UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possible

[SiorX]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

My own pet issues tend to be social justice, and protections for minority groups, so I find the Tories in charge a fairly appalling concept. But I really don't suppose there was much of an alternative under the current electoral system.

Watch and wait, and see how much ideological pull the LibDems really have, I guess.

 

[Mr Cool Dude]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

What exactly do you expect the Conservative Government to do about civil liberties?

 

[Fenric]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

What exactly do you expect the Conservative Government to do about civil liberties?

well with the liberals are there who have strong ideas about civil liberties also there are some torys who are passionate about civil liberties such as David Davis who in 2008 stepped down from parliament because of the issue of ID cards. with all this influence i imagine some things may happen

 

[captcalhoun]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK!!!!!

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Well, Gordon's gone, and Captain Beige is now PM (unless the Queen tells him to piss off - and her guards might, they saluted Gormless Gordon on his way out but didn't salute Captain Beige.)

We still don't know whether this is going to be a minority govt or a coalition with the King Of Swing.

I LOVE your commentary on all this.

 

[Mr Cool Dude]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

What exactly do you expect the Conservative Government to do about civil liberties?

well with the liberals are there who have strong ideas about civil liberties also there are some torys who are passionate about civil liberties such as David Davis who in 2008 stepped down from parliament because of the issue of ID cards. with all this influence i imagine some things may happen

What things?

 

[Starkers]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Thank God for that!

By the way is anyone else wondering if Cameron will walk into the cabinet and say "Let the work of government begin."

Best, and in fact the only decision. Labour lost, their leader resigned, there was no way they could form this rainbow alliance and it would actually stick. Still not sure how long the coallition will last, but the country has some stability now, and likelty there will at least be a referendum on some form of voting reform (although I think the events of the last few days might have put a fair few people off wanting hung parliaments every time!)

Be interesting to find out the finer details of the deal. Is Clegg deputy PM, and if so is that a position of any real authority or not? Heard Heseltine earlier and he says it can go either way so we'll have to see.

I really do hope Vince is chancellor but somehow I doubt it...shame. I reckon Gove will give way to the Liberal guy on education if nothing else.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

My own pet issues tend to be social justice, and protections for minority groups, so I find the Tories in charge a fairly appalling concept. But I really don't suppose there was much of an alternative under the current electoral system.

Watch and wait, and see how much ideological pull the LibDems really have, I guess.

Well, this is the thing - the LibDems have the chance to rein in the Tories from being too... Tory.

Hopefully we'll see a lot of things change for all parties, and that's for the good, because the state of party politics had stultified and stagnated over the past 20 years or so.

Who'd have thought a Tory would have renationalised the Tube? Who'd have thought Labour would look the other way on banking regulation until it was too late?

Nu Labour isn't the Labour I grew up with. The Lib Dems aren't the Liberals I grew up with. If the Tories are to survive they have to change too.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

And, bluntly, though I in general loathe the Tories as much as I loathe Nu Labour, and am now disappointed in the LD's dragging out of things, this is the best possible result for civil liberties (ID cards, the DEB, and suchlike), and that's my main issue.

So I'm more or less happy now.

What exactly do you expect the Conservative Government to do about civil liberties?

well with the liberals are there who have strong ideas about civil liberties also there are some torys who are passionate about civil liberties such as David Davis who in 2008 stepped down from parliament because of the issue of ID cards. with all this influence i imagine some things may happen

We know that both parties want to get away from ID cards (ironic that the Tories wanting to bring them in in the 90s is the main reason I voted Labour then!), the Lib Dems have their eyes on recutting the Digital Economy Bill, and both parties also had a hit list of over 1000 minor laws that criminalise people just to raise revenue or make up numbers.

 

[Fenric]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Thank God for that!

By the way is anyone else wondering if Cameron will walk into the cabinet and say "Let the work of government begin."

Best, and in fact the only decision. Labour lost, their leader resigned, there was no way they could form this rainbow alliance and it would actually stick. Still not sure how long the coallition will last, but the country has some stability now, and likelty there will at least be a referendum on some form of voting reform (although I think the events of the last few days might have put a fair few people off wanting hung parliaments every time!)

Be interesting to find out the finer details of the deal. Is Clegg deputy PM, and if so is that a position of any real authority or not? Heard Heseltine earlier and he says it can go either way so we'll have to see.

