Re: The UK General Election Thread (II)

[Merlin]

Scrap that. It was Nigel Farrage (UKIP) who was in an accident, not - as previously stated - Lib Dem candidate, Nick Clegg.


No-one was harmed.

He's going for the sympathy vote in an effort to dislodge the fiddling, sperm-reject, incumbent Speaker Bercow.

[skully]

How's the Silly Party polling?

[Allan D]

Scrap that. It was Nigel Farrage (UKIP) who was in an accident, not - as previously stated - Lib Dem candidate, Nick Clegg.


No-one was harmed.

He's going for the sympathy vote in an effort to dislodge the fiddling, sperm-reject, incumbent Speaker Bercow.

Or maybe dirty tricks by Bercow showing how desperate he is? If a candidate dies on or before polling day there has to be another election some weeks later as Patrick Cormack found out, to his chagrin, at the last election.

[Basil]

Nick Clegg was involved in a light aircraft crash earlier this morning. Thankfully there were no fatalities.


I guess you might say, that he got out of there in the Nick of time.

OR

He got off lightly.













I'll get my coat.

It was actually UKIP's Nigel Farrage
We English must all look alike to you.

[JKLever]

How's the Silly Party polling?

Libdems are reckoned to come 3rd.

[Allan D]

How's the Silly Party polling?

If you mean the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (the "Silly Party" featured in a Monty Python sketch), they are fielding 42 candidates including their current leader, Alan "Howlin' Laud" Hope, here pictured, on the left, with the party's leading office-holder, the Deputy Mayor of Elmbridge:



in David Cameron's constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire.

Sadly the OMRLP has not been able to avoid the fragmentation which those on the Trotskyite left are familiar with as this outlines:

In 1989, Stuart Hughes, along with Danny Bamford (later Danny Blue), Roly Gillard, Melvyn Hartshorne, inventor Mike Madden and tree surgeon Stuart Greenwood formed the breakaway Raving Loony Green Giant Party (RLGGP), mainly due to personality clashes with OMRLP Chairman Alan Hope and other "Fun-da-Mental-ists"—the final straw being the latter (and Sutch's) behaviour during a sponsored walk to the Scilly Isles for the children's cancer charity, CLIC (now merged into CLIC Sargent), where they only turned up at the start and finish for the media call whilst Hughes and others did the whole event.

The 2001 election was followed by a series of disastrous by-election results and a further split. Town Councillor Chris Driver formed the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party with Mad Mike Young & others dissatisfied with Alan Hope's leadership, in a sad replay of the events surrounding the OMRLP/RLGGP split a decade earlier (interestingly Roly Gillard, who had rejoined the OMRLP upon the RLGGP's demise, also took part in this split).

This splinter however did not last anywhere near as long as the RLGGP, although in a replay of what happened to Stuart Hughes and the RLGGP, success at the ballot box ensured the failure of the new party. Chris Driver's election as Mayor of Queenborough Town Council for the municipal year 2002/2003 curtailed on its leader's time enough to ensure party activities effectively ground to a halt. By 2004, the RRLP was effectively dead, with most of its members having rejoined the OMRLP. (Gillard however dropped out of politics altogether in 2002 after his wife's suicide).

Here is the full list of parties standing in today's election. I shall leave it to forummers to decide which are "silly" and which are "serious":

Parties contesting the 2010 UK General Election

[Growler]

Cheers Growls.

Wow, 10pm close. They only go 8.00 am to 6 pm. here in Aus. We generally know the result (give or take) by about 9 or 10 pm on the day of voting. Clearly not the case in the UK?

Then again, voting is always on a Saturday. Thursday seems rather odd.

Thursday has been voting day as long as I can remember - maybe Allan D knows the reason for that.

15 hours of polling allows people like some medics, railway signalmen, some HM forces to name a few - who are rostered for 12 hour shifts - to have the chance to vote in person.

The first results will be in within about 3 to 4 hours, and the majority declared by the following morning. There are a few constituencies who won't count until tomorrow morning, but the outcome may well be known by breakfast time anyway.

[JKLever]

Interestingly the Queen has said she'll not see anyone before 1pm just incase one of the parties tries to claim an early victory.

