I reckon Crosby has fundamentally misunderstood the way the public thinks in this country…the UK is much more sympathetic to ‘underdogs’ and likes someone who stands up to bullies

We’re talking about the country whose longest-serving PMs in the last century are Thatcher and Blair, right? 😆

the whole campaign is sh*t with all parties simply fiddling around the edges,

Did you read the post above yours?

My wife said she was going to vote green, I told her fair enough but to read their policies. She’s not voting green any more. Same with a squaddie mate, he didn’t realise what the greens propose to do to the military! I do wonder if just liked the name……
These people are by no means stupid and deserve a vote as much as anyone else, they just react to whatever their chosen media outlet feed them as you say.

In the loveliest possible way, if your squaddie mate a) didn’t know the Greens weren’t big fans of military spending and b) expect a Green government with an absolute majority to unilaterally dissolve the military in its first term, that says more about your mate than the Greens…

Poor …. go away and have a little think…

Is that aimed at me or aimed at him 😉

Funny though

with a Labour government it would have been 50% larger, possibly more.

I though the Tories had achieved what :Labour said they would do- genuine Q that one.

The comments on our local Tory candidate’s [Facebook] page show that [buying Facebook ads] isn’t always effective; lots of negative comments.

He posted a pic of him with a fluffy puppy and the resulting thread almost made me feel sorry for him…almost: https://www.facebook.com/petercuthbertson4darlington/photos/a.485187671623801.1073741829.476350525840849/553169878158913/?type=1&theater

We’re talking about the country whose longest-serving PMs in the last century are Thatcher and Blair, right?

True but I do think there’s a distaste for the negative campaigning employed so far by the tories. If you look at how they’ve changed their campaign since Fallon’s backstabber hysterics they would seem to agree.

dazh – Member
…I do think there’s a distaste for the negative campaigning…

Reckon you could summarise it there – any party that thinks it a good tactic to bully voters by telling them opinions are ‘wrong’ is playing a high-risk PR strategy.

As far as the UK is concerned, it is not a marketing technique ever successfully played by commercial brands, primarily because you are effectively saying “if you even though about X or Y then you’re an idiot”.

Reckon you could summarise it there – any party that thinks it a good tactic to bully voters by telling them opinions are ‘wrong’ is playing a high-risk PR strategy.

I’m not so sure, people may say they don’t like it but the research says it works.

What I want to know is…. has Junky hi-jacked THM account?

Have JY and THM ever been seen together in the same room ? Not unheard of for people to have multiple accounts ?

(from p49 of Green manifesto)

@mike, well you’ve shot yourself in the foot a bit there with your source 😉

We could spend more of our GDP on public goods if our taxes where higher like they are in the most of the countries you quoted, lets start with VAT of food like they have in Germany 8% or France 5.5%

I would say my one curiosity is the US which has very low taxes and generally hates public spending even the Democrats. Needs some more investigation but given the source is the Green’s manifesto I think that’s a waste of time.

I would say my one curiosity is the US which has very low taxes and generally hates public spending even the Democrats.

It’s the classic rightwing trick of pretending they hate the state and state spending, whilst at the same time spending more than their opponents and running higher deficits. As has been pointed out in other threads, rightwing parties have a very poor track record of reducing spending and running surpluses, yet quite cleverly seem to be able to convince the people of the opposite.

Some commentary (originating from Jim Murphy) / analysis of the Tory manifesto which says English MPs will get to veto any vote on English taxes. Together with other sections on English Votes for English laws it seems clear they intend to introduce English Income Tax once the Scots have the same. So the tax free allowance will be set nationally accross the UK but the rates and bands will be determined locally. The Scots will have the freedom to introduce a 50p top rate for example but that can only be done in England if a majority of English MPs vote for it (or strictly speaking don’t veto it)

Document below, page 69 and 72

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf

I’ve not been paying attention today as I’ve actually had some work to do. I see someone in the form of the Libdems has finally mentioned education. Bit odd it’s taken this long seeing as there’s a bit of a crisis with teachers demoralised, a lack of places in primary schools, class sizes back above 30 etc. I’d have thought it would’ve been a much bigger issue but labour and the tories barely mentioned it.

