The UK Election!!!!

We are having a "general election"!! This means that we in the UK will be voting for the government that leads us through the next 4 or 5 years. This will happen on May 6th 2010.We are also having televised "presidential" (technically prime-ministerial) debates for the first time involving all 3 (yes - I said 3) main political parties. The first is this Thursday.So what do people think? Did our American cousins even know this was going on? Any advice re the televised debates? Any advice as to who to vote for?In general I intend this thread to be an update and comment thread on the forthcoming UK election with witty banter and hardcore principled ideological political debate (relevant to the UK - Let's not veer off down purely detailed US based issues) all very much on topic.I hope this thread doesn't just get ignored......

Nope, no clue. I think its funny that so many Brits care about American politics enough to discuss them so much while Americans couldn't care less about the British politics.

And you wonder why yanks have a rep for being insular and narrow minded... The fact is that everyone cares about American politics because it affects the whole world to a large degree.If you think the average Brit takes half as much notice of French or German politics as we do yours then you would be mistaken. Despite (in theory - sort of) this being far more relevant to our own interests.Oh well.

Yes, I knew this was going on.I don't have any advice though. Since I have no say in the outcome, I have not paid a lot of attention to the party platforms.

Televised debates are new to us. Do you would have some advice to candidates on how to tackle these based on your experience as a viewer of US televised debates?For example is it more important to not be wrong than to be right? What has caused previous (US) participants to lose or win these debates?These are general questions not just ones to Nwr.

I did read a bit about this so I knew you were having elections. From what I understand, it's similar to the House/Senate elections in the US where you're voting for control through the amount of seats that each party wins.Anyway...What I know is that the Labour Party has had the majority since Blair in '97, and there is a strong Conservative Party movement to win majority. The 3rd party, from what I read, didn't seem like much of a threat.So, which party have you decided to vote for? Or are you even voting?Also, can you give a breif explanation of the differences between the 3 parties? What differs between them and the issues they each represent? Who do you feel would be the better party and why?- Oni

Your election may not generate the Pop Mainstream media hype over here that Paris Hilton does but there is interest and, for those that seek it out, there is coverage.No surprise at the 3-way debate. The LibDems have been right up there for some years and, thankfully, your Mr. Clegg is NOT a Ross Perrot type buffoon but a real experience pol (which may be the same thing come to think about it). I take from the question you vote for party and not the MP to represent you? I mean you vote for the MP candidate of your chosen party regardless of who he/she is, yes?Who are your MP candidates? Do you even know? Does it make any difference in your system? Is the Really Silly Party still around?Admittedly I have not kept up with your politicians like I do with US and Arizona Pols, but there is something about Nick Clegg that appeals to me outside the LibDem planks. An atheistic womanizing firebug and honest about it. Kind of refreshing.{abe} I haven't seen the polls. Is there a realistic possibility of there being a split parliament and a coalition government?Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Hopefully, you will handle them better than we do. You need to keep in mind that US elections are a trial by ordeal. It is almost a year from the first primary to the general election, and there can be months of campaigning before that first primary.At least you Brits have the good sense to keep it short. In the US, what is most important is to avoid saying anything that could later be used as part of a character assassination campaign. With the shorter election season in the UK, hopefully that will be less of a concern.

Yes and no. Because the party with the largest number of seats in the house of commons forms the government and the leader of that party becomes the prime-minister. So even though we are theoretically voting for our local MP (member of parliament) we are actually voting for our prime-minister. In practise very few people actively vote for their MP as such. Almost all vote on the basis of party/leader and the MP this happens to vote in is all but co-incidental. No I don't claim it is a perfect or even good system.... Again yes and no. If neither the Labour nor Conservative (tories) win a mjority in the house of commons the third party will hold the balance of power and could be very influential indeed. The liberal democrats (i.e. the third party) stand no realistic chance of being the government but for the first time in a very long time things are close enough that this scenario may occur. Hmmmm. Unsurprisingly I have almost always voted Labour in any meaningful election (European and local council election provide opportunities for the dissatisfied to vote for relatively minor parties in protest or forlorn hope and I have taken that route once or twice).I would boil my own feet before voting conservative. Probably Labour. Maybe Lib dem but with severe reservation in all cases. Yeah I always vote. There is a common view (erroneous in my view) that all the parties are exactly the same. Whilst they certainly all seek to market themselves as being middle of the road and reasonable this is not necessarily the case in reality.It is the usual split of right Vs left even if (I suspect) shifted largely left of US politics. For example both Labour and conservatives have declared that public spending on health (i.e. "socialised medicine") and public eduction are immune from the cuts required to reduce the national debt bult up as result of recession and banking madness. So in that sense they are the same.But ideologically Labour has union roots and is broadly pro public investment and some degree of redistribution of wealth in the name of maximising the oppornuities for all to be productive members of society. That is the idea. After thirteen years in power the results are arguable at best. My own (rather pessimistic) outlook is that the other lot would have been monumentally worse.Conservatives are much more about personal responsibility, small government and anti the "nanny state". That kind of thing. Their main policies seem to be tax breaks to the wealthiest disguised as some sort of moral endevour and a rejection of Keynesian economic policies.Lib dems are hard to define. They are in many ways more left wing, progressive and radical than the Labour party but have the happy benefit iof being able to be more radical because they are not realistically hoping to form a government. They often sound very appealing because they can do so without really scaring anyone. I think the tories will take a slash and burn approach to public finances which would be socially destructive in the longer term and may well be financially irresponsible even in the short term.I kinda hope we get a hung parliament (i.e no overall majority) purely to see what happens. But whilst this may be intersting it may not be the best economic positio for the country.

