The "Smithson" vote can only be done in practice if you find two people living in two marginals but they are the "wrong kind of marginal" for both voter.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
You hope. You will never know for certain if the other person follows through with their part.
And vice versa.
But we are both voting by post and will exchange pics of ballot forms.
I don't know but I suspect that might be against electoral law by violating the secrecy of the ballot.
It's a secret ballot if the voter wishes it so to be.
May I enquire as to where you are exercising your franchise - Surrey or a coastal town in Dorset ?
I shall be casting a block vote of 10,000 devoted Hershamites for Central Office to distribute to which ever constituencies they deem most efficacious.
I hoped you'd come up with a cunning plan but 10,000 extra votes for Viscount Thurso will only increase his majority to 14,000 which as cunning plans go may appear somewhat less cunning that you had hoped.
Perhaps spread your electoral largesse in Clacton, Rochester and Thanet South ?
@JackW Do you honestly think Viscount Thurso can hold ? I know he has a decent personal vote and all but it'll probably only make his loss look less bad.
I have absolute faith in the Scottish peerage, with added ancestral Jacobite tendencies, and the good sense of the Highland voters that will ensure a complete sweep north of Inverness.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
Have you ever considered that what you are doing is unfair and unethical?
The people of Twickenham have the right to choose they want to represent their interests in Parliament.
You are taking that away from them because you believe that your personal desire to maximise the number of LibDem MPs is more important than their rights.
How unbelievably selfish.
I cannot say it sits entirely comfortably with me, but people should be able to cast their vote as they wish, surely, and if both parties to the swap are happy with that arrangement that should be ok I guess. The person in Twickenham is still making the choice what to do with their vote, just in an unconventional manner.
During the Labour leadership election, when asked which past Labour leader he most admired the answer given by Ed Balls was Tony Blair. You might say that dishonesty in a politician is not remarkable, but to take it to such a brazen level on such an apparently inconsequential question speaks to me of a man who will say anything if he thinks it will help him to gain power.
Known for being a henchman of Gordon Brown during the feuding Blair/Brown years, Balls sought to disown his past entirely. Although it's a congested field at present, I think Ed Balls is probably the most instinctively dishonest politician in British politics, and in my view this makes him extraordinarily dangerous.
What I find annoying about Mr Balls is his hectoring manner. I don't feel he's trying to engage me in a debate but to browbeat me. I instinctively react in a negative way to anyone who tries to dominate me in such an unsophisticated way.
I get the impression Ed Balls is a reason you may just be able to consider Labour in the GE. The fact he is well regarded by many Conservatives on here is probably doing Labour no favours at all in Scotland mind.
Is "The Most Annoying Man in UK Politics (tm)" really that well regarded on here? His record in gov and his recent media outings don't bode well.
Quite. I actually find Ed Balls particularly and instinctively objectionable in his approach. Perhaps a bit of that is unfair on my part, but something about the man grates with me, and beyond that general impression he is distinctly unimpressive, even if I gather as a political operator he has his strengths.
And, stout fellow though he is, we must all hope NPXMP fails to dislodge La Soubry in Broxtowe.
Sorry to let the side down - I know nothing really of Soubry as an MP, but it's NPXMP all the way for me. Fortunately for her, good wishes have very little currency in these matters.
Last time I looked it was a democracy and people could do with their vote as they saw fit. I will be wasting mine in East Ham as will all the non-Labour voters but I will vote.
....
Fot the purposes of this, I've assumed CON gains from the LDs are balanced by CON losses to LAB so you come out as CON 300 LAB 250 SNP 50 LD 25 OTHERS 25.
So it's down to PC (with LAB/SNP you'd think), the single Green and UKIP MPs (cancel each other out), the Speaker (irrelevant) and the Ulster MPs and the LDs.
The fun starts in approximately 1,356 hours from now (to borrow a JackW ism).
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Clearly you have finally flipped over the edge and completely lost your marbles. I assume it is a sign of desperation now that your predictions of a return to the old of all those Tory defectors to UKIP has come to nothing.
