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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 6, 2011 7:08:12 GMT
Post any and all views here!
Interesting how Labour has increased its number of seats in Wales at the expense of Plaid Cymru, while the SNP has ripped Scottish Labour to bits.
Lib Dems suffering everywhere, but Conservatives holding their ground. Hopefully this and the divisions from the AV campaign will lead to a toughening in the Lib Dems' approach to dealing with their coalition 'partners' for the rest of this Parliament, in order to regain public respect. (Really, really don't want to see a two-party system emerge in England.)
Martin
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Post by The Doctor on May 6, 2011 7:19:04 GMT
SNP got in. Not happy.
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 6, 2011 7:27:08 GMT
OOH!
Labour have just taken Cardiff Central from the Lib Dems by 38 votes!!! How close is that!
I was still deciding which of the two to vote for when I got up in the morning and ended up voting Lib Dem as usual. (Got nothing against the Welsh Lib Dems, and figured the party would suffer enough without my help.) If I'd voted Labour, it would have been a margin of 40 votes in it...
Ooh! That's got to bring tears to someone's eyes...
Martin
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Post by blueshift on May 6, 2011 14:12:37 GMT
My dad didn't win (he was standing for the Lib Dems, came third behind two Tories)  |
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Stomski
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!! But don't worry. It won't happen again.
Posts: 5,934
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Post by Stomski on May 6, 2011 16:00:01 GMT
A bias video using only a single example to make their point, but funny nonetheless...
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 6, 2011 17:58:41 GMT
A bias video using only a single example to make their point, but funny nonetheless... Ha ha... He-Man fans must watch it all the way through!  Martin |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 6, 2011 18:40:44 GMT
Labour have just taken Cardiff Central from the Lib Dems by 38 votes!!! How close is that! And those 38 votes mean Labour have managed to get exactly 30 out of 60 seats in the Assembly, and therefore ruled out any possibility of a rainbow coalition of the other three parties. Quite an impressive twist in a country of 3 million voters, eh? Let's see if Carwyn Jones can get a working cabinet together by Monday, so that we know who the Ministers are that we now work for. Martin |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 6, 2011 20:07:33 GMT
42 per cent voter turnout for AV. Well done Britain.
I shake my head sometimes.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 6, 2011 21:16:30 GMT
12.7% of the population could be bothered to vote in favour of AV.
(41% turnout, 31% in favour: source bbc.co.uk)
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Post by blueshift on May 7, 2011 1:09:30 GMT
42 per cent voter turnout for AV. Well done Britain. I shake my head sometimes. Andy I enjoyed the no campaign posted which was "IF YOU VOTE FOR AV BABIES WILL DIE" Seriously, no trace of irony. That said, I hadn't heard anything from the yes campaign. The Lib Dems as a whole have been astonishingly quiet this past year, they really should have been spin doctoring it up if they wanted to stand a chance. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 7, 2011 6:42:06 GMT
I saw the unison sponsored ads, which I think are the ones you're refering to, but I thought they were general party support ones.
I voted No. I genuinely believe that the new system was too complicated for many people to get their heads round.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 7, 2011 7:33:57 GMT
I voted No. I genuinely believe that the new system was too complicated for many people to get their heads round. Trouble is, whatever good reasons people had for voting No, the Tories will take every No vote as a firm endorsement of the status quo. Voting reform of the House of Commons is now not going to happen... which, if the House of Lords gets elected by PR, will make the Commons the least representative elected body in government across the UK and will lose its perceived legitimacy to rule as a result. (I quite like the Welsh system. It's complicated, but it delivers... Everyone gets a constituency Assembly Member elected by first-past-the-post, leading to forty of those, and then another twenty are assigned according to a second vote, penalising the parties who got constituency AMs elected, so that the final Assembly make-up is a lot closer to reflecting the proportions of votes cast. I think Scotland is similar.) Martin |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on May 7, 2011 9:07:12 GMT
I voted for a smaller party with my second vote up here in Edinburgh and they got in. Hoorah! Nothing else turned out the way I voted.
50% turnout for referendum up here. Better than the national average but I'm pretty sure all those fighting for the right to decide their own futures in the Middle East at present will agree that's terrible frankly.
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Post by The Doctor on May 7, 2011 10:09:09 GMT
Turnout round here was 61% and the SNP won by a few hundred.
I voted against AV. I honestly couldn't understand it.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on May 7, 2011 10:41:16 GMT
I voted yes not because I thought it was a great alternative but as Martin said a no vote would effectively end all future discussion. Also I hate tactical voting. In my area last election, Labour where just about guaranteed a victory so the Lib Dem candidates entire pitch was vote for me because I'm the only one with a remote chance of beating Labour. I can't remember any view he held and yet I still voted for him because I really really dislike the labour MP who was sent from London because its a safe seat.
