[Boboff]

Put them in a home and pinch their Postal Vote, come on Toph you know it makes sence.

[foot-loose]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ ... 649200.stm

Oops!

[Sidders]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8649200.stm

Oops!

I just love look on his face when Jeremy says "someone's just handed me the tape, let's play it"! Brilliant!

[newsbeat]

My thoughts exactly

[SAV1OUR]

Ha, it's like the 'Downfall' YouTube vids, could reverse it by using German subtitles this time, love it.

[Johnny 1989]

We had dinner at my paternal grandparents' house on Friday and ended up getting into a political debate. My Grandpa was a staunch Labour supporter all his life and bought the Mirror for years (alright the Mirror is not great, but there are - albeit few - worse alternatives) and now he's turned into a staunch Tory. And he reads the Daily Mail. My Nana pretty much is the same as him, but I think she's led by him. I found myself trying to persuade them that what they've read about the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg is almost all total smears and lies. My Nana even said that she was really worried what would happen to the country if the Lib Dems get in. Firstly, the Lib Dems are not going to get in; secondly, this is a prime example of the Daily Mail preying on the fears of its readers. I * hate the Tory press and now my Grandparents, much as I love them both, have turned into exactly the sort of people I berate on a regular basis for believing the lies of those scumbag journalists.

*sigh*

My parents nearly fell into this trap of buying The Mail On Sunday as they were getting fed up with the Mirror/News Of The World, so they dropped the News of The World & went for the Mail on Sunday, oh dear. Thankfully between me & my brother we managed to get them off of that very quickly, my brother requested a copy of the Observer one Sunday, my Mum & Dad read it & soon the Mail was dropped "hurrah"!

Both my Parents are staunch Labour, to both of them they haven't really done anything bad to them over the last 12-14 years & they remember the Tories of the 80's so can't trust Cameron at all. Considering my Mum's not violent at all, I found it a bit suprising when Cameron appeared on the TV & just before she turned the TV over she said "I'd love to smack him one in the face".

My Brother has decided to vote Lib Dem although thinks they're all wankers, and I'm still torn between the Lib Dems & Labour.

As for Brown's bugger up today, well, it was a stupid thing to do, however we're all human, and even Cameron will slip up one day.

[dimtimjim]

Oh dear Gordon..... What a pillock!!

[Yudster]

That man really is a disaster isn't he. What to do, what to do?! Still not decided. I'm in agreement with Stephen Fry on this one - having Lib Dem thoughts makes me feel dirty, but I can't help it, and I still haven't heard a convincing argument against a hung parliament.

[Munki Bhoy]

I've had a look. According to the BBC, I've a choice of six to vote for in my constituency. Labour, Lib Dems, Tories, SNP, UKIP or BNP. As far as I can see, this is how it goes for voting.

1. Labour. The government for the last 13 years. Have to admit, 13 years ago I was probably a Labour supporter. They even seemed to improve things in their first few years. But nowadays their policies are lunacy, they're obsessed with turning Britain into what they used to accuse Soviet Russia of being, and they've a clown of a leader - a guy I used to respect as being a damn fine Chancellor actually. So basically, I'm not voting for them.

2. Conservatives. Yeah, watch me vote for them. I grew up watching Maggie Thatcher and John Major destroying this country. Scotland being one of the areas they seemed to pick on. Leaving their past aside, do they actually have any policies? I've tried to figure it out and I don't think they have. Best I've managed is the missus saying don't vote for them, they'll cut public spending. She would worry about that, she works for the NHS. In fairness, they are one of only two parties to have delivered any leaflet through my door. At least they're trying. But then when I was younger, where I stay now was a Tory seat, so I'm not surprised.

3. Liberal Democrats. Nick Clegg has certainly impressed in the TV debates... that I've not actually watched. The Lib Dems seem like a sensible option ahead of the other two, but only because the other two are so bad. The problem with the Lib Dems is that they are almost unelectable. Try the BBC's seat predictor thing. If you give each party 33.3% of the vote, Lib Dems get about 100 seats while Labour damn near have a majority. You're having a laugh if you think the UK is a democracy with that being true. First Past the Post is so undemocratic the Russians are actually laughing at us for it. No surprise then that one of the Lib Dems major policies is to bring in PR - although I'm not sure their brand of PR is exactly my favoured option. Still, the Lib Dems do appear to have a chance of me voting for them.

4. SNP. I'll admit, I want Scotland to be independent. But then to me it's a long term goal in a bigger picture. I want a United States of Europe long term, but I want Scotland in it as their own voice and not smothered as part of the UK. Scotland and England have different opinions, they're different people, they should have that chance. It would be better for all. Of course, we'll need to grow out of this siege mentality we have in the UK before we embrace Europe properly. That might take a while. The SNP might be the only real option for Scottish Independence, but I don't trust them to do a thing. It says it all that they've spent this whole campaign moaning about not being involved in the TV debates. Try fighting the election itself. They're a joke of a party, so for all I might agree with them to a certain extent, I wouldn't want them running anything. They can't run the UK anyway.

