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.

Could this be a sighting of Miliband's desperately needed flying pig?

SNP candidate asks Tory voters to help beat Labour


DAVID MADDOX
12:34Monday 04 May 2015
4
HAVE YOUR SAY
THE SNP have been accused of “rank hypocrisy” after it emerged that the party’s East Renfrewshire candidate has written directly to Tory voters asking for their help in keeping Labour out.

The letter entitled “lend me your vote” was sent to Tory voters by SNP candidate Kirsten Oswald who hopes to unseat Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy.

It comes despite First Minister Nicola Sturgeon claiming that she wants an “anti-Tory alliance” and to put Ed Miliband into Downing Street and “lock the Tories out”.

But in her letter Ms Oswald said she “respects the values” of the Tories and pointed out that independent polls showed that the SNP is “the party with the best chance of beating Labour”.

She went on that if the Tories lent her their votes then then they would have an MP “who understands your values, your concerns and your priorities.”

Labour have argued that Ms Sturgeon and the SNP have been encouraging people across the UK to vote “anything but Labour” including the Greens in England and Plaid Cymru in Wales.

And with Mr Miliband saying he would not form a Labour government if it depends on SNP votes, the party has claimed that the SNP’s secret agenda is to have a Tory government in Westminster so they can force a second referendum.

Scottish Deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said that the letter confirmed the “hypocrisy” of the SNP.


She said: “That an SNP candidate should be begging Tory voters to help unseat a Labour MP shows the depths of their desperation.

“After weeks of telling Scots that they’ll do everything to keep the Tories out of power, they’ll tell Tory voters that they now ‘respect their beliefs’ when it helps them try to seat Jim Murphy.

“This is rank hypocrisy from the SNP, whose empty rhetoric on standing up to the Tories is now plain for all to see; they’ll say whatever they need to get a second referendum.

With senior Labour figures already claiming they need to save some of their 41 seats in Scotland for the party to be the biggest in Westminster and able to form a minority government, Ms Dugdale said that if the SNP manage to to win 50 or more seats, as suggested in the polls, it will help David Cameron get back in Downing Street.


She said: “The irony is that David Cameron is rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of Scotland sending more Nationalists to Westminster, because every SNP MP makes it more likely he’ll sneak into Downing St by the back door.

“In just five days time the people of Scotland face a choice, the road to a fairer economy with Scottish Labour or the road to a Tory government and a second referendum with the SNP.”

However, Ms Oswald insisted she was trying to contrast voter values with the current negative Tory tactics focusing on the SNP holding the balance of power.

She said: “The point being made is the contrast between what were shared values across the political spectrum and the appalling Tory Party campaign which Gordon Brown has described as ‘anti-Scottish’. That is what the Tory Party has become.”


Dear [Conservative voter],

When we spoke to you sometime ago you told us that the Conservatives are the party you most identify with.

I respect that. I respect the values of hard work, responsibility and public service which the Conservative party has traditionally stood for.

In our constituency, independent polls show that the party with the best chance of beating Labour is the SNP.

A vote for me is a vote for a committed local candidate who understands your values, your concerns and your priorities.

People who live in our local area deserve to be confident that their MP will stand up for them, and be available and accessible to local people.

If I am elected, I will be a full time local MP, with the interests of East Renfrewshire and all our communities at heart. I will commit to serve the full term of parliament.

On the 7th May, I’m asking for your vote, for everyone in East Renfrewshire, and for a stronger Scotland.

Warm regards,

Kirsten Oswald SNP

comments

Apparently many Lib Dem voters in Inverness are voting tactically with the SNP to kick the Tory Danny Alexander out.

The hypocrisy isn't in asking for voters to vote tactically, it is who is asking whom to vote for them. Sturgeon and the SNP have demonised the tories and are threatening to use their voting block to deny Cameron No 10 even if his party gets the most votes. Do you get it now?


Where's the problem ?
Kezia shouldn't be throwing stones - Labour activists in Perthshire have been campaigning FOR the Tories ! ! ! Kirsten Oswald doesn't pretend to be campaigning for anything other than her own party - honesty in politics - a foreign concept to many of the desperadoes !

Anyway, I think that the Conservatives in East Renfrewshire should vote conservative - all of this 'tactical voting' guff, is just that . . . Guff !


Is this not what they are all up to?

All UK political parties, including the regionals, are venal wastes of space.

I am still unable to vote in my constituency due to lack of respect for any of the balloons on the ballot paper.

