General Election Prediction

[Firestorm]

Over the past 30 odd years the elections have been fought on issues such as employment, inflation, the economy,

I find it interesting that this time the issues have been far less general.

It would indicate to me that , altough they have taken a while to do it, the current government have got the "big things" just about sorted and can now concentrate on the next next batch of issues

Personally I feel that had the conservatives had some meaningful policies and had thought them through fully, concentrated on what they can do for the country as opposed to knee jerk reactionism as well as not just slagging the government off, they may well have made this one a lot tighter.
I think it shows how far the country has come in the past few years that one of the major issues this election was fought on was one which personally affected very few people, the Iraq war, sure beats the selfish, "what can I get out of this" style of the Thatch years

 

[CANV]

on a slightly more shallow note.. bollox, 4 more years of that c..t blair and whats worse having to endure seeing his munter missus..
still at least parliament will be a tad more relavent

 

[CANV]

clutching at tory straws, hopefully this was a good one to lose as the economy goes belly up and taxes increase, leaving a glimmer of hope for next time..
much as i hate blair you cant argue with a hatrick in that game

 

[Wessex Blue]

Quote[/b] (CANV @ May 06 2005,09:40)]clutching at tory straws, hopefully this was a good one to lose as the economy goes belly up and taxes increase,  leaving a glimmer of hope for next time..
much as i hate blair you cant argue with a hatrick in that game

I'm with you Canv, with a substantially reduced majority and the "Old Labour" awkward squad on the back benches I can see Tony's New Labour dream bleed to death slowly over the next 4 years.

On a different note did anyone see how close it was over the water in the Medway constituencies? If UKIP hadn't have been there then I'm sure that the result would've been even closer.

 

[Firestorm]

Some years ago I always used to argue that it was our electoral procedure and the massive diversity of the two parties which caused the problems. Change the Governing party every 4 years and the new lot spend the first 2 years undoing what the last lot did and then only get two years to do the things they want. They then get voted out because they havn't done enough and the cycle starts all over again.

Give anyone an extended run, I used to say, and whatever their politics they will put the country straight. Well Mrs T showed me up as a right C**t !!!

I think the difference with this 3rd term will be one of complacency. The reduced majority should be enough to avoid compacency and focus the issues.

I just get so p****d off with hearing people dismiss any of the candidates because of their personal traits..like " I won't vote Lib Dems cos you can never trust a ginger" type comments. I mean Winston Churchill was a fat, miserable looking bugger with a face like a bulldog licking p**s off a nettle, apparently he wasn't too bad a politician tho'

 

[Hong Kong Blue]

Quote[/b] (Wessex Blue @ May 06 2005,10:23)]I'm with you Canv, with a substantially reduced majority and the "Old Labour" awkward  squad on the back benches I can see Tony's New Labour dream bleed to death slowly over the next 4 years.

On a different note did anyone see how close it was over the water in the Medway constituencies? If UKIP hadn't have been there then I'm sure that the result would've been even closer.

If that is Bob Marshall-Andrew's constituency, its not a different note, he's one of the few Labour backbenchers who will speak his mind (I seem to recall a lot of 'Old Labour' have stepped down/ been pensioned off).

In fact one of the surprising factors was how few seats UKIP affected (Torbay?). My impressions were that the BNP probably cost the Tories more seats than UKIP.

 

[Napster]

My biggest bugbear is how the election was getting more presidential and was about the leaders and their image rather than any policies.

I blame America and Fox.

 

[Hong Kong Blue]

Quote[/b] (Napster @ May 06 2005,11:03)]My biggest bugbear is how the election was getting more presidential and was about the leaders and their image rather than any policies.

I blame America and Fox.

It was getting so presidential that all the candidates were talking about being elected for 4 years.

 

[Hong Kong Blue]

Quote[/b] (Napster @ May 06 2005,11:03)]My biggest bugbear is how the election was getting more presidential and was about the leaders and their image rather than any policies.

I blame America and Fox.

It was getting so presidential that all the candidates were talking about being elected for 4 years.

Unless I'm missing something it is still 5 year terms over here.

