The 2015 General Election

[colhint]

 

 

Harmsworth is a vile creature

 

 

 

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

[tonyh29]

 

 

 

Harmsworth is a vile creature

 

 

 

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

 

 

 

quite right .. that's akin to manual labour and thus you'd get your butler to do it

[Xann]

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

 

That's 38 degrees, nothing to do with the Guardian.

 

None of the usual printed suspects are covering themselves with glory so far.

 

The Independent was sniffing around a story that could maybe have dealt a knockout blow to the Tories, but it seems they've cold feet.

[rjenkins]

Tried that PositionDial website, and apparently I'm 'Left, in the Centre, Eco-friendly, and strongly Progressive'

 

83% Plaid

81% Labour

75% Lib Dem

70% Green

32% Tory

-34% UKIP

 

Actually scored the highest with the SNP bizarrely, but living in Wales hinders that irrelevant.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

80% labour. No real surprise.

[villa4europe]

My highest was snp with 33% does that mean I don't really agree with any of them?

[phily85]

Tory 64%

Libs 62%

Lab 40%

Green 1%

[darrenm]

86% green

64% labour

54% lib dem

29% scumbags

Deselected ukip as I'm not racist.

[colhint]

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

 

That's 38 degrees, nothing to do with the Guardian.

 

None of the usual printed suspects are covering themselves with glory so far.

 

The Independent was sniffing around a story that could maybe have dealt a knockout blow to the Tories, but it seems they've cold feet.

 

 

 

Do you not think the Guardian is avoiding tax in a big way, and going on about Tax avoidance?

[Xann]

No idea, don't read it.

 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least.

 

I did see a copy of the Mail and GQ over shoulders on a train this morning.

 

Both were utter crap.

[OutByEaster?]

 

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

 

That's 38 degrees, nothing to do with the Guardian.

 

None of the usual printed suspects are covering themselves with glory so far.

 

The Independent was sniffing around a story that could maybe have dealt a knockout blow to the Tories, but it seems they've cold feet.

 

 

 

Do you not think the Guardian is avoiding tax in a big way, and going on about Tax avoidance?

 

I'm interested, I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised, but where's the Guardian being reported as avoiding tax?

[Dr_Pangloss]

 

 

 

 

Harmsworth is a vile creature

 

 

 

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses. 

 

 

 

quite right .. that's akin to manual labour and thus you'd get your butler to do it

 

[bickster]

 

Harmsworth is a vile creature

 

 

 

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses.

What exactly is the connection here between 38 Degrees (A campaigning organisation) and the Guardian (a newspaper) apart from… if you knit yogurt you must like both of them?

[tonyh29]

That's exactly the same thing the Guardian are doing though. If I was avoiding tax, I wouldn't be throwing stones at glass houses.

That's 38 degrees, nothing to do with the Guardian.

None of the usual printed suspects are covering themselves with glory so far.

The Independent was sniffing around a story that could maybe have dealt a knockout blow to the Tories, but it seems they've cold feet.

Do you not think the Guardian is avoiding tax in a big way, and going on about Tax avoidance?

I'm interested, I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised, but where's the Guardian being reported as avoiding tax?

GMC has subsidiaries based out of the Caymen Islands and uses them to avoid tax ... legally I should add

[Rodders]

if it hasn't already come up yet: yet another thingy to do: https://uk.isidewith.com/

 

highly suspicious of the 99% siding with Labour. 

 

siding with 

labour 99%

green 92%

lib edm 92%

plaid 89%

tory 28%

ukip 15%

[jackbauer24]

Does anyone else just get the sense that politicians chose the colour of their tie by the likliehood it'll give them power?! I don't believe many of them really feel passionately about most of the issues facing Britain/ the public and will simply flow the way of least resistance to maintaining their grip on power.

 

Lib Dems killed any political will/hope in this country. Once a party that could provide 'change' and were different to the others quickly sold their soul to grab a morsel of power. It just highlighted they're all the same really; rich, well-educated, white, middle-aged males who just care about title. Few have cares more than whether they'll stay in power.

