2015 Election season ..........stuff it in here.

[Strokes]

Coward:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31742155

Absolutely, It may just come back to haunt him.

[GaelicFox]

It's almost like they do it and not expect people to notice, I'm exactly the same, I almost want to vote UKIP on principle watching this stuff even if I was going to vote Tory.

 

 

To compare UKIP to the BNP is absolutely ridiculous, one is a party that openly operated an all white membership with all non whites barred, the other is ones that bars anyone with an EDL, BNP, etc membership from the party and actively tries to engage with minority and even has specialist gay, black and Jewish groups they embrace. Comparing the two would be like comparing the Liberal Democrats to the CPC.

 

If you to councillor/activist level you could find anything in any party, it's a bit weird to see the attention UKIP get compared to others and it's become obvious to even publications like the Guardian that have openly criticised this now that it's not the way to do things and certainly doesn;t work.

 

I don't agree they are represented by morons though, I mean could anyone really call Farage, Carswell or Reckless anything slandarous, they all seem to be decent people fighting for a cause they believe in. Amjad Bashir (I think that was his name) had a dodgy record as an MEP but he's now defected to the Tories.

I can only go on what I have seen Matt , and THIER activists in print and spoken word have time and time again been shown to be racist so the comparison to the BNP is fair , obviously like for like comparison is unfair , but THIER political leanings are on the same page buddy , maybe no Farage or his defecting Tories but certainly a huge amount of THIER activists are racist and the evidence is over whelming

[GaelicFox]

Coward:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31742155

Those debates cost him an outright majority at last election

He is a coward but a smart one

He now is 1/7th of a single programme , reducing his airtime to about 10% of the time he spent debating last time

And he will still be PM after this election

In government with UKIP and lib dems , propped up by Ulster unionists

[Alf Bentley]

Interesting that Cameron is so keen to avoid the TV debates - though I know that was the approach of all serving PMs until Brown in 2010.

Given Miliband's personal poll ratings and the widespread press scorn for him, you might think that Call Me Dave would be only too keen to have a 1-to-1 debate with Red Ed. In theory, it might even take him over the line to an overall majority.

 

Dave is obviously more of a 5-at-the-back man, wriggling out of it on every pretext from the Greens to the N. Ireland parties to timing to organisational chaos. He's presumably cautious that Miliband might actually perform better than advertised by the press.

2-month job for a chicken impersonator, I think. 

 

 

I'm considering putting some money on a Labour minority government. I've seen odds of 5-1, which might even be going further out after recent polls. Any thoughts from political gamblers?

 

Even if the Tories improve slightly in the polls, I'd expect them to lose some seats overall - while their Lib Dem mates could lose 25-30 or more. So, even if the Tories are the single largest party, I struggle to see who would support them on a confidence & supply basis, never mind a coalition (Lib Dems alone wouldn't be enough and I don't expect UKIP or the DUP to have enough MPs). Labour might end up with fewer MPs than the Tories if they're massacred in Scotland, but still forming a minority confidence & supply govt as they could negotiate an agreement with the SNP as well as the Lib Dems (SNP wouldn't touch the Tories with a bargepole, I reckon).

[MooseBreath]

The trouble with the TV debates is that it's all superficial, petty point scoring. Policies that would take days and weeks of solid study to properly analyse are reduced to three second sound bites, with whoever manages to slime out the best sounding cheap dig apparently winning the debate. Cameron is right to reject them because they are a nonsense. Anyone who thinks they're genuinely worthwhile has got a very simplistic, and I would say very dumb, view of the world.

[bovril]

They should give hour long slots to prominent members of each party (not the leaders) on consecutive days of the week, explaining some of their policies in detail. Flip charts and shit. Instead of just hollow sound bites like "the NHS will be safe in our hands" or "I would rather the country be poorer with less immigration", say why, how, and what you're going to do about it.

[davieG]

Didn't know were to put this but as it's everyone's favourite MP

 

 

Leicester East MP Keith Vaz's campaign car snapped in a disabled bay at railway station

By danjmartin  |  Posted: March 05, 2015

The Vaz campaign car in a disabled bay

 Comments (7)

One of Keith Vaz’s campaign vehicles has been caught parked up in a disabled bay at Leicester railway station without a blue badge.

The Leicester East MP’s silver Ford Galaxy was snapped by a disgruntled disabled driver occupying one of the four disabled bays near the station entrance.

Mr Vaz’s office has stated he was not driving the liveried people carrier, bearing the his image and “Vote Labour” slogans, at the time.

A spokeswoman for Mr Vaz said: “It was wrong for the vehicle to be parked in a disabled parking bay.

 

•  

 

“The driver of the vehicle has apologised for this and said it will never happen again.

