General election

You are right, Huge!

ATB from George

I quote:

"By late Friday morning, the BNP had won 1,667 votes, 0.3% of the 563,743 votes they won in 2010. This year the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol Party won 8,419, while the Monster Raving Loony Party reached 3,898."

OK, so I wasn't able to be one of the 3898 folks who take their politics with a pinch of salt, but it's reassuring to see that the memory of Lord Sutch (David Edward Sutch to his friends), lives on... as does his music?  Does anyone admit to owning one of his albums featuring (among others) John Bonham, Jeff Beck & Keith Moon ?  

I think it arguable that the Lib-Dems acted as a constraint on the Conservative party during the five years of coalition. Not just in directly moderating some policies through the coalition agreement but also in causing the Conservative party to maintain an unusual degree of tight internal discipline.  Once the euphoria of the winning the election has passed and the Conservatives get down to day-to-day political business on the government benches I will be surprised if we don't see an increasing degree of ill-discpline, especially with a relatively small majority and the comparative safety of a fixed term.  Several policy issues could stimulate that ill-discipline, particularly the difficult negotiations that Mr Cameron is going to have in trying to win concessions from Brussels before he puts his case to the people in the EU referendum.  The negotiations with other members states will be hard enough, of course, but I suspect satisfying the demands of some of the Europhobes in his party will be even more challenging.  And then there's the 'English question'.

John Major's government suffered from this seemingly deeply engrained rebellious trait in the party when in power with a small majority and we know that didn't end well. I think the next two or three years are going to be very interesting indeed.

I only got a U in my Latin O level, but it's served me well. Give it a day and we can put this behind us and get back to important matters, such as whether a Hicap can power two items or the impact of biwire jumpers.

Agreed. "Omnes nos amici sumus!" We're all friends, innit?

PS: I can't quite remember the equivalent of "innit" in
 Latin.

Indeed. We weren't taught that. I bet there were dodgy geezers hanging around in the forum saying oi mate, want some gear, good stuff innit. In the Emporer's bestest Latin.

That statement George covers some people in both Top and Bottom of the social spectrum.

I can't believe it, another five years of those Dave and Sam Cam summer holiday photo ops. Him in his dress down friday corporate style navy blue polo shirt, at a fish market in Cornwall or La Coruna.

Chris

Absolutely, never under estimate the British electorate.

I am fascinated as to why the opinion polls seemed to appear to be so out of step.. Some early analysis shows there might have been too much reliance on social media / online media which perhaps encouraged more superficial or faux responses compared to more traditional methods.. Interesting.....

I think he was called Brutus. And I know a fair number of his descendents all operating under the name Brute !

The people who run these opinion polls watch each other like hawks. They are terrified of being out of line with one another. They "adjust" their output to suit.. treat them with a pinch of salt.

Indeed, I am a 'member' of YouGov and there appears to be some soul searching going on.. Though interestingly they are playing down 'mode' methodology errors, that is whether respondents use landline, mobile, online etc..but I think they are looking at it from a demographic perspective rather than a propensity to reliably state intent basis... But what do I know .. I am just an engineer who put an X in the box.

Simon

Ah!, so you're the one who 'engineered' the victory! 

Don't people just lie to pollsters-especially about supporting the Tories who may be seen as 'uncool'?

I think that's  what they call the 'shy Tory'...

You might well be right.. Because of the labels and stereotypes perhaps people are embarrassed depending on circumstance to state their voting intent for either 'uncool and privileged' Conservatives, 'iresponsible' Labour, 'extremist' UKIP, 'meaningless' Liberal Democrats, 'naive' Greens etc 

But as we see, in the privacy of the polling both (though my booth was a large cut-away cardboard box this year.. Must be austerity).. these labels appear false and matter not

Nah. They're not proper extremists. Rank bloody amateurs if you ask me.

Regards,

Willy (East Antrim).

Brilliant

I'm very quiet about my political views but my dealer made me laugh yesterday. He said that in a conversation with Mark Raggett that Mark said ".... there's as much chance of that happening as Steve not voting Conservative." I'm not saying if he was right or wrong.