The 'do you approve of the government's record' question seems to perfectly track the Conservative VI numbers. Supports the notion that LDs get zero credit for any good things the gov't does.
I note that Sadiq Khan said there were 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish' signs when his parents came to London. Were such signs really still about in the 1950s? I was under the impression they were a 19th Century thing.
Until recently, a B&B in my neck of the woods bore a sign saying "No dogs, No children, No Australians". The owners eventually sold up and moved on to do something else.
When the California Secretary of State tried to ban voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com the owners took him to court.
The court's judgement was, "Both the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms and the communication and vote swaps that they enabled were...constitutionally protected. At their core, they amounted to efforts by politically engaged people to support their preferred candidates and to avoid election results that they feared would contravene the preferences of a majority of voters in closely contested states. Whether or not one agrees with these voters' tactics, such efforts, when conducted honestly and without money changing hands, are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
You're correct but the hysterical reaction from gormless politicians will make the point.
Where's Roger? You could work on a Ukip PP broadcast.
First scene... Farage talking about British jobs for British-born workers ... Second scene ... Labour politicians in hysterical mode. Third scen ... Gordon announcing "British jobs for British workers." Fourth scene ... Gordon muttering about Mrs Duffy being a bigot.
There you are, this advertising malarkey isn't really a job for an adult, is it?
The "Smithson" vote can only be done in practice if you find two people living in two marginals but they are the "wrong kind of marginal" for both voter.
What's to stop it being co-ordinated on a broader level by constituency parties?
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
You hope. You will never know for certain if the other person follows through with their part.
And vice versa.
But we are both voting by post and will exchange pics of ballot forms.
I don't know but I suspect that might be against electoral law by violating the secrecy of the ballot.
It's a secret ballot if the voter wishes it so to be.
May I enquire as to where you are exercising your franchise - Surrey or a coastal town in Dorset ?
I shall be casting a block vote of 10,000 devoted Hershamites for Central Office to distribute to which ever constituencies they deem most efficacious.
I hoped you'd come up with a cunning plan but 10,000 extra votes for Viscount Thurso will only increase his majority to 14,000 which as cunning plans go may appear somewhat less cunning that you had hoped.
Perhaps spread your electoral largesse in Clacton, Rochester and Thanet South ?
@JackW Do you honestly think Viscount Thurso can hold ? I know he has a decent personal vote and all but it'll probably only make his loss look less bad.
I have absolute faith in the Scottish peerage, with added ancestral Jacobite tendencies, and the good sense of the Highland voters that will ensure a complete sweep north of Inverness.
Crikey,
Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross TCTC or Probable Lib Dem HOLD in your ARSE ?
The "Smithson" vote can only be done in practice if you find two people living in two marginals but they are the "wrong kind of marginal" for both voter.
What's to stop it being co-ordinated on a broader level by constituency parties?
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
Have you ever considered that what you are doing is unfair and unethical?
The people of Twickenham have the right to choose they want to represent their interests in Parliament.
You are taking that away from them because you believe that your personal desire to maximise the number of LibDem MPs is more important than their rights.
How unbelievably selfish.
You mean like people owning 2 homes in different constituencies who choose to vote in the most marginal of the 2 seats ? How about if I buy a house in a marginal Con/LD seat and sell 5,000 share in it for £ 5 to other Lib Dems . We would all be entitled to legitimately choose to vote in that parliamentary seat .
The "Smithson" vote can only be done in practice if you find two people living in two marginals but they are the "wrong kind of marginal" for both voter.
Quite. And in future we could get quite a few Labour/Ukip marginals offering the chance of Tory-Ukip swaps.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
You hope. You will never know for certain if the other person follows through with their part.
And vice versa.
But we are both voting by post and will exchange pics of ballot forms.
That's illegal isn't it? You can't share identifiable information about your vote.
By illegal I mean would void your vote.
