revolution saint

Personally I rate him a lot but sometimes I question the position he's played in. Wide left or right he's been great but imo not so effective in the middle, behind the front two or up front. I think Barnard has a lot to thank him for - I don't think it's a coincidence that Barnard started scoring as soon as we played with genuine width. Lallana too has more freedom on the pitch when Puncheon plays. All in my opinion of course.

to be fair it's mostly the fans who don't go to games mate.

11% Tory....hang your head in shame.

Also a large number of the bureaucrats are the people who put together the waiting list information and have ensured that waiting times have come down. One of the major election talking points used to be how long it took to get an operation - it's to Labour's credit that it isn't the case anymore. The non clinical staff that have enabled the clinical staff to do their job better play their part in this. Personally I'd try to reduce the competition between PCT and provider - I'm not convinced that the internal market is a great model but maybe that's just me. On the subject of competition I'll try to give any politician who offers me more choice a wide berth. People don't want the option of going to the "best" hospital - they want the best treatment at their nearest hospital. They don't want to send their kids to the best school - they want their nearest school to offer the best education. That's without even bringing up the contrived idea of choice in the water and rail industries....

I choose all areas and got overall Greens 44% Labour 33% Lib Dems 22%. Actually having realised that the Greens are up for election in my constituency I will be voting for them.

Exactly - it was a home banker for them and they nearly ****ed it up. Nerves are kicking in for them......and they'll drop points.

Yeah but you know as well as me that we've never won when he's scored.

Post of the day, ha ha!

New Forest East has been Tory for at least 40 years and will continue to be that until aliens destroy the planet (and even then if the aliens wear a blue rosette then New Forest East will vote for destruction). Unfortunately it's also my consituency. Incidentally has Julian Lewis ditched the beard he appeared with in party literature last election time? Mind you I did agree with him tonight when he had a pop at the Lib Dem candidate calling himself a colonel despite having left the army ten years ago. Ex military types who continue to use their previous job title always come across as pompous and fail to grasp the concept that outside the army their rank means nothing.

Funnily enough I think the opposite - more people will vote labour than are currently admitting to it. An unpopular incumbent party always firms up it's numbers on election day. Come election day I'd expect the difference in the polls to be closer to a 5% lead for the Tories. How that plays out in the marginals is anyones guess. Another thing is the Lib Dems - they need an unpopular Tory party because that is their natural constituency. A resurgent Tory party is bad news for them (and labour). From a party success point of view they should be moving further right to challenge the Tories and they should have done it 2001 and 2005 - when you're more successful in the South than the North then it's not clever to be perceived to be more lefty than Labour; increasing the tax burden for the rich gains support where it matters least for them. In both years I mentioned they had a golden opportunity to bury the Tory party - Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard anyone? They blew it and instead gained most of their votes as a protest against the Iraq war (2005) and Tory disillusionment. Can't see that happening again - expect a drop in seats for them. Personally I see the Tories getting a small majority - around ten or so. With the support of the Ulster Unionists it'll be a workable majority. Labour will self implode and Gordon will go to be replaced by Miliband. If he fails to gain credibilty quickly (and he probably will) then labour will get rid before the next general election and replace him with a proper old Labour man. The Tories will call an early election and get a bigger majority. Obviously all in my opinion of course.

Does anyone else hope that Pompey lose on penalties? That's got to be hard to take.

Which is sadly why the BNP have gained ground - it's a failure of mainstream politicians to offer genuine choice and instead concentrate on presentation. I do think that accessibility is also an issue - sadly when we're used to phoning in, pressing our red button etc for reality TV programmes then the idea of actually going to a polling station is just too much for some people.

I'm not sure that was the point of the thread but you may be right and you may not - we'll never know. What would increase voter turnout is making voting more accessible. Internet or phone voting for example would probably massively increase the turnout. It'd be a nightmare to ensure there's no corruption though (but that's a different issue). Incidentally if that was introduced would there be an option to "spoil your vote"?

