Re: The UK General Election Thread (II)

[JKLever]

Boultons at it again! Not quite as good but I think Labour members are loving winding him up now...

[Zat]

Why does the thought of a coalition in government frighten so many English people, when the same people are quite happy to have a coalition of various nations represent them in cricket?

A double party coalition doesn't frighten me at all. However a 5 party stitch up where the SNP & Plaid Cymru get the double whammy of protecting their own from the recession whilst making the English pay for it AND of course loving the resentment that will come from it is doomed to failure from the outset.

Fair point. And Smerk's reaction supports it.

[DJ_Smerk]

Merlin confirmed for Rich Raven.

[Merlin]

Merlin confirmed for Rich Raven.

PMSL ...

To all the bed-wetting pinkos out there ...
Watching the shenanigins going on, and speaking as a die-hard Tory, I wish to f**k Cameron would just let Clegg suck upto Brown and let them go ahead and form their Lab/LibDem coalition. Wait patiently for 6 / 9 months as the financial markets kill off the flimsy joint-venture and we get into deeper sh!t ... then the Tories can stroll into Government on a landslide victory. I've said that all along .... I would rather that than be beholden to a limp-wristed bunch of qunts whose only focus on Westminster concerns how many cabinet positions they can grab and the impossible dream of PR.

The LimpDems are desperate to flex their '57 seat' (out of 650) muscles! A pathetic show of self interest ......

To the sad and uninformed Zattie - Boulton is a rank and file pinko, so it's not too hard to discern that it were not me in the Sky clip, unless it's wishful thinking on your part !

[skully]

So are these Lib-Dem qunts any closer to making up their minds?

[Merlin]

So are these Lib-Dem qunts any closer to making up their minds?

Looks likely they'll go with the NuLabour mob thus ensuring that the UK has YET ANOTHER UNELECTED PRIME MINISTER.

All the LibDems want is THEIR own mandate and brand of politics secured (they're the minority party remember with just 57 seats) - and the only party willing to oblige their needs and give them all their concessions in order to cling on to "power" is NuLabour.

And Clegg again maintained on TV this morning that he has the country's interest at heart .... what a farkin' two faced joker!!

[Allan D]

Clegg shows how it is possible to go from being Obama to Mugabe in three weeks. The UK General Election of 2010 and its aftermath makes Zimbabwe look like a Periclean democracy. This must be one of the most shameful episodes in our long and eventful history. The defeat of the Armada, Naseby, Blenheim, the scaling of the Heights of Abraham, Trafalgar, Waterloo, The Somme, the Battle of Britain and El Alamein all now seem to have been pretty worthless exercises.

Just as voters were turned away from the polls on Thursday will MPs be turned away from Westminster, just as they were in November 1648 in 'Pride's Purge' if they didn't support putting Charles I on trial, in order to satisfy NuLabour's mania for clinging to office, whatever the cost to our democracy? To misquote Mrs Obama, for the first time in my life I am ashamed of my country.

As a great man once said in similar circumstances:

This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proferred to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.

[Basil]

I find it incredible that the Lib Dems are seriously entertaining the idea of a deal with Labour - the numbers simply don't add up. The idea that SNP, Plaid and N.Irish MPs will have a say on decisions for England and will inevitably exploit that for their own narrow support base is repugnant.

There's more than a handful of Labour MPs who would rather do the honourable thing and go into opposition.

A Lab/Lib coalition will end in tears - probably before the year is out - and mine is one vote the Lib Dems will lose.

[Allan D]

Just watched the Boulton-Campbell contretemps and find myself, surprisingly, agreeing wholeheartedly with Boulton. This whole constitutional farrago of a four-month 'lame duck' Broon premiership to be followed by a Prime Minister who will be decided by Unite and Unison rather than the electors in order to get Clegg and his followers on board has been dreamt up by Campbell and Mandleson, the Haldeman and Ehrlichman of British politics, elected by none and accountable to none. As John Dean might have said, there is a cancer at the heart of the premiership.