Turns out I'm wrong, only applies to voting paper in the polling booth. You can happily send pictures of postal ballots.
Which completely undermines the point of the 1872 Act (under which you couldn't show your ballot paper to anyone.) If you have the option of disclosing your vote, your employer can immediately say: OK your decision whether to exercise that option, but if you don't my decision whether you still have a job. So this vote-swapping is wrong in principle and profoundly undemocratic and not actually as clever and funny as it thinks it is.
Last time I looked it was a democracy and people could do with their vote as they saw fit. I will be wasting mine in East Ham as will all the non-Labour voters but I will vote.
....
Fot the purposes of this, I've assumed CON gains from the LDs are balanced by CON losses to LAB so you come out as CON 300 LAB 250 SNP 50 LD 25 OTHERS 25.
So it's down to PC (with LAB/SNP you'd think), the single Green and UKIP MPs (cancel each other out), the Speaker (irrelevant) and the Ulster MPs and the LDs.
The fun starts in approximately 1,356 hours from now (to borrow a JackW ism).
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Clearly you have finally flipped over the edge and completely lost your marbles. I assume it is a sign of desperation now that your predictions of a return to the old of all those Tory defectors to UKIP has come to nothing.
If you want to cheerlead for this crass ignorant nasty barsteward you are welcome.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
You hope. You will never know for certain if the other person follows through with their part.
And vice versa.
But we are both voting by post and will exchange pics of ballot forms.
That's illegal isn't it? You can't share identifiable information about your vote.
By illegal I mean would void your vote.
Turns out I'm wrong, only applies to voting paper in the polling booth. You can happily send pictures of postal ballots.
Which completely undermines the point of the 1872 Act (under which you couldn't show your ballot paper to anyone.) If you have the option of disclosing your vote, your employer can immediately say: OK your decision whether to exercise that option, but if you don't my decision whether you still have a job. So this vote-swapping is wrong in principle and profoundly undemocratic and not actually as clever and funny as it thinks it is.
Hear hear. The law ought to be extended to postal voting too.
And it's not just employers (though at least one chap would have loved it during indyref). It could be relatives, or local politicians, or other people in a position of some power/influence.
The "Smithson" vote can only be done in practice if you find two people living in two marginals but they are the "wrong kind of marginal" for both voter.
Quite. And in future we could get quite a few Labour/Ukip marginals offering the chance of Tory-Ukip swaps.
That does not quite fit with how he answered a direct question about race or colour further down.
I note that Sadiq Khan said there were 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish' signs when his parents came to London. Were such signs really still about in the 1950s? I was under the impression they were a 19th Century thing.
I bet Dogs are still secretly not made welcome in boarding houses, especially not black, Irish ones. The signs have been taken down but under the radar the discrimination continues. #dogsdigs
Last time I looked it was a democracy and people could do with their vote as they saw fit. I will be wasting mine in East Ham as will all the non-Labour voters but I will vote.
....
Fot the purposes of this, I've assumed CON gains from the LDs are balanced by CON losses to LAB so you come out as CON 300 LAB 250 SNP 50 LD 25 OTHERS 25.
So it's down to PC (with LAB/SNP you'd think), the single Green and UKIP MPs (cancel each other out), the Speaker (irrelevant) and the Ulster MPs and the LDs.
The fun starts in approximately 1,356 hours from now (to borrow a JackW ism).
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Clearly you have finally flipped over the edge and completely lost your marbles. I assume it is a sign of desperation now that your predictions of a return to the old of all those Tory defectors to UKIP has come to nothing.
That "racist" remark sounds familiar. Has he said it before?
Possibly, but before that Gordon Broon said it and before that it was a National Front slogan in the 1970s.
It's up there with Labour nonsense like "Forward not back" and "Forward with Britain" that means exactly nothing in terms of what specifically it promises to deliver (nothing). It's just a football chant really.
This horrid notion of vote swapping make anyone else feel uneasy?
Why? I don't want to waste my vote and the other party doesn't want to waste his.
