General Election Predictions

I've got a horrible feeling we'll end up with a Tory majority. I think the average man in the street still swallows the narrative of profligate Labour chucking money around and the Tories taking the difficult decisions to get things back on an even keel. I think a high percentage of floating voters will, with that in mind, decide voting Tory is the 'safe' option. I also think a lot of those indicating a instinct to vote for UKIP will actually go Tory when it comes to a General Election. Labour are also going to do pretty abysmally in Scotland. For these reasons I think the Tory vote will actually be greater than opinion polls are suggesting and I think they'll have a small majority. God help us all then.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

I've got a horrible feeling we'll end up with a Tory majority. I think the average man in the street still swallows the narrative of profligate Labour chucking money around and the Tories taking the difficult decisions to get things back on an even keel. I think a high percentage of floating voters will, with that in mind, decide voting Tory is the 'safe' option. I also think a lot of those indicating a instinct to vote for UKIP will actually go Tory when it comes to a General Election. Labour are also going to do pretty abysmally in Scotland. For these reasons I think the Tory vote will actually be greater than opinion polls are suggesting and I think they'll have a small majority. God help us all then.

Definitely. One of my friends works in the City doing some sort of financial stuff (all sounds boring to me) and he actually believes that the Tories have a better plan for the economy despite the obvious that cuts during a recession go against one of the most basic rules in economics. It's worrying that someone who should have some knowledge of economics believes their rhetoric because if he does, as you said, what does the average man on the street think? Probably what the Tories tell them.

Bear in mind that the Tories policies tend to ensure that more money is heading to workers in the City, so it would probably be in your friend's best interests to have another Conservative government. Screw the rest of us, of course.

Don't rule out the influence of groupthink, either. Working in the City, your friend is almost certainly surrounded by public schoolboys whose families will never have voted anything but Conservative. His bosses are quite possibly donors to the Tories, he probably reads the FT, whose leader writers have been bizarrely pro-Tory in recent years (and damn the actual underlying economics). Surrounded by all this, he probably just believes what everyone else around him thinks and facts just don't matter.

See if you can get him to read that piece in the LRB which I linked to. Would be amusing to hear what he thought about that run-down of economic incompetence by Osborne & co.  

As someone living in Scotland, here's my take on things up here as a committed and passionate believer in Independence.

The SNP will not get anything like 40 seats that some of the media are predicting and it is much more likely that they will get between 20 and 25 seats. Voting during the Independence campaign rose to over 85%, but that won't happen again as Westminster is seen by many as a non issue up here now that the argument for Independence as defeated.

There is still a sizeable rump vote though that will vote SNP, who have probably never voted for them before, because although Independence was defeated, there is much more chance of resurrecting the argument if the SNP can hold the balance of power somehow, and use their leverage for much greater autonomy - to such a point that a break up of the UK would become inevitable. Look at Labour over the last couple of weeks though, and you can see changes in the way they are arguing certain things, especially on big business and tax evasion, and that is down to the fact that they have to portray themselves as a much more left of centre party than they really are in order to try and fight off the very genuine SNP threat.

Nobody will win a majority, and even with the tax evasion arguments going on now being an absolute gift for Labour, the public will still somehow believe that the Tories with their free market determines everything approach makes them more competent with handling the economy. Why is that? Because the right wing press tell them so, and they fall hook, line and sinker for it.

Will I be voting SNP? No, I still have it inherent in my nature that I have to use my vote to try and ensure that I don't end up with a Tory MP. The SNP are light years behind in terms of the percentage vote at the last election so I'll be voting Labour - not because I think they're capable of real change, but the alternative of a Tory government is simply too scary to comtemplate. The SNP will eventually have major internal strife, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind about that, it's how long they can keep the reins on those who have infiltrated the party and see it as a vehicle for revolutionary change, believe it or not. When yo get the likes of Tommy Sheridan and others advocating voting for them, rather than their own far left groupings, there will be a price to pay in the future. I just hope it's after we get a much better deal in Scotland than the absolute b0ll0cks we've been given with the Vow - which ain't worth tuppence.

Politics and GTFC go hand in hand for me. I used to care passionately about both and now i don't. The best period for me was the late nineties, Labour in power, plenty of work and plenty of money in my pocket. Town playing fantastic football. It's all been downhill ever since.  

Christ, even our major shareholder is a Tory.

Quoted from ginnywings

Politics and GTFC go hand in hand for me. I used to care passionately about both and now i don't. The best period for me was the late nineties, Labour in power, plenty of work and plenty of money in my pocket. Town playing fantastic football. It's all been downhill ever since.  

Christ, even our major shareholder is a Tory.

Spot on......Although 1945-50 sounded good!! (And Town were in the First Division for some of it)

Quoted from barralad

Spot on......Although 1945-50 sounded good!! (And Town were in the First Division for some of it)

AND

Grimsby pete was born.  

92, 97, 2001, 2005, 2010 for Grimsby >> [url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/constituency/979/great-grimsby]http://www.theguardian.com/politics/constituency/979/great-grimsby[/url]

I notice that Mitchell has been running his mouth off again and putting his foot in it with some really stupid comments:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31574817

Just shows how far past it he is (and has been for some years, IMO). I bet the Labour candidate in Grimsby can't believe that he seems to be actively making it more difficult for her to win!  

I would vote for Michael Sheen given a chance. So spot on, so vociferous, so angry, so passionate and so incredibly Welsh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMYgb7xs38