5. UKIP. I've just finished saying I want STRONGER ties with Europe, I'm hardly going to vote for a party whose main policy is to abandon it! My other favourite from this lot is they want to bring in a FLAT RATE 30% income tax. So basically they want to help the rich and screw the poor. They can * right off.

6. BNP. Uh huh... I'm fairly sure if this was Germany the BNP would be illegal. I'm not voting for racists, bigots and fascists.

Looks like I MIGHT just be voting Lib Dem then. They've all got a week to convince me otherwise.

[dimtimjim]

Yeah, the longer this whole farce goes on, with added stupidity from toss pot Brown and punch me Cameron, t'would seem the phrase 'lib dem is a wasted vote' will no longer apply. I can honestly see them coming out of this whole thing pretty well. I voted LD last time out, not so much to get them in, but to keep labour out. It failed that time, but I think labour have done untold damage to themselves in the last few years. And I agree with Monki comments regarding the other 3 bigger parties - as much as they may want it, they couldn't handle it....

Roll on next Thursday so we can all move on and worry about other things instead.

[Yudster]

I never knew that about UKIP's tax policy Munki, that's unbelievable! Not that I would ever consider voting for them anyway, any more than I would support BNP.

[Sidders]

I think whatever happens at the election, we won't have to be putting up with Brown any longer which is a good thing. Someone said on my Facebook, he's like an 'unfunny Alan Partridge'.

As Yudster said though, I also don't see why a hung parliament will be such a bad thing. Instead of one party being able to force something upon us they will all have to cooperate to get the best deal for everyone. Many other countries don't have a single party governing the country and they all seem to work.

[dimtimjim]

Actually seems like a logical solution, to me anyway....

[Yudster]

Apparently I've been registered to vote in Bournemouth so if I manage to find the polling station, I'll actually vote Lib Dem. Bit of a huge turn around from what I first thought (i.e sod voting).

I consider that to be a genuine victory for democracy! Well done Char.

[MK Chris]

I know of one person who is dead against a hung parliament and unsurprisingly, he is a Tory. His argument:

We need a strong government, especially now, able to make difficult decisions to sort out the economic crisis. We don't need a weak coalition government where everyone ... See morebickers internally about policy, horsetrades who will not vote down what, and at what price, and where the members of it are always ready to blame the other party in the coalition for anything that geos slightly wrong, and are anticipating another GE in a few months anyway, and are already manoeuvring for a better place after that one...

It's *so* not a "government of all the talents", or a government of consensus. It's just a lottery. You don't even know who will be in Number 10, let alone what will be in the Queen's Speech, in the budget, or what the price will be for any of it.

At least if you get a majority government, you know what you're getting, and it's a strong enough government to be able to pass effective legislation.

He basically says that anyone old enough to remember the hung parliaments of the past know it's a bad idea, because we always head straight for another general election... but I don't agree that has to be the case.

If anyone fancies it, here's a drinking game for tonight's debate.

[Yudster]

Yes, a coalition government does pretty much mean another election very quickly - but in the interim, a LOT gets done and a lot changes. A hung parliament spells to Westminster more clearly than almost anything else that we expect them to get their act together, and that (to a greater or leser extent) is what happens.

[foot-loose]

[Boboff]

I never knew that about UKIP's tax policy Munki, that's unbelievable! Not that I would ever consider voting for them anyway, any more than I would support BNP.

Umm, Hate UKIP, but the policy is to remove national insuarnce, so us poor people would pay 6 or 5% less.

This is an idea I have muted in the past, 10k PA then a flat rate of tax on all profits/gains/Income. No national insurance, no indexing, no other reliefs, the most simple basic, and easily administered tax system reducing the need to have accountants and inland revenue complaince people, applied to all income, foriegn and UK, put VAT on everthing including food, insurance and bank charges, drop the rate a bit as a reuslt, again this will ease compliance issues, set the VAT registration threshhold at 200k to make small shops etc more competitive and keep local pubs/shops at an advantage to chains etc.

KISS principals.

[MK Chris]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... t-has-come

[Boboff]

Blimey, that was a good piece, and sums up the way I feel.......... Guardian ? I feel kind of dirty.

[Latina]

Meanwhile, The Times is backing the Conservatives, although it has some praise for Labour's run. The Telegraph is backing the Cons too but that's hardly news.

Are any papers backing Labour?

[MK Chris]

I don't think The Times backing the Tories is news personally; although I am surprised it's only just announced it, I thought it'd be with the rest of the Murdoch brigade much earlier.

The Mirror is behind Labour. I had to look up about The Independent, but it's supporting the Lib Dems as well.

[Latina]

But they've supported Labour for years, so I'd say it is news.

[MK Chris]

So has The Sun.

[Boboff]

Well the Sun changed to Labour in 1997, and labour won, they have now gone back to the tories, and even though it is my prefered comic, I would hate to think that they can say smuggly that they have always backed the winner for the last 40 years.

The Sun and Times obviously, are owned by the same person, so its his views that get expressed in both.........