How will you vote in the General Election?

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:13:50 GMT

In Brown's defense - which is a rare place for me - he's already stated he doesn't want to either join the lecture circuit or become a director. Time will tell.....

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:37:59 GMT

Poor old Gordon, but I doubt he'll have to resort such measures. Most politicians seem to line themselves up for lucrative positions for when they finish politics (TeflonTony the Tory is doing rather well from middle east oil interests I believe? no connection to his Iraq war of course))

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Bob Russell — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:40:12 GMT

This has made my day and a copy is on my consulting room wall!!!

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:06:09 GMT

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Kate Richardson — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:07:46 GMT

Just watching the Dave-Nic press conference on the Beeb- hilarious! LOL!

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:17:13 GMT

More like an audition for a game show host I thought.

They are very good at talking the talk, lets see if they walk the walk - time will tell

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Virginia Campbell — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:11:34 GMT

Did you hear Boris Johnston's analogy about the coalition? "Like a cross between a bulldog and a chihuahua...it'll have fantastic hybrid vigour" ????!!! well I suppose the birth WAS difficult...

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:54:44 GMT

[quote user="Robert Russell"]The news conference at lunch time was very bizarre[/quote]

Wasn't it just!

Must say, I did think the genuine impromptu laughter was a real breath of fresh air, after the last three years of the emotionally constipated Brown.

I was taken in by it all. But then again, I was taken in by Blair when he was first elected, so whaddoIknow.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Bob Russell — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:03:03 GMT

The news conference at lunch time was very bizarre - I expected them to hold hands and hug!!!

Very odd indeed when will they wed???

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:41:01 GMT

I think the coalition sounds good-yes, it will be painful in the short term-that's the legacy of years of mismanagement. That's always the way with Labour. When times are good, they can't resist taxing to further bloat the public sedtor with unnecessary expenditure, then when there's an economic downturn, the "joke jobs " have to go, which increases the unemployment figures, and makes things look worse. If these joke jobs hadn't been created in the 1st place, the extra money in circulation during the good times would have created extra real jobs

They also increased benefits to the point that many people wouldn't take basic wage jobs, so Eastern Europeans came in to do them, and if they now lose these jobs due to the recession, will be a further burden on our shrinking numbers of taxpayers. I voted Conservative, but one of the Lib Dem policies I liked was to raise the tax threshold to £10 k . This should increase the difference between the standards of living of the poorly paid and the unemployed, so as to incentivise the idle to actually want to work.

Anyway it's a new start, and has to be better than Labour

Wynne

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Malcolm Ness — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:53:18 GMT

??????? or spice up election day with a random series of explosions.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:50:55 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

Fun for the Libs: lose seats, gain power.

[/quote]

The system hardly seems fair.

The Lib Dems got 23% of the vote, but only 9% parliamentary seats

Conservative got 36% of the vote and 47% of seats.

Also the BNP and UKIP got 1.8% and 3.0% respectively, but no seats in parliament

35% or 1 in 3, of the electorate didn't vote. Appalling really, there was a higher turnout in Iraq (75% in 2005) where there was a real risk of being blown to bits!

Maybe voting should be made compulsory??

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Vikki Halliday LLB — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:35:17 GMT

Lib:Con coalition: or as my husband stated when he heard, " Well that's the start of the real recession now"

Just as happened when the Tories had to clean up the mess Labour had left when Maggie came to power........

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:33:14 GMT

If one more politician says 'in the national interest' I'm chucking my TV out of the window.

Or, for that matter, 'the stable government the public deserves'.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Bob Russell — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:31:51 GMT

Hopefully a coaltion means they will deal with important matters and not interfere in day to day working lives.

Unfortunately clipping the VMD's wings will probably not qualify!!!

Sorry if you think I have a thing about the VMD, I do!! How can the people 'policing' vets be 80% paid for by the pharmaceutical industry? Is it a surprise that we are forced to use overpriced veterinary medicines with the possibility of prosecution if we don't?

