UK General Election thread

[C0ckney]

http://blog.squandertwo.net/2014/12/...ell-brand.html

"man complains bitterly about being mildly inconvenienced"

[kentonio]

To be fair its more 'man complains bitterly about being used as a prop in a publicity stunt aimed at a completely different set of people'.

[C0ckney]

or better yet 'man complains bitterly about being used as a prop in a publicity stunt aimed at a completely different set of people, and then in an (hopefully intentional, but probably not) ironic twist, allows himself to used by others to attack russell brand for reasons that have nothing to do with his lunch'.

[kentonio]

or better yet 'man complains bitterly about being used as a prop in a publicity stunt aimed at a completely different set of people, and then in an (hopefully intentional, but probably not) ironic twist, allows himself to used by others to attack russell brand for reasons that have nothing to do with his lunch'.

Allows himself? His complaint was basically fair, and Russell Brand is already pretty much an open target due to his own wealth and interests. It just comes down to that ever present conundrum of people only really pay attention to people who are celebrities in some way, and celebrities are generally wealthy. Brand is probably a useful person to have as an advocate for change in some ways, because he's intelligent enough to make the arguments, but his flaws are always going to act as an impediment. Given his intelligence though, he should have known better than to target a stunt at the people he did in this case.

Extremely wealthy man rants at much poorer people about unfair distribution of wealth is pretty much the definition of an own goal.

[C0ckney]

anyway here's the bbc's majority builder game. literally minutes of fun.

it looks very difficult for the conservatives to build a majority, even if they get more than 280 seats, whereas labour can quite easily secure one if they work with the SNP. they seem to have painted themselves into a ridiculous corner by ruling out such a move out, though. perhaps then we'll see a grand coalition, as neither the tories or labour have ruled out working with each other.

[kentonio]

perhaps then we'll see a grand coalition, as neither the tories or labour have ruled out working with each other.

It'd almost be worth it for the sheer hilarity.

[kentonio]

*Edit* just realized that 'game' just randomly generates a seat count instead of using polling data. Which is stupid as ****.

[C0ckney]

yes but the results are all reasonably plausible and thus what they say about possible coalitions is too.

[Dauphin]

Going back to the PR thing. It struck me last night (although I knew, I "forgot") that the SNP support PR.

Compare to this to:
They could get 100% of Scottish seats with only around 50% of the vote in Scotland.
They could get 9.1% of seats at Westminster despite Scotland representing 8.3% of the population.
They could get 9.1% of seats at Westminster despite only getting 4.2% of the total UK vote.

Things are really shaping up for a "Scotland broke it" moment.

[kentonio]

Just watching the Question Time Special with the leaders. I'd forgotten just how good a politician Cameron is. Milliband is still weak, but he's improved a little over the last time I saw him a few months back. Labour badly need a stronger candidate.

*edit* To be fair to Milliband, his last 5 minutes were excellent. He hit a home run on zero hour contracts. Good finish, but he was very weak for the first 10-15 minutes.

[kentonio]

Few random musings..

Douglas Carswell from UKIP only moves the bottom half of his face when he talks, it's very disconcerting.
Jo Swinson from the Lib Dems is far too nice to be a politician.
For some reason I both dislike and also really like Yvette Cooper. It's very confusing.
Grant Shapps is a very good politician. Keep an eye on this one.
Nathalie Bennet is terrifying. Whoever put her in front of a TV camera was definitely a Tory or Labour spy.
I almost feel sorry for Nick Clegg. He was such a rising star just 4 years ago, and now he is completely destroyed as a credible candidate. He's still very good in front of a camera though.
I'd only ever really listened to Nicola Sturgeon previously when she was talking about nationalism, and when she does that she comes across as much more menacing. I guess now we're seeing how she probably is in Scotland when she's talking domestic policy. Smooth and dangerous.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Grant Shapps is a very good politician. Keep an eye on this one.

Too gaffe-prone. You can't threaten legal action against your constituents for making claims that you later admit are completely true.

Politicians are trying to portray themselves as decent, ethical people- and that's going to keep coming back to bite him.

[kentonio]

Too gaffe-prone. You can't threaten legal action against your constituents for making claims that you later admit are completely true.

Politicians are trying to portray themselves as decent, ethical people- and that's going to keep coming back to bite him.

Nah fair play, I was basing that on watching his performance live, I hadn't heard about that.

[regexcellent]

Are minority governments kosher in the UK like they are in Canada? If they are a minority Conservative or Labour government seems most plausible to me.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Yes. We had a minority government for a few months at the end of the Major government in 1997.