Morning everyone. So yesterday Labour came out as the party of the doms; today the Tories make a strong pitch for the subs. Clear Grey water finally... I'm sure we'll all be waiting breathlessly while JackW's ARSE absorbs the consequences.
On a far more important topic does anybody successfully use Safari (Mac or iOS) with Vanilla at the minute? Whenever I log in I get a nested new PB window inside the old one, but am still not logged in to comment. Am running Firefox on a virtual PC at the minute which isn't really ideal - any help would be gratefully received.
The estimated 100 billion barrels of oil discovered in southern England is significant even though geology may restrict recovery to 10 billion. Extraction from the North Sea has been 45 billion over 40 years.
This would not require fracking - but such a discovery is not unexpected as oil has been extracted from the Wych Farm site in Dorset since 1979 where oil and gas is moved by pipeline.
Morning everyone. So yesterday Labour came out as the party of the doms; today the Tories make a strong pitch for the subs. Clear Grey water finally... I'm sure we'll all be waiting breathlessly while JackW's ARSE absorbs the consequences.
On a far more important topic does anybody successfully use Safari (Mac or iOS) with Vanilla at the minute? Whenever I log in I get a nested new PB window inside the old one, but am still not logged in to comment. Am running Firefox on a virtual PC at the minute which isn't really ideal - any help would be gratefully received.
Thats what I get on my ipad/iphone at home. I have to use a seperate app to post at home (puffin, which allows you to access flash on ipads).
If a group of like minded individuals that supported party X wanted to help their party in the election, had a whip around and raised a big chunk of money, would they be breaking any election laws if they used that money to run surveys, produce literature, put up posters etc if it wasn't in cooperation with, or at the behest of the political party ? If so, what about if they didn't actually name candidates or parties and just promoted or supported particular policies ? Businessmen for Europe, or, Lefties for a Better Funded NHS, or whatever.
Morning everyone. So yesterday Labour came out as the party of the doms; today the Tories make a strong pitch for the subs. Clear Grey water finally... I'm sure we'll all be waiting breathlessly while JackW's ARSE absorbs the consequences.
On a far more important topic does anybody successfully use Safari (Mac or iOS) with Vanilla at the minute? Whenever I log in I get a nested new PB window inside the old one, but am still not logged in to comment. Am running Firefox on a virtual PC at the minute which isn't really ideal - any help would be gratefully received.
I was having issues for a while with Safari on iOS (specifically logging into Vanilla), but it seems ok now. The only gripe I have is that sometimes the page formatting gets screwed up when somebody posts a really long link; the comments "bleed" into the links on the right, making the site mostly unreadable.
Slackbladder I use Safari and generally have no problems, although sometimes the site seems to forget that I’m logged in to comment and I have to log in again. Never tried on my phone, as the password is one that was “found” by the password-finding facility on this, and is therefore a complex and un-rememberable string of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
I suspect that he is right. Some of the English moving to Wales (and other rural parts of the UK) do it to avoid the multiculturalism of our big cities.
Most probably just want a quiet life, but there could be a few wannabee Breiviks out there.
Slackbladder I use Safari and generally have no problems, although sometimes the site seems to forget that I’m logged in to comment and I have to log in again. Never tried on my phone, as the password is one that was “found” by the password-finding facility on this, and is therefore a complex and un-rememberable string of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
do you use keychain? You should be able to access the same keychain on all your devices...
Not in this election is the line. They are still keeping their options open for 2016 and the Scottish elections. If they get a majority there they will try again.
At least that was the line on Tuesday. On Wednesday Sturgeon, who got boo'd by the audience for this seemed to back off a little more and indicated there would have to be some unspecified change of circumstances before there was a rerun.
BBC Scotland are trying very, very hard to set the agenda on the Second Referendum, they're even editorialising with the headline story on their news bulletins, directly breaking their own charter, by stating "further referendum much less likely".
SNP know dropping a commitment to a second referendum will hurt them badly so they won't fall for it. Latest polling has 48% wanting another within 5 years.
Thanks all for the browser feedback. Interesting that some people have it working OK on iOS and others don't (I certainly don't). Now in Firefox which seems to be a combination of annoying nesting, but successful login.
Rather like the relief many of us felt last time when tha Tories were tempered by the Lib Dems I would welcome Labour being constained by the SNP. There are some wild reaches in the Labour Party-Simon Danczuk to name but one-and the more these fruitcakes are diluted the safer I'll feel.
