/dev/null Posted May 6, 2010 Posted May 6, 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politic...010/8666128.stm
Britbillsfan Posted May 6, 2010 Posted May 6, 2010 Hung parliament Frakkin' hope not. Those things are precarious historically. And we need a strong gov't given the mess Blair/Brown have made of UK finances (projected to be the most dire in Europe by the end of the year by the ECB - yep, worse than Greece...). If my career takes off maybe I can emigrate somewhere. Oz is nice...
LeviF Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Frakkin' hope not. Those things are precarious historically. And we need a strong gov't given the mess Blair/Brown have made of UK finances (projected to be the most dire in Europe by the end of the year by the ECB - yep, worse than Greece...). If my career takes off maybe I can emigrate somewhere. Oz is nice... I just like watching heads explode. The Tories might be able to pull off a majority though, the swing is hanging in at around 4% Labour --> Conservative. EDIT: Forget it. Labour is hanging on to too many target seats. I'm guessing it'll be a hung parliament.
Britbillsfan Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I just like watching heads explode. The Tories might be able to pull off a majority though, the swing is hanging in at around 4% Labour --> Conservative. Who the hell knows. Tories need about a 6.5% swing, but the swings are all over the place. 13% to take one seat they thought they had zero chance to get. 0% on one they thought they should have. Most interesting election I have seen.
LeviF Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Who the hell knows. Tories need about a 6.5% swing, but the swings are all over the place. 13% to take one seat they thought they had zero chance to get. 0% on one they thought they should have. Most interesting election I have seen. They sure did take a shocker from Opik. Quite the upset there. Also, for laughs: The BNP is having it's strongest showing ever. "Fookin' pakkies."
Britbillsfan Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 They sure did take a shocker from Opik. Quite the upset there. Also, for laughs: The BNP is having it's strongest showing ever. "Fookin' pakkies." I loathe Nick Griffin and his fascist tossers. Obnoxious thugs and lowlifes.
LeviF Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I loathe Nick Griffin and his fascist tossers. Obnoxious thugs and lowlifes. Yeah, funny how his holocaust denial just "went away" when he became BNP leader
Britbillsfan Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Yeah, funny how his holocaust denial just "went away" when he became BNP leader Yeah, my grandfather was one of the guys who went into Belsen at the end of the war, so I really loathe deniers.
LeviF Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I'm sorry Brit, but it's looking more and more like you're going to wake up to a hung Parliament tomorrow. We'll see if the Tories can swing some sort of deal to get a strong government in place, though.
Britbillsfan Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I'm sorry Brit, but it's looking more and more like you're going to wake up to a hung Parliament tomorrow. We'll see if the Tories can swing some sort of deal to get a strong government in place, though. I doubt it. Chances are one of the tiny parties will be needed (or more), which mean really small groups will be able to hold the rest of the nation to ransom (so just what the UK needed then...). Personally I can see a Lib/Lab/SNP/PC/Green alliance, a collapse and a backlash against these with a new election in six months. And that is a best case scenario. Mind you the one thing the UK can take away from this election is that no matter for whom anyone voted for we can all wallk away from the election thoroughly disappointed.
/dev/null Posted May 7, 2010 Author Posted May 7, 2010 Mind you the one thing the UK can take away from this election is that no matter for whom anyone voted for we can all wallk away from the election thoroughly disappointed. Careful now, you're starting to act like your American cousins
/dev/null Posted May 7, 2010 Author Posted May 7, 2010 So I'm reading another article on the UK Elections here and one line made me Not for the content but for the unintentional pun which the editors missed: Education secretary Ed Balls hung on in Morley and Outwood by just over 100 votes but former Home Secretary Charles Clarke narrowly lost to the Lib Dem candidate in Norwich South http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ele...010/8667938.stm
ieatcrayonz Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Who the hell knows. Tories need about a 6.5% swing, but the swings are all over the place. 13% to take one seat they thought they had zero chance to get. 0% on one they thought they should have. Most interesting election I have seen. Was the turnout crappy because it is May and election day is in November? You dudes are weird.
finknottle Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I've been following the election closely for the past month - lot's of fun. Was a bit suprised nobody here picked up on anything, there were lot's of intriguing similarities to our political scene. And differences, of course. Every once in awhile you read something that leaves you scratching your head and reminding you that the UK is in fact a foreign country: Labour are now cranking up their attacks on Cook's views, accusing him of homophobia. They've publicised a story from the Sun in July 2008, in which Cook attacked an NHS decision to consult the gay rights group Stonewall on designing a new doctors' uniform. But the thing that completely amazed me as an outsider was the lengths to which all of the candidates were pandering. Their speeches, debates and interviews seemed a nonstop stream of promises and giveaways: free bus passes, more welfare, a tax deduction for married and same-sex couples... I didn't hear any kind of bold vision for the country, just lists of things done/to do. Perhaps US politicians sound the same and we are just used to filtering the pandering, but I honestly thought the UK candidates came off as far less visionary and much more chicken-in-every-pot.
IDBillzFan Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Their speeches, debates and interviews seemed a nonstop stream of promises and giveaways: free bus passes, more welfare, a tax deduction for married and same-sex couples... I didn't hear any kind of bold vision for the country, just lists of things done/to do. Perhaps US politicians sound the same and we are just used to filtering the pandering, but I honestly thought the UK candidates came off as far less visionary and much more chicken-in-every-pot. And why wouldn't they? This whole womb-to-tomb nanny state thing is precisely what makes Greece the economic juggernaut it is today. Well, other than watching the citizens kill neighbors, beat on police and set everything near them on fire. But there's always a couple of bad apples everywhere.
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Frakkin' hope not. Those things are precarious historically. And we need a strong gov't given the mess Blair/Brown have made of UK finances (projected to be the most dire in Europe by the end of the year by the ECB - yep, worse than Greece...). If my career takes off maybe I can emigrate somewhere. Oz is nice... You too can be a Yankee Doodle Dandy now that our Fearless Leader has nudged us toward UK-style health care! And, you'll be closer to the football, yes?
finknottle Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 One of the interesting angles about Cameron becoming PM is the question of how Obama will interact with another political boy wonder, one who is younger than he is. (Not that his relationship with the older established world leaders has been impressive.)
Booster4324 Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 One of the interesting angles about Cameron becoming PM is the question of how Obama will interact with another political boy wonder, one who is younger than he is. (Not that his relationship with the older established world leaders has been impressive.) I dunno, Bush was a Devil according to Chavez wasn't he? Obama moved up to ignoramus. That seems some progress.
chicot Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 Frakkin' hope not. Those things are precarious historically. And we need a strong gov't given the mess Blair/Brown have made of UK finances (projected to be the most dire in Europe by the end of the year by the ECB - yep, worse than Greece...). If my career takes off maybe I can emigrate somewhere. Oz is nice... Interesting times. The much-maligned exit poll turned out to be remarkably accurate in the end. The Lib Dems seem to be in a very strong position despite doing far worse than the polls were predicting with neither Labour nor the Conservatives being able to form a majority government without their support (theoretically the Tories could actually get the 326 needed without them but the chances of the Welsh or Scottish nationalists doing any deals with them are more or less zero). The bottom line for the Lib Dems has got to be electoral reform. They may never get another chance like this to force through a referendum on PR - Labour are already more or less offering it (there was always a good deal of support for electoral reform within the Labour party even before this) and Clegg would be an idiot to accept anything less from the Tories (and he wouldn't be able to sell a deal to his party without it in any case).
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