[Closed] Election Campaign

Yes politicians shouldnt pretend they are interestd in Wendy or music.

Well in the case of the present Tory leadership it's quite vital to bullshit your common person's credentials.

The irony is that the right-wing tory press have long tried to portray Ed Miliband as a bit weird looking and not your average sort of guy.

And yet if you walk into any Starbucks or Costas coffee shop in South West London you will find a multitude of middle-class office wallahs with which Ed Miliband would fit in perfectly.

It's the Old Etonians/Bullingdon Boys who stand out and don't fit in. Which is precisely why David Cameron has to go through the pretense of following Wendy, as you contemptuously call it, and come up with some cock and bull story about eating a pasty from a shop in Leeds station which had closed 5 years previously.

And why George Osborne has to work on his glottal stops as he regularly slips into mockney when making speeches.

Neither of them are Mr Average despite their repeated attempts to portray Ed Miliband as being out of touch with ordinary people.

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Still if you don't understand how currencies or debt markets work, there is no real surprise if the rest is out of reach.

So Nicola Sturgeon doesn't understand how "voting works" ? Only someone clever like you with a degree in economics can understand such things?

So Nicola Sturgeon doesn't understand how "voting works" ? Only someone clever like you with a degree in economics can understand such things?

Sturgeon is clearly thick as pig shit - she only has a law degree from glasgow uni.

You are in a good mood aren't you Ernie? I will avoid reposting your quite recent post on sarcasm!

Agreed politicians shouldn't pretend to be what they are not. But this mega so-called RW press do seem to keep on about Eton etc!!! 😉

Actually, it's very simple and nothing to do with economics. Odd to suggest otherwise, unless....

Go for a ride, sounds like you need some fresh air.

Agreed politicians shouldn't pretend to be what they are not.

You've missed my point, I'm saying the opposite - in the case of the present Tory leadership it's vital for them to bullshit their common person's credentials, I think Cameron and and Osborne have been well advised, they just need to get their stories and accents right, you're not agreeing with me.

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Actually, it's very simple and nothing to do with economics.

So why this comment then ?

[i] "But slightly less embarrassing that subterfuge on how voting works. Still if you don't understand how currencies or debt markets work, there is no real surprise if the rest is out of reach". [/i]

Eh?

You are very clearly suggesting that how "voting works" is beyond the reach of someone who doesn't "understand how currencies or debt markets work".

BTW I'm always in a good mood when I'm responding to your posts. I've usually got a silly grin on my face. I've got one now actually 🙂

Other than that Clegg is happy for the third party to be in government with the Conservatives and then Labour and then back with the Conservatives, if need be, and so on.

3rd party? In his dreams - they'll be 4th (the SNP will be 3rd on seats and UKIP 3rd on votes by the looks of it).

Yes I was referring to Clegg's dreams epicsteve 🙂

Personally I would not have used the word "silly" but if you say so, sounds highly appropriate given recent posts.

Sturgeon clearly knows what she is doing - that is the point. They misled people on economic matters and they do they same in political ones too. The ends justify the means....

So she wasn't confused after all ?

What made you say this then : [i]"dear Nicola gets a little confused"[/i] eh ?

CMD seems to have got quite confused though, even to the extent of mixing up which football team he supports. If I was a cynical type, I might suspect he doesn't really support a team at all and it is just a "I'm just one of the lads" act.

[i]To remind us that he's just an ordinary geezer like your mates down the pub Cameron made a hilarious joke about supporting West Ham, unfortunately he had previously claimed to be a huge Aston Villa fan. [/i]

Maybe he just likes teams who play in Claret & Blue but doesn't realise there are two!

Maybe he just likes teams who play in Claret & Blue but doesn't realise there are two!

There are three current premiership teams with claret and blue kits 😉

Well if I supported Aston Villa I would be tempted to develop memory loss

If I was a cynical type, I might suspect he doesn't really support a team at all

No need to be cynical, Cameron has publicly stated that he doesn't support a football team :

[b][i]“Many of those who have spoken in the debate or have written about the subject are either lawyers or football fans, but I have to confess I am neither”[/i][/b] - House of Commons 15 October 2001.

Of course that was before he declared himself to be an Aston Villa supporter.

Or was it West Ham ?

It all gets very confusing.

MSP - Member

There are three current premiership teams with claret and blue kits

Rockape outs himself as a fake football fan

what colour strip do marginal utd play in ?

Claret and blue cheese would be more becoming

[i]Rockape outs himself as a fake football fan[/i]

Well... To be fair Burnley are easily forgotten ! 🙂

[url= http://www.stevezacharanda.com/fullposts.php?id=121&category=sport ]Stone the crows it might be real.[/url] Good read whatever your views.

I also heard that not being a football fan and supporting Aston Villa are not mutually exclusive.

Labour rent controls and no 1 yr tenancies only 3.

