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UK general election May 2015

Who will you (or are likely to) vote for in the coming UK general election this May?

  • Total voters
    18
P

philbo

High Priest of Cynicism
Altfish said:
And another Kipper opens his mouth...

Israel should kidnap Barack Obama and put him on trial like a Nazi, Ukip candidate says - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

Where do they find them? Do they not train them in PR?
Click to expand...
Right now, the only criterion for becoming a UKIP candidate is wanting to become a UKIP candidate, so it's not surprising that many of the fruitcakes, loonies and not-exactly-in-the-closet-any-more racists are candidates. As for training in PR, be thankful they don't: far better that people say what they think and can be judged on it than going round thinking these things should happen, and only ever talking about it to like-minded souls in their own echo chamber so they can convince themselves they're right..
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
Altfish said:
I don't think Labour would need the Lib Dems to be able to form a Government...but It'll be close.
I'm quite looking forward to another coalition.
Click to expand...

It will certainly make things more interesting. Despite what the politicians say I reckon there are already lots of conversations going on behind closed doors, the ones they used to have in smoke-filled rooms. ;)
 
Altfish

Altfish

Veteran Member
Latest predictions...

Conservatives 287
Labour 271
SNP 42
Liberal Democrats 27
DUP 8
SDLP 3
Plaid Cymru 2
Greens 1
UKIP 1
Other 8

Seems a big swing to Tories against Labour since last poll I published
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
I still don't trust the Tories with public services, and I still don't trust Labour with the economy. I'm not sure there is a viable alternative.
 
Laika

Laika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Meanwhile, in the strange alternate universe inhabited by the UK far left, the Communist Party of Britain was on the Daily Politics.


It's just weird they even got mentioned honestly.
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
Many moons ago I used to hang around with some members of the Communist Party. I didn't realise they still existed to be honest.
 
Ultimatum

Ultimatum

Classical Liberal
Altfish said:
Latest predictions...

Conservatives 287
Labour 271
SNP 42
Liberal Democrats 27
DUP 8
SDLP 3
Plaid Cymru 2
Greens 1
UKIP 1
Other 8

Seems a big swing to Tories against Labour since last poll I published
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, UKIP are on track for 100+ second places across England.
We are in desperate need for a proportional representational system. The democratic system simply calls for it.
 
Laika

Laika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Spiny Norman said:
Many moons ago I used to hang around with some members of the Communist Party. I didn't realize they still existed to be honest.
Click to expand...

They still exist, but the far left is extremely fictionalized. There are several "communist" parties in the UK, but CPB is the one whose claim to be the successor gets recognition. not 100% sure why, I think it's for legal reasons (as it inherited the hammer/sickle, hammer/dove symbols from the original which was dissolved in the early 90's). it's quite a mess honestly.
 
P

philbo

High Priest of Cynicism
Ultimatum said:
Meanwhile, UKIP are on track for 100+ second places across England.
We are in desperate need for a proportional representational system. The democratic system simply calls for it.
Click to expand...
Were you calling for PR when it was the Liberals/LibDems in the same position?
..i.e. for most of the last 50 years

It was the iniquities of FPTP that got me interested in politics back in the 70s, I found it hard to believe that a party which polled more than half the votes of the big two ended up with only 13 seats and no power whatsoever (and with stupendous irony, Heath complained to Thorpe that the result wasn't fair, as the Conservatives had received more votes than Labour but got fewer seats).
 
Ultimatum

Ultimatum

Classical Liberal
philbo said:
Were you calling for PR when it was the Liberals/LibDems in the same position?
..i.e. for most of the last 50 years
Click to expand...

PR is essential in a wide, multi-party democratic system. I'm not only in favour of it because UKIP is my party and I want it to do so much better--it simply is a common sense approach to democracy.
Would you disagree?
 
Altfish

Altfish

Veteran Member
Ultimatum said:
PR is essential in a wide, multi-party democratic system. I'm not only in favour of it because UKIP is my party and I want it to do so much better--it simply is a common sense approach to democracy.
Would you disagree?
Click to expand...
Up to a point, but there has to be a cut-off so that a threshold has to be reached to secure any seats at all. i.e. you set a minimum (say 5% of the vote) to hold any seats otherwise you end up with Bez's Party having a seat - mind you, maybe that's not a bad idea!
 
Ultimatum

Ultimatum

Classical Liberal
Altfish said:
Up to a point, but there has to be a cut-off so that a threshold has to be reached to secure any seats at all. i.e. you set a minimum (say 5% of the vote) to hold any seats otherwise you end up with Bez's Party having a seat - mind you, maybe that's not a bad idea!
Click to expand...

I'm going to disagree. I woud propose absolute PR--after all, the clue is in the name.
Democracy must encompass all viewpoints, lest it no longer becomes a so called democracy.
 
P

philbo

High Priest of Cynicism
Ultimatum said:
PR is essential in a wide, multi-party democratic system. I'm not only in favour of it because UKIP is my party and I want it to do so much better--it simply is a common sense approach to democracy.
Would you disagree?
Click to expand...
It's a bit more complicated than that..

PR is a broad term, encompassing many different possible voting systems with their own advantages & disadvantages. Simplest form of PR is the party list system, we have a regional version of this for Euro elections, which means you vote for a party and seats are allocated proportional to the number of votes - but this means the voters have no connection whatsoever to the specific people elected. The party list means that those people "in" with the party at the top of the list cannot be voted out & easily leads to corruption (nearly all corrupt/failing authorities are those where the ruling party believes it will never be voted out, be that local councils, individual MPs or ). Other variants, things like the Additional Member System, which has a FPTP component topped up with a party list in order to get proportionality, have similar sorts of issues.

My favoured system would be STV - the single transferrable vote in multi-member consituencies. Not a fully proportional system, but one that means the electorate get to choose people, and even between candidates from the same party: Conservatives could choose between Eurosceptic and Europhile candidates, for example. It would have a similar, but lower, barrier to entry for new parties compared to FPTP, in that a party would need to get 5th/6th seat rather than win outright in one constituency. Biggest downside to STV is that it expects voters to think a bit more deeply.
 
Altfish

Altfish

Veteran Member
Ultimatum said:
I'm going to disagree. I would propose absolute PR--after all, the clue is in the name. .cracy must encompass all viewpoints, lest it no longer becomes a so called democracy.
Click to expand...
You have to have a lower limit otherwise you end up with more parties than seats available. 5 or 10% seems reasonable
 
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