Britain - The Official Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ross
  • 13,454 comments
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How will you vote in the 2024 UK General Election?

  • Conservative Party

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Green Party

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Labour Party

    Votes: 14 48.3%

  • Liberal Democrats

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Other (Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland)

    Votes: 1 3.4%

  • Other Independents

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other Parties

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Spoiled Ballot

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Will Not/Cannot Vote

    Votes: 8 27.6%
  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
One day the Daily Mail will successfully manage to even offend their readers. lose them, and go bankrupt. Sadly today is unlikely to be that day.
 
I did enjoy this.

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There are a few things i reckon Westminster should bring back.Do not know if you agree with me.Should bring back the recommended retail price, levvies on imports, import restrictions.Also foreign drivers/holiday makers should have to pay road tax for the period they are in England.
 
Well, that's a sure-fire way to deal a heavy blow to British tourism.

The UK does have levies on non-EU imports and import restrictions, BTW. See more here.
 
Saw this posted on facebook, where do people get these "facts" :lol:

Reasons to not vote labour: Ed Miliband looks a bit weird and can't properly eat a bacon sandwich.

Reasons to not vote conservative:
5,000 nurses lost their jobs with a plan to reduce the NHS funding by a further 19%.
A tax cut for 13,000 millionaires worth an average of £107k. (Totals around £1.4billion which would've been a nice investment in the NHS).
Spent more in 3 years than Labour did in 13.
The debt clock is at an all time high.
The deficit has nearly tripled since the Tories gained power.
Poverty is at a 30 year high.
900,000 people last year using food banks.
Responsible for raise in tuition fees. (Some will say it was the lib dems but in fact it was just the lib dems who didn't stop the Tories from doing it).

For god sake people don't vote Labour, Ed can't eat a sandwich like a normal person!!!

(Thoughts from the slightly skewed mind from someone who looks at facts and stats)
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He's no stranger to controversy* but Times hack Giles Coren is either incredibly drunk or his Twitter has been hacked.

NSFW language.

*Such as this article, critical of Polish as Britain's second language and Poles in general, deliberately written in fractured English.
 
Liquid
He's no stranger to controversy* but Times hack Giles Coren is either incredibly drunk or his Twitter has been hacked.

NSFW language.

*Such as this article, critical of Polish as Britain's second language and Poles in general, deliberately written in fractured English.
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OK phone hacking or not I do not pay a subscription for articles like that crap. Does he still write for The Times?
 
I think this would be the perfect time to revive "The Thick of It".
 
Going to pull this out from the election thread (as that has become more a discussion on the election process in future).

Nicole Sturgeon still seems confident that the SNP have enough seats to truly influence policy in the rest of the UK. How can she think that given the SNP have not got the weight to block any Tory initiative? Even if Labour make Scottish interests a priority, they still won't defeat a Con-whip vote. :odd:
 
ExigeEvan
Going to pull this out from the election thread (as that has become more a discussion on the election process in future).

Nicole Sturgeon still seems confident that the SNP have enough seats to truly influence policy in the rest of the UK. How can she think that given the SNP have not got the weight to block any Tory initiative? Even if Labour make Scottish interests a priority, they still won't defeat a Con-whip vote. :odd:
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Nicola (not Nicole) is a politician. No politician is going to say "our mp's are powerless."
In addition the Tories have a fairly slim majority & with EU renegotiation & an in/out referendum coming, there is considerable scope for internal strife in the Tory party. Europe has for many years divided the Tories massively.

There is also the prospect of the UK voting to leave the EU while voters in Scotland vote to remain.

None of this is certain & it is equally possible that the SNP may end up being limited to being a thorn in Cameron's flesh. We'll see.
 
For now yes she's probably overstating their clout, although I agree with @jackargent, it's such a small Tory majority they'll have to pull off something very impressive to keep it together for 5 years. But even if they do, the SNP will have 56 voices out of 300ish on the opposition bench - that will surely have some value in any debate.
 
jackargent
Nicola (not Nicole) is a politician. No politician is going to say "our mp's are powerless."
In addition the Tories have a fairly slim majority & with EU renegotiation & an in/out referendum coming, there is considerable scope for internal strife in the Tory party. Europe has for many years divided the Tories massively.

There is also the prospect of the UK voting to leave the EU while voters in Scotland vote to remain.

None of this is certain & it is equally possible that the SNP may end up being limited to being a thorn in Cameron's flesh. We'll see.
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Previous votes have seen between 40 and 80 hard-line Tory rebels who refuse to even obey the whip. Presuming that all other parties are against the matter being voted on it's possible that Cameron's majority will fall very quickly indeed.

The SNP's yeas or nays will hold some clout at some point, just like all opposition. I don't imagine that Sturgeon will make life easy for the Tories, even if that's restricted to just being vocal at every opportunity.
 
And they control most of the Scottish seats, don't they?

Cameron sold the counter-referendum campaign on the "Better Together" idea. If he ignores the SNP and pursues his own agenda - especially if that goes against Scottish interests - his credibility will tank. Reputation might be cheap in politics, but breaking a promise like that would be a deathblow.
 
I'm just wondering how quickly he'll pass the Snooper's Charter.
 
The Tory majority is not that slim - they effectively have a 16 seat majority, since there are 4 Sinn Fein MPs who do not take their seats at Westminster.

