bridge too far

According to South Today, Brighton is suggesting our boys form a guard of honour!

Que?

Hypothetical because I'd never live anywhere that had the dealth penalty: Roast lamb, new Jersey potatoes, runner beans and gravy. Followed by icecream with bananas and chocolate sauce. Simple tastes, me.

The same Tories who are going to take billions out of the NHS with reforms that front line professional staff say won't work? I note that some orthopaedic operations for the elderly are now being delayed. My own daughter has, so far, waited more than the targetted 2 weeks for referral to a specialist. This two week target had been met prior to 2011. Better to spend the money on 'reform' than treatment I guess

You'll have to hope it'll still be considered on seats won at that stage as the perceived wisdom is that the Conservatives are unlikely to win an overall majority in the near future

We're on the same side here (:oops:) but if we lived in the same constituency and you voted Tory and I voted as I indicated, then all the votes of both of us would be considered, surely. Unless you're saying you'd only vote Tory and wouldn't register a 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice? I suppose, if I'm honest, AV would help solve a crisis of conscience I have every election. I'm always torn between voting LibDem (to get DC out) or voting with my principles intact. I suppose the AV system would enable me to have a clear conscience and vote according to principle first and tactics second. But I still think AV is wrong.

A better way of describing it would be that one person's vote can be considered more than once but this won't happen to everyone. For example, I live in David Cameron's constituency. Obviously I won't vote for him (derrrrr) but I could indicate my first, second and third choice as - for example - Labour, Green, LibDem. If by some strange coincidence DC doesn't get 50% of the vote then the votes for the party of my third choice (prob. LD) would be allocated and if he STILL didn't get 50% then my second choice's votes (Green) would be allocated across the two remaining parties. So my vote will have been considered 3 times. However, in my neighbouring constituency, the Tory might poll 51% of the vote, so someone voting there would only have his / her vote considered once.

Can't you phone the DVLA to ask for advice?

Mr TF had a similar problem with the remote locking for his Subaru in one of the car parks in our town. Eventually, he found out that there was an emergency services transmitter nearby that interfered with his remote. Strangely, it didn't affect the remote for my car so I guess it was down to the frequency of his remote.

But Notts County did have a fake sheikh.

And a lot of English voters have local council elections on the same day too. But I think the LibDems will get slaughtered in those also. DC is trying his best to use them as the whipping boys.

I think the result, whatever it is, will lead to some interesting stress tests for the coalition. If YES wins, the right wing of the Conservatives will give DC a hard time (they don't like him anyway). If NO wins, Nick Clegg will lose what little credibility he has left and some of his MPs will revolt.

Very interesting prog. on Panorama right now about a crook taking over Notts County and defrauding loads of people. Not directly relevant, but maybe the powers that be might have another thought about diligence and integrity in football takeovers.

I'm not so sure and that's not because the current coalition is between the Conservatives and the LibDems. I've always been in favour of a STRONG government, even if it's a Tory one. The current government is doing far too many U-turns and flip flops and is not strong at all. And that doesn't breed confidence internationally.

Isn't this what Dame Shirley Porter tried to do at Westminster Council by shipping out council tenants and offering the council housing for sale (at very high prices)?

Although it's stopped swinging at the moment I think My other concern is the unnatural influence a minority party might have. If, say, we get a result with a 45% vote for each of Labour and Conservative and therefore a 10% for the others, the others will prostitute themselves to the highest bidder to form a sort of coalition, thereby having a disproportionate amount of influence relevant to their share of the vote. Although I will concede that that's what's happened now. It'll perhaps be more likely with AV, however.

Depends what you mean by 'equal size'. That could mean equal geographic size (square miles) or equal number of voters. There are problems with both.

It's a No for me too. Much as it pains me to say it () I see the merit in DC's argument that some people's vote may be counted 2, 3, or even 4 times whereas other people's votes may only be counted once.

I can see practical problems with equal sized constituencies (equal number of voters, that is). A rural constituency for, say, 100,000 people would be far larger in geographic size than an urban area with the same number of voters. That could make it quite difficult for a rural MP to truly represent the electorate and for the electorate to get to constituency surgeries. However, to have a contituency based on geographic area would result in a larger number of rural constituencies which would inevitably mean a larger number of Conservative areas proportionate to the number of electors.

For those of you who are interested, here's a little interactive poll predictor you can play with http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html To make it realistic, use one of the many poll tracker sites to see what the predicted share of the vote would be if there were to be an election tomorrow. Here's a good one: http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

My family rarely get to SMS for a variety of very valid reasons, but my son is very keen to get my grandson interested in supporting. He loves playing the game but, like most little boys, has a short attention span. We did take him to SMS a couple of years ago and, I kid you not, every time we scored, my son was in the process of taking the lad to the loo! He's started taking him to Brentford (nearest decent team to where he lives), because the boy was beginning to show signs of being a plastic Scouser. My son and his boy will be watching Brentford v Saints at the home end and my son is wondering how he'll contain himself if Saints score / win! I'll go with what a lot of you say - start taking them when they're interested / have good attention spans. I think I was 7 when my dad first took me to the Dell.

He's right, H - sorry I've been very suggestive, suggesting ................. he desists!

It's immaterial as I won't be there to know, L. However, I'm sure he'll have the matter in hand

:D This is a virtual world, H

He's not that way inclined H