Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Polling report now showing only 16 Labour majority!

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

fred - as i wrote ANY gov't with a crushing majority etc etc ...... for democracy to work satisfactorily, it is imperative that there is room for strong and meaningful debate
just possibly, this may all bring about PR, though i have serious misgivings about that too

Fred up on Twitter the tory fans are saying how this result as made labour big favourites for next years GE.

Seems only Hays in the whole world cant see that.

Poor lad.

The Swiss model would be the answer, but tptb wouldn't like it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_Switzerland

The problem the moron has, is that no real changes can be "made" before the next election and I can't see the Labour, or Liberal party implementing any program of reforms which slits their own throats.

The overall majority in the next party will probably be for either a Labour government or a lib/dem/labour coalition. The latter may be a good thing and provide not too great a majority vote in parliament. (As Manuel intimates.)

However, as can be interpreted from the Scottish result the present CON party leads a distaste in the mouths of many in the UK.

Nigel Farage says Scots MPs should give up votes

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/nigel-farage-says-scots-mps-should-give-up-votes-1-3546773


Nigel Farage said Scottish MPs should immediately give up their right to debate or vote on devolved English issues in Westminster.


The Ukip leader said he will write to the 59 Scottish MPs today to ask them to commit to ending their involvement in England-only policies.

Mr Farage told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think Cameron and Miliband were so lacklustre in the early part of this referendum campaign that they panicked and they made a series of promises on behalf of the English - one, to devolve more powers, but secondly they made a promise to maintain the Barnett Formula whereby the UK taxpayer spends £1,600 more on every Scot than on every English person.

“So, it’s quite interesting to see Mr Cameron today on the steps of Downing Street relieved that he didn’t manage to lose the union but now panicked by the English question.

“I think that short-term, as far as English voters are concerned, I’m going to write today to all 59 Scottish MPs and I’m going to say to them in the spirit of finding a fair settlement for the United Kingdom, will you please commit from today not to take part in debates or votes in Westminster on English devolved issues.

“Short-term that’s what we can do. Longer-term, and I think all the constitutional experts talking on your show say, this stuff is complicated, getting this right matters as it will be for many, many decades to come and I really do think now we absolutely need to have a constitutional convention to talk about how we create a fair, federal United Kingdom.

“That process is vital. All I’ve heard from Mr Cameron is that William Hague will head up some committee to discuss the English question and I simply don’t think that’s enough.”

fred/sticky - far far too early to determine what effect this referendum might have on a ge result .... the gibbering masses assuredly don't know

And neither do you.

And so we are still a united United Kingdom kingdom.

I wonder what Queenie will have to say to us about it?

Hmmm?

It has been costly for both David Cameron and Ed Miliband and they look even more like fools than they did before.

Is Ukip's position now stronger than it was? Well, I think that gets a Yes. That Farage chap does say some very interesting, quite agreeable stuff when he uses his oratorial skills. Would he make a good Deputy Prime Minister? I think he would. We would get much better EU deals with him in the government team - and some of them at the moment are absolutely crap.

There could still be a lot of political uncertainty ahead and plenty of unexpected taxation and short-term decisions being made just to win some votes. This tactic does seem to work, does it not?

Interesting to note the high percentage of people who actually got off their backsides and voted. I wish people would do the same at a General Election.

sticky - unlike you and fred and hays, i've never ever pretended to know what will happen in the election .....

what i have consistently said, is that neither major party leader has any public appeal or even much credibility, all of which is borne out by the plethora of polls - i.e. 6% lead for labour is pathetic; conservatives' performance may be pretty dire, but labour has signally failed to capitalise on this

Polls consistently get it wrong, whereas bookies usually get it right - which is one of the reasons I can never understand why posters on this thread quote what the polls say on a daily basis! :-)

though individual polls are certainly a load of garbage, there have been so many of them quoted here over the last year, and generally speaking they have all concurred; therefore there is some credibility in the labour lead, though assuredly not on the truly likely result in a ge

Rigged?







http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/19/scottish-referendum-vote-rigged_n_5847854.html?1411117089

Manuel,

I don't claim to have psychic powers or see myself as a soothsayer, but do use some of the information available do "guess" the results. (Even, when the information, is not to my liking.)
I think general feeling is that the present government has been the most divisive and disastrous one for the majority of the /UK society for many years.
It has benefitted the wealthiest at the cost of the less able and more defenceless in society and by its ideology, rhetoric and propaganda unduly supported by the RIGHT WING press, (for their own ends), fragmented society rather than worked to producing a “fairer” and more cohesive one.
This can be seen from the Scottish referendum debate and resulting vote.
Crowing by the NO voters will not improve the situation. Neither will Farage and his bluster and populist rhetoric pronouncements

The alternative Labour or L/L/D government to the CONs, still have a difficult hand to play and I think it is still sensible to be cautious for them to make definite pronouncement about future policies, although they certainly have to within the next 3months¬.

I hope they are well thought out and deliverable.

Personally, I am distrustful of "icon" and dislike the "presidential" type of government, which developed under Thatcher and continued and increased under Blair and to a lesser or greater degree by Cameron.

The public are fed up with Cameron and his “passion”, “commitments” and posturing and distrusts politicians in general and particularly the CON party in particular.
I think it is unlikely that Miliband will be replaced before the next G.E. and guess if he is in “power” there will be a reversal to a more consensual form of cabinet policy and decision-making. That will be a good thing.

The present Labour party seems to have put the degree of destructive bickering it used to have in the past behind it. (At the least, it seems for the time being.)

Politics and its similarities to chess interests me, and at the moment I see its present state, as in a complicate middle game, which has developed after a poor opening and defence.

My guess is White will win!

my guess is that your guess is coloured by wishful thinking
my own guess is that it is all far too close to call and much may still change in either direction

doodlebug4 - 19 Sep 2014 11:32 - 45957 of 45962

Polls consistently get it wrong, whereas bookies usually get it right - which is one of the reasons I can never understand why posters on this thread quote what the polls say on a daily basis! :-)...........ends

Doodles Bookies have labour as 4/6 0n favourites for the GE. Therefore generaly agree with the polls.

What a lot are forgetting are that the partys are now all converging on the middle ground and the working middle class worker an area which as got bigger and bigger.

By definition the last election only had a hung parliament and future GEs will have smaller overall winners or coalition governments, thats why Cynic is talking clap trap refering to labour not eating away at the Tories position.

"Cynic is talking clap trap refering to labour not eating away at the Tories position"

when and where did i say anything of the sort?
i have only ever said and consistently so, that it will be a close call in any direction

Nice to see Alex Salmond's own constuency voting no. It is a shame that politicians have to try and heal the divisions. It would be more amusing to see Cameron more triumphal and rubbing Salmond's nose in it.