As it stands my vote has never had any meaning as I've never voted labour so any system (at least for me ) would be more valid. So I was a little disappointed.
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Post by blueshift on May 7, 2011 10:47:15 GMT
Not having AV makes me cry.
First past the post is awful in any situation other then when there are two candidates.
That said both campaigns were very very quiet, I didn't hear anything on it!
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 7, 2011 12:25:30 GMT
They didn't make much of an effort about AV up here. Still apparently slightly more than 50 per cent of the Scottish electorate voted on it.
Andy
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Post by legios on May 8, 2011 9:40:18 GMT
Not pleased with the fact that we have another SNP administration, but apparently "vote for us and we will keep your Council Tax unviably low and blame the Westminster Government when they have to gut local services" remains a viable electoral strategy.
Karl
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Post by Fortmax2020 on May 8, 2011 15:12:50 GMT
I'm surprised nobody made any effort to highlight the failure of delivery of the tram 'network' here in Edinburgh as a strike against both Labour and the SNP.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 8, 2011 20:06:35 GMT
Wouldn't matter. Labour couldn't do it. as it was started on their watch and as they were the only possible opposition to the SNP it made more sense for them to leave that alone.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 8, 2011 20:41:19 GMT
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 11, 2012 9:16:28 GMT
The last few days of news on the Scottish referendum have given me much amusement. The UK government may have stirred up the SNP by putting the legal wheels in motion for a vote (and reminding them they are still in the Union and subject to Westminster), but it was worth it if nothing else than to see Cameron totally out maneuver Salmond and force his hand on naming a date for the referendum.
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Nigel
Thunderjet
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Post by Nigel on Jan 11, 2012 9:37:57 GMT
There are a few things that go through my mind whenever Scottish independence is in the news.
It affects the whole Union, so shouldn't any referendum be UK-wide? Granted, it affects Scotland the most so there should be some sort of weighting system.
The Scottish Crown took over the English Crown, so surely the issue should really be English independence?
Where exactly does the monarchy fit in independence? Oddly, I have never heard the royals discussed in relation to independence. Would Scotland be a republic? Would the Queen remain head of state? Surely the Queen would be more directly the head of state for Scotland than for, for example, Canada or Australia. Arguably the Queen should be first and foremost the Queen of Scotland above the Queen of the UK. Should the principal residence be Balmoral or Holyrood rather than Buckingham Palace?
There should be an English Parliament. Devolution has brought an odd disparity where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have parliaments but England doesn't. This would address a number of the issues that are part of the Scottish governance debate.
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Post by legios on Jan 11, 2012 20:06:35 GMT
There are a few things that go through my mind whenever Scottish independence is in the news. It affects the whole Union, so shouldn't any referendum be UK-wide? Granted, it affects Scotland the most so there should be some sort of weighting system. I remember being highly amused many years ago (before the new Scottish Parliament) when a certain Mr Salmond declared that if the SNP won a majority of seats in Scotland at the next General Election they would take that as a mandate for independence and immediately begin the process of breaking away from the United Kingdom. Suffice it to say that they didn't win the most seats in Scotland so we never got to find out whether that would technically be treasonous sedition. :-) Karl |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 11, 2012 21:41:21 GMT
I generally pay very little attention to the issue. That's how important it is to me!
-Ralph
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Post by Shockprowl on Jan 12, 2012 0:20:02 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 12, 2012 1:26:16 GMT
There should be an English Parliament. Devolution has brought an odd disparity where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have parliaments but England doesn't. This would address a number of the issues that are part of the Scottish governance debate. You do. It's called Parliament. Now I hate the SNP and have no truck for independence whatsoever but to say that the Westminster Parliament has looked out for Scotland/Wales/N Ireland's interests when they would have had a negative impact on England would be hard going. I say England when I really should mean the right sort of England. Let's not mention what happened regarding the North Sea Oil or the Poll Tax. Salmond and the SNP can moan all they want - Scotland doesn't want independence as a whole. Yes the numpties who vote SNP say they do, but when challenged to point out how we can manage this can't really say anything. Any of the countries splitting away would be disastrous for all involved. Currencies would be devalued on any side and we've seen how jittery the world is at the moment. There is a reason the SNP have dragged their heels about the independence thing. They started off as a single issue party, and while they have done their best to try to move away from that the public perception is still overwhelmingly that they are all about independence and nothing else. If they go to the country and get told no - they are broken and it would be difficult for them to get reelected. I would have liked to have continued to vote Lib Dem but their betrayal of all causes and principles has been swift and really sickening - even allowing for the fact that it is politics. Still it could be worse, we could have an American style electoral system. Andy |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Feb 2, 2012 15:46:46 GMT
I'm in Manchester for a few days. Never been before. If ever there was an argument about how Scotland couldn't compete by itself its turning up at a modern railway station in a major city in England and being blown away. A completely different class to anything I have seen in Scotland's major cities.
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