Whereas the LibDems constrained the Tories, I feel that the SNP would have the opposite effect on Labour.
He's talking to Tory UKIPers, no-one else. That is the Tory campaign strategy; just as the Labour strategy is to talk to the anti-Tories. There is no national debate taking place. The two big parties are having two very different conversations with two very distinct sections of the electorate. That's FPTP for you. Whoever wins is going to lack a proper mandate.
Turnout in England is going to be shocking.
Shockingly high? Consider:
1. Never has a wider range of political parties been given so much time in the media, or had so many candidates standing for election. Voters who want an alternative to the same old politicians have that alternative.
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Maybe the Tories spent their money on what seems to be a very good rapid rebuttal operation. The edited Balls quotes and clips appeared very quickly yesterday. That must take some doing. Whether it's the best use of resources is another matter ...
It's also very likely they are keeping cash back to fight a possible second GE later this year, or next.
Rather like the relief many of us felt last time when tha Tories were tempered by the Lib Dems I would welcome Labour being constained by the SNP. There are some wild reaches in the Labour Party-Simon Danczuk to name but one-and the more these fruitcakes are diluted the safer I'll feel.
Whereas the LibDems constrained the Tories, I feel that the SNP would have the opposite effect on Labour.
Some of us voted yellow in the hope they would end up in a coalition with Labour which would pull Labour to the left remember... so the threat of the SNP doing likewise (I assume that's what you mean) is quite appealing.
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Its not an entirely perfect system though. My wife and I got married since the last election, she registered the change of name with the online system. A few months ago we received a letter in the post saying who was registered to vote at our address - it listed both my wife (correct name) and I saying that we were fully registered, it also listed my wife's maiden name but said "Action Required" for this and it wasn't registered. We didn't take any action because we don't want my wife's maiden name registered and it was correctly (we thought) unregistered.
Anyway, this week we received three voting cards through the post. One for me, one for my wife and one for my wife's maiden name.
Of course it'd be wrong for her to vote twice so we'll have a 66% turnout in our house.
So is this Trident stuff the Tories' big announcement we were expecting today? Desperate stuff from Fallon on the wireless this morning. He doesn't have an answer to the arguement that Lab plus Con can get a pro-nuke majority in the house, and trying to paint Ed as both weak and yet simultaneously ruthless just makes him look daft.
Oh, and the Green Party do have a good leader. Next Deputy First Minister of Scotland?
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Its not an entirely perfect system though. My wife and I got married since the last election, she registered the change of name with the online system. A few months ago we received a letter in the post saying who was registered to vote at our address - it listed both my wife (correct name) and I saying that we were fully registered, it also listed my wife's maiden name but said "Action Required" for this and it wasn't registered. We didn't take any action because we don't want my wife's maiden name registered and it was correctly (we thought) unregistered.
Anyway, this week we received three voting cards through the post. One for me, one for my wife and one for my wife's maiden name.
Of course it'd be wrong for her to vote twice so we'll have a 66% turnout in our house.
Not only would it be wrong to vote for your wife twice but you could face jail
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Its not an entirely perfect system though. My wife and I got married since the last election, she registered the change of name with the online system. A few months ago we received a letter in the post saying who was registered to vote at our address - it listed both my wife (correct name) and I saying that we were fully registered, it also listed my wife's maiden name but said "Action Required" for this and it wasn't registered. We didn't take any action because we don't want my wife's maiden name registered and it was correctly (we thought) unregistered.
Anyway, this week we received three voting cards through the post. One for me, one for my wife and one for my wife's maiden name.
Of course it'd be wrong for her to vote twice so we'll have a 66% turnout in our house.
An that's why anyone suggesting that referendums have a minimum turnout requirement like the '79 referendum is wrong.
Quite. The next change I would like to see is that MPs can claim expenses only on the same basis as the rest of us. As Balls said yesterday, laws should be applied equally.
Labours defence spokesman said on radio 5 that if evidence is there for 4 subs then they go along with it,the word Evidence is the key,alot of wriggle room there for 3 subs.
So what do the SNP do when a Labour Govt with 275 seats proposes renewing with three boats, have a rebellion of 50 backbenchers who side with 50 odd SNP/Plaid/Green/various others and it's still passed as the remaining 225 Labour MPs are joined by the 275 Tories who figure three's better than none and it's easy enough to add one in 2020?
They get to vote against Trident without bringing down a Labour Gov't.
Maybe the Tories spent their money on what seems to be a very good rapid rebuttal operation. The edited Balls quotes and clips appeared very quickly yesterday. That must take some doing. Whether it's the best use of resources is another matter ...
