UK General Election thread

[kentonio]

You would seriously allow your voting choices to be affected by some stranger on the internet?

Of course I'd seriously do that. Like super serious.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Awesome, and, like, spitefully too?

[kentonio]

Totes.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Way cooooool!

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

You know what? I'm going to post some politics here. Tory manifesto launched.

The main pledges in the manifesto combine previous announcements and some new policies, announced at the launch. Here are some of the most important:
Extension of the right-to-buy scheme to housing association tenants in England
Plans to build 200,000 starter homes
Ensuring all people who work 30 hours per week on the minimum wage pay no income tax
Doubling free childcare allowance for three and four-year-olds to 30 hours
Increasing the inheritance tax threshold on family homes to £1m by 2017
No above-inflation rises in rail fares until 2020
An extra £8bn a year for the NHS by 2020
Opening 500 more free schools
An EU referendum by 2017
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Economy
The party says mortgages, schools, hospitals and pensions are some of things that depend on a "strong economy". The manifesto says the party will continue with its "long-term economic plan". Pledges on the economy include:
Running a surplus by 2018 so that the UK "starts to pay down its debts"
No rise in VAT, national insurance contributions or income tax
A crackdown on tax evasion and the "aggressive" avoidance of tax
Creating a "Northern Powerhouse" through investment
Spending £100bn on infrastructure in the next Parliament

The document says the Conservative Party is committed to helping people enjoy the "satisfaction and rewards of a decent job". Pledges include:
Achieving full employment by helping businesses create two million extra jobs over the course of the next Parliament
Cutting £10bn of red tape over the next Parliament
Giving businesses "the most competitive taxes of any major economy"
Replacing Jobseeker's Allowance for 18-21 year-olds with a Youth Allowance time-limited to six months. After that, they will have to take an apprenticeship or traineeship or do community work to claim benefits
Requiring 40% of those entitled to take part in strike ballots to vote for a strike before industrial action can be held
Requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap - the difference between average pay for male and female employees
Increasing the minimum wage to £6.70 by the autumn and to £8 by the end of the decade
Investing £6.9bn in the UK's research infrastructure up to 2021
"Near universal superfast broadband" for rural areas
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Taxation and welfare
The manifesto launch paid significant attention to plans to reduce tax for low-paid workers and increase benefits for working parents. Some of the main pledges in this area include:
Taking everyone who earns less than £12,500 out of income tax
Passing a new law that would mean all those working 30 hours a week and earning the minimum wage will not pay income tax on earnings
Raising the threshold for the 40p rate of tax so that nobody under £50,000 pays the rate
A freeze on working age benefits for two years from April 2016 (exemptions for disability and pensioner benefits)
Lowering the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000 (with exemptions for those receiving Disability Living Allowance or the Personal Independence Payment)
Giving working parents of three- and four-year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week

The party says it still wants to see annual net migration in the tens of thousands. It pledges to reduce the incentive for EU migrants to settle in the UK by:
Negotiating new EU rules so people will have to be earning in the UK for four years before they can claim tax credits and child benefits
Introducing a four-year residency requirement for social housing for EU migrants
Ending ability of EU jobseekers to claim any job-seeking benefits
Requiring jobseekers who have not found a job within six months to leave
The party says it will also:
Insist new EU member states' citizens do not have free movement rights "until their economies have converged much more closely with existing member states"
Cap the level of skilled migration from outside the EU at 20,700
Extend the "deport first, appeal later" principle to cover all immigration appeals and judicial reviews, apart from asylum cases

The Tories pledged at the weekend to spend an extra £8bn per year on the NHS. Other manifesto commitments include:
Investing £7bn over the course of the next Parliament to provide "good school places"
Opening at least 500 new free schools and turn failing schools into academies
Protecting the schools budget; increasing the amount spent on schools as the number of pupils increases
Scrapping the cap on higher education student numbers
Providing same-day GP appointments for over 75s
The right to a named GP
Integration of health and social care systems

The party pledges to:
Keep major museums and galleries free to enter
Freeze the BBC licence fee
Guarantee those who work for a big company and the public sector entitlement to Volunteering Leave for three days per year
End taxpayer-funded six-figure pay-offs for the best-paid public sector workers
Reduce number of MPs to 600
Introduce English votes for English laws
Give English MPs a veto over matters only affecting England
Implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission, set up to consider new powers for Scotland after the independence referendum
Increase some powers for the Welsh Assembly
Devolve corporation tax powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly
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Justice
This section deal with prisons and counter-terrorism. The Conservatives pledge to:
Toughen sentencing and reform the prison system
Create a Victims' Law that will enshrine key rights for victims, including the right to make a personal statement and have it read in court before sentencing and before parole hearings
Scrap the Human Rights Act, and introduce a British Bill of Rights
Strengthen counter-terrorism powers
Create new Extremism Disruption Orders, which the party says would help target those trying to radicalise young people on social media
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Pensions and inheritance
Pledges include:
Increasing the inheritance tax threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1m
Continuing to increase the state pension through the triple lock system, meaning it rises by at least 2.5%
Introducing a single-tier pension
Protecting pensioner benefits like free bus passes and the winter fuel payment
Foreign affairs and defence
As well as an in/out referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017, the party pledges to:
Protect the UK economy from further integration with the eurozone while reclaiming other powers from Europe
Uphold commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on international development
Maintain the size of the regular armed services and not reduce the Army to below 82,000
Expand armed forces reserves to 35,000
Retain Trident and build a new a new fleet of nuclear submarines

Giving Parliament a free vote on repeal of the Hunting Act
Ending any new public subsidy for onshore windfarms

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Now with commentary-

Plans to build 200,000 starter homes- That's not enough.

