UK general election, 2015

imnotreallysure your indeed correct. SNP have pretty much ruled it out now, and really I don't think they can. The whole success of SNP has been on the hate towards Labour. So it's a risky one. It might work - if they can be perceived to be putting Labour in their place - but if recent history of UK coalitions (Lets guess this one) is anything to go by, it would a an error. The problem is will the whole of the UK be willing to have a Scottish party who have publically stated they detest Westminster having power over them? I fear big resentment, especially as they didn't vote for them - something the Scottish voters knows a lot about. Imagine Alex Salmond walking into give prime minster questions when Miliband's on holiday. Hmmm. I do think if they treat it like they are a representative in such situations they might get away with it. But that doesn't work because SNP voters aren't going to want that. Nah, in summary. SNP cant allow it to happen. And as a result, you could end up with a minority government - which can be completely unworkable - or a Tory one. I fear the later.

On the bright side I'm seeing Labour really come into their own lately. Majority government is edging closer I think

I have had a huge change of heart towards the Greens of late. Wow I hate them with a passion. I like to see myself a leftie but really they are pushing the boundaries of my sensibilities. Bunch of raving lonatics. These are people who used to live in horrid squats with pleated hair and smelly arm pits in Campden are now trying to put their hippy ideals on us all. The policy I dislike the most - except the completely nutty ones - they're big plan is to build loads of council houses because that's aspirational isn't it! I expect rebuttal for such a generalisation, so lets hear your reasons why I am wrong for such Green views since it seems the most popular here. Then again alot naïve young people on here. You'll learn.

Green voters just get voting for Labour and make your vote count and get arid of nasty Tories before you have to pay for a visit to A&E.

A quick reply to the comments - which I respect. I'm not going to pretend I know a great deal about the Iraq war, though but reading my post back from a few weeks ago I must have been real angry about something. Alex Salmond must have been on my TV earlier. I must admit to being a bit of a champagne socialist so I don't actually dislike Blair, Prescott, Mandleson - who was apparently quite good for the economy after the crisis hit (2008-2010) with his industrial policies - and the spin doctor who's name escapes me. And all this attack for Blair making money post term; wouldn't us all? Anyway, does the public really not have a stomach for it? I think at a point about 4 months ago we probably did because it was British people being executed. But public opinion or not, alliance or not, my view - whether its possible to do - is we need to stop bombing and start shooting. These ISIS sadists have been proven when put up against proper forces crumple...and well, get shot. I'm in two minds whether the people or Iraq or Syria want it though, some of the recent evidence suggests the hard core Muslims might be quite happy with it - until they're burned alive no doubt. These killing of gay men from buildings is no worse than what goes on at our oily 'friends' in Saudi Arabia or Brunei to my eyes. We have very well trained militaries, seemingly doing very little, and at huge expense. I'd rather they did something - the job they signed up to do - than do very little on some sort of newly negotiated lease to Brunei.

A question for discussion. Do you think that encouraging young voters is good or bad for a Tory government. In the long term I suspect it'll kill them off, because your average young person hates them from everything I gather, and the same for UKIP. Much more keen on left parties. Obviously as young people get older they earn money and their views will change, but on the whole they're decline is imminent I predict.

So did I get my demographics right then? Got UKIP voter spot in!

---------- Post added 17th Feb 2015 at 04:23 PM ----------

True.

 

Crickey I align far more with David Cameron then Ed Miliband on YouGov Oh.

Actually I've a almost identical personality, brand, lifestyle, entertainment, media, online and profession match with David Cameron's voter, maybe I'm a closet tory....

https://yougov.co.uk/profiler#/David_Cameron/brands

Business, British Airways, Motorsports, TopGear, Katie Hopkins, Formula 1...Cant stand SKY news, though

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFlJgF1fmNU

Just about sumes Cameron up.

 

Personally, I don't mind the Greens really - but their leader has proven herself to be inept and not up to the job. Her recent radio interview was painful. Their only MP, Caroline Lucas, would be better suited to the role.

 

Are ukip homophobic? I remember seeing Nigel farage on a tv program with that rich couple of gogglebox

 

Broadly speaking, yes.

The party leader was very much critical of gay marriage being legalized last year.

Plus this,
And this,
And this,
And this,
Oh, and this guy (who has presumably been teleported in from the 1920s) is a substantial donor to the party.

Put simply its a party where the majority of candidates and voters are ignorant, naive or plain homophobic.

Now interestingly it does have an LGBT wing and facebook page, although reading the comments most seem to decide to ignore or defend the instances of homophobia within the party.

---------- Post added 28th Feb 2015 at 03:39 PM ----------

The problem is Labour are in an identical position with Milliband.

I want Labour in power, and even I am getting to the point at having to look away whenever he comes on TV. He is cringeworthingly bad at public speaking, I actually feel sorry for him as I'd probably be just as bad in that position (well I guess thats the "relateable" box ticked! :lol.

I despise Cameron and Clegg but they are great orators by comparison, even managing to come across as vaguely charming at times (which is unnerving to say the least). Hell, even Farage can answer questions fluidly and intelligibly (if not intelligently!).