It's also very likely they are keeping cash back to fight a possible second GE later this year, or next.
Do you think the government should implement every single populist policy even if its the wrong thing to do? Or contradicts another populist policy?
Why is tightening the rules on non-doms wrong? It's what this government has been doing. Labour are only extending what this government has done.
I'm not a natural Labour supporter but, really, it's absurd to say that a policy is good if done by the Tories but evil if proposed by Labour - or vice versa.
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Its not an entirely perfect system though. My wife and I got married since the last election, she registered the change of name with the online system. A few months ago we received a letter in the post saying who was registered to vote at our address - it listed both my wife (correct name) and I saying that we were fully registered, it also listed my wife's maiden name but said "Action Required" for this and it wasn't registered. We didn't take any action because we don't want my wife's maiden name registered and it was correctly (we thought) unregistered.
Anyway, this week we received three voting cards through the post. One for me, one for my wife and one for my wife's maiden name.
Of course it'd be wrong for her to vote twice so we'll have a 66% turnout in our house.
Not only would it be wrong to vote for your wife twice but you could face jail
Hence why we'll have 66% turnout! Neither my wife nor I would break the law just because bureaucracy made a mistake.
Though it worries me how easy it'd be do for someone with less scruples if they were postal votes.
Maybe the Tories spent their money on what seems to be a very good rapid rebuttal operation. The edited Balls quotes and clips appeared very quickly yesterday. That must take some doing. Whether it's the best use of resources is another matter ...
It's also very likely they are keeping cash back to fight a possible second GE later this year, or next.
Tory American political computer geeks out-performing Labour's American political computer geeks?
If you look at the parties' accounts on Youtube, there are an awful lot of very short, targeted video messages, including American-style "attack ads". Presumably links to the appropriate ads are tweeted or emailed to select groups of voters based on (say) who they follow on twitter or like on Facebook.
A lot of PhD theses will be written about new campaigning methods in this election, however it turns out.
SNP chap on R4 this morning really struggling in the same way as Sturgeon did about the implications of "full fiscal autonomy".
His answers were "Well huge amounts of Scottish wealth have flown south in the past 30 years". Completely irrelevant to the current fiscal position.
"Oil prices will rise again". Probably but what are we going to cut in the meantime?
The R4 Today producers clearly have a sense of humour - the next topic was 'huge oil reserves discovered under........Gatwick'
Yes I heard that. Is it just possible that the SNP will start to look more like a normal party than an irresistible force? My guess for how many SLAB MPs hang on is just starting to edge up (from a very low base).
Keep wishing David , it may come true.
Well you never know Malcolm. I have to say in Dundee West we have had several leaflets hand delivered by the SNP in really quite inefficiently large groups of leafleters. Suggests to me that they have more volunteers than they know what to do with at the moment.
Labour have finally got a candidate in Michael Marra (brother of Jenny Marra and namesake of his locally famous uncle) but I have yet to see a leaflet. If McGovern did not announce he was standing down until they were printed he is going to be even less popular.
Hope he whinges and whines less than his most annoying sister. Certainly cannot fault labour on their nepotism.
Do you think the government should implement every single populist policy even if its the wrong thing to do? Or contradicts another populist policy?
Why is tightening the rules on non-doms wrong? It's what this government has been doing. Labour are only extending what this government has done.
I'm not a natural Labour supporter but, really, it's absurd to say that a policy is good if done by the Tories but evil if proposed by Labour - or vice versa.
The opinion I (and other "PB Tories") expressed yesterday was that it was right if it raised money, wrong if it cost the country money - and given how easy it is to move to Ireland which apply the same non-dom tax system to everyone it'd probably cost money to abolish it entirely.
Personally I think the "right" thing to do (if every option was cost/benefit-neutral) would be to have an Irish-style system. Abolish non-dom status and treat everyone the same as non-doms are treated. Money earned in the UK or brought into the UK gets taxed, money earned in eg Ireland and left in Ireland is taxed in Ireland.
Quite. The next change I would like to see is that MPs can claim expenses only on the same basis as the rest of us. As Balls said yesterday, laws should be applied equally.
This snap poll is about as ridiculous as the poll that said people would pay more taxes for better NHS.. Try implementing those taxes and see how people squeal.. In the same vein, ending Non Doms is a ludicrously stupid idea.. try telling those in favour that they'll have to pay for the lost tax revenue ...
