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The General Election 2015 Thread


Oddquine

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At least Milliband has made it clear that there will be no Labour led coalition with the SNP. I trust Milliband will not enter into any sleazy deals either.  One would hope that any SNP MPs will vote on what they think is in the best interests of the UK as a whole and in the event of a minority labour Government it should be noted that not supporting Labour on a vote by vote basis would mean siding with the Tories.

 

But I'm afraid I can't see the SNP doing much else other than trying to manipulate the situation to furtrher the case for independence.  Supporting legislation or funding packages which help to demonstrate the benefit to Scotland of remaining in the Union are not going to be things which will further the SNP cause.   It really isn't in the SNP's interest to work with the Government to see that Scotland gets a good deal from the next administration.  Unless you are in the camp which favours independence even if it means Scotland is worse off, then there seems little point in voting for the SNP in a UK Parliament.  As far as good Government for the Scotland and for the UK as a whole, the SNP MPs will be about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

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The Express is highly selective in what it reports and is certainly not a paper I would ever read.  However, the report Laurence posted is correct up to a point in that the Holyrood MSPs did vote for a salary rise which does theoretically make the First Minister the highest paid politician in the UK.  What it doesn't mention is that there is a ministerial pay freeze which means that Sturgeon's pay will be restricted to a paltry £135,605. 

 

Personally I have no grouse with political leaders earning that kind of salary.  What does annoy me is the kind of salaries Union bosses pocket.  Sturgeon's pay falls short of that of the General Secretary of Unite for example.  Huge numbers of civil servants also earn in excess of the the First Minister including the Chief Executive of the Highland Council.  Sturgeon's salary may seem large to some but if reports are to be believed it will be £26,864,395 less than Lewis Hamilton will get next year just for driving a little car round in circles.  In fact, Hamilton will get more than twice the amount all the MSPs will get combined.

 

No, the salaries of SNP ministers are nothing to complain about.  But their policies?  Well, that's another matter!

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I have never read the Daily express in my life.

In nearly 72 years . That is a feat on its own

I do read the times if catching a train. I have been known to read the Daily Record ( sports pages only)

I like the Guardian but find it hard work compared with the Times.

I get most of my information from the 27,000 books I own

I am no Tory having voted Labour in every election since I voted for Harold Wilson in 1964.

I was at one time vice chairman of the Rossendale and Darwen constituency Labour party.

I was a member of the Labour executive of the Lancashire County Council.

I was an election agent in many scores of council elections. I represented my CLP on the famous or infamous meeting of the North West of England Labour Conference when we suspended Derek Hatton from the party.

I have worked tirelessly for my Union both FBU and the Rail union Tessa. I worked tirelessly for the no vote in the recent referendum.

I have delivered hundreds of leaflets for the Labour candidate in this election.

I wear my heart on my sleeve so when a bigoted SNP teenager tells me to go and live in North Korea, you should realise I get a bit upset.

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Has a bigoted SNP teenager told you to go and live in North Korea ?

Why should Laurence go and do that when he can make the much shorter trip to Scotland to find a chubby, self-obsessed, paranoid (former????) leader, a police force which stops, searches and carries guns whilst apparently accountable only to its Chief Constable, State Snoopers to override the rights of children's parents and a dictatorial government with an obsessive hatred of all things beyond the country's southern border.

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Kingsmill can rant all he likes when he comes up with original thinking it will be the first time. He just feeds off other peoples posts.

 

Now here is the projections of the prophet Laurence

 

Result of the election is as follows

Of The 600 seats contested ( actually 595 because the Irish republicans  and the Speaker do not vote)  S F Not prepared to take the loyal oath

Conservatives will win 276

UKip will win 6

Lib Dems will win 14

Labour will win 244

SNP will win 38

Ulster Unionists ( DUP) 8

SDLP   4

Plaid C 4

Green   1

Minority Conservative Government                        Opposition

Tory                  276                                                Labour   244                                             304

Lib Dems            14                                                SNP         38                                          + 291

DUP                     8                                                 SDLP         4                                             595 seats

U Kip                    6                                                 Plaid C       4 

Total                 304                                                 Green         1

                                                                                Total       291

 

Making David Cameron Prime Minister for a second term  Tough one to call

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Great victory for the snp last night nicola preformed the best according to the average percentage of the 3 major polls done afterwards.

The fact that nigel got so much support even after the whole "foreigners with hiv stealing nhs money" rant really has me worried and yet all question time could talk about was the past scottish referendum and how bad the nationalists are...

