UK General Election 2010

[SuaveStar]

Well, tomorrow is the day us Brits will go out and vote in the UK General Election. Post your thoughts on the situation and background of the election that you know of, if any.

Use this thread to discuss anything to do with the election taking place on Thursday the 6th of May.

[Stavros]

First I've heard of it.

[Dread]

Is it weird that I liked Gordon Brown when I lived there?

[Stavros]

Is it weird that I liked Gordon Brown when I lived there?

Not at all. Most people hate him due to the tabloid hammering he's been taking for years, but to my mind he's intelligent and far less fake than most professional politicians. He's sort of an old labour hangover, more focussed on doing good work for those who need it than maintaining the status quo. He tends to fight a lot of small battles and get a lot of small wins that are real difference makers to a lot of the working poor.

[Dread]

Good. He seemed to be real straight and no BS either. I dug him a lot. Especially after that career politician Blair. Ugh.

[Venneh]

Clustershag to 10 Downing

UK General Election

AKA the extent of what the Americans know about what is going on in Britain, besides Warren Ellis' Twitter feed.

(We love you.)

[slothian]

Good. He seemed to be real straight and no BS either. I dug him a lot. Especially after that career politician Blair. Ugh.

So straight that he comically calls lifelong Labour supporters "bigots" when he thinks no-one can hear him! ho ho ho! But yes, Blair was pretty awful.

I filled out my postal vote today whilst at Pizza Hut before seeing Iron Man 2, such is my commitment to British democracy. I can't justify voting Tory as my local candidate lives in London. I have no intention of voting Labour as their policies have made me worse off financially and all they can do is bitch about the Tories - which gets a bit grating after 13 years in office. I'm not a racist, so I'm not voting UKIP or BNP and I'm not quite ready to put my vote in the hands of a single issue party like the Greens (unless it's the Euro elections, where they actually have a better shot of influencing policy). So I'm putting my faith back with the Lib Dems and forgiving them for ousting Charles Kennedy, one of the few politicians I can relate to as a ginger alcoholic. I'm not pretending they're flawless either, but I'm utterly fed-up of the Labour/Tory merry-go-round at this point.

[MaxPower]

Murdoch's latest attempt to help the 'torries

[Stavros]

The only highlight of this evening will be the Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell/Jimmy Carr alternative coverage that Channel 4 is promoting. We've been missing homegrown comedic political commentary for so long, its nice to get at least one thing every 5 years.

Oh well I'm off to vote.

[SuaveStar]

The only highlight of this evening will be the Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell/Jimmy Carr alternative coverage that Channel 4 is promoting. We've been missing homegrown comedic political commentary for so long, its nice to get at least one thing every 5 years.

Oh well I'm off to vote.

Yeah, that kind of reminded me the election was today, the ad for their event. Now to find my voting station.

[Stavros]

I decided not to vote tactically, and the Conservatives get my area in one of the first announced results. Fuck it all, this was supposed to be a safe Labour seat.

[SuaveStar]

Well, the country is now fucked. Awesome.

[dc20willsave]

Well, the country is now fucked. Awesome.

Welcome to the feeling many of us Yanks had ten years ago. Unlike us, you aren't neccesarily stuck with this government for the next eight years so congrats on that.

Reading up on the Election on the BBC website, it sounds interesting. It sounds like regardless of the outcome of the remaining seats, it's going to lead to a coalition government. Suddenly, despite winning few seats, the Lib-Dems are going to be the prettiest girl at the prom. UK politics are so much more interesting than the ones we have in the US.

Edited May 7, 2010 by dc20willsave

[Stavros]

Gordon Brown has said two things today-

1- He is actively looking for a progressive alliance coalition government with the Lib Dems and other parties. This would have a marginal advantage in the house but would have actually got around 5 million more votes than the conservatives did (15 million to 10), so I have no problem with it.

2- As soon as that government is stable he will only act as a caretaker until the labour party conference when a fresh party leader will be elected and Gordon will resign. This is also a nice bit of statesmanship, since many peoples problem with Labour and Brown in particular is that he's unelected due to our parliamentary system. Removing him removes a lot of obstacles for the party, especially when it comes to working with the Lib Dems.

Really smart move all around, they'll offer the electoral reform that could actually revolutionise our politics, removing the first past the post system and installing the popular vote. With that in place a consistent Labour/Lib Dem alliance would keep the Conservatives out of power forever, or at least ensure that they can never win a majority in the government again.

[SuaveStar]

Shame Nick Clegg will fuck it all up.

[slothian]

Really smart move all around, they'll offer the electoral reform that could actually revolutionise our politics, removing the first past the post system and installing the popular vote. With that in place a consistent Labour/Lib Dem alliance would keep the Conservatives out of power forever, or at least ensure that they can never win a majority in the government again.

Optimism. The new fragrance from Labo(u)ritoire Stavros.

