Undefined discussion subject.

Bond_James_Bond said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Plato said:

I was taught by our very keen pre-history teacher about cubits and hands and all things unmetric.

It's so wonderfully colourful. I hate metric bar millimetres which are great for tiny things in DIY or centilitres for chemistry calculations - otherwise, I'm all Imperial and mentally turn everything metric back into Imperial to get a visual feel for it.

Morris_Dancer said:

Miss Plato, a few days ago I explained the pre-decimal system of currency we had to an American (he'd read something about Thatcher looking forward to decimalisation), and his gast was utterly flabbered by it.

I rather like the bonkers old systems. There's something soulless about the metric system.

Maybe it's my interest in WW1 and WW2 battleships as a teen, but I know without Googling that 12 inches is 305 mm (eg. main guns on HMS Dreadnought), 13.5 inches is 343 mm (eg. HMS Iron Duke), 14 inches is 356 mm (eg. HMS Canada), 15 inches is 381 mm (eg. HMS Hood), 16 inches is 406 mm (eg. HMS Nelson) and 18 inches is 457 mm (eg. Japan's Yamato).

Nitpick. Yamato had 18.1" guns, of 46cm calibre.

Did you know there were two different 13.5" guns each throwing a shell of different weight?

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

marke09 said:

Measuring the change means that the postal votes shouldn't matter. They assume that the change in the postal votes will be about the same as among the ones cast on the day.

Richard_Nabavi said:

marke09 said:

We ask our psephos to put their necks on the block. And thankfully they do. The Exit poll is of course just a sample - adjusted as real results declare. But that's the moment the giant touch screen will come to life. This time around we will not only be bringing real results as they happen - but using the Exit poll to try and determine just where we will see seats change hands. Bare with me - it’s a massive leap forward - but it could be quite an exciting on

Someone on the BBC website wrote 'Bare with me'?

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

Richard_Nabavi said:

marke09 said:

Measuring the change means that the postal votes shouldn't matter. They assume that the change in the postal votes will be about the same as among the ones cast on the day.

That's an interesting point - it could be a potential source of error in the exit poll for this election, for example if there is a last-minute swing or if the change since 2010 is different for more committed voters (over-represented amongst postal voters) and more swingy voters.

Daniel said:

Newstatsman admit Labour hasn't changed enough, but we might as well vote for them. Odd endorsement.

Daniel said:

Newstatsman admit Labour hasn't changed enough, but we might as well vote for them. Odd endorsement.

Verulamius said:

I am surprised that Sunil has not mentioned this point on the metric imperial debate.

Currently railway distances in the UK are in miles and chains. However they are about to go metric.

Anorak said:

Verulamius said:

I am surprised that Sunil has not mentioned this point on the metric imperial debate.

Currently railway distances in the UK are in miles and chains. However they are about to go metric.

He's still in denial.

Millsy said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

Osborne would do what he did earlier in this parliament and ease off the cuts, borrow more and turn on the printing presses

KentRising said:

Daniel said:

Newstatsman admit Labour hasn't changed enough, but we might as well vote for them. Odd endorsement.

Call it the 'Rod Liddle Endorsement'.

"Call me insane but I'm voting labour"
"I can’t stand the party’s mindset, leadership and many of its policies..."
http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9500072/call-me-insane-but-im-voting-labour/

OblitusSumMe said:

Anorak said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

There'll be a clause allowing a change on (say) 75% of the vote in parliament. Otherwise it would be so far beyond stupid as to be incomprehensible.

Like any piece of legislation passed by the Commons it could be repealed by a simple majority. It's basically just a "super-pledge", and a gimmick that all parties should agree to resist resorting to.

OblitusSumMe said:

Anorak said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

There'll be a clause allowing a change on (say) 75% of the vote in parliament. Otherwise it would be so far beyond stupid as to be incomprehensible.

