I’m no fan of the SNP but the media are undoubtedly biased against them

Anyway so Ed has appeared with Russell brand for the trews
Shrewd move ? Haters of Brand were unlikely to vote for Ed anyway ?? So with over a million , mostly young, subscribers to his channel a potential coup for Ed?

[video]http://youtu.be/7FdbH4rN9b4[/video]

Young people are often under represented in elections , however they did turn out for the Scots referendum

So he’s going to go after Amazon for tax avoidance

Good luck with that 🙂 See the pair of them don’t seem to know the difference between revenue and profit.

Think you are missing the point allthepies

I’m no fan of the SNP but the media are undoubtedly biased against them

Yes, yet despite that Nicola Sturgeon is the most popular party leader in the UK.

You’re going to have to explain it to me. Ed said he’s the man to tackle Amazon’s tax avoidance, how’s he going to do that ?

Its not a cast iron garuantee as we know those don’t exist, its a piece of electioneering aimed at a demographic politicians find it very hard to engage with or is it more of an advert for brands YouTube channel – how much EDitorial control do eds PR team have here ? Brand wants maximum hits (coz he needs to keep that ego fed!) Banging on about his favorite subject of global corporations, and one which is very popular with voters too !

Agree with DazH again
I alos liek the notion of a brotherhood of humanity and the EU has impressive social goals and tries to harmonise all EU economies. It is also basically a rich club that exists to make trade easier and to make money so its hardly humanitarian in nature

In essence its a govt with all that is good and bad about that.
I do find it ironic that those who are most passionate about the UK union , lets call them English for that is what they are, are also the most against an EU one. They like being the big dominant player in a Union but they wont be a “minor” partner or even one of the 4 “big “hitter” in the EU.

I think a lot oif it is a mixture of patriotism and an independent streak.
Whatever happens its unrealistic to think we can withdraw from the EU, not fund it/pay in and retain all the trade advantages we get from membership.
In the short run it will economically harm us but I am sure over a number of decades we would recover. We wont starve either way so I guess it depends how much you value freedom v economic prosperity

Interestingly the Independents want to be in the EU but not on the UK.

I would be a fairly disinterested Yes to stay in voter.

Today’s development is just weird. Tories promise to pass laws whose only purpose is forcing them to keep their own promises, because apparently not even they believe them. And what does that say about all the other promises they’re making which they’re not proposing making laws about…What about the promise to pass the laws about promises? I suppose it doesn’t count until they pass a law that forces them to pass a law about promises… And they haven’t promised not to overturn the law about promises.

I like that Ed Miliband’s response is essentially WTF was in my drink

I’m no fan of the SNP but the media are undoubtedly biased against them

Really @kimbers, I see the SNP getting a huge amount of coverage and airtime to make their views known

JY you really are clutching at straws now. The timing of the IFS report and it’s conclusions couldn’t have done more to support my statements over the past many months that rises in the top rates of tax are counterproductive. Why don’t you take the time to read the document, its not that long. New Labour understood that and that’s why in 13 years under Blair and Brown those rates where held steady. Raising the top rate of tax is political, it plays to sections of the electorate but it is counterproductive in terms of raising revenue and negative in terms of economic impact.

The Conservatives have already introduced new laws to try and tackle tax avoidance from Amazon, Labour have a track record of doing nothing in this regard. The Labour parties incompetance is increasing stamp duty but allowing foreign companies to buy residential property shows they are largely clueless in how to manage tax policy. The simple fact is Amazon and Apple etc have totally legal arrangements with Luxembourg and Ireland respectively which take advantage of EU tax laws to ensure they pay very little tax.

The simple fact is Amazon and Apple etc have totally legal arrangements with Luxembourg and Ireland respectively which take advantage of EU tax laws to ensure they pay very little tax.

Totally legal you say?

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/january/european-commission-amazons-tax-arrangements-in-luxembourg-may-have-been-illegal-state-aid/

According to Commission, its early view is that the ruling granted Amazon selective and ongoing tax advantages in a way that breached its rules against state aid. It has asked Luxembourg to provide further information ahead of its final ruling. Under EU law, any “unlawful aid” granted to a particular company can be recovered from the recipient of that aid.

“At this stage, the Commission considers that the contested tax ruling appears to result in a reduction of charges that should normally be borne by the entity concerned in the course of its business, and should therefore be considered as operating aid,” it said in the letter.

jambalaya – Member

The timing of the IFS report and it’s conclusions couldn’t have done more to support my statements over the past many months that rises in the top rates of tax are counterproductive.

Genuine LOL. It’s really hard to know where to start arguing with this. I mean, you actually quoted parts of the report yourself which say the opposite of what you’re claiming it says, so it’s not like we actually need to refute you, you’ve already done it yourself.

jambalaya – Member

Really @kimbers, I see the SNP getting a huge amount of coverage and airtime to make their views known

Did you read the loughborough report? It found that they get less quote coverage than the lib dems and ukip (who they’re forecast to get 3 and 25 times more MPs than, respectively, beating them into 4th and IIRC 8th place). But more importantly that the coverage they do get is overwhelmingly negative.