This is a direct product of first past the post. It enables both of us to feel that our votes are being used where they'll have most impact without undermining the overall national vote shares for our parties. A perfect solution.
So would you support the parties adopting that strategy publicly? Identifying LD voters in, say, Hampstead (Lab-Con marginal) who will agree to vote Conservative there in return for a Conservative in, say, Brent East agreeing to vote LD?
I could knock-up a website/App for that - VoteExchange2015 or something. Login and it will tell you the details of the last vote in your constituency. You can then register your preference and "sell" your vote in exchange for somebody voting that way in a marginal with your party in with a chance...
That would be interesting indeed. The value of a converted LD vote in Hampstead, where Labour has a majority of about 40 IIRC, is presumably high, because hypothetically you only need to obtain 41 of them to win. The swap value of the Conservative vote in Brent East would then be relatively low, because Teather's majority is larger. So a one vote for one vote swap between those two places gets the Tories 2.5% of the way to a majority in Hampstead, but gets the LDs only 0.25% (or whatever) of the way in Brent East.
Teather in Brent East would probably be prepared to bid hard for the first 500 or so votes, to give Labour a bigger mountain to climb, but votes beyond that would be less valuable to her. So Labour's bid to use your wasted vote from Buckingham would be higher.
And you'd also have to factor in how many votes are for sale in total. If the incumbent has a 51% poll share and the other two parties have 30 and 19% each, then effectively, none of the votes cast for either of those runners-up is worth anything to the other. Even if 30% bought up all 19% of the other party's vote, they'd still lose because the number of votes for sale is insufficient to alter the result.
It needn't follow that only second-placed parties in marginals would want to play. In the previous example, supporters of the winner last time might swap their own votes because it was wasted in such a safe seat. So the conjectural 50:30:19 split might in fact trade down to a 40:40:20 split, with 10 points of the previous winner's majority going to marginals elsewhere.
So your vote trading app would have to allow for the possibility of my vote in Finchley being worth 2 Labour votes elsewhere, or 3 LD votes, or 25 UKIP votes.
That does not quite fit with how he answered a direct question about race or colour further down.
I note that Sadiq Khan said there were 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish' signs when his parents came to London. Were such signs really still about in the 1950s? I was under the impression they were a 19th Century thing.
I bet Dogs are still secretly not made welcome in boarding houses, especially not black, Irish ones. The signs have been taken down but under the radar the discrimination continues. #dogsdigs
Must be a dog's life being an Irish setter or a Flat-coat retriever ...
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Is the EU and the Test & County Cricket Board racist?
In 1968 the rules were changed to allow two overseas players at each county; one had to serve a qualification period, but the other could be registered without such a period necessary. This drew an influx of leading Test cricketers into the English game, and served to improve the quality of cricket and boost crowds. The laws were later tightened once again to allow each county only one overseas player, thought that player did not have to serve a qualification period. Foreign-born players could still gain qualification via residency, but thereafter were not considered overseas players. The Kolpak ruling of 2003 dictated that players from those countries with European Union Association Agreements had equal rights to work as European Union (EU) citizens. As a consequence, players from the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States could not be considered overseas players. This resulted in a large number of South African players joining county sides. The EU re-ruled on the agreement in 2008, and stated that the agreement did not allow free movement of labour. Those players who had held a valid work permit for four years were allowed the same rights as EU citizens, but others would have to be registered as overseas players to continue to participate in county cricket.
Currently, each county is only allowed one overseas player registered at any one time to compete in the County Championship and the Clydesdale Bank 40 competitions, and two at a time in the Friends Life t20.
FA May Limit Foreign Players in English Premier League
FA chairman Greg Dyke has proposed that each team should only be allowed to have a maximum of two non-European Union players so that home talent can be bolstered.
It turns out a pissing contest about whose 'rights' matter most just makes everybody feel bloody awkward and uncomfortable: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31846703
When the California Secretary of State tried to ban voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com the owners took him to court.
