Based on the current rules, the next boundary commission will be using the December 2015 electoral registers. This is after the full effect of independent voter registration comes in, as this year as an interim measure there has been rollover of the previous register where people have not moved, etc.
You do wonder what odds you might get on MPs voting the boundary review down again, although as mentioned the SNP might vote for it if Scotland gets more MPs
I am no more a fan of the politics of English anger than the Scottish variety: both are marinaded in self-regard and grievance. But proportionality matters. Sturgeon told me in an interview for the Standard just before the campaign that she expected Scottish MPs, even after enhanced devolution, to have a vote on anything from education to the NHS which might have budgetary implications for Scotland. In other words, just about everything that is not about Morris dancing. This is plainly unstable and glaringly unfair. Cameron will spend the next two weeks telling us so. Miliband has an even more forbidding task: shaking off the pythonesque embrace of Nicola Sturgeon.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
"which might have budgetary implications for Scotland", and then the author whines that it's unfair for MPs from Scotland to wish to influence that decision?
Pull the other leg, I'm a centipede (or in this context perhaps rather a Milipede).
Firstly, it should be a very straightforward and easy matter to ensure that English MPs priorities as to how they spend their money does not have a knock on effect on a fixed Scottish budget.
Secondly, the logic of the SNP's (and SLAB's) position is that the Commons should have this wedge of MPs who will always vote for more public spending on the basis that it brings additional and consequential pork to Scotland. Does anyone, even in the SNP, seriously think that is a sustainable position?
I think you are perhaps confusing spending with budgetary decisions - the original Standard article is plainly exaggerating for panic effect. It's not - usually - a problem [edit] to deal with minutiae of English spending.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
PS Sorry should have been clearer - my second issue para referred to the pork issue. Increasing public spending is a wider issue/restraint/policy implicit in 'as far as they can'.
Edinburgh North and Leith 4482 East Devon 3.363 Wellingborough 3.092 Tonbridge and Malling 2.472 Wantage 2.145 Edinburgh South 2111 Glasgow South 2052 Northampton South 1.935 Ashfield 1.858 Glasgow East 1803 North Cornwall 1.746 Bognor Regis and Littlehampton 1.742 Hendon 1.715 Shrewsbury and Atcham 1.712 Edinburgh West 1665 Mansfield 1.610 Ludlow 1.575 Taunton Deane 1.516 Glasgow South West 1500 Foyle 1.457
Suzanne Evans is the UKIP candidate for Shrewsbury and Atcham.
I thought it was a no-hoper, but she is a great candidate.
What a mush of a polling report. Not even a photo of Suzanne Evans who is now well known, or any other candidate except the giant. Phoowee!!
UKpollingreport is behind the times
Politics: Dagenham is a safe Labour area, held by the party since it was given its own seat in 1945. It has also been an area of BNP strength, with the party winning 11% of the vote here in 2010.
I am no more a fan of the politics of English anger than the Scottish variety: both are marinaded in self-regard and grievance. But proportionality matters. Sturgeon told me in an interview for the Standard just before the campaign that she expected Scottish MPs, even after enhanced devolution, to have a vote on anything from education to the NHS which might have budgetary implications for Scotland. In other words, just about everything that is not about Morris dancing. This is plainly unstable and glaringly unfair. Cameron will spend the next two weeks telling us so. Miliband has an even more forbidding task: shaking off the pythonesque embrace of Nicola Sturgeon.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
"which might have budgetary implications for Scotland", and then the author whines that it's unfair for MPs from Scotland to wish to influence that decision?
Pull the other leg, I'm a centipede (or in this context perhaps rather a Milipede).
Firstly, it should be a very straightforward and easy matter to ensure that English MPs priorities as to how they spend their money does not have a knock on effect on a fixed Scottish budget.
Secondly, the logic of the SNP's (and SLAB's) position is that the Commons should have this wedge of MPs who will always vote for more public spending on the basis that it brings additional and consequential pork to Scotland. Does anyone, even in the SNP, seriously think that is a sustainable position?
I think you are perhaps confusing spending with budgetary decisions - the original Standard article is plainly exaggerating for panic effect. It's not - usually - a problem [edit] to deal with minutiae of English spending.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
No, it really isn't. They are elected to authorise affordable expenditure that is not ruinous to the country. This may not have been the practice in recent times but it remains the position.
Mr. X, it's mentioned on this thread, and there is no source more authoritative than pb.com, surely?
Mr. Carnyx, I believe an exiled supporter of your cause, a Mr. Sven Dicksson, was meant to have performed an exciting Scottish morris dance, but trepidation got the better of him (I quite sympathise. Waving one's wiffle stick around in public is not for the faint of heart).
I was in Bradford today talking to some political activists. They reckon that about 10,000 of the 'disappeared' are 'ghosts'. Classic example was one empty house that had 20 registered voters - now gone.
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Both TEBBIT AND FORSYTHE are old Conservative voices.
This is hilarious
TEBBIT AND FORSYTHE are throwbacks to a Thatcherite past, and remind voters of the Nasty Party, oh, wait the true voice of conservatism that Cameron should and must adhere to...
Spin any harder you'll throw up, lads.
Tebbit and Forsythe were part of a party that won three majorities in a row, unlike the current party.
Fortune favours the lucky. Foot and the SDP were the major causes of this.