[Stavros]

Really smart move all around, they'll offer the electoral reform that could actually revolutionise our politics, removing the first past the post system and installing the popular vote. With that in place a consistent Labour/Lib Dem alliance would keep the Conservatives out of power forever, or at least ensure that they can never win a majority in the government again.

Optimism. The new fragrance from Labo(u)ritoire Stavros.

Our spokesmodel is Bill Bailey.

[MaxPower]

I still think they should go the clusterfuck approach. Torries and LibDem form a coalition with Nick Clegg in Downing St. So you have the minority guy as the head and the most seats actually running the vote. It will never happen, but it would allow more balance in what gets done. It is almost a pseudo US system.

[SuaveStar]

Gordon Brown has resigned as Prime Minister.

[MaxPower]

Cameron is the new PM... will be interesting to see the details of the talks with him and Clegg.

[Molly]

So coming from you Brits, is this a positive? Brown has been less popular over here than Blair, but I think that has a fair bit to do with the way he presents himself. Blair is smoother than oil, Brown wasn't.

[SuaveStar]

So coming from you Brits, is this a positive? Brown has been less popular over here than Blair, but I think that has a fair bit to do with the way he presents himself. Blair is smoother than oil, Brown wasn't.

Well, let me put it this way, most of the people on my facebook have been saying "Britain's fucked! Lets all leave" "I'm oot" shit like that. I don't really know what to think about it right now.

Brown's resignation came out of nowhere to me though.

[MaxPower]

I hate how people overreact to right wing/conservative wins, like humanity is about to end or something, when very little will change in their day to day lives.

[slothian]

I hate how people overreact to right wing/conservative wins, like humanity is about to end or something, when very little will change in their day to day lives.

I'm in complete agreement. I didn't vote for the Tories, but I texted my best mate (who did) earlier to say that all the whiny responses on facebook are getting on my nerves. My second cousin, who was 4 years old when the Conservatives were last in power, joined a facebook group saying "I heard David Cameron is PM and I chundered everywhere". This isn't a politician who has been openly racist or promised to kill all poor people in his manifesto. He's a man who is being judged by the standards of the Thatcherite/Major governments, whose personnel don't make up the current Conservative party (except maybe Ken Clarke, and he's a fun character).

Leaving aside the fact that he's had to negotiate his way to being Prime Minister, which prevents him entertaining the most extreme policies his party might dream up, Cameron is going to have to spend his Premiership balancing the needs of his party with those of the Lib Dems. It isn't the same scenario as the Labour party have enjoyed, where their majority allowed them to push through unpopular policy (with the thankful exception of 90 day detention without charge). In the rush to criticise Cameron, people conveniently forget the failures/scandals of the Labour party, which were easily as bad as the Major years (just with less leadership contests). I have personally been worse off from their time in office (via the amount of money I've spent on an ineffectual BA and an MA I receive whilst the country is counter-acting the effects of budget deficit).

I'm not going to call Stavros a tool for hoping the Tories will stay out of power forever (as I've met him personally and he's a nice bloke), nor will I tut at Suave for his call about Nick Clegg fucking everything up. But I'm getting sick of people on facebook jumping to assume the worst when our country has actual problems to overcome, and a stable government is needed. If the government fucks up from here, criticism is more than justified, but I get annoyed by pre-emptive judgement of just about anything. Our Prime Minister isn't Mugabe-Hitler-tron, he's a typical politician who happened to go to Eton (which is hardly shocking, given his political party).

To answer Preston, Blair's reputation has plummeted since agreeing to the Iraq invasion and Brown has always been seen as someone wanting his job. In that his tenure wasn't glorious (and people have questioned the fact he didn't seek a personal mandate by calling an election, which is perfectly within his rights), Brown is unlikely to be widely missed although he will be recognised for his importance to the "New Labour" movement. Cameron's style is more like Blair, with the advantage that the nation won't be disillusioned if he signs off on something similar to the Iraq occupation. The long-standing hatred of the Conservatives coupled with the economic problems facing the UK means that Cameron isn't going to have an easy ride of it. Personally, I wish the guy well, although I will call him on any big mistakes he makes.

[Stavros]

My objections to tory policies are based on what they've said they'll do this time, which directly affects the people I live with through their benefits and my family because they work for the government. I also object to media and bank deregulation that aggregates a huge amount of power in corporate hands, which is hardly ever a positive thing for the people (look at public transport). I have key problems with their underlying desire to restrict services that make a lot of peoples lives a great deal easier and cut taxes for the wealthy (although they'll have trouble with that now).

That being said the outcome is better than it might have been, since the power sharing agreement means that they'll be quite moderated. In fact a Lib Dem Tory alliance is pretty close ideologically to New Labour in many respects.

Its not a knee-jerk reactionon my part, nor do I think that the country is about to go down the toilet just because Cameron is in, but I can't ignore that they may well do irreparable harm to institutions such as the BBC or the sort of community services that keep people just above the poverty line.