Election Poll: Round 2

[aureole]

They do a pretty good job of breaking down party policy - the candidates in Cambridge are all exceptionally lucid people. I was very impressed, even when I was having to stifle the urge to scream *but that's total bollocks!* at them (which happened with each of them at least once, mainly because I'm an opinionated bugger.)

I wish I was able to vote in the Cambridge City ward since I have a clear-cut opinion on most issues there (the personal and marked dislike for Anne Cambell and the MGB project make it a lot easier to tactically vote).

[Firefox]

Ozzy Osbourne for president!

[Jedburgh]

The Lib Dems came fucking close to losing my vote by coming and ringing my doorbell at 7.30 on Saturday evening, right in the middle of Doctor Who.

Granted, I was sleeping off the effects of Friday night and not actually watching Doctor Who, and I didn't bother answering the door anyway, but still. It's the principle of the thing!

[Ratsoap]

My vote has switched from SSP to libdem. I think voting socialist in a general election is a wasted vote. Libdems have a few policies that I really agree with, and some interesting ideas (like encouraging immigrants to come to the north isles to combat depopulation).

But I'm voting in the safest libdem seat there is so I doubt it will make a difference however I vote.

[aureole]

So which parties have yet to offer a Party Political Broadcast? The threshold is 110 seats this time round?

[Tmuk]

I'm sticking with the Tories. Was horrified to hear of Prescott's plans to flatten 400,000 victorian houses in the north of England over the next 15 years at a cost of £17,000 per demolition. Insane.

[Kemper_Boyd]

What really interests me about the results so far is not
the enormous lead by the Lib Dems but the 1% that
Labour has. Yet they lead the polls in the 'real world'.
This suggests that your average llamasoftie is very
different politically to the norm.

I won't turn this into a pensions topic, but yes we (well
those of us from our 20s to 40s) are fucked.

I also agree with the comments about Ken Clarke and the
socially liberal fiscally conservative POV. One good thing
to come out of the likely third lanslide for Labour is that the
Tory party might at long last implode and a real alternative
arise to replace it.

[sty]

What really interests me about the results so far is not
the enormous lead by the Lib Dems but the 1% that
Labour has. Yet they lead the polls in the 'real world'.
This suggests that your average llamasoftie is very
different politically to the norm.

It was interesting that the BBC were making a similar point on the news at 10 last night.

What they were basically saying is that the opinion polls were showing Labour with a clear lead (a new poll yesterday actually gave Labour a 10 point lead), whereas everything they were hearing on their tour around the UK, and in other conversations with real people just wasn't backing up the polls!

So it all sounds rather interesting to me.

Much as it hurts me to say this, I can see Labour getting in for a third term, and I pray to Goat that I'm not sat here posting "told you so" in 4 years time.

[aureole]

In Cambridge it's 50:1 in favour of LibDem signs at the moment. Odd, really.

[Kemper_Boyd]

In Cambridge it's 50:1 in favour of LibDem signs at the moment. Odd, really.

It's a bit like 1987 when nobody voted Tory and yet they won again.

[aureole]

Oh, absolutely. Polling before an election usually underestimates the current holder - there's a non-trivial swing to the status quo usually.

[merman]

In Cambridge it's 50:1 in favour of LibDem signs at the moment. Odd, really.

I'd noticed that too. I've also noticed the fact that none of the candidates can be arsed to come and canvass in this ward, despite the very low turnouts here at recent elections...

[Tmuk]

In Cambridge it's 50:1 in favour of LibDem signs at the moment. Odd, really.

I'd noticed that too. I've also noticed the fact that none of the candidates can be arsed to come and canvass in this ward, despite the very low turnouts here at recent elections...

You mean because of the very low turnouts...

[venusian]

In Cambridge it's 50:1 in favour of LibDem signs at the moment. Odd, really.

I'd noticed that too. I've also noticed the fact that none of the candidates can be arsed to come and canvass in this ward, despite the very low turnouts here at recent elections...

Have you previously responded with a definitive answer to phone or doorstep canvassing?

The parties don't tend to to canvass every house, only the ones they want to go out and vote. Canvassing is about finding out who your supporters are and giving them a go-out-and-vote prod; it's not about persuasion. If you're on (for example) the Labour and LibDem lists as a hard Tory, they won't bother calling on you, and this time around the Tories are concentrating on phone canvassing rather than doorstepping (because they can pay other people to do it for them).

Or perhaps your house smells?

[GeeZa]

Nice poll Jed!

This year's election is fascinating for a number of reasons. The idea that it's a dull one this year isn't true, indeed psephologists are intruiged by how this one will turn out given the ambiguity of all the Parties involved.

I'm a life-long Labour supporter, am in favour of generally high-taxation, investment in public infrastructure, and a free market. It probably makes me a classic Social Democratic in the German sense of the concept. I could vote Tory if they got rid of Davis, Howard, Redwood, Letwin, Yeo, and just about everyone else. Their lurch to the right has been quite amusing imo and I find them less palatable as an option than I did under Thatch or Major.

So I find myself also unable to vote Labour for the first time in my life. Why? Iraq. Pure and simple. Like the Spanish after the Madrid bomb, I don't like being lied to. It's not even the decision for me, it's the attempt at confusing and obfuscation towards the populace at large. When I saw Powell's PowerPoint presentation to the Security Council the alarm bells rang hard and loud. No wonder he went. I knew then Blair had got us into something he didn't understand. The deliberate manipulation of press releases and media coverage to portray a ficticious scenario in order to justify a political imperative. F**k them. Here's another weak vote for the Lib Dems and jolly good luck to them all.

I *still* don't see anyone doing anything for the poor (the recent Sutton Trust-funded research into social mobility almost made me cry), anyone prepared to raise taxes to give us services we want (instead of pretending it's all great), and anyone addressing how the hell my generation is going to survive when we're 70. So like sty, I'm leaving the UK, essentially for good, as it's my only option and an opportunity to get out of this mess. I'm going to enjoy flying out of Heathrow when Tony takes office, sweeet.