The 2015 General Election

[tonyh29]

he He ... I'm a Green , who'd have thunk it

I think you'll find that you're as close to the SNP as you are to the Greens according to that graph.

I think they've got the Greens very much in the wrong spot by the way - they need to move left on the x axis and up quite a bit on the y.

p.s. You've also moved (a smidgeon) to the right economically!

back in 2009 I scored

Economic Left/Right: 0.00

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.56

fast forward to 2013

Economic Left/Right: -0.38

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.03

seems I'm fairy consistent even if I'm slowly coming around to right wing economics ...

[bickster]

I wasn't even asking you to be fair.

You do understand how a forum like this works?

[villaajax]

 

I wasn't even asking you to be fair.

You do understand how a forum like this works?

 

 

Sadly, yes. I direct a question to Patrick and instead I get the stock answer that has been done to death.

[tonyh29]

I wasn't even asking you to be fair.

You do understand how a forum like this works?

Yeah no swearing and make sure you link to external sites

But I'm wearing my I agree with Bicks T-Shirt here it's a forum if you didn't want Bicks to answer I guess you could have written "Bicks need not answer " at the end of your post

[villaajax]

Well at least he used 'curtains' instead of 'ties' to be fair

[snowychap]

What do the Lib Dems stand for?

A lady entering the room?

[tonyh29]

Yeah strange choice Clegg strikes me as more of a Venetian blind man

[Wainy316]

I don't care for any of them and won't be voting for someone, I'll be tactically voting against the Tories.

So your voting labour then

Basically yeah

Wainy, you're in the same constituency as me aren't you?

I believe so

[MakemineVanilla]

Austerity? Misery?

 

You don't know you're born.

 

Here's the Cato Institute's index of economic misery (2013)

 

Edited February 26, 2015 by MakemineVanilla

[meregreen]

Austerity? Misery?

 

You don't know you're born.

 

Here's the Cato Institute's index of economic misery (2013)

 

 I'm sure anyone struggling to pay the bedroom tax, queueing at the food bank, waiting for the phone to ring on their zero hours contract and generally struggling to keep their families fed and warm , while the 1% coin it. Will be delighted to learn how well off they really are.

[sharkyvilla]

Technically you don't actually pay a bedroom tax

[meregreen]

Technically you don't actually pay a bedroom tax

Your rent goes up, you pay that. Same effect.

[MakemineVanilla]

 

Austerity? Misery?

 

You don't know you're born.

 

Here's the Cato Institute's index of economic misery (2013)

 

 I'm sure anyone struggling to pay the bedroom tax, queueing at the food bank, waiting for the phone to ring on their zero hours contract and generally struggling to keep their families fed and warm , while the 1% coin it. Will be delighted to learn how well off they really are.

 

 

I don't quite understand the claim that we are suffering austerity.

 

The economy is bigger now than it was before the crash and the government is spending more, so how does this equate to austerity?

Edited February 26, 2015 by MakemineVanilla

[tonyh29]

 

Austerity? Misery?

 

You don't know you're born.

 

Here's the Cato Institute's index of economic misery (2013)

 

 I'm sure anyone struggling to pay the bedroom tax, queueing at the food bank, waiting for the phone to ring on their zero hours contract and generally struggling to keep their families fed and warm , while the 1% coin it. Will be delighted to learn how well off they really are.

 

long as they  can still smoke 20 a day and drink 10 cans of 8 ace  so I'm sure they will still be happy ..

[tonyh29]

Migration figures in today ... Embarrassing for Cameron as he promised to reduce them .. but possibly also can be spun to show that the economy is doing well and thus Johnny Foreigner wants to come here to live and work ..

 

Presumably UKIP will gain the most from the figures though ?

 

The ONS figures for the year ending September 2014 showed:

:: The number of foreign people coming to live in the UK increased significantly from 530,000 to 624,000 in a year

:: The number people from outside the EU moving to the UK increase by 49,000 to 292,000

:: The number of people from the EU coming to the UK rose by 43,000 to 251,000.

:: 37,000 Romanian and Bulgarians immigrated to the UK in the year ending September 2014 up from 24,000. Only 27,000 came for work. 

:: The number of foreign people coming to the UK to study increased from 175,000 to 192,000

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: "UK job growth is likely to be a key factor behind the recent increases."

 

Source: Evil since 2010 corporation

[Eames]

 

Austerity? Misery?

 

You don't know you're born.

 

Here's the Cato Institute's index of economic misery (2013)

 

 I'm sure anyone struggling to pay the bedroom tax, queueing at the food bank, waiting for the phone to ring on their zero hours contract and generally struggling to keep their families fed and warm , while the 1% coin it. Will be delighted to learn how well off they really are.

 

YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY THE "BEDROOM TAX" BECAUSE IT ISN'T A $&^%ING TAX.

 

Sorry for the caps but that really DOES piss me off. Its a reduction in benefit. Trouble is that doesn't sound as sexy to the media as "bedroom tax" a bizarre and utterly incorrect comparison to the window tax 200 years ago.

[snowychap]

Its a reduction in benefit...

It's a penalty for under occupation.

[Eames]

 

Its a reduction in benefit...

It's a penalty for under occupation.

 

You are of course correct but we are in agreement that it is not at tax.

[PaulC]

latest figures for net migration for year ending september 2014 298,000. Well above what the tories promised, More fuel to the fire for UKIP

[Condimentalist]

What do the Lib Dems stand for?

 

Well traditionally they would consider themselves the 'radical centre' - less authoritarian than Labour, more socially minded than than the Tories. At their best they are not encumbered by 'real politique', which allows them some room to propose sensible, forward thinking policies - although it's been to their cost at times in government. I'd like to see them move a little further left, into the space vacated by Labour. In reality though Bickster is right, they move wherever the political wind takes them - out of necessity to a degree. Unfortunately this time around that's meant a coalition with the Tories, although I'm bloody glad they're in there. I don't really like Clegg, but I think they cop an awful lot of unfair stick - and as Pete says - they're too soft to really make a noise about their achievements. 

 

If they are decimated at the upcoming election then I hope they see the benefit of distancing themselves from the right-leaning Clegg years and the coalition. I want a party on the left to vote for that I actually believe could form a progressive government. In my lifetime that's never been Labour, and that's not really the purpose of the Green's.

Edited February 26, 2015 by PatrickCousens