I am no more a fan of the politics of English anger than the Scottish variety: both are marinaded in self-regard and grievance. But proportionality matters. Sturgeon told me in an interview for the Standard just before the campaign that she expected Scottish MPs, even after enhanced devolution, to have a vote on anything from education to the NHS which might have budgetary implications for Scotland. In other words, just about everything that is not about Morris dancing. This is plainly unstable and glaringly unfair. Cameron will spend the next two weeks telling us so. Miliband has an even more forbidding task: shaking off the pythonesque embrace of Nicola Sturgeon.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
"which might have budgetary implications for Scotland", and then the author whines that it's unfair for MPs from Scotland to wish to influence that decision?
Pull the other leg, I'm a centipede (or in this context perhaps rather a Milipede).
Firstly, it should be a very straightforward and easy matter to ensure that English MPs priorities as to how they spend their money does not have a knock on effect on a fixed Scottish budget.
Secondly, the logic of the SNP's (and SLAB's) position is that the Commons should have this wedge of MPs who will always vote for more public spending on the basis that it brings additional and consequential pork to Scotland. Does anyone, even in the SNP, seriously think that is a sustainable position?
I think you are perhaps confusing spending with budgetary decisions - the original Standard article is plainly exaggerating for panic effect. It's not - usually - a problem [edit] to deal with minutiae of English spending.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
No, it really isn't. They are elected to authorise affordable expenditure that is not ruinous to the country. This may not have been the practice in recent times but it remains the position.
Thanks. I wasn't too clear as I have already admitted - the PS presumably covers this at least to some extent.
I was in Bradford today talking to some political activists. They reckon that about 10,000 of the 'disappeared' are 'ghosts'. Classic example was one empty house that had 20 registered voters - now gone.
I am no more a fan of the politics of English anger than the Scottish variety: both are marinaded in self-regard and grievance. But proportionality matters. Sturgeon told me in an interview for the Standard just before the campaign that she expected Scottish MPs, even after enhanced devolution, to have a vote on anything from education to the NHS which might have budgetary implications for Scotland. In other words, just about everything that is not about Morris dancing. This is plainly unstable and glaringly unfair. Cameron will spend the next two weeks telling us so. Miliband has an even more forbidding task: shaking off the pythonesque embrace of Nicola Sturgeon.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
"which might have budgetary implications for Scotland", and then the author whines that it's unfair for MPs from Scotland to wish to influence that decision?
Pull the other leg, I'm a centipede (or in this context perhaps rather a Milipede).
Firstly, it should be a very straightforward and easy matter to ensure that English MPs priorities as to how they spend their money does not have a knock on effect on a fixed Scottish budget.
Secondly, the logic of the SNP's (and SLAB's) position is that the Commons should have this wedge of MPs who will always vote for more public spending on the basis that it brings additional and consequential pork to Scotland. Does anyone, even in the SNP, seriously think that is a sustainable position?
I think you are perhaps confusing spending with budgetary decisions - the original Standard article is plainly exaggerating for panic effect. It's not - usually - a problem [edit] to deal with minutiae of English spending.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
No, it really isn't. They are elected to authorise affordable expenditure that is not ruinous to the country. This may not have been the practice in recent times but it remains the position.
Who decides what is "affordable" ? I don't think a budget surplus should not even be a goal. After all, how many years since the War have we had a budget surplus? The total debt, by historical standards and relative to other countries is no big deal.
Government should attempt to be in the 2% -4% band of the GDP as far as the deficit is concerned.
Anecdote alert. On train into London from Kent. Some guy reading from the Metro tutting away. Realises he's being heard by the woman nearby says "sorry, it's the SNP stuff. It's outrageous." Woman: "It certainly is." Him:"That lunatic woman." Her: "Yes, she's got them wrapped around her finger." Him: "Yes, especially Miliband."
Sort of reinforces my musings yesterday lunchtime - this issue resonates quite well in Surrey or Kent.
But in Pendle, Rossendale, Bury North, Lancaster, Wirral West, Pudsey........ ???
My thoughts exactly, what scares the horses in the Tory shires doesn't automatically do so in the rest of the country. Anyone gullible enough to buy the sort of stuff the Mail & Telegraph will come out with over the next couple of weeks was never likely to be voting Labour in the first place. As a counter anecdote I was sitting in a cafe in marginal Chester this morning and overheard 3 women all agreeing it would be refreshing to see Nicola Sturgeon involved in government after the election.
Based on the current rules, the next boundary commission will be using the December 2015 electoral registers. This is after the full effect of independent voter registration comes in, as this year as an interim measure there has been rollover of the previous register where people have not moved, etc.
You do wonder what odds you might get on MPs voting the boundary review down again, although as mentioned the SNP might vote for it if Scotland gets more MPs
What I find puzzling now is the prime minister’s position that the SNP is far worse than Labour because, if so, as there are not many seats in Scotland where the Conservative Party has a chance to win, the logic would seem to be that Conservatives should vote tactically for Labour as the lesser of two evils.
I think it’s a huge scare tactic against Labour and whether the particular seat in the House of Commons is occupied by a Labour member or an SNP member perhaps it’s not a great difference. Tebbit accused Cameron of “irritating” the Scots for no good reason.
Having bungled the Scottish referendum it seems pointless to just irritate Scots by shouting at them from Westminster - the English are irritated into voting for Ukip, by being shouted at from Westminster - and the Scots are irritated similarly.
---
Tebbit gets it ! Cameron doesn't.
Cameron gets it.
From the Graun:
"No matter that the SNP’s policies, as revealed on Monday, are copies of Labour’s, so with the sole exception of Trident they hardly drag the already leftwing Miliband any further left."