SNP chap on R4 this morning really struggling in the same way as Sturgeon did about the implications of "full fiscal autonomy".
His answers were "Well huge amounts of Scottish wealth have flown south in the past 30 years". Completely irrelevant to the current fiscal position.
"Oil prices will rise again". Probably but what are we going to cut in the meantime?
"We can make different choices and not spend money on nasty things like Trident." Well, putting aside the 10K jobs in Scotland dependent on Trident you can't whilst Scotland remains a part of the UK.
This is the first time that SLAB have really laid a glove on the SNP. Their weak point has always been the fantasy economics which underlay the referendum and have since developed very much not to Scotland's advantage. But to really challenge them on this SLAB themselves have to at least put a toe in the real world where bills have to be paid. It is not their natural milieu either.
There also seemed to be a difference acknowledged by SNP that they are aiming for fiscal independence but not total independence and that Sturgeon said last night that full independence is not on the current agenda - is this correct?
She was only saying what was a necessity, if they get any opportunity / chance then they will have another one. Meanwhile they are now looking at Home rule to keep as many as possible on board for now. They need to keep as many Labour voters on board as possible for now.
From what I have seen the Tories spent a fortune on campaigning in the 6 months before the election period started. I have never seen so many local interest magazines and news leaflets by the Tory party, featuring the many things that their candidate has been compaigning on. Also I think I had atleast 3 letters from Cameron and about 6 from the Tory candidate.
Do you think the government should implement every single populist policy even if its the wrong thing to do? Or contradicts another populist policy?
Why is tightening the rules on non-doms wrong? It's what this government has been doing. Labour are only extending what this government has done.
I'm not a natural Labour supporter but, really, it's absurd to say that a policy is good if done by the Tories but evil if proposed by Labour - or vice versa.
The opinion I (and other "PB Tories") expressed yesterday was that it was right if it raised money, wrong if it cost the country money - and given how easy it is to move to Ireland which apply the same non-dom tax system to everyone it'd probably cost money to abolish it entirely.
Personally I think the "right" thing to do (if every option was cost/benefit-neutral) would be to have an Irish-style system. Abolish non-dom status and treat everyone the same as non-doms are treated. Money earned in the UK or brought into the UK gets taxed, money earned in eg Ireland and left in Ireland is taxed in Ireland.
Has Sturgeon said what the non dom status of an independent Scotland would be?
Some interesting stats on the Lab-Con marginals from Mike OGH. I agree that the ground campaign is key in tight contests. Compared to 2010 the Con ground resources have on average declined and Labour are about the same. Labour's rely on union folk bolstering the marginals so have more flexibility in deploying the resources than the Conservatives. Shapps Team 2015 are a group of enthused corporate sea gulls without the side effects...
As to the Conservatives cash that seems to have lulled Cameron's leadership into thinking that a national air campaign via the internet is what really matters. They do not even seem to be spending much on real poster sites. Just as GE2010 was a badly planned campaign by Osborne etc, so we have a similar bunch in GE2015 with the benefit of Crosby's discipline. But at Crosby says "you cannot fatten a pig on market day". It was the many months of failing to build up local resources with paid agents etc that will probably have lost Cameron his chance of a majority.
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
We should scrap our independent nuclear deterrent, massively downsize the armed forces and start to behave like the prosperous peaceful country in a prosperous peaceful region of the world that we are. We can use the savings to invest in infrastructure.
Oh, and yesterday was a big win for the Conservatives on their message for this election: The choice between Competence and Chaos.
The two Eds Laurel and Hardy routine was comedy gold.
Massive win for Edward Samuel Miliband. In touch with the common man and not the friend of tax dodging rich.
I am actually rather bemused by the level of cheer-leading for Miliband even from the left, there isn't going to be a LAB majority, so the best they can hope for is being propped up in power for a bit by the SNP, who actually have no interest in do what is right for the Labour Party or the UK. How they can believe this can result in anything other than a complete clusterf*ck that will render Labour unelectable for a generation is beyond me.
The NO result in Scotland was, in hindsight, a bad thing for the vast majority of the British people. A clean departure would have been much less destructive than the neverendum we now face.
There are only two ways out of the Neverendum: Independence or s collapse in support for the SNP.
Neither seems on the cards at the moment but the second could occur with either a disastrous collapse of a SNP propped up Labour government, or massive cuts forced by full fiscal autonomy.
