General Election 2010 Thread

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I am Nattie, very interesting so far.

[EXC]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

It would be interesting to have a poll on this thread with the question, "Do you agree that abstaining from voting is a vote in itself?"

Why have a poll?

The answer is nauseatingly simple.

In an election that would have attracted 10 votes for party A and 5 for party B, for anyone abstaining it would have been a mathematical probability that their vote would have gone to party A. So abstaining has the same overall effect as voting for party B.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Initial thoughts on last night was that Nick Clegg was weak on the immigration issue. I understood his point but yet nailing down what exactly his idea would work was more difficult. I have to say that Cameron upped his game and was much better than last week. In the opinion polls(sorry to mention them), Cameron and Clegg tied the debate and Brown was last.

[Amy]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Initial thoughts on last night was that Nick Clegg was weak on the immigration issue. I understood his point but yet nailing down what exactly his idea would work was more difficult.

Exactly what I said in post #95.

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Well lets face it, these debates are nothing more than a glorified job interview. I am however still undecided who will be getting my vote.

I thought that Cameron fared better this week, but I really do not agree with his policies on families.

Clegg did well, but I'm not happy with the idea of having no nuclear weapons, am I right in thinking that we disarmed in the 1930's and then Hitler took advantage and started a war? Perhaps someone will confirm/correct me on that.

I even thought that Gordon did better, but still not good enough for my vote yet.

[Amy]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I even thought that Gordon did better, but still not good enough for my vote yet.

13 years of Labour as a whole, most with Bliar and several with Bruin - how much longer do you need?

[WendyB]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Well I only managed to watch half of the debate, but I have to say that on what I saw, I am leaning towards voting Tory..

[Sapphire]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

13 years of Labour as a whole, most with Bliar and several with Bruin - how much longer do you need?

I've always dithered when making a decision msl::bolt:

[natweststaffmember]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I have read some of the Lib Dem's policies and they are actually worse and more scary than Labour's, which I didn't think possible. We all know Gordy lies, so maybe people aren't taking much notice of him. As for Clegg, people are believing him for some reason that I cannot fathom.

The worst policy for me is their complete and utter capitulation on immigration control. They advocate less control of our borders, despite the fact there isn't much (if any) under Labour. They also will have an amnesty for every single illegal already here. which they believe will miraculously turn them into tax payers.

The Labour government has admitted it has no idea how many illegals there are here, but the figure will treble under an amnesty when dependants are brought here too - completely legally. This country is already a magnet for immigrants and it will rocket if the Lib Dem's get anywhere near Downing Street.

Just quoting this so I know what you are talking about.

Nick Clegg mentioned this amnesty and I DO see what he means but the question is how it will work. He made the point as well to GB re figures on immigrants.
Their policy on immigration controls is to reintroduce border controls but the issue is that they have an idea of putting immigrants into areas where there is space which is slightly odd.
LibDems immigration policy is very weak imho. That does not mean that I think their whole policies are not good.
I don't like the idea of Cameron, picking and choosing which things about the EU they want and which ones they don't want similar to a kid in a sweet shop.
Brown is simply not a great debater on camera, I'm not sure whether listening to the debate rather than watching it would provide any better perspective on the whole debate.

The much quoted Kennedy-Nixon debate in the US was won by Kennedy(by those who watched) and Nixon( by those who heard the debate on the radio).

For me, next week will be when I decide who I will vote for and perhaps look at bit more at the manifestos as a whole. Interesting to watch it though.

[orc]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Here is how the BNP plan to tackle immigration according to BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...10/8639097.stm

"The manifesto states "there should be absolutely no further immigration from any Muslim countries, as it presents one of the most deadly threats yet to the survival of our nation".



Ho hum.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Orc, Scottish Leaders debate is on Sky News on Sunday at 10:30am so one for ya

[Amy]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I didn't realise if one was against the Lib Dems' immigration policy it automatically rendered one a BNP voter.

[orc]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

I didn't realise if one was against the Lib Dems' immigration policy it automatically rendered one a BNP voter.

Please accept my sincere apologies if you thought my last post was directed at you, it was not- nor anyone else on here and I am pleased to state that.

I have had another look at the post and I don't honestly see anything in it that could inform that opinion.

I honestly had no intention of that at all, and it did not occurr to me at the time. Again, apologies if my post made you think that. TBH, I was busy and did not have time to post a comment to that post. It just followed on from earlier discussion.

No I posted it because it was in the news today and obviously concerned immigration which has been raised on this thread before. I have concerns that voter apathy can lead to the BNP gaining a foothold in certain parts of England and they get in by default. They are quite skilled at manipulation, door to door canvassing and targeting resources to what they see as winnable seats, particularly when peoples fears (rightly or wrongly) are manipulated. I think their policy is close to incitement and it must send shivers through the UK muslim population, which I think is wrong. Others can disagree obviously.

As a youth, I was active against the National Front, had many friends who feared them and the distate of them has remained.

Thats even of the potted teen life of Orc- you see I am human.
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Orc, Scottish Leaders debate is on Sky News on Sunday at 10:30am so one for ya

Thank you Nattie.

One thing I noticed last night after the discusion was the interviews with the reps from the parties when they were giving the party line on how well each of the candidates had performed etc.

I did form the opinion that the Conservative spokesmen performed less well than the other parties. At one time the Tory spokesman was left for about 90 seconds, looking bemused, while Labour and Liberal debated- it was a bit embarassing. George Osborne does not convince either.

[Guest]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

Can you please inform where your statistics come from. I note you use different time periods in your examples and different numbers of years in each. How is that relevant to anything?

Your argument is incredibly weak and not backed by relevant statistical data, your powers of persuasion and argument even less so.

The parrot is dead.

I did not use any statistics. As I pointed out, these are real deaths, of real people.

The mining deaths come from The Coalmining History Resource Centre and the road deaths are official figures released by the Department of Transport, the veracity of which are easy for you to check.

My assertion was that driving was more dangerous that mining. The Department of Transport figures show that in ten years, twice as many people die in road traffic accidents than mining accidents have killed in fifty years. Since half of those killed in road traffic accidents are car drivers, we can extrapolate that driving kills the same number of people in ten years that mining has taken fifty years to kill.

I'm sorry if that was too difficult for you.

[scoobydoo]

Re: General Election 2010 Thread

As the number of people driving between the same dates must have been proprtionately a lot lot higher than those working as miners I would suggest that in percentage terms you were more likely to die as a miner than a road driver.

Which just goes to show that in politics as in every other area of life figures can be used to prove or disprove any argument.

Personally tonight I thought Cameron handled Paxman very well tonight - and one reason for why the leader is important is as a representation of our country abroad and for foregn policy ans personally I feel he handles himself very well.