It is quite apparent that none of the politicians, apart from possibly the Greens, are at all bothered about what is best for the country (or the planet). They are trying bribe after bribe in order to sway people to vote for them so that they can gain power.
Power, like wealth, is a terribly addictive thing.
The election brings it to the surface and it is naked for all to see; their lust for power trumps all common sense. They will try anything to gain power. They will lie, scare, misrepresent and blatantly try to buy your votes.
It is quite obscene.
It takes a certain type of psychopath to be a politician!
It’s all short-term, all ideological, all planned out to gain votes. It does not matter what is right or wrong, best for anyone or makes sense. It’s a big psychological game!
Quite nasty really!
I’m finding a lot of distrust for all the major parties when I’m out canvassing. We of course do our best to capitalise on that, and suggest that the only viable alternatives are to vote Green or UKIP. And then we attempt to engage them about what their issues are and try to compare and contrast Green vs UKIP policies.
It does seem to work, and we believe we’ve got a number of UKIP voters to think again. Our main problem is the lack of people willing to go out canvassing, and a general indifference to voting at all, not to mention those that intend to vote Labour as a tactical vote. Its hard to convince them that Labour is really not that much better than the Tories, so many people still think that Ed will save the day.
The trouble is that realistically it is a choice between Ed and Dave. Personally I prefer Ed in coalition with Greens, Lib Dems and SNP to Dave in an unholy alliance with UKIP!
I’m hoping Ed will change his thinking with regard to the SNP. If Labour would commit to giving Scotland the investment they so desperately need, the independence issue goes away.
Also, although the SNP whats Trident removed from Scotland, and ideally scrapped altogether, it could be moved Portsmouth if he’s so set on keeping it. So it would be a Labour/Green/SNP/Clwd Cymru coalition for me. I’m not sure how many Lib-Dems will retain their seats but I’m pretty sure that Nick Clegg will get booted, and our local longstanding LibDem MP is on thin ice, it seems to me.
Yep – that sort of coalition would do it for me. The only fly in that ointment is that the Tories could slip in through the backdoor like they did last time and under Thatcher. Shirley & Co gave us a whole lot of Thatcher and we’ve never recovered! The same thing could happen here. If the Greens take votes from Labour the Tories could benefit.
Then its cut cut cut and give to the rich. They’d really put their dogma into overdrive!
The LibDems will not be forgiven for giving us this five years of Tory swaggering dogma. They have no mandate and it didn’t stop them one little bit!
Well the Greens are mainly picking up disillusioned Lib-Dem voters, people who havent bothered to vote before, and young people who’ve never voted before, so I doubt that we’ll affect the Labour votes that much. Plus as previously noted, Labour will pick up a lot of tactical votes in order to try to get rid of Lib-Dem incumbents and Tory marginals where where possible. Only one thing is certain…..the Tories will not increase their votes, more likely they themselves will lose some Market share both to UKIP and Green/Labour. And I seriously believe that the LibDems will have a very bad night on Polling Day.
Yeah I think you’re right about the LibDems. What I can’t see is any way out of this monopoly by the large parties. We need the Greens to make a major break-through. I can’t see it happening at all.
Perhaps it is a two phase operation! – I’m being optimistic!
Oh yes another point which has barely surfaced in the Election is the voting in Northern Ireland. 18 seats up fo grabs with the DUP/UUP working together to hold onto their votes and the DUP candidates stepping down where the UUP might win.
Net effect: No real change in the seats that the Tories might rely on support from
Currently there are 8 seats with Sinn Fein and the SDLP who might be expected to be anti-Tory, though the Sinn Fein MPs have traditionally refused to take their seats in parliament. There appears to have been a new seat created, it was 17 last time out, 18 seats to be contested this time. So maybe the SDLP can win some more there
That would be nice. I’m not sure it will happen though. Ireland seems more help to the Tories than anybody else.
I’m hoping that Labour will get enough to get across the line in some coalition that will push them into being more left-wing than they currently are. We desperately need an end to austerity, more equality and a much greater global perspective. The Greens would do that. They would promote the whole renewable agenda and create a shed-load of jobs in the process. There’s the makings of a good coalition!
Yes the Greens are concentrating particularly on marginals where they have a realistic chance of winning. The aim for this election is to keep Labour on their toes and try to bring them back towards more genuinely socialist policies. But Caroline Lucas has done extraordinaly well as the lone GP MP for the last session and jf we can get say 5 more seats it hopefully starts to snowball when people see what the Greens can achieve. Despite being just 1 on her own, Caroline was voted best MP in the House this year, she got cross party support for quite a few measures that she initiated.
It would be great if they did get a breakthrough but we’ve been there before and it didn’t happen.
Perhaps this time……