[Allan D]

Since 1964 the tradition has been that no incumbent PM has claimed victory or got into the ministerial Rover to the Palace to hand in his notice until either he (or she), or the Leader of the Opposition, has reached the figure, in terms of actual, rather than projected, seat declarations, needed for an overall majority of 1 (in this case 326 seats). Anything short of that, as in the case following the February 1974 election, when Heath did not go to the Palace until the Monday evening following the election, HM can safely keep her slippers on and spend the weekend with a copy of Sporting Life tuned to the Racing Channel.

[LeFromage]

Interestingly the Queen has said she'll not see anyone before 1pm just incase one of the parties tries to claim an early victory.

Bollocks. She just doesn't want Bargain Hunt interrupted.

[Basil]

Scrap that. It was Nigel Farrage (UKIP) who was in an accident, not - as previously stated - Lib Dem candidate, Nick Clegg.


No-one was harmed.

He's going for the sympathy vote in an effort to dislodge the fiddling, sperm-reject, incumbent Speaker Bercow.

Or maybe dirty tricks by Bercow showing how desperate he is? If a candidate dies on or before polling day there has to be another election some weeks later as Patrick Cormack found out, to his chagrin, at the last election.

As glad as I am that neither Farrage or his pilot were seriously injured, a little part of me hopes he feels like he feels he's been kicked by a horse for weeks for pulling a publicity stunt on polling day.

[Allan D]

Neither Farage nor the pilot seem particularly chirpy. Looks as if both will be in hospital for a few weeks, if not longer:

Farage in plane crash

[LeFromage]

Conservative Central Office's projected result (according to Popbitch):

Conservatives - 315

Labour -235

Lib Dems - 68

[Guest]

Conservative Central Office's projected result (according to Popbitch):

Conservatives - 315

Labour -235

Lib Dems - 68

Interesting, just might squeeze in then.

I'm not sure whether this link is meant to be a joke or not, but a few of the questions made me laugh:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8661984.stm

"I'M A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. CAN I VOTE?"

[Basil]

Conservative Central Office's projected result (according to Popbitch):

Conservatives - 315

Labour -235

Lib Dems - 68

This might be a bit of wishful thinking - particularly the number of Lib Dem MPs.

[Merlin]

"I'M A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. CAN I VOTE?"

NO.

Now f**k off and do something useful ... like take the corgis for a walk on the M1.

[JKLever]

Dunno, the sandal wearers always get done because a lot of their vote comes a close 2nd in quite a lot of constituencies...

[Merlin]

LimpDem hoardings/house posters in these parts scream (in a loud orange diamond) :

Vote Liberal Democrat.
Winners Here.

Yeah sure ........ next please!

[Allan D]

List of estimated constituency declaration times so you know when to go to bed:

Predicted Election Result Times

Of course timings will be awry if there are recounts. Mine is 4:00 a.m. Why does it take 6 hours to count about 30,000 votes in one of the smallest constituencies in terms of geographical area in the country? It would take less time to walk round it. I expect all the tellers are members of Unison.

[Allan D]

Conservative Central Office's projected result (according to Popbitch):

Conservatives - 315

Labour -235

Lib Dems - 68

Interesting, just might squeeze in then.

I'm not sure whether this link is meant to be a joke or not, but a few of the questions made me laugh:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8661984.stm

"I'M A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. CAN I VOTE?"

All members of the Royal Family are entitled to vote, if they register, apart from HM The Queen and the Royal Dukes. The late Princess Margaret's children are commoners and there is no bar to them voting or even standing as candidates. However members of the Royal Family tend to abstain from political activity in order to avoid embarrassing the Queen. The Central Office estimate still puts the Tories short of a majority by 11.

[JKLever]

ICM Research exit poll rumour has tories on 39%

[LeFromage]

But what does that even mean? According to those numbers I posted earlier, 315 seats for the Tories is a little over 40% and short of a majority.

[Allan D]

Depends whether they outperform in marginal seats. Considering that that figure is much higher than that given in the polls it seems as if they have and are probably on course for a majority.

[Allan D]

650 single-wicket contests. Captain of the winning team gets to captain and select the national side.

[JKLever]

My prediction is a minority Tory government.

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