[Closed] Everyone looking forward to the next 5 months of electioneering then?

I heard Miliband crowbarring in all of his pre-programmed sound bites on 5LIVE this morning and wanted to weep.

We’re on a Tory / UKIP rollercoaster to Hell.

Ed Miliband has promised that labour will have 4 million conversations with voters between now and the election. I'm no expert, but laying siege to people's doorsteps like deranged jehovahs witnesses might not be a good strategy. Also I wonder if that will be more or less than the number of times he says 'you know' in a speech?

I don't watch or listen to news programmes or buy newspapers so it'll not affect me and I won't get wound up by it or give any form of toss.

I am preparing. I sent my local council an email yesterday to see if the 'No Cold Calling Zone' I am in will also apply to electionering twonks.

I have also been practicing shouting a lot.

..and that tory poster, did someone actually get paid to come up with that slogan? If labour have anyone with a half a brain in their campaign they'll already be plastering billboards with 'We're on the road to nowhere' posters and telly adverts with the accompanying music.

Ed Miliband has promised

And a politians promise is worth what?

I expect that the online image banks are about to be plundered for generic bland, non-specific, happy-feely, ethnically diverse, images of dear old England by the Tories, if that first effort is anything to go by. I expect that before long they'll come out with something to rival this for utterly patronising cluelessness....

[img] [/img]

Which is truly beyond parody. Labour are no doubt nipping round to see everyone as they can't afford posters

All of a sudden this fixed term parliament seems like a very, very, very bad idea.

It's worse in Spain - we've got some local+autonomous community elections in 2015, then general in 2016.

dazh - Member

...and that tory poster,

[IMG] [/IMG]

Peter Brookes

Any opinion polls out yet?

[sticks fingers in ears and continues to vote for who I normally vote for]

also

[try not to let Red Ed's image put me off]

And again on that poster, I notice they have 'The deficit halved' on there. You have to admire the barefaced cheek (or idiocy) of this when you consider that completely eradicating the deficit was their no 1 promise of the last election.

Glad you started a thread, I was considering the same.

5 months of the GE campaign will be less painful than 2 years for the Scottish referendum so I'm thankful for small mercies. Looks likely that the GE in 2015 will be followed by another in 2016 or 17 as a minority government fails to survive.

Milliband's "the NHS will be destroyed in 5 years under the Tories" is nearly as ridiculous as Blair's 45 minute claim. He's going to have to come up with something much better than that. The BBC challenged him on this today and some leary Labour types tried to shout the BBC down, to his credit Milliband just answered the question

[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11325451/Watch-BBC-journalist-booed-during-Ed-Miliband-speech.html ]BBC jeered at press conference[/url]

And again on that poster, I notice they have 'The deficit halved' on there. You have to admire the barefaced cheek (or idiocy) of this when you consider that completely eradicating the deficit was their no 1 promise of the last election.

If those are the claims they're making now jambalaya, just imagine where we're going to be by the end of April?

Vote conservative and defence cuts will allow ISIS to take control of large parts of Yorkshire, and put out live beheadings on ITV2 in between episodes of TOWIE

At the local level yes

At the national less so - but plenty of opportunities to give Econ tutees some "spot the deliberate mistake" questions

Imagine the rection of the coalition had eliminated the deficit as promised - the anguish over the future cuts is bad enough. But the deficit halved message is a wee bit cheeky. The deficit has not halved. The % of GDP that the deficit represents has halved in value. Quite a different thing.

That plus labour's NHS lies - election BS bingo cards ready. Ignore UKIP they have filled their card already.

I'm considering boycotting all news, current affairs programmes and papers until June.

[i]Vote conservative and defence cuts will allow ISIS to take control of large parts of Yorkshire, and put out live beheadings on ITV2 in between episodes of TOWIE [/i]

Where do I sign?

I don't watch or listen to news programmes or buy newspapers so it'll not affect me and I won't get wound up by it or give any form of toss.

I'm considering boycotting all news, current affairs programmes and papers until June

Good plan

[img] [/img]

Im so glad that the Chinese Communist party deal with all this sort of stuff for me so I don't have to worry about it.