The whole discussion, regardless of Forsyth, Tebbit, Major, is reminding the electorate how left wing Ed actually is (or rather, is reinforcing a perception that he is left wing).
That is where the damage is being done.
When polled, the public always place Miliband closer to the centre than Cameron.
People think Miliband is weird, out of his depth, weak, etc. But left-wing? LOL. If anything, when people are asked what his policies are, the common responses are still "he doesn't stand for anything" or "he just says what he thinks will win him votes".
'Romanians can bring family to UK but I CAN'T' Brit squash champ fuming after visa refusal
A FORMER British squash champion is fuming after being told she CAN'T bring her family back home to the UK after her Australian husband was refused a visa.
Tebbit said David Cameron’s decision to talk up the threat posed by the SNP was “puzzling”. .
---
Tebbit gets it ! Cameron doesn't.
Big boost for Labour that Tebbit keeps the Nat - Labour story rumbling on is it ?
I'm sure team Miliband want it to go on and on and on..
It's lovely to see so many Labour supporters out and about today, trying to give the Tories a helping hand.
Lab rampers on here appear to think it's in the bag - a rainbow coalition of the poor, progressive and public sector forming a human chain of kindness coalition from Brighton to Braemar let by the titan of politics - Ed Miliband.
Nailed on.
The northern and southern links joining together in Broxtowe, where Nick 'Shoo In' Palmer will bless them.
Both TEBBIT AND FORSYTHE are old Conservative voices.
This is hilarious
TEBBIT AND FORSYTHE are throwbacks to a Thatcherite past, and remind voters of the Nasty Party, oh, wait the true voice of conservatism that Cameron should and must adhere to...
Spin any harder you'll throw up, lads.
Tebbit and Forsythe were part of a party that won three majorities in a row, unlike the current party.
Fortune favours the lucky. Foot and the SDP were the major causes of this.
Fortune favours those that get the basics right, and put the effort in.
It’s currently very fashionable to rubbish the Conservative campaign, and Labour have tried to cite the use of the SNP card as evidence of mounting panic in the Tory camp. But the reality is posters depicting Ed Miliband dancing to the SNP’s tune first appeared at the beginning of March. Since then the Tories have been doggedly prodding away at the theme.
It’s currently very fashionable to rubbish the Conservative campaign, and Labour have tried to cite the use of the SNP card as evidence of mounting panic in the Tory camp. But the reality is posters depicting Ed Miliband dancing to the SNP’s tune first appeared at the beginning of March. Since then the Tories have been doggedly prodding away at the theme.
If the best the Tories can offer the country with 2 weeks to go is scare stories about the SNP then I think it is safe to say things are not going to plan. Citing Hodges as a source is beyond parody
I was in Bradford today talking to some political activists. They reckon that about 10,000 of the 'disappeared' are 'ghosts'. Classic example was one empty house that had 20 registered voters - now gone.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
But how can he tell her to get stuffed? He can't do anything to counter the dastardly, fiendish, underhand plan of the SNP that their MPs would vote for him in a vote of confidence.
It destroys Labour's argument (Put forward here by Scottish Labour supporter John N, Murphy etc) that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories...
Tremendously dastardly I agree.
I think it's the funniest aspect of the whole campaign so far: "The SNP are going to help you become PM whether you like it or not!"
You may laugh but on 8th May, it is EIC who maybe having the laugh !
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Labour spokesmen have floundered on this very subject twice this morning, on both the Today Programme and Daily Politics. It's probably best avoided.
"Just remember all the fashionable sycophancy directed to Blair and the approbrium heaped on Major from 1994 onwards. Yet look at their respective reputations now: one a money grubbing, dishonest charlatan - the other an elder statesman."
I agree. Unlike Blair and Thatcher and Heath, Sir John Major has demonstrated how an ex-PM should behave after leaving office.
Anecdote alert. On train into London from Kent. Some guy reading from the Metro tutting away. Realises he's being heard by the woman nearby says "sorry, it's the SNP stuff. It's outrageous." Woman: "It certainly is." Him:"That lunatic woman." Her: "Yes, she's got them wrapped around her finger." Him: "Yes, especially Miliband."
Sort of reinforces my musings yesterday lunchtime - this issue resonates quite well in Surrey or Kent.
But in Pendle, Rossendale, Bury North, Lancaster, Wirral West, Pudsey........ ???
My thoughts exactly, what scares the horses in the Tory shires doesn't automatically do so in the rest of the country. Anyone gullible enough to buy the sort of stuff the Mail & Telegraph will come out with over the next couple of weeks was never likely to be voting Labour in the first place. As a counter anecdote I was sitting in a cafe in marginal Chester this morning and overheard 3 women all agreeing it would be refreshing to see Nicola Sturgeon involved in government after the election.
Did you point out that she won't be, because she's not standing, but Salmond might?
Amazes me how many on here will hunt for anything that props up there wishes and willfully ignore the only unbiased and science based evidence - the polls.
The polls aren't that varied and what they are saying is this: David Cameron will not be Prime Minister on May 8.
Taking the average, you're correct. OTOH, polls like Ashcroft, Opinium, and ICM could well see Cameron remain as PM, if they matched the outcome.
As a counter anecdote I was sitting in a cafe in marginal Chester this morning and overheard 3 women all agreeing it would be refreshing to see Nicola Sturgeon involved in government after the election.
