2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

(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?

i live in an easy tory seat (polls = well over 50%), so umm'ing and ahh'ing re tactical voting options.

We had a 'Cannabis is Less Harmful Than Alcohol' candidate, too (Islington South and Finsbury).

I also got to vote in Hampstead and Kilburn, proxy voting on behalf of a friend living in Berlin and not trusting the postal vote system (probably with good reason, based on tpp's post and other things I've heard).

I'm in the East End of Glasgow (and I should've called them the 'Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol' party)

We've got one of them in Paisley & Renfrewshire North as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_Is_Safer_Than_Alcohol#Scotland

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

saw many people complaining about this on twitter - it's par for the course. tower hamlets council doesn't respond to contact of any form - i mean literally, you can't phone them, they don't answer emails, they just send letters and absorb your responses into the void.

London-based folk: any suggestions on good (non-partisan) communal places to watch the results come in? I don't have a TV at home and the radio doesn't quite cut it. Availability of alcohol (or indeed cannabis) not essential.

Non-partisan? Christ, can you imagine being in a pub with Tories if they're winning?

quite impressed by how many candidates the cannabis is safer than alcohol party have managed to put forward, maybe by the next election they'll be the ukip of the left

They certainly wouldn't get my vote, I detest that puritanical anti-drinking "My high is better than your high" line of argument. Fucking hippies.

Folk acquainted with Paisley will not be surprised to hear that our Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol candidate is a resident of Ferguslie Park.

Our LibDem never put his address on the ballot paper. Our Tory has been imported from the Borders.

One single canvasser outside the polling station, a really smiley Nat. Labour left a sandwich board. Nothing from any the rest of them.

https://twitter.com/RuthDavidsonMSP/status/596286509629763584

She hasn't provided any proof has she?

saw this on twitter

http://i.imgur.com/038gKiO.jpg

I'm voting for the 'Losing a little toe is safer than losing a little finger party'