The court's judgement was, "Both the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms and the communication and vote swaps that they enabled were...constitutionally protected. At their core, they amounted to efforts by politically engaged people to support their preferred candidates and to avoid election results that they feared would contravene the preferences of a majority of voters in closely contested states. Whether or not one agrees with these voters' tactics, such efforts, when conducted honestly and without money changing hands, are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
I am not sure the United States is a great guide for voting rights, considering how the interpretation of free speech over there means you can give unlimited amounts to any candidate. I agree with the poster below that the idea of getting other people to vote for you is fundamentally against the principles of local representatives. It should be illegal, in my humble opinion. Of course, given the anonymity of the voting booth, there's nothing to stop one or both parties signing up for an agreement and then playing the counter party for a mug.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
You hope. You will never know for certain if the other person follows through with their part.
And vice versa.
But we are both voting by post and will exchange pics of ballot forms.
I don't know but I suspect that might be against electoral law by violating the secrecy of the ballot.
It's a secret ballot if the voter wishes it so to be.
May I enquire as to where you are exercising your franchise - Surrey or a coastal town in Dorset ?
I shall be casting a block vote of 10,000 devoted Hershamites for Central Office to distribute to which ever constituencies they deem most efficacious.
I hoped you'd come up with a cunning plan but 10,000 extra votes for Viscount Thurso will only increase his majority to 14,000 which as cunning plans go may appear somewhat less cunning that you had hoped.
Perhaps spread your electoral largesse in Clacton, Rochester and Thanet South ?
@JackW Do you honestly think Viscount Thurso can hold ? I know he has a decent personal vote and all but it'll probably only make his loss look less bad.
I have absolute faith in the Scottish peerage, with added ancestral Jacobite tendencies, and the good sense of the Highland voters that will ensure a complete sweep north of Inverness.
First time I thought you'd written "complete sheep", which would rather explain everything.
You will, of course, be voting blue in Bedford Mike! Can't risk an Ed premiership.
I am voting in Twickenham. I've swapped my vote and will do what the other party to the swap wants.
Have you ever considered that what you are doing is unfair and unethical?
The people of Twickenham have the right to choose they want to represent their interests in Parliament.
You are taking that away from them because you believe that your personal desire to maximise the number of LibDem MPs is more important than their rights.
How unbelievably selfish.
You mean like people owning 2 homes in different constituencies who choose to vote in the most marginal of the 2 seats ? How about if I buy a house in a marginal Con/LD seat and sell 5,000 share in it for £ 5 to other Lib Dems . We would all be entitled to legitimately choose to vote in that parliamentary seat .
As we've seen from today's Telegraph investigation, Lib Dems have no problem bending the rules.
This horrid notion of vote swapping make anyone else feel uneasy?
Why? I don't want to waste my vote and the other party doesn't want to waste his.
This is a direct product of first past the post. It enables both of us to feel that our votes are being used where they'll have most impact without undermining the overall national vote shares for our parties. A perfect solution.
So would you support the parties adopting that strategy publicly? Identifying LD voters in, say, Hampstead (Lab-Con marginal) who will agree to vote Conservative there in return for a Conservative in, say, Brent East agreeing to vote LD?
I could knock-up a website/App for that - VoteExchange2015 or something. Login and it will tell you the details of the last vote in your constituency. You can then register your preference and "sell" your vote in exchange for somebody voting that way in a marginal with your party in with a chance...
That would be interesting indeed. The value of a converted LD vote in Hampstead, where Labour has a majority of about 40 IIRC, is presumably high, because hypothetically you only need to obtain 41 of them to win. The swap value of the Conservative vote in Brent East would then be relatively low, because Teather's majority is larger. So a one vote for one vote swap between those two places gets the Tories 2.5% of the way to a majority in Hampstead, but gets the LDs only 0.25% (or whatever) of the way in Brent East.
...snip...
So your vote trading app would have to allow for the possibility of my vote in Finchley being worth 2 Labour votes elsewhere, or 3 LD votes, or 25 UKIP votes.
