UK General Election 2015

[Rollo]

http://www.bbc.com/news/politics/poll-tracker
Looking at the last poll results (19 Mar 2015) we get the following:

Labour 34%
Conservative 33%
UKIP 14%
Liberal Democrats 8%

If I then plug those numbers into my handy swing calculator (which you really do not want to see) I get:
Labour 349 seats
Con 249 seats
Lib Dem 23 seats
Others 29 seats,

Labour would be 23 seats above the required 326 to form government; so Ed Miliband would be the next PM.
The Lib Dems are facing their worst result since 1992 in terms of seats and their worst result in terms of popular vote since the 1935 election if the Liberal Party is taken as their ancestor.

The race that I want to see is South Thanet, which has Nigel Farage, Al Murray the Pub Landlord and Bez from the Happy Mondays running. That sounds like a total farce.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I thought the SNP were expected to take all of Labour and Lib Dem seats in Scotland?

[Rollo]

I thought the SNP were expected to take all of Labour and Lib Dem seats in Scotland?

I had another play with my spreadsheet and looked at Scotland only.

Complete wipeout of Labour in Scotland would require them to pick up 56.8% of the vote on a uniform basis across the country; Labour would need a 16.7% swing against them; in addition to the Tories having a 25.5% swing against them.

If the SNP were to sweep the board in Scotland, under any possible scenario I can invent, they'd be the kingmakers in a hung parliament.

[driveace]

If Labour are in power in June ,then I think I should emigrate

[yodasarmpit]

A Labour government, under Miliband, is about the worst possible outcome I could imagine. Spend, spend, spend - throwing money we can't afford at everything won't fix the country, whereas a balanced approach of spending in the right places and introducing efficiencies where possible would be much more sustainable.

Fix the NHS, buy improving processes, remove waste and duplication, and reducing bureaucracy - Miliband on the other hand would just hand over several Billion more to be squandered.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

A Labour government, under Miliband, is about the worst possible outcome I could imagine. Spend, spend, spend - throwing money we can't afford at everything won't fix the country, whereas a balanced approach of spending in the right places and introducing efficiencies where possible would be much more sustainable.

Fix the NHS, buy improving processes, remove waste and duplication, and reducing bureaucracy - Miliband on the other hand would just hand over several Billion more to be squandered.

Both Labour and Conservative have said in one way or another that they will increase taxes and reduce spending.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Cameron has told the Queen that the election campaign has started. This basically means that the newspapers will be insufferable for the next 4 weeks, bombarding our minds with their bias and trying to tell us what to think.

My coverage of the election will be completely balanced. The options are:

The posh toff with the shiny forehead
The wimpy toff with a brother who would have been PM if it wasn't for the unions
A broken man who used to stick up for young voters but sold his soul for a sniff of power
The posh toff who hates foreigners, is best mates with the bankers and makes people think he's 'down to Earth' because he likes a smoke and a pint
Or if you're Scottish you'll be voting for a woman with unusually neat hair.

So with Parliament officially dissolved who is in charge of the country? Boris Johnson? Roy Hodgson?

[driveace]

The man still living in number 10 is still in charge .
Hope the guy who keeps saying "Let me tell you " Repeatedly ,and the Birmingham Labour lady who said "Erm" after every single word on TV the other night ,are banished
Can we afford as a country to go back to Labours borrow and spend at any cost days ?
The decider in lots of voters eyes is "Who gives us a vote on the EU" And can we afford to pay 50 million a day to the EU wasters ,or 0.7 % of our national income to Overseas aid ?

[D-Type]

It depends where you live. Generally you get the best deal if your local council is the opposite party to the government with a small majority. They have to show you they can run things better. And Central Government will be trying to regain control of the council.

if you are seriously interested, keep a log of which party makes the fewest U-turns and vote AGAINST them as they're being run by the spin doctors.

[Mark]

Parliament is dissolved which means there are no MPs any more. However official posts such as Prime Minister, Home Secretary etc are quite separate from that and continue to be held by the same people until new holders are appointed by a new government.