[Guest]

Consequently another election (held under the present system) within 6 months which would return a thumping Tory majority would be a racing certainty.

Even under AV, if they managed to get that passed. To remove the current lot from power a disgruntled voter only has one choice - Tory. The Tories would not lose floating voters to the Libs, it would be a rout.

If I was Cameron i'd tell them go for it. The conservatives will be one of the most powerful oppositions ever, just think of the crap they've got to throw at both Clegg/Brown & both parties.

This is why Clegg won't go with Labour.

[Allan D]

I find it incredible that the Lib Dems are seriously entertaining the idea of a deal with Labour - the numbers simply don't add up. The idea that SNP, Plaid and N.Irish MPs will have a say on decisions for England and will inevitably exploit that for their own narrow support base is repugnant.

There's more than a handful of Labour MPs who would rather do the honourable thing and go into opposition.

A Lab/Lib coalition will end in tears - probably before the year is out - and mine is one vote the Lib Dems will lose.

Mine too.

[Allan D]

Consequently another election (held under the present system) within 6 months which would return a thumping Tory majority would be a racing certainty.

Even under AV, if they managed to get that passed. To remove the current lot from power a disgruntled voter only has one choice - Tory. The Tories would not lose floating voters to the Libs, it would be a rout.

If I was Cameron i'd tell them go for it. The conservatives will be one of the most powerful oppositions ever, just think of the crap they've got to throw at both Clegg/Brown & both parties.

This is why Clegg won't go with Labour.

If he has any sense and has the guts to tell his MPs and activists that if they want to get into bed with Labour they can find a new leader to do it. Frankly, it's the second point I am rather dubious about it. It seems that, as far as the LDs are concerned, the tail wags the dog and that is why they will never get anywhere as a party.

[Guest]

I will eat my hat if Clegg goes with Labour, he is just strengthening his position with the Tories. He's not an idiot, the LibDems would be crushed if another election were to take place soon and the Tories would have a bigger landslide than Labour had in 1997 if Clegg goes with Labour.

[Merlin]

The big question is - Will the other smaller parties of the so called "Rainbow Alliance" allow themselves to be dragged into a weak coalition government and align themselves with two parties who both had a disasterous election ?

Knowing that if they did and it all went tits up by November, they might themselves be hoofed out by the voters at the next election for having backed a losing bunch!

The more I think about it, the more I really hope Clegg and NuLabour shackle themselves together, and by doing so, drown in the process so as to leave the Tories with the reality of a substantial majority when the next election is called.

[Basil]

I will eat my hat if Clegg goes with Labour, he is just strengthening his position with the Tories. He's not an idiot, the LibDems would be crushed if another election were to take place soon and the Tories would have a bigger landslide than Labour had in 1997 if Clegg goes with Labour.

You have to hope that this is the case - and it is just possible that Clegg is going through the motions of negotiating with Labour to appease his Labour-leaning MPs, in the knowledge that the deal withn the Tories is the only realistic game in town.

[JKLever]

He'll go with Labour, it's on the cards. Apparently the idea is to form a minority without the nationalists presuming that they'll never vote for the Tories in a vote anyway.

[Merlin]

I will eat my hat if Clegg goes with Labour, he is just strengthening his position with the Tories. He's not an idiot, the LibDems would be crushed if another election were to take place soon and the Tories would have a bigger landslide than Labour had in 1997 if Clegg goes with Labour.

You have to hope that this is the case - and it is just possible that Clegg is going through the motions of negotiating with Labour to appease his Labour-leaning MPs, in the knowledge that the deal withn the Tories is the only realistic game in town.

If that is the case it prompts two questions :

1. Where does his priority lie?
2. Can he, henceforth, be trusted?

Priority : Country's interests or party's interests (appeasing his lefties!!)
Trust : This isn't used car auction nor a game of poker. Flicking between and trying to play one party off the other - one openly and the other in secret (until exposed) is a sign of immaturity frankly .... basically, WTF is Clegg really after ??