I don't know why Westminster seems to fear the SNP so. Independence would be an economic armageddon for Scotland and they know it. A brave but also canny PM would cut spending per capita in Scotland to the national average and dare them to leave. Ultimately Scotland needs the rUK to finance its lifestyle. Sod 'em. Let the SNP do its worst. Give them full tax raising powers but zero borrowing power - if they want to spend more then they can tax more in Scotland. See how popular that makes them.
More fantasy from you Patrick, you actually believe the rubbish that we are actually subsidised rather than the truth that it is the other way round , hence reason Westminster are bricking it. They don't want the books opened up for sure.
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
We should scrap our independent nuclear deterrent, massively downsize the armed forces and start to behave like the prosperous peaceful country in a prosperous peaceful region of the world that we are. We can use the savings to invest in infrastructure.
We have already downsized the armed forces.
We now need to downsize the military ambitions of the politicians and the empire-building of the generals.
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
Only because you've not thought about it much though, I suspect. Eg without it, we'd likely lose our permanent seat on the UN security council. And be replaced by, oh, probably Germany. Kind of ironic if you think about why it's composition is as it is to begin with.
Besides, keeping Trident really, really enrages lefties. It's only their own country they ever want to disarm.
The estimated 100 billion barrels of oil discovered in southern England is significant even though geology may restrict recovery to 10 billion. Extraction from the North Sea has been 45 billion over 40 years.
This would not require fracking - but such a discovery is not unexpected as oil has been extracted from the Wych Farm site in Dorset since 1979 where oil and gas is moved by pipeline.
England's oil! LOL.
I wonder when Gatwick will be declared as Extra Regio and not be part of southern England
This seat isn’t a marginal so I’m not surprised that we’ve only been canvassed once (by Labour) and had one piece of literature (Labour again). However I drove into Colchester last night along the Old London Road and there was no sign whatsoever that there was an election going on. No posters, no window stickers (that I could see, anyway).
Couple of Lib Dem "winning here" posters up near me in Colchester.
One of those is up in the house of a Lib Dem councilor - and they would wouldn't they.
Lots of leaflets from both Lib Dems and tories and every member of my family has had a phone call from the conservatives.
Heard absolutely nothing from Labour, UKIP or Greens.
Interestingly when they (tories) asked me odds of voting for a party out of 10 I replied 7/7/6/ Lib dem / tory / UKIP and I have now firmed up to voting blue.
My wife was probably a 9 Lib Dem and will also be voting blue.
In our house its anybody but Ed.
Another anecdote my 23 yo son reports a lot of his friends who expressed a preference are seduced by simplistic Ed's siren promises of milk and honey.
Whether they bother to vote remains to be seen and I really don't think Labour have any shout at all here.
He wasn't telling the truth, but that's a different issue
Its the bigger issue. Either Balls was lying 3 months ago or Miliband and Balls are lying now,
Have they decided yet whether it's going to cost money or save it? If the former what will they cut or tax to fund the shortfall?
Pretty well all lefties would rather everybody had £1 than everybody had £10 except for one who has £11. The non dom fiasco makes this abundantly clear. They actually don't care if it would cost money, the point is to spite people they envy and hate even at a cost to themselves.
This is why Labour voters would be quite happy to see Ed Miliband introduce his London Semi Tax and claim his own payments back on expenses. They don't mind paying more tax for him as long as people they hate are made to pay even more. In their ideal world everybody would be stripped of everything and they'd love it because people more prosperous than themselves would lose more.
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
Only because you've not thought about it much though, I suspect. Eg without it, we'd likely lose our permanent seat on the UN security council. And be replaced by, oh, probably Germany. Kind of ironic if you think about why it's composition is as it is to begin with.
Besides, keeping Trident really, really enrages lefties. It's only their own country they ever want to disarm.
Why should I be concerned that Britain's politicians would have one fewer opportunity to strut on the world stage?
On average, I get a Con email about every other day. Nothing from the other parties except for Labourlist which isn't always rational. Through the door - only the LDs so far.
I've not received my polling card yet - should I contact anyone ?
Yes, call your local council. Most of them have been sent by now. I found a family of 3 who had been left off even though the council told them they were included.
Maybe the Tories spent their money on what seems to be a very good rapid rebuttal operation. The edited Balls quotes and clips appeared very quickly yesterday. That must take some doing. Whether it's the best use of resources is another matter ...
It's also very likely they are keeping cash back to fight a possible second GE later this year, or next.
Or a late blitz.
Not legally possible because of the spending limit (and explicitly ruled out in the local Tory campaign plan - they have now distributed their last general leaflet and are just doing DMs, based on 2010 canvassing).
