Voting quandry

Blair said - if the polls are right Theresa May will win the election, I will vote labour

Blair did not say that, could we have the truth please ?

How have they benefited DJ?
So Blair salves his conscience by telling himself he can vote for a government he doesn't want because it won't win!

Apparently Blair has been telling all Labour supporters that there will be no problem voting Labour as Corbyn will never become PM.
So that's your quandary sorted.

Osborne has benefited from austerity, Fitzy, and his mate Cameron.

I am free of my voting quandry , I don't care , this after sixty years of caring , this time I have no trust in any of them and certaintly no hope

Nikki I agree re (un)reliability of polls. But I think Labour will lose by a big margin

Nikki she does indeed avoid answering questions but that's hardly an uncommon trait in politicians!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201704/medium-622089-yougov.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201704/medium-294700-you-gov-poll.jpg

You say Labour has unpopularity according to the polls.
First and foremost polls are only there to influence not to reflect real feeling, the only poll that actually matters is on the day of the vote.

Also look at the most recent poll failures, they don't seem to have a reliable track record of recording public feeling.

We certainly can't rely on YouGov polls, who only ever poll a small handful of people - hardly representative of the whole nation and who take a look at who the owner of this poll is - notice any bias?

Also compare to a recent ITV/This morning poll with a 'slightly' larger number of people voting and see the obvious difference (see pics) it tells a very different story from the pathetic little YouGov poll.

sluttygran, Corbyn has been in parliament for many more years than the other leaders , much more experience of your bear pit

Good rant Sluttygran. It does feel as if more and more countries are being offered the least worst.

In any situation there will always be some who benefit - and not necessarily the wealthy.

In our area, as the price of houses and house moving has rocketed while interest rates remain low, many people have decided to extend and improve their existing house and every other house seems to have had building tradesmen's boards outside at some time or other. Getting builders is almost impossible and one we know was chatting casually about the holidays he and his family are enjoying. He and his friends are doing well from austerity.

The renewable energy industry is doing well. DH spent his working life in the oil and gas industry and is spending his retirement working in the offshore wind sector because of the shortage of engineers with the required skills.

It is like the 1930s, some areas and some industries are doing very badly, others are prospering.

Far from thinking may wiped the floor with Corbyn, I felt the complete opposite. Apart from her responses are scripted in the first place as she has advanced warning of the questions, the fact that the representatives of this tory party including their leader made PMQ's a bit of fun and chummy banter sickened me. She avoided answering ANY of the questions regarding her failings by repeating that same old tired and quite frankly ridiculous mantra of giving the UK a strong and stable government along with the rest of them.

She has absolutely NO idea what she is talking about I'm sure as I hear nothing else coming out of her mouth, and her error of saying tourism instead of terrorism in the week just proves she has no idea along with the people gathered around her who didn't even seem to notice her error either!

SG - who do you define as the wealthy few? I can't say I've seen anybody particularly benefiting from austerity.

Like Anthony Trollope's clergyman who was 'too Godly a man' to manage the politicking in the church of those days, Corbyn would appear to be too honest and decent a man to survive the gladiatorial system, or bear-garden as I call it, in today's parliament.
I don't see Theresa May as an acceptable alternative. She has almost brought the country to its knees and will continue to do so.
Austerity has been manufactured to suit the needs of the wealthy few - there is plenty of wealth in this country, but it's hidden from the electorate. London has become the money-laundering capital of the world but the peasants won't be getting any of the profits.
Rant over.

If he won because of these promises where would he start?

Yes exactly Anniebach, well said, principles are a good thing 'in principle ?' but the world is so unstable now we cannot be unbendingly rigid no matter what .

Corbyns promises are coming too fast and furious, housing, NHS, living wage, pay rises, etc,etc,etc. Seems like we are been taken to the land of Oz , no when or how , just promises and borrowing £500 billion

Extremely well put Fitzg54,some principles whilst being admiral cannot work in the real world, sad to say but has to be acknowledged

Bluecat I agree with you up to a point. Corbyn isn't a great orator, does concentrate on policies, and is a true socialist in the old sense of the word, when it was it was seen as a step a long way down the route to communism, rather than a vague description that can be applied to anything left centre. But what you ignore is the rhetoric of many of his supporters, including the shadow chancellor, who are not quite so backward in the things they say and do. As for the effect of the media, I just don't buy it. Corbyn at the helm certainly doesn't help Labour at the polls, but to my mind people just do not want a govt. with such severe left wing polices. Most people believe that we just can't afford Labour's current promises, otherwise we would all vote for them. Why on earth wouldn't we? Do you really think huge numbers of people are turning their back on promises of a better NHS, pay increases for govt. workers, more houses, increased spending on education and a host of other goodies, just because they are worried that these things won't suit Rupert Murdoch? I'm not saying the press have no influence - but no way can the current massive unpopularity of Labour be blamed on the media.

Bluecat
I think the media is saying no more than the average man on the street in regards to Corbyn. Most of what I hear is unprintable.

It's a sad fact that Corbyn's reluctance to attack his opponents on a personal level weakens him as a political player. Speaks volumes about our democracy, doesn't it?

He isn't a great orator either. However, what he lacks in delivery, I think he makes up for in substance. He is the first Labour leader with genuine socialist policies for a very long time. I agree with him on most issues, as his priorities are based on the concepts of equality, fairness and a decent life for everyone, including the most vulnerable members of society.

Doesn't stand a hope in hell, of course, as the media will demonise and/ or ridicule him beyond recognition. We'll end up, as usual, with a government that suits the interests of media moguls and the rest of the rich and powerful. Beats me how any pensioner can vote for May who won't guarantee keeping the triple lock, and against Corbyn who does guarantee it, but just look at all the suckers in the USA who voted for Trump to "represent the ordinary working man." It beggars belief.

Not that it makes any difference to me, as I live in a Tory stronghold, so my vote changes nothing!

Of course the Lib Dems/Farron were hanging their heads, if you watched PMQ's it was quite noticeable . Farron had just been dealt with a question about one of his Election Candidates and antisemitism.

As Farron and the Lib Dems had just suspended another candidate in Luton for antisemitism it must have done something for their morale.

Boom boom annie

Don't recall any problem here when the shadow chancellor called fellow MP's

f*****g losers.