“These bays are for a specific purpose and they should only be used for that purpose.”

The disabled driver, who asked not to be named, sent a picture of the Galaxy taken a 9.45am. It is unclear how long the car was parked there.

He said: “I was looking for a parking space myself and luckily there was one available despite the Galaxy being there but it still shouldn’t have been there.

“There were actually spaces for non-disabled drivers nearby at the time so it just looks like laziness or worse perhaps the driver felt the rules didn’t apply to them.

“If it had been a normal car I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it but it was so conspicuous.

“It is always frustrating for disabled drivers to find their spaces taken up by others.”

Andy Morris, a Leicester disability and access campaigner, said: “It’s very inconsiderate of the person driving and a bit daft because it is such a high profile vehicle somebody was always going to notice it.

“It’s a bit of an affront to disabled drivers who need those spaces.

“There isn’t any excuse. Everybody should know better but especially somebody who is representing an MP.”

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Leicester-East-MP-Keith-Vaz-s-campaign-car/story-26120197-detail/story.html#ixzz3TVNkDnda 
Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook

[Mike Oxlong]

True, but unfortunately his political instincts are quite good, I reckon.

 

Everyone knows that they're "the anti-immigration party" and anyone mainly motivated by that issue will already be voting for them. So there's not much to lose in dropping that arbitrary target.

 

Instead, he can do his "likeable, common-sense bloke next door" act and go on apparently reasonably about an Australian-style points system. That's a lot more likely to attract floating voters who are disillusioned with the main parties and want to vote for a "common sense alternative".

The season for politicians to be seen supping pints and holding babies (not at the same time though) is nearly upon us.

[Alf Bentley]

The trouble with the TV debates is that it's all superficial, petty point scoring. Policies that would take days and weeks of solid study to properly analyse are reduced to three second sound bites, with whoever manages to slime out the best sounding cheap dig apparently winning the debate. Cameron is right to reject them because they are a nonsense. Anyone who thinks they're genuinely worthwhile has got a very simplistic, and I would say very dumb, view of the world.

 

Your criticism of the TV debates is largely accurate - but would also apply to most televised interviews with politicians, particularly during an election campaign. There are programmes that offer vaguely serious policy analysis (even Newsnight is a lot better now that Evan Davis has taken over from the blustering Paxman). But the only people who watch them are politics nuts like us lot in this thread! I can't see many viewers watching 1-hour political lectures with flipcharts, either, Bovril (though I assume you were being a bit flippant there)!

 

TV debates would be better than nothing, though. The respective leaders would be able to challenge one another's policies/claims - and the compere would be able to do likewise. More importantly, millions of people who don't normally pay any attention to politics would watch and might be exposed to a bit of political thought (only a very little bit, admittedly). That's better than them deciding on the basis of self-marketing by the parties themselves or superficial impressions as to whether Miliband is a rather nasal cross between Gromit and Mr. Bean or whether Cameron is like an oily public-school car salesman.

 

Given some of the developments in the world (globalisation, climate change, mechanisation/ICT revolution, advanced/late-stage capitalism, slower growth, migration, Islamism, demographic change etc.), politics is going to get increasingly important in coming years. It would be rather good if MORE people were encouraged to take an interest, not LESS.

 

I can understand Cameron's ducking and diving, though. While Miliband or Farage might implode and make fools of themselves in TV debates (& Natalie Bennett probably will), they might perform quite well. Miliband has low personal poll ratings, so Cameron has more to lose than to win there. Meanwhile, re. Farage, the Tories (& Labour) will be able to pull their usual stunt of pointing out, quite accurately under our electoral system, that only Labour or Tories will be forming a government.....giving Farage a chance in front of millions of viewers runs the risk of a repeat of "Cleggmania" (remember that!  )....though Cleggmania didn't seem to win too many votes for the Lib Dems in 2010.

 

Call for the man in the chicken suit!

[Alf Bentley]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/election-2015-latest-polling-reveals-tories-and-labour-on-course-to-win-the-same-number-of-seats--with-the-snp-holding-the-balance-of-power-10086408.html

 

"In focus groups, Lord Ashcroft found widespread disenchantment among floating voters with all main party leaders. Nick Clegg was described as a “Chihuahua in a handbag” or Fred from Scooby Doo, David Cameron as Dick Dastardly while Ed Milband was compared to Mr Bean. Voters were even less impressed with Nigel Farage variously describing him as a weasel, a four-by-four with bullbars or Ray Winstone".

     

[Webbo]

The thing about the debates is Millibands ratings are so poor as long as his trousers don't fall down when he stands up to speak any exposure he gets can only give him a boost.

