The United Kingdom Elections 2010

[JAG]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7044185.ece

And to think, you people doubt me -

GORDON BROWN is on course to remain prime minister after the general election as a new Sunday Times poll reveals that Labour is now just two points behind the Tories.

The YouGov survey places David Cameron’s Conservatives on 37%, as against 35% for Labour — the closest gap between the parties in more than two years.

It means Labour is heading for a total of 317 seats, nine short of an overall majority, with the Tories languishing on a total of just 263 MPs. Such an outcome would mean Brown could stay in office and deny Cameron the keys to No 10.

As for the 'well this is just one poll' - go look at the very brilliant and impartial UK polling report. When people focus with the election coming, the polls were always going to narrow - the question was, and still is, how do the Tories react and deal with it and thus far they have done terribly.

Furthermore I have been trying to get my head around the Tory strategy - their new one that is - for the last week and I simply cannot fathom it. People do NOT want significant change, they simply didn't like Brown all that much and didn't like the recession. People have consistantly liked what Labur stand for over the Tories all through this period - it is the reason Cameron went to such lengths to show he had changed his party's policies. People do not want significant change when it comes to economic policy, people do not want striking, stringent tax cuts and public spending cuts. People do not want schools being, effectively, privately run pet projects by big business and busy bodies - they want every school to be better and well funded. Yet The Tories are going into the election with a huge change message - it isn't what the people want. People have had one hell of a hard time over the last year and a half and they want stability and a sure hand and Labour are increasingly being effective at making people criticise and look at the Tory position, rather than the governenments action. With a platform of significant change - it only gets easier.

I find it quite mind boggling to say the least - anyway as a Labour member and campaigner, I am loving it. And people should learn never to doubt me ;)

[CountArach]

Yep there is no denying that the polling has shown some sort of narrowing... my bet is on a hung parliament with the Lib Dems giving Labour government.

[Furunculus]

there is no doubt the polls have narrowed, whether that will be emulated on election day is another matter, lots of people are pressuring the Cons to see their own special interest invades Conservative HQ consciousness.

I have made plain that i will vote UKIP unless I see something worthwhile on the EU and Defence.

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in other news; labour is infiltrated by islamic radicals:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...our-Party.html

[gaelic cowboy]

Yep there is no denying that the polling has shown some sort of narrowing... my bet is on a hung parliament with the Lib Dems giving Labour government.

That would not be a good idea for Lib Dems the voters of Lib Dems would likely be annoyed they allowed labour to stay in power and obviously Tories would never waste a chance to proclaim that the people had been denied etc etc. Course they will be secretly hoping to cause them to walk across the floor and then using them as a figure of public hate for all the things they will end up doing the public.

Lib Dems will have to go Tory even if its not a natural home for then politically. however it is possible the Tories may not get enough with Lib dems to convene a government this election is shaping up to be a far better run than I expected. It will be hilarious to see them all incapable of copping that the public hold them ALL in contempt.

[Furunculus]

looks like the convention against standing in the Speakers constituency during elections is now thoroughly broken:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/da...in-buckingham/

to paraphase someone earlier in this thread, who said they would rather have a decisive leader like brown, i give you our decisive leader:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7...d-defence.html

[Subotan]

Farage just wants to become an MP, and is willing to resort to any dirty tricks to get his bum on a green seat. Hence, the convention breaking.

[KukriKhan]

...to see them all incapable of copping that the public hold them ALL in contempt.

That's a prevailing mood over here too. "T'row da bums out!" is always present, though this year it seems to be capturing the minds of more and more voters, Dem, Repub and Indie.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Lord Ashcroft goes from Tory saviour to election liability in marginal seats

The financial clout that has given the Conservatives a dominant position in the polls has rebounded spectacularly with last week's revelations about the tax status of the man with the cash
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...marginal-seats


[...]

"It is huge, huge. We are putting it in every letter. Why should a billionaire who does not pay full taxes in this country be allowed to buy the election in places like this?"Ashcroft, a deputy chairman of the party, has used his huge personal fortune to fund Tory campaigns in dozens of marginal seats, the ones that the Conservatives must seize to win the next election. The secretive Ashcroft has run his own nerve centre at party headquarters masterminding the strategy that could bring Cameron to power. Since Cameron became party leader in 2005, the peer, who is a close friend of the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague (whom he flies round the world in his personal jet), has donated more than £5m.
His influence on policy and tactics is immense. Although not an elected politician, or a member of the Tory frontbench, he has accompanied Hague to Washington, Cuba, China, Panama, the Falklands and the Turks and Caicos Islands in recent months, prompting speculation that he will be given a ministerial role under a Conservative government. Labour has also raised concerns that Ashcroft may have used the visits with Hague to open doors to talks with business leaders in those countries.

The row over Lord Ashcroft's donations to the Tory party threatened to erupt into a full-blown constitutional crisis last night as questions were raised over whether the Queen and the former prime minister, Tony Blair, had granted him a peerage under false pretences.

As David Cameron's aides confirmed that Ashcroft would be retiring as Tory deputy chairman after the election, the Liberal Democrats called on the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, to publish all documents relating to the peerage as a matter of urgency, so that it could be established whether the sovereign had been misled.

The monarch confers honours mostly on the advice of the Cabinet Office and the prime minister. Ashcroft's declaration last week that he was a "non-dom" has been seen to contradict "clear and unequivocal" assurances given to the then Tory leader, William Hague, that he would take up permanent residence in the UK before the end of 2000. This assurance was seen as crucial. Members of Blair's inner circle suggest the former prime minister now feels he has been misled.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...chael-ashcroft

The Tories are buying marghinal seats with the money supplied by a tax refugee. Moreover, a tax refugee who was raised to the peerage under assurances of his paying his taxes in the UK. Which turned out to have been a lie, a scam to misled the Queen and PM.

Not that the Tories mind. Despite their posturising on corruption, Ashcroft has bought himself huge influence within the party with money that belongs to the British taxpayer.

Still the ancient Tory reflex: taxes are for the little people.