Doubling free childcare allowance for three and four-year-olds to 30 hours- I like this, but if all it provides to the economy is many more people on zero-hours contracts it'll be expensive as hell.

Increasing the inheritance tax threshold on family homes to £1m by 2017- Bugger off.

An extra £8bn a year for the NHS by 2020- So, nothing until 2020, which conveniently enough will be an election year?

Opening 500 more free schools- Bugger off.

Passing a new law that would mean all those working 30 hours a week and earning the minimum wage will not pay income tax on earnings- This is good.

Raising the threshold for the 40p rate of tax so that nobody under £50,000 pays the rate- This isn't.

Reduce number of MPs to 600- Is it 2010 again? They failed to make it happen since then, so why's it going to happen now?

Toughen sentencing and reform the prison system- Is it (insert year of every General Election since 1945 here) again?

Continuing to increase the state pension through the triple lock system, meaning it rises by at least 2.5%- This is ****ing nuts from any perspective except the one that involves winning the elderly vote. Inflation is currently zero. Pensions don't need to rise by 2.5%.

Retain Trident and build a new a new fleet of nuclear submarines- Bugger off.

Giving Parliament a free vote on repeal of the Hunting Act- Bugger off.

[Bereta_Eder]

I would like to make a poast here.

Rightists only believe the bullsh!t they were taught.
Leftists only believe the bullsh!t they invented.

Georges Wolinski (RIP)

[C0ckney]

in a similar vein here are the green party's proposals

The economy

* Abandon GDP and the pursuit of growth as the measure of economic success. Instead use a measure of Adjusted National Product (ANP), which would take account of capital and environmental depreciation and include the value of things not currently paid for, such as unpaid work at home.

* The plans in the manifesto require borrowing of £338bn in real terms over the parliament, compared with the coalition’s plans to borrow £115bn. They say public spending and taxation would provide a surplus on the current account of 2.7% by the end of the parliament.

Tax
* Introduce a Robin Hood tax (a financial transaction tax) and controls on bank lending.
* Introduce a wealth tax of 2% a year on the top 1% to raise £25bn per year.
* Raise the additional top rate of income tax to 60% and increase corporation tax from 20% to 30%, raising £12bn per year.

The environment
* Protect, expand, properly fund and improve non-vehicular access to national parks.
* Increase national spending on recycling and waste disposal by about 50%, an extra £4bn a year.
* Aim to recycle 70% of domestic waste by 2020 as a move towards a zero-waste system. Follow Scotland in banning waste food and other organic material being sent to landfill.
* Break up large vertically integrated companies so that they can’t both produce energy and supply it to customers.
* Cut energy demand by a third by 2020, a half by 2030 and two thirds by 2050.
* Provide a free nationwide retrofit insulation programme, concentrated on areas where fuel poverty is most serious.
* Provide £4.5bn over the parliament to support research and development into less energy-intensive industrial processes.
* Preventing new building on flood plains.

Animal protection

* Introduce a ban on cages for hens and rabbits on farms, with mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses, and ban the production and sale of foie gras.
* Introduce tougher regulations on animal transportation and end the overuse of antibiotics.
* Ban the importing of exotic pets.
* End the badger cull, the use of snares, the practice of grouse and other ‘sport’ shooting, the use of animals in circuses, the use of whips in horse racing, the importing of fur products. The party would also conduct a review of horse and greyhound racing.
* End all non-medical experiments using primates, cats and dogs; and end government funding for animal experimentation.

Science and Technology
* Increase government funding on scientific research from 0.5% to 1% of GDP over the next decade and ensure that the results of publicly funded research are published freely.

Equalities
* Reinstate funding for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
* Require all police forces to have quality and diversity liaison officers.
* Apologise to and pardon all men convicted of consenting adult same-sex relations under anti-gay laws that have now been repealed.
* Require 40% of all members of public company and public sector boards to be women.
* Increase the budget for the disability living allowance/personal independence payments by around £1bn a year and return to a system where a GP assesses whether a person is fit to work, rather than an external contractor.
* Lower the voting age to 16 and raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

Health
* Repeal the Health and Social Care Act.
* Stop further private finance initiative (PFI) contracts and end the sale of NHS assets.
* Immediately increase the NHS budget by £12bn a year.
* Provide the right to an assisted death “within a framework of regulation and in the context of the availability of the highest level of palliative care”.

