UK Election Thread

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by our_man
Guess what I found in my postbox yesterday.

I couldn't believe it: despite being a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, I was entitled to vote in the British general election.

According to the BBC quiz thing, you're eligable to stand for election in the British general election.

Originally posted by Agathon
Here's hoping that ass Bliar goes soon after the election. He's a ****ing liability for Britain.

I doubt it. He's said he wants to lead the party for the next term, and then resign. (Four more years! )

[lightblue]

Paiktis: Howard for the Tories. He's the 2nd generation vampire from transsylvania From today's Mirror frontpage:

[our_man]

According to the BBC quiz thing, you're eligable to stand for election in the British general election.

Do you have a link?

[Zulu Elephant]

Went off to sit an exam. Replies here for anyone who's still here/cares

No, a growing number of university students is a stupid ideal. It devalues degrees, it practically forces people to go to university to get any sort of decent job, and it means that all the practical trades have massive trouble getting skilled workers. Plus, tuition fees don't even come close to covering the university's expenses for the student, so they still can't afford to keep the increased numbers anyway.

I agree entirely with Immortal Wombat on University by the way – far too many school leavers now go and it has turned Universities into degree factories not centres of learning. Employers have stopped trusting degree classifications - how can this be good?

It all depends on what you see the point of education is.
The old (some would say Conservative) view is that the education system exists to 'rank' people in terms of intelligence. If this is the way you look at then, yes, if too many kids go to university then a degree is 'devalued' because a lot of people will have degrees and therefore be 'ranked' in the top bracket of intelligence, stopping employers from easily identifying the 'most intelligent' to hire.

The modern way of looking at it (the one new labour subscribes to) is that education is not there to rank people along a single line that represents intelligence, but to train people to a high level in whatever form of 'intelligence' they display.

Someone who excels in philosophy or metaphysics has a very different form of intelligence from someone creative such as an artist or engineer/designer and they both have a very different form than the practical intelligence of a fantastic electrician or plumber. Therefore, New Labour have opened up the degree route to anyone who feels that they would benefit from it, while extending Modern Appreniship schemes and practical GCSEs.

So i'd say it doesn't matter about 'devaluing' degrees. To me that's just a very elitist view that only those who display VERY high levels of academic skills deserve to go to university and that it is wasted on anyone else.

Furthermore, with the decline of manufacturing in the advanced west, a higher and higher percentage of jobs are going to be management jobs - whichever country has the best pool of highly educated workers will be the best able to cope with the global economy.

But the I think the problem is we have different definitions of ‘middle class’ looking at what you subsequently say. Middle class doesn’t even start for me until you get to affluent Professional careers.

I think we do have pretty different definitions of working class. I assume you don't subscribe to the idea that a 'new' middle class emerged during the 80s.

Negative on that for me – the Labour party is for the working man. It is the counter and the balance to the Tories. To be the everyman party just leaves us with the wishy washy mob we have now. Low taxes for all but we are left really – we just won’t talk about it too much.

Im just a bit of a social contractarian. The government is meant to be the government for everyone. Besides, governing according to class interests just pisses everyone off from different classes and its difficult to build social solidarity.

Do you truly believe that? If it is true the axis (null point) has moved hugely to the right IMO.

Yes, i think Labour are on the left. At a push I might say they are a centrist party. Just because they are in a difficult position with regards to civil liberties (something btw that the middle class are much more concerned with than the working class) because of terrorism and have started to take an interest in crime (that hits the working class a lot harder than anyone else) doesn't mean they'r eon the right.

HA HA HA HA HA

sucker

*bites tongue*

[Sandman]

I voted for the Lib Dems. I might have voted for Labour, but their local candidate seems like a right psycho.

[Zulu Elephant]

who was the candidate?

[our_man]

Just got back from voting a few minutes ago. What's with this ridiculous 'tick only one box'. Hasn't the UK ever heard of proportional representation?

On another note: the security was very, very lax. They didn't even ask to see any ID when I handed them in my voting card to ensure I was who I said I was. In Ireland we're required to bring a form of identification (passport, driver's licence) even for local elections.

Well, I've done my bit to give Tony a bit of a fright (hopefully). Unfortunately there were no official monster raving loony party candidates running in my area. Looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

[Dauphin]

Voted. Now wating to see how tight my constituency is this time

[Zulu Elephant]

BBC exit polls are are predicting a majority on 68.

Hopefully its because Labour people are embarressed to say they voted labour (like what happened to the Conservatives in '92) [/clutching at straws]

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

A year ago I predicted a Labour majority of 40.

[Zulu Elephant]

I have to say. The one thing Im sure of is that the majority wont be 68. The marginals are so up in the air to judge any kind of swing(s).

We'll just have to see

[Krill]

What are the odds that Kennedy won't be PM?

[lord of the mark]

Wouldnt it be ironic if Blair were considered weakened cause Labour "only" got a 68 seat majority, a much better showing than Labour got for decades(?) before Blair?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Voted. Now wating to see how tight my constituency is this time

Good lad, if I were in your seat I'd do likewise.

Alas I have not had the chance to retrieve my polling card in a constituency I don't live in any more so I have not been able to vote...

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Wouldnt it be ironic if Blair were considered weakened cause Labour "only" got a 68 seat majority, a much better showing than Labour got for decades(?) before Blair?

Not really- they're predicting only a 37% share of the vote, which is really low for a winning party.