Luckily we don't have a TV, so will be pretty oblivious to the whole thing!

[url= http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/britain-draws-straws-over-who-has-to-talk-to-some-labour-party-arsehole-2015010594091 ]The Mash sums up labours strategy[/url]

@binners, I have no idea what claims the Tories are making, I was just posting up my comments. I do agree that the fixed term parliament has the unpleasant side effect of extending the election campaign. I'd be happy to vote tomorrow and get it over and down with, for now.

What chance of an informed debate and a vote based on the issues and policies rather than I'd never bottled for them ever because of..... (insert now irrelevant historical event)

If the madness in Scotland showed anything it was there is possible an appetite for engagement, make voting compulsory and challenge for policy and substance over spin and style.

@mike if you make voting compulsory you will have a large number of people who genuinely don't give a t-ss influencing the result based upon a whim. It will just move the level of political debate down another few notches.

On other matters I saw Ed Balls called Russell Brand a "Pound Shop Ben Elton" in response to Brand calling Balls a c-nt, that's a quality put down.

When Wallace talks about a once in a generation election - did he not recall the recent loser who tried to play that card?

Good to see that the FT has debunked Burnham's NHS nonsense today. Talk about bllx scaremongering, makes UKIP look honest.

When parties that give me an erection tell lies, it's a bit cheeky, but when parties I don't like say something I don't like, its all just BS and HS and other abbreviations I need to make up because I find the actual words just horrifying. Just you wait till I can shoehorn AS and his BS BoD into the thread...just you wait, you impertinent plebs. I'll be masturbating on the Internet sooooooo much, your screen will vibrate. I might even troll other posters so much, I'll have to be given an enforced rest for a few days.

I find the door to door and street canvassing fun, it's the ideal opportunity to throw the f***ers a curveball to see how they handle it

This election year I will be utilising a mix of "what is your party going to do to increase access for off road cycling" and "what is your parties position on legalising hunting" (the latter being particularly challenging for them as they need to guess if I'm pro or anti)

Have fun playing games with them, it's the only way to keep sane!

Vote Green.. at least its voting for people who give a shit about the planet.

Ninfan +1

Add how did you vote on Syrian intervention? Should bike helmets be cumpulsory?

Ed Balls today: "we will inherit the tory deficit" 😆

Vote Green.. at least its voting for people who give a shit about the planet.

Yeah, the greens I just ask their policy on homeopathy 😆

Ed Balls today "we will inherit the tory deficit"

Any party today, we will inherit the previous party's ****-ups unless of course, we get re-elected, in which case we'll spend the next five years trying to fix the ****-ups of the party that was in power before us.

Newsnight was fairly good on the election tonight, a nice piece on result modelling.

One thing on the Tory poster which amused me is that it's a German landscape - oops !

One thing on the Tory poster which amused me is that it's a German landscape - oops !

Welcome to Saturday.

So UKIP and the Tories morphing in more ways than one! 😉

if you make voting compulsory you will have a large number of people who genuinely don't give a t-ss influencing the result based upon a whim

Aa opposed to a medium sized number

sneaky bastards have lowered the price of petrol and then also said it'll go back up in May... I'm not falling for that you ball bags.

I like how mr Hurtmore's economics class (and by that i mean us in here) are being taught that manipulating the budget defecit (a lie so blatant and contrary to such basic economics that even i spotted it before it made the news) is just cheeky, but the 'scaremongering' about the nhs is 'blx".
Context is everything, kids! 😉

Btw who else is feeling like the job creation bits are also a bit, well, 'cheeky'?

I see Scottish Labour boasting how they will spend London/South East mansion tax as their own tax won't raise didly-squat.

What part of "Better Together " are you failing to understand?

@scotroutes 🙂 indeed its been my point all along about how the rest of the UK and particularly England and the prosperity of the South East supports Scotland. More than a little ironic that English taxes would be directly supporting the ring fenced Scottish NHS

Boris had something to say on the topic this morning on the radio

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/06/boris-johnson-labour-mugging-london-mansion-tax-scotland-votes ]Labour mugging Londoners to win Scottish Votes[/url]

I see Scottish Labour boasting how they will spend London/South East mansion tax as their own tax won't raise didly-squat.

