LOL... pretty much exactly the line I wrote but then deleted at the end of my previous post.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage/11602620/Police-probe-allegation-of-electoral-fraud-in-Thanet-South.html

Perhaps Nige didnt lose after all. A lot of people were surprised at the size of the Tory win

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The Guardian reckons EdStone is in a south London garage.

Ed unveiled his monolith in Hastings, I checked on the result of that constituency. A 2.7% swing from Labour to the Tories.

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And perhaps he did after all!

Police say no evidence of electoral fraud

Police investigating allegations of election fraud at the all-important South Thanet count say there is no evidence of electoral fraud.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/police-probe-election-fraud-allegations-36864/

 

 

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So Mark Carney today basically validates Milliband's message about most jobs created being part-time/low-skilled/McJobs, and downgrades growth forecasts.

 

Hopefully Varoufakis will, after a shrug & a mischievous grin, press the red button to call the Krauts' bluff.

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New allegations that the Tory Party forced the BBC to take a pro-Tory stance during the election run-up. admittedly they're made by Tom Baldwin from the Milliband camp - but the fact he's gone public speaks volumes.

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There have been suggestions of smashing up the Beeb web site to facilitate the paywall market in the UK. Personally I'm not convinced this would be achieved as more people would just end up in the walled garden looking for their news.

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They were a great double act the two Eds for political farce, one loses an election and the other loses his seat.

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Interesting piece by Dan Hodges - he claims a shadow minister resigned at 2pm on election day, because he was disgusted with the campaign and what a Miliband Government would mean :
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9528312/inside-the-milibunker-the-last-days-of-ed-did-ed-miliband-sacrifice-ed-balls/ 

I wonder who it was?

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I didn't detect any bias in BBC election coverage. We get this every time there is an election and, quite frankly, it's tiresome and pathetic whinging from the the usual political suspects.

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It was a disgrace that all the broadcasters caved into Cameron's wishes on the TV debates. They should have "empty chaired" him. Instead we were given huge exposure to Sturgeon and the Welsh woman and the mad Aussie, all of which helped the Tories.

Also, during the BBC Question the Leaders debate, a Tory ativist, Catherine Shuttleworth (one of the signatures of the dodgy letter), was allowed to pass herself off as an undecided voter, and given a chance to question Ed. She was later seen high fiving Gideon in the Spin room

 

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I cannot take anything Tom Watson says seriously - this quote from the article is enough 'Since the election, we have already learned that the Tories plan to gerrymander parliamentary constituencies in their favour and remove voting rights from Scottish MPs.'

He should look up what Gerrymander actually means.

 

From Wikipedia "In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts. "

 

In this country the independent electoral commission determines boundaries, not the government. IN the last parliament the honest, democratic, decent etc etc Lib Dems combined with labour to block reform, included in which were measures to reduce the number of constituencies (save money for the country) and equalise the numbers of voters in each.

It is a disgrace that voters on the Isle of Wight say have a vote that is worth only 0.196 that of a vote in Na h-Eileanan An Iar (110,924 registered to vote versus 21,837). It will never be possible to have exactly even boundaries, but we could at least try.

Sturgeon got huge exposure in the leaders debate when Cameron was present if you remember. 

And Cameron was in effect emptied chaired at the next debate, as it was the same people again except Cameron and Clegg.  

As for the undecided voter, I don't know about this but wasn't the audience made up of 25% Tory, 25% Labour etc?

Beast, you need wake up son, Ed Miliband was not a credible alternative to the bulk of the populace and hasn't been for a long time. It comes to something when Cameron was ahead of Miliband in Scotland.

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 Agree. Perhaps Labour should go into the next election offering the working classes free subscriptions to Sky and free tabs (although Priti Patel may be on the case already)

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FTR, I don't believe there is a bias from the BBC; I've said this several times in the past.

However, if there's an allegation made in public that one political party - the incumbent governing party no less - has been using threats to the state broadcaster in order to set the news agenda in their favour, then surely we should look to see whether there's any evidence to back this up. As I posted, the topics related to the election covered by the news haven't followed the usual pattern, with issues like the NHS, where Labour are strong, being kept out of the spotlight.