Interesting... Could use data from SPIN/BF etc. to drive the market values of votes by constituency/party...
Naturally you should also be able to specify whatever "price" you want to sell for too.
It turns out a pissing contest about whose 'rights' matter most just makes everybody feel bloody awkward and uncomfortable: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31846703
May you be touched by His Noodley Appendage.
Ray Finch (UKIP) is reported to be using a Cod-mace.
Do you have a spare enormo-haddock you could give him?
"Ray Finch does a cracking job on fisheries: http://is.gd/qJsUs2 . He's hitting them where it hurts with a wet cod-fish."
The implications for the rest of the country are interesting. They have 3 councillors in Wyre Forest. 3 Councillors in Southend-on-sea. 5 councillors in Rydale (Thirsk and Malton)
Not a fan to say the least of the current Labour front bench but I like Ed Balls. In a sea of automatons he has some fire and original comment. He is also politically far cleverer than most of his colleagues.
Balls success in picking apart the 2012 budget put Labour in a winning position according to the polls. Those gains look to have largely been squandered but you can't help but feel Balls would have made a better fist of leading the Labour Party than Miliband has.
Miliband was a desperately poor choice, if Burnham is next he would be even worse.
Here is a new one..Tom Brake the LD MP for Carshalton and Wallington is now crowdfunding for his election campaign. This has been built up on the hoovering up of email addresses on petitions that he has never handed in. One petition the Save St Helier hospital petition has over 30000 signatures and he has now got access to those email addresses to raise money for his election campaign, https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682 Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
Here is a new one..Tom Brake the LD MP for Carshalton and Wallington is now crowdfunding for his election campaign. This has been built up on the hoovering up of email addresses on petitions that he has never handed in. One petition the Save St Helier hospital petition has over 30000 signatures and he has now got access to those email addresses to raise money for his election campaign, https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682 Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
The SNP use a crowd funding website (not sure how successfully).
Here is a new one..Tom Brake the LD MP for Carshalton and Wallington is now crowdfunding for his election campaign. This has been built up on the hoovering up of email addresses on petitions that he has never handed in. One petition the Save St Helier hospital petition has over 30000 signatures and he has now got access to those email addresses to raise money for his election campaign, https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682 Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
The SNP use a crowd funding website (not sure how successfully).
Here is a new one..Tom Brake the LD MP for Carshalton and Wallington is now crowdfunding for his election campaign. This has been built up on the hoovering up of email addresses on petitions that he has never handed in. One petition the Save St Helier hospital petition has over 30000 signatures and he has now got access to those email addresses to raise money for his election campaign, https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682 Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
The SNP use a crowd funding website (not sure how successfully).
Here is a new one..Tom Brake the LD MP for Carshalton and Wallington is now crowdfunding for his election campaign. This has been built up on the hoovering up of email addresses on petitions that he has never handed in. One petition the Save St Helier hospital petition has over 30000 signatures and he has now got access to those email addresses to raise money for his election campaign, https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682 Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Is the EU and the Test & County Cricket Board racist?
erc etc
Mr Gift why not grow up? I remember Michael Parkinson driving his pregnant wife to Yorkshire so his children would qualify for Yorkshire CC. At that time you had to be born or long term resident in a county to qualify for your county. It did not matter if you were born a Pakistani... that was another matter.
In terms of football - you cannot play for your country unless born in it - the rules get amended of course to bring in grandparents etc. But why not allow a brazilian to play FOR England? Thats the point when it comes to sport - national qualification for national teamsd is the point.
Faage will let as many white Austaralians in as he wants - its the blacks he does not like.
As long as people refuse to vote for a clearly racist UKIP party then the tories can get a majority. But the tories getting a majority is increasingly becoming the least important issue. The clear issue is how readily British voters will reward racist sentiment.
