UK General Discussion

[Khunanup]

Is there any clear pattern among the Tory no votes?  Would most of them be considered on the right wing? Eurosceptic? Are many from marginal seats?

Isolationists.

[Khunanup]

Of course, not that I think there'll be a leadership challenge in any party before the election.

I would suggest that a party whose rating has more than halved from the last election in most polls and whose leadership seems to be busy repudiating the principles that got them a lot of those votes in the first place ought to be considering a leadership challenge, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yeah, the Liberal Democrats are in real trouble.

Out of interest, what do you mean by that (ie, what do you consider he consequences to be in 2015)?

[Khunanup]

Why must there be Conference Season?

To give Andrew Neil something to bang on about?

I attempted to watch Nick Cleggs speech, lasted about half an hour. I think his speech and indeed his conference, has gone about as well as he could have realistically hoped. He has strengthened his position within his party. Some of his attack lines on the Tories may even work.

However it has struck me, on several occasions, that everyone at the Liberal Democrat Conference, including the media, exist in a bizarre parallel universe. They seem to think people will believe a word Nick Clegg says about any topic, give the LD any credit and that the parties unpopularity won't matter. They are in for a shock, I think.

All party conferences exist in a weird bubble where even time doesn't work the same (you look at your watch and it's 4pm, you look at your watch again seemingly a couple of hours later and it's nearly midnight!). Part of that is you're surrounded by people who come from the same place as you on most things and people who are there to network so are eager to talk and listen. Very, very odd but enjoyable.

[Khunanup]

You saw with your own eyes and heard with your own ears how they acted after the last General Election. These people have no grasp of strategy.

Duh, you do a warm up policy at the start of your conference and a big one towards the end. We have free school meals for all infant school age children and will go into the election promising free meals for all primary school children as a big announcement. Labour have just done abolishing the bedroom tax for social housing tenants only so I presume there's a really huge one coming next Tuesday/Wednesday.