Should you vote tactically?

I think Scotland want to eat their cake and have it, and NS starting to seem to me to be prepared to join up with anyone who'll have her, to put it bluntly.
Labour are unconvincing to me and UKIP's a sinking ship IMO.

I'm out.........

You're a brave woman, Tegan! Respect.

The main problem with this election [again imo] is that the two Eds need to go; Labour needs to lose the election and change their leadership. It's as important for the country to have a strong opposition party as it is to have the right part in Government and this has been lacking recently. I'm saying this with great sadness, as a lifelong Labour supporter. I'm really scared of what the Conservatives are planning for our future but will most probably not vote Labour and, given that I would rather gauge my eyes out than vote UKIP I'm not sure where that leaves me .

And they seem to be very aggressive in their tactics and the language being bandied about.

Me too.

I may just be speaking for myself here, but I find it strange that Scotland voted to stay as part of the UK and yet now, the very party that lost that vote are possibly going to control the balance of power in the country that they wanted to disassociate themselves from. I think it will cause a lot of bad feeling and I feel very uncomfortable about it.

By the way pompa - I once had a limerick deleted. I survived!

Nicola Sturgeon is an impressive woman. She puts her point across well and is very clear and cool. It is not surprising that she is head of SNP.

But I do not really want to see too many SNP MPs as it is divisive to the UK.

I'm sure you're not horrid, petallus.

NS is in the public eye and must be used to jokes being made about her, as I'm sure MT was. I agree with others that as pompa has apologised the 'debate' should move on.

(Doubt that it will, though...)

Just watched Nicola Sturgeon being interviewed by Evan Davis. She was brilliant. Came across as very sincere and cared about the English and the union.
She put Cameron in his place about how he is now trying to split the union, having wanted Scotland to stay in it last year. I cannot understand how anyone who last year wanted Scotland to stay as part of the Westminster government can now tell the SNP to keep out of the vote.

Well said GillT!

I'm at an utter loss, other than spoiling my vote, regarding which Party.
Living in a too long very longstanding Conservative safe seat it's absolutely highly unlikely any other Party will get a look in.
What does one do is those circumstances?

If someone made a joke like that about me, it would make me feel horrid.

The joke would have been less unpleasant if it had not involved a real person. I am assuming people who think the joke is funny do not like NS.

Blimey there are a lot of people having a sense of humour bypass on here today. I thought it was funny. If we analyse every joke someone will be offended. So how many of you humour police made ooing noises at Poldark? Or is that unacceptable sexism? Lighten up folks, these are serious times and we have got an election to debate.

I think grumppa put that very well, a graceful comment and apology from pompa.

I heartedly agree Mishap and I cannot for one second imagine that pompa would be offensive.

IMO there will always be times when someone's post will hit a raw spot or make a GN wince, but rarely would that have been the intention of any poster surely?

I certainly didn't see the joke as intending to be sexist etc.

I think that is a very gracious apology pompa.

Jokes can backfire as what one person thinks is funny, another takes offence at.

From our knowledge of pompa's past posts I am happy to assume that the joke had no intention of giving offence.

I seldom take offence at jokes, as they are just....well....jokes.

Gracefully said, pompa. Having been caught out once myself, with a limerick, I sympathise with you.

JessM, you do have a point, whilst I still do not think it sexist etc, I did not intend to cause offence to any individual. I know I am not sexist and abhor mistreatment of women (if you had read some of my old posts, that would be obvious), but this was a joke and has no foundation in fact.

Therefore I do apologise for any offence caused and had I realised that would not have posted it. But, I did and cannot turn back the clock.

This is my last comment on the subject as to continue would just prolong the offence caused.

If the cap fits pompa re you being sexist... but I just pointed out politely that the joke caused offence to me. I would have thought that an appropriate response from a non-sexist person would have been more along the lines of "I'm sorry Jess, i didn't think."
But now you are getting defensive instead of reflecting on my feedback.
Not sexist (just like "not racist") is not something like your height that is a given, it is a process of learning that we all can choose to go through. Both men and women can have blind spots about stuff that has been normalised, like sexist jokes, sexist child rearing, sexist advertising and so on.
Having been a victim of domestic violence, including death threats, this one is not difficult for me to "get".

Yes I agree dj- so what that it came via women? I do not in my group of female friends know anyone who would find it remotely funny. You should have thought pompa before you posted it - you know very very well that there are some posters who would find this offensive so why do it? And as I said before , I'm not reporting it because it's good for you to hear the dissenting voices and for this debate to take place

I'd be surprised if pompa made it up. Where did he get it from?
I do not think it matters where the joke is or who told it. It's the content that makes it offensive.

If any of you think I am sexist, you don;t know me very well and do not read my past posts. I find some of the comments unbelievable as this was emailed to my wife by a female friend, neither of which found it sexist or violent to women.
As I said earlier, if you have a problem with it - use the report button. If GN agree with you I will leave GN.

I don't care at all how the joke was meant - and how can we know anyway- those of us who understand how things like this matter, know that it is not intention that matters but how it is perceived. Jokes like this are never acceptable and completely unnecessary and I object to going onto a thread and being faced with this type of sexist rubbish. If you want to tell jokes like this, go and tell them to those of your personal acquaintances who share the same mysoginist, dinosaur views of the world. Of course the real issue here is that men feel emasculated by strong, bright, intelligent women of whom NS is a prime example , and try to make themselves feel better by such jokes

Had it been Bernard Manning telling the joke, then no, I wouldn't have liked it because all his humour had an underlying nastiness.
I think in this instance it wasn't meant in any cruel way and therefore it was more acceptable.

If the joke was one in which the punchline was a play on words about killing a black person would you understand that it was obviously racist and offensive to many people? Or if the punchline was about "raping the cow" would that be sexist/mysogynistic?

Sad that a joke in which the punchline involves "killing the cow" is seen as perfectly acceptable. If someone told me that joke in real life, or if I overheard them telling it, I would take issue with them.
Jokes like this, and the expectation by men that us women will just accept them are horrible, given the number of women that are killed every year in their homes in this country.