I noticed that. They'll still not win any more votes north of the border, for reasons they're still too stupid to comprehend, but now they've decide to alienate everyone in the South East. Way to go Ed. You're one hell of an electoral strategist!

South east - DAM there go al those safe labour seats

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Julian - fairish point. Why call the Tory poster comment cheeky and Andy Burnham's comments bllx? Quite simple really. The Tory comment tagline on a poster - it is poor because without "context" (agreed) it could be misunderstood - indeed I am sure that there is deliberate intention here. The context is that the "deficit halved" boast related to the deficit as a percentage of GDP not the deficit itself. So IMO that is cheeky rather than complete bllx (for the Tories I would suggest that CMD's tax ideas fall into the bllx category FWIW).

But in Burnham's case he made two very specific points on the BBC - re the health and social care act and the amount of money hospitals make from treating private patients. Both were factually incorrect (indeed labour's track record on the first was worse/better (dep on your point of view) than the Tories). So they move beyond cheeky to bllx IMO.

Cheap political crap will not address the challenges faced by the NHS.

None of the main parties are being honest or direct in relation to the deficit. Anyone would think that it was unimportant!

JY - a lot of those blue bits represent a lot of marginal seats they lost last time out. They need to win some of those back to stand a chance of a majority. And they're going to lose a lot of seats in Scotland anyway. So they've decided to compete with Alex's Magic Book of Dreams, offering [s]bribes[/s] north of the border. It won't work.

There was a good article on the problem facing labour in striking this balance in yesterdays Guardian

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/04/what-is-britain-election-conservatives-english-voter-labour ]The Conservatives are winning the battle to appeal to the unhappy English voter over the future of Britain and its place in Europe. Labour needs to sharpen up[/url]

yes but the joke/flippant point does not work if you ruin it with facts...shakes fist

Read the article yesterday

binners - Member
And they're going to lose a lot of seats in Scotland anyway. So they've decided to compete with Alex's Magic Book of Dreams, offering bribes north of the border. It won't work.

Seen today's fisticuffs Binners?

Diane Abbot: Jim Murphy cannot really mean he is going to expropriate money from Londoners to win an election in Scotland. He is jumping the gun is a highly unscrupulous way.

Jim Murphy: This is a tax across the whole UK and it is about sharing and pooling resources. I don't have to consult Ed Milliband, that's not the way things work (sic) in the Labour Party anymore.

With friends like these, who needs enemies!!

His name is Jim not John BTW Diane....

Meanwhile, in important news, at least Greece was on holiday today, so not more bad news that matters today!

Jim Murphy is just spending money they'll get from Barnett anyway if Labour bring in the mansion tax. Don't see what the fuss is about.......

other than the mansion tax will have a geographic imbalance in the UK

always amuses me that the sons of a Marxist became millionaires off the back of inherited property they very efficiently tax planned for

at least he going to pay his own tax (or will it come under parliamentary expenses?)

Isn't there an App for this yet?

Its all going pretty well for us so far!

[url= http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/labour-and-tories-squabble-over-who-will-spend-least-on-cycling/017293 ]Labour and Tories squabble over who will spend least on cycling.[/url]

im gonna vote UKIP.

yeah, yeah, they might be crap, but if they get in you can guaran-damn-tee the tories and labour will buck their shit up properly so we *might* have an effective government the time after.
out of Europe. tick.

/long game

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/09/circle-exit-private-contract-hinchingbrooke-nhs ]http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/09/circle-exit-private-contract-hinchingbrooke-nhs[/url]

"The statement lobbed a politically charged hand grenade into the election campaign with Labour’s health spokesman, Andy Burnham, criticising the government for agreeing a “risky” business model with Circle, and his Conservative opposite number, Jeremy Hunt, accusing Burnham of “playing politics” with the issue."

WTF? When did mismanagement and underfunding of the NHS cease to be a political issue?