I wonder if the Tory campaign might pivot at some point onto the NHS
In England, under coalition, best funded, best results
In Wales, under Labour, not so good
In Scotland, under SNP, dismal
Just imagine the English NHS in the hands of those who have jointly screwed up Wales and Scotland...
Tories won't bring up the NHS as I am sure all their own polling shows that the majority of voters don't believe a single word that comes out of their mouths on the subject
Amazes me how many on here will hunt for anything that props up there wishes and willfully ignore the only unbiased and science based evidence - the polls.
The polls aren't that varied and what they are saying is this: David Cameron will not be Prime Minister on May 8.
Taking the average, you're correct. OTOH, polls like Ashcroft, Opinium, and ICM could well see Cameron remain as PM, if they matched the outcome.
Simple of average of this week's six polls so far = 33.3% each!
As Pulpstar was saying last night, the Lib Dems had better be PRAYING that Ashcroft's (unproven) Q2 method is accurate, because if the Q1 responses are closer to the mark then they're going to do even worse than anyone thought.
Even Sutton & Cheam and Eastbourne, which people have assumed are rock-solid holds for the Lib Dems because they had huge leads on Q2, even they had the Tories leading on Q1.
I was in Bradford today talking to some political activists. They reckon that about 10,000 of the 'disappeared' are 'ghosts'. Classic example was one empty house that had 20 registered voters - now gone.
Class War chap standing in the lovely Forest of Dean. Top marks for optimism. Possibly the most hopeless candidate in the country? Good luck to him. I hope he comes canvassing. ...
We have had no fewer than 6 glossy ukip leaflets in our Kipper (local councillor) village and only one rather unimpressive Con delivery. Table dancing Tory Boy Mark Harper will still win FoD easily though.
He is delusional about the power of the State to do good; he is naïve about how regulation and bureaucracy can make things better; he leaps onto band wagons with almost no thought at all as to the consequences but left wing? I don't really see it.
In the past we had left wing politicians in this country. They had principles, beliefs and a vision of a future society which delusional or not they were clear that they had to work towards. I disagreed with their vision but I don't see anything like that kind of profound thinking on either side of the divide in the managerial era we now live in. Agree with them or not calling Ed left wing is frankly an insult to their memory and beliefs. He is an unconvincing managerial wannabe. He could still do a lot of damage though.
I was in Bradford today talking to some political activists. They reckon that about 10,000 of the 'disappeared' are 'ghosts'. Classic example was one empty house that had 20 registered voters - now gone.
Good to see the police were on top of the problem.
Dons helmet (as a lot of folk here maybe even the majority don't buy into anthropogenic global warming), but March 2015 was the warmest March ever recorded globally according to NOAA.
Oh yeah - let's ignore what highly calibrated thermometers at ground level are telling us and point to machines testing colder parts of the upper atmosphere because some cherry picked data (for the moment) confomrs to our prejudices!
I cannot believe that people would vote to put Miligeek into Number Ten..
A few friends starting to talk about this on facebook today. Mostly soft-left but not all. All saying they're not enamoured of any of the choices, are embarrassed at any leader representing the UK on the world stage and don't know where to put their vote.
More news from Bradford. In an earlier post I mentioned the David Ward posters on the ring rd. There has been a mass influx of Hussain and Ahmed posters. Indeed in Bradford Moor ward nearly all the houses on Killinghall Rd have stakeboards in the garden. However my spies tell me they were all put up during the night by 'community leaders' without the permission of the residents.
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Felt that Ed came across pretty badly in his interview with Evan Davis on a number of things, including the NHS. When is a top-down reorganisation not a top-down reorganisation?
It’s currently very fashionable to rubbish the Conservative campaign, and Labour have tried to cite the use of the SNP card as evidence of mounting panic in the Tory camp. But the reality is posters depicting Ed Miliband dancing to the SNP’s tune first appeared at the beginning of March. Since then the Tories have been doggedly prodding away at the theme.
It’s currently very fashionable to rubbish the Conservative campaign, and Labour have tried to cite the use of the SNP card as evidence of mounting panic in the Tory camp. But the reality is posters depicting Ed Miliband dancing to the SNP’s tune first appeared at the beginning of March. Since then the Tories have been doggedly prodding away at the theme.
If the best the Tories can offer the country with 2 weeks to go is scare stories about the SNP then I think it is safe to say things are not going to plan. Citing Hodges as a source is beyond parody
It's not very positive but it's top-drawer politics. The SNP/Labour thing is dominating the news agenda and if you were a Tory advisor you'd be advising them to keep pushing it.
Dons helmet (as a lot of folk here maybe even the majority don't buy into anthropogenic global warming), but March 2015 was the warmest March ever recorded globally according to NOAA.
Oh yeah - let's ignore what highly calibrated thermometers at ground level are telling us and point to machines testing colder parts of the upper atmosphere because some cherry picked data (for the moment) confomrs to our prejudices!
Do you not understand how satellites can measure ground and sea temperatures?
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Felt that Ed came across pretty badly in his interview with Evan Davis on a number of things, including the NHS. When is a top-down reorganisation not a top-down reorganisation?
That interview was actually the first time in a long time I thought he came across pretty badly, he was petulant and evasive. It's weird it seemed he handled Paxman better than Davis, and Cameron did the reverse. My suspicion though is that while I preferred Miliband's super reasonable persona of the debates, for the Davis interview he deliberately tried to be more passionate and argumentative because less undecideds and more of his base would be watching.
Dons helmet (as a lot of folk here maybe even the majority don't buy into anthropogenic global warming), but March 2015 was the warmest March ever recorded globally according to NOAA.
