DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

^ entire labour party to thread lol

'The funny thing about the acting business is that there are more poofs dimwits in it than you can have hot dinners thrown at you,'"

maybe we could do with a separate thread for annoying photos of politicians on the campaign trail but for now...

http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/3645434.jpg

Not really surprised that tim from the office is a dreadful person, he is tim from the office after all

The really outrageous thing about this story isn't tim from the office settling into the loveable racist national treasure slot he was always destined for but "you can have hot dinners thrown at you" ffs that is not the expression you moron

would queue for a long time for the chance to throw a hot dinner at tim from the office

Labour fundraising ideas.

You know what'd help things? Involving Joey Essex.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32127044

zing

https://40.media.tumblr.com/39f5a07de5b8d354a915939fd8e24915/tumblr_nm2wf38XKS1sqmjg8o1_500.jpg

It's going to upset a lot of zingers if Salmond doesn't win a seat.

Little Englanders will need a new bogeyman.

that's no way to refer to Brenda

I was in a bar in Westminster this afternoon for a work meeting, and Grant Shapps was being interviewed at a table literally a couple of feet away. No idea who was interviewing him but he was getting a ludicrously easy ride.

Farage with his alliance of farmers and geriatrics:

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/3/31/1427806040764/89dd991e-a046-4067-8990-05795f336557-620x372.jpeg

an escalator on the white cliffs would be great, fuck the h8as

dover wites

lol @ iconoclastic, no bullshit private eye taking dictation from tory central office for its cover

Having trouble with the concept of "lol @ private eye" tbh

Extremely rare that one even gets as far as l, yes.

http://youtu.be/UziZYL_gtDc

Entire nation set to piss itself laughing

oops! wonder what the highest ranking politician to lose their seat before now was?

Thinking about the implications of that scenario, even if the LibDems somehow hold onto enough other seats, how do you form a coalition when your leader's just been kicked out? And presumably about to resign?

xp Portillo? He was Secretary of State for Defence

My daughter is in Clegg's constituency, his biggest problem is that he has two large student campuses in it and he hasn't exactly endeared himself to students since the last election.

i'm from hallam. i'm in the US now, but i just reregistered to vote from overseas in hallam. lol.

i don't think the students are particularly a problem. there have always been a lot of students there, but until 1997 this was a conservative constituency represented by this chamer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine_Patnick. they just don't vote in the numbers.

but the bourgeois lefty vibe in hallam is definitely a problem for him, in the same way it was a boost for his predecessor in 1997 (for whom i worked in westminster for one magical summer). hallam has a massive NHS, teacher and university professional class, one of the biggest afaict.

Students tend to vote in their home constituencies anyway, don't they? But I think Hallam was a special case last time round and will be again - there were people literally queuing up to vote in 2010. I'd guess on this occasion there'll be a lot of students deliberately registering there to ensure they're voting against Clegg specifically.

the queues at least as seen on tv were not in the student neighborhoods

but yeah, student turnout will probably be higher than usual

His local party will be moving heaven and earth to ensure he holds on to his seat, he probably will. George Brown had been Deputy Prime Minister when he lost his seat in 1970, he was only Deputy Leader of the Labour Party by then, and not even in the cabinet by then.

... two by thens

So, Farage dribbles a ton of racist crap, blames everything on ex-Communists, with a bonus swipe at foreigners coming over here and bleeding us dry with their HIV+ statuses, and still manages to convince 20% of those polled that he won that debate. FFS.

Nicola Sturgeon tonight: "If there are changes needing made in the European Union then surely the best thing to do is try to build alliances to make those changes, not act like a petulant schoolchild threatening to leave if you don't get your way, it's better to try to work together to get that change."

So in a way, you might say two groups could work... better, together?

like.. no way did The Sun have a pre-prepared front page or anything

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBnkPwmUgAAcyiU.jpg

the weediness of that tiny paragraph ("he lost his temper.. "), i'm astonished anyone falls for it. they've been kicking Miliband on every front page every chance they get for months. i can't recall anything like it before but maybe it's always been this way. they're obviously shitting it this time thinking they've backed the wrong horse.

Strange headline. He wasn't as accomplished as I might have hoped for but he wasn't awful. It's not as if Cameron shone - he seemed to be hiding (deliberately).

Yeah, he didn't drop any huge clangers or anything.

Britain-wide instant reaction poll (YouGov) :
Nicola Sturgeon 28%
Nigel Farage 20%
David Cameron 18%
Ed Miliband 15%
Nick Clegg 10%
Natalie Bennett 5%
Leanne Wood 4%

Which is pretty amazing since most people in Britain generally oppose the SNP and won't even have them on the ballot.

Or as the Daily Mail just published "Big TV debate of British election campaign yields no clear winner" LOL.

LOL UK (xp)

It's like anti-austerity rhetoric is popular or something insane like that.

Well, that's the closest to the truth so far (xp re DM)

Hard to see why Farage is not more of a target. It's doubtful he's a serious threat and of course the sheer narrowness of his vision and repeating the same talking points already work against him, but taking him down a few pegs would be cheap popularity for anyone here - especially Cameron and Milliband.

Leanne Wood >

Leader of fourth most popular party in Wales in slightly more impressive than Natalie "cough choke cough" Bennett shocker.

Is the debate worth watching? I was out last night.

Not really sure what the point of including the SNP and Plaid Cymru in last night's debate given that most people watching won't even have the chance to vote for them even if they wanted to. Surely it would have been better to have had Sturgeon up against Jim Murphy and whichever sacrificial lamb runs the Scottish Tories on a regional broadcast?

Possibly worth looking at highlights...Definitely worth avoiding reading any commentary from the main newspapers - the standard of reporting and analysis is mostly abysmal and depressing.

Surely it would have been better to have had Sturgeon up against Jim Murphy and whichever sacrificial lamb runs the Scottish Tories on a regional broadcast?

That's happening up here next week (her name's Ruth Davidson, btw). I assume including SNP and Plaid Cymru was to convince folk that they aren't scary nationalist flag-wavers intent on destroying the nation but viable parties to include in any potential coalition (even though both main parties have said it's not going to happen, with the SNP at any rate, have to confess I have no idea if they would let Plaid Cymru in, but they're nowhere near as popular in Wales as the SNP are up here).

No it wouldn't have been better leaving out Leanne Wood and Nicola Sturgeon because they were fantastic and showed the country wht sort of leader politicians we should have in our main parties: normal, down to earth, decent people.

lol hows that evil depraved snp going to eat every english first-born child strategy working out

It would help if they could get Salmond to shut up for the duration. Farage was worst by some distance.