I have the unfair advantage that the report I’m quoting from actually supports my argument:

“Only the Conservatives have sustained a positive overall ranking across all three sample periods, although this positivity has fallen back in the latest sample period.
Labour has had a consistently negative press throughout the campaign so far. This negativity has increased sharply over the most recent period.
SNP coverage has swung from credit to debit in the second and third sample periods. Negative coverage of the party in the second sample period exceeded levels of negativity for Labour for the same period.
UKIP has consistently registered negative editorial scores for all of the sample periods.”

Latest Ipsos-Mori poll in Scotland:

SNP 54% (+2)
Labour 20% (-4)
Conservatives 17% (+5)
Lib Dems 5% (+1)
Greens 2% (-2)
UKIP 1%

SNP projected to win in every seat now.

And Labour about as popular as the Tories in Scotland 😀

If it’s the same as their last, it’s a very small sample that one, 1000 people. But still, interesting reading.

And Labour about as popular as the Tories in Scotland

That’s got to smart!

Did you read the loughborough report? It found that they get less quote coverage than the lib dems and ukip (who they’re forecast to get 3 and 25 times more MPs than, respectively, beating them into 4th and IIRC 8th place). But more importantly that the coverage they do get is overwhelmingly negative.

The SNP are standing in less than 10% of the seats, you can’t expect them to get as much coverage in the National Press (most papers have separate Scottish editions, which have not been reviewed) as parties who are standing in the vast majority of the 650. The LibDems and UKIP are anticipated to get a much higher share of the vote.

And Labour about as popular as the Tories in Scotland

Jim Murphy is proving a great choice as their leader in Scotland now…

If it’s the same as their last, it’s a very small sample that one, 1000 people. But still, interesting reading.

1000 is about normal for poll size, isn’t it? But yes, predicting seats from polls is very difficult, the seat predictor uses a uniform swing, and other systems are weighted in one way or another. Problem with weighting is that this situation is unprecedented.

The fun and games of First Past The Post.

Throw in a bit of tactical voting, local popularity and both the Tories and LibDems could end up with more Scottish MPs than Labour (i.e. One each)

The organised tactical voting system isn’t going very well, though – no-one can agree on which version of the “wheel” to use, not helped by people producing spoof versions. The Torygraph tried making an online calculator where you put in your postcode and it told you who to vote for to get the result you wanted – except for every constituency in Scotland it just says “Anyone but SNP”.

Interesting stuff on R2 at the moment with Cameroon and Jezza Vine.

He didn’t know a few key figures, wonder whether he will get the same treatment as Natalie Bennett?

To totally ignore the debate so far(which I have been enjoying), I know there are a couple of green party activists on hear who may like my little message below.

Dear Green Party

Thanks for the flyer which you posted through our letterbox last night. It was great to see you standing by your green principles and printing it locally on recycled paper, with a low chemical non glossy finish.

Ah, no wait a minute, it was printed in Scotland wasn’t it, then I guess you used fairy dust to transport it to Wales, or perhaps a big truck that uses oil? Oh and it wasn’t recycled either was it, and it did have quite a nice high gloss finish which uses more energy to produce and is harder to recycle?

It’s time to admit that the ‘green’ party is no more environmentally friendly that any other. You are the socialist workers party with a pretty flower. This is a real shame, as the country could really benefit from a political party which was pretty much in the centre but would fight for a better, cleaner and sustainable economy, one that was able to demonstrate through actions that being sustainable isn’t that hard if you try.

Isn’t that the same argument that stupid Americans (and others) use to deny global warming – eg it’s snowing here.

Yes, of course, you’d expect the green party to be a bit more sensible than to use paper that isn’t very green but then maybe it’s not as simple as that or even if it is, maybe it’s just one mistake by one person rather than being something you can extrapolate to mean whatever you want it to…

Just a thought 😉

the loss of labours scottish seats must be quite galling to a lot of activists

millibands obviously made huge headway if its still a really tight race with the loss of so many seats

ultimately I think the tory/right wing practice of talking up the SNP as a real threat has been hugely successful in legitimising them as a political party in the eyes of many, its undoubtedly cost labour a lot of votes

its also hugely empowered the SNP, Id expect another referendum on independence very soon and this time the Yes will do it it easily

Dear Green Party
…

There’s a lot of competition but this might actually be my favourite anti-green party argument yet.

The online #SNPout campaign is basically full of people calling the SNP Nazis over and over and over again while a simple click on a significant % of their profiles shows likes and shares for UVF,eff off were(sic)full! etc. Mind you some of the comments about Ruth Who? stealing ballot papers for the ref on WoS isn’t much better. I still find it hard to believe that Shuggy McBam is going to go into a polling booth and vote Tory. Mind you, I got banned from the most popular site for asking who Oswald Mosely represented before starting his own party.
In other words,the tactical voting seems to be as well run as Jim Murphy’s party.

