Many people vote on personality, it can push a voter one way or the other if they are sitting on the fence. It would be nice to think that everyone votes on policies but that's simply not the case. Also I think that most people would feel more comfortable with a strong leader than a weak one.
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character The stupid thing is, by voting SNP Scotland may end up ensuring that the Tories get back in.
Only 5 million people in Scotland and like yourselves we only get 1 vote each. And if the people vote for a Nationalist party and not one of the established mainstream ones and the SNP hold the balance of power hardly the fault of the people. I'm absolutely sure that the Scottish people would vote for the party giving the best deal for them. I'd say you only get what you deserve. Sounds like you are a tad concerned over the thought of Scotland pulling the strings.
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character Anyone here voting SNP couldn't give a toss about perhaps letting the Tories in. TBH it will not be because of the Scots but because of the English not voting Labour in great enough numbers. TBH the bigger picture is for a bigger SNP presence in Westminster pushing for Independence.
We will be snookered in the sense that very little overall will change. But most of us won't really want it to anyway. We have a mentality, a system, a press even, that we should be proud to defend. Compared to the rest of the world, we shine rather than stink.
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character You had a chance for independence; the majority of Scotland didn't want it. Why push for something people don't want? I know you keep saying that people are now realising their mistake but this is coming from the same person who kept telling us that most of the people were going to vote yes which clearly didn't happen. I don't think voting SNP is proof that people want to be independent, just that they want a bigger representation whilst still being part of the UK. Also, you keep saying that Scotland hold the balance of power/Game of Thrones references etc. but now you are saying that it won't be because of Scotland. You can't have things both ways.
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character Yes the Independence vote did come out with a 55/45 win for the NO's but the desire for Independence is still there for almost half the population. But Scottish Independence is something for the future. First of all this General Election has to be sorted out. If you believe recent polls then the SNP WILL have the balance of power. What I suggested was a Labour defeat will not be because of an SNP whitewash in Scotland but because the English failed to back them in big enough numbers. The SNP will back Labour in Parliament but it sounds like Miliband is the one saying he doesn't want it. Up to him I suppose but no SNP support and I'd say no Number10 for Miliband.
You forgot the fact that he's had sex. With women. All of who he was in a relationship with at the time. I can understand why the Tories would find this unpalatable.
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character He is saying that now because he knows that such an admission would be toxic to his chances in the election. However, once it is over, and the back room dealing begins, I fully expect him to shaft the public and do the deal. And the double dealing weasel will dress it up as an act of statesmanship, saying that he has done it in the interests of the public because we need a stable government. There will be a couple of days of grief about it in the press and then we'll all go back to worrying about what Joey Essex or the Kardashians are up to while Ed shafts us down the river. And then we'll all wonder why the public is switched off from politics.
**** me what genius. Point out that the leader of the opposition looks a bit weird! Victory assured. It's obvious now you think of it. Thatched vs. Callaghan - weird looking one lost. Thatched vs. Foot - case in point. Total loss for weird looking decker. Thatched vs. Kinnock. Weird one bites the dust. Major vs Kinnock - Close call Ginger hair sways voters away to Penfold Major vs Blair -. Normal Tony romps home Etc etc Cameron vs Gonzo - Easy victory. Even the sub plot in Scotland. - Whatever they did to Sturgeon gave me a hard on and got the jock vote completely. Right 2020 election strategy lesson 1. Don't have a leader who looks anything like a muppet or other cartoon character In fact pick Tristan Hunt - That fecker practically Royalty - the tories won't know which way to turn. Victory last socialists! Labour ought to give me a medal for winning the next election for them right now!
Re: why would you vote for a Nick Park character SNP could be in for a kicking now, Tory majority and a lot of labour types sore at losing their seats. TBH sick to death about hearing about how Scotland wants independence given that you just turned it down. There's of a lot of people you here down now saying that if it goes to the vote again we should get a say in it and you would be guaranteed to get it.
Not far wrong - stick david beckham as leader of the labour party and they woudl probably walk it - even though hed be clueless - but hed get even more clueless voting.
The OP is nearer the truth than we care to believe. Granted, the policies are the major reason for voting for any party but the Labour party made a serious mistake putting Ed in charge. Like Foot & Kinnock for Labour, Hague for the Tories and Salmond for the SNP, he was a joke figure, a caricature - you need a front man with charisma, passion and belief, not a parody of a leader who looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. With Ed it all seemed like bad acting and he couldn't hold a candle to his brother in a debate. I'm not so sure the SNP would have done quite as well if they'd stuck with the clown Salmond in charge. Nicola Sturgeon is a great orator, debater and comes across as a true leader who is there to serve her people rather than herself. If Labour sort out a new leader with the passion and charisma of Nicola Sturgeon, they'll be back in power at the next election.
