General Election 2015

[Stringy]

How do you explain Liverpool, Manchester and London then? The map is basically, urban, intelligent people who integrate with different people and vote Labour V backward, posh six fingered, selfish c*** who vote Tories.

That's my view anyway,...

I think the explanation of coalfields fits but you have extend it a little further than coalfields. Pretty much every area on that map that is currently red was once renowned for a certain trade.

 

[mahiverma]

Nice post..

 

[TheMinsterman]

It seems the Tories are rushing to get some things that the lib dems held back - such as the 'snoopers charter' and stricter caps on benefits - pushed through ASAP now their shackles are off. That's evidence enough for me that a coalition can be a good thing.

I certainly believe they have the power for good, primarily because parties are forced to negotiate with other parties whom the electorate have supported in large numbers and you get policies which are potentially able to suit both as opposed to sitting around taking whatever crap a party you didn't vote for and didn't want in offers based solely on constituency boundaries.

Obviously there are downsides, but I think there's plenty of positives. I want a PR system, regardless of the fact it would mean a UKIP/Tory coalition on the last election. It's unsettling when a party can accumulate mass support across a country but it'll never get anywhere purely because of a geographical distance between voters despite the fact they're voting people in to manage nationwide policies.

 

[Tilbury]

We could do with doing something about our electoral system, but I've little idea of what that could be. Democracy is hard.

I quite like the look of the way Germany do things. Half their MP's are from constituencies, the other half is straight up PR with party lists and something like a 5% minimum vote share to get in to it.

 

[Pliny Harris]

I quite like the look of the way Germany do things. Half their MP's are from constituencies, the other half is straight up PR with party lists and something like a 5% minimum vote share to get in to it.

Saw in the Independent today that YouGov polled Germans on who they'd vote for in our elections if they were allowed to. Amazingly, 62% had enough interest and working knowledge of the elections to give a party. Amongst those numbers, 35% went for Labour, 19% for the Lib Dems, 17% for Greens, 13% for Conservatives, 5% for the SNP, and 5% for the Ukips.

I like Germany.

 

[Ian_Wrexham]

Saw in the Independent today that YouGov polled Germans on who they'd vote for in our elections if they were allowed to. Amazingly, 62% had enough interest and working knowledge of the elections to give a party. Amongst those numbers, 35% went for Labour, 19% for the Lib Dems, 17% for Greens, 13% for Conservatives, 5% for the SNP, and 5% for the Ukips.

I like Germany.

It's hardly surprising, though, that people vote for more left-wing parties when they're not affected by the result (or shun Euro-sceptic parties when Britain's exit from the EU would hurt Germany).

"Ten degrees to the left-of-centre in the good times, ten degrees to the right-of-centre when it affects them personally".

Germany is of course a society whose chancellor is parading round Europe insisting on flawed, destructive austerity; where tens of thousands of people regularly join massive far-right rallies; where a far-right terrorist group was allowed to go on a killing spree with the complicity and encouragement of the BfV (Germany's Mi5).

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I quite like the system in the UK really, it should be a 2 main party system, if we had many more it would be ridiculously full of indecision, I also like that we have other smaller parties to help give voices to people who don't like either of the main 2.

We also are good at letting it swing from conservative to Labour in spells which is needed from time to time, I think maybe a problem in UK is we sometimes keep governments in too long but its not easy to know when change is better than keeping something that seems to be working.

 

[nousername]

Smaller parties can - and do - have plenty of influence without being part of a coalition.

Would the Tories have signed up for an EU referendum without pressure from UKIP? Would mainstream parties have adopted green policies if it wasn't for the Green Party...?

I think that's a preferable situation to having formal coalitions, with the indecision and fudged policies than be reneged on.

 

[mnb089mnb]

I quite like the system in the UK really, it should be a 2 main party system, if we had many more it would be ridiculously full of indecision, I also like that we have other smaller parties to help give voices to people who don't like either of the main 2.

It's given 4m UKIP voices 1 MP and 1m Green voices 1 MP and 1.5m Scottish voices 50+ MPs.

Did you think that the previous government suffered from indecision? DIdn't you say you were quite happy with a coalition last time?

 

[silkyman]

I think the explanation of coalfields fits but you have extend it a little further than coalfields. Pretty much every area on that map that is currently red was once renowned for a certain trade.

So was most of the country at one time or other. Hell, just look at football club nicknames!

 

[silkyman]

Interesting allegation.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/20...reatened-bbc-miliband-tom-baldwin-licence-fee

 

[Super_horns]

Well the Tories have appointed a strong anti-BBC critic in the cabinet to put pressure on them - if you believe the papers anyway.

 

[Pliny Harris]

I quite like the system in the UK really, it should be a 2 main party system, if we had many more it would be ridiculously full of indecision, I also like that we have other smaller parties to help give voices to people who don't like either of the main 2.

We also are good at letting it swing from conservative to Labour in spells which is needed from time to time, I think maybe a problem in UK is we sometimes keep governments in too long but its not easy to know when change is better than keeping something that seems to be working.

