2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

Very nearly gave the 'Cannabis is Less Harmful Than Alcohol' candidate my vote, but had to go SNP in end.

Will there be low turnout? I'm thinking it might well be higher than the last couple.

It has been 59% - 65% for the last three elections and i'm not really getting a sense that it's likely to be much more than that. It's been an uninspiring, low-key campaign without vast amounts of policy differentiation. I think there will be a proportion of disaffected returning / first-time voters but a lot of them will be gravitating towards UKIP and won't have a huge impact on the results. I'd like to imagine that the toxicity of the Conservatives will motivate a strong Labour turnout but i'm less confident of that now than i would have been a couple of years ago.

idk, it's all guesswork, but i have a fiver on it being in the low sixties.

If this plays out as widely expected we are about to experience the most monumental collective hissy fit in recent memory.

this is honestly going to be hell. "coalition of the losers" etc etc. it's going to be the most unseemly few weeks. is it too much to ask just to have some decent local system to vote in, based on issues you care about in your area, and abandon this farcical personality contest?

Good luck UK.

Decided I didn't want to vote for a party that included the SWP so I voted Green. If Stella Creasy loses by 1 vote I may regret that but n/m.

Graun piece nicely bleak about the "coup" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/tories-coup-legitimacy-democratic-ed-miliband-government-labour

TUSC ended their pamphlet with a hearty 'FREE PALESTINE', thus cementing my Green vote

I am hoping/suspecting it will be too close to really pull that one off though. Single digit lead, say. Xp

In America, higher turnouts favour the left so I wonder if the same applies here?

Guardian were reporting a potential higher turnout than normal based on their polling, where 73 per cent of respondents said they were 10/10 likely to vote. Also, looking at Scotland's high turnout might have inspired people? /idealism

I'm mostly basing my (complete finger-in-the-wind) prediction on the fact that the smaller parties are considerably more prominent than they used to be, no idea if that will actually play out though.

The "coup" talk that has sprung up is ridiculous. If the numbers are there hissy fit or not there is nothing anyone can do.

it's completely ludicrous and undemocratic. if your party is a toxic bunch of pricks that nobody wants to work with, and you can't get a majority, here's a tip, maybe dilute some of your poison.

They've tried that, they're just fundamentally incapable of doing so.

(don't need to tell anyone here this but) I like these increased prominence of smaller parties but it's pretty frustrating that all those votes go in the bin under FPTP and it feels like there's no way we will ever get a better system.

Wonder if even the Lib Dems support electoral reform now or if they've worked out that a sizeable chunk of their votes this time round are from people who'd rather vote for a smaller party who hasn't betrayed them but voted for a status quo party as the only chance to keep ___ out locally, while knowing that their vote would happily prop up whoever ___ is if it comes to it anyway

will whoever wins not try and change the system now? i read a few articles saying that's why this election is so pivotal, that the winner will either try and open things up or in the tories' case, reduce the number of mps to gerrymander their way towards more power.

UKIP getting 15% of the vote and ending up with one seat might give the right-wing press the impetus to back reform.

xps: But also argue with what that piece contends, that there are any moves to provoke a quite comfy "very British" coup -- more Agatha Christie than Allende or something. Yes the right-wing press will try and distabilize but from what I can tell if an anti-Tory coalition gets quite a few seats over the line then its all huffing and puffing. If its like a seat over then its unstable anyway.

The "coup" is also reliant on Cameron really staying at all costs but if the Tories poll below 280 seats...he is shameless, but he has also looked tired.

A lot of the press barons have been really rattled by this election. I've actually been partially pleased by the headlines as the viciousness looks desperate.

If this is all bad, and the morning (and few weeks after) will be even worse then get ready to do this more often. There could be an election in July. Even then I don't think whatever government emerges would survive the full-term anyway. I'd say get ready to do more often.

Maybe the Queen will sort it out.

xps I'm just a bit gloomy about the chances of any real progress happening when whichever party leads the govt has been favoured by the two-party cycle of FPTP for so long.

If it's a Labour-led govt I suppose there's some small chance of progress; not so keen on the Tory gerrymandering option, obv, especially as my local seat already had the student wards shaved off it and replaced by more right-leaning villages last time round.

xxp "UKIP getting 15% of the vote and ending up with one seat might give the right-wing press the impetus to back reform." true I guess. maybe I shouldn't be so keen on reform after all!

I'm all for PR, though my one fear is a system that would allow endless hilarious facebook campaigns to make zippy off rainbow PM etc

ha oh god i have seen the future and i wish to go back to bed, forever

the winner will either try and open things up or in the tories' case, reduce the number of mps to gerrymander their way towards more power

Extremely unlikely they'd be able to do this without a majority, the LibDems have already shot down one gerrymandering attempt in the last five years.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/3734588.jpg

Daily Express beating the drum for patriotism, but not that sort of patriotism. Also free mugs.

"the worlds greatest newspaper"

how is that even allowed ?

plus that tatty rom-com book that was popular 5 years ago for a quid. Real England.

xpost
In the same way that the Rolling Stones are the world's greatest rock'n'roll band, or Fantastic Four is the world's greatest comic magazine

plus that tatty rom-com book that was popular 5 years ago for a quid.

initiating a price war with oxfam there

no sure about this photo, Jim

http://www.thenational.scot/processed/article_images/0/2711/large/eex089mz9j45w1muybj93fssfk62p6.jpeg

what the hell

LOL, Glaswegians: have your choice of murdery killer or Red Hand of Ulster.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEZK3i9W0AAV4SB.jpg:large

meanwhile in tower hamlets

wonder is that islamic fundamentalists or racists, or lutfur rahman on a triple bluff

is it me, or have such hand/paint pics become more of an election meme this time more than before, or, have i just never noticed them before ?

http://i.guim.co.uk/media/w-700/h--/q-95/c6944a093e9698489d7dbb1956c344de0434f46b/0_262_3500_2099/1000.jpg

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/4/26/1430069672129/Nicola-Sturgeon-at-the-Ju-007.jpg

love the "Do Not Stick In Prohibited Places" warning there, which surely completely contradicts everything written below

allah leaves the minor admin tasks for his subjects

he's more into the big stuff

has farage done any posing with children at all? can't remember seeing any such photos, assume most parents would be up in arms if he turned up at their school

I'd imagine his odour (fags, stale beer, wank) would make most children weep

They let Boris near their kids and I shudder to think what he smells like.

The last few polls are showing Labour a point or so in the lead, which in practice probably means the Tories will have more seats but with a much narrower lead.

And yet it was taken as read that FPTP, with the current boundaries, favoured Labour and disadvantaged the Tories. However that was before Labour contrived to lose all their seats to the SNP.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEZoYLmW0AIgr9J.jpg

Can someone Photoshop a gunfinger onto that one?

Darlington constituency have apparently omitted one or more of the parliamentary candidates.

.. from the ballot paper

tory weather in much of the midlands :-(

i live abroad & despite applying months ago and receiving a confirmation letter, i never received my postal ballot. fuck you tower hamlets

If they eventually decide to end FPTP then I'll have to think about actually voting, have managed to avoid having to bother up until now due to the constituency I live in.

Very nearly gave the 'Cannabis is Less Harmful Than Alcohol' candidate my vote, but had to go SNP in end.

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler),

Wait a min, is someone really standing on that ticket (you must live in the west end then?) or was it just something he said personally?