Have they decided yet whether it's going to cost money or save it? If the former what will they cut or tax to fund the shortfall?
This was all explained yesterday at great length, both on the DP and again on Newsnight
Abolishing it would cost money (Ed Balls was right), so they will not abolish it (you can still qualify), so that doesn't cost money, but they will still say they are abolishing it, because that sounds popular
UK Oil & Gas Investments was a 1p share (actually nearer 0.8p). Today it is 3.65p - over 300% growth for those who follow such shares and keep their ears to the ground. Far better bet than a horse or even a politician
This seat isn’t a marginal so I’m not surprised that we’ve only been canvassed once (by Labour) and had one piece of literature (Labour again). However I drove into Colchester last night along the Old London Road and there was no sign whatsoever that there was an election going on. No posters, no window stickers (that I could see, anyway).
Doesn't bode well for the LibDems. They are normally the first to show off their orange diamonds of defiance....
Rightly or wrongly the conservatives have told me that they do not expect to win (Colchester)
@politicshome: Another Tory minister attacks Ed Miliband, calling him "the man who abandoned the Syrians to their fate". http://t.co/8zBBQFWZZA
Tory minister goes off-message to shoot party in foot, or Tory minister shows results of months of computer simulations and game-theoretic calculations into who is hurt most when Middle-East fighting is an issue?
"In 2014, the NHS handed out 404,500 prescriptions for suncream at a cost of £13million. Another 4.7million prescriptions for indigestion pills cost £29million, while 1.4million were written out for multi-vitamins, at £4.2million.
Other bathroom cabinet items routinely being prescribed by GPs include Calpol, Vaseline, Strepsils and toothpaste, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre."
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
Only because you've not thought about it much though, I suspect. Eg without it, we'd likely lose our permanent seat on the UN security council. And be replaced by, oh, probably Germany. Kind of ironic if you think about why it's composition is as it is to begin with.
Besides, keeping Trident really, really enrages lefties. It's only their own country they ever want to disarm.
That's not quite fair. Many lefties are keen on disarming Israel too.
Interesting that Michael Fallon has described Ed Miliband as both weak and ruthless today. I think I remember I selected both these qualities for him on a Yougov poll... he does just about make the grade on both of them.
Whether it is a good idea to attempt to portray someone as weak and ruthless on national radio is another matter entirely...
Probably a good move from the Conservatives to move the national question to defence rather than non doms, though both UKIP and the SNP should have a field day on this one. Tricky for Labour but Fallon's overpersonal attacks may have diminished the Conservative message slightly today.
On average, I get a Con email about every other day. Nothing from the other parties except for Labourlist which isn't always rational. Through the door - only the LDs so far.
Anyone else sensing a Labour mini resurgence in Scotland? From what I hear Murphy did well last night and was well received.
Don't get too excited. His evening fell apart, when it turned out that the young lady he 'converted' to vote Labour, was a placard waving party stooge.
Given that Nick Griffin lives near Welshpool ...........
Nick Griffin popped up on Newsnight last night at a Putin organised meeting of nationalist parties.
Politics does make for strange bed fellows!
I suspect Ukranian nationalist parties were not invited...
Nick Griffin recently endorsed UKIP.
So Mr Griffin, like Britain First, what first attracted you to UKIP ?
A couple of days ago there was a story about yet another case of Pakistani related political crookedness and you said of the person
'I can get away with this, he is straight out of Pakistani politics'
The implication being people that aren't of Pakistani origin were less able to criticise
That mindset is straight out of rotherham politics
Nope, you missed the point I was making, yet again.
And nice smear of you to try and link me to Rotherham.
Not the first time someone on here has made that allegation, but unlike you, they had the grace to admit how wrong they were with their comment.
I know you're not that kind of guy.
What was your point the? 'I can get away with this..' Implied there are people who couldn't over away with it
I'm not linking you with being a sex pest I am linking you with the mindset that says some people can point out misbehaviour by certain sections of society but others should tread carefully... That's what you did
Stop being a victim and trying to smear me... We all know you invent bets you never had to win an argument, threaten to get people the sack for finding you out and fail to follow it up... So you are on v shaky ground when it comes to accusations on character
Is there polling on people's attitude to trident? I would be comfortable with us scrapping it
Only because you've not thought about it much though, I suspect. Eg without it, we'd likely lose our permanent seat on the UN security council. And be replaced by, oh, probably Germany. Kind of ironic if you think about why it's composition is as it is to begin with.
