[Closed] Election Campaign

I am going to let them know who I will vote just to see them fume for entertainment ... 😆

They are dead serious people btw.

I vote for the Party whose ideals I most identify with. If it's highly likely there will be a hung parliament, I think voting on specific policies / manifesto commitments is a bit pointless as they only really apply in the event of an outright majority. With coalitions, everything is up for horse trading.

Well that's my vote cast - it'll be interesting to see what government we end up with.

it'll be interesting to see what government we end up with.

The result of the general election is boringly predictable imo.

Either Cameron or Miliband will become Prime Minister.

And while they continuously try to manufacture differences between themselves they have also simultaneously been going out of their way to reassure voters that no one need worry as they are just like their opponent.

The result of the general election is boringly predictable imo.

Not in Scotland, where I'm voting.

The result of the general election is boringly predictable imo.

You think? By far the most interesting and unpredictable election I can recall. The make up of the coalition will be interesting.

Not in Scotland, where I'm voting.

Sorry you said [i]"what government we end up with"[/i]. Which suggests that you weren't referring to Scotland. Scotland will have the same government after the general election as before the general election.

Sorry you said "what government we end up with". Which suggests that you weren't referring to Scotland. Scotland will have the same government after the general election as before the general election.

Probably not. The SNP will still run devolved matters but they might have some influence in the UK as a whole. I don't think this time there will be an outright majority for anyone and it's looking unlikely the LibDems will be in a position to sell out by themselves this time.

I don't think this time there will be an outright majority for anyone and it's looking unlikely the LibDems will be in a position to sell out by themselves this time.

And that doesn't change one iota the fact that either Cameron or Miliband will be Prime Minister. Exactly the same situation if there was an outright majority or the LibDems were in a position to sell out.

The Sun comes out for the Tories - no surprise there - for reasons including to stop the SNP running the country. The Scottish Sun comes out for the SNP!

We're doomed! Ruthie is on the warpath... 🙂

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Nope,she doesn't look familiar...Should I know who she is? I teach Modern Studies but even I cannot be expected to recognise every wannabie politician 😆

Leader of the Tory Party in Scotland for those who do not recognise our right wing heroes. 🙂

What a surprise Murdoch once again tries to screw Labour over.

Loving the Davidson meme's.

Ruth Davidson has always come across well. I don't agree with her views personally, but I respect her as a politician.

Yes, she's a rare thing, a likeable Tory. And especially with all the abuse she gets, you have to admire her gumption.

Yes, she's a rare thing, a likeable Tory. And especially with all the abuse she gets, you have to admire her gumption.

Apparently she's one of the better liked party leaders in Scotland, despite her party not being popular.

She is about as likeable as they get,but look at her competition.

Speaking of likeable politicians you'd never vote for, have we done [url= http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/strava-clocks-scottish-politician-speeding-after-he-forgets-to-switch-off-app-168654 ]Willie Rennie getting clocked by Strava[/url]?

I have to say that I'm absolutely disgusted by the anti-SNP rhetoric currently being spewed out by Dave, and his friends in the right wing press. It confirms what a truly nasty arrogant bunch they are. What they're suggesting is that the SNP is not a legitimate party of government.

Well, I'm sorry Dave, but this is a democracy, and if the constituents of wards North of the Border want to return SNP MP's to Westminster, then those MP's have just as much democratic legitimacy as the MP for Chipping Norton, or Henley on Thames! Whether you like it or not!

And its just this kind of monumental arrogance, and condescension, that disgusts not just voters in Scotland, but pretty much anywhere outside London and the South East, from Cornwall to Newcastle!

And the labour parties attitude isn't much better either. Its equal guilty of refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the SNP.

Well its a dangerous game they're both playing. Because this distasteful attitude just makes the 2 Westminster parties look even more aloof, disengaged and unrepresentative than ever. It just confirms every suspicion, in 'the regions' that our views don't count, and how dare we upstarts even suggest they should be taken into consideration.

The Scottish people have been offered something different from the rest of the UK. The lucky bastards! They have been offered a legitimate, credible alternative to the tired 2 party system, that is increasingly distrusted outside London and the South East. And look what they've opted for. The whole political landscape has changed. Should that not tell them all they need to know about how Westminster is viewed?

Forget the whole independence thing for the moment, and concentrate on the other SNP policies.