Disagree. In reality there are more than two belief systems, more than two ways of going about things. With most people putting their weight behind one of two parties it's just a continuous tug of war.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Isn't the budget negotiated every ten years or something? Would be an unwise move for any party to follow through on that threat.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

It's given 4m UKIP voices 1 MP and 1m Green voices 1 MP and 1.5m Scottish voices 50+ MPs.

Did you think that the previous government suffered from indecision? DIdn't you say you were quite happy with a coalition last time?

that is true I didn't mind the coalition last time either, infact I think the Coalition ended up the best situation, we may find out why in the next 5 years.

but I still think it should be 2 main parties with just possibilities of others having influence from time to time, not a constant mass of smaller equal parties trying to battle it out between each other every 4 years to amount a government.

the simple reason we had a coalition last time was the public had zero confidence in either running the country on its own, but I'd not like to see that situation on every single occasion. It may lead to a tug of war as pliny says but would at least give us direction most times.

 

[mnb089mnb]

that is true I didn't mind the coalition last time either, infact I think the Coalition ended up the best situation, we may find out why in the next 5 years.

but I still think it should be 2 main parties with just possibilities of others having influence from time to time, not a constant mass of smaller equal parties trying to battle it out between each other every 4 years to amount a government.

the simple reason we had a coalition last time was the public had zero confidence in either running the country on its own, but I'd not like to see that situation on every single occasion. It may lead to a tug of war as pliny says but would at least give us direction most times.

The Conservatives share of the vote went up 0.8% from the last election. It's not like they had a much larger mandate (if you think mandate should be decided by % votes) to govern than they did last time. Not sure how a less than 1% increase means the electorate had zero confidence in 2010 but has full confidence now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results

 

[mnb089mnb]

Election is quite odd when you look into it.

Labour took 9 Tory seats whilst the Tories took 7 off Labour.
It was the LibDems wot lost it.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Kent Police confirm they are making enquiries following a report of electoral fraud in the South Thanet seat in the general election. UKIP claim it wasn't them that reported it and they're trying to find out what's going on.

 

[Red]

It'll be summat to do with The Guv.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

More on the story that Kent Police are making inquiries into a report of electoral fraud in South Thanet, the seat contested in the general election by Nigel Farage.


The UKIP leader failed to win the seat , losing out to Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay. Mr Farage secured 16,026 votes, with Mr Mackinlay achieving 18,838.


The result was not declared at the count at Margate's Winter Gardens until about 10.35 GMT on Friday, hours later than expected.


BBC reporters were told by officials at the time the delays were caused by the sheer volume of ballot papers and problems verifying the postal vote. Turnout was 69%, up from 65% in 2010.


Claims of suspicious behaviour appeared on social media following the delays.


A spokeswoman for Kent Police said "inquires were ongoing" and the force could not say any more at this stage.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Initial inquiries by Kent Police find "no evidence" of electoral fraud in Thanet South http://bbc.in/1K6o2C6 #GE2015

 

[Alty]

Initial inquiries by Kent Police find "no evidence" of electoral fraud in Thanet South http://bbc.in/1K6o2C6 #GE2015

It does seem slightly odd that UKIP did so well in the Council Election on the same day. But who knows? Maybe people just didn't believe Faage would be an assiduous local MP. Which is probably a reasonable assessment.

 

[Bobbin']

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...ed-balls-would-lose-his-seat-in-election.html

 

[Alty]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...ed-balls-would-lose-his-seat-in-election.html

Mr Miliband’s team “sat on” polling figures which showed the-then shadow Chancellor was likely to lose his seat a fortnight before polling day last Thursday.

Has nobody noticed that polling figures might as well be completely ignored in light of that GE result??

 

[Red]

Unless they're indicating a landslide I think in the future they'll be treated with much less significance.

 

[merseyboyred]

If they retain the same methods then they should be definitely treated with scepticism, but it seems that internally the parties had polling that was much closer to the results, so there's clearly room for larger companies who produce the mainstream polls to improve.

Should public polls even be allowed during a campaign though?

 

[HertsWolf]

30 million voted at the General Election. It was free.
40 million voted on X Factor. It wasn't.

Britain today.

 

[Veggie Legs]

If they retain the same methods then they should be definitely treated with scepticism, but it seems that internally the parties had polling that was much closer to the results, so there's clearly room for larger companies who produce the mainstream polls to improve.

Should public polls even be allowed during a campaign though?

I think some of the polling companies had data that was closer to the true result as well, they just didn't want to buck the trend.

 

[SALTIRE]

And so the buttfuck of Scotland begins, with one of the guys who introduced the poll tax is made a minister for Scotland....

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/14/anger-poll-tax-andrew-dunlop-minister-scotland

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Re polling - yes, Survation apparently had a late poll which pretty much mirrored the eventual result which they didn't publish because it was so out of kilter with all the others. The thing is, the result of the General Election was only shocking because everyone was inclined to trust the polls, and people were only inclined to trust the polls because they're usually broadly accurate. The pollsters adjusted their methodology in the wake of the last big cock-up (the '92 election), when the "shy Tory" phenomenon was first identified, and they've been pretty good since - I imagine they'll try to figure out what went wrong, do some tweaking and look to get things right next time round.