One of my Russian colleagues just emailed me: "I bet one of your politicians is going to try to blame Putin for all this?" Of course, I replied "Why? Scotland has its very own Putin"
Maybe they could just try actually representing the general foundations of left wing principles without focus grouping the fuck out of everything and basing their ever less defined identity around what might help them win a general election.
THANKS AND ALL, but if this thing passes, I'm going to start pushing for North West INDEPENDENCE. I'm quite down for living in a developing country etc.
https://www.scotreferendum.com/ques...ble-to-vote-in-the-2015-uk-general-elections/ If Scotland votes for independence, would Scots be eligible to vote in the 2015 UK General Elections? Answer: Yes. Sovereignty will be fully exercised by the people of Scotland from the point Scotland becomes independent on 24 March 2016. Until that point, the people of Scotland must be represented politically at the UK level. Scotland will therefore elect MPs to Westminster to represent Scotland up until the date of independence. OH Of course they could all vote Tory to spite us.
I've just u-turned at the last minute as I've realised that Yes = weaker pound vs euro. #bettertogetherforbigronssake
Norway must be wanking itself off in the mirror with all of these "We want to be the next Norway" proclamations flying around.
Anyone with some sense and taste would! Sweden is the England of Scandinavia. (Norway is Scottland, Wales is Finland, Denmark is Ireland and Iceland is one of those useless Channel islands)
They're the England of the Baltics though. Latvia is Scotland, Lithuania can be Wales and Kaliningrad can be Northern Ireland
Blairism's a perfectly defined identity. The 'general foundations of left wing principles' haven't been electable in England since Thatcher. Every political party that has even the slightest modicum of respect for the people it wants to help bases its identity to an extent around what will help it to win a general election - it's not as if the Blair government was ten years of 'fuck the poor, we're in now', much as reductive purists claim it to be.
Blairism was great, except for the war and the irresponsible fiscal policies. I'm ready for some more
We were talking about this today - you could, given the mess parliamentary politics is in right now, end up w/ a Labour government for the first few months which then loses its majority when Scotland leaves....would it not be illegal to delay the general election? They're already stringing it out for the full five years. If Cameron was smart he'd call it early for this November while Labour are still divided post-referendum.
Nor the coalition, much as 'reductive purists' claim it to be. Really, when there's so little fundamental difference between the two major parties, Labour's current lack of identity is a real issue for them. A return to its core values might keep it out of power for a while longer, but it would make its resurgence all the more powerful in the long term. The party is in such a sorry state at the minute that drastic action really is needed.
By the way, my No vote was posted last week, if we're doing an exit poll. In a way, I surprised myself cos I'd called myself a Yes because I simply do not believe in first-past-the-post electoral systems and this was a chance to change that but the price was too high and I just couldn't convince myself about many of the sums, the economic policy and the currency issue? Better Together? No. More stable together, yes.
I believe the Coalition is for a fixed five year term so you may well be right. I dare say both sides could renege on that part of the deal if they both saw fit to do so.
Deficits are fine so long as the deficit as a percentage of GDP is less than the inflation rate, as any debt accrued just gets inflated away. The deficit only became a problem in 2008 when tax intake absolutely collapsed immediately after the recession - and it still hasn't really recovered, hence why it's still so large despite big spending cuts. We'd have had more leeway for a bigger stimulus in 2008 if the budget had been balanced longer, but it'd be a stretch to say the Blair years were fiscally irresponsible.
I've never been one for 'THE TORIES ARE EVIL!!!'. I think they're more incompetent false ideologues than anything else. Out of interest, which of Ed's positions do you think jar with core Labour values?
I voted. I was quite nervous about putting that X down for some reason. It was busy with no queues but was starting to fill as we were leaving.
I was nervous too oddly enough and I had all the time in the world to fill out my form and post it...
The coalition has done very well, really. They dragged the UK kicking and screaming out of recession long before any other big European country (Germany excepted), which was really as much as could have been hoped for in 2010. Yes, the cuts were unpopular, but unfortunately in a globalised world, there's a lot less room for kisses and cuddles than there may have been in the past. What's dragging France down is its unrealistic commitment to welfare policies. They know they need to make cuts, it's just that no one has the political will to do it and set the strikes and protests in motion. Agree 100%. Labour has been having a massive identity crisis for the last seven years. The Other Miliband could have sorted that out, but sadly they made the wrong choice.
I voted NO. My polling station was very quiet, in and out in 2 minutes! A few leaflet bearers (YES obviously) were standing outside, but that was it!
There weren't any people outside my polling station, but that was just after 7 so maybe they showed up later. The school just down from my work had people from both sides leafleting outside, though.
They were obviously expecting it to be busy - we have a pop-up polling station nearby - a portacabin in a car park just outside of the town centre!
Looking at the list the woman was scoring names off, quite a lot had voted by 6.15pm, but I don't think it will be over 90% in the end. I think we will pretty much know by 2am what the result is.