I think the EU referendum is a bogus issue - Cameron is behind staying in the EU and doesn't need to crack the whip within his own party - he could allow a free vote on it and the Tories may well split 50/50, but the entire opposition will vote with the government (i.e. vote in favour of staying in) and Cameron will triumph.

prisonermonkeys
And they control most of the Scottish seats, don't they?

Cameron sold the counter-referendum campaign on the "Better Together" idea. If he ignores the SNP and pursues his own agenda - especially if that goes against Scottish interests - his credibility will tank. Reputation might be cheap in politics, but breaking a promise like that would be a deathblow.
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This assumes that Cameron and the Conservatives had any credibility in the view of Scottish nationalists in the first place, which they don't. Frankly, the Conservatives could do whatever they want and the SNP couldn't do much about it. Perversely, Cameron is in the position that he could pretty much cave in to all and every SNP demand and still get no credit for it at all, such is the level of loathing for the Conservatives in Scotland at the moment, so why bother? That said, I don't believe Cameron or the Conservatives wish to see their reputation in Scotland take a further blow, but they don't share the SNP's attitude that Scotland should get the lion's share of the attention or that Scotland is any more important than any other part of the UK, so Cameron is probably unlikely to satisfy SNP supporters no matter what he does.
 
Touring Mars
The Tory majority is not that slim - they effectively have a 16 seat majority, since there are 4 Sinn Fein MPs who do not take their seats at Westminster.
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Don't forget the Unionist DUP (8 seats) and UUP (2 seats) who would sideline with the government.
 
That too 👍

Labour wannabe-leaders and former top brass are saying that Ed Miliband's Labour failed because they moved too far to the left and need to appeal more to 'aspirational' types and retake the centre ground.

Hmm. That may well be the case elsewhere, but it is far from being correct here in Scotland. Labour supporters moved to the SNP en masse because Labour are now perceived by many as 'Red Tories', and the SNP have adopted left-wing policies more reminiscent of 'Old Labour'. Although this only explains part of the rise in SNP support, I suspect it is a large part. So I'm surprised to hear these calls for Labour to shift further 'toward the centre'... or, in plainer language, further toward the right...

I may be wrong - I hope I am, but I suspect I'm not - but I think that the real reason for the triumph of the SNP is because they have successfully captured the entire left-wing/socialist vote from Labour, while at the same time the entire Liberal vote has collapsed (and also gone to the SNP) due to them propping up the Conservatives in 2010. The far left know that they will never get their way at Westminster because mainstream Labour are only likely to move further right (as evinced by today's comments from all and sundry) and so view an independent Scotland as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a socialist state.
 
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If Scotland truly wants to be an independent country, then perhaps it is time to reassess the Barnett Formula. This is a grossly skewed, and massively over-simplified financial formula saying that, effectively, more money should be spent in Scotland, per person, than in England, where the money is needed as there is a higher population.

While it is true that (nearly) all countries borrow money off each other, the vitriol that has been directed towards Westminster from the Yes campaign (and the subsequent election) proves that maybe Scotland would be better off with the assistance of such a distant partner.

As far as Labour's decimation in the elections go, they lost a massive amount of seats in Scotland, I believe because of the wave of patriotism that preceded the referendum. They would never vote for the Conservatives, as they're not socialists, and Labour couldn't be trusted to empty a piggy bank without trying to sell the bank as well. Labour need to have a good hard look at themselves and think about not just what they stand for, but also how they can benefit the country. Unrestricted immigration and profligate spending of money you don't have certainly is not. Socialism and equality can be good things, but not by denying others a chance.
 
I think Scotland already voted that it didn't want to be independent, yet they all vote in droves with a party that does.

Not sure if they know what they want.

To me it's either they want to remain in the kingdom but with preferred treatment, or they are just Bipolar.
 
prisonermonkeys
I think it's pretty obvious - they want to remain part of the United Kingdom, but they want greater representation in parliament.
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Bingo.

Although the SNP's rumoured feather ruffling tactic of voting on exclusively English matters does seem petty. In previous parliaments it was considered good form for only MPs of English constituencies to vote on these matters and MPs from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to abstain. I do, however, see that doing this will make them stand out and get them heard. We'll see how it goes.
 
Liquid
Although the SNP's rumoured feather ruffling tactic of voting on exclusively English matters does seem petty.
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It seems more like a warning than anything else - a practical demonstration that the Torys needs to take the SNP seriously. I imagine that they would stop once they have made their point.
 
Liquid
Bingo.

Although the SNP's rumoured feather ruffling tactic of voting on exclusively English matters does seem petty. In previous parliaments it was considered good form for only MPs of English constituencies to vote on these matters and MPs from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to abstain.
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True, but that doesn't work for vote-sharing with the current balance of the lower house (when opposing members each agree not to vote thereby each remaining in their constituencies, theoretically) or when matters of the Union (such as welfare) are being discussed. One of the SNP's lines is that they want autonomy in welfare provision and the inevitable budgetary accoutrements to that.

These will be interesting times for the party whips, I see that Gove Minor has been released from prep the whip and made in charge of spankings Justice.
 
While I fully support action to target extremist groups of any flavour, this.....

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone',” he said.

“It's often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that's helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance.”

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...eoples-lives-says-david-cameron-10246517.html


...in particular the first part "For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone" is I hope just poorly worded.

Quite frankly if I'm obeying the law then yes I do expect to be left alone and time periods don't come into it.
 

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