In addition, the Tories and the right in general have for years been increasingly vocal in their unsubstantiated claims that the BBC Kean leftwards. Then we have the fact that certain other media empires openly despise the BBC arrangement and have persistently lobbied the Tory party, where News Corporation especially have some prominent allies, to rip up the impartial existing arrangement 

Of course, this is circumstantial at best and proves absolutely nothing.

However, as I'm sure we all agree, if the government - any coloured government - was using threats to the state broadcaster in order to try to allow them to set the news agenda, this is dangerous - and more akin to regimes in certain other countries that we on here frequently denigrate

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Yes. In response to the Labourites all you have to point out is that Blair achieved a large majority with 36% of the vote, whilst Cameron gets a tiny majority with 37%, yet they still complain they was robbed!

 

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Pollsters now saying Labour will need PR to get back into power when the boundary changes go through. Jockland is gone and will probably break away soon anyway so forget about that. The liberals are dead and so are UKip so we are back to 2 party system. Labour has to become like the US Democrats to compete. Basically soft Tories. Not ideal, but the only way to win power

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Possible.

Otoh, maybe we've seen high water for the anti Europe lot - I suspect Ukip are there, in fact they're probably they'll not so much be sunk as on the way to the political Marianas Trench by 2020. Scotland? Again, I'm not sure the SNP are going to go for independence within the five years to 2020. LibD? They've been 'dead' before - there is a liberal element to this country, be it divided or not.

Besides, it's a truism that a week, let alone five years, is a long time in politics. If I'm wrong about the above, if by 2020 we're two states but only one in the EU then politics WILL change even in England as well. Remember, the people didn't cheer Cameron back into Downing Street, they shrugged, sighed and put him back.

 

I disagree. British people don't want the same party in power ad nauseum. Given our problems & the British psyche, no government can provide a solution to all our ills - whether right OR left.

We may have to bear 2/3 Tory governments, but then they'll be voted out, regardless of who the opposition is.

 

IMO, Labour could regain popularity by being economically left-leaning & pro-workers' rights (if they provide the correct narrative), whilst becoming hardline on things like immigration, the EU, etc.

 

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I'm not sure the Scots would vote for independence.

If the SNP believe their surge in electoral popularity is purely down to increasing nationalism, then they're wrong. I think that Scottish people concluded that the SNP are the best option to look after Scottish interests in the UK (and, of course, they have some leftist policy, as opposed to Labour's pitiful 'left-lite' gimmicks)

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Until last week the same experts were saying the Tories could never win a majority again. They do come out with a lot of codswallop to justify their salaries and fill the press. Sorry, but when you get to my age you've heard it all before and see it for the rot it is. 

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Yea right! The same people who predicted a dead-heat in the election.

Face it Beast, you simply had a rubbish leader with a rubbish message - that is what needs sorting out.

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It may well have been posted before but this made me p*ss my pants:

Another Labour insider told of the scene in the press office when Miliband posed with the notorious Ed stone, the 8ft 6in slab of limestone upon which his six key election pledges were inscribed. When it appeared on TV, a press officer ‘started screaming. He stood in the office, just screaming over and over again at the screen. It was so bad they thought he was having a breakdown.’

 

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I've largely kept my counsel in this thread today, principally due to the higher than usual amount of bollocks written i.e. Limp Dumbs finished, UKIP finished.....blah blah blah.

It is the Labour Party that's in the most immediate trouble. Longer term the Party will be hoping the Limp Dumbs are dead and UKIP are indeed dead.  Good luck with that.

Yet as as was said on QT earlier, it's going to be a long hard slog ahead for Labour - not only attracting back Scottish voters that have gone over to Wee Jimmy Krankie, as well as those working class voters in the North whom Labour seemingly no longer speaks to.

And then of course Labour is going to have to make inroads down south by putting out a message in tune with more prosperous voters.

This will require a high wire act The Flying Wallendas would be proud of.

Like the scene from "The Thick of It", when the Tory adviser goes mental after an embarrassing picture of him goes viral

 

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