Vote snp. Get Tory. Well played. The greatest example of cutting off your nose to spite your face that I've seen. The whole of Scotland voted snp under the same pretence - that nobody would win the election, so the snp will get into government - akin to the lib dems with the Tories - propping up labour. It seems to have never occurred to anyone up there that voting for them in such numbers - and being so bleeding blatant about it - would frighten the ***** out of some south of the border, and make them vote Tory instead of lib dem, labour or even ukip, just to avoid an snp involvement in government. Worked out well for all did that. You will get a few increased powers devolved. The snp have a voice in Westminster. Ok. But what you have mainly achieved is give the flaming Tories a majority. In all of the UK. You'll get cuts too you know. Your hospitals and schools will have the same restraints as England's. Whilst you are still in the union, as your country voted to be yet seem to regret, you will be mainly governed by Westminster - no matter what you think. And this Tory government is going to decimate working class communities, of which there are many throughout northern England AND Scotland. The snp may shelter you from bits, but the ******* Tories are inflicted on all us poor sods down here, with no reins on them of a coalition party this time. Prepare for some near nazi right wing governing. I am genuinely scared of the next five years, that I may end up losing my house, job, and even whether my kids have a credible future. Labour did not gain enough down here to cover the loss up there. So you might want to blame Miliband's bacon sandwich or whatever. But don't have any misconception. Labour had a decent net gain in England, modest but improved. It is the Scottish swing to snp which led to the toffs winning. Its not just the Scottish seats, it's the English ones the Tories took, or kept when they wouldn't have, purely and simply due to the fear of Alex salmond being the next nick clegg. That's what cost farage his seat and has cost the lib dems at least 20 too. People who would have voted lib dem, labour, ukip, green, but tactically voted Tory just to keep the snp on the other side of the house. So to my friends, and extended family too, I'm Scotland, I extend a huge thank you. Thanks for not having the balls to vote for independence but turning ship in the general election to royally **** us all over. Reap what you sew.
Whilst the assumption that the English (quite rightly and understandably) had their stomachs turned by the thought of the SNP holding the balance of power in the UK, I do not believe it correct to assume that this was the overall determining reason as to why the Tories ran out winers. At the end of the day, people always vote for who will make them better off. With regard to what is taken off them by the government, if they perceive they will give more than they receive then they will vote Tory. If they perceive they will receive more than they give then they vote Labour. That's taking the population as a whole. And as for your dramatic description of how doom laden our country is by virtue of the last 5 years.............and what's to come.......drama queen underplays it. A Labour government would hardly have been different - which is why all we'd have reaped would have been more self important politicians, taking longer about deciding upon how to agree between themselves. For largely their own benefit. And you had a Labour government presiding over an economic disaster. Then Balls relishing the idea of the economy flatlining when the Tories took over. Then the recovery that comes is only for the few. Well it wasn't. And finally, it's all right blaming the Scots for voting Scottish. Independence means a permanent Tory government at the moment. Reap what you sow.
I didn't vote for Ed Milliband cos he didn't stand in Penistone. We had a choice of some lass I've never seen (even though she's the standing MP), a southern toff, a faux southern toff and a couple of racists. And for the first time in a few decades of voting in general elections the person I voted for actually got in. Mainly because I'm one of the disillusioned Liberal supporters (and there was also a tactical element, in that I wanted to make sure UKIP didn't sneak in). I have a funny feeling though...actually, I say 'funny' but I don't think any of us will be laughing...that pretty soon we will start revising our opinion of the Liberals' role in the last government when we start seeing the policies that the Tories can now get through, which the Liberals had previously blocked. We'll be starting with the 'anti-terrorist' surveillance laws. As for the local elections, I have always had a different rule for those that would probably offend some, in that I will never vote for anyone in a local election who doesn't actually live in our area. I always remember as a kid, living in central Barnsley, that my parents always voted for the Ratepayers. I never really knew who they were, apart from the fact that my next door neighbour was once a candidate, but I guessed that they were pretty local and had local issues at heart. I may be wrong. Do they still stand in Barnsley? And does anyone know who they were/what they stood for?
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F202930 Ratepayers were an offshoot of this lot. I did some dull research pretty dry stuff about them a bit ago. I will dig it out for you at some me stage if I haven't deleted it.
There is much anger, gnashing of teeth and disbelief coming from Scotland that the English people voted Tory. Well, we in Scotland rejected Labour as is our democratic right so I suppose we can hardly complain when the English people also reject Labour. The result is a non Labour Government and that's what the electorate on both sides of the border voted for. Only positive for us might be that if we are treated so bad as some of you think we will then political social unrest might just be the trigger for another referendum for Independence.
Unfortunately I think too many people swallowed the Tory lie that a vote for labour was a vote for the SNP and nationalism on both sides of the border then condemned us to 5 more years of the Tories. The SNP have as much power as the. Lib Dems under Blair so I wouldn't expect owt but more of the same. Now that Cameron has got what he wanted out of the first referendum there will be little chance of a further referendum. I suspect we will see the end of the Barnett formula though.