UK General Election- May 6th

[Krill]

If the Tories actually follow up these assurances, the Libs just got the deal of the century. Bar the anti-Europe stuff it's a Liberal manifesto with Tory branding.

OK- so the Trident vote is bound to fail.

Yup. Turning the Lords into a PR elected second house is uber awesome, and doesn't really screw anyone apart from the ****ers already there

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ben: You are apparently under the assumption that additional elections cost no money for the government?

And, of course, everyone knows that voter turnout is very depressed for runoffs... but you wouldn't be using that political calculation, would you?

[C0ckney]

first past the post has its advantages, in that it tends to produce clear results and there is a clear link between the constituency MP and the people he or she represents. the problem is that in a 3 or more party system, a large number of votes often doesn't translate into a large number of MPs. the liberals got nearly a quarter of the votes yet get less than 1/11 of the seats. also voting for a smaller party is a wasted vote, nearly 1 million people voted for UKIP in this election, result: 0 UKIP MPs. it means that millions are effectively disenfranchised because they live in 'safe' seats or because their views don't fit in with the main parties.

proportional representation would remedy these problems, but at the cost of severing the link between the local MP and their constituency and making it very hard (if not impossible) for any 1 party to form a majority. the former could be partially remedied by making it regional. however, on balance i think that this is a price worth paying to get fair representation in parliament. i could probably live with STV as well, but with some reservations.

i'm not a fan of alternative vote though. it's produces perverse results and is hardly more proportional than first past the post. i'd vote against it. there's too much tactical voting at the moment, we ought to vote for people, not against them. one man, one vote, vote for the who you believe in the most and that's it. we won't get it of course, but that's no reason to settle for a crap system like alternative vote.

[Krill]

Question: Anyone know about the biometric passports? IIRC, the US will require them in the near future...but I can't see how that works with places like, well, China or Russia, that lack biometric scanners? I can't see the Russian scanners working for one.

[MOBIUS]

AFAIK, they got kicked into the long grass, along with ID cards and a bunch of other Labour Big Brother initiatives...

Oh and Heathrow's 3rd runway has bitten the dust - just like that!

[David Floyd]

This may have been answered, but I can't be arsed to sort through 12 pages of bull****.

Are the Brits here generally happy with David Cameron?

[MOBIUS]

Not particularly, no.

[Krill]

AFAIK, they got kicked into the long grass, along with ID cards and a bunch of other Labour Big Brother initiatives...

Oh and Heathrow's 3rd runway has bitten the dust - just like that!

I think you are right, I'm just wondering how they jive with the US demanding them. I'm quite happy to say FU to the US on that issue though...and that appears to be the general position that Downing Street is taking with the US right now.

[MOBIUS]

I've been across about half of the US on 3 separate trips. Been there, done that. So if they want to be c*nts about me visiting their country, they can get ****ed!

[notyoueither]

Is there any decent reporting on the fixed term and reform of the Lords, with details?

[MikeH]

If the Tories actually follow up these assurances, the Libs just got the deal of the century. Bar the anti-Europe stuff it's a Liberal manifesto with Tory branding.

OK- so the Trident vote is bound to fail.

[OzzyKP]

Stop being a ******, or stop posting on **** you don't understand.

Budgets have to be passed every year, failure to do so is a vote of no confidence which leads to the dissolution of parliament.


THIS DOES NOT WORK WITH FIXED TERM PARLIAMENTS.

**** you, just because your country has an ass backwards form of government doesn't mean you have to get all pissy about it.

If the parliament doesn't like the budget, then gosh, maybe they should rewrite the budget to be something that the MPs actually do like. If opposition parties were unable to force an election just by disapproving of a budget then perhaps they'd be interested in playing a part in crafting a budget that can be supported by a majority of those in parliament.

Instead you have a broken system where people play games with the budget and with elections instead of working within consistent rules for the good of the country.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Because people never play games with a budget in the US. If we had a significant minority party, like the UK does, we'd be in a world of hurt regarding budgets.

[Kuciwalker]

If we had a significant minority party

freudian slip?

[OzzyKP]

Because people never play games with a budget in the US. If we had a significant minority party, like the UK does, we'd be in a world of hurt regarding budgets.

In pretty much every case in the UK the party that writes the budget and puts it up for the vote has a majority of the votes in parliament. How often in our history does the president have a majority in both houses of congress? We rarely have a situation where one party is in control of everything and can put in whatever they want. Divided government here is fairly common and you can bet that Obama's next budgets (assuming the GOP take control) will be much different than his 2010 budget. To see that as some kind of crisis that should elicit new elections I think is ridiculous.