[Guest MattP]

I can only go on what I have seen Matt , and THIER activists in print and spoken word have time and time again been shown to be racist so the comparison to the BNP is fair , obviously like for like comparison is unfair , but THIER political leanings are on the same page buddy , maybe no Farage or his defecting Tories but certainly a huge amount of THIER activists are racist and the evidence is over whelming

 

Well of course that's going to be what you've seen They aren't going to make hours and hours worth of television on normal activists campaigning about Snibston discovery pary being shut down are they?

 

To compare them in any political way to the BNP is absurd, hence why no one actually does it anymore apart from the weirdos from groups like HNH or UAF.

 

Interesting that Cameron is so keen to avoid the TV debates - though I know that was the approach of all serving PMs until Brown in 2010.

Given Miliband's personal poll ratings and the widespread press scorn for him, you might think that Call Me Dave would be only too keen to have a 1-to-1 debate with Red Ed. In theory, it might even take him over the line to an overall majority.

 

Dave is obviously more of a 5-at-the-back man, wriggling out of it on every pretext from the Greens to the N. Ireland parties to timing to organisational chaos. He's presumably cautious that Miliband might actually perform better than advertised by the press.

2-month job for a chicken impersonator, I think. 

 

I'm considering putting some money on a Labour minority government. I've seen odds of 5-1, which might even be going further out after recent polls. Any thoughts from political gamblers?

 

Even if the Tories improve slightly in the polls, I'd expect them to lose some seats overall - while their Lib Dem mates could lose 25-30 or more. So, even if the Tories are the single largest party, I struggle to see who would support them on a confidence & supply basis, never mind a coalition (Lib Dems alone wouldn't be enough and I don't expect UKIP or the DUP to have enough MPs). Labour might end up with fewer MPs than the Tories if they're massacred in Scotland, but still forming a minority confidence & supply govt as they could negotiate an agreement with the SNP as well as the Lib Dems (SNP wouldn't touch the Tories with a bargepole, I reckon).

 

I think a minority bet on both parties is pretty decent value, coalition could be difficult as nobody is going to want to do it after what happened to the Lib Dems. No way can Labour go into coalition with the SNP - it could kill the party off in England for good outside the major cities.

 

The thing about the debates is Millibands ratings are so poor as long as his trousers don't fall down when he stands up to speak any exposure he gets can only give him a boost.

 

Exactly why Cameron doesn't want them, the sort of people who are still going to vote Labour now would vote for them with anyone in charge, the hardcore whose opinion wouldn't actually change if Miliband swung his cock and balls at the camera during a debate. Cameron would only have something to gain if Bennett and Farage were on a stage with him.

[Guest Bilo]

The trouble with the TV debates is that it's all superficial, petty point scoring. Policies that would take days and weeks of solid study to properly analyse are reduced to three second sound bites, with whoever manages to slime out the best sounding cheap dig apparently winning the debate. Cameron is right to reject them because they are a nonsense. Anyone who thinks they're genuinely worthwhile has got a very simplistic, and I would say very dumb, view of the world.

 

Agreed. 

 

A fatuous Americanism that British politics doesn't really need. If you want to watch the politicians debate, you have PMQs. 

 

The fact that Clegg came out on top last time round should outline that the strongest politician doesn't always come out on top in these.

[Guest MattP]

Agreed. 

 

A post-modern Americanism that British politics doesn't really need. If you want to watch the politicians debate, you have PMQs. 

 

The fact that Clegg came out on top last time round should outline that the strongest politician doesn't always come out on top in these.

 

Bloody good point that, we actually have a debate every week and barely anyone watches.

 

I was looking at some opinion polling from 2010 last week (How sad is that btw) and it's amazing to think the Lib Dems were actually in the lead in a few of them a few weeks before the election. They are now fighting to get a higher national vote than the Greens.

[sphericalfox]

Bloody good point that, we actually have a debate every week and barely anyone watches.

 

I was looking at some opinion polling from 2010 last week (How sad is that btw) and it's amazing to think the Lib Dems were actually in the lead in a few of them a few weeks before the election. They are now fighting to get a higher national vote than the Greens.

 

Nobody watches PMQ, cos it's horseshite. Scripted horseshite.

 

I actually found myself agreeing with Nigel ****ing Farage this evening.

 

The BBC should put the debate on, and other broadcasters, and if the Conservatives show up so be it, if they don't so be it **** 'em. Trying to manage the pre-election media! Ha! 

[Jimothy]

Nobody watches PMQ, cos it's horseshite. Scripted horseshite.

And doesn't it start at about midday, when we're all mostly at work. And as far as I'm aware it's not like it's shown on bbc1 that evening.

[davieG]

Nobody watches PMQ, cos it's horseshite. Scripted horseshite.

