UK General Election - May 7th 2015

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Broadcasters will now have two seven-party debates (Labour, Tory, Lib, Kipper, Greenies, Nats and Plaid) in addition to an Ed vs. Dave battle.

One new worry for Labour, I guess, is Plaid managing to outfox them in Welsh seats as the Nats have done in Scotland. People in the know, is Wood an effective public speaker? Will we see "#Woodmania!" any day soon?

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If we're letting Plaid in, why not the DUP as well? Lets take this softcockery to its natural and logical conclusion.

and true to form...

everyone aboard the clowncar!

maybe we need knock-out rounds or something. Have it hosted like The Weakest Link.

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Why isn't the nationally relevant Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern being invited? Surely they want their say?

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My experience in Canadian politics is that separatist parties make for crappy debates.

It helps that all the participants share a mother language... even Plaid.

Oh, the leader of Plaid Cymru will find a chance to speak a good measure of Welsh in the debate.

Wood supposedly isn't fluent.

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http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/greater-Mebyon-Kernow-coverage-battle-takes-TV/story-25912365-detail/story.html

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/11745170.George_Galloway_threatens_legal_action_to_join_TV_election__debates/

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19% of people don't know what UKIP's policies on Europe are?

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AV got rejected solidly in the referendum - we'll be sticking with FPTP for a good while, I'd say.

A minority government - either blue or red - could be forced to act for the benefit of confidence votes.

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I see no reason why the Libs won't carry on the current coalition (unless ukip refuse to back up a government with Liberals in it ... or the EU referendum becomes a sticking point)

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As hilarious as it will be for the lib dems to receive null points, there are a few impregnable strongholds; and the curiosities of FPTP will surely help them (with the clown car debates and minor party hype, we could see some impressive vote-splits going on, that would surely save some Liberals bacon)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5XoO9RQYtY

If this is the response of Scottish Labour, then we should probably look more at their chances of losing Glasgow North East as well than their chances of regaining the lead in some of the other seats.

First of all, it is quite clearly a lie and one which can easily be shown to be just that. For example by looking at the actions and statements by Labour after the 2010 election.
But also it suggests that no matter how favourable the composition of parliament might be for Labour, they will refuse to form a government if they are not the single biggest party. I'm not really sure they thought this through.

Scottish Labour has a curious way of dealing with nationalists. Namely, they seem to implicitly say that they suck and nobody would choose to vote for them over the Nats ... but you should vote for them anyway to suck it to Tories. Hardly the most inspiring of messages.

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Will Long be scalped by Fleggate then? Sad.

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Has someone calculated how accurate constituency polling has been for by-elections this parliament?

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The Political Compass has published its 2015 UK party chart and analysis: http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015

Highlight:

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LOL

Their UK party charts are preposterous, to say the least.

What are you saying that Labour was more left-wing under Foot than it was under Harold Wilson? (They actually think that 1983 labour was to the right of a decade previous)

I do like the implied insult to Labour voters. 'Bloody plebs don't know what is good for them' Such tolerant lefties the Compass crew.

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In Canada the typical Green Party voter is either a trust fund kid who thinks he is an activist because they put their food scraps in a composter or some very wealthy semi-retired eccentrics with million dollar solar panels on their roof (aka "Tories with composters). Is it the same in the UK?

The uk greens are definitely on the left of the global greens movement, whereas the Canadian Greens are amongst the most right-wing Greens around outside of Mexico.

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Worthless as it is, I had a dream about election night...or at least the exit poll. It showed Lab 300, Con 230, UKIP 9, SNP 4 (yes, four)...can't remember the Lib Dem number, but it must have been in the region of 80-85. The analysis lady (not someone who I've ever seen on TV before btw) said that 300 would be better for Labour than expected, whereas the Tory number would be about as expected.

So, be prepared for Cleggmania 2.0...not.

Are you interested in working for the Canadian polling industry?

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The sdlp is obviously the most appalling misplacement at a a first glance. Like ... What? Why is it so far from Labour? what?


Then there are the obligatory absurdities focusing on the PC's weird personal grudge against Labour: The SNP are economically to the left of Labour; and the Lib Dems are of course perfect economic matches with Labour - In fact they were left of Labour in 2010!

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What drugs do these morons take? That's almost worse than the 2010 parties throughout the 20th century chart.

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a lot of PC's more egregious eff ups would be reduced significantly if they abandoned single data points for parties and had larger clouds. Probably more useful as well, as well as being able to accommodate more vaguely defined parties

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Yeah well they also think Flowers of Scotland is a good song. Clearly their views are slightly distorted.

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Reliably conservative may be the wrong word for it. They are flexible enough to have a fully Indy council, and in happier times for the Liberal Democrats they could put up a decent fight.

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She's a candidate for Folkestone too.

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Was the omission of the liberals intentional, Al?

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love when Hitchens writes about what's happenning in his alternative dimension

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The Scottish Greens have announced their manifesto today

http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/news/greens-launch-manifesto-an-economy-for-the-people/

Includes supports for £10 minimum wage, the renationalisation of railways and more powers to be transferred to Scotland.

What's the relationship between the SNP and the Scots Greens like? Surely they can't be happy about this Green E&W/Plaid/SNP entente.

Uneasy, but the Scots Greens largely have been riding the Yes campaign's coattails, so they can't complain too much.

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DCam just said he wants to travel to all four countries of the UK. Has he forgotten Norn or what?

Also, these generic 'lol I hate politics bcuz they all lie' vox pops on the Beeb make we want to throw something at the screen.