The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Bruce Wayne]

I have no idea which way it would go. However, the whole issue is unsettling for business and is contributing to create a society where we are introverted in our views to other nations. Xenophobia is on the rise. The more it is publicised and the more traction the out campaign gets, the more legitimate it is perceived to be.

I'd say that very much depends. At this moment in time I doubt opinions are any different than they were before a referendum was on the cards. If the no camp do a decent job of campaigning then it will hopefully help matters considerably.

Sadly, all of the parties seemed to play the card that immigration was something to clamp down on. I'd like to think that with electioneering out of the way then there can be a return to reason and we can begin to highlight how great being part of the global village is, whether socially or economically.

 

[Baines' left foot]

As someone who has a little more than a passing interest in the housing issue, I'm afraid to say that the Tories are going to make things worse. You might get lucky with a right to buy but you'll simply be exacerbating the issue for many many more.

That may be true.

However, I'm a construction site manager in London and the salaries here dwarf what you can get anywhere else in the country. As long as things stay that way and we continue to build at the rate we are doing (which we need to) then I'll be fine in a few years. The industry is crazy at the moment. I'm an assistant and have only been doing this job for 10 months, yet I get recruitment agents contacting me every single day with job offers.

 

[Tubey]

Was it really the 'fear of Scotland' at work? It seems that most of the Tories gains have come at the expense of the LibDems. Has there been much of a swing (either way) from Labour to Conservative?

Yeah I'd say so. Core attack from Tories - as that Faisal Islam just said on Sky, it was an attack by proxy through the SNP. A lot of people were terrified by the prospect of the tail wagging the dog; something which obviously swayed the undecided.

As I say, very insular and insecure as a nation. My gut feeling is there's going to be a lot of embarrassed Tory voters within the next two years when the panic eases of and they realise they sold out their social conscience for short term media manipulated fear.

 

[Allezfan]

An Eu referendum will be the biggest deal for me. More than any other vote in my lifetime.

I also really want to vote for us to leave, because ideologically I'm an isolationist and I don't like being in the eu, but eu funding pays my wage so I have a vested personal interest in remaining in it that trumps principles.

 

[Tubey]

That may be true.

However, I'm a construction site manager in London and the salaries here dwarf what you can get anywhere else in the country. As long as things stay that way and we continue to build at the rate we are doing (which we need to) then I'll be fine in a few years. The industry is crazy at the moment. I'm an assistant and have only been doing this job for 10 months, yet I get recruitment agents contacting me every single day with job offers.

And that's all fair enough mate - but did what is going to happen to those less fortunate than you play any role in your thinking?

Again, not saying you're a bad person if it didn't, but it's interesting to see how those close to the line felt about certain issues.

 

[roydo]

Ed standing down.

According to the BBC.

 

[Blue 1]

 

[The Mighty Quint]

That agenda is smashing the public sector and the unions, crushing those on welfare, ratcheting up the Bedroom Tax, penalising Labour-run councils even harder for having the audacity to need money to address large-scale social problems.

Oh how their heroine and mentor Margaret Thatcher will have been spinning with joy in her grave.

Those £12billion welfare cuts they refused to detail could now be implemented at will with no bleeding heart liberals to interfere.

In fact they could cut further and deeper. You want to scrape another £5billion off the bones of the poor, Mr Duncan-Smith, here’s your scalpel.

And on the flip-side of hammering their enemies, they can reward their pay-masters.

Gone are those dastardly Labour threats to tackle the rampant inequality that is stifling this country, strangling growth and keeping everyone’s living standards flat-lining.

Except for those at the top. Where they have never had it so good.

The billionaire industrialists who poured their fortunes behind them to secure victory, the millionaire businessmen who signed letters penned by Central Office warning of Armageddon if the Tories weren’t kept in power, the foreign media moguls who told their editors to unleash unprecedented levels of bile on Ed Miliband, painting him a virtual communist who would be at the mercy of a Scottish Stalinist in stilettoes.

It will be payback time for all of them.

No Mansion Tax, no outlawing non-doms, no bank levies, no increase in the top rate of tax to 50%, in fact let’s get it down to 40%.

You want us to make workers even more insecure and at the beck-and-call of Wild West cowboy bosses? Sure.

Bring in more zero-hours contracts, cut back on maternity leave, slash in-work benefits, make it easier to sack workers, throw in a few more anti-trade union laws.

Whatever you want, chaps, because your political stooges and your money run the country again.

Take a knighthood as a thank you.

On the eve of a 1980s Thatcher election victory, Neil Kinnock famously warned the British people “not to be ordinary, not to be young, not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old”.

Never has the warning seemed so apt as today. If you think the NHS is in a critical condition prepare for its funeral.

If the Tories get power with the number of seats predicted, then we may as well read our finest institution the last rites now.

Because they will privatise it until it bleeds. They will sell so much of it to their profiteering friends who run medical firms it’ll be unrecognisable.

 

[jackyboy]

Fear has been prevalent in this election, and I for one am absolutely gutted.

Your vote should be a selfless one, this may not have a major impact on my life, but I genuinely do fear for the most vulnerable.

This country doesn't deserve a decent government.

 

[Allezfan]

Ed standing down.

According to the BBC.

Hardly a surprise.

 

[davek]

Unfortunately that downplays the scale of this disaster. It wont be five years. Try 10 and you'd be nearer the mark. 28 seats will be taken off Labour with the stroke of a pen in the coming parliament.

 

[Seanjd]

I really like Andy Burnham, I think us a great MP. I don't know if he's leadership material.

 

[Whistlin' Dixie]

How ironic that it's VE day today.....

And 70 years on, what have the ordinary British people learned from that? Not a lot, it would appear.

 

[RFUS]

So how easy is it to emigrate, lads?

 

[Blue 1]

Maybe all the non-voting "anarchists" have got their plans for revolution sorted.