 

How can anyone really inspire the masses to care about a general election when all it really is seat swapping exercise for like for like personalities than value self promotion over making a difference? If the public unanimously said they'd only vote for Raving Mad party, they'd all scramble for their novelty ties just to stay in power.

 

Lib Dems not only abandon free education policy but raise cost to get power. Tory MPs become UKIP as their bandwagon roles on. UKIP members become Tory so they have more chance of votes. The party system doesn't work. I'm not sure what the alternative is but this system is now broken. Maybe all MPs should be independent, they have all year to discuss, research, decide issues that are relevant to their constituents without being told what to do by a party. They abstain from votes that they don't have opinions on. In the modern age almost all issues could be decided by anonymous, referendum type entries on computers. Very few people will agree with every policy with just one party; how do you vote if you're for one thing but against the other a party suggests? 

 

I'm rambling. Suffice to say I wont be voting. I see no point, little changes other than the colour of the tie. 

[smetrov]

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”
― Karl Marx

[darrenm]

So what does everyone think of the manifestos recently released?

 

My thoughts (main points provided by the Beeb http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/manifesto-guide#tab=issue!issue=priorities!party=con!nation=uk)

 

Tories

Eliminate the deficit and be running a surplus by the end of the Parliament - Impossible.
Extra £8bn above inflation for the NHS by 2020 - Don't believe you. You said no top down reorganisation yet you flog every bit off to the highest bidder. The £8bn will probably just filter through private companies anyway.
Legislate to keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of tax - OK but not enough
30 hours of free childcare per week for working parents of 3&4-year-olds - Only affect a small amount of people.
Hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership - OK

 

Labour

Responsibility "triple lock": fully funded manifesto, cut the deficit every year, balance the books as soon as possible in next Parliament
Extra £2.5bn for NHS, largely paid for by a mansion tax on properties valued at over £2m - Good
Raise minimum wage to more than £8ph by 2019 - Good but not enough
No rise in VAT, NI or basic and higher rates of income tax - Good
Access to childcare from 8am-6pm for parents of primary school children - Not sure how that's going to work. 
Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give energy regulator new powers to cut bills this winter - Wrong way of doing it. Energy bills need to rise for people who overuse. Needs to encourage more efficient use of energy but ensure no-one is unable to pay for adequate utilities.

 

Green

End austerity and restore the public sector, creating jobs that pay at least a living wage - Good
End privatisation of the National Health Service - Excellent
Work with other countries to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than 2C - Why 2C? Is that really the best metric?
£85bn programme of home insulation, renewable electricity generation & flood defences - Excellent. We waste far too much energy.
Provide 500,000 social homes for rent by 2020 and control rent levels
Return the railways to public hands - Absolutely

 

The UKIP undermine themselves to the point of me not bothering to even read their manifesto. I can't take anything they say seriously because I think every policy is backed up by saving money by not treating foreigners with aids etc.

 

I think I agree with Green policies the most with the exception of the nuclear policy. They say no new nuclear stations but I'm not sure we're at the point of being able to do that yet. I don't think we'll have enough money to pay for all of the renewable energy sources we'd have to produce.

Edited April 14, 2015 by darrenm

[lapal_fan]

I think I agree with Green policies the most with the exception of the nuclear policy. They say no new nuclear stations but I'm sure we're at the point of being able to do that yet. I don't think we'll have enough money to pay for all of the renewable energy sources we'd have to produce.

 

Plus the fact that whilst not very clean, it's still cleaner than most, we need new stations because the current ones are falling apart (that's £10bn right there) and will soon be unusable PLUS it's cheaper, although I fully expect/want us to go much greener, as in the long run (certainly longer than any party in govt anyway) it'll see us paying much less for energy due to all of the European fines we're due to incur by not becoming greener sooner.

[tonyh29]

if it hasn't already come up yet: yet another thingy to do: https://uk.isidewith.com/

 

highly suspicious of the 99% siding with Labour. 

 

siding with 

labour 99%

green 92%

lib edm 92%

plaid 89%

tory 28%

ukip 15%

 

your score along with some of the others I'm finding quite surprising  (even my own to a degree)

 

I think its widely accepted there is very little difference between Labour and Tory policies and yet the results we are seeing from everyone show a huge gap  one way or another