Edited by Ayeseetee
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The sight of Tories falling over each other to praise Nichola Sturgeon's performance in the TV debate last night is rather telling.  Without doubt she gave a very assured performance but when do political leaders ever praise the performance of an opponent before the result? 

 

When are the inept Labour party going to wake up to the fact that their battle is not with the Tories but  with the SNP?  If labour are going to form the next Government they need to be the largest party and that is not going to happen if they lose a significant number of seats to the SNP.   And when are left wing voters in Scotland going to wake up to the fact that voting for the SNP could hand the election to the Tories on a plate? 

 

The truth is that there is a really unhealthy alliance going on between the Tories and the SNP.  The Tories want the SNP to do well in Scotland to ensure that the Tories rather than Labour have the most seats at Westminster and can form the next Government.  The SNP for their part will be more than happy to have a Tory Government which is unpopular in Scotland because that will help fuel the fires of independence.  The Tories would be happy for Scotland to be independent because that would make it far easier for them to form majority governments at Westminster in the future; they also see Scotland as a drain on the UK's finances.  Indeed, these are precisely the reasons why Cameron agreed to the referendum in a way that made it as easy as possible for the YES vote to win and why their campaigning in the referendum was so low key.  They may be poles apart politically but it is in their mutual interests for each other to do well.

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Great victory for the snp last night nicola preformed the best according to the average percentage of the 3 major polls done afterwards.

The fact that nigel got so much support even after the whole "foreigners with hiv stealing nhs money" rant really has me worried and yet all question time could talk about was the past scottish referendum and how bad the nationalists are...

Sturgeon 4th when ICM, ComRes, YouGov, and Survation Polls averaged out.  Cameron 22%, Miliband 21.5%, Farage 21% and Sturgeon 20%.  Sturgeon's % rather distorted by the YouGov poll which put her 10 points clear of Cameron whilst all others had cameron ahead of her.  As always, supporters of all parties claim victory for their party.  I actually think all of the leaders did pretty well and there was no clear victor.

 

It is typical of the SNP and their supporters to single out their fellow travellers in independence for criticism.  The thing about Farage is that he tells it as he sees it and doesn't say things just because they are "politically correct".  In criticising Farage, Sturgeon tried to make herself sound compassionate and honourable when in fact she is being utterly deceitful.  If she does not agree with what Farage is saying then just what is she saying?  Is she saying that in an independent Scotland the sick of the world will be free to come to Scotland for diagnosis and treatment of any illness free of charge and then go home again?  Is that what you think?  If it is, then our charity to the sick of the world will quickly bankrupt us.   Truth is her policy will be broadly in line with the uncomfortable truth Farage outlined and which she so self righteously condemned. 

 

On the subject of health she also repeated the hypocrisy and untruths which featured so strongly in the referendum debate.  She made an impassioned pledge to voters South of the border to say that any SNP MPs will support the opposition to the expansion of the private sector in the NHS in England and yet, where has she been campaigning today to support the NHS?  In a pharmacy!  In a private sector pharmacy!  I know it was a private sector pharmacy because all primary care pharmacies in Scotland are in the hands of the private sector!  The hypocrisy of using the premises of a private sector contractor to the NHS to campaign against the involvement of the private sector in the NHS is breathtaking.  The SNP are also consistently hyopcritical when they constantly fail to acknowledge that most NHS medical, dental and pharmaceutical services in the NHS in Scotland are contracted out to the private sector.

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You sound suspiciously like Jim Murphy DD. In 2010 Labour had 46 seats less than the Tories. It didn't stop them courting the lib dems to try to hold onto power. It's not necessarily the case that the biggest party form the government. Unless of course they can hit the magic 326 seats. Hard to see any party getting that this year.

Ps. I hope you don't take the Murphy comparison as an insult.

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If I sound suspiciously like Jim Murphy then I guess that is because he is right about this issue!  The point here is that the outgoing Prime Minister gets first dibs at trying to form a Government.  The scenario we could well end up with is that the Tories get the most seats simply because Labour has lost seats to the SNP in Scotland.  Whilst that in itself would not change how many seats the Tories won, winning fewer seats than the Tories would certainly weaken Milliband's credibility and would be likely to increase the chances of the Tories and Lib Dems going into coalition together again.  Of course, at this stage of the proceedings they are all saying they don't want a coalition but when push comes to shove Cameron will be desparate for Lib Dem support in order to keep Miliband out of Downing Street.  As for the Lib Dems, they will know that a 2nd election could wipe them out and therefore will be willing to enter a coalition with either the Tories again or with Labour.  And in my view that would be a welcome moderating force in either scenario.  Whether or not Labour are willing to court the Lib Dems is therefore irrelevant if the Tories get sufficient seats to form a Government with support from others (Lib Dems, UKIP, Ulster Unionists)

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And now we have this latest furore about whether or not the SNP actually want the Tories to win. I would have thought it's pretty well a no-brainer that the SNP would want the Tories to win since the Tories are the cornerstone of the SNP's central strategy of stoking up resentment and discontent in support of their only policy.