Its a tad embarrassing for Dave. What with him trumpeting just this kind of deal as the bright future of the NHS? These ruthlessly efficient Private Suppliers, coming in to sort everything out?

And Jeremy Hunt accusing anyone of 'playing politics with the issue' is a bit rich, considering his totally insensitive political opportunistism over the whole Mid Staffs affair

Burnham (originated the idea and proposed similar contracts) and Hunt (executed the contract) should stop being silly.

Interesting to see the economics behind this decision - as messy as this is, the good thing is that this becomes clear instead of getting lost in the NHS budget.

As the question last night on QT suggested the A&E issues is a failure in so many counts, but in this case Hunt cannot hide away from the fact that this is embarrassing news.

You've got to admire the sheer brassneck of the tories for this 'it's nothing to do with politics' strategy. Although I don't know how they can keep a straight face when saying it. I wonder what other subjects come under their 'not for discussion' category. Education? Security? In fact probably everything other than the economy, Europe and immigration.

It raises some interesting points about the privatised future of healthcare. If any private providers can just walk away any time they like?

The NHS is clearly struggling to cope with A&E demand at the moment, But what would the scenario be if that A&E service was in the hands of a multitude of private suppliers. What if a number of them then decided to do what Circle have just done, say "**** that!" and just walk away? Where the hell would that leave us?

A question for Mr Hunt? Or would asking him that be construed as 'playing politics'?

[url= http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/human-suffering-not-profitable-enough-2015010994249 ]The Mash nails it, as usual[/url]

that this becomes clear

The unfolding scenario re Circle was widely predicted.

What's interesting is how the media repeated their PR claims - e.g. the CHKS so-called "award" & incessant spin.

Having them playing twitter tag is pretty unedifying - for a change the LDs are probably best placed in all this.

Neither Hunt not Burnham are on safe ground - the petty politicsaccusation is really valid in the sense that this stops real debate on how these issues get resolved. Sad to watch.

So Dave has suddenly developed a sense of democratic justice, and is standing up for the Green Party? Yeah right! Its quite clear that he's cynically trying to do anything and everything in his power to ensure the TV debates never take place, under any circumstances. They must think we're all complete idiots? Dave standing up for the democratic rights of the Green Party? Such a laughable proposition, its frankly embarrassing in its flagrant cynicism! Not that we should be in the least bit surprised 🙄

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/11/tv-election-debate-wont-happen-david-cameron-determined ]Badly burnt by what happened last time, the Tories set out to sabotage the negotiations right from the start[/url]

[i]At the time of the last election, David Cameron pronounced that TV debates were “here to stay”. It was his confident declaration that: “We will have them in every election in the future and that is a really good thing for democracy.”[/i]

They should definitely 'Empty Chair' the bastard!

They should definitely 'Empty Chair' the bastard!

Yeah, Just imagine, Miliband vs Clegg and Farage in a live TV debate 😆

I would imagine Dave would be prefer to be like the rest of us, sat at home with a big bowl of popcorn waiting for the massacre!

To be fair to him, Millibean isn't opposed to the greens being allowed. Its the TV people who've decreed that. Based, apparently, on them losing their deposits at the last 3 by-elections.

I can't see any reason they shouldn't be allowed. They're polling more than the lib dems. But Daves position is absolutely laughable in its obvious opportunism.

Milliband won't come out well. He is Dwayne Dibble after all. But if you look at Dave when he gets flustered he goes bright red, and involuntarily defaults to a[b] "How dare you question me?!!! Do you know who I am, you little guttersnipe?!!!!"[/b] attitude and demenour

I suspect Nige would have him puce and ranting, and probably calling people plebs, within seconds 😆

@ninfan 😀

Where I differ slightly is that I have no interest in the TV debates, it's sound bytes and show-boating of the worst kind. Miliband is being naive as Farage will slaughter him just like he did to Clegg making him look like a novice.

What's your opinion of call me Dave dodging the debates jambalaya?

I can't see any reason they shouldn't be allowed. They're polling more than the lib dems. But Daves position is absolutely laughable

True, but it's clearly opportunism by Ed and Nick as well, neither of them want the greens there one bit.