Education
* Integrate grammar schools into the comprehensive school system, and integrate academies and free schools into the local authority system.
* Remove charity status from private schools.
* Have class sizes of 20, costing £1.5bn over the parliament.
* Abolish Sats and league tables.
* Restore the education maintenance allowance for 16- and 17-year-olds.
* Abolish tuition fees, costing £4.5bn over the next parliament and £8bn a year in the long run. Cancel student debt issued by the Student Loans Company.

Housing
* Give the Bank of England the powers it has requested to limit the size of mortgages in relation to the property value and the borrower’s income.
Introduce higher council tax bands.
* Scrap the government’s help to buy scheme, saving £600m a year.
* Build 500,000 new social rental homes.
* Abolish the bedroom tax.

Work
* Increase the minimum wage to the living wage of £10 an hour by 2020, and to £8.10 an hour this year.
* Phase in 35-hour weeks.
* Ban zero-hours contracts.
* Introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10:1 between the best paid and worst paid in any organisation.

Benefits
* Raise child benefit from £20.70 a week for the eldest child (plus £13.70 for additional children) to £40 a week for each child.
* Introduce a citizen’s pension of £180 a week (£310 for a couple), paid regardless of contribution record.

Democracy
* Reform the House of Lords to become an elected body chosen by proportional representation.
* Introduce state funding for political parties.

Transport
* Bring the railways into public ownership.
* End the national major roads programme, saving £15bn. Put the money saved into subsidising public transport fares.

Defence
* Save £100bn over 30 years by cancelling Trident renewal.

[C0ckney]

i like most of that; it's just a shame they left most of the really radical stuff out.

[kentonio]

Radical doesn't win you elections. Not that they're going to win the election, but the point still stands.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Yeah, in fact what they left in is too radical for the majority of the UK electorate - I mean, actually sacrificing unsustainable rampant consumerism for a fairer and nicer society?

**** that!

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Silly season has commenced.

The first black or Asian prime minister will be a Conservative, David Cameron has said, in a speech on opportunities for ethnic minority Britons.
The prime minister told in audience in south London he looked forward to the day, as he outlined plans to increase the number of ethnic minority Tory MPs.
Mr Cameron also pledged to boost minority ethnic jobs, university places and police recruits by 2020.
Of 306 Conservative MPs elected in 2010, 11 were black or Asian.
Labour had 16 ethnic minority MPs elected in 2010, while the Lib Dems had none.
In that election, the Conservative Party only won 16% of the ethnic minority vote, which has historically favoured Labour. In 2015, it is fielding 56 candidates from black and Asian communities. Labour is fielding 52 ethnic minority candidates.
Setting out his vision to increase the number of black and Asian students, apprentices, entrepreneurs and police and armed forces personnel, Mr Cameron said he was also setting ambitions for the Conservatives.
"In the last Parliament, we increased our number of black and Asian MPs from two, to 11. Now that's not enough, but it's good progress. At this election, there is one party fielding more black and ethnic minority candidates than any other and I'm proud to say, that it's us - the Conservatives."
Boris 'coronation'
He said in 18% of "retirement seats", where a Conservative MP was standing down and which "we have a very good chance of keeping", the party was standing a candidate from an ethnic minority. By 2020 - he said he wanted that to reach 20% of retirement seats.
"And why not? We are the first party to have a female prime minister, we were the party of the first Jewish prime minister and I know one day, we are going to be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister," he said.
Pressed on whether he thought Culture Secretary Sajid Javid was in the running to succeed him as prime minister in questions after the speech, he said: "It won't be for me to choose, but the ambition is there and I hope you can sense from me, the excitement is there."
Amid reports that London Mayor Boris Johnson is being lined up for a "rapid coronation" as Conservative leader if the party fails to win an outright majority, Mr Cameron said he was focused on the next 12 days of the election campaign and would leave speculation up to the media.
In his speech at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, Mr Cameron said he wanted Britain to be an "opportunity country" where people from all backgrounds could "make the most of your talents".
He said he wanted to see "ambitious but realistic" targets for black and Asian people - pledging 20% increases by 2020 in the number of jobs, apprenticeships, university places, start-up business loans and police officer recruits from ethnic minorities. In the Armed Forces he pledged an increase of at least 10% "on the way to 20%".
Labour Leader Ed Miliband launched his party's black, Asian and ethnic minority manifesto earlier this month, alongside shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan - suggesting quotas could be used to increase the number of non-white and working class people in top jobs, including senior civil servants and the judiciary.
They accuse the coalition of overseeing a big rise in the number of young black and Asian people in long-term unemployment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32461482

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

And, I've just cast my postal vote. For what it's worth, seeing as I live in a Tory safe seat.

[self biased]

this is how i picture british politics:

[C0ckney]

The first black or Asian prime minister

i hope when it happens it will be someone like this:



but i suspect it will be someone like this: