A great shame that David Cameron and the Tories have decided to use the constitution to try and score some petty party political points against Labour.
Predictable though, they have form like their boundary gerrymandering attempt.
It stinks of Osborne. And it'll fail.
Cameron has played a blinder. Hows it going to look when Labour opposes EV4EL?
These labour proposals won;t get tory support. This means the Scottish 'vows' won't go through. Scotland will be up in arms and we will be at constitutional deadlock.
Ed is going to end up annoying everyone in....
1. Scotland 2. England
purely for party reasons.
Epic
As opposed to the Tories, who have not considered party advantage at all. Let me tell you about an email I got the other day from the wife of a recently deceased Nigerian general ...
Yes, but the Tories are backing something that is both in their advantage and logically fair. The Labour party is backing something is in their advantage and obviously completely unfair.
What is Labour backing? I have not seen any proposals yet.
More powers for Scotland with no action on England.
I am not sure that's true. If it is, though, then clearly they will get hammered in the polls and deservedly so.
Chortling at this idea that Labour will be "killed" in England for opposing "EV4EL". It's too complicated and seemingly irrelevant for the public to pick up on it. People outside the Westminster bubble just don't understand the arcane workings of Parliament -- we saw that with the boundaries issue, where the Tory commentariat were excitedly proclaiming how bad it was for Labour, but it made no impression on the public at all.
What COULD be a fruitful issue for politicians is opposing the higher spending Scotland (allegedly) gets, since that IS something the "layman" can understand easily. And UKIP might well get some extra support if they push that angle (though it's hard to see how the Tories could given Cameron's "vow"). But even for English people who resent Scotland getting a better deal, it won't be immediately obvious to them why tinkering with parliamentary proceedures would deal with the issue at all, and it would involve some long technical explanation which would make most people switch off.
I have to say that I'm not at all impressed with UK election security, quite independent (so to speak) of the above. I'd very much like to see improvements made to it.
What criticisms would you make of it in particular?
Lack of identity checks, other than the postal card. No need even to produce the postal notification card. Possible need for restriction of postal voting (not just due to abuse by others but the sort of problem we saw with Messrs Cameron et al moving the goals in the middle of postal voting).
Others will know the mechanics o sorting, but the Glenrothes disappearance of ballot box(es) suggests a lack of tracing of the kind routinely used for the delivery of the merest Amazon paperback: but as I say others would know better.
Huge parts of electoral system are open to rampant abuse. Have a read of this article:
People are signing their votes over to "community leaders" in huge numbers. It's outrageous. You should have to present valid ID, be it a passport, driver's licence, or something equivalent to vote. It's very easy to intimidate someone into not turning up and to go and vote for them. Proxy voting should be banned, and postal voting should be restricted to those with very good reason (working abroad, disability etc).
Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes · 2 mins That "vow" didn't last long: BBC reporting Miliband will not sign up to the PM's plan to give more powers to the Scottish Parliament.
Backtracking quickly Mr Miliband....
Brilliant. If he continues to be truly obstructive, the Tories might make a handful of gains in Scotland from Labour too.
Loyalists to other parties, all other parties, criticise ukip at almost every opportunity... Yet the public, if polls, membership numbers and elections are to be believed, are behind them in increasing numbers
Chortling at this idea that Labour will be "killed" in England for opposing "EV4EL". It's too complicated and seemingly irrelevant for the public to pick up on it. People outside the Westminster bubble just don't understand the arcane workings of Parliament -- we saw that with the boundaries issue, where the Tory commentariat were excitedly proclaiming how bad it was for Labour, but it made no impression on the public at all.
What COULD be a fruitful issue for politicians is opposing the higher spending Scotland (allegedly) gets, since that IS something the "layman" can understand easily. And UKIP might well get some extra support if they push that angle (though it's hard to see how the Tories could given Cameron's "vow"). But even for English people who resent Scotland getting a better deal, it won't be immediately obvious to them why tinkering with parliamentary proceedures would deal with the issue at all, and it would involve some long technical explanation which would make most people switch off.
How is it "alleged"? It's right there in the official statistics.
I disagree entirely. Scots love the romantic failure. Bonnie Prince Charlie.
He's done exactly the right thing. He will become the great revered elder statesman of Scottish politics, adored by millions as the Man Who Nearly Did That Amazing Thing.