Is the EU and the Test & County Cricket Board racist?
erc etc
Mr Gift why not grow up? I remember Michael Parkinson driving his pregnant wife to Yorkshire so his children would qualify for Yorkshire CC. At that time you had to be born or long term resident in a county to qualify for your county. It did not matter if you were born a Pakistani... that was another matter.
In terms of football - you cannot play for your country unless born in it - the rules get amended of course to bring in grandparents etc. But why not allow a brazilian to play FOR England? Thats the point when it comes to sport - national qualification for national teamsd is the point.
Faage will let as many white Austaralians in as he wants - its the blacks he does not like.
So it's alright when its not Farage or UKIP doing it then? Just as long as you can perpetuate your deranged bigoted obsession of abusing UKIP and its sympathisers making up absurd allegations and smears as you go? That should get you off nicely....
PS And the only people who talk about needing to grow up I've found lack the maturity to know what it actually means to be 'grown up'.
Despite Mike Smithson claiming that the GE Seats spread prices displayed by Sporting Index in their PB.com advertising were updated in real time to their live prices, this is patently NOT the case. Today the disparity is even wider with their website showing the Tories no fewer than 15 seats ahead of Labour with the respective mid-spreads being 285 vs 270, whereas the advertised prices shown on their advertisement as I type this post show the Tories just 8 seats ahead by 283 vs 275. As I said yesterday this is both sloppy and misleading.
Comments
Voters empowered by internet swap shop
Anybody want to hook-up and help me write an Exchange site and App for this?
Known for being a henchman of Gordon Brown during the feuding Blair/Brown years, Balls sought to disown his past entirely. Although it's a congested field at present, I think Ed Balls is probably the most instinctively dishonest politician in British politics, and in my view this makes him extraordinarily dangerous.
The court's judgement was, "Both the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms and the communication and vote swaps that they enabled were...constitutionally protected. At their core, they amounted to efforts by politically engaged people to support their preferred candidates and to avoid election results that they feared would contravene the preferences of a majority of voters in closely contested states. Whether or not one agrees with these voters' tactics, such efforts, when conducted honestly and without money changing hands, are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
You're correct but the hysterical reaction from gormless politicians will make the point.
Where's Roger? You could work on a Ukip PP broadcast.
First scene... Farage talking about British jobs for British-born workers ...
Second scene ... Labour politicians in hysterical mode.
Third scen ... Gordon announcing "British jobs for British workers."
Fourth scene ... Gordon muttering about Mrs Duffy being a bigot.
There you are, this advertising malarkey isn't really a job for an adult, is it?
Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross TCTC or Probable Lib Dem HOLD in your ARSE ?
How about if I buy a house in a marginal Con/LD seat and sell 5,000 share in it for £ 5 to other Lib Dems . We would all be entitled to legitimately choose to vote in that parliamentary seat .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6681337.stm
http://flashbak.com/mods-rockers-teds-irish-skinheads-pikeys-blacks-and-jews-the-people-banned-from-anywhere-decent-people-gather-1011/
And it's not just employers (though at least one chap would have loved it during indyref). It could be relatives, or local politicians, or other people in a position of some power/influence.
However, it is a rumour not a fact.
[His manservant's called Dog].
https://youtu.be/uyaJ8eR9tzw
Teather in Brent East would probably be prepared to bid hard for the first 500 or so votes, to give Labour a bigger mountain to climb, but votes beyond that would be less valuable to her. So Labour's bid to use your wasted vote from Buckingham would be higher.
And you'd also have to factor in how many votes are for sale in total. If the incumbent has a 51% poll share and the other two parties have 30 and 19% each, then effectively, none of the votes cast for either of those runners-up is worth anything to the other. Even if 30% bought up all 19% of the other party's vote, they'd still lose because the number of votes for sale is insufficient to alter the result.
It needn't follow that only second-placed parties in marginals would want to play. In the previous example, supporters of the winner last time might swap their own votes because it was wasted in such a safe seat. So the conjectural 50:30:19 split might in fact trade down to a 40:40:20 split, with 10 points of the previous winner's majority going to marginals elsewhere.