So what happens when you get a foreign job posting for 12-24 months, you can't rent your house out ? Or you get a job offer in another part of the country which doesn't work out and you're made redundant, you can't get your house back ? Letting agents cannot charge fees before a tenancy commences ? So who pays for the credit checks - if it's the landlord they will only accept tenets they are very confident will pass the check ? The landlord and agent are just going to pass these costs on in higher initial rents to cover costs and estimated increases in market rents.

Much like when Labour increased stamp duty but failed to close the obvious loophole that you can buy residential property in offshore companies and pay minimal taxes. A policy not thought through

I didn't read much of mefty's link but I did get to this bit :

[b][i]"Anyone who's spent time with Dave will know how passionate he is about Villa.” [/i][/b]

So it turns out that Cameron is even dafter than I first thought. Perhaps we can now expect him as he continues on the campaign trail, prepared speech and autocue ready, to urge his audience to vote Labour?

Assuming that he is equally "passionate" about the Tory Party of course.

Letting agents cannot charge fees before a tenancy commences

Been off-grid for 3 days and come back to see Miliband has [url= http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/26/ed-miliband-rules-out-confidence-and-supply-deal-with-snp ]finally tried to address the SNP problem[/url]. I think this is as close as he'll get to rejecting any SNP support outright but it's bit more than the previous no formal coalition statements. The tories, as with their personal attacks, are now over-egging the SNP issue I think to the point where they sound a bit desperate. Theresa May's hysterical hyperbole is up there with Fallon's and could possibly backfire in the same way.

Boy's an idiot. This is the electoral equivalent of threatening people by holding a knife to your own throat. Cameron must be pissing himself laughing. And right at the point where the Tories finally went off the deep end too.

So now what does he do, when he inevitably fails to get a majority? Goes back on his word? Fail to form a government (and blame the SNP)?

Or, just form a minority government and try and depend on the SNP without any actual agreement in place? (which is either not going to work, or end up being indistinguishable from having an agreement in place, to all of his critics)

Does create a rather bizarre situation where potentially neither main party can form a stable government, the Tories from a lack of allies and Labour because they won't accept the rope they've been thrown.

[i][b]"I am not doing deals with the Scottish National party"[/i][/b]

It's just as well that he and he alone decides what Labour Party policy is.

It really is staggeringly depressing that a once democratic party should have handed all power to one individual.

Every Labour voter outside Miliband's constituency should be fully aware that they won't be voting for their local candidate or the views which they claim to hold. They will be voting for one individual, not accountable to them, who treats them like voting fodder and their opinions with contempt.

Never has the Labour Party been less fit to govern imo.

And the sooner it is cast into the dustbin of history where it belongs the better.

[quote=Northwind ]Boy's an idiot. This is the electoral equivalent of threatening people by holding a knife to your own throat. Cameron must be pissing himself laughing. And right at the point where the Tories finally went off the deep end too.
So now what does he do, when he inevitably fails to get a majority? Goes back on his word? Fail to form a government (and blame the SNP)?
Or, [b]just form a minority government and try and depend on the SNP without any actual agreement in place?[/b]This. He has nothing to lose [b]at this election[/b]. LP policies are either in line with LibDem and SNP - and will thus get through - or with the Tories - and will thus get through. SNP policies that aren't in line with the LP (e.g. Trident) will be used for the next Holyrood elections as an example of Scottish opinion being overwhelmed by that from England and will inevitably lead to a further independence referendum.

After that, the LP is on a rather more sticky wicket.

Labour rent controls

The "Rent Control" policy, if introduced, will almost certainly prove to be a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. All colours of government have used private rental properties to fill the gap in social housing stock created by the sale of council houses. We saw how poorly though out labours stamp duty increases where as so many high value sales where switched to company purchases, it took the Tories to plug that obvious loophole.

Rent controls and 3 year leases - I predict a massive boom in 3 month ultra short term "air b&b" style agreements plus a significant increase in rents as landlords price in their rent increases upfront. Landlords can sit and wait with empty properties, local authorities without housing stock cannot. Likewise the example I quoted regarding people with job offers abroad / outside their home area

The "Rent Control" policy, if introduced, will almost certainly prove to be a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences.

As perfect as the unintended consequences of Tory housing policies, such as removing rent controls, selling off council housing, creating housing bubbles, and turning a housing crises into an even bigger housing crises? As perfect as that?

Or was it never the aim of the Tories to solve the housing crises and provide affordable homes?

In which case, hats off to the Tories.......they've been hugely successful.

If in doubt, INTERVENE....you know it makes sense

Ed is being perfectly sensible here as dear Nicola has made it clear that she will do everything in her power (the ends justify the means) to stop the Tories govern. So she cannot then vote down a potential minority labour gov and Ed know it. Good for him for putting her back in her rightful place. The poker match goes on.

Good job, none of this is serious....

If in doubt, INTERVENE....you know it makes sense

No leave things alone - the market [i]always[/i] knows best. That's why we've never had a banking crises or housing crises. In free market La La Land.

Except the root cause of the banking crisis lay in the deliberate distortions of interest rates, the pricing of risk and hen flooding the market artificially with liquidity. Odd definition of a free market, but full marks for the all-important "consistency"!

Housing market free....?!? No really.

Edit: keep it in bounds 😉

Hey I'm just repeating what we're told about the virtues of the free market, if you are disputing it then direct your criticism at those who are proponents of it.

Thatcher had very strong views on housing (and banking) and the free market.

If you want to make a critique of her policies and where it all went wrong then feel free and go ahead. I won't stop you.

Never a good idea to believe what your told Ernie, especially from politicians. Much better to look at the evidence and make your own mind up.

Could have sworn that you had mentioned that your poster girl had not cut government spending. Must have been mistaken. Your the resident expert on dear Maggie, so I will leave it you you. As is said before, Thatcherism was largely a myth. Sorry to prick the bubble though.

Labour oversaw the banking crises and rampant housing market having been in power for 10 years at the ports they occurred. The way to improve the availability of social housing is for the government to build more of it. This Laboir policy will be counterproductive, like their non-Dom policy which and Balls said will most likely mean less tax is collected the proposed rent control will cost the government, ie us, money as availability of rental properties to local authorities will shrink

Never a good idea to believe what your told Ernie, especially from politicians.

Thatcher was wrong? That's going to come as a terrible shock to jambalaya.

Good for him for putting her back in her rightful place.

Which place is that then? As far as I can see nothing has changed for SNP, they're hardly going to change their minds and support the Tories instead are they?

End of the day Labour know they need the SNP support but can't say that publicly as that would undermine their candidancies in Scotland. Likewise they also know that they will have that support regardless so they can afford to act the big men. They have to keep up an act otherwise what's the point?

Honestly, I think the outcome of all this will be determined by just how much the SNP are needed when the dust settles. If they are only short by a small margin then they could, in theory, rely on other minority parties on a vote by vote basis but if the SNP command a significant share of power then we may well see Ed eating his words.

Thatcher had strong views on many things, Tony Blair was smart enough to pick up on those which where successful and reposition the Labour Party in accordance and thus deliver 13 years of government.

SK - but he has made a commitment hasn't he? 😉

Good job we don't need to believe them!

While Mr Miliband had previously ruled out a Labour-SNP coalition, he had been more cautious on more informal deals. He told the BBC on Sunday, however: “No coalition, no tie-ins, I have said no deals; I have been clear about that?.?.?.?I am not doing deals with the Scottish National party.”

When asked whether this meant explicitly ruling out a confidence-and-supply agreement, he replied: “No deals”, and reiterated that in the event of a hung parliament, discussions with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon were “not happening”.

Tuition fees anyone?

On a serious point, should the main parties be campaigning on their own policies or should they now be clear with the electorate and come clean on how they would approach forming coalitions and with whom? Otherwise, they make compromises for their expediency while ignoring the reasons why people voted for them. Clegg gets pilloried for this now, but this time it's even more blatant as the odds on any outright majority are so slim.

Labour oversaw the banking and rampant housing market.

Even though they weren't even in power in the early 1990s when the construction industry saw the the greatest turn around from profit to lose of any industry in British history, and the UK experienced the greatest repossession of homes ever as the result of a completely unsustainable housing bubble?

So previously we were blaming Labour for the global recession and international banking crises, now we're blaming them for the worse collapse ever in the housing market which occurred under a Tory government.

Just as well that the Tories had nothing to do with anything, not even when they were in government, and are completely blameless, eh?

So she cannot then vote down a potential minority labour gov and Ed know it. Good for him for putting her back in her rightful place. The poker match goes on.

Except it's perfectly possible for the SNP to vote against some of a Labour government's bills without bringing down the government. It's not all or nothing, the SNP doesn't have to support a minority Labour government in everything.

Well check out dear Nicola's views on legitimate government then Ben?

So if Labour get more seats than the Tories in the election but not an outright majority then Ed will stand by and allow the Tories and LibDems/Unionists/Ukip to form the government for the next 5 years rather than ally with the SNP (providing the numbers stack up)??

A Labour minority government without a formal SNP coalition coes not suit Alex Salmond as they can't play the "nasty Tories we didn't vote for" card nor can they get the additional devolved powers / another referendum they crave. The only party which was going to grant the Scots a binding referendum was the Tories as Labour have too much to lose (did and swill still do in the future). Labour are doing the right thing with the SNP by pointing out clearly that a vote for trim is not a transferable AV style vote for labour

THM can you stop the "Dear Nicola" line please? It looks rather sexist and dismissive. It also looks like the sort of thing people start doing when they're worried....

I really hope the Tories are removed from power, utterly. In cahoots with their revolting press-buddies they're setting the social progress and cohesion in this country back decades.