Besides, keeping Trident really, really enrages lefties. It's only their own country they ever want to disarm.
How would you know how much thought I have given it?!
He's talking to Tory UKIPers, no-one else. That is the Tory campaign strategy; just as the Labour strategy is to talk to the anti-Tories. There is no national debate taking place. The two big parties are having two very different conversations with two very distinct sections of the electorate. That's FPTP for you. Whoever wins is going to lack a proper mandate.
Turnout in England is going to be shocking.
And therefore "legitimacy". Say the poll is 67% and the winning Party polls a third of that - governing with the consent of 22% of the electorate isn't going to be much fun. No wonder the Lamb of God doesn't want to serve a full second term.
If I remember my theology correctly, the Lamb of God's second term will last ten thousand years. That's enough for anyone.
(Lamb of God is a specific title with great significance, not just an cute phrase to throw around for your own amusement)
Anyone else sensing a Labour mini resurgence in Scotland? From what I hear Murphy did well last night and was well received.
Difficult to tell as most of what you will have seen is mediated by pro-Murphy, pro-Union media, and the audience balance was more like 2010 than today (equal SNP and Labour). And I don't think there has been any polling yet (not sure when tonight's poll was done).
Comments
On a far more important topic does anybody successfully use Safari (Mac or iOS) with Vanilla at the minute? Whenever I log in I get a nested new PB window inside the old one, but am still not logged in to comment. Am running Firefox on a virtual PC at the minute which isn't really ideal - any help would be gratefully received.
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/party-or-campaigner/non-party-campaigners
Short answer: no.
Cynical answer: fixed term parliaments mean we know when elections will be held.
"Mike Parker wrote in 2001 that parts of Wales were inhabited by "gun-toting Final Solution crackpots".
He said he would not use such phrases now, as he was "hopefully wiser" but there was nothing to apologise for."
Apparently the current sticking point is his persistent non-apology in which he is backed by PC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-wales-32227229
Never tried on my phone, as the password is one that was “found” by the password-finding facility on this, and is therefore a complex and un-rememberable string of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
Most probably just want a quiet life, but there could be a few wannabee Breiviks out there.
Download chrome and it works brilliantly.
"Roger, due you mean 'contained' or 'constrained'?"
I meant 'constrained' but thanks for drawing my attention to the typo
Politics does make for strange bed fellows!
I suspect Ukranian nationalist parties were not invited...
SNP know dropping a commitment to a second referendum will hurt them badly so they won't fall for it. Latest polling has 48% wanting another within 5 years.
So Mr Griffin, like Britain First, what first attracted you to UKIP ?
1. Never has a wider range of political parties been given so much time in the media, or had so many candidates standing for election. Voters who want an alternative to the same old politicians have that alternative.
2. Changes to voter registration will remove some of the effects that artificially depress turnout figures. For example, I've moved recently and the online vote registration system (deadline 20th April!) also asks you for your previous address, removing you from the register there. Thus my vote will be worth 100% to the turnout figures, rather than 50% under the old system.
Encouraging.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32229203
It's also very likely they are keeping cash back to fight a possible second GE later this year, or next.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32217065
Anyway, this week we received three voting cards through the post. One for me, one for my wife and one for my wife's maiden name.
Of course it'd be wrong for her to vote twice so we'll have a 66% turnout in our house.
New political party formed by the UKIP Derbyshire police commissioner candidate.
Oh, and the Green Party do have a good leader. Next Deputy First Minister of Scotland?
Do you think the government should implement every single populist policy even if its the wrong thing to do? Or contradicts another populist policy?
@politicshome: Tories launch attack ad over @UKLabour stance on Trident http://t.co/zbu29vgNFd http://t.co/bfTovOziyB
I'm not a natural Labour supporter but, really, it's absurd to say that a policy is good if done by the Tories but evil if proposed by Labour - or vice versa.
Though it worries me how easy it'd be do for someone with less scruples if they were postal votes.
Ed said abolished, not tightened.
He wasn't telling the truth, but that's a different issue
If you look at the parties' accounts on Youtube, there are an awful lot of very short, targeted video messages, including American-style "attack ads". Presumably links to the appropriate ads are tweeted or emailed to select groups of voters based on (say) who they follow on twitter or like on Facebook.
A lot of PhD theses will be written about new campaigning methods in this election, however it turns out.