But the point is that "none of the above/spoiling your vote" is actually different to not voting.

Couldn't have put it better myself. In my case it's a combination of the fact that I don't currently feel that there's a party available to me and our "first past the post system".

Good point. We should have a poll - Do you want to punch Gordon Brown or Johnny Bognor? I'll start. Johnny Bognor.

Typical. I start a debate that gets interesting and then disappear off to work. To be honest it seems to have slipped a bit into the usual points scoring and that wasn't the intention of the question. I could have been phrased it a bit better though - maybe voting out of tradition rather than habit. It's interesting to note that no one I think has tackled the second point which was "what would make you change your vote (if you are a one party person)? Personally I think I would always find it hard to justify voting for the Tories but I don't think I could ever rule it out. There's a lot to be said for floating voters - they at least ensure we're not all mired in constituencies that are destined to stay the same political hue for generations. Of course a more representative system may help as well. All very interesting though.

Hope all you like - it's why certain regions remain heartlands for certain parties. How else would you explain it? Edit: Actually I see your point but parties change. Voting loyalty shouldn't be set in stone because of central tenets that a party once held, or should it?

Hands up - who does it? Who, when push comes to shove, can't bring themselves to vote anything other than the party they've voted for all their life? And is there anything that would persuade you otherwise?

Definitely onside and there weren't any complaints from the Man U players either. I remember talking to a Man U supporter who was at the game (tragically I was 4 and couldn't make it) and even he didn't dispute the legitimacy of the goal. Funnily enough I got the DVD years ago and was suprised at how well Saints played. It seems received wisdom that we got battered, held on and scored a goal against the run of play but it didn't seem that way to me.

Have to say he does actually come across well in interviews and does seem like a laugh. Probably past it now but he was a decent player and am I the only one who remembers that he scored a great goal against us for Leicester (I think) at the Dell? the kind of player you loved to hate if he played against you but would love if he was on your side.

Ummm thanks, that's what I said I would do? In reality though spoiling/defacing my vote actually does nothing except give me a smug feeling that at least I can have a moan. I'm not "not voting" because of apathy. I'm not voting because of two reasons - firstly there won't be any party on offer in my constituency I consider worth voting for and secondly without a proportional representational vote voting tactically wouldn't be any help even if I wanted to. Last election I had four parties to vote for - the usual three plus UKIP. I didn't feel that any of them deserved endorsing. If I'm going to vote for a party (bearing in mind it will make no difference whatsoever) then I'm going to make sure it's one I agree with.

1997 the tories took a right kicking across the country - except for the constituency I live in where they actually increased their majority. That killed any idea I may have had that my vote actually would count. It doesn't and neither does your vote count if you're not lucky enough to live in a marginal. You may go home satisfied you've paid a part in the political process but the fact is when we wake up on the day after the election the majority of people eligible to vote will not have voted for the party that won and neither will there be a proportional distribution of power based on that vote.

So given a choice between party A and party B both being exactly the same except for slogans you'd choose to legitimise the process? Of course someone has to run the country - my point is I'd rather none of the contenders did. That's a valid point of view isn't it? It's just not represented on the ballot paper which is why I will spoil my vote unless I'm persuaded otherwise. I should also point out that if my ballot paper contained all the parties on this poll or we had proportional representation then I probably wouldn't be spoiling my vote.

I think there should be a "spoiled vote" option. That way it can reflect those who do care but find no one who is worth voting for. I'd expect this GE to have a very low voter turnout and to a large extent that's because of disillusionment with the current state of politics. As someone pointed out earlier unless you live in a marginal then your vote won't really count anyway. I don't really see the point of voting where I live - it'll always be Tory. A blue paper bag would get elected here. I also see very little difference between the major parties (lib dems excepted to a certain extent) so ironically given that this election like so many others will be dominated by the word "change" I can't actually see very much of it on offer. I'll spoil my vote and refuse to get hoodwinked by a lot of PR and slogans.