@gearfreak, I like your post but readers have expectations; a campaign leaflet that doesn’t get the readers attention is worthless, so it could be that a more environmentally friendly leaflet could be more wasteful. You need to weigh up damage vs effectiveness, not just damage as a standalone.

(how do you know the paper wasn’t recycled, btw?)

kimbers – Member
the loss of labours scottish seats must be quite galling to a lot of activists…

It was inevitable after the Referendum when Labour stood shoulder to shoulder with and were indistinguishable from the Tories. They will not be forgiven for that for a long time.

They could have supported the Union and not lost support if they had played it differently and given us good reasons to support the Union (and there’s several this Yes supporter can think off), but we didn’t hear any of them from the Labour party.

Better Together (Labour & Tory) is going to be a hard meme to dislodge from the Scottish psyche especially as many Labour party members have been grumbling about the Blairite move to the right for years.

Not sure Labour has a lot of activists in Scotland Kimbers 🙂 I am also not sure there is going to be a referendum in quicktime either as it is not on the SNP manifesto for this general election and more pertinently where is the legislative time for a referendum bill at Westminster?There could be another general election if this one is indecisive, Scottish Parliament election in 16, possible EU referendum in 17 all of these work against a referendum before the end of the next parliament.
However I agree there will be another indy referendum and hopefully a yes vote.

Latest polls are showing that the SNP will win every seat in Scotland. Wouldnt that be good.

gordimhor – Member
Not sure Labour has a lot of activists in Scotland Kimbers

(like the westminster elite) I wasnt really thinking about scotland 😉

So, do we now think that Cameron played a blinder with the referendum?

I think the SNP surge comes from a few different sources, the referendum messaging that “Labour sided with the Tories” and the fact that Yes voters have decided to vote SNP in order to push for more devolution powers knowing Labour aren’t going to deliver that for them. I don’t see the anti-SNP dialogue from Tories etc having a big impact, the main movers from Labour to the SNP aren’t particularly influenced by that. It’s much more the fact that the SNP are promising an end to austerity whereas Labour recognise it’s necessary.

Labour made it clear today they would be renewing Trident, that’s going to be an interesting discussion in any coalition with the SNP

Latest polls are showing that the SNP will win every seat in Scotland. Wouldnt that be good.

The Tories certainly think so

He didn’t know a few key figures, wonder whether he will get the same treatment as Natalie Bennett?

Well, he doesn’t know what football team he’s a great fan of, so what can you expect. The only thing he knows for sure is the name of his son, which he trots out every time he wants to slide past some new NHS “reform”.

@gordimor, here is my guess on a referendum. The SNP put that into their next manifesto for the Scottish parliament and then hold a referendum without Westminster buy in / promise to honour it as they had last time. This gives them a very good chance of getting a Yes as the No voters don’t bother to turn out as it’s not binding. They then use that result to try and put pressure on Westminster.

I cannot see any likelihood of Labour or the Conservatives granting another referendum in the next 20 years.

Could this be the SNPs ‘libdem’ moment? Promise the world knowing they won’t be the main party then realise they’re getting tarred with the same brush as Labour. Presuming Labour has the competence to know what a brush is in the first place, once in power.

Or does promising the world to Scotland get them off the hook a bit, as there won’t be an indepence referendum for a while.

[/quote]Not sure Labour has a lot of activists in Scotland

There were quite a few round our way recently trying to drum up support. Very visible here trying to keep their man in post.

However I agree there will be another indy referendum

Not coming any time soon so all the factors which led to the rise in pro-Indy sentiment could well dissipate. Not least, there’s going to be no Westminster appetite to approve another referendum until the increased devolved powers have been used for a couple of terms.

@Northwind – see my original post on the IFS report. It supports me perfectly which is clearly why I quoted it in such detail. Original Post

What is clear is that a Labour/SNP government would spend before they had seen the impact of their “tax rises” with the most likely outcome being a massive increase in the deficit as tax revenues fall far short.

It was inevitable after the Referendum when Labour stood shoulder to shoulder with and were indistinguishable from the Tories.

While that is no doubt a factor I suspect the issue with Labour in Scotland involves other factors e.g.:
– Labour no longer being a socialist party
– Labour looking more and more like a Tory-light every day
– A terrible choice of leader for the UK party
– A terrible choice of leader for the Scottish party
– A poorly performing Labour party in the Scottish Parliament both when they were in power and in opposition
– Exceptionally negative campaigning by the Labour party in Scotland
– The old line of “vote for us or you get the Tories” being worn out by Scotland voting for them last time but still getting the Tories

ninfan – Member
So, do we now think that Cameron played a blinder with the referendum?

you mean he deliberately ran a clusterfk of a campaign knowing that hed have to rely on Gordon Brown to save his ass , but that help would scupper labour at the next election?

if so he’s far more gifted than anyone suspected