[Guest]

He'll go with Labour, it's on the cards. Apparently the idea is to form a minority without the nationalists presuming that they'll never vote for the Tories in a vote anyway.

It just won't happen JKL, for all of the reasons mentioned in this thread. Why would he form a coalition with Labour when he knows it will lead to a majority Tory government in a few months time?

[skully]

How come that bald qunt Hague gets so much air time for the Tories??

[Merlin]

How come that bald qunt Hague gets so much air time for the Tories??

Senior party member, excellent orator, canny negotiator and a wily bugger when interrogated by the press.

[skully]

Cheers Merls.

Didn't somone in here have the sig "Hague? Hague? Who put that qunt in charge" at one stage?

Mighta been qmy, I think.

[JKLever]

The big sticking points are on economy/europe.

The Libs are pro-Europe and believe that the cuts should be delayed until next year to help the recovery.

[Allan D]

He'll go with Labour, it's on the cards. Apparently the idea is to form a minority without the nationalists presuming that they'll never vote for the Tories in a vote anyway.

Callaghan and Steel made that presumption in the 1970s and were proved disastrously wrong. It was an SNP motion of no confidence in May 1979 that the Tories supported and which Callaghan lost by 1 vote which precipitated an election that resulted in 18 years of Conservative rule. At the first sign of public spending cuts north or west of the border the Nats will be up in arms threatening to pull the plug.

Even if Clegg does accept Cabinet posts under Cameron or even just offers support on a 'confidence-and-supply' basis his reliability and firmness of purpose, given the events since yesterday's meeting of the PLDP, must be seriously questioned. It is likely that he will pull out of any agreement, either with the Conservatives or Labour, at the sign of the first adverse opinion poll just as the Liberals did in 1978. What is beyond doubt is that the Lib Dems are, despite their rhetoric, not motivated by any committment to 'the national interest' but to their own narrow selfish partisan interest and can therefore no longer be taken seriously as a potential party of government. As the Good Book states

Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting

[Allan D]

The big sticking points are on economy/europe.

The Libs are pro-Europe and believe that the cuts should be delayed until next year to help the recovery.

They also have as many problems with Labour: civil liberties, ID scheme, NI rise, third runway at Heathrow, nuclear power programme, Iraq, Afghanistan, Trident etc., etc. This whole scheme has been dreamt up by Campbell who took us into a war the Lib Dems opposed and now wants to do the same to the British Constitution that the US Marines did to Fallujah, with the help of the LIb Dems! Unbelievable

[Merlin]

He'll go with Labour, it's on the cards. Apparently the idea is to form a minority without the nationalists presuming that they'll never vote for the Tories in a vote anyway.

Callaghan and Steel made that presumption in the 1970s and were proved disastrously wrong. It was an SNP motion of no confidence in May 1979 that the Tories supported and which Callaghan lost by 1 vote which precipitated an election that resulted in 18 years of Conservative rule. At the first sign of public spending cuts north or west of the border the Nats will be up in arms threatening to pull the plug.

Even if Clegg does accept Cabinet posts under Cameron or even just offers support on a 'confidence-and-supply' basis his reliability and firmness of purpose, given the events since yesterday's meeting of the PLDP, must be seriously questioned. It is likely that he will pull out of any agreement, either with the Conservatives or Labour, at the sign of the first adverse opinion poll just as the Liberals did in 1978. What is beyond doubt is that the Lib Dems are, despite their rhetoric, not motivated by any committment to 'the national interest' but to their own narrow selfish partisan interest and can therefore no longer be taken seriously as a potential party of government. As the Good Book states

Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting

Rather more eloquent that I put it three pages back AD !

There's absolutely no denying the self interest that has been so blatantly exposed by the LimpDems over the past 48 hours.

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