The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Naiskill]

It's a secret plot to privatise the NHS and put the poor into servitude. So I hear.

And help their chums at the very top.

 

[rascal]

A UKIP and Tory coalition sounds disastrous then.

Well, in more ways than one.

 

[orchard]

I have a question. What are the views' of the mainstream parties on TTIP? This "free trade deal" is what worries the most...

Green's are anti afaik mate, as stated UKIP would be pro, although they don't want to advertise the fact. Don't know about Labour being anti, as was stated earlier, I would have thought they'd be pro too....

 

[The Esk]

I have a question. What are the views' of the mainstream parties on TTIP? This "free trade deal" is what worries the most...

Both Labour and Conservatives are petrified to publicise the impact of TTIP as it provides UKIP with all the ammunition they will ever need.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And help their chums at the very top.

That's the spirit. I suspect, if the truth be told, that it's all a plot by Maggie from beyond the grave.

 

[roydo]

Both Labour and Conservatives are petrified to publicise the impact of TTIP as it provides UKIP with all the ammunition they will ever need.

Why dont UKIP publish it then?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Green's are anti afaik mate, as stated UKIP would be pro, although they don't want to advertise the fact. Don't know about Labour being anti, as was stated earlier, I would have thought they'd be pro too....

Natalie Bennett recently

“The world is sodden with stuff, it cannot have more stuff,” said Ms Bennett. Yet [the Greens] do not appear to have considered what that would mean for billions of the world’s poorest people, almost none of whom live in Britain. When Bagehot suggested to her that there was a problem with this, Ms Bennett said he was worrying too much: to be poor in India wasn’t so bad as to be on benefits in Britain, she suggested, “because at least everyone else there is poor too”.

They are to the left what UKIP are to the right (unfortunately).

 

[The Esk]

Why dont UKIP publish it then?

I suspect they will nearer the election, it's a good ace to keep up your sleeve if things are not going to plan.

Obviously if Labour or Conservative started the debate they would join in immediately, but you will note that nothing other than the proposed referendum is being discussed relating to the EU. Neither Labour or Conservatives want to go anywhere near the subject.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I suspect they will nearer the election, it's a good ace to keep up your sleeve if things are not going to plan.

Obviously if Labour or Conservative started the debate they would join in immediately, but you will note that nothing other than the proposed referendum is being discussed relating to the EU. Neither Labour or Conservatives want to go anywhere near the subject.

Lets be honest here though Esk, given the pitiful way the main parties are 'debating' this so called crisis in the NHS, do you really think there would be a grown up debate about this treaty? I'd lay odds that it would rapidly descend into petty mud slinging and name calling.

 

[The Esk]

Lets be honest here though Esk, given the pitiful way the main parties are 'debating' this so called crisis in the NHS, do you really think there would be a grown up debate about this treaty? I'd lay odds that it would rapidly descend into petty mud slinging and name calling.

Of course not, because it would open the door to the elephant in the electoral room - the Euro-sceptics - neither party wants to go there. As far as Labour and the Conservatives are concerned they want the election fought on domestic issues, economy for the Conservatives, health and public services for Labour. Nothing else matters to them.

 

[roydo]

I suspect they will nearer the election, it's a good ace to keep up your sleeve if things are not going to plan.

Obviously if Labour or Conservative started the debate they would join in immediately, but you will note that nothing other than the proposed referendum is being discussed relating to the EU. Neither Labour or Conservatives want to go anywhere near the subject.

Cant say I know much about it mate, other than what I have seen on here. But are the Tories and Labour both in favour of it? Or is it that the potential issues with it will play into UKIPs hands, and harm both the main parties??

Or am I totally off beam on this?

 

[Clint Planet]

A UKIP and Tory coalition sounds disastrous then.

On so many levels.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Of course not, because it would open the door to the elephant in the electoral room - the Euro-sceptics - neither party wants to go there. As far as Labour and the Conservatives are concerned they want the election fought on domestic issues, economy for the Conservatives, health and public services for Labour. Nothing else matters to them.

Call me a cynic but I'm not sure those things really matter to them other than as weapons they can use to attack the other and try and claim power. It'll be full of propaganda laden soundbites with little actual substance behind it. Woe betide them actually working together on anything.

I mean the Tories barbs about economic incompetence won't touch on any of the many issues underpinning the global economy at the moment, just as Labour barbs about privatisation of the NHS won't look at the very real challenges facing any kind of national health service.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

On so many levels.

No more so than (for instance) a Labour/Green coalition. I don't think the country will benefit from polarisation, regardless of which end of the spectrum it ends up lurching towards. If public services are to do alright then it needs them to act like adults and work together rather than squabbling like they seem to so often.

Say what you like about the Tory/LibDem coalition, but you'd imagine the tempering of the excesses of each at least made things a bit more centrist than would perhaps otherwise have been the case.

 

[The Esk]

Cant say I know much about it mate, other than what I have seen on here. But are the Tories and Labour both in favour of it? Or is it that the potential issues with it will play into UKIPs hands, and harm both the main parties??

Or am I totally off beam on this?

Potentially it could be a huge electoral issue - the Conservatives are broadly OK with it from the point of view of allowing greater private involvement and competition in Government tenders, but are unhappy that the negotiations are taking place at EU level. Labour should be anti TTIP but have not said. The problem for both is that it potentially plays into the hands of UKIP and the Euro-sceptics, hence they'd rather ignore it until after the election.

Only the Germans are currently against the TTIP proposals as stand, but negotiations are set to continue probably for another 12-18 months.