The Tory party is already an irrelevance in the northern cities. Rightfully loathed for what they uncaringly did to our industries and communities. Nobody votes for them! And thats never going to change! And the labour party is just the default vote, as a result of that anti-tory hatred. And my god, they've taken that for granted. For 30 years!!! And the result is the pathetic, totally unrepresentative, hollowed out sight of the present Tory-light party

Well they need to be bloody careful. Because if large parts of the country were being offered the same choice the Scots presently have in front of them - A credible, more left-leaning, truly socially democratic alternative to the 2 party cabal, then the labour party could also be finding itself as dead in the water as they are in central Glasgow, in their other previous 'heartlands' too!

Was that on the way to his press conference to proclaim that there would be no coalition deals as far as the Lib Dems were concerned. Anybody fancy taking a pic of the front cover of the sun in England today and posting it up? The contrast with the Scottish edition will be funny.

Shirley any right minded person would see that the Murdoch is backing the Tories and realise they are a bad choice!

@binners I don't think anyone is saying the SNP are not legitimate, you have been listening too hard to the SNP. The Tories are simply saying a government with the SNP will be chose and quite rightly pointing out how Milliband will be a puppet to Salmond and Sturgeon

The North was in decline when the business owners decided to out source their manufacturing to Asia. Didn't do themselves any favours with their side of the industrial relations disputes either. Blaming it on the Tories/Thatcher is just convenient. Blair recognised to get elected the Labour party had to move to the centre. The more Labour goes left the less likely they will be to win an election. The SNP are NOT a left leaning party IMO, lets look at what they have done/will do in Holyrood. Trident has nothing to do with nuclear disarmament, its all about "your" nukes being in "our" country. It's easy to shout from the roof tops but once in government you have to balance the books.

Blaming it on the Tories/Thatcher is just convenient

Jammy You really, really, really don't get it at all, do you? You think we loath them because we just failed to understand things? Global economics too complicated for us whippet-breeding, flat cap wearing pigeon fanciers? Us poor stupid northerners eh?

Well that isn't what happened. We appreciate that some of that was the result of globalised forces beyond our control. But It was the vicious malice with which that agenda was pursued. They virtually declared war on us!!! I personally watched, on my journey to school, daily, the Police, bussed in from the South East, on premium overtime, deployed as a brutal militia against the miners! Its about this....

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And Michael Hesaltine was a lone voice in the Tory party suggesting that decimating the industries of the northern cities, and making not even the slightest token effort to cushion the crushing economic blow, might not be the most humane thing for a government to do. They sat back and did absolutely nothing while whole communities were torn apart by mass unemployment and poverty!

Everyone who lived through that absolutely despises the Tory's!!! Why do you think that the northern cities return not a single Tory MP. Not one!!! I've lived in constituencies were the Tory's poll around 4%

Is that because we're just too thick to understand global economics? Or because we bitterly resent what was done to us by a party who just did''t care! And in a lot of cases looked like they were actively enjoying the whole thing?

Trident has nothing to do with nuclear disarmament,

Getting rid of them was a central policy of the SNP since the year dot. It was also one of the promises Labour made and u turned on. The SNP don't want them removed from Scotland,they want them removed all together and the money spent on people. SNP are not a left leaning party... 😆 did you not suggest on the indy thread that they were pretending to be in order to stay in power?

@binners I don't think anyone is saying the SNP are not legitimate

Have you not been paying attention? Thats exactly what they're saying. They're preparing the ground to say that a minority labour government, supported on whatever basis by the SNP, is not democratically legitimate. And if that comes to pass, which it looks like it well might, then the Tory press will be screaming blue murder that this is the case

To be fair, that's not the same thing as you're claiming regardless that it's clearly scaremongering.

EDIT - actually on reflection it's semantics really I suppose. Either way, as I've said before, the nasty party are playing nasty politics but probably tactically it's the right thing for them...

jambalaya - Member

@binners I don't think anyone is saying the SNP are not legitimate

Except for David Cameron, who says that "these people" aren't allowed in the government of "his country". And Theresa May who says "It would raise difficult questions about legitimacy." And Nick Clegg. And the Telegraph. And the Mail.

Milliband will be a puppet to Salmond and Sturgeon

The SNP are NOT a left leaning party IMO

Well they need to be bloody careful. Because if large parts of the country were being offered the same choice the Scots presently have in front of them - A credible, more left-leaning, truly socially democratic alternative to the 2 party cabal, then the labour party could also be finding itself as dead in the water as they are in central Glasgow, in their other previous 'heartlands' too!

There was a poll recently which I can't find right now, which showed that if the SNP were running candidates in the rest of the UK too then they'd win the North and London, and be in with a fighting chance of Nicola Sturgeon being the next PM.

The problem isn't that the SNP are so strong, it's that Labour are so pathetically feart.