Haze,

Its not one your offspring is it?

Poor old H/S, I wonder where he's emigrating to after the election defeat?

Nobody would have him!

Attention terrible twins:

It's not over yet!

Libs signing up to Labour.

Seems sensible.

http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-uk-general-election/prime-minister-after-general-election

Bookies mainly now offering same odds for Cameron and Miliband to be PM.; 10/11

Libs signing up to Labour, in your kin dreams Red Fred. What planet are you really on! LOL!!!!

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/574569/Ukip-in-touch-ordinary-British-people



To our readers in the North who have stuck by this paper while experiencing good times and bad, we say that this election is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring about a lasting difference.

Vote Ukip to strike at the Labour heartlands. Nowhere else are people’s votes being taken for granted, with so little given in return. Labour support has been handed down unthinkingly from one generation to the next and the party still believes that your vote is its birthright.

It is not. It is time to smash the Labour strongholds.

A song for Fred on Friday, a Jim Bowen classic line "This Is What You Could Have Won"

(If It Wasn't For The SNP) Playing in the background Roy Orbison .....


Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah
Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah
Oh oh oh, oh oh ah
Only the lonely, only the lonely

Only the lonely
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)
Know the way I feel tonight
(Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)
Know this feeling ain't right
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)

There goes my baby, there goes my heart
They're gone forever, so far apart
But only the lonely know why I cry
Only the lonely

Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah
Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah
Oh oh oh, oh oh ah
Only the lonely, only the lonely

Only the lonely
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)
Know the heartaches Ive been through
(Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)
Know I cry and cry for you
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)

Maybe tomorrow, a new romance
No more sorrow but that's the chance
You've got to take, if your lonely heart breaks
Only the lonely
(Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah)

Congratulations to Stuart Bingham in winning the World Championship Snooker title at the Crucible tonight. Brilliant stuff.

Indeed Exec - watched every pot, brilliant!

The Independent has come out in favour of another Conservative/Lib Dem coalition.

'Breathtaking' surge of Tory tactical votes to save Nick Clegg in Hallam – poll

Guardian/ICM findings suggest large-scale tactical voting will rescue Lib Dem leader in his Sheffield constituency

Nick Clegg is on course to be saved from defeat in his Sheffield Hallam constituency by a tide of Tory tactical votes, according to a special Guardian/ICM poll conducted in the deputy prime minister’s constituency.

The poll puts Clegg on 42%, seven points clear of his young Labour rival, Oliver Coppard, who is on 35%. Ian Walker, the candidate for the Conservatives, is on 12%.

But Clegg achieves his seven-point lead only because almost half the people (48%) who say their nationwide preference is for the Conservatives are planning to support the Lib Dem leader.

When ICM asked voters which party they would prefer if they put the local context and candidates out of mind, Labour is ahead on 34%, with the Lib Dems on 32% and the Conservatives on 21%.

Miliband to ask unions to save his bid for Number 10
Francis Elliott, Michael Savage and Lindsay McIntosh
Updated 18 minutes ago

Ed Miliband is set to hold talks with union bosses within 48 hours of the polls closing as he tries to shore up support for entering No 10 without a Commons majority. As a row broke out yesterday over the legitimacy of a government led by the “losing” party, it emerged that Mr Miliband would seek union backing at an emergency meeting of the national executive committee (NEC), which could be held as soon as Saturday, according to a member of Labour’s ruling body. Under new internal rules, Mr Miliband also needs to consult Labour MPs before trying to form a government without an overall majority. Shadow cabinet members admitted that he would need to “build legitimacy” if the opinion polls are correct and he wins fewer seats than Mr Cameron.

Haystack , how the feck is evens like 10/11 ???

Big swing to Cams over the weekend on being next PM

Milli 11/10

Cam Evens



Unless you take the worst odds going like Haystack does for one party when posting so just for you Hays

Milli 4/6

Cam 5/6

The odds on a second General Election in 2015 are falling.

This scenario I can well see happening as I believe while the Libs are led by Clegg then Labour will do no deal with them and vice versa.

Clegg gets the boot and we get a Lab minority on the second attempt but they then do a deal with Libs (other small parties agree first time round).

Who or spokesman for which party said in yesterday's FT
"Expect less from NHS. It is not an on-demand service"

===============

Who or spokesman for which party is reported in today's press as saying .....
"....... two-thirds of hospital trusts face having to make “swingeing cuts”