Do I feel a new topic coming on? Should I get down from my high horse?

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:23:55 GMT

Fun for the Libs: lose seats, gain power.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:34:55 GMT

Well, looks like we have a Con - Lib Dem coalition, perhaps the best option of all possible evils?

It is in keeping with our own forum pole which shows Cons at 47.6% and Lib Dems at 35.7%.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

David Hopper — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:42:36 GMT

Perhaps a coalition is needed for the next few years to get us out this financial crisis? The elctorate has shown that they have no outright confidence in any of the parties to sort this mess out. Apparently the Queen can advise the leaders of the parties to do this if they are spitting their dummies out and can't agree

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Bob Russell — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:04:12 GMT

How much pointless regulation did we have to face before Labour came to power? A fraction of that facing us now. VMD used to check drugs were licenced properly then kept quiet. Now they seem to think they have an important role to perform.

No parliamentary party should ever have such a large majority that they can allow departments such as the VMD to think they are of any real importance. Long live the hung (or should it be hanged!) parliament.

Small majorities hopefully lead to considered legislation. Large majorities bucket loads of legislation because they can!

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:46:38 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]

Very surprised at how badly the Liberals have performed. Thought the Clegg effect would be worth more than that. Perhaps this means voters really do consider policy after all.

Fascinated to see what happens next.

[/quote]

Or, it means voters don't consider policy. what are the policies anyway?, none of them have really said what they are going to do if elected.

I am amazed at how many votes Labour have managed to get given how unpopular they are.

At this moment conservatives have 288 to Labour's 241 seats, so the Lib Dem's may yet be the deciders in a hung Parliament coalition - have to wait and see.

Conservatives need 38 of 43 seats yet to declare, so although possible, an outright win is now unlikely.

It ain't over till it's over

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:26:59 GMT

Very suprised at how badly the Liberals have performed. Thought the Clegg effect would be worth more than that. Perhaps this means voters really do consider policy after all.

Fascinated to see what happens next.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Clive Ansell — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:58:28 GMT

[quote user="Rob Smith"]

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

most politicians as self serving crooks that are there for short term financial gain

[/quote]

Mmm yes because Tony Blair is making no money since he retired from politics. :-/

Politicians make a lot less money than they would in a job they would otherwise be doing.

[/quote]

But they know what the terms and salaries are when they choose to enter politics, it in no way justifies their dishonest and disreputable behaviour.

Anyway, my vote was in vein after all. The conservatives have won again in my constituency, but their majority and share of the vote has reduced by 7.5% with gains going to Lib Dems, BNP and small independents. 30% of the electorate did not vote.

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Rob Reid — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:20:02 GMT

I live in Stockton South which is Labour with about a %13 majority. We have had the Conservatives knocking on the door and the Labour candidate (who is the current MP) has set up a drop-in clinic next door to our local pizza shop!!

Mail-wise, I have had very little but my wife has had a steady stream of letters from Messers Cameron, Brown and Clegg. I did get one from the BNP - don't know what that says about me!!

As an interesting aside, I did come home from work last week to find that Holly, one of my dogs had torn up one of the leaflets from the Conservatives but had left the Labour and Lib Dem leaflets well alone. Both dogs did visit the Polling Station after work with me today, but I can confirm that although Holly did not attempt to tear up my ballot paper she did give a man wearing a blue jacket a very funny look on the way out!!!

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:02:12 GMT

[quote user="Ian Mostyn"]Has everyone else had a more active campaign locally?[/quote]

Haven't heard a squeak round here. But then I do live in Ansty, where the population is smaller than the average age, by quite a considerable margin!

Re: How will you vote in the General Election?

Rob Smith — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:58:04 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

most politicians as self serving crooks that are there for short term financial gain

[/quote]

Mmm yes because Tony Blair is making no money since he retired from politics. :-/

Politicians make a lot less money than they would in a job they would otherwise be doing.