Problem fo Ed is that now he's called for an empty chair, Dave can sit back and play chicken, because either the TV companies will flinch and allow the Greens in, or Labour will realise he is headed into a crash and pull the ejector seat for him - either way Dave comes out the winner.

Indeed. The Greens have taken the lefty vote off Ed, and the sandal wearers off Nick. And the pair of them would doubtless hemorrhage more votes to them over a debate.

But this isn't about that. This is about Dave being terrified of going head to head with Nige. Cheers!

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Do you think he's going to spend a bit of time pointing this out?

In the end I'd welcome some robust questions to farage, it can't be that hard to expose the massive holes and contradictions in their policies and maybe a few questions about his paries euro expenses and voting record.

Given the greens would only be at one of the debates why no tdo the other two ...oh yes he would look like he was ducking UKIP

If labour had any sense they would offer him this compromise 😉

TBh Binners I think he is scared of them all but yes UKIP will ask some great questions re loons comment and if they will do a coalition with them

One of those possible great for his political chances of gaining power but poor from a democratic point of view

either way Dave comes out the winner

In the end I'd welcome some robust questions to farage, it can't be that hard to expose the massive holes and contradictions in their policies and maybe a few questions about his paries euro expenses and voting record.

Yeah, but he would be up against Clegg and Miliband

I think you need true blue vision to think this

Look, either

I) the TV companies back down, in which case Dave got what he demanded and Ed and Nick have the Greens there, taking a share of the left vote

Ii) Ed backs down, in which case Dave got what he demanded, Ed looks weak, and the greens get the airtime

Iii) Ed, Nick and Nigel go head to head, with resultant bloodbath

which of those is a negative result for Dave?

Can you imagine Dave sitting comfortably at home, watching an empty chair with his name on it, while Nige launched into his affable appeal to Dave's core vote?

No. Me neither.

If the TV companies say "**** you then! We'll just go ahead with an empty chair instead", theres no way on earth he wouldn't turn up. They should stop all this nonsense and call his bluff straight away

Can you imagine Dave sitting comfortably at home, watching an empty chair with his name on it, while Nige launched into his affable appeal to Dave's core vote?

No. Me neither.

If the TV companies say "**** you then! We'll just go ahead with an empty chair instead", theres no way on earth he wouldn't turn up. They should stop all this nonsense and call his bluff straight away

Counter argument:

There's no way it would happen, because they want him there, so will back down and let the greens in, and even if they didn't, there's no way that Labour would let Ed go into a live bear pit against Nigel,

We can go around in circles on this, but there's no bluff to call, your proposal is fantasy land.

Yeah, the greens I just ask their policy on homeopathy

From their manifesto:

Push for regulations that no medical service in the EU may
claim any benefit for a treatment for which there isn’t
scientific evidence as shown by replicable randomised
controlled trials.

How can it be a win, win for call me Dave? He simply looks like he's ducking the debate and making excuses. Look at it the other way, if he refuses people will say he was scared, if he goes they'll say he was forced to. His actions to date have made it a lose, lose.

the one that is bad ninfan is the one where he is no there and they lampoon him for this and explain his decision anda talk of his poor judgement and hubris. they then move on to lampoon tory policies and scare monger about what they will do and he is not there to reply to any of this
I am not sure how you think the others spending an hour x 2 on national tv criticising him and his policies is a win for him then again I dont have the true blue specs of truth that you have.

The TV companies won't go along with it without Dave and come voting day I can't see the fact that he didn't agree to a TV debate being a major factor in people's decisions.

It's Greens in or no debates as far as I can see.

The ensuing election pantomime will merely serve to further domesticate the electorate into accepting the narrative that sovereign legislation is redundant in the face of global governance..

About as much as I looked forward to hearing the latest about Oscar Bloody Pistorius...

Can some one explain to me something? If UKiP get say 40 mp's after the next election but Farage isnt one of them, would he be allowed to weild any kind or influence on parliament or would he be got rid of by those that were voted in?

The only way the empty chair will go in Dave's favour is if Clint Eastwood is there.