Correct. That's exactly what he is doing. The whole routine is fitting of that persona.
Do you see the "haven't got a clue" bit. That's the criticism. That's what you're not seeing. Now their richness probably explains the fact they haven't got a clue, so it's related, but it's not the criticism itself. You can have people who come from rich backgrounds that do "get it": FDR, as patrician as they come, was the classic example.
One can argue about who has and hasn't got a clue, but one can't argue with the fact that the bit I quoted is a straightforward lie. The cabinet is not stacked with Old Etonians and their rich chums.
According to the Mail, 21 of 23 in the 2010 cabinet are millionaires:
I disagree entirely. Scots love the romantic failure. Bonnie Prince Charlie.
He's done exactly the right thing. He will become the great revered elder statesman of Scottish politics, adored by millions as the Man Who Nearly Did That Amazing Thing.
More like the Ed McHeath - a huge sulking elephant watching the rain pour down outside his Aberdonian windows.
These labour proposals won;t get tory support. This means the Scottish 'vows' won't go through. Scotland will be up in arms and we will be at constitutional deadlock.
Ed is going to end up annoying everyone in....
1. Scotland 2. England
purely for party reasons.
Epic
As opposed to the Tories, who have not considered party advantage at all. Let me tell you about an email I got the other day from the wife of a recently deceased Nigerian general ...
The Tory proposals are fair and have popular cross party support among English voters according to Comres. By opposing the PM's plan for devomax in Scotland and EV4EL he is playing politics because he knows Labour would beseverely weakened in Westminster. Worse still is that if Dave and Nick deliver devomax and EV4EL without Labour both of them could see some kind of relaunch in Scotland.
Ed needs to get on board and then deal with the consequences after the election. Maybe split off English Labour from Scottish Labour.
What are the Tory proposals? EV4EL is a principle - and a fair one - but as far as I know there have been no details so far.
If EV4EL is merely a blocking mechanism that prevents the UK government passing legislation only applicable in England without the approval of a majority of English MPs I don't actually see what the big problem is. All it would mean is more cross-party consensus than we are used to at Westminster. It certainly would not stop MPs from non-English constituencies holding the great offices of state.
I agree that Scottish labour should become a distinct organisation and suspect that this is what will end up happening. It will help labour north and south of the border.
Listening to him this morning he was and is the only person I can imagine taking the fight on to squeeze the most out of imminent negotiations with Westminster.
Comments
Karma for his fermenting of division and rancour.
Thought he would he stay till GE2015.
Slinging as much mud as he can on the way out.
Put the question on here, noone answered >< !
What COULD be a fruitful issue for politicians is opposing the higher spending Scotland (allegedly) gets, since that IS something the "layman" can understand easily. And UKIP might well get some extra support if they push that angle (though it's hard to see how the Tories could given Cameron's "vow"). But even for English people who resent Scotland getting a better deal, it won't be immediately obvious to them why tinkering with parliamentary proceedures would deal with the issue at all, and it would involve some long technical explanation which would make most people switch off.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8655697.stm
People are signing their votes over to "community leaders" in huge numbers. It's outrageous. You should have to present valid ID, be it a passport, driver's licence, or something equivalent to vote. It's very easy to intimidate someone into not turning up and to go and vote for them. Proxy voting should be banned, and postal voting should be restricted to those with very good reason (working abroad, disability etc).
So who should they listen to?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1280554/The-coalition-millionaires-23-29-member-new-cabinet-worth-1m--Lib-Dems-just-wealthy-Tories.html
I can't imagine it's changed much since then. So Old Etonians + rich people who are friendly to Cameron clearly are stacked in the cabinet.
Not going until after the Ryder Cup of course.
If EV4EL is merely a blocking mechanism that prevents the UK government passing legislation only applicable in England without the approval of a majority of English MPs I don't actually see what the big problem is. All it would mean is more cross-party consensus than we are used to at Westminster. It certainly would not stop MPs from non-English constituencies holding the great offices of state.
I agree that Scottish labour should become a distinct organisation and suspect that this is what will end up happening. It will help labour north and south of the border.
Listening to him this morning he was and is the only person I can imagine taking the fight on to squeeze the most out of imminent negotiations with Westminster.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4706/gazan-hamas-war-crimes
Just shows what a narcissistic agenda he had.
*titters*
Please don't mention what happens next but S3 is not yet available...hope that happens soon...