Politics Thread!

[gravy]

Like in Scotland?

[The ghost of raids past]

The Scottish result means the West Lothian problem has to be solved. The Uk cannot be held to ransom by 1.4 million voters.

[Absolute_Zero]

Like in Scotland?

No, in the UK as a whole.

The Labour party in Scotland might need to devolve to an SDLP-like arrangement.

[The ghost of raids past]

The markets approve of the election result

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32644523

[pogo]

AS I noted earlier I think this result makes a strong case for further devolution. Problem is it’s unlikely to be devolution the SNP likes. They already have tax raising, spending and borrowing powers. Next step would be full fiscal autonomy, i.e. the scrapping of the Barnett formula, so Scotland takes responsibility for balancing the books on their own, as they would need to for independence. The problem is that would leave a large hole to be filled, with higher taxes or lower spending, so might be a step towards independence too far for the SNP.

The other sort of devolution needed is yes, to answer the West Lothian question, and find some way of giving English MPs exclusive say over legislation affecting only England. How to do that though is far from obvious. Again this is unlikely to be liked by the SNP as it would greatly reduce their relevance at Westminster (assuming it is still the parliament of England and not some new body). But something needs to be done.

[offyoutoddle]

T. Blair called it in January... an election “in which a traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result”.

Remarkable. One of the few occasions I can think of that he was right about anything. I'd say nice things about him, but then that would make me a bigger 2 faced liar than him.

[tufty]

The Scottish result means the West Lothian problem has to be solved. The Uk cannot be held to ransom by 1.4 million voters.

You are Enoch Powell AICMFP

"Rivers of Porridge"

[The ghost of raids past]

The Scottish result means the West Lothian problem has to be solved. The Uk cannot be held to ransom by 1.4 million voters.

You are Enoch Powell AICMFP

"Rivers of Porridge"

Hardly, its simply not acceptable for a country with its own parliment to vote on matters that only affect England, Wales and Nortthern Ireland. Devolution cuts both ways. Not sure what AICMFP means.

[pogo]

Worth considering what the result would be under PR. Here are the final vote percentages of the main parties, from the BBC.

CON 36.9
LAB 30.4
UKIP 12.6
LD 7.9
SNP 4.7
GRN 3.8

But with STV you only get elected if your share of the vote is large enough, based on the size of the constituency. With e.g. similarly sized constituencies to the European parliament the SNP, Greens and Lib Dems (and others) would get nothing, while UKIP would get maybe a handful of seats. The Conservatives and Labour would take almost all seats, and the Tories would have a large majority.

Of course that ignores the effect of geographic location. You would expect the SNP to do better in Scottish seats. But with 50% of the vote they would only have half not almost all the MPs.

Basically under PR, with the Conservatives and UKIP getting close to 50% of the vote and most parties getting too few votes to qualify under common PR systems, it would be either a Tory majority or a Tory-UKIP coalition.

[gravy]

What a twat

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... r-comedian

[Cloudane]

Wow, for a moment there I thought Brand actually stood for something! Thought it was unusual, but still caught hook line and sinker. Won't be falling for that one again

The thing is that means I get to type the words "Cameron was right" - he's a joke.

[offyoutoddle]

What a twat

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... r-comedian

"At great potential cost to his integrity,Brand surprised his fans and commentators by backing Miliband and urging the electorate to vote for Labour, "

well, in reading that one sentence, it is the first time this prick has made me laugh.

[(o)(o)]

What a twat

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... r-comedian

Yes, nice hatchet job there by Grierson.

"Russell Brand stages climbdown on support for Ed Miliband"

In the accompanying video he does no such thing.

[(o)(o)]

For what good it will do..

https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron- ... e_petition

[Cloudane]

What a twat

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... r-comedian

Yes, nice hatchet job there by Grierson.

"Russell Brand stages climbdown on support for Ed Miliband"

In the accompanying video he does no such thing.

Actually, you're right. I didn't bother to actually watch the video. My bad...

He says what I was thinking actually, they're going to shit on the poor, the sick, etc so now is definitely going to be the time to build up the charitable causes.
Personally, having read through some of the Reddit stuff I posted on disability (which affects one of my friends) I actually think the Citizen's Advice Bureau is a good place to support.