The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Joey66]

There were a fair few obvious looking plants in the questioning to me, so this doesn't surprise me. You just feel like a whackjob conspiracy theorist by pointing them out though.

No conspiracy have you opened the link - and read it it alright saying ok there was a few Tory plants asking questions - just read it its more than that - thumbs up to George Osborne in the back room etc typical dirty cheating Tories that's why it should have been an open debate!

 

[Joey66]

But Farage said they were all bad lefties, didn't he?

Yes well last night they were bad right/ Tories members of their party!

 

[Tubey]

But Farage said they were all bad lefties, didn't he?

Well he's technically right. Anyone left of UKIP anyway, which is basically anyone who isn't a complete racist.

 

[Joey66]

Yes well last night they were bad right/ Tories members of their party!

The BBC let Cameron off of answering his questions on food banks and welfare cuts of 12 billion it was not a fair platform of debate imo - hence DC chickened out of an open debate as he is useless!

 

[Blue 1]

Well he's technically right. Anyone left of UKIP anyway, which is basically anyone who isn't a complete racist.

Fair.

 

[hullefc]

Either that or they've done a bloody good job of massaging the figures.

If all these wonderful new jobs have been created then why do productivity and growth not reflect this? Growth has fallen for the last 5 consecutive quarters.

My idea of immoral would be forcing people into penury while giving tax breaks to the rich, but you'd probably argue the polar opposite, given your Randian worldview.

Before the election the Tories kept spouting, 'we have created 2 and a half million 'new' private sector jobs'. These included those that were previously classed as public sector jobs. Half a million were in education, Further Education and Sixth form lectures, Free School teachers, TA support staff, cleaners, caretakers etc. reclassified during the 'building schools for the future' programme. Then there were another half a million health jobs that were done by the NHS but were taken over by the private sector by 'contracting out' to the private companies.

Then there were the probation service, again, 'contracted out', social workers, custom and immigration officers, tax collection, and the 170 000 post office workers are now classed as 'new' private sector jobs. Add on Royal bank of Scotland and Lloyds bank employees that were classed as 'new' private sector jobs, another half million. Add another half million for public and government administration jobs that have been outsourced to the private sector.

Close to 2 million jobs have been reclassified from the public sector to the private sector. That is why there has been nearly no 'increase' in productivity that you would expect if there were 2 and half million 'new' private sector jobs. And there has been no great increase in taxation taken. Again due to the jobs already being done but now reclassified and zero hours contracts.

There has been 'new' private sector jobs and a large chunk has revolved around East European and other migrates to the UK opening up shops, hairdressing, barbers, deliveries, building, agency workers etc.. The amount of Polish and other East European HGV's coming through the Port of Hull has shot up. Immigrants have boosted the UK economy in a number of ways and in particular, adding to 'record' number being employed.

 

[daylightrobber]

You're absolutely right. Your lot are refusing to see the bigger picture.

 

[daylightrobber]

BBC Audience not rigged last night - look at this-

http://labourlist.org/2015/05/about-that-question-time-audience/

I just knew it tory activist asking the questions some cross section!

No wonder the BBC license is safe!

Nigel Farage pointed this out when he was on the last time , and he was proved correct!

I'm going to paste it here for those who choose not to follow the link.

We already know that the Tories co-ordinated tweets in advance last night. But strangely, this tweet appeared, but was promptly deleted (image via Jeremy Cliffe):

However this tweet still exists:

Fantastic to see one of our members @elena_prokopiou grill @EdMiliband_MP on his denial of over spending.. How can we trust him?

— LUU Conservatives (@LeedsTories) April 30, 2015



Elena – whose Twitter bio is “Cats, Conservatives & Chelsea FC” was one of the people who asked Miliband a rather aggressive question last night. You’d have thought the BBC might have filtered out party supporters and activists from the audience. That’s a recipe for planted questions, like, maybe…accusing Miliband of having overspent and asking how he could be trusted again?

Update: Even more awkwardly – she referred to the Tories as “we” in her question…

Video Player

00:00
00:11

Prokopiou appears to have made her Twitter account private now for some reason…but beforehand, this was screen grabbed. She really likes Jeremy Hunt.



But what can the BBC do about people who declared that they were undecided voters?

Well according to the Telegraph, Catherine Shuttleworth – the owner of a marketing business who memorably harangued Ed Miliband about how difficult times were for Tesco and told him to sack Ed Balls – “applied to join the Question Time audience as an undecided voter”.

Ok…no issue there…except the Telegraph also says that she “gave a thumbs-up to George Osborne in the spin room”.

(Update: An audience member not only in the spin room but also doing broadcast media afterwards.)

Probably just excited to see a politician she knows…maybe? This made us think again about Ms Shuttleworth, so we looked into her. She’s successful so it wasn’t too hard to find details about her, or her company “Savvy”. It didn’t take us long to find a profile in the Yorkshire Post, which contained this line:

“After doing some consultancy, she had the opportunity to pitch for the Asda business. She won it and set up Savvy as a result. Three people made up the business, including Ms Shuttleworth and Ms Skelton, plus company secretary Andrew Jones, who is now MP for Harrogate.”