Like any piece of legislation passed by the Commons it could be repealed by a simple majority. It's basically just a "super-pledge", and a gimmick that all parties should agree to resist resorting to.

logical_song said:

Millsy said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

Osborne would do what he did earlier in this parliament and ease off the cuts, borrow more and turn on the printing presses

That makes sense, unless we lose our AAA credit rating and then have to pay more to finance our debts.

logical_song said:

Millsy said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

Osborne would do what he did earlier in this parliament and ease off the cuts, borrow more and turn on the printing presses

That makes sense, unless we lose our AAA credit rating and then have to pay more to finance our debts.

Verulamius said:

I am surprised that Sunil has not mentioned this point on the metric imperial debate.

Currently railway distances in the UK are in miles and chains. However they are about to go metric.

Tissue_Price said:

May2015 Election ‏@May2015NS

New exclusive May2015/BMG Research poll:

Conservative: 35%
Labour: 32%
Ukip: 14%
Lib Dems: 11%
SNP: 4%
Greens: 3%

http://may2015.com/featured/election-2015-new-exclusive-poll-puts-tories-three-points-ahead-of-labour/

marke09 said:

from the BBC website how the exit poll will work

BBC

A week tomorrow, as Big Ben Strikes 10pm, and the nation breathes a collective sigh of relief, you're either thinking a) phew, that’s over. Or b ) if you're me, just beginning.

The Exit Poll will be shown to a few of us just moments before we go live on a 20 hour election marathon special. Even David Dimbleby and our Editor get just a ten minute warning.

Politicians will by then have a pretty good idea of whether to expect good news or not. Their agents will have been phoning through snippets from marginal seats all day. But it is a rare party chairman who puts their neck on the block the minute the polls close. The broadcasters do and if it goes wrong (most famously in 1992) we will be hearing about it for the next 30 years.

So how do we put the Exit Poll together - where is it strong and where should we admit its weaknesses? Well - at the crack of dawn a team of 140 researchers from NOP and Ipsos Mori fan out. They head to 140 (mostly marginal) seats across Great Britain. They will be carrying a stack of ballot papers and their own ballot boxes. Every 10th person coming out of the voting booths is asked to write down how they voted and put their piece of paper in the box. The results are phoned through to one tiny room in a secret location in London.

Waiting to receive the data is a small team of psephologists lead by three men - the BBC's John Curtice, Sky's Michael Thrasher and ITN's Colin Rallings. They're the holy trinity of the whole exercise. The three broadcasters sink or swim together on this one. Joining forces means we can afford a bigger sample and we are likely to get a better result.

This exercise won't tell them who has won the most votes. They have no idea If turnout has crashed in some areas and soared in others. But they think they can work out who has won the most seats. And they do this by measuring how many votes have changed since they visited the same polling stations in 2010.

Measuring the change means that the postal votes shouldn't matter. They assume that the change in the postal votes will be about the same as among the ones cast on the day. And they don't assume some kind of universal swing. They work out if, say, student seats are acting differently and use the census to factor all those tiny differences in.

15 minutes before David stands in front of his screen they will come up with some numbers. This time they're going go to try and predict seat totals not only for Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. They're going to try and predict some for UKIP, Plaid, Greens and the SNP too. They've never had to do his before - but this is a different kind of election.

e.

Millsy said:

logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460

Osborne would do what he did earlier in this parliament and ease off the cuts, borrow more and turn on the printing presses

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Tissue_Price said:

May2015 Election ‏@May2015NS

New exclusive May2015/BMG Research poll:

Conservative: 35%
Labour: 32%
Ukip: 14%
Lib Dems: 11%
SNP: 4%
Greens: 3%

http://may2015.com/featured/election-2015-new-exclusive-poll-puts-tories-three-points-ahead-of-labour/

Accrington Stanley BMG Research? Who are they?

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Anorak said:

Verulamius said:

I am surprised that Sunil has not mentioned this point on the metric imperial debate.

Currently railway distances in the UK are in miles and chains. However they are about to go metric.

He's still in denial.

Coventry station is exactly 94 miles from London Euston, if the yellow distance marker on platform 4 is to be believed

Carnyx said:

https://twitter.com/kwr66/status/593401677757186048

One for Sunil and JJ ... (and relevant to the theme)

Brom said:

Sean_F said:

Brom said:

isam said:

Pong said:

Tissue_Price said:

Harry Cole ‏@MrHarryCole

Ukip sources pouring significant amounts of cold water from a great height on this afternoon's Ashcroft polling.