Personally I think the "right" thing to do (if every option was cost/benefit-neutral) would be to have an Irish-style system. Abolish non-dom status and treat everyone the same as non-doms are treated. Money earned in the UK or brought into the UK gets taxed, money earned in eg Ireland and left in Ireland is taxed in Ireland.
As to the Conservatives cash that seems to have lulled Cameron's leadership into thinking that a national air campaign via the internet is what really matters. They do not even seem to be spending much on real poster sites. Just as GE2010 was a badly planned campaign by Osborne etc, so we have a similar bunch in GE2015 with the benefit of Crosby's discipline. But at Crosby says "you cannot fatten a pig on market day". It was the many months of failing to build up local resources with paid agents etc that will probably have lost Cameron his chance of a majority.
The GE campaign has kicked off in South Wilts – first yellow diamond spotted in front garden.
Hard to believe there’s a GE next month; based on door knocking and bumph on the mat, I think there was more activity in the run up to the Euros.
We now need to downsize the military ambitions of the politicians and the empire-building of the generals.
And for some reason I am in favour of Trident.
'I can get away with this, he is straight out of Pakistani politics'
The implication being people that aren't of Pakistani origin were less able to criticise
That mindset is straight out of rotherham politics
Besides, keeping Trident really, really enrages lefties. It's only their own country they ever want to disarm.
But then again you kippers admire your friend Putin.
One of those is up in the house of a Lib Dem councilor - and they would wouldn't they.
Lots of leaflets from both Lib Dems and tories and every member of my family has had a phone call from the conservatives.
Heard absolutely nothing from Labour, UKIP or Greens.
Interestingly when they (tories) asked me odds of voting for a party out of 10 I replied 7/7/6/ Lib dem / tory / UKIP and I have now firmed up to voting blue.
My wife was probably a 9 Lib Dem and will also be voting blue.
In our house its anybody but Ed.
Another anecdote my 23 yo son reports a lot of his friends who expressed a preference are seduced by simplistic Ed's siren promises of milk and honey.
Whether they bother to vote remains to be seen and I really don't think Labour have any shout at all here.
Pretty well all lefties would rather everybody had £1 than everybody had £10 except for one who has £11. The non dom fiasco makes this abundantly clear. They actually don't care if it would cost money, the point is to spite people they envy and hate even at a cost to themselves.
This is why Labour voters would be quite happy to see Ed Miliband introduce his London Semi Tax and claim his own payments back on expenses. They don't mind paying more tax for him as long as people they hate are made to pay even more. In their ideal world everybody would be stripped of everything and they'd love it because people more prosperous than themselves would lose more.
And nice smear of you to try and link me to Rotherham.
Not the first time someone on here has made that allegation, but unlike you, they had the grace to admit how wrong they were with their comment.
I know you're not that kind of guy.
It is fun and it does ensure your vote comes out.
In a tight election it does matter.
Abolishing it would cost money (Ed Balls was right), so they will not abolish it (you can still qualify), so that doesn't cost money, but they will still say they are abolishing it, because that sounds popular
And politicians wonder why the public are cynical
"On topic, canvassed for the last two days, and going to make it a hat trick today."
Who are you canvassing for?
UK Oil & Gas Investments was a 1p share (actually nearer 0.8p). Today it is 3.65p - over 300% growth for those who follow such shares and keep their ears to the ground. Far better bet than a horse or even a politician
http://order-order.com/#_@/nkTb31mDECDVGw
Other bathroom cabinet items routinely being prescribed by GPs include Calpol, Vaseline, Strepsils and toothpaste, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3031124/13
One must ask why? and what laxness at the Health Boards allows such profligacy? Probably looking after their fat salaries and pensions.
Whether it is a good idea to attempt to portray someone as weak and ruthless on national radio is another matter entirely...
Probably a good move from the Conservatives to move the national question to defence rather than non doms, though both UKIP and the SNP should have a field day on this one. Tricky for Labour but Fallon's overpersonal attacks may have diminished the Conservative message slightly today.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/07/david-cameron-failure-fuelled-british-jihadism
Pretty extraordinary attack from a former ambassador. Well justified though.
I'm not linking you with being a sex pest I am linking you with the mindset that says some people can point out misbehaviour by certain sections of society but others should tread carefully... That's what you did
Stop being a victim and trying to smear me... We all know you invent bets you never had to win an argument, threaten to get people the sack for finding you out and fail to follow it up... So you are on v shaky ground when it comes to accusations on character
According to the real world, Labour are finished in Scotland.
(Lamb of God is a specific title with great significance, not just an cute phrase to throw around for your own amusement)