I am pissed at Labour for not considering all of this early on in the election, for now it is too late. Don't get me wrong I like Milliband as a person, and he is "probably" intelligent enough for the role, but I need to know that for certain. Plus I simply cannot imagine him interacting with world leaders when he has trouble enough with Mr Joe Bloggs in the public!

Its put voters like myself in an awkward position. I want a Labour government, I just don't Ed as my Prime Minister.

 

Yeah the thought of Ed Miliband at G8 meetings and stuff is cringe.

Labour should be walking this election and they would be if the other Miliband was leader.

---------- Post added 1st Mar 2015 at 12:03 PM ----------

:dry:

Naivety would be thinking the greens have a chance of winning the general election or assuming that people considering voting for them are informed by that delusion. Though I will probably vote green, I don't actually want them governing the country because they are a bit mental. But they won't, and if I do vote for them it'll be because I want politics in this country to move in their direction, if not all the way over. And because I can't stomach any of the other parties on offer, but I have to vote right

On building council houses well this country spends a fortune on housing benefit paid to private landlords while thousands of people can't get council houses, so it would be an economic not just ideological move. Thatcher selling council houses was the dumbest thing.

 

That is the problem with politics though isn't it - it's one big schmoozing opportunity. Ed Milliband is actually a smart man, who attended a state comprehensive and went on to study at Oxford. He's just geeky and funny looking. The likes of Cameron and Farage are probably psychopaths.

That's why I don't care for TV debates. Cameron might be great at public speaking but that doesn't excuse the horrible ethos of the Tory party. TV debates just give those with the most convincing rhetoric a chance to shine. Besides, Cameron has on numerous occasions made himself and the UK a laughing stick by constantly isolating himself with pointless vetoes. He's a pretty piss poor leader if you ask me.

Conversely, I don't think the Green leader is up to the task, and I don't think the Green party in general are very efficient when in positions of power. Even their track record in Brighton is piss poor by all accounts. And yeah, they're a bit mental.

The other Milliband is too embroiled with Iraq.

 

I would vote for the Monster Raving Looney Party.

 

I'd like to cast a vote of no confidence in all of the major parties.

Happy days

 

I won't vote.

our electoral system is pseudo-democratic. there is no point voting because I live in a stronghold. when our electoral system is reformed I will vote.

 

Given this thread is somewhat old I would normally leave it, but given some of the comments I can't help but come in here!

Firstly, the Greens? Seriously? They are a bunch of absolute fruitcakes! Just type into Youtube 'Natalie Bennett car crash interview' (of which there are several) and you will see that their policies are nothing more than a left wing shopping list which largely have no basis. Their defense plan is to reduce our armed forces to an Army of 10,000 volunteers (we don't need fighter jets as they are too polluting - Mrs. Bennett said this on QT last year) and it gets better, they want to turn all military bases into nature reserves! Also these 10,000 volunteers do not have to follow orders as they will ban court marshaling troops who refuse orders! They want to scrap nuclear weapons (the only thing which stopped the Cold War from actually being a war) even though the last country to drop it's nuclear arms is now the most recent one to be invaded - Ukraine. They also want to effectively end international trade buy skyrocketing import duty and increase taxes on travel by plane. Their manifesto even states they want to discourage people from travelling abroad. They also want to abolish National Insurance, which brings in £110bn a year or 18% of all government income and is equivalent to the annual NHS budget!

This of course is not forgetting the fact it will not be a crime to be a member of a terror group, they say 'you shouldn't be punished for what you believe in', well if you believe in killing people in the name of Islam, yes you should bloody well be punished. Are they going to extent the same right to paedophiles who 'believe' it's OK to look at pictures of children? And of course let's top it off by making our Secret Intelligence Service 'more open and transparent to the public', it's just crazy, absolutely beyond belief. The reason our intelligence service works is because of the first word, secret. Otherwise you may aswell hand the keys to Faslane, AWE, MI5/6 and Westminster to the Russians and ISIS.

I am almost fed up of hearing the phrase 'nasty Tories', one minute Labour complains of our spending cuts, then complains about our borrowing being too high. We have just come out of a recession, cuts are necessary or else we will find our selves in a worse position than we were in 2010. My main income is disability benefit and I spent a fair amount of time in hospitals, so I am better placed than 95% of people to say what the effects actually are. I do not need any more money, if my income was cut by £100 a month I literally would not miss it, if I wanted I could apply for PIP to get another £110 a month but I do not need or want it. What offends me more is the left wing telling me what I need.

And on that we have the so called NHS 'privatisation', which is nothing like private health care that so many seem to think it is. It is using private companies to provide services where the NHS does not have enough staff or can provide the same service for cheaper. It is not charging people for healthcare (even though that will have to happen within 10 years for the NHS to survive, the vast majority of EU countries do already). In the last 2 years I have experienced both NHS and private healthcare and the private sector is head and shoulders above the NHS, so as far as I'm concerned the more private providers the better. Let's not forget, most private health providers are charities or trusts with no shareholders who reinvest their profits into their services.