SomTervo Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 The post I've just seen on facebook puts Labour's total votes at around 40,000, and tories at a total 34,000. Tories have like 70 more seats. It's great. Con have 37% of the votes, 50% of the seats. Lab have 30% of the votes, 35% of the seats. SNP have 5% of the votes, 9% of the seats. Lib Dem have 8% of the votes, 1.2% of the seats, n UKIP has 13% of votes with 0.1% of the seats, n greens with 4% of the votes n 0.1% of the seats. And that, my friends, is the problem with first past the post. Like GOH! said, it is largely to blame for the US's terrible system. I read some really insightful info the other day about how Republican/Democrat are meaningless even beyond the bipartisan FPTP system in the USA. I'll find the info and post it in the relevant thread. Was insanely mindblowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Voting reform was pushed for last time, and didn't happen. No way in hell are Tories opening that one up again. 1) It was a Lib Dem policy, they aren't going to admit that Clegg had a point. 2) When the people were given the choice it was a landslide vote in favour of "I would rather have a broken system that I am familiar with than read a three page booklet explaining the proposed new system." 3) If they start revisiting referendums after just 4 years, they will be staring down the barrel of another Scottish referendum before the next term. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Eh, good riddance to the NHS. You guys will enjoy private insurance. Well, those of you who work for huge companies or are otherwise wealthy, at least. The Tories think the rest of you can just go fuck yourselves, IIRC. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 A weird thing came up in conversation last night. Any government isn't actually all that bad for me. I'm fortunate enough to be on a decent income, high enough that I'm not reliant on state welfare, but low enough that mansion taxes etc don't have any effect on me. I'm in relatively good health and have medical cover through work, so while I am staunchly in favour of the NHS and consider it a legit wonder of the modern world, I'm not personally dependent on it. I walk to work so am not reliant on public transport, nor susceptible to car tax, fuel duty or any of the other costs of private or public transport. I'm white, middle class, straight and male so have the full package of standard privilege. Basically my life wouldn't be noticeably different if anyone from Cons to Lab to Lib to Green to UKIP were in power, I'd just keep ticking along minding my own business. I would love to know what % of the population that applies to and how many are in the 34% of people who didn't vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 A weird thing came up in conversation last night. Any government isn't actually all that bad for me. I'm fortunate enough to be on a decent income, high enough that I'm not reliant on state welfare, but low enough that mansion taxes etc don't have any effect on me. I'm in relatively good health and have medical cover through work, so while I am staunchly in favour of the NHS and consider it a legit wonder of the modern world, I'm not personally dependent on it. I walk to work so am not reliant on public transport, nor susceptible to car tax, fuel duty or any of the other costs of private or public transport. I'm white, middle class, straight and male so have the full package of standard privilege. Basically my life wouldn't be noticeably different if anyone from Cons to Lab to Lib to Green to UKIP were in power, I'd just keep ticking along minding my own business. I would love to know what % of the population that applies to and how many are in the 34% of people who didn't vote. I am in literally the exact same situation. Bar the fact that I don't have medical cover from my work. But I'd say this is made up for by the very healthy state of the Scottish NHS. The health and social care up here really is amazing. It's absolutely a principles thing for me. Basically my life carries on generally the same no matter who is in power. But I know many people, and in the past have known even more, who have been terribly affected by right wing policies, and I just can't stand that shit happening anymore. My parents are included in this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) In the US, but I'm pretty much in the same position. I do drive to work when the weather's not nice, but it's not very far so I can go 2 months without a fill-up, and I don't think our fuel taxes are as bad as yours anyway. *Edit - I do have Obamacare insurance, but I don't actually qualify for any subsidies and my firm pays my premium anyway. Edited May 8, 2015 by TheMightyEthan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) I also get the subway when the weather's not nice. It's not cheap but it's not expensive either. I can often go weeks without topping up my smartcard. The politics don't really impact much on it in this case. We do get hit by some fairly gnarly charges on our car, which my gf uses most days – but that's fair enough. Cars should be banned in urban areas anyway. At the very least everyone in/near a city should be disincentivised to use them. There's no need for that shit unless you live in the countryside/small towns. Edited May 8, 2015 by kenshi_ryden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Cars should be banned in urban areas anyway. Where there is decent infrastructure. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 True – and I guess that's near impossible to gauge in a consistent way But you can also imagine public transport infrastructure exploding as a byproduct of not allowing anyone to drive into cities anymore, so infrastructure would theoretically get a boost anyway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 I'm comfortably upper middle class, but since I'm a lawyer who works in areas of law that are frequently subject legislative/regulatory changes, who's in power can greatly affect my career prospects. I also live in a city and state whose actions affect me noticeably, from raising the fare on the subway, to shutting down the hospital where my doctors work, to granting insurance companies the right to raise rates 50% year over year, to allowing a bar across to street to stay open after midnight, significantly increasing noise while I'm trying to sleep. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 This is an eye-opening and, once you get far down, quite frightening read: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/shaun-lawson/polls-and-all-but-one-of-forecasts-were-wrong-ed-miliband-was-nowhere-near-b In practice, as the NCP model conclusively demonstrates, Labour were never ahead, and have probably been several points behind throughout the campaign. Yet that’s not what the polling companies were saying. Should organisations with such disastrously flawed methodology and a consistent record of inaccuracy which, as exposed by NCP, dates back at least 32 years, be allowed to dominate the agenda in such a way; and above all, to have such heavy influence on debate and public discourse? Remember: huge amounts of the Tory campaign were dedicated to frightening English voters into stopping a minority Labour government propped up by the SNP – but in practice, this was never the prospect it appeared, because Labour were doing much worse than was believed. Enormous amounts of discussion were put over not to policy, not to manifestos, but the electoral and Parliamentary arithmetic – but this bore no resemblance to the reality. ... Ashcroft has morphed in public persona from hugely controversial non-dom to friend of the political process: opening up the business of polling to the public in a manner never seen before. But Ashcroft, contrary to what so many must assume, is not a pollster: he buys in polling from other companies, publishes the results, but won’t reveal who these companies are. He himself is not a member of the British Polling Council either. Not only that, but he’s an extremely wealthy Tory peer, and former Deputy Chairman of the Party. During tbis campaign, he’s tweeted his admiration of Sturgeon – whose ‘danger to England’ just so happened, by purest coincidence, to constitute the central plank of the successful Conservative strategy. I have never known a Tory give such regular praise to a nationalist in the way Ashcroft has. His final ‘snapshot’, released well after 7am yesterday, had Conservative and Labour tied, and only added to the bigger picture that the two parties were deadlocked. But ask yourself, purely hypothetically: if you were a Tory who naturally desired your party to win as convincingly as possible, would you want the final poll to have them well ahead… or locked in a race too close to call, which would encourage maximum possible turnout? More to the point: purely hypothetically, if you were a Tory who wanted maximum possible negative exposure of Labour throughout an election campaign, scaring the public into voting heavily against them, would you want them to be well behind… or seemingly on the verge of victory? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 What the hell That guy isn't just down the rabbit hole He is the rabbit hole What a read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 He did another video. Getting in on 24% sure is something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/3co6vj/the_job_centre_have_decided_i_will_work_for_them/ I really hope this is just not true. The whole "Workfair/workfare" thing is just utter trash. Displacing actual paid jobs, and actual earnings in large businesses and organisations. Set folks up in charities or something. It'd be a right fucking joke if the people "working" in the Job Centre are actually on JSA. In general the IFS is saying 25% of working families will be out of £1000 a year on the new budget, so hooray. And cos they're slashing tax credits so much, the new "living wage" bait n switch/renaming thing won't have any impact in real terms of cash households will actually have to hand. Best thing you can do now is declare yourself a company n reduce your tax payments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 aahhh, Prince Phillip https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/619559502132543488 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 aahhh, Prince Phillip https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/619559502132543488 Just look at the guy. He's probably on 6 different medications, has a trick knee that aches when it rains, and can barely do anything without his arthritis acting up. It's clearly past his 3 o'clock tea and nap session, too. Now, that little Prince George has my wife going gaga. She thinks he's the cutest kid she's ever seen. But, if he threw a tantrum because he missed a nap, I don't think any one of us would fault the little guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted July 11, 2015 Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 The dude is 94 and is married to the Queen so whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 He's also a god. He also just doesn't care. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted July 11, 2015 Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 Is it wrong to say that the guy makes me laugh? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 It's only fair that if the Queen is in charge of a religion that Philip gets one too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2015/jul/28/your-underwhelming-uk-holiday-photographs Visit Britain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 (edited) Yeah, Britain is just an island I fly over to get to the good parts of Europe. Indeed, the UK is a whole flyover country, if you will. Edited July 28, 2015 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 You'll probably get a medal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 The weird thing is I know people from the south of Spain who would like nothing more than to come visit Britain to enjoy the tepid and/or cold weather. I guess the grass is always 'greener'? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 My unicorn is 75 and sunny with a nice breeze. We get it about 4 days a year, and every other day it's either 105 or 15. *All temperatures in Fahrenheit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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