GRcade

Moggy wrote:

Gandalf wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Gandalf wrote:UKIP - Because our candidate is a porn star and he said if I vote for him, he'll let me star in a porno so I can shag one or more of those classy, Bristolian porn actresses!

He was actually featured on Last Week Tonight (an American satirical show a bit like the Daily Show). I have never been so proud to be Bristolian.

His 'surname' is something like Rockard isn't it?

Johnny Rockard or something like that. He actually brings hope to all of us, if that strawberry floater can be a porn star then any of us could.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/UKIP-candidate-accused-organising-prostitution/story-26328330-detail/story.html

As a matter of fact, I've actually just voted - I get a postal vote and I've just completed the forms ready for posting back. So it's done.

In the end, the Conservatives won it for me. I don't agree with everything they stand for (I remain, as ever, a left-of-centre conservative (note the small 'c')), but for me they're probably the best of a pretty motley bunch and I cannot deny they've made a good job of the economy in the past five years of upheaval. I genuinely think Cameron is the only statesperson amongst all the leaders - just a shame he's so regrettably addicted to the EU Kool-Aid.

And UKIP? I'm too much of a liberal-leftie to vote them into actual Government. I'll vote them into Brussels and Strasbourg any day of the week, though!

>Deregulates the banking sector
>Sits back and watches as it crashes
>Bails it out with public money and blames the other guys because it happened on their watch
>????
>Profit

This time around, I think it's pretty obvious no papers are backing Milliband.

I could see this backfiring massively for them, no one trusts their word. I could see Labour gaining a slim victory.

I'm going to vote for the Conservatives as they've got the country back on the right track after Labour's awful terms.Cameron is a strong leader and statesman and is actually proud to be British unlike those left wing gimps in the Labour party.

Labour's legacy is rape gang Britain.The child sex crime capital of the western world.

A disaster of a party,not fit for purpose whatsoever.

Blimey

I will be dead before I vote for the Conservatives.

The Grassy knoll wrote:I'm going to vote for the Conservatives as they've got the country back on the right track after Labour's awful terms.Cameron is a strong leader and statesman and is actually proud to be British unlike those left wing gimps in the Labour party.

Labour's legacy is rape gang Britain.The child sex crime capital of the western world.

A disaster of a party,not fit for purpose whatsoever.

This is why the masses are unfit to rule themselves. Viva la revolución, viva el dictador.

Anyway, my constituency is set IMO to be a fairly safe Labour win - it's listed as ultra-marginal but that was between Labour and the Lib Dems and there is absolutely no way the Lib Dems are winning here this year - so I'm planning on voting either Green or Plaid Cymru. Probably Green, though I might spice things up and flip a coin in the election booth.

For people voting the Greens I have a genuine question. Why?
Is it just as a protest vote rather than spoiling your ballot? Their policies/manifesto are borderline committable, so why are you voting for them?

Lagamorph wrote:For people voting the Greens I have a genuine question. Why?
Is it just as a protest vote rather than spoiling your ballot? Their policies/manifesto are borderline committable, so why are you voting for them?

Which bits do you find 'borderline committable'?

I don't think the Green's policies are that bad but certainly I don't agree with all of them.

For me, as a pragmatist, individual policies are only important if the party has any chance of being expected to implement them. I am not expecting any fringe party to win a majority or to realistically have any chance of actually implementing their policies in a coalition government - just look at how much of the Lib Dem manifesto made it into the legislature this time around - so ultimately I don't care if some of their policies are unfunded, muddled or otherwise disagreeable. What is important to me is overall position on the political spectrum. I want my vote to be counted as being in support of some ideal I find important (in this case, ethical democratic socialism).

So if I vote Green (or indeed Plaid Cymru!) it will be because I want to send the message that I find left-wing politics agreeable, not because I want to see any of their particular policies implemented (which they certainly won't be in the forthcoming government).

Let's see...

Zero Growth economy
Tax on Gifts
Citizens income for anyone regardless of if they're looking for work or not.
Decriminalisation of Class A and B drug possession and scrapping of anti-rave laws.
Stripping foreign companies from owning TV and Newspapers
Promotion of Alternative medicine
Scrapping programs to build new roads
Open borders
Amnesty for all illegal immigrants if they can evade being caught for 5 years
Leaving NATO and ending the relationship with the US
Scrapping the standing military
Requiring all new homes to provide dedicated bicycle parking
For some reason they want to specifically ban the production and sale of foie gras
End government funding of any animal experimentation, even medical.


And little to no information on what's going to pay for any of it, what's going to pay for the scrapping of tuition fees or the cancelling of existing student debt. All whilst increasing public spending massively and ending Austerity altogether.

I don't think all of those are "borderline committable". Some of them, such as the relaxing of drug laws, the foie gras thing (Google it), and the idea of ending austerity are points I would strongly agree with. At least one (alternative medicine) is misinformation and not really Green policy. Many more such as citizen's income are IMO commendable idealism that I would readily concede may prove unworkable in practice as-is.

But, as I said, that is the upside of not being fully accountable for your policies. For me the individual policies are simply not that important when they are likely to win exactly one seat out of six hundred and fifty. What is more important is that they stand for a left-wing alternative to mainstream politics and that is why I am happy to vote for them.

I agree that the idea of a zero-growth economy is bad and I agree too that scrapping the entire military complex would be dangerous. If they were on a verge of a parliamentary majority and were still standing on those policies I would reconsider my vote. As things stand, from a pragmatist's perspective I don't think it matters greatly.

I still can't get over the Green Party plan to reduce the deficit by somehow conjuring an extra £250bn a year income out of thin air.

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:

The green line is the important part of that graph as it puts the debt into context with GDP. If you note where it is when Labour take office right up until the recession hits you can see how blatantly bullshit the Conservative claims about "Labour's mess" are. They actually reduced debt in real terms while in office up until the recession. The main reason the debt sours after the recession is because they stood along side labour in supporting the bailouts, which directly benefited their friends in the city. Their claims of superiority on the economy are hot air. Neither of them deserve to be in government.

Um...all else aside...do you know what "real terms" means? (Or what do you think it means...because the graph doesn't show what you say?)

And the "context" is that was one of the most benign economic boom periods in history across most of the world. And they still increased debt both in real terms and as a percentage of GDP.

"Consistent or increasing debt" in that type period is the accusation. And there's no escaping it. You'd be better arguing if that spending was "necessary" than trying to misrepresent it as not an issue.

My other favorite soundbite from Lab supporters at the moment is "Tories made more debt in 5 that Lab in 13" like it proves some sort of accusation. Completely ignoring the deficit they were left with, and most of them don't seem to realise they're meant to be against the cuts that not running up that debt would have required.

I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

Greens are alright. They have completely unworkable pie-in-the-sky dreams, but at least it comes from a desire to be good and help others.

Unlike...other minority parties.

I can't believe Labour said they wanted to raise it to by what is pretty much the projected inflation and sold it like it's a good thing. That's more nuts.