All bets are on!

DJ

On the supposition that there is a hung parliament but Labour can form a legal Minority Government then I agree with you.

[don'tfaintemoticon]

Bloody hell! Is that a first?
Sorry, I do not swear.

Another interesting article, which I read after posting the above comments.

opendemocracy.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9c663f765f28cdb71116aa9ac&id=712314efed&e=3e0fb9998a

jo1book

No I dislike tactical voting, why sell your soul to the devil.

I firmly believe that if the Scottish voter votes for the SNP then they have a right to take their place in Westminster, that's Democracy.

What I find abhorrant is the rhetoric and dare I say it the naevity of a party/parties who declare they will never vote in agreement with an opposition party. What conclusion can be made without resulting to insults about the reasons behind the bile.

Question.

The SNP and Plaid say they will never, ever, no way vote with the Tories. We are put on a war footing, will they continue with their rhetoric of bugger the good of the UK we just want to stuff one up a Tory?

For arguements sake , The Tories want to raise the funding to Scotland and Wales through the Barnet Formula, would the SNP and Plaid say bugger our voters we won't shift an inch we are just are in it to stuff the Tories.

What a was state of affairs politics has become.

Is this for you, Tegan, or am I getting mixed up?

theconversationuk.cmail2.com/t/r-l-aokidy-iudkikukhu-d/

For whoever likes betting.

DJ

May be the last

Good post POGS. I think a lot of people in Britain will believe Miliband means there will be no deals at all with the SNP, when it would not be that at all.He may form a minority government, but would then have to fight every day in Parliament to get things supported by the SNP, and if they chose not to on something important, could bring the Government down.What a recipe for disaster!

Ah, a sweepstake (ref durhamjen).....that's one of the very few things I miss now that I'm retired. Even if I did always pull out the no-hoper.

j52 re 'word on the street' in Scotland - pro or con SNP-depends on the street you're in! They're certainly not popular round our area! Plenty of people extremely unimpressed by their record so far after 7 years in charge at Holyrood. Its independence or bust for them and think of how to plug the £7.6 billion gap later!

Can't we just do what the SNP are planning to do and that is to keep having votes until the correct result is obtained ? Because losing no longer means losing [does it?]. I can't quite believe that we're not thinking about which party will win, but which minority party will pull the strings .

The SNP are not popular where my brother lives either, although to listen to Nicola Sturgeon you would think that all of Scotland is with her. Also, although there are no Tory MPs in Scotland, there are many Tory voters, one of the vagaries of the first past the post system, so I would think that her ranting about getting the Tory govt out at any price is a risky strategy. I know that we dont hear every speech from every politician, but I have yet to hear anyone of any of the other parties ask Ms Sturgeon how the SNP plan on squaring the circle. i.e. all of their spending plans, no more austerity etc when the price of crude oil, although rising a little, has almost halved since their calculations at the time of independence referendum. Alex Salmond was basing his predictions of success on $117 per barrel and it is now around the $50 mark, and there are redundancies in the industry.

pogs re your reply to me 12.10pm regarding to Miliband's tactics re Scotland. I have been reading some of the stuff that dj has been posting and now I agree with what you are saying.
However where we may disagree is the level of leaverage the SNP have, I am now convinced that it will not be so much as has been indicated in the press.

Whitewave

Thank you. All will be revealed soon won't it.

Just out of interest for the Tories to win an outright majority they need a swing of 11.1% for Labour to win they need a swing of 4.9%. Don't ask me about the maths I haven't a clue!

It really is interesting isn't it? All the possible combinations but I keep thinking about 1992. I lost a bet then and it cost me a lot of money ( I haven't been allowed to bet on GE results since . Re NI - at last election there were 8 DUP ( will support Cons as they did John Major). 3 SDLP ( will support Labour) Sinn Fein 5 ( don't turn up) Alliance 1 ( I would guess will support Labour). Re the vexed English votes question , it really is far more complicated than we are being led to believe. Scotland, Wales, NI and London all have devolved powers of one kind or another so all that would have to be sorted out - not just Scotland. Also, there would be many examples where it would not be clear whether an issue was just purely English or not

gillybob Can you imagine an Ed n' Dave "love in"?
In the rose garden we hope!

I am fed up now.
I agree with Anniebach, perhaps another election fairly soon as there may well be a hung parliament.

I agree with you again Anniebach (don't faint) that Plaid will not support the Tories; would they go into coalition with Labour at Westminster as they have done in the Assembly or on a vote by vote basis? Have they said? I am losing track.

The Libdems are unlikely to go in coalition with the Tories again
djen have they said that?; I thought the expression was 'The heart of the Tories, the brains of Labour' which would imply to me that they could go either way (as long as they are in power!)

Where do you draw the line with England only issues? If you spend millions on a Thatcher museum in England and it comes from the UK budget do we get to vote? Super fast train lines do not help us in any way but the money comes out of uk funds......... Westminster was desperate to keep us and now we are the scum of the earth who should be seen and not heard. All I seem to hear is racist anti Scottish project fear. I thought we were supposed to be "better together"

Maybe a lot of people in England felt that Scotland wanting to leave the UK was anti English and were quite hurt by it also .

We are better together. The anti Scottish feeling is a legacy of the ill feeling around the neverendum. Still waiting to hear Scottish economic policy.

Oh dear Dotsmam you are not the scum of the earth and I haven't heard anyone say that in my hearing, even if Nicola Sturgeon is scaring a lot of people in England.

I read an article the other day where she was likened to Maggie Thatcher - diametrically opposed politics, of course, but so similar in so many ways!!

As I understand from some with a vote in Scotland, they voted No in the referendum, but will vote SNP so that Scotland gets a say in Westminster. As Dotsmam outlines.

Maybe an understanding of Scottish and Welsh political history may help.
I'm not for getting into a heated debate, so good evening one and all. x

rosequartz, I heard earlier Milliband has ruled out a coalition with Plaid and Leanne isn't a happy bunny, haven't heard it confirmed yet. I would be surprised if Plaid took another seat , not surprised if they lost one

Well I suppose she is a woman- I am pretty sure that is where the similarities end! Tegen wanting independence has nothing to do with the English, it is a country wanting to put its fate into the hands of its people. At no point was any anti English sentiment expressed by the yes campaign. And as a wee aside the UK is not England but Scotland,Wales and northern Ireland as well. Why is the SNP scaring people in England? Surely racist ukip are much scarier than a socially responsible party.

SNP are scaring people because they are told to be scared, but reading some stuff today it seems that the SNP will not have the clout that is suggested that they will. So really the scare tactics is all about votes and nothing about politics.