News thread

Genuinely a bit depressed about these results. Not only am I unhappy with the results, it's also exposed issues with our voting system and with an ever-widening gulf between the Scottish electorate and the rest of the UK, and I doubt that either of those issues will be addressed any time soon.

Anyone else noticed the change in weather this afternoon? Surely not a coincidence...

Seeing the horrors of the english political system makes me realize how good we have it here in australia even with the morons known as Abbott and Hockey running the country. Granted everything I know of the uk's system is second hand knowledge from my mother but it just seems very unbalanced and unfair to me.

That is pretty much the case, oh follower of the Scottish one.

A lot of people have been saying, "At least Farage's gone." You know what? I miss him. He was never going to get into government (not under the current system anyway), and he was a good laugh and made for enjoyable caricaturing.

Seen this morning if it was Proportional Representation, Conservatives would still have the most seats but then all the rest gain a lot especially UKIP & Greens.

Except that's not true because people wouldn't be voting as tactically as they have to.

Maybe but could mean something like more UKIP, 4 Million did vote for them at the moment.

Pretty sure it'd mean a lot more of various minor parties - UKIP, Greens, Lib. Dems., Plaid Cymru, others.

There would definitely be some bad things about prop. rep., UKIP being number one. That doesn't stop it being the fairest, most representative method of voting. There are some variants that would work as well, possibly better.

Yeah it's hard a one especially with so many parties.

It would be interesting to see, even as an experiment, a proportional representation ballot with parties as opposed to constituencies. I voted tactically, and would have voted differently if I wasn't trying to help score a point in a certain area. We all went "er, no" last time, because the BNP were still on the prowl. But it'd be nice to see what would happen.

Seems the lefties can't take a loss with all this protecting in London which has led to devilling of a war memorial on VE Day no less.

For me, it's time to keep calm and carry on. There's nothing that can be done to change the result - let's just see what happens. Go passivity! It's your birthday!

masofdas wrote:

Seems the lefties can't take a loss with all this protecting in London which has led to devilling of a war memorial on VE Day no less.

The protests seem pointless to me. Sore losers. That's democracy. You get another chance at the next election. If you don't like the outcome, work harder for a different outcome the next time.

Eh, democracy would be representing the will of the people. Until we have a better system, I don't think we can say that's exactly what we're getting.

The war memorial thing is beyond stupid. Worse, it gives other stupid people ammo. I can see the Sun headline now: "Lefties desecrate monuments!" Yet I'm damn sure that's not on most lefties' agenda.

Also, another link to Drunka's piece: http://www.gintendo-namer.squarespace.com/articles/2015/5/8/the-best-games-to-play-if-youre-upset-about-the-general-election-results

Balladeer wrote:

Eh, democracy would be representing the will of the people.  Until we have a better system, I don't think we can say that's exactly what we're getting.

In a way, that was my point, by worker harder to change the outcome, I meant it broadly - getting involved to inspire people to vote and become active in arguing for a change in the system.  Sure, revolution can work for change, but a popular uprising needs much stronger reasons than the current ones.  It isn't like there is no democracy, just a flawed one.

Also, the conservative win appears small, the smallest since 1974 if I read correctly.  My limited distance reading says that the fault lies with Labour on this, as they simply had a poor leader, someone clearly hard to like.  They should have bitten the bullet long before the election and offered a better candidate.  It could have made a massive difference.

No outcome is ever black and white (if you are UKIP, it is only white always   )

You do know UKIP has some Black members right like Ace Nnorom.

Yeah Labour picked the wrong Millband for there leader.

UKIP's very existence is built on intrinsically racist, homophobic, backwards, dangerous ideas. The fact that a very small number of people from minorities fell for the toned - down version Farage tried to sell the public doesn't change that.

4 million people the country voted for them and might of been more with a different voting system.

Like all party's they did say some things that meant sense but others didn't.

Are you trying to say that 4 million people can't be racist?

Well I'm saying some people even own party members are black and out of 4 million not all can be racist.

I knew at least 2 people that voted UKIP that aren't.

Not everyone who voted ukip is a racist but ukip is racist. Just like not everyone who voted conservative is heartless and self-serving. That's a big part of the problem; people can only vote based on the very biased information to which they are given access.

It's a rather bittersweet time for me. I'm not a Tory fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm glad that with the majority that they received that they can pretty much ignore the SNP. With their 56 seats they'll have no real power in WM regardless of what the SNP faithful say. Even better, despite independence constantly being on the SNP's agenda, I read yesterday that the interest is starting to dip. This can only be a good thing.

Too much time and money was wasted in Scotland on a futile campaign which would have left us in a worst place then when we started. It was based on the fundamental hatred of the English, and yep the SNP claim that Nigel Farage and UKIP are evil.

You one of them fearty No voters, Mazey?

I was always a Labour voter previously but voted SNP this time around, like most of Scotland did, sadly won't mean much with a Tory majority... How'd you guys let that happen?


Oh and you don't need to be racist to vote UKIP. You can also be thick.

Not sure on that either Mr Lemon.

But of politics to good news a certain three men are in talks with ITV to do a car show.

Nice to see Miliband, Clegg and Farage are keeping busy post-election, then.