Oh yeah - let's ignore what highly calibrated thermometers at ground level are telling us and point to machines testing colder parts of the upper atmosphere because some cherry picked data (for the moment) confomrs to our prejudices!
Do you not understand how satellites can measure ground temperatures?
Doesn't answer why we should ignore ground temperature readings from, er, the ground.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
But how can he tell her to get stuffed? He can't do anything to counter the dastardly, fiendish, underhand plan of the SNP that their MPs would vote for him in a vote of confidence.
It destroys Labour's argument (Put forward here by Scottish Labour supporter John N, Murphy etc) that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories...
Tremendously dastardly I agree.
I think it's the funniest aspect of the whole campaign so far: "The SNP are going to help you become PM whether you like it or not!"
You may laugh but on 8th May, it is EIC who maybe having the laugh !
I doubt it. Any Labour supporter who's not a complete idiot will be absolutely terrified on May 8th if Ed does look like becoming PM, even more so if he does so at the beck and call of Nicola.
Politics doesn't end on May 8th. People will be expecting stuff to be, you know, delivered. God only knows what will happen, but it won't be pleasant, that's for sure.
Would Dave or Ed be happier with Election Forecast's current forecast:
Con 283 Lab 269 SNP 47 LD 26 DUP 8 PC 4 SDLP 3 UKIP 1 Greens 1 Speaker 1
Given Lab plus SNP is not a majority, Cameron. There is fundamentally a status quo bias, as the queen has supposedly made clear (don't come to me until you can propose a government).
Mr. Jessop, a real man watches F1 and reads fantasy and classical history. It is known.
Local news: got a large (one of those faux newspaper things) piece of electoral literature from the Greens today. Surprised, given this should be a hotly contested Lab-Con battle. Greens putting in some effort may cost Balls a little.
Dons helmet (as a lot of folk here maybe even the majority don't buy into anthropogenic global warming), but March 2015 was the warmest March ever recorded globally according to NOAA.
Oh yeah - let's ignore what highly calibrated thermometers at ground level are telling us and point to machines testing colder parts of the upper atmosphere because some cherry picked data (for the moment) confomrs to our prejudices!
Do you not understand how satellites can measure ground temperatures?
Doesn't answer why we should ignore ground temperature readings from, er, the ground.
Ah yes, all the well documented cases of weather stations in tarmac surfaced car parks, and next to air conditioning units.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
But how can he tell her to get stuffed? He can't do anything to counter the dastardly, fiendish, underhand plan of the SNP that their MPs would vote for him in a vote of confidence.
It destroys Labour's argument (Put forward here by Scottish Labour supporter John N, Murphy etc) that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories...
Tremendously dastardly I agree.
I think it's the funniest aspect of the whole campaign so far: "The SNP are going to help you become PM whether you like it or not!"
You may laugh but on 8th May, it is EIC who maybe having the laugh !
I doubt it. Any Labour supporter who's not a complete idiot will be absolutely terrified on May 8th if Ed does look like becoming PM, even more so if he does so at the beck and call of Nicola.
Politics doesn't end on May 8th. People will be expecting stuff to be, you know, delivered. God only knows what will happen, but it won't be pleasant, that's for sure.
Look, if Ed is PM on 8th May I will be cheering very loudly at the demise of Cameron, Osborne and the post crash Tory junta that has done and is doing so much damage to the country.
If Cameron is PM then I will be properly terrified. Then it really will be 1992 all over again - we'd be months away from a post Tory election victory, Osborne inspired, economic crash.
Mr. Jessop, a real man watches F1 and reads fantasy and classical history. It is known.
Local news: got a large (one of those faux newspaper things) piece of electoral literature from the Greens today. Surprised, given this should be a hotly contested Lab-Con battle. Greens putting in some effort may cost Balls a little.
Well, I get two of the three. Can I squeak in if it is pre-twentieth century history? Or does that make me a real man who is afraid of mice?
Anybody have any PB wisdom to dispense on Oxford East? Will voter registration have an effect? I'm assuming a Labour win of 5-8000.
Is it the margin of victory you're after? Or are you contemplating the odds on a n other party?
I'm also thinking of doing my bit to hasten the end of one of Ed's footsoldiers, and I'm wondering how much a waste of effort it will be
There must be many more worthwhile constituencies for a Lib Dem activist to put some effort into. They have zero chance of winning here.
Its more fun fighting the left.
I see there's a Green, Socialist, TUSC and UKIP vote to fracture the Labour core.
I live in Oxford East too! would love to think the LD could take it but it's not going to happen - I did get a leaflet though from the Socialist Party of GB - which is more than I've had from the Lib Dems - nothing nada zilch
Labour will romp home in Oxford East. Lib Dems will be lucky to come third, and all their remaining activists are in Oxford West. The local and long-standing Labour MP hoovers up votes from across the political spectrum. He's off the campaign trail because of a sad personal situation but if anything that (widely reported locally) will get him more votes than knocking on a few more doors. I'm sure he'd rather not have the votes or the situation, but there we are.
Mr. Jessop, a real man watches F1 and reads fantasy and classical history. It is known.
Local news: got a large (one of those faux newspaper things) piece of electoral literature from the Greens today. Surprised, given this should be a hotly contested Lab-Con battle. Greens putting in some effort may cost Balls a little.
I've coached a few hard-as-nails young rugby players this past few years who use sun-beds, wear moisturiser and ear-rings and drink green tea.