What I said was ambiguous. I know why they care. I thought it was funny that they care so much and americans care so little. But funny wasn't the best word, and tragic might ought to be a better choice.Plus, all the socio-politcal discussions here (like gay marriage for instance) are about what the American laws are and should be and we never talk about other countries laws... Its not just the Americans... Nobody cares Howya like me now? I'm more apt to thinking that the average would be closer to noticing American politics more than their own!

Many Americans even care little for American Politics and are easily swayed by rhetoric. Like science, many Americans don't understand politics either.Edited by bluescat48, : clarity

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

Yes, I knew, although, being Dutch might help here, eh neighbour? Now, did you know? We've got one in the first week of June (exact date escapes me at the moment).

It might give us a chance to see what really happens if no one actually does anything much in government for 4 years, and if it makes a blind bit of difference.Living in Scotland I'm interested to see if the conservatives can get any seats at all up here. They have done badly historically, including the last election, so in all likelihood dissatisfaction with Labour is more likely to turn to Scottish Nationalist votes up here.Where I live is a pretty safe Labour constitutency, an area full of old mining towns, so I doubt it will make any difference who I vote for, although you can include me in on the Tory feet boiling sentiment, I'm still pissed off about School Milk!!TTFN,WK

Once more, I lost track of time and neglected to apply for a postal vote, so I can't vote this time. I get to read the news about a British election, and sit through a near simultaneous general election here in the Czech Republic, and I'm not allowed to vote for either. Oh well, thank god for an electoral system where my vote is pretty irrelevant anyway!I would probably have voted Labour, not because I'm a particularly big supporter, but because the constituency in which I was intended on trying to register is a long-time Labour seat (ever since 1928), and I'm perturbed by the, however unlikely, possibility that dissatisfaction with the government would see it turn Tory.However, the seat in which I was actually legally entitled to register is in Liverpool, where the Conservatives regularly finish fourth or fifth (there are more than three parties!), so there's no danger of a Tory win. My vote there would have depended on trying to find local opinion polls. If it seemed likely that the sitting MP, Jane Kennedy, could lose, then I'd throw my vote to the Lib Dems simply to unseat her. Otherwise it would be a protest vote, probably for the Greens. I pay attention to the specific candidates as well as parties, though sometimes it seems necessary to vote for a candidate you oppose because of the way it would affect the makeup of Parliament (the Labour candidate I was intending on voting for, for example, is an insult to parliamentary democracy and definitely one of the least worthwhile MPs in the Commons, but I still would have voted for him even if the Conservative candidate seemed decent; in order to make a Conservative government less likely).I'm in the minority, though, and the majority vote strictly by party. Strong personalities, however, do make a difference, and seats can be won by a person instead of a party. Anti-war sentiment was strong in Bethnal Green at the last election, for example, but the Respect Coalition still probably wouldn't have won if not for the media personality of George Galloway.Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.

I've got the opposite problem where I'm at. I live far enough toward the edge of the city to be included in a largely rural constituency, which is a Conservative safe seat. They re-elect the same bloke year after year. If I wanted any chance of ousting him I would have to vote Lib Dem. I will vote Labour, though IMO they are the best choice of a bad lot. The "New Labour" that came in with Blair is too right-wing for my liking, but I'd much rather have them than the Tories. Shame the Greens don't have much of a foothold in this country yet.