UK Election Poll

[MikeH]

He's such a c*nt.

[C0ckney]

cameron has just made a 'comprehensive offer' to the liberals. as i predicted, this is the only combination that would be legitimate and that would last. it's quite inspiring stuff.

fair play to him, he's got some serious balls to do this. he is going to get a lot of flak from his own party. what will the liberals do now? i don't think they can reject it outright, but i'm sure they would quite reluctant to enter into a formal coalition with the conservatives.

[C0ckney]

of course some might see it as a cynical ploy to make the liberals a seemingly good offer, and hope for a rejection. using that rejection as grounds to govern as a minority.

[MikeH]

I can't see how the conservatives could agree to anything that the Lib Dems would require for a formal coalition without tearing their party apart. eg. voting reform, immigration, europe, science, crime, nhs, taxation... etc.

[OzzyKP]

cameron has just made a 'comprehensive offer' to the liberals. as i predicted, this is the only combination that would be legitimate and that would last. it's quite inspiring stuff.

fair play to him, he's got some serious balls to do this. he is going to get a lot of flak from his own party. what will the liberals do now? i don't think they can reject it outright, but i'm sure they would quite reluctant to enter into a formal coalition with the conservatives.

Their "comprehensive offer" was pretty lame imho. Basically he said:

- We're not compromising on Europe
- Not compromising on immigration
- Not compromising on defense

Then he picked off a handful of points that were already in both party's platforms. The only thing he said about electoral reform was having districts that are the same size and doing an "inquiry" about further reform. Which really isn't anything. It was just fluff.

If his only carrots to the Libs is to do things the Conservatives were already planning on doing anyway... that really isn't a comprehensive offer at all.

[Havak]

Inspiring? You are more easily inspired than I am.

[MOBIUS]

Inspiring to a 10 year old maybe...

Oh wait, C0ckney doesn't vote because some time back in the mists of time a Lib Dem leaflet had the temerity to patronise him as though he was a ten year old...

[MOBIUS]

Their "comprehensive offer" was pretty lame imho. Basically he said:

- We're not compromising on Europe
- Not compromising on immigration
- Not compromising on defense

Then he picked off a handful of points that were already in both party's platforms. The only thing he said about electoral reform was having districts that are the same size and doing an "inquiry" about further reform. Which really isn't anything. It was just fluff.

If his only carrots to the Libs is to do things the Conservatives were already planning on doing anyway... that really isn't a comprehensive offer at all.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Unfortunately.

[C0ckney]

I can't see how the conservatives could agree to anything that the Lib Dems would require for a formal coalition without tearing their party apart. eg. voting reform, immigration, europe, science, crime, nhs, taxation... etc.

well, the lib dems did set out 4 main areas they wanted changes in as a price for their support.

1. the pupil premium (extra money for disadvantaged children)
2. tax reform (taking people earning less than £10,000 out of tax)
3. 're-balancing the economy' (which presumably means something along the lines of breaking up the banks and more 'green jobs')
4. political reforms, a democratic house of lords and proportional representation.

1 and 2 would be no problem for the tories, they're already committed to a pupil premium and it ties in with the free schools idea, and taking people out of tax is hardly going to provoke a tory revolt.

3 might be harder, but it's all a bit woolly and i guess they'll have to flesh out what they mean. i can certainly see the tory leadership going for 'more green jobs'.

4 is the real sticking point. a lot of tories have said they wouldn't accept electoral reform in any form at present. however considering how fluid the whole situation is at the moment, we'll just have to wait and see.

[Ecthy]

If we had your electoral system we'd have had one a long time ago too. We have Green Euro MPs where it's proportional system for ages.

Right, we had our ifrst directly elected Green MP only in 2002. Still 8 years ahead of you guys

[C0ckney]

i have a question for our committed lib dems. how do you square the circle of supporting a deal with a labour party, which has shat all over our civil liberties for 13 years?

[C0ckney]

ozzy, the thing is, it's an opening gambit.the tory leader is not going to give the liberals everything they want, and certainly not straight away. what he has done though is said that he wants to do a deal, outlined some areas where they agree, told them that he won't compromise on certain issues (europe, immigration and defence (which i guess means trident)) and said that they can discuss the rest.

it's a fairly brave (or fairly cynical, depending on your viewpoint) thing to do, considering the attitude of much of his own party towards doing a deal with the lib dems.

[MOBIUS]

It might be an opening gambit, but the point is he might as well have said "**** you" in giant neon writing a hundred feet tall!

Did you see what the markets did during Cameron's speech? They nosedived!

There wasn't a single iota of compromise from Cameron's speech whatsoever - so much for putting party differences aside and doing the best for the country!

[OzzyKP]

i have a question for our committed lib dems. how do you square the circle of supporting a deal with a labour party, which has shat all over our civil liberties for 13 years?

Personally, as someone whose only time spent in the UK is about an hour & a half in Heathrow, I'd actually prefer a LibDem-Tory coalition over a Lib-Lab. And if it weren't for the idea of electoral reform I'd prefer a Conservative victory outright.

But electoral reform that *could* set up the Liberals for a permanent spot in government in the future and get the voting age lowered is too enticing to pass up. So for me, as an obviously uninvolved interested party, electoral reform is the most important thing.

Putting that aside of course, I wouldn't mind the Tories at all.

[C0ckney]

well you're entitled to your view. i don't share it.

i believe that cameron sees that the only prospect of governing without having another general election within a year is doing a deal with the liberals. the exact terms of that deal are obviously not going to become clear for a little while at least. it may be coalition or a looser arrangement. it may not happen at all.

for me personally, a tory-liberal government with a deal on electoral reform (or at least a referendum on it) would be the ideal outcome. so maybe i am a little biased.

edit: x-post, that was in response to mobius.