“”It’s the classic rightwing trick of pretending they hate the state and state spending, whilst at the same time spending more than their opponents and running higher deficits. As has been pointed out in other threads, rightwing parties have a very poor track record of reducing spending and running surpluses, yet quite cleverly seem to be able to convince the people of the opposite. “”

owning and controlling most of the media is a big help in that objective……no awkward questions and plenty of negative bile on your opponents-helps keep the misnamed “debate” on their terms –suprising that despite all the odds stacked against them , opposition does get elected-usually because people are so fed up of the existing govt–seems the declinnig electorate and turnout favours the tories…..

The lib dems are ****ed! As if we did’t know already. After this……

They’ve clearly decided that under no circumstances will they commit to anything whatsoever. I can’t remember which one of the muppets was on the Today programme this morning (they’re a memorable bunch, aren’t they?), but everything was preceded with

“we can’t envisage a situation in which we’d….”

or

“obviously, we’d prefer to… “

and other such nonsense. They must think we’ve all just fallen out of a tree. Roughly translated, this means…

“we don’t have a single, solitary policy we’d be prepared to commit too. This whole manifesto is a total sham, as everything….. and we do mean absolutely everything… is up for negotiation, as long as the handful of us left get to keep our ministerial cars. We’re grown to quite like them. And we don’t really give a shit about anything else really. We have absolutely no principles whatsoever”

****s!!!!

as long as the handful of us left get to keep our ministerial cars. We’re grown to quite like them. And we don’t really give a shit about anything else really. We have absolutely no principles whatsoever

Don’t think I’ve ever seen a minor party openly admitting that there’s no point in having any proper policies as they’ve little chance of ever implementing them, so instead they’ll just whore themselves out to whoever needs them and try to do some frilling round the edges. It’s mind-blowingly cynical whilst at the same time brutally honest.

Dazh – and amazing how many fall for it, Look at all the headlines about austerity, cuts, privatisation etc when as you say they are all largely a mirage. The SNP owes it’s status to fighting policies that haven’t even been implemented – although given that their grasp of even the basics is so weak we can excuse them.

So who are the stupid ones?

Likely result at the moment is two parties who continue to be at loggerheads with each other. Balls U turn on the SNP might make Cleggs tuition fee hiccup look minor!!!

Second leaflet though the door today. Things must be hotting up!

Second leaflet though the door today. Things must be hotting up

And our ukip candidate has offered to organise a Gay Pride parade.

Nothing to add to the thread other than I’ve finally worked out what it is about THM that winds me up so much. It’s not the total one eye’d ness when it comes to attacking the SNP but pretty much no body else, or even the often patronizing tone, it’s the excessive use of exclamation marks!

!!

See last 24 hours comments on Tories and Labour to falsify the cyclops ideas. True Cleggy has got off lightly recently probably because they have kept the mad old one under wraps. But the SNP are in the Champions league of political BS and hypocrisy, so they always deserve special attention. Fiscal responsibility anyone?!?! 😉

Sorry, should be Fiscal responsibility anyone?

Balls U turn on the SNP might make Cleggs tuition fee hiccup look minor!!!

Given Balls is probably the most tribal, it’s going to be interesting seeing him swallow a bit of compromise with either the SNP or the Libdems. He has a talent for ignoring his beliefs when it appears to suit him though so I suspect he’ll do it with some aplomb.

Not had any leaflets here yet. I’m at the top of a hill though so they probably can’t be arsed. Dissapointing as I quite like testing out the canvassers, and I’ve never lived in a place where the tories bother until now.

I want my MP to come round to discus the email I sent here about voting against military intervention in Syria. She is best placed on local issues but voted very badly on this issue. Hard to decide…

I’m convinced that Ed Balls is like a goldfish, and doesn’t remember anything he’s done previously. Even if it happened only 5 seconds before.

And if he can’t remember it, then he can’t be held accountable for it, can he?

Anyone else noticed how any real future contenders for the leadership of either of the main parties have become invisible. Anyone seen Andy Burnham or Boris recently?

Anyone else noticed how any real future contenders for the leadership of either of the main parties have become invisible. Anyone seen Andy Burnham or Boris recently?

Didn’t Boris pop his head above the parapet and call Blair an ‘epic tosser’? Funny cos despite my comments on negative campaigning I found that quite amusing. I think Burnham’s probably been gagged, but I’m puzzled at Cooper’s anonymity considering that the alternative female figureheads on the labour side. Theresa May is no doubt already sitting in a room full of phones waiting for Cameron to resign.

Yes the silent cooper is odd?