 

I actually found myself agreeing with Nigel ****ing Farage this evening.

 

The BBC should put the debate on, and other broadcasters, and if the Conservatives show up so be it, if they don't so be it **** 'em. Trying to manage the pre-election media! Ha! 

Does the Prime Minister not agree that whatever the sitting government's policies are that they are the correct way of doing things.

[sphericalfox]

Does the Prime Minister not agree that whatever the sitting government's policies are that they are the correct way of doing things.

 

Yeah but he wants to have ONE televised debate, and before the publish their manifesto. It'll be pointless waste of time, a bit like PMQ.

[Guest Bilo]

And doesn't it start at about midday, when we're all mostly at work. And as far as I'm aware it's not like it's shown on bbc1 that evening.

 

It's pretty easy to access if you want to on iPlayer. I've just done it in five clicks.

 

All these live televised debates are is a dumbed down, glammed up rehash of PMQs. They're more than likely even more scripted than PMQs, especially seeing as the pesky backbenchers and Independents are taken out of the equation. I for one much prefer PMQs to the debates, which seemed contrived and in favour of whoever could give the best soundbites. You certainly never see the President of the USA taken to task and forced to think on their feet the way our politicians are, that's never going to happen in the same way on a political debate.

 

Let's be fair though, voting on soundbites over substance is the mark of a moron.

[Strokes]

The trouble with the TV debates is that it's all superficial, petty point scoring. Policies that would take days and weeks of solid study to properly analyse are reduced to three second sound bites, with whoever manages to slime out the best sounding cheap dig apparently winning the debate. Cameron is right to reject them because they are a nonsense. Anyone who thinks they're genuinely worthwhile has got a very simplistic, and I would say very dumb, view of the world.

The dumb and simple still get voting slips last time I checked, the debates might well be sound bites and drivel but I fail to see what harm they do. If more people take up an interest in politics because of them, then why shouldn't they go ahead?

It's a very important time politically right now, certainly the most in my voting lifetime. The country is at a crossroads on some very big issues, and the how we vote and who gets elected could be very significant in deciding these outcomes. Each and every seat is worth something. I'm never felt so torn on how to vote, my heart says UKIP (I know I hide it well but I'm not particularly fond of the EU) but my head says Tory (I do think they've done a decent job but I'm really not a David Cameron fan and I don't trust him).

[SMX11]

I would vote Conservative if their top brass weren't in favour of the EU. Alas they are and will be for the foreseeable future unless they lose.

[Carl the Llama]

I'll never understand not being in favour of the EU.  When you're unhappy with the UK government you'd talk about changing it, not removing it, so why's an attempt at continental unification more vilified?

[Tielemans63]

It's a pretty desperate choice this time around isn't it? I've always been critical of folk who don't vote but now I find myself in the position where I just see myself voting for any of the dross on offer. On the whole, I think the Tories have done a decent job but I just can't vote for a party who've damaged education so immeasurably over the past 5 years - narrow-minded of me maybe but when you're as passionate as I am about it you can't forgive. It'd be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

 

There's no way I can vote for Miliband - can anyone actually imagine that guy as prime minister? The guy has absolutely nothing worthwhile to say. He's in there quickly whenever Cmaeron ****s up but that seems to be his one and only tactic. The Lib Dems are a joke and Clegg has shown that you can say what you want in a TV debate, doesn't make it true - thank God he never ended up as PM.

 

UKIP are a joke in my opinion. I can't see how anyone can argue that they are anything but a one-policy party - and they can't even make their minds' up on that score.

 

As for TV debates, they are a complete falsity (see Clegg, Nicholas circa 2010) however I think Cameron should have agreed to do it on the basis that it could quite feesibly be a PR disaster for him and (with all due respect) many sections of the public will see it quite simply as a weakness - it also hands an unwarranted advantage to Miliband and Farage IMHO. He perhaps shouldn't have called out Brown for doing exactly what he is doing now 5 years ago - I'm sure the media will be all over that in the next few days.

[Strokes]

I'll never understand not being in favour of the EU. When you're unhappy with the UK government you'd talk about changing it, not removing it, so why's an attempt at continental unification more vilified?

Tell me how we change the EU Carl?

[Guest Kopfkino]

It's not up to Number 10 to call the shots regarding what the media and broadcasters do here. They should carry on with the format already proposed and empty chair Cameron if he doesn't want to turn up. The thing is if they carry on with the head to head with Miliband then he'll have to tirn up cos it would damage him massively. He's not doing himself many favours as it is, I don't want a PM who's running scared of tv debates, suggests he's not up to the task of renegotiating with europe like he promises.

I've not seen anything about a chancellor debate like last time, personally more interested in that anyway