Figured we'd need a thread here for it eventually

For those not in the know, it's the British General Election on Thursday 6th May [this coming Thursday]. Age of Suffrage here is 18 [yay!].

The country is split into 650 constituencies, or areas. Within each constituency there are several candidates from a selection of parties who hope to win the election in this particular constituency. Not all parties have a candidate in every constituency. Indeed smaller parties may only have a handful. If they win, the candidate gets a "seat" in the House of Commons representing their constituency. The winning party is the first one to get 326 seats in the House of Commons. If none of the parties get 326 seats after all the constituencies have had their results declared, then we end up with a Hung Parliament and, if you read the papers, all hell breaks lose. Traditionally the top 2 parties have been the ruling Labour Party [left wing] with Gordon Brown in charge, and the Conservatives [right wing] with David Cameron in charge.

Over the past few weeks we've had 3 live political debates between the leaders of the 3 main parties [Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat]. In the first one, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, went from zero to hero overnight, but over the last 2 debates he's come back down to earth a bit, but the Lib Dems are arguably in their best ever position coming up to election day. They're normally the solid 3rd place party. Gordon Brown called a woman "bigoted" [unable to accept other's opinions] after she spoke to him in Rochdale. He apologised personally, but he certainly doesn't seem to be the number 1 choice at the moment.

One bad thing about the way of elections here is that the final result might not actually reflect the voting habits of the nation. Because the result is based on "seats won" rather than "total % vote", it could be that the Lib Dems win the most votes, then Conservative, then Labour, but Labour would still win an overall majority. But that's how it is at the moment and that's how it'll be.

So, what's your constituency? Who's your current MP? Is he a tax-payer's money grabbing bastard? Will s/he win again? Tips for the election?

I live in the Rutland and Melton constituency, and our MP is Alan Duncan [Con] with a BIG majority. He did get rather involved in the expenses scandal, then went and said that MPs lived on "rations", so getting sacked from the Shadow Front Bench. Still can't see anyone else winning around here, though.

I said from day one Lib Dems will win. Really beginning to look that way now.

Anyways, for some reason everyone in our area is voting for this "Green party" I have never heard of before, they just came out of nowhere.

I've already voted as I'd be out of the country on the 6th so I did a postal vote and to be honest I am already getting ready to get raped by whoever takes over. Be it one specific party or a hung parliament, I am still going to get a cock in the arse. Mostly through taxation.

I dont care if he may have insulted an old lady, IF i was aloud to vote, i would vote for Labour. Yes Gordon Brown isnt the sharpest of guys. But he has actually (if you bother to look properly) not done that badder job in his time at number 10 considering all of the rubbish that has gone on during that time.

However, as I cant vote, and live in Surrey. My opinion doesnt count because the 75% snob population always votes for the equally as snobby and useless Conservatives.

Thanks,

Oscar.

Thanks to Oscar for reminding me to ask you to keep bitching to a minimum

i.e. no hand-bag fights along the lines of:
"Gordon is a bastard"
"No David Cameron is a posh git"
e.t.c. - Thanks!

Green party are a pile of idiots... From what i've heard, they will invest in green power.. or smn

Which can only mean they will increase the country's debt. And no doubt they will raise road fund license to £5034.85 per year for those who aren't stupid enough to buy an electric car

Quote from oscarhardwick :

I dont care if he may have insulted an old lady, IF i was aloud to vote, i would vote for Labour. Yes Gordon Brown isnt the sharpest of guys. But he has actually (if you bother to look properly) not done that badder job in his time at number 10 considering all of the rubbish that has gone on during that time.

However, as I cant vote, and live in Surrey. My opinion doesnt count because the 75% snob population always votes for the equally as snobby and useless Conservatives.

Thanks,

Oscar.

Well to be fair Brown is the first lefty to be in charge of New Labour. Blair and most of his wonder squad and Harriet Harman are a bunch of Blue blooded socialists as they all come form Tory families.

Brown was good as chancellor, even if he did sell the gold reserves when gold was at a record low. He did a lot of good for our finances, it all went to pot when he was put in charge of everything. Though to be fair he was given the helm when the world economy was going down the drain.