It makes perfect sense to have EVEL given the devolved power the Scots asked for and got. I have been paying attention and at no time have I heard anyone say the SNP are not legitimate or do not have a right to sit at Westminster.

Now help me out on the history of decimating the Northern industries. Coal is very much yesterdays fuel with ecological campaigners worldwide calling for it to be phased out. Scargill tried to hold the country to ransom by switching off the lights. I'm old enough to remember the power cuts caused by miners strikes, not surprisingly subsequent governments made sure that would never happen again by diversifying into oil. Scargill picked a fight using the lives of his members as a weapon and lost, lost heavily.

I could post up a picture of the taxi with the concrete block through the windscreen.

I see how you got some good north/south divide stuff in the bussed in police on overtime there, well done.

The steel industry just moved to lower cost producers along with the ship building, as you say economic forces.

Binners we all know the Northern cities are strong Labour areas as is Central London (due to high levels of social housing and private houses being owned by foreigners not entitled to vote and commuters living outside the central areas) but support for the Conservatives is pretty much national, there are plenty in the North voting Tory. From 2010

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support for the Conservatives is pretty much national

To be fair to our blue friend, given that binners was talking about England's North, I think it's fair to assume he meant national to mean England.

Now help me out on the history of decimating the Northern industries. Coal is very much yesterdays fuel with ecological campaigners worldwide calling for it to be phased out. Scargill tried to hold the country to ransom by switching off the lights.

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At the risk of sounding repetitive, it isn't what happened as a result of global economic forces. I get that. Its the brutal manner in which it was done. A callous an uncaring government, who, in the context of what we're discussing at the moment, are meant to representative of the WHOLE country, just sat back and watched the entire economies of some northern regions absolutely decimated, while they sat back and did absolutely nothing. In fact, it looked like many of the Tory front bench were really really enjoying their 'vengeance' on the uppity unionised working classes, who'd brought down the last Tory government.

That, once again, is why they're so hated up here. It'll never be forgotten. And certainly never forgiven.

To quote the lady, the resulting mass unemployment, and grinding poverty was 'a price worth paying'. Well that wasn't an opinion broadly shared by those of us paying that price, believe me!

I see how you got some good north/south divide stuff in the bussed in police on overtime there, well done.

I'm merely stating facts

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2015/feb/27/guardian-poll-projection ]Polls not looking too good for Miliband.[/url]

This is the worst prediction for labour the guardian's election model has given so far. Perhaps most worrying for us left-leaning folk is that according to this labour and the SNP will not hold a majority. Also the Mori poll has swung towards the tories.

Is it just me or has the labour campaign lost a bit of momentum? Seems like when I turn the news on all I see is Cameron in shirts-sleeves-rolled-up-ranting-like-he-gives-a-shit mode and a meek Miliband trying to look presidential behind his lecturn. It'd be a sad but entirely predictable turn of events if labour lose it due to a lack of passion/fight.

Not sure why you are saying that as if it is doom the doom is spread around equally as there is no way that The tories can form a majority

An anti-Tory bloc (Lab, SNP, SDLP, PC, Green) would vote down a Conservative government and Even with support from the DUP and Ukip, the current Con/LD coalition could not form a government

Will be interesting to see what happens afterwards especially if Clegg is a goner.

Interesting graphics. The telling thing for me really is that Labour have really screwed up in Scotland and that's why we'll have a hung parliament.

Not sure why you are saying that as there is no way that The tories can form a majority

True but it's a lot closer than it was a week ago which had labour+SNP well over the 326 threshold without having to worry about support from the other parties.

And the labour parties attitude isn't much better either. Its equal guilty of refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the SNP.

Don't think Labour are saying SNP MPs are illegitimate, Labour just don't want to work with them for many political reasons and policy differences such as bitterness over 1979, Scottish independence and Trident.

There was an interesting poll a few days ago stating that the Tories had significantly lead with people over 40. Considering they tend to vote but aren't prolific on social media, are we seeing an under reporting of the Tory support and an over reporting of the rest. Hard to tell until Friday next week I guess.

One thing I honestly don't get: Why are Labour so in love with Trident? the Tories I can understand, but Labour?

I reckon there'll be a (hopefully only small) improvement in Tory voting come the day as people decide to either stick with what they know or don't vote how they claim to the polls (because many won't admit that they're going to vote Tory).

Ben - Trident would provide an awful lot of jobs in solid labour voting constituencies

As for the polls.The Tory's always do better than the polls suggest. As people who possess any self-awareness, won't admit to voting Tory, as they know how decent human beings generally tend to interpret that. 😉