So your vote trading app would have to allow for the possibility of my vote in Finchley being worth 2 Labour votes elsewhere, or 3 LD votes, or 25 UKIP votes.
In 1968 the rules were changed to allow two overseas players at each county; one had to serve a qualification period, but the other could be registered without such a period necessary. This drew an influx of leading Test cricketers into the English game, and served to improve the quality of cricket and boost crowds. The laws were later tightened once again to allow each county only one overseas player, thought that player did not have to serve a qualification period. Foreign-born players could still gain qualification via residency, but thereafter were not considered overseas players. The Kolpak ruling of 2003 dictated that players from those countries with European Union Association Agreements had equal rights to work as European Union (EU) citizens. As a consequence, players from the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States could not be considered overseas players. This resulted in a large number of South African players joining county sides. The EU re-ruled on the agreement in 2008, and stated that the agreement did not allow free movement of labour. Those players who had held a valid work permit for four years were allowed the same rights as EU citizens, but others would have to be registered as overseas players to continue to participate in county cricket.
Currently, each county is only allowed one overseas player registered at any one time to compete in the County Championship and the Clydesdale Bank 40 competitions, and two at a time in the Friends Life t20.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Harrias/Overseas_players_in_English_county_cricket
Is Gordon Brown and the British Government racist?
Brown stands by British jobs for British workers remark
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jan/30/brown-british-jobs-workers
Is Greg Dyke and the FA racist?
FA May Limit Foreign Players in English Premier League
FA chairman Greg Dyke has proposed that each team should only be allowed to have a maximum of two non-European Union players so that home talent can be bolstered.
http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news/223959-fa-may-limit-foreign-players-in-english-premier-league
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31846703
May you be touched by His Noodley Appendage.
"The Liberal Party has withdrawn its three parliamentary candidates in Cornwall and urged supporters to vote for Ukip"
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Liberal-Party-urges-supporters-vote-Ukip/story-26154057-detail/story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK,_1989)
Naturally you should also be able to specify whatever "price" you want to sell for too.
Do you have a spare enormo-haddock you could give him?
"Ray Finch does a cracking job on fisheries: http://is.gd/qJsUs2 . He's hitting them where it hurts with a wet cod-fish."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falmouth_and_Camborne_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
The implications for the rest of the country are interesting. They have 3 councillors in Wyre Forest. 3 Councillors in Southend-on-sea. 5 councillors in Rydale (Thirsk and Malton)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK,_1989)#Elected_members
Balls success in picking apart the 2012 budget put Labour in a winning position according to the polls. Those gains look to have largely been squandered but you can't help but feel Balls would have made a better fist of leading the Labour Party than Miliband has.
Miliband was a desperately poor choice, if Burnham is next he would be even worse.
https://www.facebook.com/brake/posts/789428707799682
Some may say he is a shrewd operator others would call him a fraud..
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/blog/2015/03/scottish-national-party-launches-crowdfunder-campaign-stand-candidates-general-election-2015/
Surely that LD MP is breaking some information confidentiality regs though?
I remember Michael Parkinson driving his pregnant wife to Yorkshire so his children would qualify for Yorkshire CC. At that time you had to be born or long term resident in a county to qualify for your county. It did not matter if you were born a Pakistani... that was another matter.
In terms of football - you cannot play for your country unless born in it - the rules get amended of course to bring in grandparents etc. But why not allow a brazilian to play FOR England? Thats the point when it comes to sport - national qualification for national teamsd is the point.
Faage will let as many white Austaralians in as he wants - its the blacks he does not like.
PS And the only people who talk about needing to grow up I've found lack the maturity to know what it actually means to be 'grown up'.
Today the disparity is even wider with their website showing the Tories no fewer than 15 seats ahead of Labour with the respective mid-spreads being 285 vs 270, whereas the advertised prices shown on their advertisement as I type this post show the Tories just 8 seats ahead by 283 vs 275.
As I said yesterday this is both sloppy and misleading.