The Election Thread

hellboy69 · 11 May 2010, 23:03

I have this song going round in my head... "You reap what you sow. Put your face to the ground. Here come the marching men. Your colours wrapped around."

Enjoy your time at #10 sausage face, don't forget to feed the cat, and don't let the door hit you on the arse on your way out

the_inescapable_truth · 11 May 2010, 23:20

robertzombie · 11 May 2010, 23:29

DeWinter · 11 May 2010, 23:43

boudicca wrote: Most of the Tories are fuming over the concessions made to the Liberals on the voting system, and turn against the Bullingdon clique (if they haven't already). Everyone HATES George Osborne.

If you believe the Daily Mail, the Tory Right are already getting together to discuss what demands they should make. Amongst them being a referendum on our EU membership, a Lib Dem manifesto commitment, I believe. I look forward to that being conveniently forgotten, a la Lisbon Treaty.
I had some respect for George Osbourne when he was saying "We're in absolute sh@t and need to cut to the bone before the markets bankrupt us". Of course, the public preferring to hear Labour's message of "Oh, we'll make a few savings here and there and will instead look down the back of the national sofa and see what we can find..", he started to panic and parrotted the same line. We now have no-one being honest with us. Anyway, we've got pots of money. We just gave Â£8 billion to Greece.

And proof Cameron is full of arse:
"He paid tribute to Gordon Brown for his "long record of dedicated public service", and said 13 years of Labour government had made Britain "more open at home and more compassionate abroad".
Someone else can pick the holes in that statement. And ask why, if it's the case, Cameron was so desperate to remove such a paragon..

12 May 2010, 08:44

hellboy69 · 12 May 2010, 09:34

nice one Pista

and on a darker note...

Norman Hunter · 12 May 2010, 09:58

See, I'm not as up-to-speed and on-the-ball as some of the previous posts when it comes to politics - but I'm worried.

boudicca · 12 May 2010, 15:03

hellboy69 wrote:I have this song going round in my head... "You reap what you sow. Put your face to the ground. Here come the marching men. Your colours wrapped around."

I was thinking more along the lines of...

"Pushing through the market sqaure / So many mothers sighing..."

y'all know the rest

12 May 2010, 15:14

Any bets on how long the ConDem coalition can last? My fiver is on another general election before Christmas.

boudicca · 12 May 2010, 15:28

Well, in keeping with my post above... have they not agreed on fixed terms for FIVE YEARS

now? Or have I misunderstood the situation? I sincerely fcuking hope so!

12 May 2010, 15:57

Yeah but a vote of no confidence or failure to pass the Queen's speech (or Budget IIRC) would precipitate a general election regardless.

EvilBastard · 12 May 2010, 16:07

boudicca wrote:Well, in keeping with my post above... have they not agreed on fixed terms for FIVE YEARS now? Or have I misunderstood the situation? I sincerely fcuking hope so!

I am not totally unhappy about there being fixed terms - at least this way we won't have a repeat of the post-Falklands snap election where Thatcher used her popularity to maintain her lock on power, the government can make longer-term plans, and it gives the opposition a sense of how long they've got to get their act together. We saw a couple of years ago how Gordon Brown promised an election and then canceled it when he realised that he was about as popular as a turd in a punch-bowl, leading to widespread uncertainty. I'd prefer to see it every four years, but I can live it with being every 5.

RicheyJames · 12 May 2010, 17:08

markfiend wrote:Yeah but a vote of no confidence or failure to pass the Queen's speech (or Budget IIRC) would precipitate a general election regardless.

Yeah but along with the legislation for fixed terms comes a new requirement for a vote of at least 55% of MPs for a dissolution. Given the arithmetic I can't see that happening even if the Liberals and Tories do fall out, can you?

Add to that the fact that the Lib Dems are broke (as are Labour) and I don't really see that they have much to gain from precipitating another election in the short-term.

In the medium-term, since the Liberals will be held equally accountable with the Tories for the necessary but unpopular spending cuts I can't see them rushing back to the electorate then either.

Nope, get used to it folks: it's a liberal conservative wonderland and it's here to stay. Enjoy!

ETA: you can pop the fiver in the post now if you like Mark.

12 May 2010, 17:35

nice (& easily digestible) overview of what the coalition has agreed here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/12 ... g_cabinet/

cameregg

dick clameron

so many amusing name mashups

emilystrange · 12 May 2010, 17:47

'clammy' was one

boudicca · 12 May 2010, 18:15

Eugh, you could feel the love with them today, couldn't you? I wonder how long it will be before red-hot Cameregg slash fiction pops up all over teh interwebs...

lazarus corporation · 12 May 2010, 18:27

boudicca wrote:Eugh, you could feel the love with them today, couldn't you? I wonder how long it will be before red-hot Cameregg slash fiction pops up all over teh interwebs...

It started yesterday: http://rhaegal.dreamwidth.org/23404.html

boudicca · 12 May 2010, 19:04

I won't ask how you found that Paul.

Incriminating!

emilystrange · 12 May 2010, 19:39

well, it wasn't red hot... but it was slash fiction. and bits made me laugh.

lazarus corporation · 12 May 2010, 19:52

boudicca wrote:I won't ask how you found that Paul.

Incriminating!

Someone posted the link on Warren Ellis' discussion forum (Warren Ellis the writer, not the Bad Seeds musician) - I don't usually frequent slash sites!

boudicca · 12 May 2010, 20:17

I believe you, thousands wouldn't

Maisey · 12 May 2010, 20:45

I for one am quite pleased. Seems to me it's turned out much better than it might have done. With several Lib Dems in high office this combination of Coservative ruthless moderated by a strong Liberal input might just be good for the country after all.

Love how the slash fiction makes quite a point about Nick buggering Cameron and not the other way round.

Erudite · 12 May 2010, 20:51

Maisey wrote:
Love how the slash fiction makes quite a point about Nick buggering Cameron and not the other way round.

As an old Etonian, he, Cameron, should be used to it!

emilystrange · 12 May 2010, 20:52

it does say... 'being a member of the conservative party, he knew how to suck c***' (paraphrase) which amused me greatly

12 May 2010, 21:03

RicheyJames wrote:Yeah but along with the legislation for fixed terms comes a new requirement for a vote of at least 55% of MPs for a dissolution. Given the arithmetic I can't see that happening even if the Liberals and Tories do fall out, can you?

You're assuming the ConDem coalition won't fall apart before they get the legislation through.

Besides, I can't see how a government that loses a confidence vote (or Queen's speech) with between 50% and 55% of MPs voting against them could possibly continue.

I'm not conceding defeat until I've well and truly lost. Just call me Gordon

And FWIW, I think Maisey has a point: we can always hope that the Liberal side of the coalition are going to moderate any of the worse ideas the Tories have.