UK General Elections [7th MAY 2015]

Shout out to my fellow British kiwis, I know you're here

After talking to other people about British politics and seeing David Cameron, UKIP and The Greens mentioned in other threads, I searched for a thread on the upcoming general elections and found nothing pertaining to them so here it is. What are your political leanings and opinions pre-election, and do you intend to vote?

 

[Vitriol]

At this point in time I predict a hung parliament.

Despite being well hung it will still be full of cunts.

 

[Wolf Fetuses]

At this point in time I predict a hung parliament.

Despite being well hung it will still be full of cunts.

I think that's pretty much a given.

I also predict a hung parliament. Based on policies I'm inclined to vote Green, but there is no way Natalie Bennett is Prime Minister material - her interview technique is awful. But there is zero chance of this happening, so I'm not too worried.

Ed Miliband's uni fee reduction promise caught me though. Too bad he has the personality of a dead fish.

 

[WachtAmWeb]

Yeah Milibean doesn't seem like he's got much of a chance. To be honest it doesn't really matter what I do on the 7th of May because I live in a pretty safe English Tory seat despite wanting nothing to do with them. I don't like the Tories and don't want more public spending cuts; UKIP are a bunch of Daily-Mail fantasists and clowns; the Lib Dems have shot away their own credibility; the Greens are a single-issue party with dogshit for foreign policy. Guess it'll be a wasted vote for Labour then...

 

[Hat]

I'm not British, but personally I'd probably vote UKIP.

 

[JU 199]

British politics tends to have a predicable trajectory. I expect everything to stay pretty much the same policy wise in the end, regardless of who's elected and/or whatever coalition we could get.

I'm not British, but personally I'd probably vote UKIP.

That's probably not a good idea. UKIP is a notoriously lazy party legislatively. Their MEP's do little productive work in The EU apart from make shit speeches and take a pay check. Not worth the investment in parliament.

You're better off going with the conservatives if that's closer to your political persuasion.

 

[Hat]

That's probably not a good idea. UKIP is a notoriously lazy party legislatively. Their MEP's do little productive work in The EU apart from make shit speeches and take a pay check. Not worth the investment in parliament.

You're better off going with the conservatives if that's closer to your political persuasion.

That's a shame, though I suppose it doesn't matter too much to me because, as I said earlier, I'm not a Briton, so I won't be voting. I don't know too much about British politics, so my choice here was based, somewhat idealistically, on that the UKIP party platform most matches my own views.

In any case, I hope that all goes well over there.

 

[JU 199]

I hope that all goes well over there.

It probably won't, but thanks anyway

 

[Null]

May God save your wretched nation from the Islamic white genocide.

 

[JU 199]

May God save your wretched nation from the Islamic white genocide.

They've been planing an attack with their Islamic technology for years.

The Muslamic Ray Guns will consume my nation, just like this EDL patri(not) predicted years ago....

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Since we've got a first past the post system and it'll be a close vote I'll be voting Conservatives even though I doubt they'd be that much diffrent between the Tory and Labour policies especially when it comes to cuts in local budgets and continue voting SNP locally and UKIP for EU elections. (I'd vote for a diffrent national party first if we had a different voting system since I have centre left leanings but I'm just voting Conservatives since I currently think they are slightly less worse than Labour)

Previously I voted Lib Dems because I really believe in no tution fees (Even though I live in Scotland where we set our own education policies) and think with the current system it's going to cost way more than expected since many students won't be paying off thier loans.

Also it's no surprise that since last election results the Greens will pick up the Lib Dems student/protest voters.

But anyway the main three reasons I'm voting Conservatives over Labour are:

1: The last time Labour were in power they were going crazy with quangos and other expensive bureaucracy plans like making everyone pay to get a national ID card as well as costing the government an estimated 4.5 billion at the time it was scrapped. (And government schemes tend to go WAY over budget, initially they thought it'd be between 1 to 3 billion so who knows how much it would have actually cost)

2: We'll get a vote on leaving or staying in the EU.

3: I really don't like the current Labour party, Ed seems like an ineffectual leader who I can't imagine would be good at negotiating internationally and I like the deputy leader Harriet Harman even less.

 

[Vitriol]

Since we've got a first past the post system and it'll be a close vote I'll be voting Conservatives even though I doubt they'd be that much diffrent between the Tory and Labour policies especially when it comes to cuts in local budgets and continue voting SNP locally and UKIP for EU elections. (I'd vote for a diffrent national party first if we had a diffrent voting system since I have centre left leanings but I'm just voting Conservatives since I currently think they are slightly less worse than Labour)

Previously I voted Lib Dems because I really believe in no tution fees (Even though I live in Scotland where we set our own education policies) and think with the current system it's going to cost way more than expected since many students won't be paying off thier loans.

Also it's no surprise that since last election results the Greens will pick up the Lib Dems student/protest voters.

But anyway the main three reasons I'm voting Conservatives over Labour are:

1: The last time Labour were in power they were going crazy with quangos and other expensive bureaucracy plans like making everyone pay to get a national ID card as well as costing the government an estimated 4.5 billion at the time it was scrapped. (And government schemes tend to go WAY over budget, initially they thought it'd be between 1 to 3 billion so who knows how much it would have actually cost)

2: We'll get a vote on leaving or staying in the EU.

3: I really don't like the current Labour party, Ed seems like an ineffectual leader who I can't imagine would be good at negotiating internationally and I like the deputy leader Harriet Harman even less.

I don't understand what labour are thinking refusing a referendum on the EU. Whether you're for or against its undeniably a divisive issue that needs dealt with. Denying people a say makes it look like they don't believe they can win, if thats true imo they shouldn't be pushing a policy they believe the electorate doesn't want. Harriet harman is also a walking disaster- she's like something out of 'the thick of it'. Their previous time in office saw a ridiculous PC culture grow up and the revelations in Rotherham and the North mean i'll never vote labour again unless the party radically reforms it's attitude.

I can't wait to see clegg's political implosion- promising to abolish tuition fees and then tripling them and having the nerve to do anything but resign shows a contempt for the public that is going to be returned. Had he stuck closer to his last manifesto even if that ment not getting into gov, he would be in a much stronger position.

The tories did or tried to do pretty much what they said they would but were mired in incompetency- postal sell off etc. Promising a eu referendum was wise and might mitigate losses to ukip somewhat.

Ukip have successfully carved out a niche amongst both the white working class and more rightwing and socially conservative middle class. Hard to say exactly how they'll do but the bottom line is many people want a change in immigration policy and they offer the biggest change. How they will do in fptp though is hard to predict.

The greens will attract some former lib dem voters and some dissatisfied labour voters but due to fptp probably will be lucky to get a handful of mp's. Their disatrous tenure in Brighton and lack of experience won't help. That said this will still probably be their best election to date.


SNP despite losing the referendum in September are in a considerably better position than last time, they have seen membership boom and have a generally good reputation in devolved government. They will also attract protest votes (like mine) looking to punish labour in general and murphy in particular. I think they will get roughly 20seats with a larger share of the vote.

And thats my party by party breakdown of this election before work!

Edited at lunch to remove atrocious spelling errors, i typed this on my phone and it shows.

 

[Gagamaru]

the main problem i have with ukip is for every moderately decent person with fairly legitimate concerns about immigration numbers, they seem to have about 85 insane ranty people making statements like 'i don't believe in black people' or 'what wrong with my tattoo of himmler?' or 'i'd ban the gays because i saw one once and their antlers are a public menace'

 

[JU 199]

the main problem i have with ukip is for every moderately decent person with fairly legitimate concerns about immigration numbers, they seem to have about 85 insane ranty people making statements like 'i don't believe in black people' or 'what wrong with my tattoo of himmler?' or 'i'd ban the gays because i saw one once and their antlers are a public menace'

"Does that church look like a mosque? Are floods caused by gay marriage? Are immigrants causing traffic jams?"

UKIP are a good laugh in the bleak world of British politics.

Personally, I don't know who i'm voting for but I'm pretty confident its not the conservatives. Universal credit has been a colossal failure. Combined with the bedroom tax makes me believe they really don't care if they hurt people. Not a group I would want leading us personally.

1: The last time Labour were in power they were going crazy with quangos and other expensive bureaucracy plans like making everyone pay to get a national ID card as well as costing the government an estimated 4.5 billion at the time it was scrapped. (And government schemes tend to go WAY over budget, initially they thought it'd be between 1 to 3 billion so who knows how much it would have actually cost)

Labour's 'Gift' of PFI is worse. It's given us unbelievably poor infrastructure that we've paid the private sector to build and lease from them. Rates are extortionate but its useful if you need infrastructure without looking like you've raided the treasury. Their political cowardice will cost us allot in the long run (Osborne said he had a plan to scrap it. 'PF2' is practically the same so they share blame too.)

3: I really don't like the current Labour party, Ed seems like an ineffectual leader who I can't imagine would be good at negotiating internationally and I like the deputy leader Harriet Harman even less.

He takes a poor photograph as well....

I can't wait to see clegg's political implosion- promising to abolish tuition fees and then tripling them and having the nerve to do anything but resign shows a contempt for the public that is going to be returned.

Genuinely looking forward to Cleggs demise. It will be very entertaining.

 

[Vitriol]

"Does that church look like a mosque? Are floods caused by gay marriage? Are immigrants causing traffic jams?"

UKIP are a good laugh in the bleak world of British politics.

Personally, I don't know who i'm voting for but I'm pretty confident its not the conservatives. Universal credit has been a colossal failure. Combined with the bedroom tax makes me believe they really don't care if they hurt people. Not a group I would want leading us personally.



