ecuk268

I think that Labour have come out of this OK. They have by no means been wiped out and, many Labour supporters that I know are glad that they don't have to take the extreme measures needed to tackle the deficit. The Governor of the Bank of England has suggested that the cuts will be so extreme that the party in power could become "unelectable for a generation". Although the average voter may say that they understand the need for cuts and increased taxes, when it hits them in the pocket, they'll blame the Government.

Do you mean that there's a suggestion that he "bowls from the pavilion end" ?

She looks like she should be running in the Grand National.

Well Germany - the economic success story of Europe. Oh, hang on, they're ruled by a coalition.

Not quite. England imposed severe trade embargoes on Scotland in the late 1600's to "discourage" their attempts to have a separate monarch and also stated that property in England owned by Scots would be confiscated. This persuaded the Scottish aristocracy and the big land owners that the Union may be a good idea. It was strongly opposed by the Scottish people and violence broke out in many towns, so much so that martial law was declared in order to restore order.

Sadly, Jack White went to that great car park in the sky a couple of years ago.

It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. Clegg has to get a referendum on PR or his career is over. If Cameron agrees, his party will turn on him although it was Cameron who said that the first-past-the-post system produces a clear result. If Labour were smart, they would offer an alliance with the Lib Dems and the nationalists with a guaranteed referendum and with Gordon Brown to stand down. The problem with this is that the Labour leadership process can take many weeks.

Presumably, one of Clegg's main demands will be reform of the voting system. Cameron has always been against this so it'll be interesting to see his reaction.

Both Ford and Nissan have said that they would withdraw from the UK if we leave the EU. We would still need to retain much EU legislation if we wanted to continue to trade with them. As the company I work for exports about 70% of our product to Europe, the last thing we need are trade barriers. Approx 72% of EU legislation comes from the elected Council of Ministers. The not-very-bright leader of UKIP mis-reported this as 72% of UK laws are "forced upon us by the EU". Seeing as how UKIP will only get any influence under a changed voting system, does this mean that their supporters will vote Lib-Dem?

That may still happen. They owe Simon Jordan 20m and Selhurst Park is owned by Lloyds Bank (rent 1.2m per year).

I bet that he got bullied at school - he's got that sort of face.

The Alternative Vote system is simpler. The Independent has a fascinating couple of booklets in the paper this weekend about elections, full of interesting facts like - no government has had a majority of the people who voted since 1931. Also, bearing in mind Bigotgate, Winston Churchill once said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter".

Why? Maggie Thatcher did exactly the same thing. She went off on the lecture circuit, especially to the States where, for some strange reason, they loved her. At least Blair didn't set his son up for some dodgy arms deal (although he might have done if he was old enough).

You are correct.

I went into my shed to get a fork and there was an enormous bumble buzzing around. I decided to leave her in peace. The ones to really steer clear of are hornets. Quite common in the New Forest.

A question to all you Daily Mail and Express reading types... The vast majority of illegal immigrants are not those that sneak across on ferries but people with a visitor's visa who stay on after it has expired. Which nationality tops the league in overstaying?

Germany had had coalition governments for ages and it hasn't done them any harm. Many of the prosperous European countries have coalitions which work perfectly well.

Don't know where you get your figures from but a MORI poll in Oct '09 found 75% wanted the legislation to remain.

I thought the ruling party in the French Assembly was the UMP - a centre-right party, although I believe the the Senate is a coalition. True, the french unions are strong but maybe that's why they have 1st class health and education.

Here's one for Dune to put on his shopping list. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/bnp-launches-aryan-spread-201004232668/

Quite. Most historians think that he was Roman and was born in Palestine where his father was stationed in the Roman Army. Other countries that mark St Georges Day include Russia, Portugal and Egypt.

I think that the authorities need to come down hard on these people. There's far too much fence shaking going on these days. It would never have happened when I was a boy. Next thing you know, they'll be knocking on peoples doors and running away.

Reminds me of a remark from a Glasgow Police Chief many years ago. When asked to explain the high numbers of murders in Glasgow he said "Yes, we do have a lot of murders, but they're not too serious. Most of them are just husbands killing their wives".

I remember when the PR men tried to give Maggie Thatcher a sense of humour. She paraphrased the Monty Python "dead parrot" phrases but obviously had no idea about why it was funny.

If you really want a reason to vote Tory (or not) have a look at our local councillors. The Tories have run Southampton for the past few years. The first thing that they did was to cut the pay of care workers. Then they closed 2 old people’s homes, closed Millbrook Library, proposed to replace qualified librarians with volunteers and now want to scrap residential wardens from old peoples sheltered accommodation. Strangely enough, the Chairman of the Finance Committee (who is the Tory candidate for Southampton Test) was on the radio saying that he was against this despite leading the committee that proposed it. Meanwhile, in Hampshire CC, the unions agreed to have their mileage rate cut from 53 to 40p. However Councillors were given the choice of claiming the higher or lower rates. A Tory from Fareham said that he’d carry on claiming the higher rate because he couldn’t afford to run his Jag otherwise.