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How all the unionists on here can defend the union when all its might and dirty tricks are being employed to smear our First Minister and to keep us in our place is beyond me.

 

Better together really means better in your wee box and if you dare get ahead of yourselves we will do virtually anything to keep you in your place.

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Excuse me if I don't exactly feel sorry for Ms Sturgeon over the leaked memo when the person who benefits most from it is Ms Sturgeon herself.  As for Sturgeon being smeared by the might of the unionists!  Get real!  it is Milliband who is being smeared from what the memo alleges she has said and he fell straight into the trap by attacking her rather than simply dismissing it as tittle tattle.  After all, since when has Red Ed  believed everything that's published in the Telegraph!  Meanwhile, Sturgeon can complain about dirty tricks and deny the allegations when we all know that even if it was not what she said, it is what she believes.  And if asked whether she would rather have a Tory Government than a Labour one she has enough nouce about her to give a more statesmanlike response and say that the SNP will work with whatever Government the electorate chooses.  Similarly she will not be drawn into comments on Milliband's suitability for PM and will again say that is for the electorate to decide.

 

The fall out from the affair certainly proves that what she is alleged to have said about Milliband not being Prime Ministerial material is true.  It also provides her with the opportunity to repeat the plea to Milliband to lock Cameron out of Downing street - a statement that is presumably meant to give the lie to the other part of the alleged French confession.  It also allows her to play the sympathy card.  It's a win, win situation for her.

 

But as with other things, there is a world of difference between Sturgeon's words and her actions.  The only way to lock Cameron out of Downing street is to have a Labour Government and the best way of securing that would be not to stand in seats where Labour MPs could be elected.  That was never going to happen and it's not going to happen now even though SNP success makes a Tory Government more likely. The truth is, as we all now, the SNP would rather have Cameron in Downing street so that they can oppose the UK Government rather than being pressured into some kind of support for a Labour led UK Government.

 

As for little boxes, I think you will find it is the Scottish Nuts who want to retreat to their own little box rather than cooperate and share with others in a bigger box.

 

It is also amusing to hear the oft quoted nonsense about there being little difference between Labour and the Tories.  It seems to be a bit of a theme with the Nationalists be they SNP or UKIP

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Excuse me if I don't exactly feel sorry for Ms Sturgeon over the leaked memo when the person who benefits most from it is Ms Sturgeon herself.  As for Sturgeon being smeared by the might of the unionists!  Get real!  it is Milliband who is being smeared from what the memo alleges she has said and he fell straight into the trap by attacking her rather than simply dismissing it as tittle tattle.  After all, since when has Red Ed  believed everything that's published in the Telegraph!  Meanwhile, Sturgeon can complain about dirty tricks and deny the allegations when we all know that even if it was not what she said, it is what she believes.  And if asked whether she would rather have a Tory Government than a Labour one she has enough nouce about her to give a more statesmanlike response and say that the SNP will work with whatever Government the electorate chooses.  Similarly she will not be drawn into comments on Milliband's suitability for PM and will again say that is for the electorate to decide.

 

The fall out from the affair certainly proves that what she is alleged to have said about Milliband not being Prime Ministerial material is true.  It also provides her with the opportunity to repeat the plea to Milliband to lock Cameron out of Downing street - a statement that is presumably meant to give the lie to the other part of the alleged French confession.  It also allows her to play the sympathy card.  It's a win, win situation for her.

 

But as with other things, there is a world of difference between Sturgeon's words and her actions.  The only way to lock Cameron out of Downing street is to have a Labour Government and the best way of securing that would be not to stand in seats where Labour MPs could be elected.  That was never going to happen and it's not going to happen now even though SNP success makes a Tory Government more likely. The truth is, as we all now, the SNP would rather have Cameron in Downing street so that they can oppose the UK Government rather than being pressured into some kind of support for a Labour led UK Government.

 

As for little boxes, I think you will find it is the Scottish Nuts who want to retreat to their own little box rather than cooperate and share with others in a bigger box.

 

It is also amusing to hear the oft quoted nonsense about there being little difference between Labour and the Tories.  It seems to be a bit of a theme with the Nationalists be they SNP or UKIP

Jim??? Jim Murphy??? is that you? Im pretty sure it is? #ScratchedRecord

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