Back in my day - and I'm only 37 - the hardest players in the side would be sat in the changing rooms naked, with DIY tattoos, handle-bar moustaches and smoking a pre-game fag.
'Romanians can bring family to UK but I CAN'T' Brit squash champ fuming after visa refusal
A FORMER British squash champion is fuming after being told she CAN'T bring her family back home to the UK after her Australian husband was refused a visa.
There is a fairly easy get around. They need to live for 3 months in another EU country to establish residents, then both can enter as EU residents. It worked for one of my Australian Doctors married to an EU citizen.
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Felt that Ed came across pretty badly in his interview with Evan Davis on a number of things, including the NHS. When is a top-down reorganisation not a top-down reorganisation?
Back in the early 90's I had a boss who always quoted an American business Guru who stated that if you ever wanted to change anything in an organisation you first have to fire a minimum of 50% of the existing management.
Edinburgh North and Leith 4482 East Devon 3.363 Wellingborough 3.092 Tonbridge and Malling 2.472 Wantage 2.145 Edinburgh South 2111 Glasgow South 2052 Northampton South 1.935 Ashfield 1.858 Glasgow East 1803 North Cornwall 1.746 Bognor Regis and Littlehampton 1.742 Hendon 1.715 Shrewsbury and Atcham 1.712 Edinburgh West 1665 Mansfield 1.610 Ludlow 1.575 Taunton Deane 1.516 Glasgow South West 1500 Foyle 1.457
Suzanne Evans is the UKIP candidate for Shrewsbury and Atcham.
I thought it was a no-hoper, but she is a great candidate.
What a mush of a polling report. Not even a photo of Suzanne Evans who is now well known, or any other candidate except the giant. Phoowee!!
Anecdote. Was talking to a Shropshire visitor to Torbay on Saturday. He said that he - and a good number of his friends - had toyed with going UKIP, but were all now firmly back in the blue camp. FWIW.
Dave has spent more time during this election talking about the S.N.P. than talking about the N.H.S.
Says it all really
This week is labour's big NHS week but it is all being drowned out by the SNP controversy and with the terrible migrants problem in the Med rightly being subject to intense media scrunity on thursday by the European council meeting, and a possible royal baby, the week is likely to finish with no or very little, NHS coverage
Unless anyone wants to have a serious debate about how the Health Service in the UK can be afforded in the long term, that is probably the best result. Politicians producing silly figures and willy-waving about how much more they will borrow to spend doesn't take us any further forward.
Well we did have Ed's promise of 1,000 additional nurses. When the best that politicians can do is promise trivia like that and invent new ways to spend money when they cannot fund the NHS's own plan and budgetary requirements to maintain the existing service further debate becomes futile.
Felt that Ed came across pretty badly in his interview with Evan Davis on a number of things, including the NHS. When is a top-down reorganisation not a top-down reorganisation?
That interview was actually the first time in a long time I thought he came across pretty badly, he was petulant and evasive. It's weird it seemed he handled Paxman better than Davis, and Cameron did the reverse. My suspicion though is that while I preferred Miliband's super reasonable persona of the debates, for the Davis interview he deliberately tried to be more passionate and argumentative because less undecideds and more of his base would be watching.
I thought Tinsel-T1ts gave him an easy ride compared to Clegg and Cameron.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
But how can he tell her to get stuffed? He can't do anything to counter the dastardly, fiendish, underhand plan of the SNP that their MPs would vote for him in a vote of confidence.
It destroys Labour's argument (Put forward here by Scottish Labour supporter John N, Murphy etc) that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories...
Tremendously dastardly I agree.
I think it's the funniest aspect of the whole campaign so far: "The SNP are going to help you become PM whether you like it or not!"
You may laugh but on 8th May, it is EIC who maybe having the laugh !
I doubt it. Any Labour supporter who's not a complete idiot will be absolutely terrified on May 8th if Ed does look like becoming PM, even more so if he does so at the beck and call of Nicola.
Politics doesn't end on May 8th. People will be expecting stuff to be, you know, delivered. God only knows what will happen, but it won't be pleasant, that's for sure.
Look, if Ed is PM on 8th May I will be cheering very loudly at the demise of Cameron, Osborne and the post crash Tory junta that has done and is doing so much damage to the country.
If Cameron is PM then I will be properly terrified. Then it really will be 1992 all over again - we'd be months away from a post Tory election victory, Osborne inspired, economic crash.
If Ed Miliband were to win, what do you expect him to do to avert the impending Osborne inspired economic crash?
Dons helmet (as a lot of folk here maybe even the majority don't buy into anthropogenic global warming), but March 2015 was the warmest March ever recorded globally according to NOAA.
Oh yeah - let's ignore what highly calibrated thermometers at ground level are telling us and point to machines testing colder parts of the upper atmosphere because some cherry picked data (for the moment) confomrs to our prejudices!
Where to start, Ben?
Not "let's ignore" some of the evidence, but let's consider all of it.
Highly calibrated - you think people go to the trouble of launching instruments on satellites without having at least a stab at calibrating them?
colder parts of the upper atmosphere - you do realise they are taking a series of measurements and measuring changes in coldness? Not just saying "AGW? it's bloody freezing up there, mate, don't know what you're on about"?
I hope that either you understand politics better than this stuff, or you don't bet on politics.
I wonder what will happen to the SNP if they don't end up in coalition or in some sort of arrangement with Labour. Some of their younger MPs might get fed up sitting on the opposition benches doing nothing very much, except rubbing shoulders with Labour MPs who detest them. We could have a few by-elections after a couple of years.