Was in Marlow today and drove past May posters. Still staggering that someone with such a poor record of policy execution could be a future leader. Wasn’t the Prescott experience enough?

Lib Dem leaflets aplenty in Eastleigh, probably 4 vs 1 each from Labour and Tories.

Dave has just announced some new policies

I missed that one 🙂

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/12/boris-johnson-tony-blair-tosser-warning-eu-membership-vote

Did anyone hear the UKIP whatever she was on Today, er, yesterday. Dropped more clangers than the amputee campanology ensemble doing ‘Enter Sandman’. £30bn for four trident subs apparently. Bargain.

I’d forgotten it was the non-debate tonight. Really not sure if it’ll play well for Miliband. He’ll either look like a towering statesman alongside Farage et al or will be brought down to their level. Difficult to say really. Cameron’s taking a huge risk though IMO, if it goes well for Miliband he’ll get a huge amount of free exposure and Cameron will have no way to respond.

Help please – am feeling that I need to know more on most party’s policies but don’t have the endurance needed for reading multiple manifestos.

Where can I find more detail as opposed to the headlines that have been reported?

Thanks. 🙂

Anyone watch this? Would you vote for Leanne Wood, if you could? Didn’t particularly like her performance, but it’s not a bad protest vote maybe.

Crikey … we are doomed (after watching the BBC election debate).

It looks like SNP is going to get Scotland out of UK from within the “coalition with Labour”. Well done SNP.

If they are in coalition then Labour will not be able to do anything to prevent the breakup and will consigned Labour to history as the weakest link in UK breakup.

😆 Let’s see if some one is going to break their promises …

Oh ya … on the side note … if the Italian keeps getting the boat people from North Africa and Middle East at the rate of 10,000 within a short period of time (several weeks). How many houses do they have to build to accommodate all of them say if the boat people keep arriving?

Say if UK accept those boat people how many houses do we need to build?

Yes I did molgrips and surprised that there wasn’t a thread on it.

Anyone know why Clegg wasn’t there?

Would you vote for Leanne Wood, if you could?

Based purely on tonight’s performance I would without any shadow of a doubt vote for Leanne Wood if I could.

She repeatedly hit the nail on the head, more so than anyone else, imo.

.

BTW I reckon that Ed Miliband was very lucky to have Nigel Farage there. Farage made him look very slightly less right-wing.

I also learnt tonight just how daft Farage can be, wtf made him think it was a good idea to attack the audience?

Only watched the first little bit, then dinner with the outlaws. But loved the bit when Farrage said that there were two people missing and everyone here said, “who is the other one?”.

Extraordinary ability to talk complete nonsense and to deliberately mislead. It is funny to think that Ed is likely to take the path to ST power that will condemn labour to opposition for many years. Did he not watch what happened to the Lib Dems?

Good article in FT today about why are politicians not held liable for telling porkies. The people who are meant to serve us a re protected from telling the truth. Extraordinary!

molgrips – Member

Anyone watch this? Would you vote for Leanne Wood, if you could? Didn’t particularly like her performance, but it’s not a bad protest vote maybe.

No. She is totally unrealistic.

She really struggled with one of the question which I even felt embarrassed for her.

She can be the voice for the Welsh but not beyond as she Cannot handle anything beyond her current position. She is not strong enough.

How does the BBC allow someone to pose the question about immigration and pressure on public services? Complete xenophobic nonsense.

Good for bennet for rejecting it from the outset, even though she quickly moved into rubbish soon afterwards. Even Ed tried to play the migrants pushing wages down BS despite stats easily showing that this is rubbish. Immigration has not lead to a decline in wages – the main losers have been previous immigrants no one else. Xenophobic gobbledegook.

Missed it. Was down the pub instead which was undoubtedly more productive. Newsnight is on now with Jeremy *unt, why is he even allowed to comment considering the tories boycotted it?

Is it worth watching on iPlayer?

the main losers have been previous immigrants no one else

Well as long as it only effects previous immigrants, eh? They probably deserve it 🙄

QT now – the lovely piers Morgan to stir it up!!!

Finally get to see Yvette Cooper.

How many stats with Shapps try to use in each sentence???

teamhurtmore – Member
How does the BBC allow someone to pose the question about immigration and pressure on public services? Complete xenophobic nonsense.

Do you think your moral is higher then the person who asked the question?

You sound very elitist … 😯