I really do hope Vince is chancellor but somehow I doubt it...shame. I reckon Gove will give way to the Liberal guy on education if nothing else.

from what I have heard i think Clegg will be deputy pm with him also being home office minister ( i feel that the liberals would want to have one of the big cabinet roles and seeing as osborne is already confirmed chancellor and hague looks destined to be foreign office that leaves the home office )

David Laws will slot into Education ( seeing as tory and liberal education plans are quite similar it wouldn't be that much of a loss for the torys to lose this position to the liberals)

that leaves Vince who will ether slot in at business secretary or be a senior aid for osborne.

i think i read that the lib dems have been offered 6 cabinet roles in total so probably some minor roles maybe environment and one or two other things similar

 

[Mr Cool Dude]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

What exactly do you expect the Conservative Government to do about civil liberties?

well with the liberals are there who have strong ideas about civil liberties also there are some torys who are passionate about civil liberties such as David Davis who in 2008 stepped down from parliament because of the issue of ID cards. with all this influence i imagine some things may happen

We know that both parties want to get away from ID cards (ironic that the Tories wanting to bring them in in the 90s is the main reason I voted Labour then!), the Lib Dems have their eyes on recutting the Digital Economy Bill, and both parties also had a hit list of over 1000 minor laws that criminalise people just to raise revenue or make up numbers.

ID cards were only voluntary - and many of our European friends have them. The Digital Economy Bill was designed to protect copyright. I'm surprised you never mentioned CCTV.

 

[Lindley]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

This thread reads like a David Weber book.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

well with the liberals are there who have strong ideas about civil liberties also there are some torys who are passionate about civil liberties such as David Davis who in 2008 stepped down from parliament because of the issue of ID cards. with all this influence i imagine some things may happen

We know that both parties want to get away from ID cards (ironic that the Tories wanting to bring them in in the 90s is the main reason I voted Labour then!), the Lib Dems have their eyes on recutting the Digital Economy Bill, and both parties also had a hit list of over 1000 minor laws that criminalise people just to raise revenue or make up numbers.

ID cards were only voluntary - and many of our European friends have them. The Digital Economy Bill was designed to protect copyright. I'm surprised you never mentioned CCTV.

ID cards weren't going to stay voluntary if the original plan had gone ahead, and besides, the problem wasn't the concept of them but the lies about why they were supposedly necessary, and related issues about the databases, incompetency over data protection, and so on.

The DEB is designed to protect copyright, but is amazingly badly worded - as it is, it technically makes YouTube illegal, for example.

CCTV- I'm not sure what the parties' stances on that are. It's a mixed blessing.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Clegg as Deputy PM. Hm.

William Hague as Foreign Secretary - excellent choice, he's one of the least Tory of the Tories, and if you've read his biography of William Wilberforce, I think you'll see what I mean on that.

 

[startrekrcks]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

finally David Cameron as prime minister didn't like Labour and the way they handled issues.

 

[firehawk12]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

No electoral reform. So unfortunate.

I was hoping the motherland would inspire us colonials to change the crappy FTPT Westminster system we have now.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

This thread reads like a David Weber book.

I would be much more fun if it would read like a Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

No electoral reform. So unfortunate.

I was hoping the motherland would inspire us colonials to change the crappy FTPT Westminster system we have now.

Thats the thing about the voting system at present, when it works and one party gets that magic 326 or over it works well, majority vote by the voters of the country, end of story, when it fails it falls on it arse big time, as just what happened here when all three parties lose and then two of those three losers have to get together to win.

But it does make for good TV.

 

[Snaploud]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Interesting analysis of why the number isn't actually 326:

How Many Seats Do The Conservatives Have To Win To Form The Next Government In Britain? Oddly enough, there is no single answer to that question, though you will often see one, even in British papers.

Let's start with the simplest case and work toward the more complex cases. There are 650 seats at stake in tomorrow's election. This leads some to say that the Conservatives need to win 326 seats to have a majority.

This is incorrect because, as I mentioned in this post, the Speaker ordinarily does not vote. So an absolute majority would appear to be 325 seats. Except, there are currently five Sinn Fein MPs, who refuse to take a loyalty oath, and so are not allowed to vote in the House of Commons. (They do draw their pay, and have exploited their expense accounts quite, shall we say, skillfully.)

So that gets us down to 644 active seats, making an absolute majority 323 seats. One of the minority parties, the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party, may support the Conservatives. They would provide nine or ten seats. Let's say nine, to be conservative, as seems appropriate. In that case, Cameron and the Conservatives would have to win 314 seats.

http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/May2010_1.html#jrm8678

 

[Canadave]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

No electoral reform. So unfortunate.

I was hoping the motherland would inspire us colonials to change the crappy FTPT Westminster system we have now.

Though perhaps it will, at least, get people here to realize that coalitions are not evil or undemocratic.