General Election

[SMEE]

So...not long till General Election now......whos voting? Who ya voting for and why?

[Yngwie]

No seat has ever been decided by a single vote, so your vote and my vote have always been pointless.

On principal though I'll keep on voting. I'm registered to vote by post, makes it so simple, and it gets me voting in mickey mouse council and european elections that I otherwise wouldn't bother with.

[Glen Mhor]

I'll be voting but it's really pretty pointless as the election result will be decided by a few marginal seats in middle England.

After all the expenses scandals I think these politicians have a brass necked cheek even to show face. They should be very humble indeed but there's little evidence of that from any of them.

[+DoofersDad]

I'm voting for Terry Butcher - candidate for Promotion Celebration Party!

[MissICT]

wish it was in june

Its one month to early.

[TomCaleyJag]

wish it was in june

Its one month to early.

Snap

[DornochCaley]

Both Partys, Labour and Tories are pish. I do not like SNP, but they are the best bet for Scotland anyway.

Not that i can vote yet though.

[caleyrule]

Well after our Labour candidate in our area decided he liked using twitter Labour wont be getting my vote but doesnt matter who does i think Moray is one of the safest seats in % of votes in scotland if not the safest seat

[CaleyD]

No wonder this country is going down the pan when people are basing their choices on whether a candidate uses Twitter or not!!!

[Joe DiMaggio]

No wonder this country is going down the pan when people are basing their choices on whether a candidate uses Twitter or not!!!

He's talking about the Labour candidate who got sacked for posting a load of abuse about everyone on twitter. Think he was calling Nick Clegg a bas**rd and the speaker a tit, a few other people were cu*ts etc etc

Edited April 12, 2010 by Joe DiMaggio

[EWS]

No wonder this country is going down the pan when people are basing their choices on whether a candidate uses Twitter or not!!!

He's talking about the Labour candidate who got sacked for posting a load of abuse about everyone on twitter. Think he was calling Nick Clegg a bas**rd and the speaker a tit, a few other people were cu*ts etc etc

He referred to the elderly as Coffin Dodgers, called all sorts of ministers and politicians ***** etc..., not to mention was also 'taught the multiple versions of The Follow Follow song'. The guy is a cretin.

Anyway, today saw the launch of the Labour Manifesto. As I was discussing with my friends, what does it really mean? The one thing that I take from it, is that no matter what Labour say, they will not implement. From the last manifesto, I believe there was about 122 broken promises (not to mention the major one of the income tax rise).

I predict that the Tories and the Lib Dems will attack them on the VAT non-promise, but to be honest no party will put a no VAT rise in their manifesto.

So what interests me about the Labour Manifesto?

16 year voting age

Reform in the commons and lords (changing the voting system is a must and changing the Lords to an elected one is crucial)

Removing stamp duty for first time buyers (doesn't go far enough in my opinion)

The high speed rail link.

The legal right to a bank account.

However, I just don't have the faith, or trust in Labour at all. There are pledges in there that just won't work, or will never be implemented;

Merging police forces if they are underachieving (imagine the Highland and Grampian constabulary merging)

A 6 month placement for everyone out of work under the age of 25

Just two of the things that won't work.

I suggest everyone goes and has a look at the manifesto here and makes their own decisions about what they have said.

We have the Tories tomorrow, and then Lib Dem on Wednesday.

[Glen Mhor]

What gets me about General Elections these days is just how much the voters are on the outside looking into the cosy little world of the politicians and the media. The politicians are just terrified of meeting any real voters that's why they like to be seen in carefully stage managed photo opportunities surrounded by admiring party members. No danger of being challenged or their policies being questioned at these meaningless events.

Please can we have our General Election back.

[EWS]

Whether or not they are staged doesn't make a difference, because they will just dodge the difficult questions anyway - as seen by Brown ignoring the hecklers.

[EWS]

Brilliance personified.

[PullMyFinger]

I'll be voting SNP, at least if we get shafted yet again I'll know my money is in Scotland.

[TopSix]

EWS, you picked up on the merging of police forces if they are underachieving. That wouldn't happen north of the border due to justice being devolved. The dynamic of this election really has changed since devolution. What's interesting is that Labour are promising to give more powers to the Scottish Parliament. What saddens me is the polls are suggesting a predicted turnout of only around 55%.

[TSTtiger]

what gets up my nose is labour continuously taking us for muppets.of their 50 westminster election pledges released yesterday, on almost half of these, westminster have no control over these issues as they are devolved to the scottish parliment. its either incompetance, arrogance or lies. actually given their track record it'll be all 3.

[starchief]

I'm so disappointed it's between Labour and Conservative. Forgetting about the disgust of the expenses scandal, both held very very similar policies on the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A hung parliament would be the best option. And yet, socialists will still vote for a right-wing Labour Party and businesses will still vote for a Tory Party whose policies wouldn't have stood up to the financial collapse and whose last government led us into two recessions and record unemployment.

You couldn't make it up.

[ictchris]

This is a zombie election - no party wants to mention the massive cuts in public spending that will be required because they will lose votes. The big arguments are incidental issues - the NI issue is less than 1% of GDP, toddler credits and a tax break for marriage (both stupid ideas) are even smaller.

One possible issue is that if we end up with a hung parliament no party will have the mandate to implement the cuts that are required and we will end up in a worse economic situation (if that's possible). There's also the prospect of minor parties extracting pork barrell concessions, as Baron von Smugback has said he wants.

[MrsICTFC]

I will be voting for the Lib Dems.

[Yngwie]

businesses will still vote for a Tory Party

Businesses don't get a vote. Perhaps they should though.

[TopSix]

Harsh cuts at this time will be bad. Savings must be made but the way in which the government goes about them are important. From what I can gather, the Tories don't have a real manifesto.

[TopSix]

Anybody but Labour.

Out of interest, why do you say that?

[starchief]

And what are the different economic policies between Labour and Tory? You couldn't fit a cigarette paper in the gap. Labour deliberately set out to mirror Ken Clarke's strategy. The Tories wouldn't have regulated the banks more. As someone once said, it's like voting for the puppet on the right or the left, not noticing it's the same guy holding both dolls.

[EWS]

Then vote Lib Dem