UK General Election 2015

[rjbetty]

I didn't vote today, cos I've been away from my constituency of Reading West for a few days. Feel a bit bad for forgetting to do it by post/online or whatever.

Honestly don't really know who to vote for. I don't really want to vote conservative despite doing so last time (they seemed most willing to take responsibility for and deal with deficit etc), but very much agree with the poster who said Labour can't help themselves spending on a credit card so I won't vote for them.

I considered UKIP despite having mixed feelings. To be fair, I liked UKIPs proposal of no income tax for minimum wage workers.

[Rollo]

To be fair, I liked UKIPs proposal of no income tax for minimum wage workers.

It's actually no policy at all:

https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
21 and over - £6.50

This works out to be:
£6.50 * 40 = £260.00
£260.00 * 52 = £13,520

https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
The standard Personal Allowance is £10,600
Basic rate 20%

£13,520 - £10,600 = £2920
Assessed at 20% = £584

How many people on the minimum wage actually get a full 40 hours in a week though?

[rjbetty]

It's actually no policy at all:

https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
21 and over - £6.50

This works out to be:
£6.50 * 40 = £260.00
£260.00 * 52 = £13,520

https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
The standard Personal Allowance is £10,600
Basic rate 20%

£13,520 - £10,600 = £2920
Assessed at 20% = £584

How many people on the minimum wage actually get a full 40 hours in a week though?

I do 60hrs + a week on minimum wage! (also no night pay and no overtime but that's another story -would love a holiday)

I know it's prob a bit selfish of me, but I've been inspired by F1 team bosses. I was only considering UKIP though. There's plenty I'm not convinced about too. But I might have liked to do my little bit to send a message to the big parties by voting for a minority, plus I'd quite like to see their leader as an MP to put the cat among the pigeons a bit.

[Rollo]

382 of 650 seats in:
155 - Lab
148 - Con
53 - SNP
6 - Lib-Dem
8 - DUP
12 - Rabble

At this rate, if the Tories do win 316 as predicted, even with the Lib-Dems they still might not be able to form government without asking the riff-raff.

[Rollo]

326 Conservatives seats declared - Cameron remains PM

[D-Type]

Given the way it's panned out, I think the whole SNP 'thing' has been a red herring. Even if Labour had won every seat in Scotland they would still be 43 seats behind the Tories. It beggars belief that English voters would vote Tory because they feared a Labour/SNP coalition.

[Rollo]

It beggars belief that English voters would vote Tory because they feared a Labour/SNP coalition.

If you look at a map of where the seats fall, Scotland is Scotland, Ireland is Ireland, and England and Wales are mostly Tory except for poor areas across the north, central London and depressed areas of Wales who voted Labour.
The spread looks pretty identical to most of the gilded age elections where either Disraeli or Lord Salisbury led the Tories against a Liberal opposition.



The take home from this election though it what's not been highly publicised. Boris Johnson has won the seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip and will not be contesting the London Mayoral election on 7th May 2016.
I fully expect that David Cameron who was already making noises about not wanting to lead the party will resign by about that time and Johnson will be made PM, virtually unopposed by the Tory caucus.

Boris Johnson - PM: May 10 2016

[rjbetty]

They have quite a few councillors, who like to turn residential areas into 20mph zones.

The Greens say that they'll spend £8bn over five years on 'walking and cycling'. Is that a free pair of trainers and push bike for everyone then?

I wouldn't mind a free bike and trainers. I should have voted for these guys!!

[rjbetty]

If you look at a map of where the seats fall, Scotland is Scotland, Ireland is Ireland, and England and Wales are mostly Tory except for poor areas across the north, central London and depressed areas of Wales who voted Labour.
The spread looks pretty identical to most of the gilded age elections where either Disraeli or Lord Salisbury led the Tories against a Liberal opposition.



The take home from this election though it what's not been highly publicised. Boris Johnson has won the seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip and will not be contesting the London Mayoral election on 7th May 2016.
I fully expect that David Cameron who was already making noises about not wanting to lead the party will resign by about that time and Johnson will be made PM, virtually unopposed by the Tory caucus.

Boris Johnson - PM: May 10 2016

So that's it. They're in power on their own; a bit of a surprise maybe. Well if they really want to encourage more people to work, they might do well to consider that abolishing of income tax for minimum wage folks.

[steveaki13]

An amazing few days.

A lot of parties have some thinking to do now. I mean Lib Dems have to find a leader and now have only 8 MP's to choose from. As they stated the leader will come from one of those.

Labour's candidates seem relatively unknown to me.

What will UKIP do now? Farage was a smarmy bloke, but seemed to have done well for that party over the years. nigh on 4 million people voted for UKIP.

He has not ruled out standing for leadership again i believe.