I'd never vote Labour though and never have to date. I like to use my vote on a fringe party, because there is only such a thing as a wasted vote if you don't use it.

the conservatives seem the have the best manifesto.

Oh ya... me and Davey Cameron are like best buds -.- (not)

Labour need an additional 9% of the popular vote to add to the postal votes they printed and signed themselves in the name of dead people in order to achieve a parliamentary majority.

Despite the paltry number of votes they need to maintain power - thanks to them moving all the voting boundaries whilst in power ( they only need 34%, with 1 in 4 registered votes being postal votes in all the key constituencies ) - there's such universal disdain for the party since they switched from centre-left wing politics to right wing, that there's a very real chance anyone who's been paying attention isn't going to vote for them.

The Conservatives havn't emerged as a viable alternative, except to a few people who just assumed that they would win the election and laughed about it whilst recounting their trust fund from daddy, most people however, do not have a trust fund and do not intent to vote them in. They are also a centre-right wing party, infact, they are the traditional mainstream right wing party in Britain.

With the megre pickings being offered from Labour and Conservatives, with them having agreed on all major policy decisions over the last 3 terms of government, and with Labour now almost fully aligned with the Conservatives on most major policy points with the exception of tax breaks for the rich under Conservatives, and higher services under Labour, there really isn't any tangeable difference between them - it's just details.

The Liberal Democrats have benefitted hugely by offering a genuine, tangeable alternative. Sadly if they only got 34% of the vote, rather than a majority they would have half the number of seats as Labour. None-the-less, they have such a groundswell of support now they've been polling not far off 74% in some of the polls i've read - but.....

...Poll old people and you get Labour, poll rich people you get Conservative, poll geeks online and you get Lib Dem... You can make polls say anything you want, and, apparently, you can release the count of the votes before it's even happened if you are Labour (who are under investigation in Brighton is it? for election fraud, and also Jack Straw is under investigation for election fraud too as he's been "treating" voters which is also a criminal offence). When I say under investigation, what I meen is the press are looking at it and the police (under government supervision) are trying to find a way to worm out of it (I havnt followed the stories closely, I dont expect anything to happen).

I live in a Conservative safe seat, and because of our "first past the post system" I don't actually have a vote - because after the election my town will still be Conservative. My local MP is Jonathan Djanolly, he strongly supported the war, supports the Digital Economy Bill (although couldn't be arsed to vote on it but he sent me a letter in response to my advisory saying how ****ing far up the music industries arse he is), and he has automatic electric gates, a landscaped garden, and a duck pond all paid out of my taxpayers money when he handed the receipt in as MP's expenses.

I am not allowed to look at my duck pond.

Stupid foxtrotting stupid dark age system. Our laws are getting less and less free every day, i'm voting my ass off and yet still the elite just engineer themselves back into power.

I really hope we get a hung parliament and or a Lib Dem government, at least they've promised to overhaul the democratic process - mind you, by the time we actually get a free and fair vote on the parliament in this country we'll be answering to Europe anyway - thanks for not giving us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, Mr Gordon ****ing Lying Twat Face & Tony "They Had Weapons of Mass Destruction Jihad Jihad Kill All the Muslim Scum Faggots" Blair, the hardline Christian preacher (as he has since become).

Quote from Luke.S :

the conservatives seem the have the best manifesto.

Compare it with Tony Blair's over the last 10 years. You may notice some similarities. Cameron sings from the same songbook as Blair.

Becky... are you therefore calling me old and possibly dead for wanting to vote labour?

There are some great minds in this thread.

I've already voted (I'll be out of town on polling day). Gordon Brown's a belligerent pompous tosser who won't accept responsibility for anything he's done in power over the last 13 years, whereas Cameron's an out-of-touch Etonian upper-class prick leading a party full of ****ing crooks, take your pick.

Pompous Tosser if i may

This was a bad idea

So basically:
Labour supporters are old, possibly communist, maybe chavs and fairly "common".
Tories are stuck up twats who have too much money.
Lib Dems are in the middle.
BNP are racist bastards.

/thread.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

I swear half of labour voters only vote labour because it's a family tradition .

Quote from oscarhardwick :

Becky... are you therefore calling me old and possibly dead for wanting to vote labour?

