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UK general election (May 5th)

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Author Topic:   UK general election (May 5th)
MangyTiger
Member (Idle past 6382 days)
Posts: 989
From: Leicester, UK
Joined: 07-30-2004

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Message 16 of 64 (200859)
04-21-2005 2:21 AM 		Reply to: Message 1 by Ooook!
04-12-2005 5:39 AM

What do you think the outcome will be?
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Labour victory - between 75 and 125 overall majority. If there is a Madrid style attack all bets are off.
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Are there any differences between the two main parties?
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Yes - Labour have a non-zero chance of forming the next government
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How does the political process differ from that in the US? Does that make it better or worse?
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A few obvious ones :
  • We have a Parliamentary rather than a Presidential system so in theory we are voting for our local MPs rather than Blair/Howard/Kennedy (in practice that is rarely the case though)
  • Not even in Florida would they allow our postal vote system
  • No head to head debates
  • Religion, abortion and 'moral values' will not be factors (although worringly people are trying to make such things feature over here)
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Will the result have any significant effect on US/world politics?
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Not really.
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Do you think the Liberal Democrats will have much of an impact this time?
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Probably not - if they do anything it will be to really hurt the Tories by taking a slew of marginals.
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Who are the Liberal Democrats?
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A schizoid party - the Liberal part with the freedom of the individual history and the Social Democrat part with more of the big government/welfare state kind of agenda.
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The Tigers roared in Dublin - and I was there.
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 Message 1 by Ooook!, posted 04-12-2005 5:39 AM Ooook! has not replied
  
MangyTiger
Member (Idle past 6382 days)
Posts: 989
From: Leicester, UK
Joined: 07-30-2004

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Message 34 of 64 (204195)
05-01-2005 9:15 PM 		Reply to: Message 24 by Monk
04-30-2005 12:11 PM

There are many differences, but the one that strikes me in particular is Britain’s parliamentary system with first past the post voting. This ensures government control by one party and is contrasted to coalition based democracy in the US.
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It doesn't ensure it, just makes it very likely. In 1974-79 we had a Parliament where no one party had an overall majority for most of its life. Labour formed a minority Government and Labour and the Liberals had an informal alliance which became known as the Lib-Lab Pact. This ran from '77 to '78.
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In the last Tory Government ('92-97) they initially had an overall majority of 21 but this was progressively reduced (Tory MPs died or resigned and the Tories lost the resultant by-election) until they had no overall majority and were effectively reliant on the Ulster Unionists to guarantee they could win key votes.
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The Tigers roared in Dublin - and I was there.
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 Message 24 by Monk, posted 04-30-2005 12:11 PM Monk has not replied
  
MangyTiger
Member (Idle past 6382 days)
Posts: 989
From: Leicester, UK
Joined: 07-30-2004

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Message 41 of 64 (204785)
05-03-2005 9:28 PM

Final Prediction Time
As it's the early hours of the last day of campaigning (insomniac - me ?) it's time for people to make their final predictions for the result.
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I'm going for a Labour win with an overall majority of between 100 and 120 (down from 167 in 2001)
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The Tigers roared in Dublin - and I was there.
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 Message 42 by Ooook!, posted 05-04-2005 6:18 PM MangyTiger has not replied
 Message 43 by Dead Parrot, posted 05-04-2005 6:30 PM MangyTiger has not replied
  
MangyTiger
Member (Idle past 6382 days)
Posts: 989
From: Leicester, UK
Joined: 07-30-2004

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Message 56 of 64 (205446)
05-05-2005 11:01 PM 		Reply to: Message 55 by mick
05-05-2005 10:51 PM

Re: Labour with 60 seat majority (Possible)
what kind of scumbag would vote labour or conservative?
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One who doesn't have an Official Monster Raving Loony candidate to vote for
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09/04/05 - Sharks attacked
30/04/05 - Wasps swatted
14/05/05 - More of the same ?
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