CB Fry

Highly likely a coalition either way could include another bill to change the voting system. I guess it was always going to take a perceived injustice to the Conservatives/the right to start the swing of mainstream opinion to a more proportional system. When it was the Lib Dems suffering it election after election few gave a monkeys. 23% share in 2010 their share went up and they still lost seats ending up with 57 seats, less than 9%.

They are. Making all of them equal is statistically all nice and neat but not really practical. Isle of Wight is a good example. You'd end up with one constituency of, say 7-80% of the island with the rest lumped in with Portsmouth or Southampton or something. Which bit do you pick to remove from the island and why. At the end of the day they do need to have a degree of geographical logic. Most of them are within 10k tolerance of each other with a few outliers.

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Brilliant.

Seriously?

You're taking your usual routine to unbelievable new heights on this one.

Agree with this. Had stern words at the TV on Thursday to that end.

I liked the bit where she said "unless we take the emotion out of this....." Wise words.

Nicely balanced and clearly very well thought through.

They've done the leaders Question Time thing pretty much every election since at least the Blair era, so hardly counts as anything particularly new or different. The "opposition" debate was utterly pointless, of course.

Seems an odd thing to get annoyed about. And this is me saying that.

I don't twist anything. Mainly what happens is you post some nonsense, I quote it, you say you didn't say it even though it's quoted in front of your face, and then you say something which is effectively the same thing again anyway. Which is what has happened here. If you don't stay in your car, then being shot several times in the back is what you should "expect" to have happen to you. I don't expect you to stay in the car, Mr Sarnia. I expect you to die.

That's only half the story. The only reason the BBC ended up with a sub-optimal "opposition debate" is because of Cameron's refusal to participate in the debates at all. Eventually they got a concession which was him being in the 7-way but let's not pretend this opposition debate was anything the broadcasters (or the other parties) genuinely wanted. Obviously they didn't.

I would like to take this opportunity to agree with Lord Duckhunter for once. AV is not PR in any way or form. It's a sub-optimal system, better than FPTP but not great. And the anti-AV campaign was a stunning exercise in confusing/misleading the voters on something which, despite being fairly rubbish and not proportional, was not the complicated system the campaign made it out be. Oh well, they played a blinder though and won convincingly. Let's see if any rainbow coalition has PR on its wish list.

I think you mean Major/Kinnock. I agree though, but like last time it will only get more fascinating post polling day.

If Labour alone don't get more than the Tories on the night then I'd think it might need to be a bit more formal. Otherwise the Conservatives could form a minority administration, I think. It's weird people think that Sturgeon would have loads of power in that situation, when I'm not sure she would have as much as some think. She's told that nation now she effectively will stop the Tories at any cost, so she's going to have to sign up to Ed's offer whatever. If she lets Cameron back in because of Trident, say, she's going to look a right plum (especially as Trident will get through anyway). She plays silly jocks on May 8th/9th she could royally fu ck herself.

Just for clarity, here's where you said "as for fear of death there wouldn't be any if you stay in your vehicle". Here. No twisting, just your words. Here you go, your entire post: Can you see now that you wrote - "as for fear of death there wouldn't be any if you stay in your vehicle" - your words, yes? That sentence can only mean there would, could or should be fear of death if you don't stay in your vehicle. Here's your latest quote, again, just to maybe prevent you saying "I never said that dickhead" about something we can all read that you did. Here: Okay. What should happen if you don't stay in your vehicle? Then what? Do you agree that if you don't stay in your vehicle that being shot several times in the back is appropriate? Take your time and maybe consider your response because you do get yourself in an awful muddle sometimes.

I'm perfectly happy with you doing that. Doesn't mean it wasn't a crime though, as there are literally millions of crimes every year that "no further action" is taken or no conviction reached. It's okay. I don't expect you ever to understand.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Best not ruin a thread, though, eh?

I've heard Adam has left a couple of voicemails on Brendan's phone. In some cases he took two or three hours to ring Adam back and once - get this - he never returned the call. At all. I for one am disgusted by thus. Disgusted. I know lots more about this, and some of it would make your eyes water and no mistake. But I'm a bit busy right now so I'll do it tomorrow, or the next day. Please can people stop begging me to update them.

Your black or gay comparison is laughable nonsense, but you know that. Secondly the only person on this thread who has in a tribal way referenced the class wars of the seventies has been Wes Tender dribbling on about beer and sandwiches, Red Robbo and suchlike, as if any of it has any relation to the 2015 Labour party. Wes Tender, for clarity, is not a "leftie". And imagine if you replaced "Red Robbo" with "lesbians" or "gollywog" or "woofters" or something. I mean it's, like, prejudiced and stuff.

I read the link. Was very interesting. As I suggested I will believe it at about 4am on 8th May.

.....and I'd take that at this stage, in January I didn't think he had a hope. Ed has grown into the role and I have gone from not seeing him as a PM at all to somebody who could do genuinely do it, while Cameron has looked pretty weak in the debates and when questioned. Maybe keep Ed Balls off the TV for the next 20 days and it might clinch it.

Still can't believe it. I think the secret Conservatives voters will come out and put Dave back in. Kinnock was pretty confident, and leading the polls back in 92. When it comes to it I don't think Labour will win enough marginals and will get annihilated in Scotland.

They did bring in the 10p rate in the first place. Getting rid of it was strange, though.