Labour's 'Gift' of PFI is worse. It's given us unbelievably poor infrastructure that we've paid the private sector to build and lease from them. Rates are extortionate but its useful if you need infrastructure without looking like you've raided the treasury. Their political cowardice will cost us allot in the long run (Osborne said he had a plan to scrap it. 'PF2' is practically the same so they share blame too.)



He takes a poor photograph as well....

View attachment 18275

The incompetency across all parties is staggering.

When you are being compared unfavourably with the quite frankly insane aristocrats that ran the country a century ago you really need to wonder where the UK is heading.

Spoiler: rant about the state of the uk

The welfare state was an amazing thing but it requires brilliant management and decades of poor governance has lead to the current administratitive nightmare. Both the nhs and the benefits system are badly in need of reform and the civil service has become nightmarishly beaurocratic. The kind of action needed to fix them involves either raising taxes or cutting services something which the parties are afraid of because it could be electoral suicide. Even ukip (who seem to have the most radical ideas for the nhs) dance around the issue as they are aware of the risk.

Had we had better governance over the past 50 years we'd not be in this mess as it is each succesive gov just kicks the can down the road and slaps a new coat of paint on, meanwhile the underlying issues get worse and worse.

And all this is before we get to the constitutional problems- im a scot but i think its insane there is no form of devolved english parliament. Federation seems like a no brainer to solve the clash between home counties political views and the celtic fringe.

The house of Lords should be providing a chamber of the best and brightest in the nation who can make or influence decisions based on what is best for the nation to temper populist policies from the commons that could prove harmful in the long run. Instead its become a retirement home for party grandees who are no longer electable and party supporters who had enough ££££.

At this point i would happily vote for a candidate who would promise purely administrative reforms and ignore the socio-economic stuff for a term or two because at present I don't believe the system is capable of effecting meaningful sovio economic change (to the right or left).

Vote Vitriol for King 2015 and i'll sort the buggers out!

/Rantoff

 

[Arctic]

Lib dems are the only ones that I haven't seen any lunatics from. Be sure not to vote for Cameron though, or he might put you in jail for visiting the "illegal cyberbullying hub Kiwi Farms".

 

[Pickle Inspector]

He takes a poor photograph as well....

View attachment 18275

He is so awkward I would not be surprised if he said he was autistic or something (This is a press photo of Ed apparently "Talking to the locals"):

He does weird interviews too:

But about not caring about hurting people they are both as bad as each other I think, the Tories definitely seem worse while they are in power but Labour did things like introduce ATOS and the parties are so similar I honestly don't know if Labour would have introduced a similar thing to a bedroom tax too, I'm just glad that locally there is a party like the SNP I can vote for. (Even though they are in no way perfect)

But as far as housing goes none of the parties want to talk about the elephant in the room: The high prices of the London housing market.

They try to deal with it in a roundabout way with things like mansion taxes and maximum welfare caps but they never get round to dealing with the problem which assumedly will just get worse each year while Russian oligarchs and other billionaires/millionaires buy properties and leave them empty since it's a proven steady investment while more people try to move to London since it's where all the best jobs are.

Lib dems are the only ones that I haven't seen any lunatics from. Be sure not to vote for Cameron though, or he might put you in jail for visiting the "illegal cyberbullying hub Kiwi Farms".

Sadly the other side are just as bad - http://rt.com/uk/202395-ban-internet-trolls-web/

 

[Vitriol]

London in general is a serious problem- it dominates the nation in a way it really shouldn't and it often feels like we are being governed according to what is best for the capital. I thought the referendum campaign really brought out how out of touch Westminster has become.

This feeling of alienation is going to cause further problems down the line and greater effort must be made to invest in the rest of the country. Even at the capitals expence. Otherwise i cant see how the kingdom can remain 'united'

Being lectured on the benefits of multiculturalism by guppies enjoying 'ethnic' delicacies while pakistani gangs get away with child abuse for the past ten years has really soured people's attitude towards the majority immigrant london population. Perhaps unfairly as many londoners have integrated. But soured nonetheless.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

London is really weird, I wonder how many people even know about things like The City of London Corporation never mind understand it:

The City of London is the only part of Britain over which parliament has no authority. In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/corporation-london-city-medieval

 

[Vitriol]

London is really weird, I wonder how many people even know about things like The City of London Corporation never mind understand it:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/corporation-london-city-medieval

Very few and the author of that article either isn't one of them or is being intentionally misleading.

be very wary of op ed pieces in the guardian; their investigative stuff and post election info graphics are great but there seems to be almost no quality control on online op ed. It's notorious for posting articles from feminists and minority journalists that are quite frankly racist and sexist. They have also published op ed's endorsing conspiracy theories and other demonstrably false nonsense. The paper copy is far better than the website.

There is a whole genre of English OPCA nonsense springing from misunderstanding the City of London Corporation. I'll post an analysis in the OPCA thread when I find the time to write one up.