You are joking , only ones that ever leave Westminster are either dying , caught at it , or senile. Once they get at the trough they cannot be dragged away ,, sure the SNP will be no different. Especially if young , free subsidised booze and food , easy hours , only need to run up and vote when the bell rings and pots and pots of free money with 5 years salary straight into your bank account minimum.
Hey, Mr. G., glad you are still around. Following your post on the last thread I read up on Full Fiscal Responsibility. It is it would seem the same as Full Fiscal Autonomy but with a cuddlier name. Most importantly it still falls over on fiscal transfers and debt. Independence is still the way to go, accept no substitutes.
Hurst , yes it is indeed , looks like they are taking the cuddly route nowadays, going to sort out the UK deficiencies and then gradual move to FFR.
I am no more a fan of the politics of English anger than the Scottish variety: both are marinaded in self-regard and grievance. But proportionality matters. Sturgeon told me in an interview for the Standard just before the campaign that she expected Scottish MPs, even after enhanced devolution, to have a vote on anything from education to the NHS which might have budgetary implications for Scotland. In other words, just about everything that is not about Morris dancing. This is plainly unstable and glaringly unfair. Cameron will spend the next two weeks telling us so. Miliband has an even more forbidding task: shaking off the pythonesque embrace of Nicola Sturgeon.
I asked last week and shall ask again; At what point does Ed not telling Nicola to get stuffed start to cost him more than it gains him?
"which might have budgetary implications for Scotland", and then the author whines that it's unfair for MPs from Scotland to wish to influence that decision?
Pull the other leg, I'm a centipede (or in this context perhaps rather a Milipede).
Firstly, it should be a very straightforward and easy matter to ensure that English MPs priorities as to how they spend their money does not have a knock on effect on a fixed Scottish budget.
Secondly, the logic of the SNP's (and SLAB's) position is that the Commons should have this wedge of MPs who will always vote for more public spending on the basis that it brings additional and consequential pork to Scotland. Does anyone, even in the SNP, seriously think that is a sustainable position?
I think you are perhaps confusing spending with budgetary decisions - the original Standard article is plainly exaggerating for panic effect. It's not - usually - a problem [edit] to deal with minutiae of English spending.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
No, it really isn't. They are elected to authorise affordable expenditure that is not ruinous to the country. This may not have been the practice in recent times but it remains the position.
Is that why the Tories are borrowing £2B a week then.
He is delusional about the power of the State to do good; he is naïve about how regulation and bureaucracy can make things better; he leaps onto band wagons with almost no thought at all as to the consequences but left wing? I don't really see it.
In the past we had left wing politicians in this country. They had principles, beliefs and a vision of a future society which delusional or not they were clear that they had to work towards. I disagreed with their vision but I don't see anything like that kind of profound thinking on either side of the divide in the managerial era we now live in. Agree with them or not calling Ed left wing is frankly an insult to their memory and beliefs. He is an unconvincing managerial wannabe. He could still do a lot of damage though.
Even Hillary Clinton's rhetoric in her campaign so far has in some ways been more left-wing than anything Ed's said
He is delusional about the power of the State to do good; he is naïve about how regulation and bureaucracy can make things better; he leaps onto band wagons with almost no thought at all as to the consequences but left wing? I don't really see it.
In the past we had left wing politicians in this country. They had principles, beliefs and a vision of a future society which delusional or not they were clear that they had to work towards. I disagreed with their vision but I don't see anything like that kind of profound thinking on either side of the divide in the managerial era we now live in. Agree with them or not calling Ed left wing is frankly an insult to their memory and beliefs. He is an unconvincing managerial wannabe. He could still do a lot of damage though.
Even Hillary Clinton's rhetoric in her campaign so far has in some ways been more left-wing than anything Ed's said
Comments
But nothing like a pint of good ale out in the evening sun with a dance going on in the yard of a Dorset pub.
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
PS Sorry should have been clearer - my second issue para referred to the pork issue. Increasing public spending is a wider issue/restraint/policy implicit in 'as far as they can'.
Politics: Dagenham is a safe Labour area, held by the party since it was given its own seat in 1945. It has also been an area of BNP strength, with the party winning 11% of the vote here in 2010.
https://yougov.co.uk/#/constituency/128/nowcast/
On the second issue, why not? All MPs do it within the UK context, as far as they can, and indeed so they should. That's part of what they are voted in for.
No, it really isn't. They are elected to authorise affordable expenditure that is not ruinous to the country. This may not have been the practice in recent times but it remains the position.
Mr. Carnyx, I believe an exiled supporter of your cause, a Mr. Sven Dicksson, was meant to have performed an exciting Scottish morris dance, but trepidation got the better of him (I quite sympathise. Waving one's wiffle stick around in public is not for the faint of heart).
Thanks. I wasn't too clear as I have already admitted - the PS presumably covers this at least to some extent.
Who decides what is "affordable" ? I don't think a budget surplus should not even be a goal. After all, how many years since the War have we had a budget surplus? The total debt, by historical standards and relative to other countries is no big deal.
Government should attempt to be in the 2% -4% band of the GDP as far as the deficit is concerned.
Abbott has his say on the Med boat crisis.
The whole discussion, regardless of Forsyth, Tebbit, Major, is reminding the electorate how left wing Ed actually is (or rather, is reinforcing a perception that he is left wing).
That is where the damage is being done.