No i'm calling you one of the 9% of people who's stupid enough to take away the last thread of freedom we have left. Thanks to Labour + Conservative we now have an internet with more legal control over it than China's infamous Golden Gate (often refered to as The Great Firewall), it's not been implemented yet, it'll come in at about the same time as ID cards and the new passports.

I'm not keen on having a police state, but I wont have too, thanks to the Digital Economy Bill in the next few years my industry (ecommerce) is likely to start moving out of the UK. But don't worry I wont be leaving the country with any music on my iPhone, as the BPI are already lobbying the government to bring in border controls to check for illegal downloads on our iPods as we leave the country and compulsory installation of "copyright scanners" (the idea being that it works like a virus checker and automatically deletes 'infected' files) on our desktop PC's.

Enjoy your freedom to vote Labour, it'll be the last time you have that freedom (assuming the ~9% they need in the marginal constituencies, where people actually have votes) as with another term in power they'll have managed to margianalised the entire democratic system altogether.

Assuming their MP's stay out of jail for election fraud that is, at this rate Labour will have trouble finding enough MP's to make a front bench, at the rate they're breaking the election laws.

EDIT:

Quote :

Brown was good as chancellor, even if he did sell the gold reserves when gold was at a record low. He did a lot of good for our finances, it all went to pot when he was put in charge of everything. Though to be fair he was given the helm when the world economy was going down the drain.

He created the circumstances and legislative processes that enabled the economic collapse, as chancellor. ****ing stirling job if you ask me.

Your council tax is going to double or treble over the next few years, the councils are broke, and the sheer quantity of services they are required to operate is making the system fall over. Currently things are being artificially propped up, after the election things will change - and next year we are really going to feel it.

Some of the taxes introduced by Labour and their passion for over-beaurocracising cost more to collect than they actually raise.

Quote from JO53PHS :

I swear half of labour voters only vote labour because it's a family tradition .

Same with most political factions. In fact anything. Be it football teams or marquee of vehicle.

Can't vote Tory - Prevous history under Thatcher in Scotland basically means that there is more chance of Scotland as a nation all backing England in the world cup than voting Tory. Also in the TV debates in an area that David Cameron should be better at he looked decidely average, he's just a poor version of Blair

Can't vote Labour - They don't stand for what Labour should, moved to far to the right. Sure, Brown is old Labour but even he can't change what Tony and his crew had done in those early years. The move from left to right was as subtle as a brick in the window, yet thick people still thought that they were the old Labour of John Smith and continued to vote for them (and I include my old man in that)

Can't vote SNP (Scottish National Party) - Unlike others, I know that Scotland can not survive on our own. Fat Alex points to nation like RoI, Iceland and other small nation, but look at the recession and you'll see that those nation suffered more than the UK. Also his constant crying and bitching is embaressing, espically from our first minster.

My vote is for Lib-Dem - Mainly because they are a shoe in in my area, but also because the guy standing for the Lib-Dems is a genuinely sound guy. Has a cracking beard also, now i know that a cracking beard is not a good mark of a man....but screw it, I'm growing one so the bearded men must stick together. Mon the beards.

However, we will end up with a hung parliament, which is just as bad as either a Labour/Tory or Lib-Dem Parliament.

Quote from J@tko :

BNP are racist bastards.

Well, you could also apply that logic to the conservatives. For anyone who hasn't yet heard about it they used a particularly racist slogan to win Smethwick in 1964:

Quote :

If you want a ni**er for a neighbour vote Liberal or Labour

Clearly the public face has changed a lot since then, but what percentage of the people involved in running the party has? Another institutionally racist organisation like the police?

A vote for the SNP seems like a waste at the moment considering the momentum the Lib Dems have been showing, so I'm swinging that way at the moment. I definitely won't be voting labour or conservative.

People are often frightened of change. Although I'm not entirely convinced that changing the party in control will really make all that much difference.

Quote from Bob Smith :

People are often frightened of change. Although I'm not entirely convinced that changing the party in control will really make all that much difference.

Maybe not, but marching on Westminster and dangling their remains from tower bridge would.

I think next general election some LFS guys should run for parliament.

Let's face it, whoever i vote for, i'm gonna end up getting raped by them, so why bother?