part of the team which presided over the mismanagement of the economy.

In any sensible system they shouldn't be anywhere near power now without having had an enormous volte-face and making an apology for the god-awful mess they left for others to clean up.
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Sooner or later that stuck record is going to snap in half.

Labour overspending did not trigger financial crash, says senior civil servant
Labour not responsible for crash, says former Bank of England
 
MikeG said:
I agree with that The Don. But I still predict that most marginal Ukippers/ Tories will revert to voting Tory tomorrow, knowing that things are so tight that voting otherwise would let in the hated Europhile Labour party. This is one of the reasons why I think that the polls underplay the Tory prospects.

Of course, the die hard Ukippers will vote for them, but I'm hoping the percentage will be in single figures. One of the reasons I lean marginally towards supporting an EU referendum (apart from the bargaining power it would give Britain in the next couple of years of negotiations with Europe), is that it should shoot Ukip's fox.
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True anecdote - wasn't able to say anything until recently.

A few years ago I started working with a very successful ex-pat (made lots of money in Silicon Valley), he wanted to create a start-up software developer in his native Edinburgh. We worked on this off and on for a couple of years and then the decision was to "make it so". We identified three key hires not from the UK (one French, one USA and one Canadian), unfortunately this was the year before the Scottish referendum. During this time we had meetings with Scottish and UK civil servants and members of the governments so this wasn't some vague idea, it would have brought tens of millions of pounds investment over the first few years into Edinburgh. Unfortunately with the uncertainty caused by the Scottish independence referendum the USA and French blokes wouldn't commit to relocation not knowing if Scotland would still be in the UK or EU or not. So it all fell through. I suspect this will happen writ large across the UK if there is the prospect of a EU referendum over the next few years. I think the Tories attitude to this really does show that they are not interested in the economic future of the UK as much as they are to get into power.
 
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Rum said:
I get the impression that the oomph has gone out of their campaign - or perhaps they just don't have the boots on the ground.

I hope my impression is correct in any case! Loathsome creatures.
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I agree they seem to have lost their oomph. They'll get more votes than either the LibDems or the S.N.P. but that will earn them many fewer seats - maybe even zero seats.

That's the sort of biased result you get when you don't have a proportional representation system - it's strange that the same LibDems that have always campaigned for P.R. are happy now that the current first-past-the-post system is excluding UKIP MPs :)
 
MikeG said:
...... it should shoot Ukip's fox.
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I'm afraid that I have a very dim view of my fellow voters but I honestly believe that if the "pro-out" campaign in a future EU referendum campaign say that EU departure will reinstate duty free on booze cruises*, they will win comfortably despite the myriad other factors to consider.

The case for EU membership is complex, subtle and we're already enjoying the benefits. The case against can be easily packaged into (misleading and often factually incorrect) soundbites for convenient consumption.

* - and despite the fact that the savings for people will be reduced due to the lowering of the volumes you're allowed to bring in.

Darat said:
True anecdote.....
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The other thing that annoys me about those against EU membership is that they assume that the benefits will continue unabated. Aged Brits will continue to be able to live in the Costas, we'll still have free access to European markets and talented labour (and that they will still want to come here even though their right to work will be curtailed) and our international influence will continue.

Instead I fear an economic double whammy, the departure of workers and a repatriation of the retired, a recession which will make the last seven years look like a walk in the park and a continued slide into international irrelevance.
 
Darat said:
I never knew Labour policies were in control of the USA mortgage market and which Labour politician ran Lehman Brothers?
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It's the other way round. Labour politicians don't run finance companies. Or control the USA mortgage market. Finance companies run Labour politicians. The USA mortgage market controls Labour politicians.
In January 2008, it was confirmed that Blair would be joining investment bank JPMorgan Chase in a "senior advisory capacity"
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Wiki.
 
Darat said:
True anecdote - wasn't able to say anything until recently.

A few years ago I started working with a very successful ex-pat (made lots of money in Silicon Valley), he wanted to create a start-up software developer in his native Edinburgh. We worked on this off and on for a couple of years and then the decision was to "make it so". We identified three key hires not from the UK (one French, one USA and one Canadian), unfortunately this was the year before the Scottish referendum. During this time we had meetings with Scottish and UK civil servants and members of the governments so this wasn't some vague idea, it would have brought tens of millions of pounds investment over the first few years into Edinburgh. Unfortunately with the uncertainty caused by the Scottish independence referendum the USA and French blokes wouldn't commit to relocation not knowing if Scotland would still be in the UK or EU or not. So it all fell through. I suspect this will happen writ large across the UK if there is the prospect of a EU referendum over the next few years. I think the Tories attitude to this really does show that they are not interested in the economic future of the UK as much as they are to get into power.
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I'm very sorry that the vagaries of democracy and proposals for constitutional change are disturbing successful expats and their lots of money. How about we just let these people run things directly? They do so to a great degree indirectly already anyway. Then we can get rid of all this senseless politicking that gets in the way of decision making by people with lots of dosh.
 
Craig B said:
I'm very sorry that the vagaries of democracy and proposals for constitutional change are disturbing successful expats and their lots of money. How about we just let these people run things directly? They do so to a great degree indirectly already anyway. Then we can get rid of all this senseless politicking that gets in the way of decision making by people with lots of dosh.
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Sheesh.... Your inner class warrior isn't very well hidden.

You don't think that bringing that sort of investment into Scotland would have helped.........you know.........Scotland, the Scottish economy, Scottish workers? So long as the nasty capitalists don't sully your soil, hey.
 
MikeG said:
Nobody has ever suggested that overspending triggered the crash. Ergo, strawman.

Mervyn King doesn't say it wasn't the government's fault.......he just says that all parts of the establishment were caught equally unaware.
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That's true, but the other political parties have blamed Labour for the size of the deficit when they (or anyone else) may have had little control over it.
 
MikeG said:
Nobody has ever suggested that overspending triggered the crash. Ergo, strawman.

Mervyn King doesn't say it wasn't the government's fault.......he just says that all parts of the establishment were caught equally unaware.
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Is there going to be any of that cake left over, what with you apparently wanting to have it, eat it, and probably keep a bit for later, as well?
 
The Don said:
That's true, but the other political parties have blamed Labour for the size of the deficit when they (or anyone else) may have had little control over it.
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The argument there being that if Labour had run a tighter ship earlier in their time in office then we would have been in a stronger position to withstand the crash. The further argument being that it was Brown's short-sighted deregulation regime which allowed many of the unsafe banking practises which meant banks were less able to withstand the crash.
 
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MikeG said:
The argument there being that if Labour had run a tighter ship earlier in their time in office then we would have been in a stronger position to withstand the crash.
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Well it's an argument but we don't have a UK economy run in a completely different way to compare it to pre and post crash.

MikeG said:
The further argument being that it was Brown's short-sighted deregulation regime which allowed many of the unsafe banking practises which meant banks were less able to withstand the crash.
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Then again those people who are criticising him most about that (the Conservatives) are exactly those people who were criticising him pre-crash for still having too much regulation in the banking industry (or if it's those on the left, they would have spent more in the good times).
 
MikeG said:
Sheesh.... Your inner class warrior isn't very well hidden.

You don't think that bringing that sort of investment into Scotland would have helped.........you know.........Scotland, the Scottish economy, Scottish workers? So long as the nasty capitalists don't sully your soil, hey.
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Nonsense. I clearly mean; as long as they don't seek to determine our constitutional arrangements because of their lots of money they're welcome.
 
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