 

[CANV]

hopefully some of the new tories will have some backbone and a few 'new' characters with popular appeal will appear..
i would also like to see some new labour faces as well ..
much as i dislike browns old labour leanings i would like to see how he handles the pressure of th etop job.. he does seem to be the most honest senior politician around at the moment and hopefully more pro uk than pro europe..
also a difference will hopefully emerge between the two main parties with the tories going down the small govmnt tax cut route ..
lib dems..? are they going to be a real force or are they just the ,not tory or not labour protest vote.. ironically if p.r. comes in the loss of the protest vote may actually reduce the lib dem vote overall

 

[* ORM *]

Quote[/b] (Napster @ May 06 2005,11:03)]I blame America and Fox.

Surely not ?

 

[sufcintheprem]

Very interesting arguments on here and I can see that in a few years, I'm almost bound to turn in to a political sceptic. Just a few points to add from a considerably less informed point of view, yet one that carries equal weight:

-> Being an economist at heart, I have to say that I'm impressed with the state of the economy over Labour's tenure. In this time, they have held the economy to steady growth and with low unemployment through both 9/11 and the Asian economy crisis. At a time when all others seemed to struggle, we were relatively unaffected.

-> It feels like we are entering deeper and deeper in to the murky world of celebrity politics. Bearing in mind that I'm in a top ten university, on a respectable business-related course and generally hang around with finalists, it is disturbing how many of my peers had terrible knowledge of political factors that might affect their vote. I'm not pretending I'm the most informed person in politics but the typical arguments to decide voting were:

"My dad always votes Lib Dem so I will"
"I won't vote for that ginger tw*t!"
"The Tories are a shambles!" Why? "I don't know"
"We shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq"

It felt like I was reading a Sun article with half the facts cut out.

If we are supposed to be the top whatever percent of the country's academics, what hope is there of us having another election where political issues decide the victor unless political blundering affect the masses directly?

 

[CANV]

exactly.. all grads are over rated and should be condemned to working in fast food outlets and kept away from any positions of power...
lets hope the next pm comes from a comp school with 5 o levels

 

[Firestorm]

Quote[/b] (CANV @ May 06 2005,11:18)]lib dems..?  are they going to be a real force or are they just the ,not tory or not labour protest vote..

Heard someone on the tv this morning saying he felt that the Lib Dems suffered as there was a feeling that they ere to the left of Labour......

 

[Firestorm]

Just a thought here, but amongst all this fairly articulate political posting, has anyone noticed any posts from the forums far right representation ?

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Well he has been red carded!!

Also one of the others managed to swing from BNP to Lib Dem which if Peter Snow was here would be bouncing around with his Swing-o-meter, as it represents one hell of a swing. It also surprises me as Lib Dems are definitely trying to fill the void in the left by the New Labour shift to the right.

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ May 06 2005,11:53)]-> Being an economist at heart, I have to say that I'm impressed with the state of the economy over Labour's tenure.  In this time, they have held the economy to steady growth and with low unemployment through both 9/11 and the Asian economy crisis.  At a time when all others seemed to struggle, we were relatively unaffected.

Wish I could find it online, but there was an article on the back-page of the Telegraph on Tuesday and Wednesday quoting facts that proved contrary to popular belief, that the economy is actually no better now than it was when Labour took over in 1997.....

 

[CANV]

the economy , inline with the states and some parts of europe , is in better shape and producing a lot more.. thanks in main to the work done by lamont and clarke from the erm fiasco untill '97.. unfortunatly all this extra dough is being swallowed up by the govmnt n spent on non productive cak , instead of being in the hands of the working public and being used to create more wealth..

 

[Wessex Blue]

Quote[/b] (Firestorm @ May 06 2005,13:51)]Just a thought here, but amongst all this fairly articulate political posting, has anyone noticed any posts from the forums  far right representation ?

They've been in mourning, the 60th anniversary of VE day is approaching so they've probably been marking the passing of the Fuhrer and the 1000 year Reich.

 

[Ron Manager]

Quote[/b] (The General @ May 05 2005,13:10)]I'll be up till 2am but the TV wont be on ...

I was up all night but didn't have the TV on, was a bit otherwise distracted.............