UK Election 2015 (part II)

[Paul R]

Tricky first test for Cameron comes tomorrow when his favourite team, Aston Villa, play his favourite team, West Ham

A win-win surely.

Paul

 

[Howdy]

Haven't been through the whole thread and I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but this made me giggle

 

[doctorf]

They both chuck money at it, in equal amounts. The problem is there aren't enough doctors, and a sizeable percentage of home-grown ones have gone to Oz to get away from the disastrous "Modernising Medical Careers".

I agree.
I retire 6 weeks today and by rights I should want to carry on for another 5 or 6 years.

 

[Blzebub]

Lucky you. I have seven years to go, not that I'm counting or anything.

 

[stephen bennett]

ty. P

The LibDems got what the deserved for selling out those who voted for them in 2010 so only have themselves to blame.

Which, as I intimated, is what let the Tories in. Labour actually had a bigger increase in their percentage share of the vote this year (+1.5%) than the Tories (+0.8%). Many of these lost LD votes (-15.2%) went to Labour in LD/Tory marginals.

The UKIP were useless at splitting the right wing vote when it came to it.

Stephen

 

[matthewr]

I live in a small island of red in a sea of blue

So do I. It's called London and think we should go for Independence like the Scots and leave all those provincial towns to the dystopian nightmare they seemingly want.

 

[Tony L]

So do I. It's called London and think we should go for Independence like the Scots and leave all those provincial towns to the dystopian nightmare they seemingly want.

That would be very amusing to watch.

 

[Re-Joyce]

Lucky you. I have seven years to go, not that I'm counting or anything.

I would have pegged you at 50 or thereabouts rather than late 50's earlier 60's - live and learn.

Jason

 

[SteveG]

I would have pegged you at 50 or thereabouts rather than late 50's earlier 60's - live and learn.

Unless he's planning to retire early. I'm 47 and seriously considering retiring when I get to 50.

 

[Re-Joyce]

Unless he's planning to retire early! I'm 47 and seriously considering retiring when I get to 50.

Good point - chance would be a fine thing, I'll be working till I'm in a box.
The ridiculous underperformance of all my contributory pensionsguarantees that. I realy hope somebody is going to get sued for all the bad pensions advice and "predictions" of performance that has been handed around over the years.
This is the sort of issues the politicians are totally incapable of contributing to as it is far to long term for them.


Jason

 

[Jonathan Ribee]

As it stands at the moment, net subsidy to Scotland is about £14.6bn per annum. If that were to end overnight there would have to be something like 15p in the pound increase on income tax rates up there. This is not going to fly obviously. As long as oil stays below $100bbl the situation is unlikely to improve significantly.

Easy solution to the cash for the NHS then.

We don't actually have to have another referendum on Scottish independence. Dave can just use his new majority to pass an act to devolve Scotland (ironically immediately increasing his majority) and get the £14.6Bn a year back which can be used to fund the NHS is England and Wales - which will need less than 8bn as it won't have to pay for Scotland. Everyone can have a new MRI as well.

We can then have fun watching S&S in Scotland choose between more taxes or less services - especially as things like central banks, financial watchdogs, armed forces etc will need setting up and funding mostly from scratch up there.

 

[SteveG]

I've only just realised that my London seat has bucked the trend and gone from Tory to Labour.

 

[DNM]

The Tory and UKIP vote share would still be below 50%, just. It would have resulted in a safer situation for the country as a whole than we are in now. It would also have been fair and legitimate. The current situation is anything but.

Funny stuff. In 2005 Labour commanded a Parliamentary majority with only 35% of the popular vote. Were you concerned about legitimacy then?

 

[SteveG]

Funny stuff. In 2005 Labour commanded a Parliamentary majority with only 35% of the popular vote. Were you concerned about legitimacy then?

He probably was. He's a one issue (PR) voter.

 

[Mark EJ]

Have these people forgotten that there was a referendum on changing it in 2011, and the result was a comprehensive vote to stay with the current system ?

That suggests to me that the country doesn't think the current system is too broken.

Well, the referendum was framed in such as way as to achieve the result which it did. The AV proposal was clearly chosen as the most complex and hardest to explain alternative, so was doomed to fail. Coalition commitment honoured, box ticked, nothing changed, move on.

Classic Cameron -- and this is precisely the way he'll deal with any EU referendum, so we have fair warning.

 

[Barrymagrec]

Anyone remember who was party leader the last time the Liberals only had 8 seats? Jeremy Thorpe? Joe Grimmond?

 

[Brian]

Some casual observations from afar...

If you add up the Conservative and UKIP votes, I think they outnumber the total for Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and Green combined. If correct, then the results of the UK election would seem to be representative, and the majority have spoken.

Here in the US, there are more total Democrat than Republican voters nationwide. Funny thing is, even in states where the Democrats are a majority, the Republicans still often win the majority of seats in the House of Representatives. It's because of gerrymandering. If a state elects a Republican governor, he can ensure that voting district boundaries are drawn in such a way so as to prevent serious challenge to incumbent Republican representatives. It is an insidious and pervasive practice.

But based on votes per seat, gerrymandering would appear to be somewhat less of a problem in the UK. Also, generally speaking, when it comes to electing leaders, it would appear that the UK is a more conservative country than the US.

We'll be seeing that during the next 5 years in the UK for sure.

There is no way any politician, least of all Cameron, is going to destroy the NHS. NHS spending rises by similar amounts under both Tory and Labour govts.

Groundhog Day.

Money is not the be all and end all.

 

[Brian]

There is a difference between cut-backs and what thebiglebowski was claiming - that everyone who voted Tory voted to get rid of the NHS.

I think most people who can would happily pay an extra £10 per week in tax if they genuinely thought it could fix the NHS and help those that really need helping. Sadly there seems to be no voting option that can achieve this.

Probably not a specific reason for voting tory but regardless, a tory vote is for a party that does not support the notion of the NHS.

 

[Blzebub]

Groundhog Day.

Money is not the be all and end all.

Any politician would be well-advised to avoid destroying the NHS as it would be the end of their career, right there. They all know this, and so it limps on.

In Cameron's case, he had a son who died very young. That's not something he will ever forget.

 

[Tony L]

Funny stuff. In 2005 Labour commanded a Parliamentary majority with only 35% of the popular vote. Were you concerned about legitimacy then?

Yes, very much so. Until yesterday and with one blip in 1997 I've always been a LibDem voter, and I've been a LibDem voter because I believe in PR.

PS I suspect many will recall I am anything but a Labour apologist, in fact in 2005 I was spending my time here arguing Blair should be tried in the Hague for war crimes. A view I still hold. However I did this time vote for my local Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, though purely because he seems a decent bloke and in recognition of the essential work he is doing in uncovering the institutional pedophilia that appears to have been rife in Westminster. Few people have such a useful MP and IMO one should go against tribal loyalties to support such people. FWIW I'd also have voted for Zac Goldsmith and I utterly detest Tories! More even than Labour!