So this would-be Miliband interrogator is just the sort of ordinary undecided voter who gives George Osborne a thumbs up in the spin room, and set up her a business with a Tory MP. Oh – and she signed the Tories much mocked “small business letter” too – number 3882 – which the Telegraph forgot to mention when they wrote up a piece on her attacking Miliband. So much for undecided.

Busted…

 

[neil999]

And that's fine, it's a cross-political audience.

What raised my suspicions was the structure of the question, specifically the NHS one to Cameron and the response, which had all the hallmarks of being pre-prepared.

tbh the audience asking the questions is stupid, i'd prefer questions from businessleaders/pressure groups/charity leaders etc etc

 

[Joey66]

I'm going to paste it here for those who choose not to follow the link.

We already know that the Tories co-ordinated tweets in advance last night. But strangely, this tweet appeared, but was promptly deleted (image via Jeremy Cliffe):

However this tweet still exists:

Fantastic to see one of our members @elena_prokopiou grill @EdMiliband_MP on his denial of over spending.. How can we trust him?

— LUU Conservatives (@LeedsTories) April 30, 2015



Elena – whose Twitter bio is “Cats, Conservatives & Chelsea FC” was one of the people who asked Miliband a rather aggressive question last night. You’d have thought the BBC might have filtered out party supporters and activists from the audience. That’s a recipe for planted questions, like, maybe…accusing Miliband of having overspent and asking how he could be trusted again?

Update: Even more awkwardly – she referred to the Tories as “we” in her question…

Video Player

00:00
00:11

Prokopiou appears to have made her Twitter account private now for some reason…but beforehand, this was screen grabbed. She really likes Jeremy Hunt.



But what can the BBC do about people who declared that they were undecided voters?

Well according to the Telegraph, Catherine Shuttleworth – the owner of a marketing business who memorably harangued Ed Miliband about how difficult times were for Tesco and told him to sack Ed Balls – “applied to join the Question Time audience as an undecided voter”.

Ok…no issue there…except the Telegraph also says that she “gave a thumbs-up to George Osborne in the spin room”.

(Update: An audience member not only in the spin room but also doing broadcast media afterwards.)

Probably just excited to see a politician she knows…maybe? This made us think again about Ms Shuttleworth, so we looked into her. She’s successful so it wasn’t too hard to find details about her, or her company “Savvy”. It didn’t take us long to find a profile in the Yorkshire Post, which contained this line:

“After doing some consultancy, she had the opportunity to pitch for the Asda business. She won it and set up Savvy as a result. Three people made up the business, including Ms Shuttleworth and Ms Skelton, plus company secretary Andrew Jones, who is now MP for Harrogate.”

So this would-be Miliband interrogator is just the sort of ordinary undecided voter who gives George Osborne a thumbs up in the spin room, and set up her a business with a Tory MP. Oh – and she signed the Tories much mocked “small business letter” too – number 3882 – which the Telegraph forgot to mention when they wrote up a piece on her attacking Miliband. So much for undecided.

Busted…

Someone should send that to the BBC!

 

[peteblue]

@peteblue I'd quite like to know where you stand on this one. I was hoping to make enquiries the other evening, but I think we ran out of time. You know that I have a personal interest in social housing and I now know that you were raised in Council housing. Is this line of attack ever justified? Do you ever look back and think that you (your parents) were fortunate to have state support in this form?

Well my mother and father had just served 6 years fighting in WW2. Their house in Liverpool had been destroyed and my elder sisters had been sent to live in North Wales. They paid full rent on a property that they had to do up so I'm not sure the word fortunate is correct but it was welcomed.........

 

[peteblue]

Someone should send that to the BBC!

Why?.......does it really matter who asked the questions, rather than what answers were given........

 

[Eggs]

I still feel the will be no party with a majority the SNP have really thrown labour in turmoil if they lose 40 odd seats as predicted any gains in the UK will be sadly damaging to them - I feel the Tories will still get hurt by UKIP!

....yes, there clearly won't be a majority so plenty of wheeling and dealing to be done. UKIP will hurt the Tory's but they seem to have shot themselves in the foot and have been found out in recent months. It's hard to see a Labour government not propped up by SNP, Milliband is clearly denying this and will have to have a U-turn speech ready to make it happen.

 

[Blue 1]

An aside, really, but wasn't there always a convention that it was considered improper to use the Union flag on political logos?

Not totally surprised to see the BNP do it, but have been a bit surprised a the Tories' co-opting of it this time round.

 

[peteblue]

....yes, there clearly won't be a majority so plenty of wheeling and dealing to be done. UKIP will hurt the Tory's but they seem to have shot themselves in the foot and have been found out in recent months. It's hard to see a Labour government not propped up by SNP, Milliband is clearly denying this and will have to have a U-turn speech ready to make it happen.

He won't need it. Cameron will remain as PM of a minority government if need be......then we do it all again later in the year.......