When polled, the public always place Miliband closer to the centre than Cameron.
People think Miliband is weird, out of his depth, weak, etc. But left-wing? LOL. If anything, when people are asked what his policies are, the common responses are still "he doesn't stand for anything" or "he just says what he thinks will win him votes".
http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/local-headlines/mystery-of-the-glenrothes-by-election-missing-papers-1-153322
'Romanians can bring family to UK but I CAN'T' Brit squash champ fuming after visa refusal
A FORMER British squash champion is fuming after being told she CAN'T bring her family back home to the UK after her Australian husband was refused a visa.
http://labourlist.org/2014/12/red-ed-poll-shows-miliband-closer-to-the-centre-than-cameron/
Imo, that's the entire problem: that Cameron is throwing his core voters more policies they like, than Miliband is doing for his core vote.
Or UK immigration policy, as it's officially known.
If the best the Tories can offer the country with 2 weeks to go is scare stories about the SNP then I think it is safe to say things are not going to plan. Citing Hodges as a source is beyond parody
"Just remember all the fashionable sycophancy directed to Blair and the approbrium heaped on Major from 1994 onwards. Yet look at their respective reputations now: one a money grubbing, dishonest charlatan - the other an elder statesman."
I agree. Unlike Blair and Thatcher and Heath, Sir John Major has demonstrated how an ex-PM should behave after leaving office.
Con 283
Lab 269
SNP 47
LD 26
DUP 8
PC 4
SDLP 3
UKIP 1
Greens 1
Speaker 1
Patt-ELBOW says Lab 33.9, Con 33.4
Take your pick!
Tebbit suggests Cameron is unlike politicians of previous generations who were 'real men' ...OUCH!
Even Sutton & Cheam and Eastbourne, which people have assumed are rock-solid holds for the Lib Dems because they had huge leads on Q2, even they had the Tories leading on Q1.
We have had no fewer than 6 glossy ukip leaflets in our Kipper (local councillor) village and only one rather unimpressive Con delivery. Table dancing Tory Boy Mark Harper will still win FoD easily though.
He is delusional about the power of the State to do good; he is naïve about how regulation and bureaucracy can make things better; he leaps onto band wagons with almost no thought at all as to the consequences but left wing? I don't really see it.
In the past we had left wing politicians in this country. They had principles, beliefs and a vision of a future society which delusional or not they were clear that they had to work towards. I disagreed with their vision but I don't see anything like that kind of profound thinking on either side of the divide in the managerial era we now live in. Agree with them or not calling Ed left wing is frankly an insult to their memory and beliefs. He is an unconvincing managerial wannabe. He could still do a lot of damage though.
I can't say I blame them.
http://newstonoone.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/when-april-turns-to-may-what-seat.html
It @DPJHodges: It's taken 23 days, but the Tories have finally cut through > Telegraph > http://t.co/D4R4PB1p2B
If the best the Tories can offer the country with 2 weeks to go is scare stories about the SNP then I think it is safe to say things are not going to plan. Citing Hodges as a source is beyond parody
It's not very positive but it's top-drawer politics. The SNP/Labour thing is dominating the news agenda and if you were a Tory advisor you'd be advising them to keep pushing it.
Incidentally your suggestion of burning AGW heretics is quite irresponsible. Too much CO2 produced. They should be burried alive as worm food.
Politics doesn't end on May 8th. People will be expecting stuff to be, you know, delivered. God only knows what will happen, but it won't be pleasant, that's for sure.
Bradford East
Brent Central
Manchester, Withington
Norwich South
Redcar
Burnley
Cardiff Central
Hornsey and Wood Green
Leeds North West
Bristol West
Orkney is the 1 LD Hold against SNP
Con losses to Lab.
5 London
8 NW
3 East
2 Yorkshire Humber
3 West Mids
2 SW
2 SE
6 East Mids
Notable CON Holds according to their model:
Pudsey, Brighton Kemptown, Thurrock (They have a caveat on UKIP modelling mind), Stockton South, DCT, Rossendale and Darwen.
Local news: got a large (one of those faux newspaper things) piece of electoral literature from the Greens today. Surprised, given this should be a hotly contested Lab-Con battle. Greens putting in some effort may cost Balls a little.
If Cameron is PM then I will be properly terrified. Then it really will be 1992 all over again - we'd be months away from a post Tory election victory, Osborne inspired, economic crash.
Back in my day - and I'm only 37 - the hardest players in the side would be sat in the changing rooms naked, with DIY tattoos, handle-bar moustaches and smoking a pre-game fag.
It's bonkers how much times have changed.
It might be a good idea though. ;-)
The problem, at least for norman tebbit, is that his world no longer exists.
Brutal but how true I am not sure
( sorry cannot remember the name of the Guru)
Not "let's ignore" some of the evidence, but let's consider all of it.
Highly calibrated - you think people go to the trouble of launching instruments on satellites without having at least a stab at calibrating them?
colder parts of the upper atmosphere - you do realise they are taking a series of measurements and measuring changes in coldness? Not just saying "AGW? it's bloody freezing up there, mate, don't know what you're on about"?
I hope that either you understand politics better than this stuff, or you don't bet on politics.
Is that why the Tories are borrowing £2B a week then.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/report-hillary-clinton-called-for-toppling-the-1-2015-4?r=US -- Hillary called for 'toppling' of top 1%
http://uk.businessinsider.com/report-hillary-clinton-called-for-toppling-the-1-2015-4?r=US -- Hillary called for 'toppling' of top 1%