UK General Election - May 7th 2015 (The Official Campaign Thread)

[Blair]

Anyone else have a feeling that this will be slightly akin to 1992?  

No, not at all. This is a weak example used by tories hoping for a last minute victory

I can't wait till you Progress lot are expelled from the party.

Us progress lot? What are you talking about? I'm a proud Miliband supporter, and a proud Labour supporter. I've donated money to the party (despite being a rather tight student) I've traveled to party conferences, I've canvassed dozens of times for labour candidates-is that good enough for you?

For someone who unashamedly espouses Blair you appear to be peculiarly cavalier. Whether you support Miliband is not the issue.
I'm sure you have been campaigning for certain candidates.
It's a matter of time.

No, I've been campaigning for all the labour candidates in my area. In fact the batch I've campaigned for on the whole have been to the left of the party. Do you want me to actually submit evidence of that?

Yes, I think Tony Blair did a lot of good for the Party and for the country. Yes I agree that Iraq was bad, and yes I'm committed to a labour victory in 2015, and yes I think that Ed Miliband is a much better candidate that David. We're not going to win in 2015 if we pretend that New Labour didn't exist-we need to talk about the successes (minimum wage, kosovo, in work credits) and the failures (top up fees, Iraq)

 I'm not even a ing member of Progress! I just wanted to talk about the 1992 election and you suddenly decided to attack me for a being a progress member, just because I'm not blindly old labour.

Bet to be honest, I think it's social conservatives like you who don't fit into the Party. You don't support abortion rights (something labour introduced in the 1960s), you oppose gay marriage (something labour voted for), do you support gay adoption and civil partnerships (something labour introdcued), you oppose green energy (something labour championed)

It appears ironically that you have much less in common with the Labour Party that me

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Thank you

[afleitch]

FWIW hifly's opinion on everything is generally worth hee haw on here so it's not worth your effort.

[AelroseB]

Anyone else have a feeling that this will be slightly akin to 1992?  

No, not at all. This is a weak example used by tories hoping for a last minute victory

I can't wait till you Progress lot are expelled from the party.

Us progress lot? What are you talking about? I'm a proud Miliband supporter, and a proud Labour supporter. I've donated money to the party (despite being a rather tight student) I've traveled to party conferences, I've canvassed dozens of times for labour candidates-is that good enough for you?

For someone who unashamedly espouses Blair you appear to be peculiarly cavalier. Whether you support Miliband is not the issue.
I'm sure you have been campaigning for certain candidates.
It's a matter of time.

If anything, social conservative fossils like you will be purged first.

Gee wiz, this guy actually believes it when people say that slippery slope is a fallacy...

[afleitch]

Anyway, the YouGov Election Centre is actually quite interesting and I'm sure will no doubt be binned if it misses the mark on the day so enjoy it while you can.

As of today, they have 8 UKIP 'wins' on the NowCast and Plaid have regained Dwyfor Meirionnydd Scotland is a bloodbath with only 1 Lib Dem, 1 Tory and 1 Labour MP left.

[Phony Moderate]

*If* the polls improve considerably for the Tories during the campaign then Morley and Outwood will surely be talked about again, no?

[Phony Moderate]

Populus: Lab 34, Con 32, UKIP 15, Lib Dems 9, Greens 5

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Benton was basically forced to retire (he was not formally deselected) because he was getting increasingly complacent and inactive in his old age. Elderly MPs who remain active in some way usually have no difficulty getting rubber stamped for re-selection by their CLPs, but when they don't...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The NowCast thing is obviously patent bullsh!t, but is kind of fun. Just so long as you remember the first half of that.

[Hifly]

The Labour Party was founded to represent the interests of the Labour movement and working people. This is also why it's called the "Labour Party", and not "The Progressive Party" or "The Social Liberal Party".

This is also why it has been a longstanding tradition in the party that social issues are matters of conscience, which is why there have always been a wide variety of views on these issues. This also helps explain why support and opposition to Abortion and Homosexual Law Reform has always been bipartisan.
People who do not understand this are misinformed, insane and are not worth listening to (there are many).

The issue of Progress is that it stands for a radically different agenda to that pushed by the union movement. This is why the union movement has pushed for its expulsion.
GMB's opinion and investigation (.zip): http://liberalconspiracy.org/images/misc/progress/progress.zip

[Filuwaúrdjan]

*If* the polls improve considerably for the Tories during the campaign then Morley and Outwood will surely be talked about again, no?

The Tories would probably need to be ahead nationally by more than they were at the last election to come as close in Morley & Outwood as they did last time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So who's watching the whole thing the whole way through? I won't be.

---

Regarding Progress, there have been certain tensions for a while. If the election is lost there's often a tendency to search for scapegoats and they have recently been better at losing friends than gaining them. Could get nasty.

[DL]

The Labour Party was founded to represent the interests of the Labour movement and working people. This is also why it's called the "Labour Party", and not "The Progressive Party" or "The Social Liberal Party".

This is also why it has been a longstanding tradition in the party that social issues are matters of conscience, which is why there have always been a wide variety of views on these issues. This also helps explain why support and opposition to Abortion and Homosexual Law Reform has always been bipartisan.
People who do not understand this are misinformed, insane and are not worth listening to (there are many).

In more civilized countries like Canada - we see that the interests of working people are the same as the interests of women, visible minorities and gays and lesbians - all for one and one for all - and retrograde social conservatives have all been expelled from the NDP (Labour) and from the Liberal party - too. Get with the program and throw those religious freaks who try to pass as leftists to the curb - they do not belong in a party of the left!!!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There are certain CLPs where the social conservatives are themselves what Canadians would call 'visible minorities'.

[Phony Moderate]

Clegg having a go at Cameron...I cannot contain my amusement.

[Phony Moderate]

Bennett doing well...so far.

[Phony Moderate]

Farage implying that he wants Tory economics on steroids. Won't go down well with much of the UKIP base.

[Phony Moderate]

"David Cameron wants to talk about the past. Okay. The Tories pledged to match Labour's spending plans until the 2008 financial crisis." ~ What Ed Miliband should say.

[afleitch]

Nicola doing rather well.

[Hifly]

Nicola Sturgeon is impressive! Miliband isn't doing bad either.

My dad's hilarious reaction to Leanne Wood's "Wales deserves an additional £1.2 billion" was "Why?"

[Phony Moderate]

Clegg doing well...if he hadn't been in government for the past five years.

[Beezer]

Poor Farage sweating like the average Briton on summer holiday in Majorca.

[Clyde1998]

Farage's only contribution to this debate so far seems to be xenophobia. *Sigh*

[Phony Moderate]

Sturgeon just zingered Farage.

[afleitch]

Sturgeon just zingered Farage.

She did.

Farage is getting bored. Everyone is just ignoring him.

[afleitch]

Wood calmly tore Farage a new one there. I think Farage has given up.