Kippers 3rd in S.Thanet?

I just hope we don't see the idiocy of comparing it with the Survation poll

I noticed on Betfair the UKIP price drifted and Labour price came in massively before his last marginal polling so clearly a few people were in the know.
For Thanet Tory and Lab price has come in a bit but UKIP hovering around 1.53 on exchanges, maybe suggests a lead of a few points. Either way it's not going to be a lead as big as 9% Survation, but you are correct most people will compare the 2 and point to a shrinking lead.

Presumably, the Ashcroft poll won't have named candidates.

Given the recent Ashcroft polls from Castle Point, Thurrock, and Rochester & Strood, I'd be surprised if Farage wasn't in the hunt.

He'll definitely be in the hunt, and most probably the lead.

My view is had Labour, Owen Jones et all not campaigned so hard and left this seat alone (they never really had a chance anyway in S. Thanet) then the Tories may have beaten Farage by winning over the anyone but Ukip vote, yet by being competitive with the Blues in the polls there was no obvious protest vote.

This suggests the Labour party was incredibly naive in their attempts to stop Farage or perhaps it was all a clever ruse to help Nigel get into parliament and cause damage to the Tories.

Or maybe I'm just over thinking the whole thing!

Roger said:

" logical_song said:

A law stopping the Government raising the rates of VAT, NI and Income tax, so what happens if we get another financial shock in the next 5 years?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32498460"

I think it's just a way of ditching Osborne. It got ad agency account director written all over it. First you take away his responsibilities then his desk then his title and eventually he leaves and you can say with a straight face you've never sacked anybody!

MarkHopkins said:

https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/593421565867466754

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Carnyx said:

https://twitter.com/kwr66/status/593401677757186048

One for Sunil and JJ ... (and relevant to the theme)

Very good! Though loco 4472 is Green rather than blue (though as it's a head-on view, we can forgive them for that!).

botanically_speaking said:

Tissue_Price said:

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedUKPol/status/593419018968702978

Better value than an annuity?

Sunil_Prasannan said:

MarkHopkins said:

https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/593421565867466754

Should I stick it into Wikipedia when the tables come out? (if?)

Should I stick it into my ELBOW?

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Is Lord Ashcroft a member of BPC? I always thought he isn't.

taffys said:

''I can see CON getting to 320 perhaps, but to get to 326 requires not losing any seats if at all to Labour. ''

And as we know, Broxtowe is already in the bag for the reds.

JosiasJessop said:

TCPoliticalBetting said:

Is the most sensible move for the next Govt to announce after the GE that tax on petrol will be lowered and the tax on diesel increased in a series of steps? That way motorists can plan to exit the noxious diesel cars. Freight transport also needs to be nudged onto rail and cleaner engines.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-supreme-court-has-ordered-the-government-to-take-immediate-action-to-stop-the-uks-illegal-and-dangerous-air-pollution-levels-10212454.html

There is a problem with railfreight. A new EU regulation meant that diesel engines used in trains had to emit less carbon. There was only one problem: no-one makes locomotives for the UK that meet the regulations, and no-one is quite sure if there is a diesel engine that can meet them and fit in the reduced-size UK loading gauge. Instead, people are considering getting old locomotives with poor emissions standards back on track under grandfather rights.

End result: the regulation's been dropped, I think.

http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/lunacy-brussels-bid-to-reduce-exhaust-emissions-backfires

Pulpstar said:

Chris123 said:

botanically_speaking said:

Tissue_Price said:

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedUKPol/status/593419018968702978

Better value than an annuity?

Sorry but the gentleman is completely clueless otherwise he could have figured out that he could have gotten a much higher return by punting on Betfair. I'm afraid, he's approached his "bet" in the same haphazard manner - poor old fool. But you know the old story about "a fool and his money..."

No he couldn't.

Take a look at the liquidity and price on NOM.