The UK General Election

eenie meenie minie moe...that's how to choose

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Regarding the outcome of this election, my heart says Lib Dems, but my head says a hung parliament.

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I'm guessing that I should maybe actually read up on some policy etc and attempt to make a informed vote.

Otherwise I'll whip out the blindfold and vote randomly.....though that'd also pretty much get the same result.

Right, I've spent my bank holiday Monday reading through the Conservative and Lib Dem manifestos to see who I agree with most.

Depressingly, I still can't choose between them. They both have strengths in different areas. The one which is most important to me - Education - seems to be slightly more favourable in the Lib Dem manifesto than the Conservatives, but there are still parts of it which I prefer on the Blue front.

Ah well, I've got 3 days to make my mind up...

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K*bots UK, specialist providers of 'fun science' Curriculum Enhancement days for Primary and Secondary schools in Britain.
Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

I tell you, if there's a Monster Raving Loony on my ballot paper, they're getting my vote. Otherwise, I don't know.

[Website]

Wow, this is really a mixed bag. I'd never thought danm was a fascist, but there you go. I am glad some people have taken the time to become informed.

The merits of voting cannot be judged on the actual outcome of the election. It is the exercising of your rights, in accordance with your conviction, that matters. If you don't do that regularly, people like danm (or worse!) will have you under their thumb ASAP, trying to convince you, that it is for your own benefit that you are starving in a labour camp!

... and speaking of Labour, where the hell is Red Sam?

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

inflated expense claim forms don't fill themselves in, you know, Morbid! it's a full-time job just keeping on top of that side of politics, any politician will tell you! he doesn't have time to post on forums.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Red Sam is now in hiding. I believe he is now Green Alliance Sam.

[Website]

I'm here...



RedSam
Winner: Not the Nickv Comment of the Year 2009
Due to the voting system in Germany, Governments are always made up of coalitions of different parties. At the last election, an almost unprecidented result saw the CDU/CSU (rough equivilant of the Conservatives) go into Government with the SPD (rough equivilant of Labour)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2010 11:20PM by Red Sam.

I do like how you had to edit that post. Just in case you hadn't made it clear enough that you're manically overrun with work. :D

Well, it is a busy time!

Let me light the touchpaper by suggesting that you should all vote Labour on Thursday

:P



RedSam
Winner: Not the Nickv Comment of the Year 2009
Due to the voting system in Germany, Governments are always made up of coalitions of different parties. At the last election, an almost unprecidented result saw the CDU/CSU (rough equivilant of the Conservatives) go into Government with the SPD (rough equivilant of Labour)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Consider it lit.

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Looking back over the GPG archives, a political thread isn't complete till Red Sam has posted.

Hello, and welcome!

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Well that went well... I started reading through some political guff and immediately got bored and started day dreaming instead. Damn my attention span.

However the way I see things:

Labour = Currently a party that struggles to run themselves (all the backstabbing and undermining of Brown etc). If they can't even run their party I as hell don't want them running my country.

Tory = Things they say kind of make sense, there is still the feeling that the rich will get richer and the poor poorer at an even higher rate with them though. Damn does have some merit in what he says, but frankly you take it too far, and so could the Tories.

Lib dem = Have the advantage of not being labour or tory with some decent policy, yet are spoiling it with snide hung parliament plans.


I'm probably erring towards voting Lib Dem, but Satan will be going to work on snow plough before they win.....So basically ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!one

You know what I thought might stop pointless voters? If only there was some sort of three question quiz when you voted.

You know, if you can appropriately pick three of a list of three favourite various policies that are from the party you vote for (amongst a pool of other policies form other parties), then your vote would count. Easy to do, but just to prove a point.

I can only think this would aid votes to the actual party, and would highlight the most popular reasons or something.

It would also show where people might be voting for one party, yet not being able to identify with their exact policies.

Which to me, is frankly a waste of a vote entirely!


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

I'm going into this election the least informed since I was eligible to vote. Basically I don't watch the news, haven't taken the time to watch the debates, and haven't read any policy in depth.

So I'd admit I'm going into this slightly blind. I've read the local flyers that have been put through my letter box, but those refer to the local MP's more than the parliament.

In spite of this, I think I've decided who's getting my vote.

posted my vote on friday, none of this make-your-mind-up-last-minute-in-the-polling-booth business for me.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

J i m Wrote:
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> I've read the local flyers that have been put
> through my letter box, but those refer to the
> local MP's more than the parliament.

*Political facepalm*

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K*bots UK, specialist providers of 'fun science' Curriculum Enhancement days for Primary and Secondary schools in Britain.
Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

@ Jim, you vote for a local MP for your district. whichever candidate for your district gets most votes takes the win and represents your area in Parliament, he takes that "seat". whichever party takes the most seats in Parliament (hence most local councils across the country) becomes the party in power, and their leader (Cameron, Clegg, Brown or other) will become PM. we don't directly vote for either of those 3 party leaders to become PM, we merely choose which party should hold the power in our area, and then that knocks on to the country as a whole; it's for the local MPs who sit in Parliament to vote who their leader is and therefore who is the candiate for PM.

for a power to definitively win the election, they have to win by a certain majority, they can't win by 1 or 2 seats, they have to won by 100-odd or something. if the 3 main parties all win a similar number of seats with no clear winner with a big enough gap to 2nd place, it's a "hung parliament" where no winner is declared. the 3rd place party then has the choice of forming an alliance with one of the 2 parties ahead of it, thus making that party the winner.

so the Conservatives could win, Labour could be 2nd with 5 seats less, and the Lib Dems could be 5 seats less that Labour, so no winner would be declared. then whichever party the Lib Dems gave their backing to would win, so Brown would suck up to Clegg and promise to implement some of the policies the Lib Dems wanted to implement had they got into power, in exchage for Clegg's support to make Labour win the election.

there's a strong chance i'm wrong about a lot of this as i don't know the system properly, so please correct me if i am

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Jim may have been referring to the local council elections that are also taking place in some wards on election day.